Joe Molotov
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Magic: the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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*Marit Lage likes this.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Ripple is amazing as an attempt to build a mechanic around the problem of drafting a small set instead of realizing that there's no way to draft a small set. And they gave it a number because they thought it would be worth revisiting.
Joe Molotov
Member
It's like how everyone hated JAWS and it bombed at the box office because you can just get out of the ocean to get away from Jaws. I bet that guy never worked in Hollywood again.
charlequin
Banned
It is dumb and bad, yes.
It's impossible to get literally any information out of the sales performance of sets at this point because since Zendikar the variations within blocks have been dwarfed by the massive overall trend of growth. The last fall set that didn't significantly improve in sales on its predecessor was Shards of Alara, the large set released right in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis.
If we're going to look primarily at player popularity instead, RTR block as a whole was received pretty positively despite the DGM issues, and Scars block by the end was mostly seem as a big success. There's only really three new blocks to reasonably compare to in that time period, but I think you could reasonably make a case for either one being more popular or better received than Theros.
Yeah, cephalids are cool. They were lousy as a merfolk replacement but they'd be cool as another blue race to have in the mix sometimes.
SOM block (while I didn't play) I was still invested when I heard Karn might be the Father of Machines.
If he would've turned evil I would have quit the game forever, no joke. He's my favorite character in the entire game.
Instead we got one of the best planeswalkers ever printed
Still need him tho. I got his non planeswalker version as a commander tho
If he would've turned evil I would have quit the game forever, no joke. He's my favorite character in the entire game.
Instead we got one of the best planeswalkers ever printed
Still need him tho. I got his non planeswalker version as a commander tho
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Exiled with [CARDNAME] and Exile in general is more confusing than colorless mana and generic mana costs having the same symbol and way more confusing than remembering what's face up and down in exile.
divisionbyzorro
Member
So I just drafted the world's slowest deck in the Legendary cube, and I'm about to scoop in the finals of an 8-4 because I just don't have the time to play the last round after taking the first two rounds to time. It turns out that Rings + Monolith is basically unplayable on MTGO; it took me 10 minutes to combo off... 
But this deck didn't lose a game until I scooped in the finals.
But this deck didn't lose a game until I scooped in the finals.
They actually cracked it with Conspiracy.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Sometimes it gets so close
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
You're just being ice racist. Coldsnap is a great design exercise and homage to the old Magic world.
That said, they could've gotten the same effect without, like, printing it.
Coldsnap is a loving homage to terrible ideas.
I've been super tempted to build a Homelands / Fallen Empires cube. Would likely have to throw in something else (probably The Dark) to get the card count high enough though.
These are pretty funny:
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/magic-the-gathering-politicians/
A couple examples from the lot:
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/magic-the-gathering-politicians/
A couple examples from the lot:
charlequin
Banned
The best two it's had so far really relied on the creature type to make it work:
Fallen Empires is straight-up my favorite concept for a set. A story told in retrospect about the fall of various societies? Consisting of various intra-color conflicts? Brilliant, and a great use of cards as a storytelling medium.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Goddamn is the writing in today's Uncharted Realms horrible
Grimace's Uncharted Realms Abridged:
"At Any Cost" feat. Bobby Nixon Reignited. Bobby's entire story is told from first person perspective. The writing this week is truly atrocious and overwrought.
* Bobby's whining about how he's stuck in the cave where the Khalni Heart was because Nissa's an idiot and didn't kill him. He had set up a smaller version of the Aligned Hedron Network to use the Khalni Heart to focus leyline energy to restore his spark, but Nissa basically swooped his plan (which technically should make what he's about to do a case of "turnabout is fair play.") He's bitching about Nissa and how much he wants to murder her and also murder Nahiri because murder is such a monoblack thing to do (somone needs to point out to WOTC that making all of the mono-black characters murderers is racist).
* He mentions the Mending in passing; he basically is a generic supervillain and gets wet at the thought of being able to conquer random worlds since Planeswalkers's powers have been diminished. Yes, he basically just likes killing people and shit.
* Bobby breaks out into some horrible prose about his options and he comes up with a solution to "save Zendikar," which seems random since he does the opposite of this the entire time. He finds his "keystone" hedron which he will use to focus power back to himself and starts flying towards Sea Gate. He doesn't seem to care for flight but says its more convenient because, "you don't see a lot of demons on boats, and it turns out there are some very good reasons for that." (ugh) I guess Zendikar is tiny as fuck or he's super fast because he reaches the battle in the span of a paragraph.
* He reaches the battle and finds the network in place. He remarks that they did a kinda shitty job with it, but he flies over and uses the keystone to get his spark back - coincidentally, this not only disrupts the network, but causes it to fall apart entirely so they can't even fix it. Bobby Nixon is back bitches in an all new sitcom!
* Nixilis flies around and laughs at Nissa and how sad she looks and starts randomly killing people because reasons. He decides its not destructive enough for some reason (I mean, they don't actually have a way to stop Ulamog as it is) so he decides to summon Kozilek from underground because apparently Bobby has MIND POWERS to summon him for some reason.
Grimace's Uncharted Realms Abridged:
"At Any Cost" feat. Bobby Nixon Reignited. Bobby's entire story is told from first person perspective. The writing this week is truly atrocious and overwrought.
* Bobby's whining about how he's stuck in the cave where the Khalni Heart was because Nissa's an idiot and didn't kill him. He had set up a smaller version of the Aligned Hedron Network to use the Khalni Heart to focus leyline energy to restore his spark, but Nissa basically swooped his plan (which technically should make what he's about to do a case of "turnabout is fair play.") He's bitching about Nissa and how much he wants to murder her and also murder Nahiri because murder is such a monoblack thing to do (somone needs to point out to WOTC that making all of the mono-black characters murderers is racist).
* He mentions the Mending in passing; he basically is a generic supervillain and gets wet at the thought of being able to conquer random worlds since Planeswalkers's powers have been diminished. Yes, he basically just likes killing people and shit.
* Bobby breaks out into some horrible prose about his options and he comes up with a solution to "save Zendikar," which seems random since he does the opposite of this the entire time. He finds his "keystone" hedron which he will use to focus power back to himself and starts flying towards Sea Gate. He doesn't seem to care for flight but says its more convenient because, "you don't see a lot of demons on boats, and it turns out there are some very good reasons for that." (ugh) I guess Zendikar is tiny as fuck or he's super fast because he reaches the battle in the span of a paragraph.
* He reaches the battle and finds the network in place. He remarks that they did a kinda shitty job with it, but he flies over and uses the keystone to get his spark back - coincidentally, this not only disrupts the network, but causes it to fall apart entirely so they can't even fix it. Bobby Nixon is back bitches in an all new sitcom!
* Nixilis flies around and laughs at Nissa and how sad she looks and starts randomly killing people because reasons. He decides its not destructive enough for some reason (I mean, they don't actually have a way to stop Ulamog as it is) so he decides to summon Kozilek from underground because apparently Bobby has MIND POWERS to summon him for some reason.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I realize I took someone's jerb but I already summarized it for the SA thread so might as well not duplicate the work of summarizing the horrible writing.
SigmasonicX
Member
I thought the story was fine *shrug*. Nixilis thought that he would have to help save Zendikar because he believed that he needed a lot more time to set up another hedron network to return his spark, but decided not to go through with it when he saw that Jace had set up a similar hedron network. And you're really complaining about a demon planeswalker wanting to kill people?
Giant Panda
Member
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Yes, I am complaining about him being a cartoon supervillain. Ob Nixilis isn't even a natural demon - he's a human who got turned into a demon by the Chain Veil after he ignited his spark by killing everyone on his home plane because killing people is cool.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
I only just now noticed, the 2nd set of expeditions will have 20 lands. 10 are going to be the manlands, 5 the remaining tango lands which leaves just 5. Which would be exactly enough to make <> duals. Not sure half the expeditions would be new lands though and if that'd even fit thematically
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
No way the last five are <> duals, those won't be worth anything.
Scars fastlands with Phyrexian-style makeover, or Future Sight allied cycle.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The chance of the Prairie Stream cycle being finished in OGW is really low I think
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
the tango lands aren't worth much either and it'd depend on whether they intend to continue with the <>.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
They're worth like $50
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
and it's not like they're being played much anywhere but standard so Waste Duals could still be worth similar due to their rarity
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
No, but the fact that they keep doing them says a lot
Agreed. Those will be coming later.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Agreed, but it'd make the mana immediately more useful by giving them a type which enables much easier fetching.
but what will people call them then?
Keru_Shiri
Member
I still think waste-fetches could be a viable option that aren't fully useless outside of Standard.
Haven't they said basically that there's enough fetching in Standard right now?
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Colour producing lands that turn into wastes does have some flavour
what's your average life total not playing against anyone?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
My current standard deck has 14 fetchlands in it.
Keru_Shiri
Member
But you're running a four color list, right? A waste fetch wouldn't do you much good, but could help someone building, say RG landfall, while also serving as a fixer for waste-based strategies.
divisionbyzorro
Member
You mean like the Alara Panorama cycle?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Esper.
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Windswept Heath
Delve is good and getting fixing instantly is good and I'm running 4 Shambling Vent for lifegain anyways.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Big Icarus
Member
It's going to be the full 10 land cycle of the manlands and the ten filterlands. Guaranteed.
Filterlands are due for a reprinting of some kind, and imagine how well they would work in the draft format with cards requiring colorless sources.
Battleland cycle won't be finished until the fetchlands rotate out of standard. It's likely that we'll see the enemy Battlelands in SOI.
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