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Magic: The Gathering |OT|

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The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, MaRo said in the column on Wednesday that Scars marked the start of a new phase of Magic design where they transition from making a block revolve around a mechanical theme (Land-block, Wedge-block, Tribal-block) to making them revolve around concepts and thematic ideas. So Innistrad doesn't have a mechanical "sell" because they want to start selling blocks on "hey, its a horror block, that's awesome"

like Kamigawa? cause i hated kamigawa.
 
Insaniac said:
like Kamigawa? cause i hated kamigawa.
Kamigawa sucked for two reasons:
a.)The power level was severely nerfed because of Mirrodin
b.)the "all rare creatures are legendary" was stupid

Hopefully Inn won't be the same
 
The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, MaRo said in the column on Wednesday that Scars marked the start of a new phase of Magic design where they transition from making a block revolve around a mechanical theme (Land-block, Wedge-block, Tribal-block) to making them revolve around concepts and thematic ideas. So Innistrad doesn't have a mechanical "sell" because they want to start selling blocks on "hey, its a horror block, that's awesome"

Just make it like Ravnica. Best block ever for standard.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, MaRo said in the column on Wednesday that Scars marked the start of a new phase of Magic design where they transition from making a block revolve around a mechanical theme (Land-block, Wedge-block, Tribal-block) to making them revolve around concepts and thematic ideas. So Innistrad doesn't have a mechanical "sell" because they want to start selling blocks on "hey, its a horror block, that's awesome"
I'm totally fine with that.
 
NEWS:
00EaU.jpg


Prerelease card(s) without rule text but with very interesting symbols!
 
Someone posted the French version of Howlpack Alpha, but it's really blurry, but I think I can read it a bit.

It says:
Other Wolves and Werewolves you control gains +1/+1
At the start of your upkeep, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature on the battlefield

Can't read the third ability
 
Azrael said:
The card art strongly suggests a night/day cycle as a mechanic.
Yes, that's the obvious conclusion.

Howlpack Alpha text:Other Werewolf and Wolf creatures you control get +1/+1.

At the beginning of your end step, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.

At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast at least two spells during the previous turn, sacrifice ~.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=122928&d=1314181235
 
YGO talk in this thread? Does this mean I can rant about the current meta here?


So basically the the game is screwed now, but only outside of Asia. Basically through the TCG introducing some very powerful western only monsters, ignoring or outright contradicting new and revised Japanese rulings and a worldwide banlist based exclusively on the state of the game in Japan, we're now in a situation where one ridiculously powerful deck type has emerged, and strategies that counter it make been removed or made more difficult to employ.

And naturally with YGO, any good deck is very expensive to make. MtG is starting to look really appealing right about now...
 
I really love the theme of this set as well. Much more coherent feeling than the crazy amalgamations of various different non-related concepts in the Scars, Zendikar, and Shards blocks. I will say, however, that I dislike R&D's new direction of pursuing flavor first with design second. Top-down design is cute and all when you realize that, oh, that artifact represents his phylactery for the first time, but I much prefer that mechanics be designed with respect to how they will function with the rest of the mechanics of the block rather than as game representations of the particular concept of the card they exist on. To look at the last block as an example, Battle cry and metalcraft, and phyrexian mana, living weapon and poison don't really have any overriding concept- they just sort of exist to reinforce the identities of the two sides in the Mirran War. Top down design- from a flavor perspective at least- will always be inferior to a mechanics driven design when it comes to actually playing the game.
 
Cool. They've had Day/Night as a possibility for years n ow, it was originally what the flip cards were meant to represent. I can't wait to see what they do with it.
 
traveler said:
I really love the theme of this set as well. Much more coherent feeling than the crazy amalgamations of various different non-related concepts in the Scars, Zendikar, and Shards blocks. I will say, however, that I dislike R&D's new direction of pursuing flavor first with design second. Top-down design is cute and all when you realize that, oh, that artifact represents his phylactery for the first time, but I much prefer that mechanics be designed with respect to how they will function with the rest of the mechanics of the block rather than as game representations of the particular concept of the card they exist on. To look at the last block as an example, Battle cry and metalcraft, and phyrexian mana, living weapon and poison don't really have any overriding concept- they just sort of exist to reinforce the identities of the two sides in the Mirran War. Top down design- from a flavor perspective at least- will always be inferior to a mechanics driven design when it comes to actually playing the game.
I can't help but feel that that's why they featured an article on the making of Homelands earlier this week on DailyMTG. To sort of show the lessons they learned when you focus more on flavor rather than mechanics and to potentially alleviate any fears. It'll be interesting to see.
 
Someone on the forums mentioned the possibility of the 5-ability PW having the Day/Night mechanic, thus having 5 abilities. Sounds interesting: 2 unique abilities depending on Day/Night, with a shared ultimate. I have no idea how this will work in practice, but the thought is exciting.
 
Notice the cards collector numbers are 193a/264 and 193b/264. Maybe the cards will have the same rules text on them, but have different art? Sort of like Homelands. (I think it was Homelands with the same cards with different art?) Though they have different names too...
 
So lets speculate on how day/night works mechanically. Obviously its a state change in the game, but how does it work with both cards?
The two cards above make me speculate that you can play any Werewolf card at night onto any card with the werewolf subtype. Similar to Champion

EDIT:

TerminalDogma said:
Notice the cards collector numbers are 193a/264 and 193b/264. Maybe the cards will have the same rules text on them, but have different art? Sort of like Homelands. (I think it was Homelands with the same cards with different art?) Though they have different names too...
Oh shit, nice catch. The collector number thing is weird...but there's no way in hell they'd print say...a card with two sides and no Deckmaster back.
 
The_Technomancer said:
So lets speculate on how day/night works mechanically. Obviously its a state change in the game, but how does it work with both cards?
The two cards above make me speculate that you can play any Werewolf card at night onto any card with the werewolf subtype. Similar to Champion

EDIT:


Oh shit, nice catch. The collector number thing is weird...but there's no way in hell they'd print say...a card with two sides and no Deckmaster back.
I'm not too sure about your first hypothesis. The card interaction appears to be specific based on the a/b numbering and the two power/toughness markings on the human version of the spoiled card. I don't know how this'll work, but I'm pretty excited to see how it plays out.
 
Takuan said:
I'm not too sure about your first hypothesis. The card interaction appears to be specific based on the a/b numbering and the two power/toughness markings on the human version of the spoiled card. I don't know how this'll work, but I'm pretty excited to see how it plays out.
Okay, my new theory is that when you get a day card in a pack you automatically get its night version as well. Maybe a controlled number of day/night cards per pack like Timeshifted to keep all packs the same size. You keep the night version out of the game until "night falls" at which point you can play it.
 
Having the entire board be day/night seems like it'd be a weird thing to add to the game. Presumably that would require cards that would change that state. Which would make the way Innistrad interacts with other card blocks be weird.

Having cards that have Day and Night version that they can switch between independently would make more sense to me.
 
At first glance I thought the preview card might be a split card, which was how they were going to handle Day // Night mechanic, but apparently the preview was two separate cards.

As for the actual mechanic, perhaps there won't be a game state, but phases or turns are Day/Night? One person on the Wizards boards suggest Your Turn = Day, Opponent's Turn = Night.
 
It would be kind of awkward though, woudln't it? To have a set of cards on the side, for one that gives away "HEY EVERYONE I'M PLAYIN ME SOME WEREWOLVES!", or at the very least you're playin you some Innistrad. I would say that the Werewolf card is a token, but the other spoiled picture shows the werewolf card with text on it (though perhaps thats fake? I doubt it though.) I want to say I find it more likely that they are using alt art for these cards, however the name thing screws up my idea. The cards have different names. This will cause a conflict with the "You can only have 4 cards with the same name in your deck" rule.


Of course it could just be they are re-making the flip cards from Kamigawa and this is just a special promo full art version.
 
I'm now imagining a deck that's crappy to play during night time, but wrecks during the day. Or having sideboards that you swap out depending on the time of day.

Might turn out to be a pretty intriguing mechanic if that were possible... ^_^
 
The more I think about it, the more I think this is just a special full art promo card(s) for the pre-release, and this Day/Night thing is just a reworking of the Kamigawa flip cards. Only these cards can flip back and forth between the two "states" as opposed to just flipping to one side and staying there. Now how will Day/Night be handled? That I'm not so sure about, but I don't think it will be based on turns.
 
The lack of a casting cost on the werewolf suggests you can only cast it in its daytime form.

I just can't imagine day/night being something universal that is controlled by cards. Otherwise you'd always have to sideboard a "Make it daytime" card or whatever just so you don't get rolled by a Night deck with no way to mess it up.
 
One possibility is that the Night creatures are similar to the "Champion" mechanic from Lorwynn. The Howlpack guy goes in your deck like normal and is uncastable until you do something in-game to trigger "night." (Let's say the game assumes its day until you do something otherwise). The Howlpack Alpha can be played on any werewolf-type creature for free.

The Howlpack Alpha is sacrificed during the upkeep if a player cast two or more spells. Perhaps that's how night ends?
 
I just read someone speculating that they might treat these like fusion monsters or something. Like, they are two physical cards, but they are switched in and out of play depending on if its day or night. Ugh, that'd be awkward.
 
I hope this isn't like phasing all over again...

I love the tone and setting. It seems like an interesting mechanic, but I don't have enough info to judge yet.
 
y2dvd said:
So is that promo card the same card with an imprint on each side?

Are there any good video or audio blogs out there?

You can not and will not ever have magic the gathering cards with print on both sides.
They would not be legal under their own rules, not everyone plays with sleeves nor can they be forced to.
 
Hex said:
You can not and will not ever have magic the gathering cards with print on both sides.
They would not be legal under their own rules, not everyone plays with sleeves nor can they be forced to.

Yup. It'd be more likely to be like the flip cards from Kamigawa block, since they can only work with one side of the card.
 
I think the way it'll work it is that once there are x amount of day/night cards on the field, the phase changes. It'll be like:

Day (3)
When (3) or more Day cards are in play and do X

And then something to be able to counteract the phases like if your opponent has 4 night cards and you have 5 day cards the phases is now day. Thats my guess any way.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Okay, my new theory is that when you get a day card in a pack you automatically get its night version as well. Maybe a controlled number of day/night cards per pack like Timeshifted to keep all packs the same size. You keep the night version out of the game until "night falls" at which point you can play it.
Some have argued it'll have a significant impact on the competitive environment. Potential drafting issues come to mind immediately. For example, what happens when a player chooses the day card? If he's supposed to take the night card as well, the other drafters are going to notice he's taken an extra card and it could tip them off as to what they're playing. Then again, being a set mechanic it's likely that there are a large portion of day/night cards, so literally everyone will be taking 2 cards out of some pack eventually and it's not possible to know exactly what they've taken.

This is interesting. My thoughts are that every booster is going to have 1 day/night card. That's the only way they can really get around the drafting issue, because everyone's going to have one of x day/night cards and no one can be positive about which cards were drafted. Cheating shouldn't be possible, since if anyone gets passed a pack with only 1 of a day/night combo, they'll know someone screwed up. Yeah, I'm feeling this idea.

As for constructed, I suppose they're going to have to allow night cards as sort of a secondary sideboard, or make a rule that night cards do not count toward your sideboard.
 
Oh god Innistrad looks awesome. So much flavour! The preview article made my inner Magic geek drool. Colour me excited.

I really want to know how Day/Night works.
 
I made a One Shot Robot deck as my friends like to call it consisting of two Blightsteel Colossi, three Kuldotha Forgemasters, a bunch of 0 and 2 drop artifact creatures, Semblance Anvils, a ton of counterspells and Foresee, and those boots that give +1/+1 and haste from Scars I think. The idea being that I scry until I can bring out a Forgemaster, sacrifice artifacts and bring out the Colossi and use haste from the boots to use them right away. I Imprint artifacts onto my Semblance Anvil to make stuff cheaper and cheaper as well.

Any suggestions or ideas? I can post the full list later if necessary.
 
Keru_Shiri said:
At first glance I thought the preview card might be a split card, which was how they were going to handle Day // Night mechanic, but apparently the preview was two separate cards.

As for the actual mechanic, perhaps there won't be a game state, but phases or turns are Day/Night? One person on the Wizards boards suggest Your Turn = Day, Opponent's Turn = Night.

That's pretty much the easiest way to know which is which. Like Tech mentioned, WoTC has been trying to put in a day/night cycle for ages, and the Flip cards ended up as a result from CoK block.

It's going to be tricky if they try any other way than Your Turn/Opponents turn for Day and Night. Plus even that can be a bit weird, like, its day on your side but night on my side, that can even get confusing.

I'm pretty sure whatever mechanic it uses it will be revealed this saturday at Pax even before the previews start on monday.


Also, I liked Kamigawa block :( And I'm not even a japanophile anymore :p I guess I just like Rats, oh and Ogres. Even if they were Oni, ogres are always nice.
 
Innistrad looks really interesting, love the flavor.

I did pretty shit at boston 5k. 2-3 in standard (I wrecked face first two games and then sobered up and the smell of farts and unwashed nerds started to get to me). I should just get the numbers 2 and 3 tattooed on my forehead. Every single big competition I go to I end up 2-3. And any small competition I always go 3-2.
I went 1-2 in legacy before deciding I needed to hit the road and that I could do without another 2-3 finish.

Bought a bunch of great cards though so it was worth it. Playset of metal workers and grim monoliths. A friend was unloading his card collection so I got a bunch of cards at great prices. Like a good condition sword of fire and ice for 20 bucks. A wasteland for 40. Playset of some 4th edition Portuguese dark rituals for 10 bucks. 10 fetchlands including some windswept heaths for 5 bucks a piece, and a bunch of other random shit. The first 4 pages of my binder which are my money cards is now approaching 1000 bucks in value.
 
Hi MTGAF! I'm just getting back into MTG after something like a 15 year absence... Things sure have changed! God damn, every single creature is a beast nowadays, haha. :D

I just have a quick and easy question - where can I, as a european, buy dollar-priced MTG products online? Sites like Amazon and such all have restrictions and will only sell me pound- or euro-priced stuff, which as some of you probably know is twice as expensive for no real reason. The MSRP for a booster box in my country is literally double the american one!

I'm looking to get a Commander deck (Mirror Mastery), a few themed decks (mostly Vampire Onslaught), the new From The Vault box and maybe a booster box or two, but I'm not about to pay half a month's salary for it with the european pricing...
 
aku:jiki said:
Hi MTGAF! I'm just getting back into MTG after something like a 15 year absence... Things sure have changed! God damn, every single creature is a beast nowadays, haha. :D

I just have a quick and easy question - where can I, as a european, buy dollar-priced MTG products online? Sites like Amazon and such all have restrictions and will only sell me pound- or euro-priced stuff, which as some of you probably know is twice as expensive for no real reason. The MSRP for a booster box in my country is literally double the american one!

I'm looking to get a Commander deck (Mirror Mastery), a few themed decks (mostly Vampire Onslaught), the new From The Vault box and maybe a booster box or two, but I'm not about to pay half a month's salary for it with the european pricing...
I know how you feel; the Canadian MSRP for MtG stuff is completely out of whack even though we've been at par-or-close to the US dollar for many years now. I used to whine about it until I found out that other countries have it far worse. Thankfully, my local shop happens to have what I believe to be the lowest prices in Canada, and in many cases is as cheap or cheaper than US stores - they don't gouge for popular/limited products, either, so win!

Unfortunately, Wizards doesn't allow their vendors to sell sealed product to countries other than their own. The punishment must be strict, because every single reputable vendor I've checked out just won't do it. However, opened product (singles) is just fine. You could try eBay for the stuff you want, but know that the Vampire Onslaught theme deck sells at a premium because it's worth a few times more than the MSRP based on the price of certain singles and the From the Vault products also sell for higher than MSRP due to their limited availability/collector appeal. You should also search online to see if there's a shop near you; they may have better prices than you've found so far. Good luck, and welcome back!
 
Kurtofan said:
Probable viral marketing video on Youtube reveals one card and some cards with erased rule texts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWA1x1kyagE&feature=player_embedded



"Travel Preperations" 1G
Sorcery

Put a +1/+1 counter on up to 2 creatures.
Flashback 1W

red creature?
___ Maruarders?

Grimoire of the dead 4
legendary? Artifact

Evil Twin 2UB
Creature shapeshifter?
0/0

Another white card with a Day symbol.
Was just watching this earlier. What I found the most interesting about the video is when he flips through the dual lands; 3 are enemy-coloured (WB, UG, UR). Coincidence?
 
So... apparently, Liliana is the planeswalker with 5 abilities. No confirmation on what she does quite yet, but the MTG Salvation mods have been provided evidence of the claim and have allowed the thread to stay open for discussion. Well, Garruk not being the 5-ability walker means, hopefully, that his price won't be insane. Hopefully.
 
Aaron Forsythe and Patrick Chapin are doing the commentary for Grand Prix Philly on ggslive today (probably tomorrow too, but not sure). I haven't listened to Aaron before, but Chapin has always been great in the SCG booths.
 
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