[quote from="Flow of Maggots »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/629526-prerelease-packaging?comment=15"]You may not be happy, but they made the changes in response to large-scale complaints.
Yes, they heard the complaints, but did they hear those of us that liked it. Seems kind strange that after the really good set up for Magic Origins, they just gave up. I'm hoping this is just a Battle for Zendikar thing because there would only be two factions. Then again, Mirrodin Beseiged started the whole thing and there were only two factions there.
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They kept them for years because of how much people liked them, but ultimately they could not "fix" the problem. They kept on tweaking it, first by randomizing the promo you got, then by adding other colors to your pre-release pack, and lastly by reducing it to 7 cards. I think they will bring back seeded packs when it makes sense, but there is a problem when people perceive colors or factions to be better.
With chase rares and mythics, it also became a problem of people picking their prerelease pack based on value. I like the random promo much better. And when we return to Ravnica or a 3-color set, I hope they will give seeded packs again. I think a repeat of the 7-card pack could work, mostly so you can have good manafixing for your guild/clan/brood.
This is a massive improvement for pre-release in M15 in my LGS every one of the 6 pre-releases they ran was won by Indulgent Tormentor black the whole experience was whoever cast Indulgent Tormentor first won the game
Those old prerelease boxes were a mess on so many different levels. They took a lot of space on the already crowded tables, they were filled with big pieces of paper that 95% of players didn't care about and just left on the tables, further taking space. The box itself was awkward to store your sideboard because the cards would just fly from one row to another, and if you used the dice in the middle, the two paper dividers in the middle would fold inward, making the box even more useless to hold cards.
I'll be very happy to be handed a compact and practical prerelease box. I'll need to see the box itself before I can tell if I'll use it for fnm, but at the very least it will make the prerelease experience a lot less messy.
Yeah those boxes were a pain. One of the Theros ones did have the dividers glued down though.
I hope the box is somewhat sturdy so it can be used without falling apart right away.
I'm really glad the promo is random. Makes for some serious value if you pull a stamped walker or Ulamog - or fetches when they inevitably reprint them. Also makes blinging out EDH and other decks a lot easier.
Any of the rares or mythics in the set can be a promo? I think this is when I have to stop with the gotta catch em all. I can deal with a subset, but every one? That is quite the accomplishment.
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I am looking for Date Stamped promos from Khans of Tarkir block so I can finish my set. Check my wants if you have any.
Currently offering 2 non-foil Kolighan's Command for a Date Stamped foil!
Any of the rares or mythics in the set can be a promo? I think this is when I have to stop with the gotta catch em all. I can deal with a subset, but every one? That is quite the accomplishment.
exactly. collecting all of the rare and mythic cards in PR version is going to be painful even more than before. I won't even try. I'll just grab what I can and take an extra effort to get those 5 new duals as they are beautiful.
Well, best prereleases were with a sealed deck and a couple of boosters and a special promo in a rare language.
I liked the seeded pack, but it's good to see they are removing it when it doesn't make sense. I hope they will be bringing it back for sets where they are guilds or factions to choose. The problem will be the promo, as it just became virtually impossible to collect all of them (well, almost like in Origins).
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Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.
Lol why are some of you thanking Wizards for the packaging. This costs you your seeded booster lol.
I think that the cost-to-value ratio of prereleases are more arbitrary than that. You could also say that the box cost us some stupid and useless gimmick like that Dragonfury game, which is fine by me. And we still get a promo rare/mythic, so you could also say that the box only cost us the remaining 6 commons/uncommons, which really isn't such a bad deal if the box is nice (which we ofc don't know yet).
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Lol why are some of you thanking Wizards for the packaging. This costs you your seeded booster lol.
Because seeded booster were miserable for gameplay. If I just want cards, I'll buy cards. When I join an event, I want the gameplay to be as good as possible. Having to metagame my color choices because of seeded packs wasn't fun, but necessary to be competitive.
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Whenever someone claims to hate blue I automatically assume they're a bad player.
The Box seems to look like one adapted from the Dragon's Maze prerelease and the Dual Deck Anthology boxes
I've never seen the DGM prerelease box, but the deck boxes in the Anthology set were terrible. Good looking, but way too flimsy. I happily replaced mine with those cheap plastic Ultra Pro deck boxes.
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Instead of a prerelease experience where I have some control over what I play and what promo I get, I get a cheap cardboard box. The prerelease is no longer special, it is just sealed with a die, a box and a random promo. I'm sitting out.
In my day Prerelease was 6 packs and a promo you couldn't even use, and was a lesson in deckbuilding.
Personally, I think I love how they are doing this pre-release, though I do wish they were giving an 8 sides hedron shaped dice in place of the 20 roll down counter dice (you know the flavor would be sweet!) I liked the seeded pack simply for the range of promos they offered, this is even better as all rare/mythics can be the promo now! I like variety, the deck box may also be a nice plus depending on durability of course.
We either looking at an event deck like box with some plastics added inside or if we are lucky something like the Modern Event Deck which was more durable (thick cardboard). By seeing the picture with the dice compartment I am going with the Modern Event Deck type box.
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Look to the farthest far horizon
Look to the bloodlust deepest scar
Look to the scattering Brythonic uprising
For this be the wall of Johnny Guitar
"Back in my day" Age (Long time ago to New Phyrexia) - 1 Tournament Pack + 3 Boosters / 6 Boosters + 1 uplayable Prerelease Foil that could become a money Rare/Mythic (+ Magic Player Rewards)
"Miserable Promo" Age (Basically Innistrad) - 6 Boosters + 1 unplayable Prerelease Rare Foil worth little in the age of Mythics
"Format Unbalanced by Promo" Age (RTR to JOU) - 6 Boosters + 1 Seeded Pack + 1 playable Prerelease Rare Foil that may determines you win or lose by quite the margin or get you money straight, depending on color availability + Box
"The Tears of Prerelease Card Collectors" Age (KTK) - 6 Boosters + 1 Seeded Pack + (Usually) 1 of 8 playable Prerelease Foils that could help you win or get you money straight, depending on color availability + Box
"Have the Collectors Quit yet?" Age (BFZ) - 6 Boosters + 1 playable prerelease foil out of all the set's rare/mythics that might or not help you win or net money straight + Box
"Back in my day" Age (Long time ago to New Phyrexia) - 1 Tournament Pack + 3 Boosters / 6 Boosters + 1 uplayable Prerelease Foil that could become a money Rare/Mythic (+ Magic Player Rewards)
I lived that age. Best prerelease pack were then, we you got a Tournament pack and the three boosters. But the PR foil usually ended up being worth almost nothing.
The name you gave to the KTK age is very descriptive
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Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.
Lol why are some of you thanking Wizards for the packaging. This costs you your seeded booster lol.
You still get your foil prerelease promo card, so the only thing it costs you is a few color specific bulk uncommons and commons. As long as the box isn't a pos that falls apart immediately after use, I'd rather have the box.
Lol why are some of you thanking Wizards for the packaging. This costs you your seeded booster lol.
You still get your foil prerelease promo card, so the only thing it costs you is a few color specific bulk uncommons and commons. As long as the box isn't a pos that falls apart immediately after use, I'd rather have the box.
Not to mention what would the seeded boosters be? allies and eldrazi, as that seems to be the entire theme of the set, and in the past the prerelease packs tried to be some what flavorful along with the story.
could be pretty cool as wotc says any of the foil rare or mythics will be your promo card. if you like just some momento of being at a prerelease to hold a deck on display on a shelf, the box really isnt that great
it has to be better than the cheap 'deckbox' in the fatpacks. bottom is reinforced making it more rigid, but its still thin cardboard. like I say it'll look ok on a shelf, and you 'could' use it a few times at fnm but i wouldnt keep a money deck in one
ohhh ya one guy always gets a nice combo couple cards or the set's top money card, then play some garbage cards have a lot of fun couple hours and rush home to get online and/or go thru your cards you bought haha and puzzle what new decks you're gonna build ...
They kept them for years because of how much people liked them, but ultimately they could not "fix" the problem. They kept on tweaking it, first by randomizing the promo you got, then by adding other colors to your pre-release pack, and lastly by reducing it to 7 cards. I think they will bring back seeded packs when it makes sense, but there is a problem when people perceive colors or factions to be better.
With chase rares and mythics, it also became a problem of people picking their prerelease pack based on value. I like the random promo much better. And when we return to Ravnica or a 3-color set, I hope they will give seeded packs again. I think a repeat of the 7-card pack could work, mostly so you can have good manafixing for your guild/clan/brood.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
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Yeah those boxes were a pain. One of the Theros ones did have the dividers glued down though.
I hope the box is somewhat sturdy so it can be used without falling apart right away.
Currently offering 2 non-foil Kolighan's Command for a Date Stamped foil!
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I liked the seeded pack, but it's good to see they are removing it when it doesn't make sense. I hope they will be bringing it back for sets where they are guilds or factions to choose. The problem will be the promo, as it just became virtually impossible to collect all of them (well, almost like in Origins).
Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Because seeded booster were miserable for gameplay. If I just want cards, I'll buy cards. When I join an event, I want the gameplay to be as good as possible. Having to metagame my color choices because of seeded packs wasn't fun, but necessary to be competitive.
And that's a good thing. Seeded boosters could wreck your pool like it could make it much stronger it already was, making the PR quite unfun.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Of course, back then the promo was Demigod of Revenge, Ajani Vengeant, Sun Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, Hero of Bladehold, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. So while it is a shame to not be able to play with your promo, I do miss getting a nice $10-$20 bill tucked in there.
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Look to the bloodlust deepest scar
Look to the scattering Brythonic uprising
For this be the wall of Johnny Guitar
"Back in my day" Age (Long time ago to New Phyrexia) - 1 Tournament Pack + 3 Boosters / 6 Boosters + 1 uplayable Prerelease Foil that could become a money Rare/Mythic (+ Magic Player Rewards)
"Miserable Promo" Age (Basically Innistrad) - 6 Boosters + 1 unplayable Prerelease Rare Foil worth little in the age of Mythics
"Format Unbalanced by Promo" Age (RTR to JOU) - 6 Boosters + 1 Seeded Pack + 1 playable Prerelease Rare Foil that may determines you win or lose by quite the margin or get you money straight, depending on color availability + Box
"The Tears of Prerelease Card Collectors" Age (KTK) - 6 Boosters + 1 Seeded Pack + (Usually) 1 of 8 playable Prerelease Foils that could help you win or get you money straight, depending on color availability + Box
"Have the Collectors Quit yet?" Age (BFZ) - 6 Boosters + 1 playable prerelease foil out of all the set's rare/mythics that might or not help you win or net money straight + Box
I lived that age. Best prerelease pack were then, we you got a Tournament pack and the three boosters. But the PR foil usually ended up being worth almost nothing.
The name you gave to the KTK age is very descriptive
Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.
You still get your foil prerelease promo card, so the only thing it costs you is a few color specific bulk uncommons and commons. As long as the box isn't a pos that falls apart immediately after use, I'd rather have the box.
Not to mention what would the seeded boosters be? allies and eldrazi, as that seems to be the entire theme of the set, and in the past the prerelease packs tried to be some what flavorful along with the story.
it has to be better than the cheap 'deckbox' in the fatpacks. bottom is reinforced making it more rigid, but its still thin cardboard. like I say it'll look ok on a shelf, and you 'could' use it a few times at fnm but i wouldnt keep a money deck in one
ohhh ya one guy always gets a nice combo couple cards or the set's top money card, then play some garbage cards have a lot of fun couple hours and rush home to get online and/or go thru your cards you bought haha and puzzle what new decks you're gonna build ...
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/128422062118/prerelease-question-the-special-card-we-get-in