/cog/ - Traditional & Video Gaming

Mono G Modern Infect:
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7702&d=244248&f=MO

More Modern:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1174209
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pacific-rim-07-01-14-1/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/trapaholics/
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=7713&d=244356&f=MO

EDH:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1208080
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zombies-on-top-of-zombies/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/i-hate-all-you-people/


Currently working on a Chandra Pyromancer, Ral, Jace super friends deck for casual
2-3 chandra, 2-3 Ral, 2 Jace, Nivmagus Elemental/jace phantom, Assorted Shocks/ izzet charm, Crackleburr/ shocks/ counters, mercurial chemister, Niv mizzet , 4 young pyromancer, 4 guttersnipe, 2 spellheart chimera, Dissolve, Anger of the gods, Supreme Verdict/Detention Sphere
Usual stuff

Also Weirdstorm:
1 Island
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
4 Blistercoil Weird
4 Cerulean Wisps
4 Faithless Looting
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Grapeshot
2 Ideas Unbound
4 Manamorphose
4 Paradise Mantle
2 Peek
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Thought Scour
4 Visions of Beyond
1 Mountain
4 Serum Powder
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Watery Grave
3 Mana Confluence
SB: 4 Pact of Negation
SB: 3 Apostle's Blessing
SB: 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
SB: 4 Grand Abolisher


Concept:
4x False Cure
4x Needlebite Trap
4x Invigorate
4x Kavu Predator
4x Reverent Silence
2x Seeds of Innocence
(Legacy Dream Halls often uses False Cure in conjunction with Beacon of Immortality as one of its kill conditions)
Alternitivly Alms Beast combat trickery and surprise Sphinx's Revelation

>>189049
...Why would they put the rules text on the cards if they were to errata all planeswalkers to be usable as commanders?
Maybe they'd consider that in a few years, but since Commander is a mostly player-ran format, they'd gather opinions beforehand.

http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/92953145433/all-the-goods-from-the-panel-part-2

>>189064
Booooo! Boo this man!

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/metamorphosis

Well I'd by lying if I said I was happy about this. Specifically cutting down on sets per block.



>Change #1: Beginning in the Fall of 2015, Magic Blocks Will Be Two Sets Each
Starting with "Blood" block in September 2015, each block will have one large set that introduces the world and one small set that builds upon it. (I should note that this is the default and we reserve the right to have sets of different sizes if it serves the block.) Blocks will no longer have a third set.

>Change #2: Beginning in the Fall of 2015, Magic Will Have Two Blocks Per Year
Here's the typical schedule of the Magic year, with all the usual caveats about how Magic is about change and you should expect us to shake this up a bit over time: There will be a large fall expansion and small winter expansion set in World #1. Then there will be a large spring expansion and a small summer expansion, usually set in World #2. The first two sets will be part of one block and the second two sets will usually be part of a second.

>Change #3: Beginning in 2016, the Core Sets Are No More
The summer of 2015 will have the last core set release, and in 2016, the summer set will be the second set of the block that started in spring of 2016.

>Change #4: Beginning in 2016, the First Set of Each Block (the Fall and Spring Sets) Will Cause a Rotation
This in some ways isn't a change, but rather an adaptation to match the new Two-Block Paradigm. The first set of a block has always caused a rotation in the past. The Two-Block Paradigm just means that this now happens twice a year (in the fall and in the spring) rather than just in the fall.

>Change #5: Beginning in 2016, Standard Will Be Three Blocks Rather Than Two Blocks
To keep the metagame more robust, we are changing the size of Standard. This change is the reason we are telling you this now, because we want you to understand that Khans of Tarkir will only be played in Standard for 18 months. This change should not have any impact on the set's role in other formats.

>>189517
What seems to be the problem? Sounds really cool to me, the the folks at Wizards seem to think it's all upside.

>>189519
Removal of the core set means that new players no longer have an entry point. This either means they're alienating the market they've been chasing for years now (tap sideways to win) or they'll be dumbing down and making the sets more accessible. Or they're just not going to give a fuck because newer players buy non core sets all the time anyway.

Removal of the core set means less reprints. Liked Phyrexian Revoker for instance? Good luck seeing it in standard again for a good long time. The core set more or less acted like a supplemental product that allowed for non-planar specific cards to be reprinted and work in standard.

Less sets per block mean story slides rather than arcs. Less time to establish the setting and characters leads to either pitifully underdeveloped plot lines or leaving everything in medias res.

Less sets per block means that the world is left largely unexplored. Like that cool new plane were Squirrels and Hommarids are the dominant species? Tough shit, it's time for the Hand Size Matters Thanksgiving themed block now.

Less sets per block can lead to Keyword and mechanic exhaustion. Two new worlds, each with their own unique keywords a year. Not only will the design space for those mechanics not be allowed to really thrive and expand, but I can easily see fatigue setting in when coming up with new ones. hell look at the Khans ones we have revealed right now.

Quick rotation is goodbad for standard. Maybe WotC will somehow magically level the playing field and foster in a bunch of great cards that are viable in the environment leading to a bunch of great d oh and now that block cycled out. This quick level of rotation will jack up the price of singles quite a bit I hypothesize and because of the now quick nature of standard, the cost of singles will look more like a jagged piece of broken glass than a slope or curve.

This is clearly done with money in mind and nothing else. Not a strike against it, but an observation. Hell when was the last time WotC put out a good third set anyway?

>>189518
Are you unhappy it's only two sets per block, because you think Wizards won't spend enough time trying to explore the settings and mechanics? Because that ship has long sailed. We haven't had a good third set since Future Sight. In fact we haven't had many third sets since then, period. And anyway, it used to go:
First set - Introduce the setting and mechanics
Second set - Expand on the setting and mechanics and open up design space for crazy shit to happen
Third set - Crazy shit happens

But nowadays it goes:
First set - Introduce the setting and mechanics
Second set - Introduce other mechanics, keep the old ones simple, fuck exploring design space
Third set - More of the same shit. Are you tired of it, yet? We sure as fuck are.

>>189524
>But nowadays it goes:
>First set - Introduce the setting and mechanics
>Second set - Introduce other mechanics, keep the old ones simple, fuck exploring design space
>Third set - More of the same shit. Are you tired of it, yet? We sure as fuck are.

Not quite. It tends to be more:
>First set - Introduce the setting and mechanics of a (usually) vibrant new world
>Second set - Introduce other mechanics, keep the old ones simple, fuck exploring design space, The good guys are in trouble
>Third set - HAHA FUCK YOU EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW! SUCK IT PREVIOUS TWO SETS! IT'S TIME FOR DIARRHEA! [OR]
>Third set - Oh god we're out of ideas/ need to keep it ambiguous for the return... we guess evil or good wins? What was the story? Were am I? Pass the floor burgers, we're so drunk.

I'm a flavor guy so I like chilling out and exploring the worlds until stupid shit happens that ruins it (like Aviclamadamadingdong). That said, opening vanilla stuff just became that much more painful since they feel like even more like a wasted card slot than before since there's less set to go around.

Maybe they'll increase the base size template for large and small sets a little?

>>189522
>Removal of the core set means that new players no longer have an entry point. This either means they're alienating the market they've been chasing for years now (tap sideways to win) or they'll be dumbing down and making the sets more accessible.

Maro mentioned a "new product line" for new players.

>Removal of the core set means less reprints.

He also said something about "being more aggressive" with reprints when someone pointed that out.

>Less sets per block can lead to Keyword and mechanic exhaustion.

They're going to re-use more stuff. More blocks => shorter interval for "Return to" blocks. Conservation of design space is something they're aware of.

We'll see how the changes turn out in the long term. WotC isn't completely stupid; this doesn't have to ruin the game.

>>189522
Most of your concerns were addressed in the article, or were answered later, or aren't things that you should really be worried about.

A new player-focused product has been confirmed.

"Expert" expansions will have more reprints of staple cards (like Lightning Strike and Elvish Mystic). Losing out on plane-specific cards doesn't have to be a bad thing. They're cool, but they do take the place of new cards that could be equally as cool.

It's not like storytelling is super tight right now. Theros did a great job establishing the world and Journey into Nyx told the story of the battle between mortals and Nyxborn reasonably well, but we had a whole set in between where really nothing much happened. Xenagos turned into a god and there were some more enchantment creatures, but other than that it was pretty much dead from a story perspective.

This complaint doesn't make any sense. You can explore plenty of a world in a single large set and a single small set. One additional small set won't take us to amazing new areas we've never seen in the prior sets.

Keywords don't need to be exhausted in one block. Some may even argue that it's better for them not to be so they can be revisited later. Don't play all your best cards at once if you want people to come back.

They're only cutting the maximum time a card can be in standard by, at most, six months. I highly doubt we'll see much of a spike in prices compared to what we're used to seeing. We'll also be playing with three blocks worth of mechanics, so variety is bound to spike, and sets rotating out faster will keep the format fresh. Lawd knows we all would have liked to see RTR rotate out last spring instead of saddling us with six more months of Pack Rat and Sphinx's Rev.

I wonder if any company will ever be able to make any business decision without someone accusing them of only doing it for the money. You did read the article, right? Especially that part at the beginning where he explained these several big problems they've been dealing with and how this change offers a solution to those problems? Do you think that might have been some sort of motivation for this major upheaval?

>>189587
They're almost abusing the ability that they can have the computer preform "random" tasks. Last card i used with random in the effect in magic was Desperate Ravings in the Burning Vengeance deck. Using it was a nightmare because both player have to agree on how it resolves. Also other cards like Thoughtsteal are not possible in physical form.

>>189669
They've got this ridiculous amount of RNG, because the target audience of it is casual players on their iPad. That way bad players can still pull off spectacular wins against way better players sometimes and won't be put off by constantly getting their asses handed to them.

So Delve is coming back... and the rest of the Khan mechanics are pretty damn lackluster.

I'm glad that they seem to be bringing the power level back up. RtR and Theros were just utterly miserable.

>>189754
Kamigawa brought us Jitte and Top. Some of the most powerful cards in the entire game. Doesn't mean the block wasn't fucking terrible overall.

>>189757
I just listed twelve cards, all of which saw a serious amount of Standard play, some of which are seeing a reasonable amount of Modern play, and a couple of which that are so strong they're actually warping Legacy. Please tell me how RTR was terrible instead of just saying that it's not impossible that it could be.

Well Sorin's in the new set... not really doing anything new or interesting. And Ugin has direct references, and the fetch lands are back, and most of the mechanics involve +1/+1 bullshit, oh and Avians are finally back.

http://youtu.be/BIC1M_eKagk

I had to go back and watch all of the older cinematics. They've come a ways from the Scars trailer. Still there are little things in this trailer that are sub-par, like Sarkhan's weapon spinning while he walks. It just bothers me...

>>189769
I still can't really decide wether Sorin's deceptively powerful or tradebinder trash. I know it sounds weird, but I think the planeswalker he most directly compares to is OG Garruk Wildspeaker, which is a fine card. But lifelink is just so difficult to correctly value.

This might be the first prerelease I go to in a while. Still torn on wether to go Temur or Mardu. Temur has some insane value creatures, while Mardu really seems to be the easiest to still make work if you don't open a very accomodating pool.

>>190746
>this can't be real, time to look up the banlist
>it actually is unbanned

I haven't kept up with the game for over a year. How the hell did this happen? Is everything relevant immune to removal now? Are there even faster/more efficient special summon spam effects?

>>190752
Apparently cards like Raigeki and Dark Hole don't do jack shit to the meta anymore, since most monsters they'll put out on the field will have some kind of effect when sent to the graveyard. Either they'll get to add something to their hand, move it to the S/T zone (Inzektor/Hieratic), put it back in the deck (Madolche), SS spam, destroy something on your field, etc.

Or in the case of Xyz's,most of the good ones have an effect that allows it to detach a material instead of being flatout destroyed.

So unless you disable their effects first, cards like that are kinda obsolete. In fact if you play meta, Dark Hole winds up being superior to Raigeki, since nowadays there are way more benefits to your monsters being destroyed than giving your opponent what he wants.

There's also the fact that we're in a backrow format, which means what monsters you have on the field doesn't matter nearly as much as your hand and what spells/traps you have set. Losing a field of monsters isn't a super big deal because almost every deck, not just the meta ones, not only run plenty of stun to keep from being killed through an empty field in one turn, but also run plenty of spells/traps to fill up their field with monsters again.
Raigeki being unbanned is kind of lame just cause it enables sacking, but it isn't some huge move. It doesn't make too much of a difference.

There's so many good resources out there, it's hard to keep track of them all

http://puremtgo.com/articles/diaries-apocalypse-tribal-week-196

-Inferno Titan For 6 damage spread however you like.
-Hoarding Dragon for slow artifact tutoring
-Invader parasite, for repeatable land exiling
-Keldon firebombers for keeping the other players in line (while still being able to use feldon's GY toolbox)
-Mindclaw Shaman for taking your opponents big spells (even their counterspells)
-Molten Primordial for mass stealing
-Tyrant of Discord for repeatable sacrificing shenenigans
-Brass Herald for tribal shenanigans at instant speed
-Clone shell or summoner's egg for free creatures.
-Duplicant for repeatable removal
-Sad robot for sadness every turn.
-Any one of the destroy land or destroy artifact ETB trigger creatures.

Also, Vulshok battlemaster and thundermaw hellkite can be fun at instant speed and to disrupt voltron decks.

>>190939
Also Avatar of Slaughter for massive blowouts with none of the drawback.

>>190939
I was gonna get the black and green ones, but it really looks like I'm gonna have to get a set of them all.

>>190979
"There's always a bigger fish."

Well this article has me excited:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/love-letter-vorthos-2014-10-24

Shame the black walker is again the biggest letdown so far... Unless white and red can be even more forgettable and ineffective in multiplayer games.

http://m.imgur.com/a/EG0G4
And then preorder prices skyrocketed.
But seriously, no Damnation? Step the duck up WotC.

That said, the red deck sounds like it focuses on artifacts which makes me super happy especially with all the artifact synergy red has gotten recently.

>>190992
It's before. I'm a bit fuzzy on the exact order of events, but a long time ago Nixilis went to Zendikar, got turned into a demon, and lost his spark. He's currently still there, messing around with those big hedrons and trying to find a way to get his spark back.

Apparently wurmcoil engine is being printed in the red deck.
My erection is so massive. Damn shame none of these will retail for msrp.

>>191010
>Damn shame none of these will retail for msrp.
They will. These things are going to be available in huge quantities and even Walmart will sell them. When supply of Mind Seize ran low last year, because everyone wanted True-Name Nemesis and Baleful Strix, Wizards printed a boatload more. If your LGS does try to price gauge you, drop them. They're not worth supporting.

>>191011
>If your LGS does try to price gauge you, drop them. They're not worth supporting.
That's a pretty harsh litmus test.

It's a good one though. Thy gouge for readily available products with a large print run just because they can? Fuck em. That's how business works, you act like a shitlord to your customers, they go elsewhere. It's not like you're the only shop that sells cards.

Moving on, I love all these preemptive bitch tears about the possibility that Serra won't get a card. It's hilariously pathetic and as dickish as it may seem I REALLY want the white walker to be a leonin like most of them are whining about and fearing just to twist the knife. I can't stand people like that.

>>191018
That doesn't make any sense. If they're charging more for one deck than they do for the other ones, it's because the demand is higher and/or the supply is lower. That's not treating customers like garbage, that's just how the free market works. Refusing to shop somewhere because they charge more for high-demand products than they do for low-demand products is just stupid.

>>191020

No, the way the free market works is that if the customer feels the prices they're being charged aren't equitable, they can take their business elsewhere. If the market finds their prices unacceptable, they won't be able to continue charging it.

You know, like what that anon is doing.

>>191023
This guy isn't saying not to buy things that you think are too expensive. Nobody needs to be told that because it's common sense. He's saying that stores that charge more than what he thinks is fair for this product are morally wrong for doing so and do not deserve any of your business. (...drop them. They're not worth supporting.)

Big difference between "You charge more than I want to spend for this one product, so I'm going to buy it elsewhere" and "You charge more than I want to spend for this one product, so I am going to take that as a personal offense and refuse to give you any of my business on principle."

>>191024

Either one is an action of the free market. What, do you think he should jsut sit there and get price gouged because otherwise he might be hurting the shop's feelings?

>>191025
Black and white fallacy. Also this isn't even price gouging, at least not by the most common definition. Price gouging happens immediately after a drastic change in supply or demand. As was first pointed out by the post that started all this, the C13 decks have been reprinted, so there's no longer a limited supply, and demand for the deck in question has been pretty constant. An increased pricetag on that specific deck is just the stores settling on a more optimum price for the product to reflect that demand, not a quick cash grab.

White is the Lithomancer that died and red gets a legless goblin walker that's not Slobad. White deals with equipment and red deals with artifacts in general.

I have such a massive erection, you don't even know.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27722_Leaving-A-Legacy-Omni-Tell-At-SCGORL.html

>>191035

The fallacy is you acting like any action taken by the consumer, without coercion, in response to market factors, isn't the actions of a free market.

>>191042
Of course he's free to conduct his business however he pleases. I only chimed in to say that I find his reasoning faulty and narrow-minded and that I disagree with them.

There's characters in the new Call of Duty named after Planeswalkers. It's the weirdest kind of nod.

New Commander decks means new builds:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mikaeus-extreme-sub-20-budget-edh/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yacko-wacko/

>>192399
It's not going to break anything in formats that don't already have more efficient ways of breaking the game.

>>192443
Better than Chandra's Phoenix in some decks. With Stormbreath Dragon, Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker, and Butcher of the Horde in standard, this will almost certainly see some play.

>>192482
I was hoping there would be a cycle.
Also full set spoiler is out and the pre-re is next weekend.

Decently happy with the set.

>>192482
At first that seemed kind of shitty, but then I noticed that it doesn't say "Until end of turn." So this is effectively a Level Up card.

Still not sure it's not a bit underwhelming though.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/woo-brews-black-tide-combo/

>Modern
Treasure Cruise is banned
Dig Through Time is banned
Birthing Pod is banned
Golgari Grave-Troll is no longer banned

>Legacy
Treasure Cruise is banned
Worldgorger Dragon is unbanned

>Vintage
Treasure Cruise is restricted
Gifts Ungiven is no longer restricted


http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/banned-and-restricted-announcement-2015-01-19

>>192716
Treasure Cruise getting bans all around was pretty obvious.
Kinda surprised at Pod getting banned, though I can see why, since the Modern banlist isn't meant to be static and just shake things up once in a while.
I don't see Troll having much of an impact. Stinkweed Imp has been legal the entire time and Dredge didn't break anything in Modern, because Dread Return is the key piece that breaks it in half and that's still banned.
Worldgorger getting unbanned is fun, but might end up miserable. Even if it seems safe, unbanning a major combo piece always has some risk to it.

>>192716
I just got into modern a little over a month ago.
I had a few of the expensive parts, so I just built a Kiki Pod deck.

Why the fuck do I even bother with anything outside of casual and Friday Night Magic any more?

>>192875
It's especially cringeworthy since Garfield is very much alive and still occasionally involved with making sets.

>>192875
What's your problem? He apparently gets asked this question all the time on his tumblr. I'm not 100% on-board with all of his ideas, but some of them sound great, like elementals and illusions being enchantment creatures from the beginning and Legendary being a positive thing rather than a drawback. Also, I'm not the head designer of the game who has seen all the market research and playtesting that convinced him these were good changes.

>>192883
How is it cringeworthy? And how did he imply that Garfield wasn't alive? In fact, how did he imply that Garfield wasn't responsible for making his favorite game of all time and didn't do a great job at it?

>>192889
The goal of the article isn't to tell a compelling work of fiction, it's to list some of the big changes that have taken place over the course of the game's history and list some other changes that Rosewater wishes they could make but can't because they've been that way for too long, all with some light humor relating to the website's time travel-theme for this week. If you want actual works of fiction, come back Wednesday.

You seem to be trying to peg Rosewater as arrogant for pointing out where he thinks the game could have been better, but have you stopped to realize just how much the game has changed from its first iterations? Garfield had a lot of great ideas and he got quite a few things right, but the fact that the game has changed so much and in so many ways means that saying there were ways he could have done it better means isn't arrogant, it's just fact.

I think I need to give combo or something a try, but every time I build a deck it always ends up the same... Control the tempo of the game with removal and disruption and fast tech into a wincon.

Everything I build always plays like BG Rock and since I've had this revelation it has driven me mad. When deck crafting I now find myself becoming painfully aware of this.

How do I manage to expand my horizons and not fall into the trap of making the same things over and over?

>>192889
>>192890
Most of his "retcons" all seem pretty sensible things to make Magic a better game. I especially like the "Fire," "Water," etc. supertypes.

>>193073
Maybe netdeck different strategies to get a feel of how they play? If your experience always steers you in the same direction, copypasting a different approach to understand how it works could be a good idea.

>>193603
B-but it's not a wedge block! (Shit fucking sucks, but I'm not surprised this happened)

Guess the Khans not being the enemy color of the wedge makes sense now that they've shifted away from their enemy color after the timefucking. Damn shame too. I'll miss you American spell slinging monks.

>>193603
Rosewater has said multiple times that there wasn't enough design space for a full block of wedge cards unless they wanted it to to get all watered down in the end like Alara was.

>>193626
That's pretty damn good, but since it's not "target creature", it's not too bad.

Also some Origins info:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/whats-story-magic-origins-2015-02-27

Get ready to never ever see Kamigawa or other niche favorites again!
Also maybe WotC will finally make the walkers interesting character wise.

>>193637
Rosewater has said that he would put both ninjutsu and bushido in the category of "Mechanics He'd Like to Return with a Different Name."

Story time!:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/tarkir-dragons-2015-02-25

>>193640
It's a good mechanic, but it is disappointing we won't get to return. I can't help but feel between that, zendiker block post first set, and time spiral blocks not selling well with "new players" that those people are in fact fucking things up for the enfranchised players who won't drop the game the week after they pick it up because the new AAA game just dropped.

Also MaRo catering to the stereotypical tumblr crowd in his question answering is really starting to get on my godamn nerves.

>>193658
>not selling well with "new players" that those people are in fact fucking things up for the enfranchised players

It's called capitalism. And before you object, the game never had any "integrity"; it's a TCG.

>MaRo catering to the stereotypical tumblr crowd

What else could he possibly do? No matter whose logic you use, it's the obvious conclusion.

>>193660
>What else could he possibly do?
Answer any of the other hundred questions he gets a day instead of the ones asking who's genderqueer or autistic, etc.

>>193664
He does answer hundreds of other questions. Answering one question about a character Wizards intended to be mildly autistic isn't "catering to the stereotypical tumblr crowd", it's him answering one freaking question of the dozens he answers on any given day.

>>193665
B-but the SJWs! The feminazis are putting estrogen in our water supply!

>>193670
Dat flavor win on Lilly. I suspect that the rest of the walkers will be like this when certain conditions ae met, they transform. IE that moment in their life that triggered their spark. Here it was clearly someone close to her died and she couldn't let go so she necromanced them back. LOVE it.

Also transform is back which Mark said would only happen if it was a major focus in a set since it's to expensive to do for only a few cards. I'm WAY more excited for Origins than Dragons. A note about Dragons though... both walkers in the set have been revealed and my theory about Shark getting two different versions has held true after all. Neato.

>>193678

And here I was thinking they'd try and drag it out for another few years, but lo and behold we are actually building a nerritive and story arc block to block back to back. Finally a return to form.

>>193726
>Less prone to removal
>Affects All creatures (yours AND opponents)
>Gives your guys field wide buffs
>Can turn off Defender
>2 Mana

It's a VERY niche card, but it's quite flavorful and pretty damn interesting. If ZEN2 still has the Defender sub theme, I can see this card maybe getting some use in T2 for an off the wall homebrew.
At the worst it's a shitty pull for limited or when your cracking packs and at best it's a niche card for casual play that begs to be built around.

Also fun fact: Zendikar was the first set released built using the "New World Order" method and it's also the very first set for the new two set block structure.

>>193780
>I think this limited format is going to be absolutely atrocious, with incredibly swingy games and an over-reliance on huge bombs, which is even more pronounced in Sealed.
So your main gripe is that limited and sealed are going to be limited and sealed.

//youtube.com/watch?v=AxJubaijQbI

>>194670
Cool with that.

>>194670
Cool that means I can put then back in the boxes. Mean a lot for organization.

>>194670

I was looking over Modern Masters 2015, and is it just me or does it seem like, outside of the Lands, most of the cards in this set aren't that great?

>>194705
Really? What makes you think that? So far it seems pretty stacked.

>>194705
Also, not sure which lands you're talking about.

>>194705
It's still a set designed with Limited in mind, so of course it's not 100% tournament staples.

So Scry and Prowess just went evergreen and "Can't be blocked except by two or more creatures" got itself a keyword in Menace which is also evergreen.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/evergreen-eggs-ham-2015-06-08

>>195577
Meanwhile, Provoke will never see the light of day again. Boo-urns.

>>195580
Provoke was great and all, but Fight exists now and will essentially do the same thing short of gimping a potential blocker.

I'm not sure how I feel about Prowess really. It's a great mechanic and all, but I see it as a definite sign that WotC want to continue stepping further and further away from control magic.

Scry turning evergreen is also interesting and is sure to warp standard and limited in a huge way by severely reducing the randomness of drawing. Personally I'm not sure how to feel about that either, but I do hope they don't go too heavy with that mechanic down the road.

So Origins really is just a bog standard core set, just with some fancy planeswalker. That's deflating my already kinda tepid hype quite a bit.

>>195619
I have no idea why you were expecting anything different really.

>>195625
Because it's the last core set. You'd think they have it go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

>>195627
They're still "pushing the boundaries" for a core set from what has been revealed thus far though. Namely how many key words it apparently has and the addition of transforming not to mention whatever else they may still have yet to reveal not to mention its scattered theme of 10 different planes at once rather than just a hodgepodge to give a generic fantasy feel like usual.

Yes it's the last core set, but it's still a core set.

So Prowess is the UR bridge mechanic and Scry is blue focused. All according to MaRo's tumblr.

Blue folks. Blue.

>>195644
Yeah, they don't want to print counterspells anymore, so Blue's gotta have something besides drawing cards.

>>195645
If they get rid of counterspells or do to them what they've been doing to removal, I think it will finally be time to stop playing.
I get that they're going hard into newbie and limited, but christ almighty the limited format is where you NEED the counterspells and removal. The whole "creatures should be killing creatures as removal in limited" mindset they seem to have is how green and only green is supposed to deal with creature pressure.

They're fine with the current powerlevel of counters. Cancel is inefficient enough for them.

>>195645
Blue is always going to have counterspells. The fact that both Dissolve and Dissipate are in standard means that "Cancel+" is right about where they want the power level for Standard constructed Magic.

>>195646
I don't know what you've been playing, but limited has plenty of removal. Red has burn spells, black has kill spells, white has situational kill spells, and green has fight spells, and all four of them have combat tricks. The only color without direct creature removal is blue, and it has tempo, card draw, and evasion.

Looks like they blew their load kinda early with showing Lili as the first Planesformer. The other ones seem kinda meh. Though Gideon still has a chance to impress.

Jace seems a little scatter shot now and Nissa they have taken full tilt into land animation instead of being Elf focused.

>>196089
Coming soon to every cube that runs any planeswalkers.

>>196089
Hello $30+ chase rare

I remember a time when mechanics weren't just variations on giving things +1/+1

>>196402
they're making more simple mechanics to conserve design space

complex ones still exist, they just don't put them all in one set

>>196402
Yes. They stopped giving a shit when they realized that dumbing down the game to an almost unbearable point for veterans would cause them to jump ship to older formats while bringing in a lot more people.

Holy fuck, Lantern Control is the most hilariously grief-y deck possible. The Forbid/Capsize deck from back in the day has fucking nothing on this. This is the work of some demigod of sadism. I'm glad I'm not playing Modern.

>>196403
I'm not even asking for complex, just something that does something besides giving +1/+1

>>196407
It's not that bad (yet), but limited is a joke.

>>196412
>I'm not even asking for complex, just something that does something besides giving +1/+1
First off, why? You're basically saying that you dislike mechanics that can be described as "For some reason and for some amount of time, this creature gets some multiple of +X/+X." That's a pretty wide net to cast. And we get tons of other mechanics all the time. In the last year we got morph, raid, dash, ferocious, formidable, exploit, and the return of delve, convoke, and rebound. Stack that against bolster, outlast, prowess, and megamorph and the number of "creature gets +1/+1" mechanics is shockingly small.

>It's not that bad (yet), but limited is a joke.
That's one person's opinion. I've loved all the recent limited formats. Triple-Khans is widely regarded as one of the most fun draft formats ever.

>>196414

Snes, has Wizards/MagicTheGathering done anything you DON'T love?

>>196432
I'm pretty satisfied with what's happened since I started playing two years ago. It hasn't all been amazing (Triple-Theros was easily the high-point of Theros block limited, Fate Reforged has a lot of bomb rares and junk commons), but I do tend to have a more positive opinion than most.

>>196450
>been playing two years
Well that explains a few things on your perspective.

So very very many things make Thopter tokens in Origins.

>>196542
Ya it seems pretty fun for limited and some themed casual decks. Favorite card thuss is the Thopter Aircraft Carrier Spider thing.

I also really like Spell Mastery.

Full set has been revealed
Very lack luster in the counter and removal fields, but when what can you expect from wizards these days? Seems like they're craming that "only creatures must defeat creatures" philosophy down our throats harder than ever.

>>196647
Yeah, I used to defend Wizards with the usual "creatures used to be shitty and spells used to be absurd, they're just leveling the playing field", because let's be honest, nobody wants stuff like Capsize and Necropotence back. But at this point it seems like they're just straight-up fazing out spells. The current philosophy seems to be "spells shouldn't matter".

http://magic.wizards.com/en/content/magic-duels
Magic's new foray into f2p is now available for iPhone/Pad.

So apparently Jace, Gideon, Kiora, Sorin, Ugin, and Nissa are all going to be involved in Battle for Zendikar as well as a few others as WotC goes into a more story focused narrative.

>>196825
Sorin is sitting this one out as far as we can tell. All the art featuring him was just reused.
Chandra, Gideon, Jace, Kiora, and Nissa are confirmed. Ugin is probably going to play some small non-featured role and Ob Nixilis is looking like he'll be making a very definite comeback.

Which is pretty sorely needed considering they keep pushing white shit onto Sorin and Liliana is their own mono-black walker at the moment.

>>196961
True; and black has the fewest number of different mono colored planeswalker cards. I want a "kill stuff" focused walker, but I highly doubt we'll be getting that since WotC has been making mono black removal a joke for a while now.

>>196963
I forgot that card even existed and at 7 cmc I can't really blame myself. Ideally I'd like to see something a bit like this:


1BBB
{+1}: Each player sacrifices a non-token creature.
{-4}: Non-black creatures you don't control get -X/-X until end of turn were X is equal to the number of swamps you control.
{-4}: Put a 0/4 black Horror creature token with menace and "Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, defending player loses 1 life for each creature card in his or her graveyard." onto the battlefield.


Even if it is non-targeted removal, I have a feeling that this would be considered too strong for standard and limited especially with how aggro focused WotC is going the past few sets.

>>196964
That's a one-sided Wrath for 4. That's not ever gonna happen. It wouldn't have happened at any time during the lifespan of Planeswalker cards.

>>196964
So it's an Innocent Blood with a no-token clause, a one sided Mutilate with a no-black clause, and a new age Guilt Feeder.

Looks like someone liked the Odyssey block.

If you swap out the Mutilate with something like "Destroy target creature with power 3 or greater." and keep the cost and have the walker be 2-3 loyalty I think it may be passable then I guess.

And so it begins:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/spoilers/164-battle-for-zendikar

>>197270
This is completely different. This isn't them reprinting staple cards to increase supply. Being in this series doesn't make a card Standard-legal, so the demand for fetch lands isn't going to go up from them printing this premium, psudo-promo series.

>>197269
"Oh hey we want more people to play modern right??"
"Ya..."
"Ok, so lets reprint some of the chase cards you're required to own otherwise you won't be able to play it."
"Ok sure, but let's do it in a super limited run booster set. That way the small increase in availability will increase new demand, but not introduce enough, thereby raising prices in the secondary market and especially for the boosters."
"Great, but we still need to address the siege rhino in the room. Mana bases. In standard and modern they account for at least half the decks total cost and people have been clamor in for those reprints forever."
"So let's give them to them... As premium foil mythic rates. 1 per 256 boosters."
"How does that actually help players get into modern o-"
"Sorry can't. Hear you over the millions of dollars we just got from idiots preordering cases of product for the mere chance to get a single one."

The only saving grace this horseshit has is that 20 of those 25 cards aren't going to be standard playable. Fuck you wizards, print the fucking fetch lands again.

>>197274
Again, this has nothing to do with the availability of fetch lands for Modern players. This is a cool thing they're doing for limited players and the "buy-a-box" crowd to make oping BFZ booster packs more exciting. Stop hating on this cool thing just because you're mad about Wizard's reprinting practices.

>>197271
>>197278

I think if Wizards killed a baby in front of its own mother you'd come out and defend it, Snes.

Mythic Rares continue to be the shittiest anti-consumer practice introduced by Wizards, this just further solidifies that they were full of shit when they initially pitched the concept to players.

>>197286

The entire presentation event was painful and on par with any given Ubisoft e3 conference.

>Abzan everywhere
>worlds happens
>even more people are playing it now
Make it stop
At least Raffinity and fairies were quick.

>>197286
More complaining about things that are completely tangential to the subject at hand.

Rise of the Eldrazi was my favorite set of all time, so Battle for Zendikar so far being as disappointing as it is is just a double bummer for me.

>>197405
It really is disheartening. We have nearly half the set spoiled thus far and the uncomons are overall far better than the rares or mythics.

I appreciate some of the weird stuff they're trying; but the power and rarity distribution just isn't there. They also seem to be doing straight up reprints with no new art or anything else like they typically only do for core sets which also feels off.

>>197436
They aren't doing core sets anymore, so, rather than commission new art for every reprint, they've changed their policy to allow them to keep the old art if it makes sense in the setting. Also, both Feldar Sovereign and Dragonmaster Outcast were $10 and $20 mythics, so I'm not complaining.

>>197453
And they should have been reprinted at rare because they never merited that price tag.

>>197454
Dragonmaster Outcast is still mythic, but Feldar Sovereign is at rare. The price tag for Dragonmaster can be partially attributed to it being a mythic in a set that includes one of the most expensive cards printed in the last ten years.

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/spoilers/164-battle-for-zendikar

This is the worst set since Theros.
The Eldrazi art looks great and they do some pretty neat things, but I find the synergy pretty lacking when it comes to exile and return sub themes.
The rares are mostly garbage (again) and the powerlevel looks to be kamagawa level at best especially with little decent spot removal and board wipe options.

It looks like a set exclusively designed for limited with nothing else really taken into account which is a shame because it's so close to being a good set if they actually bothered to push things a little more.

I've got the feeling they realized this and so they added the booster lottery to boost what would otherwise be pretty low sales here.

>>197494

I know it is popular to say "this is the worst set EVER!!" and as such it's just as popular to brush off such opinions as being overly negative. As someone who has been playing this game for a long time, I have to agree, this is an extremely middling set. I don't see much to enjoy here. Most of the mechanics introduced are wholly unfun (Converge is particularly egregious. Awaken is merely overcosted into irrelevancy, like bestow). I'd advise skipping it, the land lottery isn't worth the trash you'd have to sift through.

>>197563
To be honest, the format's gonna be so incredibly slow and low-powered, I'm not quite sure what's anything.

don't write it off yet:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/46942-battle-for-zendikar-spoiler-digest-3-full-spoiler

>>197630

I present the counterpoint:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/everything-thats-wrong-with-battle-for-zendikar/

>>197643
I swear it feels like they fucked up in printing and flipped the uncommons and rares around.
Why the shit is a worse Read the Bones and a Cancel with an overcosted manland inducing effect worthy of rare for instance.

I've been watching the Tolarian Academy videos recently, this guy is super on-point with his product reviews and deck reviews.

//youtube.com/watch?v=gh5miJgRz58

>>198045
Wait, already back to Innistrad? That seems... desperate. I thought Magic was booming right now.

>>198055
Not booming. Booing. Y'know, like a ghost.

>>198045
If battle for Zen is any indication... No it cannot.

>>198058
I was saying boo-urns.

But no, I agree that this is scrabbling for cash by milking success of other sets.

>>198108
>>198055
If Wizards packaged a $100 in every booster pack, players would complain about how it's folded.

>>198121
They kinda did that with Worldwake. And it was shit, because drafting Zen/Zen/Wwk became expensive as shit, since everyone just bought packs in bulk in hopes of opening Jace.

>>198121

I thought people only used this argument as a joke. Are you referring to expedition lands? If you bought a box you'd have an 8.3% chance of pulling one. If you think you're guaranteed one per case, I suggest checking out any videos about cracking packs and see just how often buying a $100 box doesn't translate into even $100 worth of cards.

At any rate, I'm just hoping that Innistrad will go balls-deep into the flavor of Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, and other monsters again. That's what I enjoyed. The only other thing I'd like to see is another Ice Age-themed set with more snow permanents.

>>198123
I was referring to the fact that the announcement that we're going back to the setting of one of the most popular sets in recent Magic history was met accusations towards Wizards of cashing-in on their success with a bad set. This without seeing a single card from it.

>>198127

Given we're right in the middle of them going back to the setting of "one of the most popular sets in recent Magic history" and it was a massive dud of design so far (perhaps the next expansion will pull it out), skepticism about returning to a plane is to be expected. Return to Ravnica wasn't as well designed as the original Ravnica, Battle of Zendikar wasn't as well designed as Zendikar. At this point it would be baseless optimistic thinking believing Shadows over Innistrad will buck this trend. I would prefer the set actually be good, though.

>>198130
This is pretty much the mind set involved and I can't really blame anybody for holding that opinion. The only set in the Mirrodin return was the last one. Their track record at returns is BAD right now, and it is really really soon to try retreading Innistrad.

So the new commander deck lists are revealed and man are most of the themes uninspired.

>>198191
They've been retreading two color decks so much that they've pretty much fallen into a rut where they are concerned.

I wish /tg/ would stop reminding me predator slivers are a thing and make up the last two installments we got of the tribe.

I just want to pretend like they never happened.

>>198210
It might sound petty, but they're one of the reasons I stopped playing. They're just a symptom of the overall design philosophy of recent Magic that I simply reject.

And then they turned out to be real.

>>198251
The moment Magic well and truly jumped the shark.

>>198253
Double faced card were waaaaay more of a gimmick than this.

I'm just mad they didn't do this at the start of the block. Seems wasted on a small set like this since I doubt we'll see it again for a few more years.

>>198254
No way. Purple cards are the biggest possible shark jump. It's the thing they said over and over again they'll never do. And now they did it.

>>198261

I'll wait and see how they work, but from what I'm guessing it's just going to be a worse version of Snow Mana. I do like the term coined by /tg/ earlier today, "salt mana."

>>198261
Only it's not. This is colorless land. Gary's land or whatever it's called. It's been in the works since just after Richard Garfield put out the first few sets and in a con wotc said they recently had figured out how to make it work with the rules.

>>198264

You literally do not know that and cannot know that unless your dad works at WOTC. That's why prefaced my opinion with "What I'm guessing it's just going to be."

Furthermore, it's not "Barry's Land" because it doesn't improve Domain effects by adding a new basic land Subtype (It's blank in that area), which was the whole point of the idea back in the Invasion block.

>>198266
Read maros blog and keep up with post panel news at cons

>>198267

He still hasn't confirmed it there either. You are just guessing, still. Like, I don't want to be an asshole about this but the simple fact is we just do not know for certain and will not know until we get an official explanation from WoTC. Maybe it is the new face of colorless mana, maybe it's salt mana, both of these are perfectly valid interpretations based on the information available.

It's not an errata, it's changing what the printing looks like. It's no different from another card frame.

Moreover, it allows them to print mana costs that require colorless mana. You couldn't do that before because the symbols for colorless mana and the generic "you can pay any color" mana in costs were identical. If you printed {8}{2}, nobody would know what the fuck you were doing.

In general, though, I don't expect them to do so. Having costs actually require colorless mana IS probably just a gimmick for the set, it's just one that forces them to finally make the change. And, presumably, they figured they might as well do so all at once with the mechanics that would justify it as something more than cosmetic.

Keeping things balanced with other formats is something they need to keep in mind, but that's relatively easy if it's only a worry they have for one set - the symbol change is permanent, but the use of colorless costs will presumably be a one-off thing (otherwise it would very quickly stop being a Weird Eldrazi Thing).

Granted this is all speculation, but it's what makes sense.