Here's hoping they make it right on 7/8. But my hopes are not high.
well if Albegas is correct with the subsequent b&r announcement only being a month afterwards its all the more reason not to expect any changes. as i mentioned in a previous post, for non-rotating formats 2 months is barely anything. i dislike the deck as much as anyone else since it sort of encompasses the worst aspects of modern by hitting basically every point of criticism over the years; also to be blunt id rather the deck go away even if it isn't 'too good' in whatever sense. however i can acknowledge that its just my opinion, and wizards might give it the appropriate benefit of the doubt until results provide confirmation.
being that close together if we DO see action taken on 7/8 id attribute it to one thing and one thing only: the mythic championship.
looks like the details of the new format were announced. didnt get to watch the videos but its called 'Historic' and starts from ixalan onwards (with earlier sets like amonkhet/kaladesh maybe added later).
notably its being labeled as a casual outlet (with pauper and singleton modes) that is specific to arena (at least for the time being anyways, obviously it could change in the future).
anywho that was some off-topic news, but i figured we have beaten this bridgevine 'sky is falling' discussion to death (damn GY recursion) and no one would mind. tbh i dont think people were expecting much and most of the fear for moderns sustainability or relevance going forward has waned in last few months; however this should clear up most any lingering uncertainty some may have been harboring.
I would've loved these to have all had Bolas making them into God-Eternals with Bolas himself being embued with the sparks of the planeswalkers on his own card.
This set of cards is called Bolas's Engame. Why not give these more meaning than "let's put these cards with the landscape of the guild in which you should play them with in standard?"
eh you can tell they didnt dig too deep for this product, and in all likelihood they are just toying around/experimenting with the gloss coating.
besides god bolas already has 3 versions without this one added on. his endgame is over. dude needs to move on
IMHO ‘sideboard wars’ are a constant of every format. Grave hate is only a part of it. In the same way as Midrange decks usually pack 7-8 cards against a Tron to have a chance vs it.
Let’s see what it happens at GP/PT, anyway.
the GGT ban rationale was certainly more ambiguous than others. wizards did a decent job injecting a catchy buzzphrase with 'battle of the sideboards' that people can point to and most players sort of get the gist of what wizards (and much of the community) thought was a problem when really it doesnt actually say anything of substance.
you are right that sideboards are for cards that target whatever specific decks or strategies the player has in mind, and is thus constrained by its size. grave hate, creature hate, land hate, artifact hate, spell hate, etc. however with the battle the sideboards thing its implicit that there is some point where the strain is too much and wizards, as the arbiters of the game/format, deem it a detriment to the gameplay experience - which as people are so fond of pointing out includes some subjective qualitative assessment.
outside of determining whether the meta provides engaging/interesting/fun games there is some concrete stuff wizards could be looking at. there is the obvious stuff like how quickly its winning, its matchup and overall win percentage, or 'diversity' related stuff such as a decline in other decks showing up. then there is also how many pieces decks are playing interacting with the GY in the main or side over a given timeline compared to how much said change influenced percentages against bridgevine, other matchups, and or pre and post board.
i mean this is what they need and use the data for. how much hate do given decks need to meaningfully improve their chances of winning, or how big of a factor given hate pieces in whatever quantities are on the outcome of a game. if its too extreme for too many decks then that is probably indicative of a problem. if stuff like speed, dominant win percentages, or diversity stuff are also involved; then its a problem that likely needs a solution sooner rather than later.
Yeah,this was clearly an overflow set for the cards they couldn't fit into modern horizons. This set also has a heavy commander/EDH theme just like horizons did. Either that or power creep has just gone up a few more ticks. Every card seems value driven and under costed. Such as Cavalier of Night. Destroy a creature, life link and replaces itself. Okay.
I swear, this set could have been sold as a Modern Horizon's, and nobody would blink. A lot of things look close to broken.
im pretty doubtful that the contents of this set and mh1 were connected in any way. the teams were designing for different environments with little/no overlap. id consider diabolic edict getting a reprint slot when liliana's triumph was placed into WAR a testament to how insulated the design teams were.
ive seen quite a few comments regarding 'power creep' being showcased in this set, and id have to disagree. mtg has largely avoided the pitfall of power creep due to the small(er) curated cardpool in a rotating standard format and limited design parameters. however this doesnt mean that sets or standard environments cant or wont vary significantly in 'power' (in the abstract). the last few sets have been above average in strength in addition to good mana, this in turn demands power in other designs to keep the standard meta churning.
i mean just look at various past standard environments/sets and the decks that were played. plenty of similarly strong or stronger cards show up. arcbound ravager, stoneforge, delver, the titan cycle (primeval, etc), snapcaster mage, thragtusk, jace VP, gearhulk, scarab god, etc, etc. those are just on the creature front. once you look at noncreature stuff its not even a contest when comparing over the years.
*I'm also very happy that my buddy won the "win a Mustang" tournament down in Alabama with Hogaak. That if the definition of "getting your money's worth." So far for me with Hogaak, I've gotten around $90 worth of prizes, but the Hogaaks cost me $80, so I have a long way to go to get my money's worth, especially considering store credit and gas prices TO tournaments.
dang im sure that tournament brought in some good attendance. he tell you what the top 8 was, or what was big at the top tables?
So if I have a Saheeli, Sublime Artificer on board with a servo token out there; if I use the activated ability to copy a Plague Engineer naming 'human' does the copy also effect humans? or does it have no effect at all? im assuming naming a new creature type is off the table
Considering moving a large chunk of modern staples (lotv, snaps, fetches, shocks etc.) what do you think would be the best way to offload?
I'm looking for cash, no store credit or trades. I'm just at a point with my collection that stuff like MH1 is making it too expensive to keep up. I also can't really justify having this much money in cardboard I don't even play at my LGS because I always default to the same few decks.
Most everything is playsets. I also have quite a few older things hat have spiked in the last couple years (not reserved list) that I want to move.
I was planning on talking to LGS and players I know first, but I'm at a loss after that. I think the volume of cards is going to cause a big retailer like star city games to fight me in a lot of the grading.
it depends on how much patience you have, or in other words how much time and effort you are willing to put in; since that usually translates to something closer to market value. temper your expectations for how much you will get for each card; as you will almost assuredly get less than tcg market price/mid even before factoring in shipping and whatnot.
selling on tcgplayer or ebay takes a bit of time to set up and get going (getting rep/good reviews), but if/when you are established it isnt that much of a hassle to maintain. each service will subtract around 12% in fees, so keep that in mind. tcgplayer is a little better about protecting sellers, and also act as a middleman holding funds during transactions. however for either note that there is some inherent risk involved by being scammed. for this reason anything under like 15-20 bucks might not be worth the time/effort (selling in sets is an option on ebay) since you wanna be shipping stuff with tracking (usps first-class packages using paypal, which is a bit cheaper than at the post-office, is what id recommend). bubble mailer w/ cards sleeved in a toploader is the norm. that said stuff in 5 dollar range can be shipped in a plain-white-envelope with a toploader using a regular stamp; but again keep in mind you basically dont get to contest someone saying they did not receive the cards (personally ive never run into any issues, but ymmv).
selling to local stores (for cash) is the most convenient option, but they typically low-ball you because they know this (not to mention they need to make a profit of their own to cover higher costs of maintaining a brick-and-mortar store). listing on local marketplace sites like craigslist is alright, but it usually means traveling around a bit to meet up with buyers (unless you are cool with giving out your home address). selling around TCG-low will probably get a few bites with time. of course safeguard yourself by taking cash only and never ship cards.
ive heard facebook groups are a pretty good option because you can cut out the middleman and mostly avoid fees (like from ebay or tcg). from what i understand stuff around 10% below tcglow will get picked up relatively quickly. there is a little less anonymity so its a bit easier to tell if someone is legit. high dollar stuff usually will have people asking for references, but it doesnt look like you are selling stuff like that. make sure to use paypal and sell under Goods and Services which, while including the fees, gives both the buyer and seller some protection.
lastly there is buylisting to big dealers online such as CK, SCG, CFB, TCG, etc. shop around on these sites to see who is offering the best cash deals (card kingdom typically offers the best rates from my experience. ive used all the listed above at least once, and from my experience CK and SCG are relatively strict but fair in their grading. cant say much about CFB but i havent heard the best about their customer service, and TCG can be sort of random (especially for foils). do the research on each's grading guidelines and percentage scale. also be realistic in the grading of your own cards, we as card owners tend to evaluate our own cards loosely but expect the highest standards when buying; those two things obviously dont align. sites typically offer some mixture of paypal payments, mailing checks, or in the case of TCG direct bank deposits. turaround for mailing cards off and having money in hand is around 1-2 weeks depending on where you are in the US and how busy they are.
i made out alright with Aria of Flame. once i saw it showing up in main/sideboards in storm and a few phoenix decks i picked up 20 copies at around $0.50 each, kept 3 for myself, and buylisted the rest for $5/per cash.
the market for mh1 is looking to be quite volatile since the set, its timing and nature, are unprecedented. even print to demand sets have their limits for how much will hit the market (as implied by the 'to-demand'). as mentioned above m20 looks to be quite a sweet looking core set, and with standard popping-off as it has been stores wont be as inclined to go as deep on mh1 boxes; even WAR box/packs are in still in heavy demand and stores only have so big of a budget. the sense im getting from the set (mh1) is that people want the cards but no one wants to purchase/open the product at its price point.
if you are into buying boxes id also keep an eye out for mh1 boxes to dip in the coming weeks. its not implausible that stores that went in too deep on the set will want to offload product at little to no profit (or even a small loss) just to recoup that capital to spend elsewhere.
I remember when "battle of sideboards" was a ban criteria. Now 8 pieces of GY hate in your 75 is supposed to be "normal."
yeah i expect if bridgevine is hit with a ban it will be because the deck is very reminiscent of dredge prior to the GGT ban.
though i do think you are right that peoples wariness of a potential ban will prevent them from picking up the deck, much like it was to amulet bloom when it blew up. that said grinders and pros typically have easier access to cards and decks, so if something is running hot in the meta they should still be likely to show up with it (at least we can hope).
you did make a good point though about bridgevine having some pricier components. i dont think its a stretch to assume that UR phoenix blew up as much as it did because, outside of the scalding tarns, the deck was relatively cheap to build.
Next ban announcement is july 8 right? Should we expect a ban on the 8th?
not at all, at least if you are going by wizards actions up to now. they have said explicitly and implicitly time and time again that they take the long-view in evaluating formats, especially non-rotating ones, because the depth of the card pool and meta ecosystem. this is the basis for their relatively conservative banlist decisions, even if it comes at the expense of community backlash/criticism or in cases less than stellar format environments for periods that established players have to suffer through. note im not talking about whether anyone thinks this is a good or bad way to run formats, its just a statement on what we can expect based on past actions.
i mean just think about it pragmatically, we are talking about a month from a deck appearing without a whole lot of high profile paper results. no matter what side of the fence anyone is on regarding the deck, based on that alone it should get the benefit of the doubt until the b&r announcement AFTER the july 8th one. maybe its utterly dominant or warping or whatever, but that would be what - 3 to 4 months total? in the grand scheme of things that is barely anything.
if a ban is plausible it would be for two reasons: mtgo data that we arent seeing shows it as absurdly way off the scale and or its a kneejerk reaction before the next modern mythic championship. the latter being based on perception and viewership in a period where wizards is trying to put their best foot forward for arena and paper magic alike to reach a broader market. similarly they may choose NOT to ban for the same reason (ie making sure the format looks different from the previous MC). either way its not really dealing with player experience but moreso the outward facing surface image of the format.
Yep hexproof is back and feather standard may rise due to the reprint
And seriously guys are we absolutely sure we’re not going back to thero’s sometime after three fall set?
And as for the white cleric hey a white Withered Wretch basicly I love it
i saw some comments on reddit about an unconfirmed rumor that 'return to theros' would be after whatever the fall set/plane is.
didnt bother to do any more digging on it, but it was something about some article mentioning something about it but then it being edited out afterwards. take that for what you will. on one hand it aligns with what i believe many consider a next 'return' block that makes sense (that or something with phyrexia), but on the other hand the reprinting of temples and a card like Gods Willing in a core set (instead of just waiting till theros) is a strike against the theory/rumor.
either way im looking forward to it whenever it does come. if nothing else than to see how the elspeth story pans out.
Any decks that attack from several angles though are hard to deal with.
this is pretty much a prerequisite for any competitive deck in modern atm.
i mean that is really what has been changing the landscape of modern. its not the rise of 'hyper linear' decks or whatever you want to call it, but rather the rise of lean aggressive strategies that have resiliency and adaptability/flexibility baked in.
so play patterns gravitate towards extremes. games feel more like jousting and less like fencing with critical, usually game deciding, decision points instead of accruing small advantages in resources or board position.
really i think that is why people dislike these GY centric decks. the forms of interaction (ie hate) intrinsically 'swingy' compared to removal, discard, or counter magic.
rumor that popped up like a month or so ago on reddit from 'someone who knows a guy' said sanctity and void would be in m20 with the others in the cycle being unlikely to appear.
anywho i was banking on a void reprint, and im glad i held off buying a set.
being that close together if we DO see action taken on 7/8 id attribute it to one thing and one thing only: the mythic championship.
notably its being labeled as a casual outlet (with pauper and singleton modes) that is specific to arena (at least for the time being anyways, obviously it could change in the future).
anywho that was some off-topic news, but i figured we have beaten this bridgevine 'sky is falling' discussion to death (damn GY recursion) and no one would mind. tbh i dont think people were expecting much and most of the fear for moderns sustainability or relevance going forward has waned in last few months; however this should clear up most any lingering uncertainty some may have been harboring.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-beta-june-27-2019
edit: btw i think the format is going to be stale to straight garbo for the foreseeable future until multiple sets (or more likely blocks) are added. whatever, arena is f2p!
besides god bolas already has 3 versions without this one added on. his endgame is over. dude needs to move on
you are right that sideboards are for cards that target whatever specific decks or strategies the player has in mind, and is thus constrained by its size. grave hate, creature hate, land hate, artifact hate, spell hate, etc. however with the battle the sideboards thing its implicit that there is some point where the strain is too much and wizards, as the arbiters of the game/format, deem it a detriment to the gameplay experience - which as people are so fond of pointing out includes some subjective qualitative assessment.
outside of determining whether the meta provides engaging/interesting/fun games there is some concrete stuff wizards could be looking at. there is the obvious stuff like how quickly its winning, its matchup and overall win percentage, or 'diversity' related stuff such as a decline in other decks showing up. then there is also how many pieces decks are playing interacting with the GY in the main or side over a given timeline compared to how much said change influenced percentages against bridgevine, other matchups, and or pre and post board.
i mean this is what they need and use the data for. how much hate do given decks need to meaningfully improve their chances of winning, or how big of a factor given hate pieces in whatever quantities are on the outcome of a game. if its too extreme for too many decks then that is probably indicative of a problem. if stuff like speed, dominant win percentages, or diversity stuff are also involved; then its a problem that likely needs a solution sooner rather than later.
ive seen quite a few comments regarding 'power creep' being showcased in this set, and id have to disagree. mtg has largely avoided the pitfall of power creep due to the small(er) curated cardpool in a rotating standard format and limited design parameters. however this doesnt mean that sets or standard environments cant or wont vary significantly in 'power' (in the abstract). the last few sets have been above average in strength in addition to good mana, this in turn demands power in other designs to keep the standard meta churning.
i mean just look at various past standard environments/sets and the decks that were played. plenty of similarly strong or stronger cards show up. arcbound ravager, stoneforge, delver, the titan cycle (primeval, etc), snapcaster mage, thragtusk, jace VP, gearhulk, scarab god, etc, etc. those are just on the creature front. once you look at noncreature stuff its not even a contest when comparing over the years.
https://twitter.com/GavinVerhey/status/1143948265982844928?s=09
selling on tcgplayer or ebay takes a bit of time to set up and get going (getting rep/good reviews), but if/when you are established it isnt that much of a hassle to maintain. each service will subtract around 12% in fees, so keep that in mind. tcgplayer is a little better about protecting sellers, and also act as a middleman holding funds during transactions. however for either note that there is some inherent risk involved by being scammed. for this reason anything under like 15-20 bucks might not be worth the time/effort (selling in sets is an option on ebay) since you wanna be shipping stuff with tracking (usps first-class packages using paypal, which is a bit cheaper than at the post-office, is what id recommend). bubble mailer w/ cards sleeved in a toploader is the norm. that said stuff in 5 dollar range can be shipped in a plain-white-envelope with a toploader using a regular stamp; but again keep in mind you basically dont get to contest someone saying they did not receive the cards (personally ive never run into any issues, but ymmv).
selling to local stores (for cash) is the most convenient option, but they typically low-ball you because they know this (not to mention they need to make a profit of their own to cover higher costs of maintaining a brick-and-mortar store). listing on local marketplace sites like craigslist is alright, but it usually means traveling around a bit to meet up with buyers (unless you are cool with giving out your home address). selling around TCG-low will probably get a few bites with time. of course safeguard yourself by taking cash only and never ship cards.
ive heard facebook groups are a pretty good option because you can cut out the middleman and mostly avoid fees (like from ebay or tcg). from what i understand stuff around 10% below tcglow will get picked up relatively quickly. there is a little less anonymity so its a bit easier to tell if someone is legit. high dollar stuff usually will have people asking for references, but it doesnt look like you are selling stuff like that. make sure to use paypal and sell under Goods and Services which, while including the fees, gives both the buyer and seller some protection.
lastly there is buylisting to big dealers online such as CK, SCG, CFB, TCG, etc. shop around on these sites to see who is offering the best cash deals (card kingdom typically offers the best rates from my experience. ive used all the listed above at least once, and from my experience CK and SCG are relatively strict but fair in their grading. cant say much about CFB but i havent heard the best about their customer service, and TCG can be sort of random (especially for foils). do the research on each's grading guidelines and percentage scale. also be realistic in the grading of your own cards, we as card owners tend to evaluate our own cards loosely but expect the highest standards when buying; those two things obviously dont align. sites typically offer some mixture of paypal payments, mailing checks, or in the case of TCG direct bank deposits. turaround for mailing cards off and having money in hand is around 1-2 weeks depending on where you are in the US and how busy they are.
as for mh1 cards if anyone might see themselves wanting any of the cards such as ranger captain of eos, seasoned pyromancer, hexdrinker, giver of runes, goblin engineer, unsettled mariner, force of negation + other forces, etc. you are probably better served just biting the bullet and picking them up now.
the market for mh1 is looking to be quite volatile since the set, its timing and nature, are unprecedented. even print to demand sets have their limits for how much will hit the market (as implied by the 'to-demand'). as mentioned above m20 looks to be quite a sweet looking core set, and with standard popping-off as it has been stores wont be as inclined to go as deep on mh1 boxes; even WAR box/packs are in still in heavy demand and stores only have so big of a budget. the sense im getting from the set (mh1) is that people want the cards but no one wants to purchase/open the product at its price point.
if you are into buying boxes id also keep an eye out for mh1 boxes to dip in the coming weeks. its not implausible that stores that went in too deep on the set will want to offload product at little to no profit (or even a small loss) just to recoup that capital to spend elsewhere.
yeah i expect if bridgevine is hit with a ban it will be because the deck is very reminiscent of dredge prior to the GGT ban.
though i do think you are right that peoples wariness of a potential ban will prevent them from picking up the deck, much like it was to amulet bloom when it blew up. that said grinders and pros typically have easier access to cards and decks, so if something is running hot in the meta they should still be likely to show up with it (at least we can hope).
you did make a good point though about bridgevine having some pricier components. i dont think its a stretch to assume that UR phoenix blew up as much as it did because, outside of the scalding tarns, the deck was relatively cheap to build.
we will see though.
i mean just think about it pragmatically, we are talking about a month from a deck appearing without a whole lot of high profile paper results. no matter what side of the fence anyone is on regarding the deck, based on that alone it should get the benefit of the doubt until the b&r announcement AFTER the july 8th one. maybe its utterly dominant or warping or whatever, but that would be what - 3 to 4 months total? in the grand scheme of things that is barely anything.
if a ban is plausible it would be for two reasons: mtgo data that we arent seeing shows it as absurdly way off the scale and or its a kneejerk reaction before the next modern mythic championship. the latter being based on perception and viewership in a period where wizards is trying to put their best foot forward for arena and paper magic alike to reach a broader market. similarly they may choose NOT to ban for the same reason (ie making sure the format looks different from the previous MC). either way its not really dealing with player experience but moreso the outward facing surface image of the format.
didnt bother to do any more digging on it, but it was something about some article mentioning something about it but then it being edited out afterwards. take that for what you will. on one hand it aligns with what i believe many consider a next 'return' block that makes sense (that or something with phyrexia), but on the other hand the reprinting of temples and a card like Gods Willing in a core set (instead of just waiting till theros) is a strike against the theory/rumor.
either way im looking forward to it whenever it does come. if nothing else than to see how the elspeth story pans out.
i mean that is really what has been changing the landscape of modern. its not the rise of 'hyper linear' decks or whatever you want to call it, but rather the rise of lean aggressive strategies that have resiliency and adaptability/flexibility baked in.
so play patterns gravitate towards extremes. games feel more like jousting and less like fencing with critical, usually game deciding, decision points instead of accruing small advantages in resources or board position.
really i think that is why people dislike these GY centric decks. the forms of interaction (ie hate) intrinsically 'swingy' compared to removal, discard, or counter magic.
anywho i was banking on a void reprint, and im glad i held off buying a set.