MTG Salvation

Quote from SalTea »

I can't wait until the inevitable over costed jump start counterspell.

izzet counterspell 2UU
instant common
counter target spell
jump-start

That's undercosted. That would see ban in Standard for sure. I don't think we'll see Jump-start on a counterspell, it's too huge a card advantage swing basically killing 2 cards for the price of one (well, discarding an extra land but that's something Control has no trouble doing)

Quote from ChampionSilvos »

Not wanting a specific card on a specific turn means you will never want that card? Why is it in your deck if you never want to play it?

Usually you are scrying away dead lands or are scrying away things in game 1 that do you no good in the matchup (creature removal vs control) Sure there are cases where you are scrying away extra copies of planeswalker or other high cost cards early - but early always you are bottomming things that are just in your way. Surveil is better in most cases since it thins your deck.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Quote from GW2GuruUser7586 »

While I don't like people like him that price-gouge - he isn't wrong on the effect this will have on stores. Your local game store is hurting because of decisions WotC is making and this is literally cutting them out of the pie. Oh look - one of those planeswalkers is the new Ral, so there goes some of the value out of packs.

Hasbro seems to be doing something unexpected here - I wonder if they are trying to pad the value of WotC in order to sell it.

It does affect LGS of course and I am not anti-LGS. But I do like it when we the consumer can purchase a product directly from the manufacturer without the markups of all the middle men involved. I don't see a once a year super low volume collectors set going to ruin LGS or online sellers. His attitude in that video is nothing more than an entitled spoiled middleman angry he can't soak the end customer. Again, I like him for the most part and appreciate some of the things he brings to light.

A lot of the other youtubers that have stores/sell are doing the same thing as well. They don't like it when we the consumer doesn't have to go directly through them so they can jack up the price and take their cut. Again, I'm not anti-LGS but the complete bellyaching over one product they can't gouge us on is ridiculous.

As for Hasbro prepping WotC for sale, I wouldn't put it past them for sure.

Uhm - if you think this isn't marked up you are mistaken. If this were going to LGSs 250 would be the MSRP and the base value would be somethibg like 150.

On other words - the middleman markup is still there and Hasbro is collecting it.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

What was the reason they temporarily removed Masterpieces from sets?

I don't think it was temporary - I think it was permanent (Don't be fooled by the title of this thread - these are NOT masterpieces they are a separate line of sold product)

The reason is that the value of all the cards in the box will on average be equal to the MSRP of the box (in the long run - post release there will be gouging until the market equalizes). Having some 'super rare' cards that are highly sought after will mean that more cards will be bought to flood the market. When there are a handful of chanse masterpeices then those hold the entirety of the value of the box - which basically means it is playing the lottery.

Now you may think "Cheaper cards is good for magic!" but the reality of it is that when card packs are like playing the lottery - then that hits FNM attendance, because then the prizes are not worth playing for. The singles market is of better value and no one wants to play FNM for pack prizes - which hurts the stores (and thus pack sales)

Quote from ChampionSilvos »

Scry would almost always be better than Surveil unless you're running a "graveyard matters" deck. Scry works in pretty much any deck since there are almost no situations where it's not useful.

I have to disagree. Surveil is strictly better even if you are not running graveyard matters. The stuff scry puts on the bottom are things you pretty much never want to see come up again. If your library gets shuffled for any reason those cards are still there clogging you up. Surveil takes them out of your deck completely (barring an effect that shuffles your yard into your library)

Quote from orlouge82 »

Speaking of "random", Wizards (well, MaRo, anyway) has been so adamant that "dice-rolling is not in black-border!", but how does anyone else choose a "random" creature if not by rolling a dice?

I always use a die for all random effects, so... yeah. While it doesn't appear on the cards, dice rolling is still part of the Standard environment - that's the same rationale as MaRo uses when he prints white cards that 'counter target spell targetting a permanent you control' - had a whole article where he was justifying it in a mock-courtroom setting. The same argument applies to dice rolling - we still do it in Standard, so why not allow them on the cards?

Die rolling is also the prefered method of determining who goes first in a match (although players at my LGS likes to use 'poker dice' where we roll 5 dice and evaluate it like a poker hand - usually looking for pairs)

Quote from schindar »

I don't understand why people think that standard legal "tournament" sets should ONLY contain cards meant for standard/limited. If that's the case, perhaps you should be complaining what a complete dumpster fire standard has been the last few years.

The same people complaining about EDH focused cards in Standard sets are ALSO complaining about the dumpster fire that Standard has been. It's part of the same problem (but not the only part of it)

I actually don't think Kumena is too bad for Standard - so it is a 'good' card that is designed for both EDH and Standard. My commment was directing at Ulrich being a bad card that only existed because they 'had to' cater to the EDH players regardless of 'fit' in the set.

But for the most part - 'fixing' Standard needs to be their top priority - everything else needs to take a back seat until then. There's a whole separate print release that they can use to offer stuff for Commander players.

Quote from Gutterstorm » »

...Ssssssooooooo... You want to neuter one of the premier and most popular card types because you misevaluated them some years ago?

No, I want to neuter them because I hate how they warped the game.

I don't have a problem with mytich rarity per se - but I strongly dislike how planeswalkers have changed the game. They are often hard to answer in many situations (most of the choice ones protect themselves making them already inherently the yomi layer 2 answer to the best way to remove them)

I have heard people complain a lot about Energy, and it seems to me that the complaints I hear from them about that are very similar to how I feel about planrswalkers.

Quote from Etherium Sage »

It feels like they're being very safe with the walkers this time around. I hope they aren't going to the other extreme from the days of Gideon, Ally of Stupidity.

I'm actually totally OK with that. When I first learned about planeswalkers I thought they were flavourful but gimmicky. I honestly thought they were cards targetting the Johnny/Vorthos players and wouldn't see competitive play. But then they got pushed and now most decks need planeswalkers to be competitive and I hated that. (It's one of the reasons I quit playing for a few years - I got back in because SOI interested me)

So, yeah - I'd be totally fine if planeswalkers stop being the linchpin in decks and take a back-seat to the rest of the synergy in the deck itself.

Quote from leslak »

Slivers should be templated:
“Slivers your opponents don’t control...”
IMO

It took me a bit to think that though ... but yes, there is a reasonable case for that to be better functionality.

Quote from Impossible »

Quote from Josephine_Ciendeilio »

Ugh, who designs and playtests these things? Seriously. How about instead:

Because the point of these decks isn't to be "functional" decks, as weird as that is to say. The goal isn't to build the best possible deck out of a bunch of commons/uncommons. The actual goals are A) get people with no previous knowledge of MTG to try the game, and B) demonstrate the types of things the color(s) are capable of.

Then it fails as a product.

That's why, for example, there are so many 1-ofs or 2-ofs instead of 4-ofs.

Scattershot is a poor teacher. Most players I taught toss out the irrelevant cards anyway on their own, they tend to be smart for what works and doesn't work.

It is more important to show new players the different effects these colors can do so that they can go toward whatever they like the most. That's why, for example, there are singletons of Muse Drake, Passwall Adept, and Vedalken Mesmerist. They demonstrate to new players -- who have no concept of the color pie -- the kinds of abilities they can expect from Blue.

Or you know, why not go full ham with the izzet themeing and show off just a few facets of blue and red's color pie while emphazing those strengths? Its a deck after all about synergizing with your instants and sorceries.

Similarly, by building the deck this way it allows new players the ability to modify the deck as they see fit with some easy upgrades.

or you know, put actually relevant cards into the deck so they know what to upgrade from instead of misleading them with jank like the 3x Fearless Halberdier? Like if its meant to showoff easy upgrades, wheres the 2x Crackling Drake that could easily take the place of the 2x Hellkite Whelp?

Remember that these products come with 2 booster packs (assuming I'm remembering correctly myself), and a new player is likely to open at least some of these cards from the common slot. It demonstrates an easy way for a new player to tweak the deck and make it their own, which will also make them more invested because it is something they (partially) made by themselves.

While the two-packs are quaint, they more likely have off-color / off-guild cards that provide a more subpar experience with it. How about instead, if a new player is meant to go form a Welcome Deck to a Planeswalker Deck, showoff a more cohesive and functional deck in order to get the player more interested.

Planeswalker Decks will end up discontinued like Intro Decks if they don't step up their deck building when trying to appeal to new or old customers.

Quote from Duke Daemon »

No worse cause energey was a powerful mechanic/tool and the scry was very helpful. Not to mention Kaldesh had Torrential Gearhulks which could be used to cast Glimmer twice.

Control decks usually run Glimmer without any Energy outlets, which is why I asked specifically "Ignoring the Energy benefit". Obviously, if you have any use for the Energy, you run Glimmer. What's left is deciding if the Graveyard effect is better than Scry 2.

Either way, better than Glimmer or not, it has the obvious synergy with Surveil in the current Standard environment which means it will be a easy replacement for Control.

EDIT: I just remembered Azcanta exists. I keep my "better than Glimmer" stance.

Quote from shenabagananins »

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Who said I thought I was the final word? What this forum not believe in Free Speech I got agree with every decision WOTC makes. I gave my opinion and you guys decided I need be put in my place and am not allowed to have an opinion.

I am simply tired of generic attack attack for RW. Surely there is more to the color pair then that.

You're free to have an opinion. And we're free to react to it. It'll be okay.

But "you don't design games for a living so your opinion doesn't count" is the dumbest possible reaction. And I guarantee you won't ever say that to someone who praises cards, mechanics, etc.

The alternate art for the card is likely Niv-Mizzet trying to look into the Blind Eternities. Whether or not this is also part of Project Firebug is not really stated.

Quote from GW2GuruUser7586 »

Quote from Manite »

Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off.

Does Proliferate make sense in blue? I guess maybe - it is the colour of cloning.

The alternate art has me curious - biological research is more a Simic thing than an Izzet thing. I'm wondering it that's Bolas' doing and he stumbles across it. Also, being a Dragon with questionable ethics I'm wondering if he'd wind up working with Bolas (he certainly will in the game since he's Grixis colours and Grixis dragons is already a thing he can slip right into)

Working with Bolas would mean that he suddenly wouldn't be the biggest, baddest dragon in the neighborhood. I don't think his ego could handle that...

if there is a jump-start permission spell i suspect it will be UR rather than straight U. theyd want to promote people actually playing izzet colors, and not just UW

i could see some conditional counter magic getting the mechanic. not that i think 2UU would be too good for standard. the back end of jump-start cards is only virtual card advantage, and control decks are looking to make land drops into the late game. i suspect it would be because of gameplay considerations. as much as blue mages might object counterspells are better served in moderation, and jump start means functionally additional copies.

I have to say that for the third time, the art on these doesn't disappoint, aside from Steam Vents not looking steamy or vent-y.

How can people be upset by reprinted Shock Lands? They are some of the most iconic Ravnican cards! A Ravnica set without them would feel weird.

Quote from RSSR »

Now that we know Shocklands will be in Guilds Of Ravnica, and almost certainly Ravnica Allegiance, it kinda takes away an element of suspense for me. They’d have to give me things I never knew I wanted in the coming set spoilers. And in a small way I’m waiting to see if prowess is still evergreen and utilized in this set and it’s design space.

I think Prowess is slowly becoming Deciduous, or worse.

Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off. Cards like this make me wish they'd expand Izzet's focus to noncreature spells, though; imagine if this also triggered off enchantments, noncreature artifacts, and planeswalkers. Wouldn't look so terrible then, would it? Though it would also probably cost two or three extra mana.