Hold the Line, an Innistrad Event Deck was very good, purchasing one or two of these made a fairly viable FMN ready deck, through in a few Angelic Destny's and you had a white weeny agro that could compete for low cost
I hope the challenger decks aspire to be this good
I don't get the criticism of calling out Wizard's "failures".
There you have it.
You really shouldn't put two statements together and remove them from context and then make a conclusion from it.
To clarify:
I'm not a standard player, but I understand why these products didn't fly, but I woudn't label them as "failures", as they are a work in progress. Just a matter of perspective I guess.
Okay, so now maybe the people complaining about product that was never meant for them will finally shut up.
Sad to see the DD go, they were (with a couple of failures) quite great introductory product, and virtually the only Magic thing my wife agreed to play with me.
The big NOs were Venser vs. Koth and Divine vs. Demonic, former entirely unbalanced and latter entirely missing each other leading to non-interacting damage race. Izzet vs. Golgari (despite being one of the best value-wise) were the only ones too complicated to play with a Magic beginner.
I am not too hyped about the Challenger decks. Event decks were a very mixed success, and we even do not have any periodicity stated here. Will they come once a year?
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I too am sad to see the Duel Decks go. I actually enjoyed those.
Given all the criticism this kind of product always had, and much of it unfair, it seems WOTC tried to “save” the product line with the changes they introduced with Mind v Might. They doubled the number of rares in there and raised the price.
Apparently, the increased number of rares did little or nothing to attract more buyers and the raise in price must have been a deal breaker for many of the usual buyers. Result: poor reception.
So, they decided to end it, and the end is a return to the beginning, to the first Duel Decks, Elves v. Goblins, except, this time, the tribes show up separately.
I applaud them for actually trying ti give players real starter decks that will actually get them started in non-kitchen table magic. All that remains now is to see if these decks are actually FNM viable. If they are, I'll consider this a home run.
My only real problem is the price point. The duel decks cost $20 and contain two full decks, this contains one deck and a sideboard and costs almost twice as much.
Are you actually suggesting that a $35 on ramp ($30 for the deck and $5 for the tournament) is too high a price? Remember, if the decks are precon. And let's say contains a Scarab God (or 2) then they won't be available to be bought at $30 because it will be wroth it to open them and sell the singles. This is the challenge. The secondary market sets a fundamental limit on how much value can be in a precon.
Not being a standard player perhaps you don't realize completely how WotC has been failing over the past 2 years. The two statements are the important ones.
Extending that trend to this product release is an easy step. If they put cards that are too valuable in this product the 'good deck' will get bought out leaving the mediocre on the shelf for the pick up and play guy to end up with. If they don't put cards of decent value in them, you're wasting your money completely. This will be a very hard product to put together.
I hope they somehow pull it off but at the same time I'm watching spoilers for the new set hoping beyond hope they don't jack it up horribly. It's going to have to be really good to get out of the current standard doldrums. On top of the the following set had better knock socks off or just be consistent across the color pie or Standard will die and this product will be pointless.
There’s something that has never made sense to me about these products. Why can’t there be valuable cards included that allow the deck to be viable?
The argument I always see here is, “Well if there’s too much value in the $30 box then enfranchised players will buy up the supply instead of the target audience.”
Okay, but why is that a problem? The idea with these products is to Provide a person with a low entry cost deck to play at FNM. IF they put a Scarab God in these challenger decks (to stay with the current example above) and a bunch of people buy the challenger decks for the Scarab God value, the secondary market price of Scarab God drops.
If the secondary market price of the Card drops, then it’s cheaper to build / buy a competitive standard deck. Same situation applies to any other high value card they place in these decks. Sure, the exact challenger deck may be harder to find, but if the cost of the cards drop then the barrier to entry softens as well since building the deck is less expensive. Original mission accomplished (even if it took an extra step).
The only problem this doesn’t solve is for those people that don’t want to build a deck themselves and are seeking the challenger deck to avoid that step. Well, back before net-deck lists were easily accessible I can understand this being a problem. However, today, you don’t have to build your own deck or buy a challenger deck to have a deck built. You simply need to google a deck list and pull out your wallet.
Every gamestore that you would be purchasing a challenger deck from should simply direct you to one of those online lists and compile the cards for you. Simple and effective upsell in the event that actual challenger deck supplies have been bought out.
So, again, I ask. Why is Wizards so unwilling to put high value cards in preconstructed products like this? The only rational answer seems to be that it would cannibalize sales of the booster boxes themselves. That begs the question then, why even create this product if the philosophy of the product is damaging to your revenue strategy?
It’s a veil. A veil to take advantage of the uninformed - to take advantage of someone who thinks this will be something they can play with in public and are willing to spend the money without researching. It’s a shady practice and indicative of a company run by Hasbro instead of one run by enthusiasts.
Now, all that changes if they decide to put real cards in the decks this time around. I’ll be waiting with baited breath.
I applaud them for actually trying ti give players real starter decks that will actually get them started in non-kitchen table magic. All that remains now is to see if these decks are actually FNM viable. If they are, I'll consider this a home run.
My only real problem is the price point. The duel decks cost $20 and contain two full decks, this contains one deck and a sideboard and costs almost twice as much.
Are you actually suggesting that a $35 on ramp ($30 for the deck and $5 for the tournament) is too high a price? Remember, if the decks are precon. And let's say contains a Scarab God (or 2) then they won't be available to be bought at $30 because it will be wroth it to open them and sell the singles. This is the challenge. The secondary market sets a fundamental limit on how much value can be in a precon.
I'm suggesting that it costs WOTC no more to print any one given card than it does to print another. I'm also suggesting that the increased prices of these decks may also sway consumer choices in what exactly they're going to buy as a beginner in MTG. This versus the $15 Planeswlaker decks or the $20 duel decks that will still be on LGS shelves.
Assuming that The Scarab God will be here at all is a leap, not only is The Scarab God arguably the most powerful threat of the current standard format, but these decks are also explicitly stated to be aiming for FNM viability.
The question of availability remains to be seen as we do not have two factors that are essential determine whether or not these will be readily available for their intended demographic: Value and print run. I am not assuming, again, that these will contain any Scarab God level cards, rather I am working under the premise that these provide reasonable value for their price and more importantly provide a reasonably FNM competitive starting point for those looking to enter standard. And I'm pretty sure that the latter is exactly what WOTC is going for. My gripe isn't about value or any sort of personal disagreement about price, but it hinges on the simple fact that more people will be willing to pick one of these decks up and try standard and potentially become more interested in the format which is, again, exactly ehat WOTC's goal is here. $30 feels like much more of a commitment than $20 and that's important when what you are essentially selling us a trial platform.
This isn't about value, it's about consumer perception of a product, especially if those consumers do not have knowledge of standard already. That is an important and deciding factor in the success of these decks.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
Imagine that WOTC made modern legal challenger decks based on themes and strategies from some of the old theme decks and intro packs from modern legal sets.
It’s a veil. A veil to take advantage of the uninformed - to take advantage of someone who thinks this will be something they can play with in public and are willing to spend the money without researching. It’s a shady practice and indicative of a company run by Hasbro instead of one run by enthusiasts.
Now, all that changes if they decide to put real cards in the decks this time around. I’ll be waiting with baited breath.
Your whole post is right on target.
They SHOULD put high value cards in a deck of this design because they are the cards that make the decks viable and competitive.
Why shouldn't they? Part of the problem is stores might sell the product for over MSRP which I think is BS. Sell it at sticker price and when you run out order more ffs. [I also believe they should delete the Mythic rarity and that it'd help more people play, card prices stay more average, and sales go up but they're going to cleave to their system for sure.]
These decks have always been a veil. They're only really good to pit them against each other. If they say copy Temur Energy and give you all the cards in the current winning list then they're keeping the promise of pick up and play competitive. But if they short the lists on rares and mythics then forget it. Temur Energy is a bit of different animal because Energy makes average cards way above average. That list has 20 rares (counting dual lands from multiple sets) and that's just main board. There is no way they include 20 rares with a $30 premade set. Even UB aggro and UW control have 23 rare/mythic altogether and that's again just in the main board.
Frankly I don't think they'll print 4 color energy for everyone's consumption. It's top tier and dominating, but frankly you can make 4 color really easily after starting with Temur Energy. It's that darn Scarab god and 30+ dollars that gets in the way. But still they're all too many rares for a $30 product.
When we see the lists math will have to be done to see if they are worth the $30. I'm guessing it'll probably be short of that.
Challenger decks are probably intended as a learning tool to teach new players how a deck at fnm operates. The duel decks lacked the sideboard, so if someone got introduced to playing that way they may not know how a sideboard works in regards to a deck. So I'm pretty sure these decks will be under powered with single copy rares and mythics.
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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!
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I just realized that the discontinuation of Duel Decks means we'll never get to have DD: Pirates vs Ninjas.
Give them a couple of years. They will dump this newest product and bring Duel Decks back. Plenty of jank cards and decks to print still.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Well, they could easily make these products relevant by having cards that are tournament legal in standard that only show up in the decks. 4x Magma Spray, Rampant growth, etc, could go in them. Not to mention they don't have any real reason to not 4x rares and mythics. The entire problem with Wizards of the Coast secondary products is the arbitrary limitations they are setting on the contents of secondary products, which should be supporting the primary product line instead of working against it or trying to cater to some phantom audience that barely exists.
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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 think $30 will keep new players from buying these. They really need to hit that $20 mark to be a small purchase. If they’re worried about valuable cards making one or two decks sell out and leave the rest warming shelves then they need to do the smart thing and print the ever loving hell out of these decks and sell them at Walmart, Target, etc where new players might actually see them. Restricting these to game shops restricts their effectiveness in attracting new players.
Wait, so they're following Merfolk vs. Goblins with Inventors vs. Elves? Interesting that they're sending off DD with the two halves of the very first theme the series ever produced. Obviously, IvE will be blue vs. green.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
This is something I've wanted them to do for a long time. If they want standard to be Magic's premiere format that everyone should be playing while also being the format all new players should jump into, WOTC needs to provide a first step as well as a low barrier of entry for new players. I applaud them for actually trying ti give players real starter decks that will actually get them started in non-kitchen table magic. All that remains now is to see if these decks are actually FNM viable. If they are, I'll consider this a home run.
My only real problem is the price point. The duel decks cost $20 and contain two full decks, this contains one deck and a sideboard and costs almost twice as much. I guarantee the spindown did not add significantly onto the manufacturing cost of these decks and we all know that the deck box is going to be cardboard again. So I have to conclude that they have an inflated price due to WOTC wanting to keep standard card prices up.
Well, they had Event decks until like BFZ, i guess that at least this time, the price tag can alow for nice things.
Hope we see Scarab God, Search for Azcanta, Torrential Gearhulk, Fatal Push, Vraska's Contempt, etc in the same deck, even as 1-ofs... At least this price tag should alow to some of those ( and the print run should be enough to alow the prices stay low)
I sure do hope they put good stuff in 'em. They have proved that out-of-the-box playable releases are possible in the Commander format, but standard seems like a different beast. After all, Standard and Modern are the formats driving the whole gambling scheme of boosters/booster box sales, so I have my doubts. But hey! Y'never know. I'll just wait 'til Tolarian tells me they're worthwhile
If I haven't forgot what I read yesterday the article stated at least two mythics in the challenger deck. I believe if they want this to be a success they gotta disregard the price setters (your SCGs) and put actual chase cards. Your Scarab Gods, your Chandras, your Vraskas.
The predecessors were just pander products for these giants. It was always doomed for failure. Their market research... obviously didn't do any research. Best of all? They probably have a fixed budget price to build those decks. And where do you source your pricing from? SCG of course. It's so circular the logic, one wonders why WotC persisted in this failed formula.
Something I noticed is that we get the decklists in February and these come out in early April. Is that normal to know about something a full month before it comes out?
This is something I've wanted them to do for a long time. If they want standard to be Magic's premiere format that everyone should be playing while also being the format all new players should jump into, WOTC needs to provide a first step as well as a low barrier of entry for new players. I applaud them for actually trying ti give players real starter decks that will actually get them started in non-kitchen table magic. All that remains now is to see if these decks are actually FNM viable. If they are, I'll consider this a home run.
My only real problem is the price point. The duel decks cost $20 and contain two full decks, this contains one deck and a sideboard and costs almost twice as much. I guarantee the spindown did not add significantly onto the manufacturing cost of these decks and we all know that the deck box is going to be cardboard again. So I have to conclude that they have an inflated price due to WOTC wanting to keep standard card prices up.
Well, they had Event decks until like BFZ, i guess that at least this time, the price tag can alow for nice things.
Hope we see Scarab God, Search for Azcanta, Torrential Gearhulk, Fatal Push, Vraska's Contempt, etc in the same deck, even as 1-ofs... At least this price tag should alow to some of those ( and the print run should be enough to alow the prices stay low)
If the last of the Event Decks showed us anything is that we shouldn't expect anything amazing from these decks, and more often than not we shouldn't even expect getting the full MSRP in value from the decks.
So, what's the over/under on how long before they release a Challenger Deck with a card they recently banned? Six months?
I mean, someone already mentioned Temur Energy as a possibility... imagine if they'd released this twelve months earlier with Aetherworks Marvel onboard...
The major problem is that wizards has almost always failed at the creation of pre-made decks for tournament play. That and how competitive is a deck that has been toned down and is based on a deck from perhaps six or more months ago?
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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!
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I hope the challenger decks aspire to be this good
You really shouldn't put two statements together and remove them from context and then make a conclusion from it.
To clarify:
I'm not a standard player, but I understand why these products didn't fly, but I woudn't label them as "failures", as they are a work in progress. Just a matter of perspective I guess.
Sad to see the DD go, they were (with a couple of failures) quite great introductory product, and virtually the only Magic thing my wife agreed to play with me.
The big NOs were Venser vs. Koth and Divine vs. Demonic, former entirely unbalanced and latter entirely missing each other leading to non-interacting damage race. Izzet vs. Golgari (despite being one of the best value-wise) were the only ones too complicated to play with a Magic beginner.
I am not too hyped about the Challenger decks. Event decks were a very mixed success, and we even do not have any periodicity stated here. Will they come once a year?
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Given all the criticism this kind of product always had, and much of it unfair, it seems WOTC tried to “save” the product line with the changes they introduced with Mind v Might. They doubled the number of rares in there and raised the price.
Apparently, the increased number of rares did little or nothing to attract more buyers and the raise in price must have been a deal breaker for many of the usual buyers. Result: poor reception.
So, they decided to end it, and the end is a return to the beginning, to the first Duel Decks, Elves v. Goblins, except, this time, the tribes show up separately.
Are you actually suggesting that a $35 on ramp ($30 for the deck and $5 for the tournament) is too high a price? Remember, if the decks are precon. And let's say contains a Scarab God (or 2) then they won't be available to be bought at $30 because it will be wroth it to open them and sell the singles. This is the challenge. The secondary market sets a fundamental limit on how much value can be in a precon.
Not being a standard player perhaps you don't realize completely how WotC has been failing over the past 2 years. The two statements are the important ones.
Extending that trend to this product release is an easy step. If they put cards that are too valuable in this product the 'good deck' will get bought out leaving the mediocre on the shelf for the pick up and play guy to end up with. If they don't put cards of decent value in them, you're wasting your money completely. This will be a very hard product to put together.
I hope they somehow pull it off but at the same time I'm watching spoilers for the new set hoping beyond hope they don't jack it up horribly. It's going to have to be really good to get out of the current standard doldrums. On top of the the following set had better knock socks off or just be consistent across the color pie or Standard will die and this product will be pointless.
The argument I always see here is, “Well if there’s too much value in the $30 box then enfranchised players will buy up the supply instead of the target audience.”
Okay, but why is that a problem? The idea with these products is to Provide a person with a low entry cost deck to play at FNM. IF they put a Scarab God in these challenger decks (to stay with the current example above) and a bunch of people buy the challenger decks for the Scarab God value, the secondary market price of Scarab God drops.
If the secondary market price of the Card drops, then it’s cheaper to build / buy a competitive standard deck. Same situation applies to any other high value card they place in these decks. Sure, the exact challenger deck may be harder to find, but if the cost of the cards drop then the barrier to entry softens as well since building the deck is less expensive. Original mission accomplished (even if it took an extra step).
The only problem this doesn’t solve is for those people that don’t want to build a deck themselves and are seeking the challenger deck to avoid that step. Well, back before net-deck lists were easily accessible I can understand this being a problem. However, today, you don’t have to build your own deck or buy a challenger deck to have a deck built. You simply need to google a deck list and pull out your wallet.
Every gamestore that you would be purchasing a challenger deck from should simply direct you to one of those online lists and compile the cards for you. Simple and effective upsell in the event that actual challenger deck supplies have been bought out.
So, again, I ask. Why is Wizards so unwilling to put high value cards in preconstructed products like this? The only rational answer seems to be that it would cannibalize sales of the booster boxes themselves. That begs the question then, why even create this product if the philosophy of the product is damaging to your revenue strategy?
It’s a veil. A veil to take advantage of the uninformed - to take advantage of someone who thinks this will be something they can play with in public and are willing to spend the money without researching. It’s a shady practice and indicative of a company run by Hasbro instead of one run by enthusiasts.
Now, all that changes if they decide to put real cards in the decks this time around. I’ll be waiting with baited breath.
Assuming that The Scarab God will be here at all is a leap, not only is The Scarab God arguably the most powerful threat of the current standard format, but these decks are also explicitly stated to be aiming for FNM viability.
The question of availability remains to be seen as we do not have two factors that are essential determine whether or not these will be readily available for their intended demographic: Value and print run. I am not assuming, again, that these will contain any Scarab God level cards, rather I am working under the premise that these provide reasonable value for their price and more importantly provide a reasonably FNM competitive starting point for those looking to enter standard. And I'm pretty sure that the latter is exactly what WOTC is going for. My gripe isn't about value or any sort of personal disagreement about price, but it hinges on the simple fact that more people will be willing to pick one of these decks up and try standard and potentially become more interested in the format which is, again, exactly ehat WOTC's goal is here. $30 feels like much more of a commitment than $20 and that's important when what you are essentially selling us a trial platform.
This isn't about value, it's about consumer perception of a product, especially if those consumers do not have knowledge of standard already. That is an important and deciding factor in the success of these decks.
-Chandra Nalaar
Now THIS is what I want to see. Please do this Wizards
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Your whole post is right on target.
They SHOULD put high value cards in a deck of this design because they are the cards that make the decks viable and competitive.
Why shouldn't they? Part of the problem is stores might sell the product for over MSRP which I think is BS. Sell it at sticker price and when you run out order more ffs. [I also believe they should delete the Mythic rarity and that it'd help more people play, card prices stay more average, and sales go up but they're going to cleave to their system for sure.]
These decks have always been a veil. They're only really good to pit them against each other. If they say copy Temur Energy and give you all the cards in the current winning list then they're keeping the promise of pick up and play competitive. But if they short the lists on rares and mythics then forget it. Temur Energy is a bit of different animal because Energy makes average cards way above average. That list has 20 rares (counting dual lands from multiple sets) and that's just main board. There is no way they include 20 rares with a $30 premade set. Even UB aggro and UW control have 23 rare/mythic altogether and that's again just in the main board.
Frankly I don't think they'll print 4 color energy for everyone's consumption. It's top tier and dominating, but frankly you can make 4 color really easily after starting with Temur Energy. It's that darn Scarab god and 30+ dollars that gets in the way. But still they're all too many rares for a $30 product.
When we see the lists math will have to be done to see if they are worth the $30. I'm guessing it'll probably be short of that.
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!
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Give them a couple of years. They will dump this newest product and bring Duel Decks back. Plenty of jank cards and decks to print still.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
If only they put the value in them, but we know they won't or if they do it will not be for long.
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!
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Well, they had Event decks until like BFZ, i guess that at least this time, the price tag can alow for nice things.
Hope we see Scarab God, Search for Azcanta, Torrential Gearhulk, Fatal Push, Vraska's Contempt, etc in the same deck, even as 1-ofs... At least this price tag should alow to some of those ( and the print run should be enough to alow the prices stay low)
The predecessors were just pander products for these giants. It was always doomed for failure. Their market research... obviously didn't do any research. Best of all? They probably have a fixed budget price to build those decks. And where do you source your pricing from? SCG of course. It's so circular the logic, one wonders why WotC persisted in this failed formula.
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
If the last of the Event Decks showed us anything is that we shouldn't expect anything amazing from these decks, and more often than not we shouldn't even expect getting the full MSRP in value from the decks.
I mean, someone already mentioned Temur Energy as a possibility... imagine if they'd released this twelve months earlier with Aetherworks Marvel onboard...
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
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The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
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!