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[charlequin]

WOTC is getting a new president:

Wonder what happened with Leeds. Guy's been there a long time, but "resigned" with no other details is a thing that makes you go hmm.

I've learned long ago not to get my hopes up when it comes to WotC digital. I will remain skeptical.

If that's going to change, it'd be from the top. One of the biggest problems for technical implementation at any company outside the lean-startup area is what I call "marketing time." When you work in marketing or sales, the work you do is mostly predictable and yields straightforwardly to effort. If you want to hit a sales quota, you hustle and you can make it happen; if you want to deliver the details for a marketing reach presentation, you just dive in and figure it out. In both cases, you can just throw hours and manpower at a problem to solve it faster.

Software doesn't work the same way at all; throwing manpower at it will rarely speed something up, and most tasks are not easily estimable beyond the most immediate short-term level, so project planning has to work differently to compensate. Someone who's worked in tech and in digital games previously is much more likely to understand this and take the steps needed to actually build their digital teams to match.

Budget cuts, SCG does it every week anyway, limited is bad on camera.

Also, I mean, if they are pushing in an esports direction, most events and coverage would be done by third parties anyway. SCG are better at covering events than WotC is so a world where more of the coverage responsibilities are offloaded to them is honestly an improvement.

 

["God's Beard!"]

The bad thing about cockatrice drafts is how often somebody just drops for no reason. Really wanted to try this one out:

 

[keeblerdrow]

Traded in some vidya games and got me a box of SOI. On a whim, I got a japanese box cause why not? It was the same price. Quantity-wise, best mythic box I've ever opened. Quality-wise, worst mythic box I've ever opened.

Startled Awake
Olivia
Behold the Beyond
Wolf of Devil's Breach
Seasons Past
Sigarda
Foil Descend Upon the Fishermen

Worthwhile rares were few. A TITI and a DiS. I have a ton of Japanese cards now, though.

 

[bigkrev]

Also, it looks like a feature length documentary from the Walking the Planes guys is coming to Netflix and Youtube in 2 weeks http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/enter-battlefield-premieres-april-25-2016-04-11

 

[The Technomancer]

Software doesn't work the same way at all; throwing manpower at it will rarely speed something up, and most tasks are not easily estimable beyond the most immediate short-term level, so project planning has to work differently to compensate. Someone who's worked in tech and in digital games previously is much more likely to understand this and take the steps needed to actually build their digital teams to match.

Now imagine being in the tech industry working on a hardware project where everyone gets this fact about software but no-one understands that things are the same way in hardware but for completely different reasons that manifest in different ways

No I'm not bitter and frustrated in the slightest. Not at all

Spoiler

yes I'm sorry the prototypes didn't actually represent the flexure of that component. yes it really is going to take the mold shop two weeks to revise that part and make new samples because that's how long mold revisions take

 

[charlequin]

Also, it looks like a feature length documentary from the Walking the Planes guys is coming to Netflix and Youtube in 2 weeks http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/enter-battlefield-premieres-april-25-2016-04-11

Really don't know why they decided the best person to narrate this was Wil Wheaton.

Now imagine being in the tech industry working on a hardware project where everyone gets this fact about software but no-one understands that things are the same way in hardware but for completely different reasons that manifest in different ways

I have no idea what you're referring to but I am confident that the scenario you describe is b both real and stupid

 

[Firemind]

god i love cube

i don't have glen elendra archmage this time though, which might be my favourite cube card, so i'll probably lose the first round.

 

[kirblar]

Really don't know why they decided the best person to narrate this was Wil Wheaton.

Because they have a boner for him despite him being pretty horrible.

 

[Firemind]

holy fucking lol i kept the wrong land when i copied dark depths with thespian stage

drunk magic at its finest

 

[Dysun]

Should have bought 4 Avacyn's when she was 23 bucks

 

[Imperfected]

I think Wizard's digital strategy is fine.

Duels Online is basically unplayable for me at the moment, so I went out and bought a box of SoI instead. Working as intended?

 

[Firemind]

dat feeling when you have jace and nicol bolas in play and they get killed by ulamog 2

 

[OnPoint]

Really don't know why they decided the best person to narrate this was Wil Wheaton.

Why him? Always him or Felicia Day in 'nerd stuff'. Can we please have other people sometimes?

 

[ultron87]

Really don't know why they decided the best person to narrate this was Wil Wheaton.

They want to get more of the board gaming and general nerd crowd so I imagine Wil Tweeting "hey I narrated this thing" will do well for that.

 

[Infinite Stars]

Honestly, Wheaton's not a bad choice. I'd pick Day 9 over him, but he's a better choice then many others.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Traded in some vidya games and got me a box of SOI. On a whim, I got a japanese box cause why not? It was the same price. Quantity-wise, best mythic box I've ever opened. Quality-wise, worst mythic box I've ever opened.

Startled Awake
Olivia
Behold the Beyond
Wolf of Devil's Breach
Seasons Past
Sigarda
Foil Descend Upon the Fishermen

Worthwhile rares were few. A TITI and a DiS. I have a ton of Japanese cards now, though.

I almost bought a korean box once because I think the little circles look cool but then I didn't because nobody's gonna draft korean cards with me.

 

[keeblerdrow]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";200736298]I almost bought a korean box once because I think the little circles look cool but then I didn't because nobody's gonna draft korean cards with me.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I got home and opened it and immediately remembered I couldn't draft it. Felt bad.

Then I opened the packs. Felt worse. I enjoy the feeling I get from the japanese cards though. I can't read most of it so the art tends to pop more because it's the only easily discernible information on the card face. The psychologist in me is super interested in that phenomenon.

 

[Firemind]

korean is the worst. all circles and shit.

 

[Haines]

I think Wizard's digital strategy is fine.

Duels Online is basically unplayable for me at the moment, so I went out and bought a box of SoI instead. Working as intended?

Doesn't work on me. I just play a real game instead (dark souls 3) and set up a time with my bro to play magic

Limited costs me enough but I'm just happy my store went from retarded 10 man pods to 8 man awesome magic

 

[divisionbyzorro]

The truth is that digital Magic right now fucking sucks. MTGO is a poor representation of the game - it's useful only for grinders and streamers. If you're the kind of guy who just loves playing Magic, it's a shitty experience. You have to put serious cash on the table just to get reasonable competition. The feeling of getting roflstomped in a draft thanks to mana issues is bad enough. It's even worse when it was what you chose to spend your precious few hours off of work doing, and you had to pay $10 for the privilege of not actually playing Magic. At least when it happens at FNM you hopefully had some friends that you got to hang out with for a few hours. At home, you're just a loser in front of a computer who should have just spent his evening watching something silly on Netflix with his wife.

It's not just the program that's shit - the entire business model of MTGO is fucked at its core. It's a model designed to suck money out of addicts.

Spoiler

I might be a little salty from having a really bad string of luck at Cube the past couple of days, but my point is still valid.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Playing with randoms on cockatrice can be annoying, but my friends aren't always on.

I just tried to explain how fetchlands don't mean you can get multiple triggers off a single counterbalance to some dude with links, dude disappears for 10 minutes to look up rules then just leaves the game.


When you're playing with randoms, about a third of your drafts won't fire through to the first round and maybe a tenth of your constructed two-mans involve someone either incredibly rude or that doesn't properly understand their cards. I'd still recommend it over other services and fuck MODO, but it's best if you can stick to consistent playtesting partners.

That said, I don't see that many gaffers online very often which is a shame. I'd like to play with kirblar and wanderingwind more.

 

[Ashodin]

I'll try to idle more in cockatrice, GB.

 

[bigkrev]

She did Secure the Wastes become an $11 card?!?

 

[Ashodin]

She did Secure the Wastes become an $11 card?!?

I got like 5 of those $1 rares.

 

["God's Beard!"]

She did Secure the Wastes become an $11 card?!?

wtf

 

[Joe Molotov]

More like Secure the Ormendahl, amirite?

 

[hermit7]

Decided to buy into modern goblins. Decently affordable (only the goblin guides are really expensive) and seems to have decent results. Some bad as an matchups, but I like the aggro plan and goblin grenade can straight up steal some games.

Getting the guides also makes buying into other red aggro decks much cheaper as well. Legacy burn really only needs swift spear, eidolon and a few other burn spells and they are all decently affordable.

 

[Infinite Stars]

Lol, Secure the Wastes spike has me laughing. I picked up my playset back when DTK came out, and I've been running it.

It's worth noting that if a Weenie deck ever does reach turn 6+, you can almost win the game off of a Secure the Wastes for 5+ and an Archangel and some form of boost to the tokens(be it Gideon Emblem, Nissa -2, Consul's boost, etc.) This happened multiple times to me last standard where I won through 15+ points of Damage off of a Kytheon's Tactics, Archangel of Tithes, and a Secure the wastes for 6.

 

[WanderingWind]

Looking back, Secure the Wastes is a card we were all high on. Rare. I called it "amazeballs insane."

Ah, the vagrancies of youth.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I really hate westvale abbey. If I sweep the board twice and play three x/5s I shouldn't have to feel like I'm one topdeck secure the wastes away from losing to a white weenie deck.

Card should have a black mana activation cost or something.

 

[WanderingWind]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";200764208]I really hate westvale abbey. If I sweep the board twice and play three x/5s I shouldn't have to feel like I'm one topdeck secure the wastes away from losing to a white weenie deck.

Card should have a black mana activation cost or something.[/QUOTE]

Muhahahaha...your Languishes have no power here

 

[Santiako]

Decided to buy into modern goblins. Decently affordable (only the goblin guides are really expensive) and seems to have decent results. Some bad as an matchups, but I like the aggro plan and goblin grenade can straight up steal some games.

Getting the guides also makes buying into other red aggro decks much cheaper as well. Legacy burn really only needs swift spear, eidolon and a few other burn spells and they are all decently affordable.

Do you have a list? I love me some goblins.

 

[Son1x]

So Avacyn is 25€+ on mcm, should I sell her now or wait for PT?

 

[Santiako]

So Avacyn is 25€+ on mcm, should I sell her now or wait for PT?

She's one of the cards that will define standard for the next 18 months, it won't go down anytime soon.

 

[OnPoint]

Anyone selling Avacyn at this point is nutty. She's either going up or stabilizing here, in my view.

WanderingWind: Did you ever get to play that deck on 'trice? How'd it go?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I got mine and am going to keep her. I'm itching to try out my EDH deck with her but haven't found the time yet.
One of the few cards I might actually prefer the german version, Erzengel Avacyn. Gives me Heroes of M&M 3 flashbacks.

 

[Firemind]

Isn't Virulent Plague still legal? Why aren't people playing that?

 

["God's Beard!"]

Isn't Virulent Plague still legal? Why aren't people playing that?

You have to have a certain amount of guts to play it as more than a 1-of sideboard card, which is what all the lists I've posted had it as. It's so narrow.

Jeff hoogland played it at the open.

 

[Firemind]

What if they have multiple Gideons in play? -4/-4 could be relevant brah

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

FInally got into the beta but I don't see an option to join the beta standard league

 

[divisionbyzorro]

FInally got into the beta but I don't see an option to join the beta standard league

Make sure you check the MTGO Beta forums. For some reason, the beta links to the "real" Standard league right now - you can't actually join it. If you want to beta test Standard, just go to the lobbies and start up a "Just Starting Out" or "Just for Fun" game. I've found most beta testers are in the "Just Starting Out" room since that's where it defaults you.

 

[MjFrancis]

Anyone selling Avacyn at this point is nutty. She's either going up or stabilizing here, in my view.

I figured Avacyn was a little over $30 when you made this statement, but I went ahead and checked what the going rate was. Cheapest copy on TCGplayer is $48 as of 7:00am today. I am inclined to agree with your assessment. Eat your heart out Baby Jace, we have a new 4-of mythic to jam in Standard now!

Thankfully my sub-$20 copy of Avacyn is in the mail already, but of course now I wish I'd ordered three more.

The playset of Declaration in Stone I purchased for $10 has not shipped however, so I'm not ready to crow about that preorder victory.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Make sure you check the MTGO Beta forums. For some reason, the beta links to the "real" Standard league right now - you can't actually join it. If you want to beta test Standard, just go to the lobbies and start up a "Just Starting Out" or "Just for Fun" game. I've found most beta testers are in the "Just Starting Out" room since that's where it defaults you.

How does that even happen? Thanks. Also it's hilarious that the auto assigned password is literally a password I used as a 3rd grader.

The playset of Declaration in Stone I purchased for $10 has not shipped however, so I'm not ready to crow about that preorder victory.

mine just arrived in the mail today

 

[OnPoint]

I figured Avacyn was a little over $30 when you made this statement, but I went ahead and checked what the going rate was. Cheapest copy on TCGplayer is $48 as of 7:00am today. I am inclined to agree with your assessment. Eat your heart out Baby Jace, we have a new 4-of mythic to jam in Standard now!

Thankfully my sub-$20 copy of Avacyn is in the mail already, but of course now I wish I'd ordered three more.

The playset of Declaration in Stone I purchased for $10 has not shipped however, so I'm not ready to crow about that preorder victory.

Yeah man, I thought she'd cap at $40 but shit, she just keeps going. I ordered 2 for $25 a piece the other day and felt like I was making a mistake. Now I'm wishing I ordered the other two.

My Declaration in Stone set came the other day, which is nice. I can't believe that card ever started that low -- big ups to Kirblar for pointing that one out.

 

[G.ZZZ]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";200774062]You have to have a certain amount of guts to play it as more than a 1-of sideboard card, which is what all the lists I've posted had it as. It's so narrow.

Jeff hoogland played it at the open.[/QUOTE]

Just play a couple of Dark Petition alongside with it in the sb.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I just played a random Grixis control jumbled together list against the UR Goggles list and it destroyed the deck.

 

[Giant Panda]

Still waiting on my pre-orders. Looks like I overspent on Falkenrath Gorger and Asylum Visitor, but I got Declaration in Stone and Thalia's Lieutenant at great prices. I wish I had bought Tireless Tracker when it was $1 a piece.

 

[OnPoint]

I just played a random Grixis control jumbled together list against the UR Goggles list and it destroyed the deck.

I feel like UR Goggles isn't going to be super real going forward in the meta and it got lucky like those Week 1 brews sometimes do. I do feel like there might be a shell there of some sort there (UR is often good and Thing in the Ice is a beating) but the list from this weekend feels suspect.

Edit:

The one I'm unclear on now, as to whether or not it's worth taking a stab on, is Nahiri. She's sitting right around $10 right now... would only take a good weekend or two to blow her up.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I feel like UR Goggles isn't going to be super real going forward in the meta and it got lucky like those Week 1 brews sometimes do. I do feel like there might be a shell there of some sort there (UR is often good and Thing in the Ice is a beating) but the list from this weekend feels suspect.

it went duress into transgress, ruinous path jace, kolaghans command discard + kill goggles, GDD Kolaghans discard + kill goggles, kalitas + dispel backup.

brutal

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, I got all mine in the $24-6 range cause I did not trust the card not to do this.