Basic lands are all reprints. It's a core set, so it's not exactly surprising, but still … lame.
At least they chose some good ones like the Jim Nelson forest, the John Avon island and the De Ro swamp I guess.
I was just recently sorting M14 basics and looking at these, I thought: "A lot of those look familiar..."
They are all reprints.
One of them is a reprint from a non-mainstream set, so there is that.
Yes, it is lame. Basics are the only things I collect because hey, they dont rotate.
But I'm not surprised. They've been putting out more premium basics lately than they ever have. We've therefore been getting the same number of different basic lands, but the actual majority of them have been premium.
... Protection? In a new core set? After they said that "protection is too difficult for players to get right" (in other words, saying that players are dumb) and that they were shelving it indefinitely?
THAT is unexpected.
To be fair, protection is really hard for players to get. It comes up often enough in EDH and I'm constantly explaining the nuances to people.
I'm really surprised (baffled, even) that they would be putting protection back in a core set, on a non rare. Man this card hoses lots of EDH strategies.
To be fair, it just isn't. It just takes a competent patient person explaining the rules, as Sleeperagent says. My 5 year old (at the time) started playing with three decks I built out of dollar rares with as many keyword abilities on them as I could find. I did slowly ramp them up, introducing a few a week and so, but still. At 5 she was able to handle dozens of keywords interacting and keep them straight. YMMV.
Protection is one of the easier abilities to explain. It is also one of the _better_ abilities for new players to digest. Much of gaming in general and magic in particular is about locks and keys. There's a problem, there's a solution. Protection is a very simple, very obvious ability that says "This is the problem that I solve!!". Protection primes new players to look for progressively less obvious keys to locks, which leads the way to general tactics like card advantage and tempo. The only thing wrong with Protection is that the reminder text is/would be a bit long, so it doesn't get printed often.
I very strongly wish people (including WotC) would stop equating New Player with Idiot. You'll get more new players if you stop being condescending to them. (not singling anyone out, its all over the place).
They are all reprints.
One of them is a reprint from a non-mainstream set, so there is that.
Yes, it is lame. Basics are the only things I collect because hey, they dont rotate.
But I'm not surprised. They've been putting out more premium basics lately than they ever have. We've therefore been getting the same number of different basic lands, but the actual majority of them have been premium.
I can support that.
To be fair, it just isn't. It just takes a competent patient person explaining the rules, as Sleeperagent says. My 5 year old (at the time) started playing with three decks I built out of dollar rares with as many keyword abilities on them as I could find. I did slowly ramp them up, introducing a few a week and so, but still. At 5 she was able to handle dozens of keywords interacting and keep them straight. YMMV.
Protection is one of the easier abilities to explain. It is also one of the _better_ abilities for new players to digest. Much of gaming in general and magic in particular is about locks and keys. There's a problem, there's a solution. Protection is a very simple, very obvious ability that says "This is the problem that I solve!!". Protection primes new players to look for progressively less obvious keys to locks, which leads the way to general tactics like card advantage and tempo. The only thing wrong with Protection is that the reminder text is/would be a bit long, so it doesn't get printed often.
I very strongly wish people (including WotC) would stop equating New Player with Idiot. You'll get more new players if you stop being condescending to them. (not singling anyone out, its all over the place).
Specifically, will they finish the Prarie Stream cycle or the Port Town cycle? Or do something new?