blindrocket
Member
Wizards has a Core set simulator. I wonder if they will offer one for the expansions?
http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/activity/1361
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Magic: the GAFering |OT2|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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Wizards has a Core set simulator. I wonder if they will offer one for the expansions?
http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/activity/1361
divisionbyzorro
Member
The relevant lands of the time are always going to appear to be the most popular cards because of the fundamental design of Magic (you need the right lands to be able to cast your spells).
The fetchlands are an elegant way to allow the construction of smooth manabases, which honestly just makes the game far more interesting and skill-based. Without fetchlands, the consistency of decks goes down and the construction of decks in "eternal" formats is pushed in an entirely different direction.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Holy crap. Wizards is turning off all scheduled events on MTGO starting Wednesday until further notice...
"Because of these issues and your feedback, we are suspending all Daily Events, Premier Events, PTQs, and MOCS events on Magic Online beginning with tomorrow's downtime."
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/273
Holy crap that's huge.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/273
Holy crap that's huge.
I'm happy. It's criminal to charge money for events that are always crashing.
Yeah, as a fellow developer I gotta feel for those guys since they'll probably be on perma crunch till this is fixed. That said, it is fucking ridiculous it has taken this long for them to buckle down and, hopefully, do something about it.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I would not be surprised at all if they don't get this fixed until the Born of the Gods release.
My guess is that we're going to see a number of exotic draft formats appear over the next few months to keep people happy and playing.
There is one thing in that article that's insane though. Do they really think that an on-demand queue that requires 15 QPs to enter is ever going to actually fire?
EDIT: Oh, and I am definitely keeping an eye on card prices over the next few weeks and months. I would not be surprised to see players rushing to cash out right now.
My guess is that we're going to see a number of exotic draft formats appear over the next few months to keep people happy and playing.
There is one thing in that article that's insane though. Do they really think that an on-demand queue that requires 15 QPs to enter is ever going to actually fire?
EDIT: Oh, and I am definitely keeping an eye on card prices over the next few weeks and months. I would not be surprised to see players rushing to cash out right now.
Today in reason's why you never scoop. Great match.
If your store does store credit and rolls it over, do that. It's been a long while since I've spent actual money and I try to draft each week. Do well, get more store credit, play free next week, repeat.
Or grab a bunch of friends and go in on a box.
Go hella control. What'a that artifact that lets you sack a creature to gain 4 life along with doing a bunch of other things? Should go in there.
Went 3-0 in drafts tonight pretty easily. 3 Vaporkins, 3 Nimbus Naiads, 2 Griptides, 1 voyager's end, 1 Shipwreck Singer (my favorite limit card in Theros lol), 1 Bident of Thassa, 2 Returned Phalanx, Thassa's Emissary, 1 Whiplash, and a bunch of bombs. Having Bident or Shipwreck Singer forcing opponents to attack into Returned Phalanx is too good.
EsotericManiac
Banned
I always scoop unless it's "battle of the universe"
i understand the reason others don't
Are you sure he didn't mean Trading Post? Maybe not.
Yeah, Trading Post is the card. Discard a fatty creature with Trading Post, gain 4 life, and produce an Angel. Next turn, give it discarded creature haste with Whip, sac it to prevent it from getting exiled, repeat. Pretty mana intensive though lol.
Using Last Breath on yourself to gain 4 life would be pretty funny. Maybe run 2 Yoked Ox on the mainboard for all the aggro going around. You could even Devour of Flesh it if you have to. I think that gains life according to toughness. Would be a fun deck.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
That wouldn't work multiple times because a creature which is resurrected with whip is exiled if it leaves the battlefield for any reason.
"God's Beard!"
Member
"I put my pants on one leg at a time"
acheron_xl
Member
One gets the impression they've been crunching for over a decade with little result. I wish they'd just bite the bullet and throw real money at the problem.
They're apparently incredibly profitable. The problem is getting the (massive) budget to expand or farm out the development.
I was kind of under the impression that there was little urgency to fix stuff since MTGO, even in its current horrible state, presumably brings in the dough quite handily. But now that a big source of income is gone, the whip is going to start getting cracked.
acheron_xl
Member
Yeah, it's success in spite of it's problems has always been something of a crutch.
Ah you're right. I still think Trading Post is a nice fit for Adder's deck though.
MTGO is trash. I've never had a smooth experience and have been disconnected multiple times in drafts to the point of quitting it altogether. Kiebler is having this happen to him at major tournaments. That frustration must be 10 folds of what I feel.
I know it's just cosmetics but they could really spruce up the interface. Heartstone consistently has more viewers on TwitchTV and a little part of the reason is how pretty it looks and sounds. I'm sure MtG still gets more players and is more profitable so it doesn't make sense why the client is so plain and faulty. I won't touch MTGO until it gets a major overhaul.
I prefer the old client to the new beta. I am used to the old client and the UI complaints seem silly once you learn it.
This is a card game, not a AAA FPS.
The people jumping on the MTGO hate need to realize it is specific to large tournaments not the day-to-day experience drafting and playing in smaller events.
This is a card game, not a AAA FPS.
The people jumping on the MTGO hate need to realize it is specific to large tournaments not the day-to-day experience drafting and playing in smaller events.
blindrocket
Member
It doesn't look like local shops are going to run sanctioned Modern events due to lack of interest. 
Local Magic players will invest heavily into Standard but not into tournament level Modern decks.
Local Magic players will invest heavily into Standard but not into tournament level Modern decks.
"God's Beard!"
Member
Why isn't there an Evolving Wilds equivalent in Standard right now?
My DRS are crying.
My DRS are crying.
Modern needs help. They've banned mostly the right cards, but they didn't get the "right" ones off the bat and the format's degenerated.It doesn't look like local shops are going to run sanctioned Modern events due to lack of interest.
Local Magic players will invest heavily into Standard but not into tournament level Modern decks.
Is it more or less popular than Extended was?
I've played in store level modern events, I think the only time I did an extended one was in 1999, lol
Much better than Extended. Problem is that the format's pretty miserable.
It's time to start taking a few cards off and seeing what happens. Things like Wild Nactl, Golgari Grave Troll and Ancestral Vision don't need to be on there.
Wild Nacatl needs to be on there. Swords to Plowshares does not exist. The only cards that reliably trade effectively with it are Dismember and Bolt. It's too good.
GGT/AV are obvious prunes.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I'll be honest: I bought into Modern almost entirely to play Storm, or some other combo deck. The only combo that's left is Twin (and Pod, to a lesser degree), but that's not the kind of combo deck I like. If I just want to jam creatures against each other, I'll play Limited. I do enjoy playing Twin, but it doesn't excite me like Storm used to. I would have bought into Legacy Storm by now on MTGO if LEDs weren't $150 apiece...
Someone described Modern as feeling like it was still wearing training wheels. That's kind of how I feel about it too. That being said, the only reason I'm not still actively playing it is because of how miserable of an experience it is to grind constructed play on MTGO. For all of its faults, Modern isn't a bad format. It just feels like it could (should) be so much better.
Someone described Modern as feeling like it was still wearing training wheels. That's kind of how I feel about it too. That being said, the only reason I'm not still actively playing it is because of how miserable of an experience it is to grind constructed play on MTGO. For all of its faults, Modern isn't a bad format. It just feels like it could (should) be so much better.
Huh? The format's nothing but combo decks (and Jund) now.
Ha, so their own issues just mask a much larger one.
Except they aren't just lands, they're also 0 CC tutors that almost cannot be countered. It's disingenuous to say they're on par with the comes into play tapped lands from Invasion. (Or even that block's enemy color painlands.) And I hesitate to describe tutoring as elegant given the number of tutors that have been restricted or banned throughout the years.
Deck construction is a skill too, players who advocate for less "chance" in favor of "skill" don't or won't grasp this.
What direction does Legacy go in without fetchlands? (I leave out the broader Eternal label you used because Type 1 has been about tutoring forever.) Pricing out a large playerbase a la Vintage? Seems like just banning dual lands would ameliorate that, though naturally then you start going down the road to banning anything that's old, on the Reserved List, and used in many decks.
That is my #1 concern about jumping in, I don't want to end up invested in 1.x version 2.0. I suppose I'm perpetuating the problem by sitting on the sidelines, but shit's not cheap yo.
I guess I should look at some more competitive decks in 1.5, Dredge doesn't seem very expensive and I loved Odyssey Block, plus I'm pretty sure I have a few LEDs already.
"God's Beard!"
Member
Yeah, my LGS has $500 modern tournaments every month but outside of that not many people bring Modern decks.
It's almost enough to make me want to swap to legacy reanimator. If it weren't for the whole spending 1500 dollars on lands thing.
That's why I put my modern reanimator money towards standard right now. At least I can play it at SCG Oakland.
It's almost enough to make me want to swap to legacy reanimator. If it weren't for the whole spending 1500 dollars on lands thing.
That's why I put my modern reanimator money towards standard right now. At least I can play it at SCG Oakland.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I'd be interested to see your definition of "combo," but it's not really worth getting terribly pedantic about what's combo versus ramp versus aggro etc. I will clarify to say that I was really referring to decks that are all-in on piecing together their combo, not so much decks that include "oops I win" cards for value. This would be decks like Storm (now dead), Eggs (now dead), Boomerang Twin, Griselcannon, and not so much decks like, say, Scapeshift.
The game is designed such that the lands are the foundation of every deck, and thus obviously the best lands are going in every deck. You can't change that. You can change which lands are the best, but you can't affect the ubiquity of the best lands. It's a natural consequence of the most fundamental mechanics of Magic.
Regarding the effect of fetchlands as tutors; sure, they are mostly uncounterable tutors - for lands (okay, well, four of them can also tutor up a creature). I call this "elegant" because it is a very simple and clean design that enables smooth and efficient manabases in larger formats. Variance is an important part of Magic, but I believe that fetchlands are in a place where they allow players to have enough confidence in their manbase to let them explore powerful and exciting deck construction opportunities without being hamstrung by the threat of mana screw. You are still punished for excessive greed, but you aren't pushed towards mono-colored decks either.
In other words, fetchlands are good for the game because they create a manabase backbone that allow for a deckbuilders to have a larger palette of cards to work with, thus increasing the number of viable decks and allowing for more interesting and creative deck constructions. And the importance of this scales along with the size of the overall card pool available. So yes, to your point, obviously deck construction is a skill. I believe the current system with fetchlands into duals in Legacy or fetchlands into shocks in Modern creates the right canvas for deckbuilders to work with.
If you get rid of fetches, deck builders become directed to push towards one- and two- color decks, with mana bases becoming even less interesting as players just jam the most playable two-color lands of the appropriate types into their decks and hoping that they draw them all in the right order. If you start talking about banning dual lands, well, now you're talking crazy talk.
TL
R; fetchlands are very good for the game in formats with large card pools.So far for Grand Prix DC I've loaned out:
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
And a complete Ad Nauseum Tendrils deck (led's, undergrounds and a few other duals, karakas, deltas, tarns, a grim tutor). Compared to how much I usually loan out for closer SCG's or for GP Providence 2 years ago, this isn't too bad.
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
And a complete Ad Nauseum Tendrils deck (led's, undergrounds and a few other duals, karakas, deltas, tarns, a grim tutor). Compared to how much I usually loan out for closer SCG's or for GP Providence 2 years ago, this isn't too bad.
Just finished an epic game with my wife. Lasted over 90 minutes. She was playing her green deck, which is very wolf-centric, and I was playing a new white construction I had.
About 30 minutes into the game, the playfield looked like this:
(click for huge)
Thanks to a congregate or two, I was at 97 life, she was at 46, due to her double Primeval Bounties.
About an hour later, of us playing pretty much every card we pulled, and after she started getting aggressive (and she dissolved my Phalanx Leader right as I was bestowing Celestial Archon on him*) our life totals were changed considerably:
at this point, I was at 25, and she was at 88.
Then I pulled this:
and, for a moment, I felt like I was back in the game....
until she pulled Howl of the Nightpack
Yeah, was an awesome finisher to a great round.
*rule check, because we weren't totally sure how to play this...
Phalanx Leader is out, I target him with Celestial Archon. Her Dissolve is played in response to that, making the Dissolve (since it's an instant) resolve first. However, even though Celestial Archon did not resolve, it was cast with Phalanx Leader as a target. Does the heroic still trigger? (I assume not) Also, the Celestial Archon just hits the battlefield as a creature, right? (still costing its bestow cost).
About 30 minutes into the game, the playfield looked like this:
(click for huge)
Thanks to a congregate or two, I was at 97 life, she was at 46, due to her double Primeval Bounties.
About an hour later, of us playing pretty much every card we pulled, and after she started getting aggressive (and she dissolved my Phalanx Leader right as I was bestowing Celestial Archon on him*) our life totals were changed considerably:
at this point, I was at 25, and she was at 88.
Then I pulled this:
and, for a moment, I felt like I was back in the game....
until she pulled Howl of the Nightpack
Yeah, was an awesome finisher to a great round.
*rule check, because we weren't totally sure how to play this...
Phalanx Leader is out, I target him with Celestial Archon. Her Dissolve is played in response to that, making the Dissolve (since it's an instant) resolve first. However, even though Celestial Archon did not resolve, it was cast with Phalanx Leader as a target. Does the heroic still trigger? (I assume not) Also, the Celestial Archon just hits the battlefield as a creature, right? (still costing its bestow cost).
"God's Beard!"
Member
Pretty sure the archon dies and you don't get the heroic trigger.
divisionbyzorro
Member
If Dissolve was targeting Archon, the Archon goes to the graveyard, but the heroic trigger definitely still happens (it specifically triggers on casting, not resolving the spell).
Are you coming down?
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