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[gai_shain]

In the US, there is also the SCG series if you want to play Magic for money, while there isn't a comparable program in the EU

Yeah I know, I love to watch those tournaments.
Im not sure how much the players playing mostly in the scg tournaments get though.
Maybe we will see people that mostly played in wizards events until now switch to scg.

To be clear, there isn't such an incentive now, and the reason there isn't such an incentive is that they don't care if people do it or not. The precise reason to make this change is because they think (and they're not necessarily wrong) that a high-purse aspirational event will have more overall promotional power than a set of known pros playing regularly in events throughout the year.

yeah I understand that reasoning, high payout tournaments gather more attention.
But this change might also remove top players that people used to identify with which hurts the game. There will be new players and new pro players for sure but this is going to leave a bad taste for alot of people.

 

[WanderingWind]

BITCHING BREAK: Man, sometimes it's nice to play with crappy tribal decks that do sweet non-competitive shit. I just won a game of a Vampire Nocturnus reveal that game my vamps a sweet boost. Total shit deck, but muhahahaha vampires suck ur blood.

/break

WotC y u do this

 

[Angry Grimace]

What is the incentive for people to actually grind and get to platinum now?
Especially if you dont live in the US its just gotten extremely hard and expensive to do this.
Joel Larsson for example isnt even sure if he can continue playing magic (competitive in the way he has until now I assume since he hasnt clarified further).

Nothing. They shouldn't grind to get Platinum anyways. These guys were never making great money to begin with. Magic isn't a career.

 

[WanderingWind]

Nothing. They shouldn't grind to get Platinum anyways. These guys were never making great money to begin with. Magic isn't a career.

No, it's an investment! Buy high, sell high! That's the Magic way.

 

[Bandini]

Just spent an hour getting enough people to do a Vintage Cube draft and my opponent disconnects on turn 2 of game 1...

 

[charlequin]

yeah I understand that reasoning, high payout tournaments gather more attention.
But this change might also remove top players that people used to identify with which hurts the game. There will be new players and new pro players for sure but this is going to leave a bad taste for alot of people.

The reasoning here (and again, I don't think it's necessarily wrong) is that approximately nobody cares enough about either the identities of the top pros or the ability to live on platinum rewards enough to change their spending habits. kirblar's been advancing this position for a while -- Magic is more like games like poker where the investment in individual pros isn't that great, so the company should invest in volume of play over payoffs for the best players whenever possible.

Of course, in this case they're not doing that effectively either, but that's just because idiot beancounters at Hasbro Corporate are telling them to accomplish all their goals without a budget hike.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Man, I should have disabled inbox replies when I made the Pro Player pay cuts thread on reddit. It's the biggest thread on MagicTCG now and I have to dig through dozens of posts clogging up my inbox trying to find the people that want to trade with me -_-

That said, I'm glad people are riled up, hopefully WotC takes notice.

 

[charlequin]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";201774551]
That said, I'm glad people are riled up, hopefully WotC takes notice.[/QUOTE]

Who are we talking about? Helene is gonna be the face on this and I'm 99% confident this basically got handed down from above (or it's them trying to find a way to cut the required money after a mandate to increase Worlds purse and find the money in their existing budget.) I'd guess it's like the Reserved List thing, nobody who is involved with actually making the decision is part of the WotC organization so feedback is likely to go into a black hole.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Who are we talking about? Helene is gonna be the face on this and I'm 99% confident this basically got handed down from above (or it's them trying to find a way to cut the required money after a mandate to increase Worlds purse and find the money in their existing budget.) I'd guess it's like the Reserved List thing, nobody who is involved with actually making the decision is part of the WotC organization so feedback is likely to go into a black hole.

Maybe, but they've also responded to player feedback like with the Modern Pro Tour stuff. So until we know where this change is coming from, there's no reason to not at least be visibly displeased.

 

[El Topo]

I mean, whether or not these changes make sense for Wizards, the timing is just really poor.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";201775053]Maybe, but they've also responded to player feedback like with the Modern Pro Tour stuff. So until we know where this change is coming from, there's no reason to not at least be visibly displeased.[/QUOTE]

Yeah - their response was to give it back to us and then shit on it until we capitulated.

 

[charlequin]

Yeah - their response was to give it back to us and then shit on it until we capitulated.

The Modern Pro Tour shat on itself because it was a bad idea to begin with.

 

["God's Beard!"]

It's kinda weird how MTG is making more and more money and less money is going to the pro players, but Street Fighter is shitting the bed in terms of sales while the tournament scene is growing exponentially.

 

[kirblar]

The scryland connection to todays standard is the radical, radical difference in the amouny of cards players are seeing in wach game they play, regardless of deck. Look at coco puffs (bg) scrying, look at bant company duskeatching and investigating, look at the esper decks anticipating, look at the r/x goggle decks red filter spelling- the amount of cards they are filtering through during a game is staggeringlt high relativr to standard formats pre theros.

When the scrylands came out, top players started winning at a much more consistent rate than they previously had. It was noticeable at the time- the mechanic greatly pushed towards the skill part of the luck/skill balance. I suspect they rrally liked alwhat they saw in terms of card flow, leading to things like investigate, evergreen scry, and much, much cheaper filtering across all 5 colors.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Yeah, Brad Nelson talks about this a lot, how longer games with more filtering, mana sinks etc make the game overall much better for competitive play.

Certainly worked out pretty well for him this weekend.

 

[Firemind]

Remember the time when we got foil full art Damnations and Cryptic Commands for playing at FNM a lot? Man those were the days.

 

[kirblar]

Remember the time when we got foil full art Damnations and Cryptic Commands for playing at FNM a lot? Man those were the days.

Yeah, that was nice, but I totally believe them when they say it was expensive as fuck.

Bringing it back as an MTGO incentive would be a good way to get around the expense problem.

 

[Ashodin]

I'm awake

I'm totally ready for game day next week, that was some grade a competitive testing

 

[A Serious Man]

Tuan Nguyen went 8-2 in Standard with a W/B Midrange deck only three cards off from my list (in the main anyway). Esper Walkers is super fun though, I'm not sure which I'll end up playing.

 

[WanderingWind]

I don't know why I keep going back to MTGO.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Just had an interesting exchange. I'm in the following board position in my first main phase:

I decide to attack with all creatures assuming I'm basically dead in case he blocks in a way that I survive a turn. It's a crap shoot. But after the game my opponent says it was an aggressive attack and laughs. There's no way I attack here and survive just based on the board state, right?

He says I only have to attack to make him block with one flier, but that's impossible. If I only attack with the smasher, he can just block with a knight and not die. If I block with the smasher and the seer he can double block the seer with the two knights and chump the smasher with whatever and I'm dead. If I attack with any combination of three creatures it's the same thing.


Objectively speaking, I know that the average skill level of cockatrice users is pretty low and I shouldn't let it bother me, but the fact that he messaged me after the match and quit out before even going to sideboarded games kind of got under my skin. So I had to go back and rewatch the match in the replays to make sure I wasn't crazy.

 

[WanderingWind]

Save us Digital Next, from buggy software and broke dick third party apps designed with a ten dollar budget and a player base made up of people masturbating in between turns. You're our only hope.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Decided not to make a topic for the pro payout changes.

Looking at the 24-28 point decks
* Surprised to see Anointer of Champions in Patrick Cox's monowhite humans deck.
* In Grzegorz Kowalski's Sultai Midrange, I was surprised to see one-offs of Gilt-Leaf Winnower in the mainboard, Conclave Naturalists and Seasons Past in the sideboard without the deck being built around the latter.
* Lambholt Pacifist in Josh McClain's White-Green Tokens
* David Mines's Sultai Midrange has Root Out in the sideboard.
* Rob Pisano's Jeskai Control runs 4x Jace, 4x Nahiri, and 2x Chandra Flamecaller with Avacyn's Judgment, Nagging Thoughts, and Descend upon the Sinful.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Is the MTGO beta over already? Hard to find the details on it but I can't login anymore.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Is the MTGO beta over already? Hard to find the details on it but I can't login anymore.

The beta goes up and down all the time in waves. You'll get an e-mail whenever the next wave starts, and you can also check the message boards to see what the status is.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

The beta goes up and down all the time in waves. You'll get an e-mail whenever the next wave starts, and you can also check the message boards to see what the status is.

I can't, still get an error when trying to login there, always have.

I'm asking because the email mentions week but it's only been 4 days or so.

For the first week of this Beta, we will continue to run Beta Booster Limited events as well as SOI Standard testing.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I can't, still get an error when trying to login there, always have.

I'm asking because the email mentions week but it's only been 4 days or so.

If you can't log into the beta boards, raise a defect using the bug reporter.

EDIT: I just checked the boards. The issue is widespread and there isn't an official notice.

 

[ironmang]

Anybody here play standard on mtgo? Wondering if it's worth it to put a deck together on there to test for tournaments and replace the low EV, low turnout FNMs that I'm stuck with locally.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

If you can't log into the beta boards, raise a defect using the bug reporter.

EDIT: I just checked the boards. The issue is widespread and there isn't an official notice.

Just did, tried the forum on edge and even though I was able to login there it told me I was an invalid user. Thanks for checking.

Bummer I want to try a couple spells for Grixis and an Odric version for Bant Company as well as a Jund company list playing Liliana and Chandra.

 

[Ashodin]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";201786751]Just had an interesting exchange. I'm in the following board position in my first main phase:



I decide to attack with all creatures assuming I'm basically dead in case he blocks in a way that I survive a turn. It's a crap shoot. But after the game my opponent says it was an aggressive attack and laughs. There's no way I attack here and survive just based on the board state, right?

He says I only have to attack to make him block with one flier, but that's impossible. If I only attack with the smasher, he can just block with a knight and not die. If I block with the smasher and the seer he can double block the seer with the two knights and chump the smasher with whatever and I'm dead. If I attack with any combination of three creatures it's the same thing.


Objectively speaking, I know that the average skill level of cockatrice users is pretty low and I shouldn't let it bother me, but the fact that he messaged me after the match and quit out before even going to sideboarded games kind of got under my skin. So I had to go back and rewatch the match in the replays to make sure I wasn't crazy.[/QUOTE]
They can't all be matches between you and me

 

[A Serious Man]

Anybody here play standard on mtgo? Wondering if it's worth it to put a deck together on there to test for tournaments and replace the low EV, low turnout FNMs that I'm stuck with locally.

If you want to test and improve your play, MTGO is by far your best resource. The level of competition and ability to play whenever is fantastic.

 

[bigkrev]

I had a fun game of Pauper on MTGO today. Delver Mirror.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swXY1nakrvM

 

[Crocodile]

Kamigawa II: Electric Boogaloo is in the planning stages

;-)

 

[charlequin]

Kamigawa II: Electric Boogaloo is in the planning stages

;-)

He's asked three differently phrased research-y questions about it in the last week (like "which elements of the first Kamigawa should we keep") so I feel confident the next Japanese-themed block is in planning somewhere.

Of course, with the way they currently do things, the next 20 blocks are tentatively plotted out, so that doesn't really tell us much.

 

[kirblar]

Kamigawa II = Inuyasha present
Kamigawa I = Inuyasha past

The thing is- this fits right with both their established lore AND the Japanese source material.

 

[Ashodin]

fuck yeah give me more kamigawa

shit was awesome I don't give a fuck

Spoiler

no it has nothing to do with I bought a case with my money when I was a teenager

Spoiler

yes I have tons of rare and expensive kamigawa cards

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Kamigawa sucked and it was the first set I went to a prerelease for and when I started playing more. Legit was awful even at the time.

 

[Ashodin]

Interesting stuff about Magic Origins cards from the M Files relating to SOI

Seismic Assault is a great card, but RRR is a little too hard to cast, and its activation cost is a little cheaper than we wanted for Standard.

Seismic is just straight discard outlet, which I bet in the FFL they thought was too cheap.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

groundskeeper + seismic assault, 2 mana lava repeatable lava spike? No way that'd be good, right?

 

[bigkrev]

groundskeeper + seismic assault? 2 mana lava repeatable lava spike? No way that'd be good, right?

It's been standard legal before (9th Edition), and pretty sure it didn't do anything

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

It's been standard legal before (9th Edition), and pretty sure it didn't do anything

was there a wordly tutor able to fetch lands or creatures though?

just add some regular burn and magmatic insight/tormenting voice to it and maybe it's not completely utterly horrible. Why isn't mtgo up I need to brew.

Nevermind it's the one where you have to put mana into it to burn.

 

[Ashodin]

do do do

 

[Yeef]

Kamigawa 2: Electric Buguru design:

Umezawa's Rite 1WB
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature gets +2/+2
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage, choose one —
•Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
•You gain 2 life.

 

[bigkrev]

do do do

Why is Michiko Konda not a bulk rare?

 

[An-Det]

Kamigawa II: Electric Boogaloo is in the planning stages

;-)

About damn time they came around on Kamigawa. Really curious to see how they adapt it to present-day design.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

do do do

used to have all of these, now I want some back.

Found a foil Aether Vial last year though, so there's that.

 

[Ashodin]

Kamigawa 2: Electric Buguru design:

Umezawa's Rite 1WB
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature gets +2/+2
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage, choose one —
•Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
•You gain 2 life.

I see what you did there

 

["God's Beard!"]

How did Jon Finkel wind up as the head trader of an investment group with a BA in Literature? Sounds like a good story.

 

[alternade]

Can Wizards just hurry up and make a Commander pro tour season?? Best format, insane diversity and will push their new supplemental and core products.

MARO, MAKE IT HAPPEN.

 

[WanderingWind]

Can Wizards just hurry up and make a Commander pro tour season?? Best format, insane diversity and will push their new supplemental and core products.

MARO, MAKE IT HAPPEN.

That should be the very last thing you'd want as a commander player. The only thing keeping EDH staple prices reasonable is the fact that it's seen as a casual format. A Pro Tour would spike the prices harder that Hyena Umbra, which jumped from a 2 dollar card to a 28 dollar card over the weekend for some goddamn reason or another.