will the stores give out the promos or will it be done by wizards like they did with player reward promos in the past ?
cause i will move in march and what if i get to play 2 events in one store and 4 in another ?
I imagine that should be all tracked by your DCI number. It'd be weird for it not to be.
My reasoning for not entering standard has always been the cost. I could never justify spending a decent chunk of change on a deck that eventually has to get torn apart, never to be used again. Format just doesn't speak to me is all. Unless the promo is some pretty good eternal promos I'll stick with my preferred format.
With Frontier now and Modern before, etc. it's becoming obvious players want their cards lasting long. Even EDH is on the rise every year. Personally I'm over sets being stifled by the need to service Standard. This "too strong for Standard" crap restricting what we can get over time has become stale as hell. Complete the damn Sword cycle and reprint the others. I want to see sets made to deliver cool, powerful cards. Not the obligatory 2/2 flying for 3 and all that. Which I understand is for Draft as well but IDK. I feel like all this attention is paid to standard which no one likes. Why would I spend $22 a pop on Gideon when I can wait for it to rotate, get it at $5 and enjoy it forever in EDH? People are free to love what they want but let's just say I am not surprised standard is falling out of favor in light of better formats where we can actually use cool cards. Problem with Modern for me is that it is the YGO of MTG and we all know how the sane feel about YGO.
I have seen posts about EDH ruining older card prices, but I could argue the same for modern or standard ruining my card prices. As much as MTG doesn't want to acknowledge the secondary market, it's basically putting your hands over your eyes saying "I can't see you!". It does lock people out of the game just based on budget. If the costs would come down I'd be more than happy to play in Standard, I just get more value per $ from EDH.
MM and EM don't really help too much as the reprints are few as they have to be a draft set first. If there were a set of just reprints I wouldn't mind buying into that.
I feel like all this attention is paid to standard which no one likes. Why would I spend $22 a pop on Gideon when I can wait for it to rotate, get it at $5 and enjoy it forever in EDH? People are free to love what they want but let's just say I am not surprised standard is falling out of favor in light of better formats where we can actually use cool cards.
Weirdly enough, the same criticism you level against Standard used to be the reason people considered Standard to be dynamic, competitive, and fun. Rotation was a GOOD thing. It meant that the game was different every season.
Again, what changed? Access. You make the format more expensive to play, you change the kinds of players who play it. To the point, you make it so that mostly only enfranchised players play it, because it's too expensive to get into it as a new player looking to experience competitive Magic for the first time. And enfranchised players are going to be playing Modern as well, so why wouldn't they care more about their thousand-dollar investments over silly, temporary Standard? So now, it's a footnote.
Make Standard affordable: eliminate mythics, target the chase product specifically at Modern / Eternal players. Affordable Standard means more exciting, more popular Standard.
I have seen posts about EDH ruining older card prices, but I could argue the same for modern or standard ruining my card prices. As much as MTG doesn't want to acknowledge the secondary market, it's basically putting your hands over your eyes saying "I can't see you!". It does lock people out of the game just based on budget. If the costs would come down I'd be more than happy to play in Standard, I just get more value per $ from EDH.
MM and EM don't really help too much as the reprints are few as they have to be a draft set first. If there were a set of just reprints I wouldn't mind buying into that.
Something like a core set maybe...
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Currently Playing: Standard:
Nothing, the format Bores me! Legacy: RBurn (Made on the Cheap!)R RGBelcherRG WSoldier StompyW BReanimatorB EDH: BUGRWSliver OverlordWRGUB BGeth, Lord of the VaultB
I have seen posts about EDH ruining older card prices, but I could argue the same for modern or standard ruining my card prices. As much as MTG doesn't want to acknowledge the secondary market, it's basically putting your hands over your eyes saying "I can't see you!". It does lock people out of the game just based on budget. If the costs would come down I'd be more than happy to play in Standard, I just get more value per $ from EDH.
MM and EM don't really help too much as the reprints are few as they have to be a draft set first. If there were a set of just reprints I wouldn't mind buying into that.
Something like a core set maybe...
Which is part of the reason I miss having the core sets.
I do the exact same thing, I only do foreign languages on cards that everyone should know, like Lightning Bolt, Tarmogoyf, Mana Leak, shocklands and so on. I played a Spanish Aven Mindcensor for a while because I couldn`t find an English one, and that led to some awkward and unfun situations.
I haven't gotten around to getting a foil one, so I'm running my only nonfoil copy of Akroma's Memorial, which is in Italian. Fun times remembering all the abilities its supposed to grant and those it doesn't grant (no it does not grant Lifelink...)
On the general topic of Standard losing popularity, while I'm no expert on the format simply because the very idea of rotation (no matter how "fun" the format is) annoys me (yes, I'm one of those "stingy" enfranchised players), resulting me only having played it "seriously" once (and when I say seriously I meant I made it to the Top 8 of the Worldwake Games Day with a full-fledged Jund deck back then...). I certainly enjoy EDH for the stability it provides (which makes it the only format I extensively go out to foil out) and while I do have a Modern deck, the "artificial rotations" that occur with less-than-ideally-worded bans don't give me too much confidence in the format (which is why I just go for the cheapest but still competitive deck based on what I already owned and fortunately for me that happened to be Affinity, dodger of bans).
But I digress... although that digression is one of my points - WotC has been churning out too many supplementary products and that distracts the consumer. I'm not using that as an excuse for poor design in Standard, I'm pointing out that it amplifies the "leaving" effect when Standard screws up, because you just so happened to make all your other alternatives more attractive. It probably hurt them internally as well, I don't really think they had expanded manpower to handle the increased number of products coming out and as a result, quality drops across the board, but Standard will naturally take the hardest blow because of how the entire game and its formats work when it comes to player convincing.
A "Core Set" is needed, but I think adding another product or altering the entire Standard Pattern will just add unnecessary stress to them and lower quality again. What they really need is to consolidate their products. We don't really need this "Core Set" to enter Standard - it's the reprints we're looking for. Honestly the Masters series were just overpriced draft sets coated with the marketing of non-rotating formats and didn't really solve much of anything. Conspiracy, on the other hand, was outright marketed for Limited but had good reprints and together with a nice print run, solved almost everything. Conspiracy should be a yearly product with the same print specifications but rebranded into something like "Magic Masters 2017", making it effectively a "core set" designed for drafting with quality reprints. Add double points to that if they used the Commander Decks as the product's "Intro Packs", so this one product effectively can cater to literally every crowd out there.
To be frank I'm playing mostly Frontier and Commander. I still buy up some pre-frontier cards, but it's few and far between and unless wizards really starts to support modern properly there's going to be a repeat of this entire passing of the torch in a few years again whether MaRo or wizards likes it or not. Technically even commander needs the support of Eternal Masters and Modern masters to be playable long term unless everyone is going to go to the various foreign black markets and buy proxy cards.
To be frank, I've been seeing a lot of proxies from off shore sellers lately at the gaming table that if they weren't marked by the guys playing them could probably fool a judge. I'm getting a bit worried that the lack of reprinting staple cards might start pushing more players to go to the low road.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
To be frank I'm playing mostly Frontier and Commander. I still buy up some pre-frontier cards, but it's few and far between and unless wizards really starts to support modern properly there's going to be a repeat of this entire passing of the torch in a few years again whether MaRo or wizards likes it or not. Technically even commander needs the support of Eternal Masters and Modern masters to be playable long term unless everyone is going to go to the various foreign black markets and buy proxy cards.
To be frank, I've been seeing a lot of proxies from off shore sellers lately at the gaming table that if they weren't marked by the guys playing them could probably fool a judge. I'm getting a bit worried that the lack of reprinting staple cards might start pushing more players to go to the low road.
Yeah I've seen a lot of fake black market cards pop up in peoples decks. What wizards seems to not understand is that for a very long period of time the huge bulk of rares cards had a price range between $1 to $20. The top best possible rare was only worth $20 in standard or extended. I remember dual lands like underground sea costing $30 to $40 for forever. But no one cared about dual lands because few people played legacy everyone placed standard. It's pretty clear that if they don't start reprints in huge waves for regular booster price that their game is going to sink. Why pay $400 for 4 tarmogoyfs when you get fake ones? If wizards changed the price of modern masters to $4 a pack keeping the same level of high cost reprints. You pretty much have problem solved. That's all they need to do. There are 74 rares in modern worth more than $20.
So 68 rares total in a master set. You can do almost all 74 in one set. I'm imagining you can downshift some of them that were uncommons before back down to uncommons and make up for the 6. Sell it for $4 a pack watch it make a necessary correction in the magic price market. Even if wizards markets them for $4 a pack retails will probably still sell it for $10. In that scenario though everyone wins. Every single booster pack that you open you get a high value in demand modern rare. Retailer don't even lose money. They make a massive profit selling the packs for $10 each. It would be a market correct set it would work perfectly fine. Prices would crash and it would be a good thing for the game. After the modern masters release though there can't be any major modern events for 6 months. You get release grand prixs then nothing.
Talking in this forum and comparing it to the modern forum is like night and day. It seems like people in the modern forum generally disregard any comment at all about changing how things are done to make the game more affordable or get card availability up and wizards seems to behave the same way. As for wizards in specific, it really feels like they are acting like Blockbuster and are going to fall strait into the same pit unless they turn things around in the next one to two years.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm confused as to why we're talking about Modern all of a sudden. Basically nothing anybody is saying about how to fix Standard applies to Modern. Modern is, and should be, Magic's premier money pit. I will never play it. But, it is the format that understands, and best caters to, the big spenders. The big spenders are the force that has kept Magic alive as the elite CCG for almost 25 years, now. They are carrying water for the rest of us.
And before anybody says, "But PTQs!"... no. This idea that every competitive player has to be aiming for the Pro Tour is part of the very problem we're talking about with Standard. There was a time when people would get together at their FLGS, play Standard, then go home. There was a time when Standard could attract back old-timey, lapsed players (like me) who were excited about a new set and just wanted to dust off their collections and have a good time. Since I more or less have to drop a hundy buying this seasons' planeswalkers overpriced mythic rare entry tickets before I even get to think about brewing my deck, that reacquisition event is just not gonna happen for me, sorry WotC. And if reacquisition is not happening for me, I bet acquisition to Standard is not happening for new players, either.
To another topic, people have been talking about more reprints helping Standard, or the idea that bringing the Core Set back (presumably because of reprints) could be a good idea for Standard. I'm... unconvinced. First of all, having lots of reprints in Standard really only helps the people who own those cards already. And, I mean, that would seem OK until you get to what I might call the Birds of Paradise problem. Birds was a card that, for SO many years was SO good, and was reprinted SO often, it really had a chilling effect on all other mana dorks WotC cared to print, because nothing could match Birds. Having the same high-caliber cards constantly popping back up in Standard really lowered my interest in both buying packs (because I already had a playset of what was, for years, the game's best rare mana dork), and in playing Standard, because I was tired of playing with or against those freaking Birds. As I said elsewhere, the great thing about Standard is that its variable and exciting, and having a stable of go-to reprints really works against that. So, I think that maybe it's best to err on the side of caution with reprints. I really think that de-mythicising the format is the better approach.
To another topic, people have been talking about more reprints helping Standard, or the idea that bringing the Core Set back (presumably because of reprints) could be a good idea for Standard. I'm... unconvinced. First of all, having lots of reprints in Standard really only helps the people who own those cards already. And, I mean, that would seem OK until you get to what I might call the Birds of Paradise problem. Birds was a card that, for SO many years was SO good, and was reprinted SO often, it really had a chilling effect on all other mana dorks WotC cared to print, because nothing could match Birds. Having the same high-caliber cards constantly popping back up in Standard really lowered my interest in both buying packs (because I already had a playset of what was, for years, the game's best rare mana dork), and in playing Standard, because I was tired of playing with or against those freaking Birds. As I said elsewhere, the great thing about Standard is that its variable and exciting, and having a stable of go-to reprints really works against that. So, I think that maybe it's best to err on the side of caution with reprints. I really think that de-mythicising the format is the better approach.
I can completely understand that core sets were not as exciting and were opened less, but reprints are greatly needed for Standard. Not only do they help lower the cost of some of them, but allowing new players a chance to grab them anew. The lack of reprints is a huge problem right now and Standard could definitely use more of them. The only decent reprints we've gotten is Felidar Sovereign, Dragonmaster Outcast, and Terrarion. After that all we keep getting is Negate, and that's about it.
I agree that trying not to make all the good cards be at Mythic is something that WotC should try to do, but for now I'd just be glad if they tried to make the game more affordable and not throw together terrible products, like the Masters sets, DD's, and things like Planechase Anthology (for $150 it was stupid, but for $100 it was at least okay) although DD Anthology was perfectly fine.
Ultimately Wizards is just behind on the times with how to work their TCG and aren't striking a good balance right now with how they are handling prints. The two really big issues they aren't tackling that are being tackled in other games is reprinting for the non-rotating format and the digital frontier that left MtG on the roadside with a "need a lift" sign, and this has been going on now for two or more years. On top of which they are running out of design space and are printing more and more mechanically complex cards. Looking back at the historic legacy sets, things just did a lot less than they do now over all, but the few things that survived from Legacy into modern do the one thing they are supposed to do better than any other card. Case in point, compare Chandra's Revolution to Lightning Bolt or even Lightning Helix.
I can see what they are doing in that they are trying to make decisions more strait forward for players, but in a game about interaction you can't just staple effects together on the same card and expect it to hold up because the player in an interactive game needs mana open to "react" on the opponents turn. This has been a sticking point throughout the entire BFZ standard we've been trapped in, and we finally are starting to look like we may be getting out of it with cards like Fatal Push and Select for Inspection, as well as Shock making a comeback. The entire reason CoCo was broken is not due to it being too good, but because the standard it was in got built in this non-reactive sorcery speed dominated format that favored slamming creatures on the table and that is it. Cards like Searing Light and Silk Wrap were not good answers.
And so, with all those mistakes still being left unresolved... they give us promotional lands and a smiley face sticker with a written promise things will get better, just keep coming and buying our stuff in the meantime. Seriously? That's it? How about we don't buy your stuff, stop coming to the LGS to play magic and go pick up YGO or Pokemon? At least those games seem to have companies that are more reactive and up with the times.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Listen, fixing standard is not as easy as getting rid of mythic rare status. This will do very little to change the pricing of cards in standard, as the best cards in standard were always expensive, whether or not they were mythic. Yes, chase mythics tend to be more expensive than chase rares, but only because wizards has ignored their own original idea or making mythics feel MYTHIC. If they want to solve the problem all they need to do is make mythics they way they say they intended, by making them have big impacts in the game they are in, AND then make the cards cost more as far as CMC. Make all mythics cost 5 CMC or more ONLY; make them all comparable in quality (not like the difference between baby jace and nissa vs the other flipwalkers) and make all of your chase rares ACTUAL rares, and the problem is solved. But don't get rid of mythics. Limiting the game like that will by definition limit your options, creating even bigger problems with the cost of standard. Make mythics costly (CMC) so people don't overuse them, but can still have fun with a few better than average cards and you create diversity, which drives cost way down.
Listen, fixing standard is not as easy as getting rid of mythic rare status. This will do very little to change the pricing of cards in standard, as the best cards in standard were always expensive, whether or not they were mythic. Yes, chase mythics tend to be more expensive than chase rares, but only because wizards has ignored their own original idea or making mythics feel MYTHIC. If they want to solve the problem all they need to do is make mythics they way they say they intended, by making them have big impacts in the game they are in, AND then make the cards cost more as far as CMC. Make all mythics cost 5 CMC or more ONLY; make them all comparable in quality (not like the difference between baby jace and nissa vs the other flipwalkers) and make all of your chase rares ACTUAL rares, and the problem is solved. But don't get rid of mythics. Limiting the game like that will by definition limit your options, creating even bigger problems with the cost of standard. Make mythics costly (CMC) so people don't overuse them, but can still have fun with a few better than average cards and you create diversity, which drives cost way down.
The purpose of mythics has been, and always will be, a lever for WotC to drive sales. If the actual good cards were all rares, there would be no need for mythics.
Mythics and masterpieces take up too much of a set's value to entice weekly drafters and pack-per-win FNM players. They need to go back to their original rare-per-booster model for the long-term health of the game.
The argument that players benefit by reduced cost of rares is stupid. No one cares that a playset of Toolcraft Exemplar playset is $5 if a Heart of Kiran playset is $100, even though both are required for Mardu Vehicles.
Listen, fixing standard is not as easy as getting rid of mythic rare status. This will do very little to change the pricing of cards in standard, as the best cards in standard were always expensive, whether or not they were mythic. Yes, chase mythics tend to be more expensive than chase rares, but only because wizards has ignored their own original idea or making mythics feel MYTHIC. If they want to solve the problem all they need to do is make mythics they way they say they intended, by making them have big impacts in the game they are in, AND then make the cards cost more as far as CMC. Make all mythics cost 5 CMC or more ONLY; make them all comparable in quality (not like the difference between baby jace and nissa vs the other flipwalkers) and make all of your chase rares ACTUAL rares, and the problem is solved. But don't get rid of mythics. Limiting the game like that will by definition limit your options, creating even bigger problems with the cost of standard. Make mythics costly (CMC) so people don't overuse them, but can still have fun with a few better than average cards and you create diversity, which drives cost way down.
The purpose of mythics has been, and always will be, a lever for WotC to drive sales. If the actual good cards were all rares, there would be no need for mythics.
Mythics and masterpieces take up too much of a set's value to entice weekly drafters and pack-per-win FNM players. They need to go back to their original rare-per-booster model for the long-term health of the game.
The argument that players benefit by reduced cost of rares is stupid. No one cares that a playset of Toolcraft Exemplar playset is $5 if a Heart of Kiran playset is $100, even though both are required for Mardu Vehicles.
I didn't say to make all the 'actual good cards' rare, I said to make the chase cards rare but ALSO make mythics super powerful but harder to cast, so that you wouldn't play 4 of like heart of kiran. a playset of heart can be $100 because it cost 2 to cast. If it was a 9/9 and cost 5cmc it would still be super powerful, and played, but not as a 4 of, just like sky sovereign, which of course sky sovereign is only $4 max despite being a repeatable tempo swing with evasion, but it's because of it's high CMC. With a CMC that high, Mythics would be at or around the same frequency in constructed decks as they are in limited decks, which is what wizards admits to building for. This would make more balanced standard metas because deck building would have to be more creative. Decks wouldn't just leave out gearhulks because of their high cmc, but to have playable decks they cant just load up with mythics.
to respond specifically to your first sentence though, I see what you are saying, but there is a flaw in the logic. High priced mythics only help the secondary market make money beyond the initial release. If all the 'best cards' were rare, which I take to mean the most competitive cards, then more people will be able to compete by just cracking packs then buying singles, which would increase profits for wizards because they would spark more interest in a greater number of people. Then mythics will drop in price on the secondary market, while rares rise to a point that its more advantageous to crack packs. mythics would then become a niche market type of card.
Listen, fixing standard is not as easy as getting rid of mythic rare status. This will do very little to change the pricing of cards in standard, as the best cards in standard were always expensive, whether or not they were mythic. Yes, chase mythics tend to be more expensive than chase rares, but only because wizards has ignored their own original idea or making mythics feel MYTHIC. If they want to solve the problem all they need to do is make mythics they way they say they intended, by making them have big impacts in the game they are in, AND then make the cards cost more as far as CMC. Make all mythics cost 5 CMC or more ONLY; make them all comparable in quality (not like the difference between baby jace and nissa vs the other flipwalkers) and make all of your chase rares ACTUAL rares, and the problem is solved. But don't get rid of mythics. Limiting the game like that will by definition limit your options, creating even bigger problems with the cost of standard. Make mythics costly (CMC) so people don't overuse them, but can still have fun with a few better than average cards and you create diversity, which drives cost way down.
The purpose of mythics has been, and always will be, a lever for WotC to drive sales. If the actual good cards were all rares, there would be no need for mythics.
Mythics and masterpieces take up too much of a set's value to entice weekly drafters and pack-per-win FNM players. They need to go back to their original rare-per-booster model for the long-term health of the game.
The argument that players benefit by reduced cost of rares is stupid. No one cares that a playset of Toolcraft Exemplar playset is $5 if a Heart of Kiran playset is $100, even though both are required for Mardu Vehicles.
I didn't say to make all the 'actual good cards' rare, I said to make the chase cards rare but ALSO make mythics super powerful but harder to cast, so that you wouldn't play 4 of like heart of kiran. a playset of heart can be $100 because it cost 2 to cast. If it was a 9/9 and cost 5cmc it would still be super powerful, and played, but not as a 4 of, just like sky sovereign, which of course sky sovereign is only $4 max despite being a repeatable tempo swing with evasion, but it's because of it's high CMC. With a CMC that high, Mythics would be at or around the same frequency in constructed decks as they are in limited decks, which is what wizards admits to building for. This would make more balanced standard metas because deck building would have to be more creative. Decks wouldn't just leave out gearhulks because of their high cmc, but to have playable decks they cant just load up with mythics.
to respond specifically to your first sentence though, I see what you are saying, but there is a flaw in the logic. High priced mythics only help the secondary market make money beyond the initial release. If all the 'best cards' were rare, which I take to mean the most competitive cards, then more people will be able to compete by just cracking packs then buying singles, which would increase profits for wizards because they would spark more interest in a greater number of people. Then mythics will drop in price on the secondary market, while rares rise to a point that its more advantageous to crack packs. mythics would then become a niche market type of card.
Just about the only way they can solve the high price issue is by diverting costs with lottery cards and bonus reprint cards right now and we probably wont see the next big dip in singles prices until Digital Next goes live and they have game codes in the packs. Once that happens I think most mythics will become relatively affordable due to sellers cracking packs along with players for the online booster pack codes.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm probably late to the discussion, but are these negotiable dual lands even as playable as the shocklands? Because they wouldn't bring me out to a standard Friday night.
Why are you seeing this as a desperation move? Good times, bad times, companies do promotion to grow at all times, this is nothing out of the ordinary. They want more players playing standard, well duh. There will never be enough playing standard for them.
I mostly stopped playing standard after SOM/ISD block. It is just way too expensive to keep up with rotating decks when prices are high, and 99.9% of cards do not translate into other formats. Spending several hundred dollars every time a set/block rotates to keep yourself competitive in standard really isn't in most peoples budgets.
People think Frontier is going to solve the problem; but thats exactly what people thought about Modern when it first came around. There was no reserved list, the ridiculous cards were banned and WOTC could reprint cards to keep prices from getting out of control.
Well, Printing a Tarmogoyf at Myhtic Rare doesn't really solve the problem. How many people would play Goyf in Modern, if price was not an issue? Tens of thousands of people? thats 4x tens of thousands of Goyfs...and I would be surprised if 5,000 MM/MM2 goyfs existed in TOTAL.
Back on topic though; mythic rares are what is destroying Standard, ever so slowly. If you look at a common and a mythic rare, the fundamental power level difference in the 2 cards is determined by a tiny rarity symbol. Mythic rare is giving WOTC this area to create cards that cause imbalance card vs card. They feel they can push a cards power level if they make it a Mythic Rare...thinking it wont cause problems...thats the reason the "legendary rule" exists for cards. Imagine being able to have 4 eye of ugin? There is no restriction on Mythic Rares so all Wizards is doing is taking a Hill Giant creature, and turning it into Verdurous Gearhulk just because its "rarer." Well, that doesnt stop a person from playing 4 of them in their deck.
WOTC had a program rewarding players with cards for playing; but that clearly was too costly.
There is also the underlying issue of Standard not being "policed" at the store level. I don't think ive ever witnessed a certified judge at any FNM level event. The TO is made the "judge" in those circumstances...well how many store owners know the Magic rules well enough to make qualified calls? Its easy to play favoritism to your customers that keep your store afloat. Its easy to enter players into a tournament that may not even be in the store to play, just to make sure your store keeps its status level or to get that "8th" player.
A lot of things would need to change to entice me back to standard; some rare lands are not.
I imagine that should be all tracked by your DCI number. It'd be weird for it not to be.
My reasoning for not entering standard has always been the cost. I could never justify spending a decent chunk of change on a deck that eventually has to get torn apart, never to be used again. Format just doesn't speak to me is all. Unless the promo is some pretty good eternal promos I'll stick with my preferred format.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
MM and EM don't really help too much as the reprints are few as they have to be a draft set first. If there were a set of just reprints I wouldn't mind buying into that.
Again, what changed? Access. You make the format more expensive to play, you change the kinds of players who play it. To the point, you make it so that mostly only enfranchised players play it, because it's too expensive to get into it as a new player looking to experience competitive Magic for the first time. And enfranchised players are going to be playing Modern as well, so why wouldn't they care more about their thousand-dollar investments over silly, temporary Standard? So now, it's a footnote.
Make Standard affordable: eliminate mythics, target the chase product specifically at Modern / Eternal players. Affordable Standard means more exciting, more popular Standard.
Something like a core set maybe...
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Nothing, the format Bores me!
Legacy:
RBurn (Made on the Cheap!)R
RGBelcherRG
WSoldier StompyW
BReanimatorB
EDH:
BUGRWSliver OverlordWRGUB
BGeth, Lord of the VaultB
Which is part of the reason I miss having the core sets.
I haven't gotten around to getting a foil one, so I'm running my only nonfoil copy of Akroma's Memorial, which is in Italian. Fun times remembering all the abilities its supposed to grant and those it doesn't grant (no it does not grant Lifelink...)
On the general topic of Standard losing popularity, while I'm no expert on the format simply because the very idea of rotation (no matter how "fun" the format is) annoys me (yes, I'm one of those "stingy" enfranchised players), resulting me only having played it "seriously" once (and when I say seriously I meant I made it to the Top 8 of the Worldwake Games Day with a full-fledged Jund deck back then...). I certainly enjoy EDH for the stability it provides (which makes it the only format I extensively go out to foil out) and while I do have a Modern deck, the "artificial rotations" that occur with less-than-ideally-worded bans don't give me too much confidence in the format (which is why I just go for the cheapest but still competitive deck based on what I already owned and fortunately for me that happened to be Affinity, dodger of bans).
But I digress... although that digression is one of my points - WotC has been churning out too many supplementary products and that distracts the consumer. I'm not using that as an excuse for poor design in Standard, I'm pointing out that it amplifies the "leaving" effect when Standard screws up, because you just so happened to make all your other alternatives more attractive. It probably hurt them internally as well, I don't really think they had expanded manpower to handle the increased number of products coming out and as a result, quality drops across the board, but Standard will naturally take the hardest blow because of how the entire game and its formats work when it comes to player convincing.
A "Core Set" is needed, but I think adding another product or altering the entire Standard Pattern will just add unnecessary stress to them and lower quality again. What they really need is to consolidate their products. We don't really need this "Core Set" to enter Standard - it's the reprints we're looking for. Honestly the Masters series were just overpriced draft sets coated with the marketing of non-rotating formats and didn't really solve much of anything. Conspiracy, on the other hand, was outright marketed for Limited but had good reprints and together with a nice print run, solved almost everything. Conspiracy should be a yearly product with the same print specifications but rebranded into something like "Magic Masters 2017", making it effectively a "core set" designed for drafting with quality reprints. Add double points to that if they used the Commander Decks as the product's "Intro Packs", so this one product effectively can cater to literally every crowd out there.
Thanks, updated the title.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
To be frank, I've been seeing a lot of proxies from off shore sellers lately at the gaming table that if they weren't marked by the guys playing them could probably fool a judge. I'm getting a bit worried that the lack of reprinting staple cards might start pushing more players to go to the low road.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Talking in this forum and comparing it to the modern forum is like night and day. It seems like people in the modern forum generally disregard any comment at all about changing how things are done to make the game more affordable or get card availability up and wizards seems to behave the same way. As for wizards in specific, it really feels like they are acting like Blockbuster and are going to fall strait into the same pit unless they turn things around in the next one to two years.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm confused as to why we're talking about Modern all of a sudden. Basically nothing anybody is saying about how to fix Standard applies to Modern. Modern is, and should be, Magic's premier money pit. I will never play it. But, it is the format that understands, and best caters to, the big spenders. The big spenders are the force that has kept Magic alive as the elite CCG for almost 25 years, now. They are carrying water for the rest of us.
And before anybody says, "But PTQs!"... no. This idea that every competitive player has to be aiming for the Pro Tour is part of the very problem we're talking about with Standard. There was a time when people would get together at their FLGS, play Standard, then go home. There was a time when Standard could attract back old-timey, lapsed players (like me) who were excited about a new set and just wanted to dust off their collections and have a good time. Since I more or less have to drop a hundy buying this seasons'
planeswalkersoverpriced mythic rare entry tickets before I even get to think about brewing my deck, that reacquisition event is just not gonna happen for me, sorry WotC. And if reacquisition is not happening for me, I bet acquisition to Standard is not happening for new players, either.To another topic, people have been talking about more reprints helping Standard, or the idea that bringing the Core Set back (presumably because of reprints) could be a good idea for Standard. I'm... unconvinced. First of all, having lots of reprints in Standard really only helps the people who own those cards already. And, I mean, that would seem OK until you get to what I might call the Birds of Paradise problem. Birds was a card that, for SO many years was SO good, and was reprinted SO often, it really had a chilling effect on all other mana dorks WotC cared to print, because nothing could match Birds. Having the same high-caliber cards constantly popping back up in Standard really lowered my interest in both buying packs (because I already had a playset of what was, for years, the game's best rare mana dork), and in playing Standard, because I was tired of playing with or against those freaking Birds. As I said elsewhere, the great thing about Standard is that its variable and exciting, and having a stable of go-to reprints really works against that. So, I think that maybe it's best to err on the side of caution with reprints. I really think that de-mythicising the format is the better approach.
I can completely understand that core sets were not as exciting and were opened less, but reprints are greatly needed for Standard. Not only do they help lower the cost of some of them, but allowing new players a chance to grab them anew. The lack of reprints is a huge problem right now and Standard could definitely use more of them. The only decent reprints we've gotten is Felidar Sovereign, Dragonmaster Outcast, and Terrarion. After that all we keep getting is Negate, and that's about it.
I agree that trying not to make all the good cards be at Mythic is something that WotC should try to do, but for now I'd just be glad if they tried to make the game more affordable and not throw together terrible products, like the Masters sets, DD's, and things like Planechase Anthology (for $150 it was stupid, but for $100 it was at least okay) although DD Anthology was perfectly fine.
I can see what they are doing in that they are trying to make decisions more strait forward for players, but in a game about interaction you can't just staple effects together on the same card and expect it to hold up because the player in an interactive game needs mana open to "react" on the opponents turn. This has been a sticking point throughout the entire BFZ standard we've been trapped in, and we finally are starting to look like we may be getting out of it with cards like Fatal Push and Select for Inspection, as well as Shock making a comeback. The entire reason CoCo was broken is not due to it being too good, but because the standard it was in got built in this non-reactive sorcery speed dominated format that favored slamming creatures on the table and that is it. Cards like Searing Light and Silk Wrap were not good answers.
And so, with all those mistakes still being left unresolved... they give us promotional lands and a smiley face sticker with a written promise things will get better, just keep coming and buying our stuff in the meantime. Seriously? That's it? How about we don't buy your stuff, stop coming to the LGS to play magic and go pick up YGO or Pokemon? At least those games seem to have companies that are more reactive and up with the times.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The purpose of mythics has been, and always will be, a lever for WotC to drive sales. If the actual good cards were all rares, there would be no need for mythics.
Mythics and masterpieces take up too much of a set's value to entice weekly drafters and pack-per-win FNM players. They need to go back to their original rare-per-booster model for the long-term health of the game.
The argument that players benefit by reduced cost of rares is stupid. No one cares that a playset of Toolcraft Exemplar playset is $5 if a Heart of Kiran playset is $100, even though both are required for Mardu Vehicles.
I didn't say to make all the 'actual good cards' rare, I said to make the chase cards rare but ALSO make mythics super powerful but harder to cast, so that you wouldn't play 4 of like heart of kiran. a playset of heart can be $100 because it cost 2 to cast. If it was a 9/9 and cost 5cmc it would still be super powerful, and played, but not as a 4 of, just like sky sovereign, which of course sky sovereign is only $4 max despite being a repeatable tempo swing with evasion, but it's because of it's high CMC. With a CMC that high, Mythics would be at or around the same frequency in constructed decks as they are in limited decks, which is what wizards admits to building for. This would make more balanced standard metas because deck building would have to be more creative. Decks wouldn't just leave out gearhulks because of their high cmc, but to have playable decks they cant just load up with mythics.
to respond specifically to your first sentence though, I see what you are saying, but there is a flaw in the logic. High priced mythics only help the secondary market make money beyond the initial release. If all the 'best cards' were rare, which I take to mean the most competitive cards, then more people will be able to compete by just cracking packs then buying singles, which would increase profits for wizards because they would spark more interest in a greater number of people. Then mythics will drop in price on the secondary market, while rares rise to a point that its more advantageous to crack packs. mythics would then become a niche market type of card.
Just about the only way they can solve the high price issue is by diverting costs with lottery cards and bonus reprint cards right now and we probably wont see the next big dip in singles prices until Digital Next goes live and they have game codes in the packs. Once that happens I think most mythics will become relatively affordable due to sellers cracking packs along with players for the online booster pack codes.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I imagine the fun playing the game happens while playing, on here it's discussion. You can discuss the game and have fun with it at the same time.
People think Frontier is going to solve the problem; but thats exactly what people thought about Modern when it first came around. There was no reserved list, the ridiculous cards were banned and WOTC could reprint cards to keep prices from getting out of control.
Well, Printing a Tarmogoyf at Myhtic Rare doesn't really solve the problem. How many people would play Goyf in Modern, if price was not an issue? Tens of thousands of people? thats 4x tens of thousands of Goyfs...and I would be surprised if 5,000 MM/MM2 goyfs existed in TOTAL.
Back on topic though; mythic rares are what is destroying Standard, ever so slowly. If you look at a common and a mythic rare, the fundamental power level difference in the 2 cards is determined by a tiny rarity symbol. Mythic rare is giving WOTC this area to create cards that cause imbalance card vs card. They feel they can push a cards power level if they make it a Mythic Rare...thinking it wont cause problems...thats the reason the "legendary rule" exists for cards. Imagine being able to have 4 eye of ugin? There is no restriction on Mythic Rares so all Wizards is doing is taking a Hill Giant creature, and turning it into Verdurous Gearhulk just because its "rarer." Well, that doesnt stop a person from playing 4 of them in their deck.
WOTC had a program rewarding players with cards for playing; but that clearly was too costly.
There is also the underlying issue of Standard not being "policed" at the store level. I don't think ive ever witnessed a certified judge at any FNM level event. The TO is made the "judge" in those circumstances...well how many store owners know the Magic rules well enough to make qualified calls? Its easy to play favoritism to your customers that keep your store afloat. Its easy to enter players into a tournament that may not even be in the store to play, just to make sure your store keeps its status level or to get that "8th" player.
A lot of things would need to change to entice me back to standard; some rare lands are not.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015