Price tags on sealed products? Sure, they should be sold for that price.
Price tags on not-sealed products like cards in binders/protectors? No way should they be obligated to pay that price. All it takes is someone trying to be sneaky and bam, the store owner "has" to sell for the far cheaper price.
Yeah. How about no. The store I buy my cards at basically has a stated policy of selling cards for Star City price minus 5-10%. No price marked on cards. Everyone is ok with that. Why does instantly putting a tag on a card mean you get to scam a business owner?
Now, if the owner had an ad in a local paper that says "All Magic Singles, $1 or less" and said "oh wait that card is worth 5 bucks, gotta charge you that", there'd be a problem. If the owner had a sign above the magic cards that said "All singles in binders $1", that'd be a problem. Those are advertisements. A price tag is not an advertisement of price, but a relic from an age when we didn't have barcode scanners and the like.
So, my favorite deck of all time has been RDW, the version that was running around during early Lorwyn Block. I took it apart come Shards, but RDW was always awesome. Speed was one of my favorite things, and the fact that red is one of my favorite colors made it that much better. When I saw this deck, I knew I had to try it, and I fell in love with the Red/Blue version. It has the speed of RDW, while having just enough tricks to punch through a control deck's early game. I'm in love. Here's what I'm running:
Right now, I'm looking to tweak the sideboard. I'm thinking about more cheap control, namely negates and essence scatters. Maybe even some dispel. I'm finding that keeping the curve as low as humanly possible with this deck makes it work so stupidly fast. I realize Dispel is a pretty narrow counter overall, but sideboarding it against something that has a lot of instant speed removal could prove to be pretty deadly. Will probably pull out the spellblades, as I am completely unimpressed with them.
I would think the matchup against Poly would be in Sneaky's favor. This deck can have them dead before they even go off. When they hit their 4th land, keep counter or burn mana open while beating their face in.
Even after the big Eldrazi hits play, you can still win off Distortion Strike and a burn spell or two.
This -- I've played against a few versions of polymorph online on MTGO and, with the red/blue version, a couple of spell pierces do wonders.
Bought 2 boxes of worldwake and 2 fatpacks on release.
Got:
Playset of all Manlands
3/4 Persecutors
3/4 Jace (2 were in one of the fatpacks, one was in a box)
4/4 Admonition Angel
3/4 Omnath
1/4 Eye Of Ugin (Foil)
Had some good boxes and fatpacks overall, really. The whole store did pretty well for Worldwake -- three fatpacks in a row had at least one Jace in them, and another one had double jace like mine.
If I'm playing a mana ramp deck and cast Bloodbraid Elf on my 3rd turn and it cascades into Serra Avenger, does the Serra Avenger enter the battlefield or does it fail to enter the battlefield because it is still the third turn?
You can't play it. From my understanding, BBE doesn't let you play a card if it would be illegal to play, it simply allows you to play it without paying the mana cost. So, say, a Maelstrom Pulse with nothing on the board but land wouldn't be playable (since BBE isn't technically on the field yet), and Serra Avenger isn't playable because you can't play it on your third turn.
OK, the list is beginning here: Mangara of Corondor, Giant Trap Door Spider, Coastal Wizard (for casual & EDH most likely)... any other cards worth making hasted copies that would benefit from xeroxing itself (the first 2 examples work well because they normally would get removed from the game).
Lets not forget Sky Hussar -- Heck, if you happen to have two in your hand, it becomes infinite card draw. Any other creatures you have on the field tap an infinite amount of times, etc.
In somewhat limited testing, I've found whiplash to be pretty nice. Being able to bounce a couple of creatures cast from a boros, RDW or WW deck is pretty helpful, especially after you get a Boros player trying to alpha strike or something like that. Whiplash has saved me more than a few times. But I can also see why it might need to go. If it goes, I can also pull the snare, I think, and just go with the 4 runeflares and such. Hmmm.
And I'll give Spell Pierce a try, see how well it works. Can see where it'd come in handy against black-using decks packing duress or some such.
I just need to pick up 1-2 more time warp, and should be able to borrow those from my roommate. I have the calcite snappers, negates and scatters to toss into the deck. I'm going to get the paper version together and run it against a few decks tonight, see how well it works. I've been liking it online, though, too. Anyways, here's what I'm thinking for the post-worldwake version after running some more tests last night and this morning:
I decided to move the bolts to the sideboard to fit 3 negates main deck. Also am trying 3 whiplash traps instead of 4 so that I can get 4 time warps main deck. May switch to 3 time warps/4 negates or whiplashes.
Going to see how this plays out and, when worldwake becomes playable online, I'll run the deck some on there. So far, after having played America Control, Jund and this, this is my favorite deck in standard by far for the sheer comedy factor of sending 30+ damage at someone's face on turn 4 (granted, that takes a godhand, but when it works, it works -- mine/mine turns 2 and 3, double runeflare and twincast on turn 4).
I'm liking the trap theme of the deck, which makes refraction trap that much more interesting over swerve.
For the list: I've found Whiplash trap to be amazing against the deck's weaker matchups, in Boros and RDW. With them dropping 2 creatures a turn, one blue to pop both back lets me still have the mana to drop a mine or font, while keeping their hand relatively full. Archive traps in the sideboard are big against the control matchups, or even in the mirror match to get a lead, since that one is more likely to end as a result of decking, I think. I've yet to run into anyone else playing this on MTGO though.
I also see the snare has been a bit up for debate here. But I've found it to be great in many situations, namely in pushing through the kill. It is why I'm thinking of including mindbreak traps in here -- when there is the possibility of the snare reading something like "1U -- exile any number of spells", I find the value to be good.
As for worldwake changes, I'm planning to make the following changes so far:
-4 Swerve, +4 Ricochet Trap maybe. With Jund becoming less popular possibly, Swerve can drop in favor of Ricochet Trap. However, my local paper-meta is still jund heavy, so these may stay.
-3 Wall of Frost, +3 ? -- I want to replace this, as I rarely use it. But not sure what to toss in in its place. I've considered Mindbreak traps for the control matchup. Calcite Snapper is also a possibility.
-4 Double Negative, +4 Negate or Essence Scatter -- this is just a possibility at this point. However, my local paper-meta is still jund heavy, so these may stay.
-3 Pyroclasm, +3 ? -- I am not sure what to toss in in this spot. Maybe Into the Roil, though others in this thread seem none too impressed by it. Maybe I can fit Time Warp in here.
Anyone else have any suggestions? I'm fairly noobish to modifying decks and all.
Price tags on not-sealed products like cards in binders/protectors? No way should they be obligated to pay that price. All it takes is someone trying to be sneaky and bam, the store owner "has" to sell for the far cheaper price.
Yeah. How about no. The store I buy my cards at basically has a stated policy of selling cards for Star City price minus 5-10%. No price marked on cards. Everyone is ok with that. Why does instantly putting a tag on a card mean you get to scam a business owner?
Now, if the owner had an ad in a local paper that says "All Magic Singles, $1 or less" and said "oh wait that card is worth 5 bucks, gotta charge you that", there'd be a problem. If the owner had a sign above the magic cards that said "All singles in binders $1", that'd be a problem. Those are advertisements. A price tag is not an advertisement of price, but a relic from an age when we didn't have barcode scanners and the like.
Shock
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Plated Geopede
Spells:
4 Into the Roil
4 Ponder
4 Distortion Strike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Staggershock
3 Spell Pierce
2 Burst of Speed
2 Forked Bolt
7 Mountain
8 Island
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Surrakar Spellblade
4 Swerve
4 Manabarbs
4 Flame Slash
Right now, I'm looking to tweak the sideboard. I'm thinking about more cheap control, namely negates and essence scatters. Maybe even some dispel. I'm finding that keeping the curve as low as humanly possible with this deck makes it work so stupidly fast. I realize Dispel is a pretty narrow counter overall, but sideboarding it against something that has a lot of instant speed removal could prove to be pretty deadly. Will probably pull out the spellblades, as I am completely unimpressed with them.
This -- I've played against a few versions of polymorph online on MTGO and, with the red/blue version, a couple of spell pierces do wonders.
Got:
Playset of all Manlands
3/4 Persecutors
3/4 Jace (2 were in one of the fatpacks, one was in a box)
4/4 Admonition Angel
3/4 Omnath
1/4 Eye Of Ugin (Foil)
Had some good boxes and fatpacks overall, really. The whole store did pretty well for Worldwake -- three fatpacks in a row had at least one Jace in them, and another one had double jace like mine.
You can't play it. From my understanding, BBE doesn't let you play a card if it would be illegal to play, it simply allows you to play it without paying the mana cost. So, say, a Maelstrom Pulse with nothing on the board but land wouldn't be playable (since BBE isn't technically on the field yet), and Serra Avenger isn't playable because you can't play it on your third turn.
Lets not forget Sky Hussar -- Heck, if you happen to have two in your hand, it becomes infinite card draw. Any other creatures you have on the field tap an infinite amount of times, etc.
-3 Whiplash Trap, -1 Twincast, -3 Negate (to the SB)
+4 Lightning Bolt (From SB to Main Deck) +3 Spell Pierce
Maybe swap the 4 Unsummon for 3 Burst Lightning 1 Spell Pierce too.
And I'll give Spell Pierce a try, see how well it works. Can see where it'd come in handy against black-using decks packing duress or some such.
4 Font of Mythos
4 Time Warp
4 Runeflare Trap
4 Twincast
4 Unsummon
3 Ponder
4 Howling Mine
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Negate
3 Whiplash Trap
4 Scalding Tarn
11 Island
6 Mountain
2 Reliquary Tower
4 Archive Trap
4 Ricochet Trap
4 Calcite Snapper
3 Lightning bolt
I decided to move the bolts to the sideboard to fit 3 negates main deck. Also am trying 3 whiplash traps instead of 4 so that I can get 4 time warps main deck. May switch to 3 time warps/4 negates or whiplashes.
Going to see how this plays out and, when worldwake becomes playable online, I'll run the deck some on there. So far, after having played America Control, Jund and this, this is my favorite deck in standard by far for the sheer comedy factor of sending 30+ damage at someone's face on turn 4 (granted, that takes a godhand, but when it works, it works -- mine/mine turns 2 and 3, double runeflare and twincast on turn 4).
I'm liking the trap theme of the deck, which makes refraction trap that much more interesting over swerve.
4 Font of Mythos
3 Pyroclasm
4 Runeflare Trap
4 Twincast
4 Unsummon
3 Ponder
4 Howling Mine
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Whiplash Trap
4 Scalding Tarn
11 Island
6 Mountain
2 Reliquary Tower
4 Archive Trap
4 Swerve
3 Wall of Frost
4 Double Negative
I also see the snare has been a bit up for debate here. But I've found it to be great in many situations, namely in pushing through the kill. It is why I'm thinking of including mindbreak traps in here -- when there is the possibility of the snare reading something like "1U -- exile any number of spells", I find the value to be good.
As for worldwake changes, I'm planning to make the following changes so far:
-4 Swerve, +4 Ricochet Trap maybe. With Jund becoming less popular possibly, Swerve can drop in favor of Ricochet Trap. However, my local paper-meta is still jund heavy, so these may stay.
-3 Wall of Frost, +3 ? -- I want to replace this, as I rarely use it. But not sure what to toss in in its place. I've considered Mindbreak traps for the control matchup. Calcite Snapper is also a possibility.
-4 Double Negative, +4 Negate or Essence Scatter -- this is just a possibility at this point. However, my local paper-meta is still jund heavy, so these may stay.
-3 Pyroclasm, +3 ? -- I am not sure what to toss in in this spot. Maybe Into the Roil, though others in this thread seem none too impressed by it. Maybe I can fit Time Warp in here.
Anyone else have any suggestions? I'm fairly noobish to modifying decks and all.
We had 5 opened, 4 out of the 5 had a Jace in them. A few more sold simply because of that fact, haha.
1) there are more money cards. Especially the fetches which will last for awhile
2) The set will be around 100% in type 2 for over another year, while M10 will lose some cards.
3) The big money cards from M10 (Baneslayer, duals) aren't guaranteed to return
Pretty much, if you're after BSAs, buy a couple instead of a box of M10. Zendikar has a lot of cards that will be usable longer in type 2.