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[divisionbyzorro]

Maro trying and failing to convince people that Gatherer only returning Devoid cards when you search for colorless is actually smart and correct is like a microcosm of the whole reaction to this set.

To be fair, if it came up on a search of, say, "blue" cards, it might confuse some players.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I will wait to see before I commit to any deck , abzan splashing bring to the light is absurd.

It has the best answers left to hangarback walker in abzan charm and and utter end. Then it has the ability to go find siege rhinos at any point , and even find languish and Planar outburst when the time comes

There have been 3 or 4 type of decks I've come across online

Super aggro - mostly mono red , but some go black red to flood the board and then land the blood artist guy so that a board wipe just kills you.

Landfall aggro - swiftspear , scythe leopard, atarkas command etc, basically like most zoo decks you can think of.

Blue/black control , basically all awaken cards.deck that just tries to counter /exile all of your things to get to the late game and then awaken their lands.

Then there's Abzan , which people don't even try to brew with , basically it has the best removal spells for your cards and has the best cards that need to be answered, Siege Rhinos, Hangarback walkers and Languish , Abzan Charm ,Ruinous Path,;;;
, utter end . Except now they splash for even better cards in crackling doom and GBs deck even splashes bring the light for an answer on a stick. Board is overwhelming ? BTL for languish, losing too much life ? Go get siege rhinos #2 and #3.

None of these decks are interesting to me, graveyard stuff is dead because all the exiling effects and an Eldrazi deck reminds me of g/r, only now your mana dorks suck.

The hardest part for me to accept is that hangarback walker is everywhere , and there arent enough answers for it. It's to the point where I've thought about running 4 stasis snare and 4 silkwraps in the sideboard. Countering it is futile on the draw.

Maybe this set just isn't for me, in the past I knew I had cards I could rely on, and gw was pretty viable, but it appears that it's not viable. I'll just wait and see what other people come up with and see if anything tickles my fancy.

Those BTL decks are super slow. Don't despair until they're actually beating you.

 

[A Serious Man]

It took the better part of my adult life but I finally finished the LR common/uncommon set review. Definitely hoping I have the tools for a B/W control drain deck at the prerelease. I was liking the drain theme anyway but white having the best removal in the set really put it over the top. It doesn't hurt that a lot of the pieces are Allies as well.

 

[Frankie Williamson]

Jesus, it's unbelievably long. Their set reviews don't normally clock in at 6+ hours. Any real reason for it?

Looking back I guess Khans of Tarkir was 6 hours long too. Before that they never seemed to go beyond 4-4.5 hours.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Jesus, it's unbelievably long. Their set reviews don't normally clock in at 6+ hours. Any real reason for it?

Looking back I guess Khans of Tarkir was 6 hours long too. Before that they never seemed to go beyond 4-4.5 hours.

wtf I listen to podcasts during my pathetic attempts at jogging, this would kill me.



So I figured since I can't do anything with the 5 card boosters being handed out in new player drafts I'd just open all of them, from 8 I got 4 rares among which an Abbot and a Languish, a crappy painland, and a starfield of nyx mythic. Pretty nice. Which bots should I sell them to?

Edit: compared some prices and ended up selling them for 6 tix to goatbotA, now I can go legacy draft to play these powerful cards once and never again.

 

[Ashodin]

that dudes pulls from the unboxing video jesus christ

 

[Arksy]

Ahh! Help!

I have pre-release tonight, but I just haven't had the time to go over set reviews and check spoilers so I'll be going in blind. Does anyone have a good crash course I can read/watch before going in?

 

[Shrennin]

No, they are technically not a part of the Battle for Zendikar set.

Wow, that's really cool. Definitely not a normal thing.

The free shit sounds awesome. Legion Games in Minnesota used to be a big enough deal that we got artists every pre-release, and even Forsythe gunslinging once, but they stopped that after Scars block I think

Yeah, it seems like its a parody of the set (Battle for Zendikarrot playmat and deckbox). Still pretty cool though. Definitely didn't know they were doing this until I considered doing it as a way to get back into Magic (I've missed playing it).

 

[A Serious Man]

Ahh! Help!

I have pre-release tonight, but I just haven't had the time to go over set reviews and check spoilers so I'll be going in blind. Does anyone have a good crash course I can read/watch before going in?

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-battle-for-zendikar-prerelease-primer/

 

[charlequin]

To be fair, if it came up on a search of, say, "blue" cards, it might confuse some players.

I would guess that 9 out of 10 searches people make are intended to care about what mana it costs to play spells, rather than what color they're counted as for color-matters spells.

 

[Crocodile]

LOL, LSV just showed up unannounced, IN PERSON, on Cheon's 24h Cube stream!

 

[Arksy]

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-battle-for-zendikar-prerelease-primer/

Much appreciated. Should be a lot of fun.

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

LOL, LSV just showed up unannounced, IN PERSON, on Cheon's 24h Cube stream!

Haha, awesome

RE: The Relic Seeker thing on MTGO - I agree with what the Reddit guy said. I don't work on CCGs but the system he described is exactly how the systems work at Relic. Lots of instances of objects with no inheritance, so you need to be careful if you have multiple units using different, but functionally the same, weapons / things for any number of reasons. I can multi-select multiple instances and compare them, though, so it's easy to keep them in line (it highlights differences). I wouldn't be surprised if they also lack inheritance and had to ensure all copies of the cards contained the same values across sets / promos etc.

All speculation, of course, but it does make sense. Considering the interface of the public-facing product, one can only imagine the state of the tools offered to the content team It's probably super-powerful, but a pain to interact with, whatever it is.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Am I wrong in thinking this card will be insane in Limited? I'm honestly pretty surprised it's a common.

 

[manipulate]

Am I wrong in thinking this card will be insane in Limited? I'm honestly pretty surprised it's a common.

Yeah, seems like it'll be p good. It not hitting creatures is important though.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I would guess that 9 out of 10 searches people make are intended to care about what mana it costs to play spells, rather than what color they're counted as for color-matters spells.

I hardly ever use gatherer for that purpose. I just search magiccards.info, since they let you search by color identity which is usually closer to what I want.

 

[Matriox]

Decked Builder just updated with BFZ and searches by identity too, so thank jeebus for that.

Those BTL decks are super slow. Don't despair until they're actually beating you.

Maybe I am just underestimating the deck, but it seems to be too slow against aggro and right where control wants them to be.

Jesus, it's unbelievably long. Their set reviews don't normally clock in at 6+ hours. Any real reason for it?

Looking back I guess Khans of Tarkir was 6 hours long too. Before that they never seemed to go beyond 4-4.5 hours.

I usually like these because my drive to work is a little over an hour, so I do the review over my work weekends, but I always end up stream of consciousness'ing in and out of the review because they stick on certain cards for far too long.

 

[Socat]

So am I right in assuming that since the expeditions take up the basic land slot in the packs, in draft you would get to take it regardless? or does that count as your pick?

 

[ZeroX03]

I so don't know if I want to go to the prerelease in the morning. I know nothing about the set and have horrid sealed luck. But it would be a good way to learn the set I suppose. I only play draft otherwise.

 

[Yeef]

So am I right in assuming that since the expeditions take up the basic land slot in the packs, in draft you would get to take it regardless? or does that count as your pick?

They don't take up the basic land slot; they take up the foil slot (which replaces a common slot). In draft it'll be your first pick.

 

[Matriox]

Speaking of Expeditions, prices are up on TCGplayer incase anyone was curious.

 

[Socat]

Speaking of Expeditions, prices are up on TCGplayer incase anyone was curious.

straight up bonkers

 

[blindrocket]

Speaking of Expeditions, prices are up on TCGplayer incase anyone was curious.

Yowzas.

I'm pretty sure that Steam Vents is my favorite of them.

 

[Socat]

With expedition prices being like that, I guess I will have to avoid any rare redraft tourneys. Not even gonna risk watching an expedition I pull go to someone else

 

[ZeroX03]

Speaking of Expeditions, prices are up on TCGplayer incase anyone was curious.

Well pulling one of those would make my day.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Speaking of Expeditions, prices are up on TCGplayer incase anyone was curious.

Scalding Tarn smh, the shocklands are going for more than I expected.

 

[ultron87]

Sam Black was making noise on Twitter that these bring back the whole stupid "reason to drop" thing that Modern Masters had at Sealed events with pool registration.

 

[Socat]

Sam Black was making noise on Twitter that these bring back the whole stupid "reason to drop" thing that Modern Masters had at Sealed events with pool registration.

yep. I don't care, if I open a money card I'm out. No shame.

 

[Yeef]

Sam Black was making noise on Twitter that these bring back the whole stupid "reason to drop" thing that Modern Masters had at Sealed events with pool registration.

Any expensive cards can potentially do that. I've seen people drop during Theros sealed pool registration because they opened a foil thoughtseize. It's not like they're going to stop printing expensive cards.

 

[Matriox]

Sam Black was making noise on Twitter that these bring back the whole stupid "reason to drop" thing that Modern Masters had at Sealed events with pool registration.

This seems like it would be a lot more rare than a typical MM draft.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Sam Black was making noise on Twitter that these bring back the whole stupid "reason to drop" thing that Modern Masters had at Sealed events with pool registration.

yep. I don't care, if I open a money card I'm out. No shame.

Why would you need to drop out, can't you continue to play with the rest of your pool?

 

[Bandini]

Expeditions are about what I expected, price wise. I wonder how many sets they will actually be printed in... If it's just BFZ and Oath, I can see the prices going up long term quite a bit.

 

[Socat]

Why would you need to drop out, can't you continue to play with the rest of your pool?

In some drafts, at least at my local stores, they put all the rares from the packs into a pool and people re-draft them at the end based on results. I am not gonna open myself up to watching someone take the expedition I opened like that.

 

[Ringo]

Why would you need to drop out, can't you continue to play with the rest of your pool?

Pool registration most of the time means that the cards you register aren't the ones you are going to play with. You register them and they get redistributed.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Why would you need to drop out, can't you continue to play with the rest of your pool?

In sealed events you register a pool then pass it off. You don't play with the cards you opened. It's to prevent cheating.

 

[ultron87]

Any expensive cards can potentially do that. I've seen people drop during Theros sealed pool registration because they opened a foil thoughtseize. It's not like they're going to stop printing expensive cards.

These ones are just so much more expensive than everything else (similar to foil Goyfs) that it makes it extra likely for it to come up. With normal sets you probably aren't going to open a single card worth 4 to 6 times your entry fee. It makes the choice go from "well I can get my money back plus a bit extra if I drop" to "I'd be a damn idiot to pass this".

I'm fine with them being in draft and getting to Maynard a couple hundred bucks for a slight win equity loss, but I really dislike opening a single card that actively encourages you to drop from the tournament.

Why would you need to drop out, can't you continue to play with the rest of your pool?

At Grand Prix and Pro Tour Qualifier Sealed tournaments to discourage cheating you open a pool, write down everything in it, and then pass it to someone else who actually gets to keep it. So if you open a 300 dollar card you have to decide whether to take it and drop, or pass it to someone else and get to play in the tournament.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

In some drafts, at least at my local stores, they put all the rares from the packs into a pool and people re-draft them at the end based on results. I am not gonna open myself up to watching someone take the expedition I opened like that.

Pool registration most of the time means that the cards you register aren't the ones you are going to play with. You register them and they get redistributed.

These ones are just so much more expensive than everything else (similar to foil Goyfs) that it makes it extra likely for it to come up. With normal sets you probably aren't going to open a single card worth 4 to 6 times your entry fee. It makes the choice go from "well I can get my money back plus a bit extra if I drop" to "I'd be a damn idiot to pass this".

I'm fine with them being in draft and getting to Maynard a couple hundred bucks for a slight win equity loss, but I really dislike opening a single card that actively encourages you to drop from the tournament.



At Grand Prix and Pro Tour Qualifier Sealed tournaments to discourage cheating you open a pool, write down everything in it, and then pass it to someone else who actually gets to keep it. So if you open a 300 dollar card you have to decide whether to take it and drop, or pass it to someone else and get to play in the tournament.

Thanks , I remember my first prerelease when I was 11 years old with Kamigawa was like that. Never knew you could drop with your pool.

Can you do this in a draft before p1p1?

 

[Bandini]

For prereleases at my store everyone just opens and keeps the box they're given. At PTQs and such it's obviously different... seems like a bit much to register all the cards just for a prerelease. Also I hadn't heard of redrafting rares before, that's ridiculous. What if you need to leave before the end of the event?

 

[Socat]

For prereleases at my store everyone just opens and keeps the box they're given. At PTQs and such it's obviously different... seems like a bit much to register all the cards just for a prerelease. Also I hadn't heard of redrafting rares before, that's ridiculous. What if you need to leave before the end of the event?

for me , it usually depends on how well I am doing. If I am doing poorly, I will just leave to avoid waiting around for a bulk rare

 

[divisionbyzorro]

For prereleases at my store everyone just opens and keeps the box they're given. At PTQs and such it's obviously different... seems like a bit much to register all the cards just for a prerelease. Also I hadn't heard of redrafting rares before, that's ridiculous. What if you need to leave before the end of the event?

It's a way for the store to offer "prizes" for first place without actually having to give away prizes. It's a really dumb way to run drafts (IMO).

There is an argument that it removes the desire to raredraft, creating a more "pure" draft experience, but I think that argument only holds when you're drafting with 7 other friends. For the standard FNM or on-demand draft in a store, it's just a feelbad to open a sweet card and know it's not (necessarily) yours.

 

[ultron87]

Thanks , I remember my first prerelease when I was 11 years old with Kamigawa was like that. Never knew you could drop with your pool.

Can you do this in a draft before p1p1?

You can do that in a draft, because by the letter of the rules you own whatever you currently have in front of you. So you can stand up and take the current pack in your hands and leave a draft. However, since this is pretty disruptive to the process of a draft, it isn't suggested. A store owner, if they didn't like someone doing this, could decline to allow you to draft at the store any more for example.

 

[Violet_0]

redrafting sucked. Just let everyone keep their cards they opened and give the winners a few boosters

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

You can do that in a draft, because by the letter of the rules you own whatever you currently have in front of you. So you can stand up and take the current pack in your hands and leave a draft. However, since this is pretty disruptive to the process of a draft, it isn't suggested. A store owner, if they didn't like someone doing this, could decline to allow you to draft at the store any more for example.

must suck though if you open Jace + Jace foil though for instance.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

The last store I was at would let you buy another pack if you opened something absurd. I'm not sure if you're actually allowed to run your events like that, but it worked well enough I thought.

 

[y2dvd]

Who else is gonna run a bunch of singletons in Esper control?

 

[El Topo]

If you can't keep what you draft, what's the point? Let people draft rares if they want to and award the winners some boosters.

 

[A Serious Man]

Debating whether I should go to the midnight prerelease or the afternoon one. Midnight would be fun but I'll be super tired.

 

[The Technomancer]

Debating whether I should go to the midnight prerelease or the afternoon one. Midnight would be fun but I'll be super tired.

I will likely be very drunk tonight, trying to decide the same thing

 

[Joe Molotov]

I'm already sleepy, tonight is gonna be rough. Pls send Monster Ultras.

 

[ultron87]

There's a 3 round capped midnight one near here, with pretty equitable prize distribution. Might go to that because midnight is fun, but shouldn't be that serious.