If Alpha through Unlimited never existed, which would you think is more likely to be a real card: Ancestral Recall or a 2-mana Orcish Artillery? It depends on what you want out of Cube, but I think a 2-mana Orcish Artillery is pretty balanced and a lot more fun than Ancestral Recall. I don't want this to be a P9 debate, but let's be real, Wizards would definitely look back on that and consider Ancestral Recall to be a "mistake" from a balanced gameplay perspective. They actually reprinted the 'fixed' version of Ancestral recall and called it Jace's Ingenuity. To me, Cube is its own game. I feel no obligation to run stupidly broken cards like Sol Ring and Ancestral Recall and leave out cards like 2-mana Orcish Artillery just because it costs 3 mana when you look it up online.
I agree with the foreign card misprint sentiment. I would never run those (I keep saying this haha). I think there is a discussion to be had about the English misprint Orcish Artillery, because I see no downside for running this card. The 8-man group that I play with is exciting for me to put it in there.
Orcish Artillery is the most exciting of the misprints because it is pretty balanced for a Cube card. No explanations or erratas are needed, and it is in English. I am not going to put a Spanish Disentomb into the Cube and explain the translation to all of my players that do not speak Spanish, seems so gimmicky to me haha. If there is another card like Orcish Artillery or Oriflame, that would be cool to consider. I saw the Anthologies misprints, but none of them are good. I don't like the Cursed Scroll or other like that because Cursed Scroll is already a good card (and it's not English...). Like one of the guys on page 1 pointed out, the Alpha misprint of Orcish Artillery turns an unplayable Cube card into a quite good Cube card that fills a nice role in the Cube.
There's the Spanish Meloku that makes 2/2 illusions, and the French? Disentomb that just returns a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Is the Disentomb English? I have not seen that one.
Edit: Just found that it is Spanish. I am really looking for non-foil English misprints, and I don't see anything worthwhile. I'm also looking for a card that is not Cube-able without the misprint.
What other notable misprints make a card Cube playable that originally wasn't? I have 100% English cards in my Cube, so it would have to be a cool foreign misprint for me to play it. I am also not going to play anything that's foil. I went through all the 'mass misprints' and I couldn't find anything other than Orcish Oriflame, which I honestly don't think is good enough to play.
So I'm sure people will have varying opinions on this issue. I am considering playing an Alpha Orcish Artillery in my Cube. As some of you might know, the Alpha version of this card costs 1R instead of 1RR, making it sooo much better and filling a much-needed red 2-drop slot. Has anyone done this? I play some P3K cards and Blast from the Past, so I am not hellbent on playing cards exactly as they were meant to be played in sanctioned Magic. I just want to build the ultimate limited experience with real, printed Magic cards, and an Alpha Orcish Artillery seems great for my Cube. A lot of people are playing Chaos Orb with an errata (which I am still not doing), so I think some people might be open to this.
@Hoofin: Class, seriously? Nothing I said was emotionally charged or what I would consider to not show 'class.' I have even given my name, which should make it obvious that I'm not making it up. If any shop is doing these things, people should post their experiences so that other Magic players can be warned. I can see you are from NC, so I would not be surprised if you are somehow involved, as your tone is very surprising coming from a supposed 3rd party. Four people other than me have written the owner, and there are a lot of people who are unhappy with the current situation at this store. You have to realize that 95% of people aren't actually going to do something about it, because well, that's just how a lot of Magic players are, and that's the way a lot of people are in general. I don't blame them. I wouldn't have wanted to say anything if I were still playing at this shop, because Magic shops have essential monopolies in most communities. For a long time I just sucked it up so that I could play Magic during my time in college. So I don't know where you get this idea that it is me against the world... But it's a tough decision for a lot of my friends who live in Boone and enjoy playing Magic but don't like the way they are treated and the shady things that happen. The only winning situation for us would be for this shop to somehow go out of business and another shop replace it or the shop change ownership. Getting a shop closed down and having nowhere to play Magic in Boone is not a winning situation, and that's why this is so tough. That's also why managers like the guy at this store feel like they can bully everyone.
Regardless, I don't really care what a few idiots think. I just hope that people who actually care about these things happening in the Magic community hear what I am saying. This has opened my eyes to the monopoly power that a lot of local shops have in their community. There is a sense of entitlement over their customers; they feel like the are entitled to the business that they have. Granted, my experiences in Johnson City have been completely opposite. The shop here is awesome, and the one in Bristol is really cool too.
The whole point of me posting this was to both get advice on how to approach this from a DCI point of view and to let other MTGSalvation members learn about my experiences at this shop. You can take it or leave it, but don't start talking about slander. This is seriously why people don't speak up when things like this happen. If people start talking like this, I will delete the thread. It's not worth it to me if that's the position that people are going to take, and large card shops can certainly stick up for themselves without people feeling the need to break out the slander card. I gave my name and a little history with the game to try to show my credibility.
There is a little confusion about the shop selling the boxes early. Basically what happens is everyone preorders and prepays (which is normal), but players who are favored by the store manager can pick up their boxes early, and this is usually like a dozen people. Some of them are my friends. I don't know how you prove something like this, but if you hang out at the shop a couple days before a release, you would be able to see some people picking up and opening their boxes. I never cared about this because frankly it just didn't affect me, but now I see it as one of the many things that this shop is doing to break the rules and play favorites in the community.
One of my friends who has been shunned from the shop is a judge that regularly judges at Starcity events, so I am talking to him about if he wants to take any action.
I am going to talk to some people I know, and I will see if they want to report these things with me. I do NOT want to do this by myself, as I feel like that will have very little standing, and honestly I am pretty paranoid about the manager retaliating somehow. I think that if the judge backs me up on this it will seriously validate my experiences, since he is the only judge who has judged at this shop, and he has witnessed everything I have. Even if it isn't illegal to charge different prices for different people, the Magic community needs to know this kind of thing when it's happening.
Report them to Wizards. If they're not giving out promos appropriately, they can get in big trouble.
I think this is probably a good idea, I just don't know if it's worth it. I fear retaliation, and I enjoy playing Magic a lot more than I care about this shop.
Hi,
I have been on these forums for a while. I have top 8ed a GP, and my total DCI rating was 2013 before the rating system closed. I am not just some random dude with a grudge against a shop. Magic is a very big part of my life.
What I want to say:
Plan 9 Comics in Boone, NC is corrupt and does some really shady things in the Magic community. I would like to know where I can 'fight back' or at least warn people about this store. Two of my friends and I have been 'banned' from the shop for being outwardly against the store favoring certain individuals in store practices and shunning others.
Some things this shop does:
-Higher prices for singles are charged to a select few simply because the manager doesn't like them.
-The manager sells DCI promos at conventions that he supposed to give to tournament participants.
-The manager keeps some of the prize support for prerelease and release tournaments for himself.
-The manager opens personal packs before the release date and trades with people.
-The manager sells and physically gives out boxes before the official release date AS SOON AS they arrive in the store. This is popular with a lot of customers, but it is still against the rules and is really shady.
-The manager and employees threaten to report individuals they don't like to the DCI when they are not doing anything wrong. This is the one that really made me mad, and I decided something needed to be said. The manager told me and a close friend that he would report us for agreeing to a prize split of a small tournament. Prize splits happen ALL THE TIME at this shop and almost every local shop when it's getting late, and everyone wants to go home. There is no bribery involved, just a simple prize split, and the manager threatened to report us for bribery. Needless to say, I will never go back to this shop after this event.
I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I just wanted to give my advice and say do not go to Plan 9 Comics in Boone, NC. My name is Wilson Hunter, and you can ask me and many people I know about this in person at an event. This might not affect most people on these forums, but it is important info for anyone living in TN, NC, SC, GA, and VA who attends a lot of tournaments.
Please let me know if there is a more appropriate place to say this. Thanks!
Awesome, thank you! Yeah it seems very difficult to make a balanced tribal cube, but it also seems so fun to play, definitely something I will start working on.
I'm looking for a good and refined tribal cube list. Rather than posting 'use the search function' or something, I just want to know some of the regular folks' opinions on an established tribal cube list that I can use as a resource. Any tribal cube articles (if those exist) would be appreciated as well. Thanks for the help!
Is the Disentomb English? I have not seen that one.
Edit: Just found that it is Spanish. I am really looking for non-foil English misprints, and I don't see anything worthwhile. I'm also looking for a card that is not Cube-able without the misprint.
Regardless, I don't really care what a few idiots think. I just hope that people who actually care about these things happening in the Magic community hear what I am saying. This has opened my eyes to the monopoly power that a lot of local shops have in their community. There is a sense of entitlement over their customers; they feel like the are entitled to the business that they have. Granted, my experiences in Johnson City have been completely opposite. The shop here is awesome, and the one in Bristol is really cool too.
There is a little confusion about the shop selling the boxes early. Basically what happens is everyone preorders and prepays (which is normal), but players who are favored by the store manager can pick up their boxes early, and this is usually like a dozen people. Some of them are my friends. I don't know how you prove something like this, but if you hang out at the shop a couple days before a release, you would be able to see some people picking up and opening their boxes. I never cared about this because frankly it just didn't affect me, but now I see it as one of the many things that this shop is doing to break the rules and play favorites in the community.
One of my friends who has been shunned from the shop is a judge that regularly judges at Starcity events, so I am talking to him about if he wants to take any action.
I am going to talk to some people I know, and I will see if they want to report these things with me. I do NOT want to do this by myself, as I feel like that will have very little standing, and honestly I am pretty paranoid about the manager retaliating somehow. I think that if the judge backs me up on this it will seriously validate my experiences, since he is the only judge who has judged at this shop, and he has witnessed everything I have. Even if it isn't illegal to charge different prices for different people, the Magic community needs to know this kind of thing when it's happening.
I think this is probably a good idea, I just don't know if it's worth it. I fear retaliation, and I enjoy playing Magic a lot more than I care about this shop.
I have been on these forums for a while. I have top 8ed a GP, and my total DCI rating was 2013 before the rating system closed. I am not just some random dude with a grudge against a shop. Magic is a very big part of my life.
What I want to say:
Plan 9 Comics in Boone, NC is corrupt and does some really shady things in the Magic community. I would like to know where I can 'fight back' or at least warn people about this store. Two of my friends and I have been 'banned' from the shop for being outwardly against the store favoring certain individuals in store practices and shunning others.
Some things this shop does:
-Higher prices for singles are charged to a select few simply because the manager doesn't like them.
-The manager sells DCI promos at conventions that he supposed to give to tournament participants.
-The manager keeps some of the prize support for prerelease and release tournaments for himself.
-The manager opens personal packs before the release date and trades with people.
-The manager sells and physically gives out boxes before the official release date AS SOON AS they arrive in the store. This is popular with a lot of customers, but it is still against the rules and is really shady.
-The manager and employees threaten to report individuals they don't like to the DCI when they are not doing anything wrong. This is the one that really made me mad, and I decided something needed to be said. The manager told me and a close friend that he would report us for agreeing to a prize split of a small tournament. Prize splits happen ALL THE TIME at this shop and almost every local shop when it's getting late, and everyone wants to go home. There is no bribery involved, just a simple prize split, and the manager threatened to report us for bribery. Needless to say, I will never go back to this shop after this event.
I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I just wanted to give my advice and say do not go to Plan 9 Comics in Boone, NC. My name is Wilson Hunter, and you can ask me and many people I know about this in person at an event. This might not affect most people on these forums, but it is important info for anyone living in TN, NC, SC, GA, and VA who attends a lot of tournaments.
Please let me know if there is a more appropriate place to say this. Thanks!