This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Off Topic: Buttered Popcorn and Worldwake. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Intresting topic, there is so much truth in the previews for comedy movies previews.
The one thing i was curious about is when you talked about people not voicing their opinion for not liking Worldwake. May i ask your opinion to why its only a 6 outta 10?
May i ask your opinion to why its only a 6 outta 10?
This may have something to do with it:
Quote from meyou »
Zendikar was the film of the series. A lot of depth and ideas grew out of the set. Worldwake is very much a movie. The storyline and depth isn’t there. What we do have is lots of eye candy and explosions.
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Sig by ChibiSwan~!
"Well, well, if it isn't the most diabolical haters this side of the Mississippi." Alters and Commissions at [URL="noodlesndoodlesalters.tumblr.com/"]Noodles & Doodles Alters[/URL]!
Have a helicopter drop you off out front. Light your cigar with a small Indonesian boy holding a black lotus. Then bust out a craw wurm deck with no sleeves. Raw dog shuffle, loose terribly, flip the table, leave in a hovercraft.
I was obviously not the target audience for this piece.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Nice to see I got top billing in an article. It's about time!
On topic: I've been watching spoilers (now finished) for WWK and have been disappointed by most of what I have seen, so I can understand the way you feel about the set.
What you have to do is look for cards that might go in other formats. Example:
Kitesail Apprentice W
Creature - Kor Soldier
As long as Kitesail Apprentice is equipped, it gets +1/+1 and has flying.
1/1
So, I throw down this and Bone Saw turn one, equip and attack with a 3/2 flyer turn 2? It's no Steppe Lynx, but it is good. It's like a reciprocal Kird Ape!
This could go into a fun little white weenie pauper deck, a white weenie equip deck, a soldier deck, a Kor deck...
To use your movie analogy, just because the movie sucks (like Sorority Row [23% on RottenTomatoes]) doesn't mean it lacks something of value (girls in undies tied up to a bed).
I suggest more rigorous editing. There are a quite a few bad grammar errors and some rhetorical errors. In just the first paragraph you have "every movie would be herald as an epic film." Should be 'heralded.' And in the final line: "Thankfully, we have critics for better or worse." Is self-contradictory. You're thankful critics exist...whether that effect is good or bad? Why would you be thankful if critics have a negative effect?
If you need an editor I can look over your articles for cheap.
The article has no direction at all. It's a compilation of several short opinions, which don't seem to be related to eachother at all (in Dutch, this is called 'Van de hak op de tak'; Rambling would be closest in English).
Reading your articles are my new tuesday tradition, when i need a good laugh.
Seriously, you're complaining about the flores spoiler, which is one of the few good cards in the set, but you say stone idol trap is a "bomb rare", along with the black avatar guy. You also complained about the filler commons of zendikar, but look at even the best sets in history, they even had filler commons.
Point Blank: This set is awful, and the exact opposite of every hope i had the 2nd set of my favorite set since lorwyn.
SClone got it exactly right on the rambling as well, so go him.
Don't take this comment as constructed criticism like the last one, take this as me telling you to take a completely different approach to writing articles, because obviously this one isn't working.
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Originally Posted by Alderant Baneslayer Angel could be hungover, slightly blind, and texting while flying and still win the game.
I really enjoyed your opinions - I always thought that the middle set of each block is always underwhelming, maybe because the NOT SO NEW STUFF or maybe even the card shortage compare to the previous expansion
145cards vs 427cards is indeed a huge void.
But nevertheless is always good to get these expansions because they tend to have the most Bombiest and Sexiest cards of the entire block.
They carry the burden of "must sell like previous one" so thats why they do this, and yes, everything else in comparison seems like utter crap.
I got used to it, Its almost sad to expect a lot of crap in some xpansions.
I feel the need to compare this to pizza edges, the big majority doesnt like them, but they are part of the pizza, and there is that friend of your friend who loves pizza edges.
However I enjoy very much playing in pre- doesn´t matter the cards released.
Intresting topic, there is so much truth in the previews for comedy movies previews.
The one thing i was curious about is when you talked about people not voicing their opinion for not liking Worldwake. May i ask your opinion to why its only a 6 outta 10?
The rares are pretty good. I don't think anybody in this set will scoff at too many of them. I find the commons most disappointing. Personally, I don't think commmons have to be great. They don't have to suck either. Repulse, Recoil, Horned Kavu, Goblin Legionaire, Faceless Butcher were all great commons.
Put it this way, take away all the rares and uncommons.
Would you still want to buy the set?
I wouldn't it. It is my personal belief commons and uncommons have a larger impact than rares on the appeal of a set. I believe it is one of the reasons the Invasion block was so appealing. Apocalypse was full of good commons.
The rares are pretty good. I don't think anybody in this set will scoff at too many of them. I find the commons most disappointing. Personally, I don't think commmons have to be great. They don't have to suck either. Repulse, Recoil, Horned Kavu, Goblin Legionaire, Faceless Butcher were all great commons.
Put it this way, take away all the rares and uncommons.
Would you still want to buy the set?
I wouldn't it. It is my personal belief commons and uncommons have a larger impact than rares on the appeal of a set. I believe it is one of the reasons the Invasion block was so appealing. Apocalypse was full of good commons.
I agree, and i expected something like this, they revealed Jace really early, and then held out on releasing other cards, making me think they were hoping on driving up preorder boxes. Making the u/w manland the box promo was icing on the cake for that.
I don't even know where to begin. I can't stand seeing your articles anymore. I mean, I feel like 90% of the articles that appear on this website are written by you or Andrew Hanson. It's annoying, quite frankly. Find a new hobby.
But to be on topic, this article in particular is just plain a waste of space. The cards in the set are fine, there are several highly playable rares and uncommons, and although admittedly a lot of the commons are more appropriate for Limited, this pretty much mimics nearly every smaller set that gets released. If you really examine your Magic history, only a fraction of the cards in a given set see any real constructed play at all to begin with. Wizards aren't releasing an inferior, overhyped set. They are releasing a decent, normal set that will nonetheless change decks and deck archetypes. I swear, power creep over the past couple of years have people clamoring in disgust at the average card when in reality Magic has never been healthier or more fun to play. Just looking at the commons, there's almost nothing vanilla. That's far ahead of the state of the game only a couple of years back.
Nextly, these silly analogies that keep cluttering your articles. Now, I was an English major and I can appreciate similes and metaphors as much as the next guy, but dude, you are simply trying too hard. Zendikar was the "film," and Worldwake is the "movie"? Worse, it's apparently the blockbuster sequel with flashy effects that lacks the story and heart of the original. Cut the movie comparison nonsense, Magic isn't film and the allegory doesn't work. It's a strategy card game with a fantasy setting, and the cards in Worldwake aren't buttered popcorn, they are pieces of cardboard that expand the possibilities of strategic advancement.
Most of my other issues with this piece have to do with excessive rambling, bad grammar, random opinions stated as fact, and sheer pretentiousness. I don't need to expand on this, as others have already done so. I suggest you take some time off to clear your head, but that's just me.
I don't see why your articles all have to be so negative, you seem you must be a glass half empty person. You contradict yourself through the article, by saying something is good, and then criticising it. you also dont even show the confidence of your own convictions. if films and movies shouldn't be compared the surely zendikar and worldwake shouldn't be compared? if worldwake is a movie then you should judge it by its special effects and big screen impact...thats the point you start with, and then you go on to criticise the commons.
also why the hell would people reading a magic article want to hear about your sick cat and ill relative. it seems another way your own negative attitude comes across in your writing
when i read a spoiler interview/opinion i wanna hear how cool something is going to be, i wanna hear the combos of filth that people are going to come up with. I want to imagine the look on my mates faces when i drop that new big fattie in a multi-player game and then i die horribly, as four people realise as one that i must die fast. Why would i want to hear those new cards that im going to get aren't quite as good as the some guy thinks they could have been and that in fact i should have played magic x years ago when things all cards were powerhouses and life was fantastic.
plus i agree with the stuff everyone else has said above about the rambling/movie comparisons and editing
yea, I couldn't even make it through this article. I have better things to do, like fall down the stairs.
"admonition angel is the only eye-popping rare"
never mind jace, colonnade or tar pits, they're nothing special
everyone hates every set. I've thoroughly enjoyed every set that's come out recently aside from maybe conflux, which had some good cards anyway. do me a favor and look through the commons and uncommons of old sets and count the jank. There's so much that it's not even worth owning almost any of them. I have probably 6 towering stacks of onslaught and masques uncommons and commons that I wouldn't mind seeing burned all to hell. The overall quality of cards has improved substantially. I'm not saying worldwake is going to be awesome. I think multikicker turned out to be a pretty big joke. However, everyone is condemning the set and they haven't even played with it yet. Every set has and needs limited fodder, don't get mad about it. Besides, wizards comes out with 3-4 sets a year, they aren't all going to be masterpieces (like lorwyn or odyssey!)
I have to say it's refreshing to see a bunch of people not enjoying these articles at last, because frankly (especially lately) they've just been a waste of time. The articles are just stream-of-consciousness rambling with extremely tenuous links to MtG, and I know that 'it's called Off Topic and that's the point!!1' but when it seems like every second article is more of meyou's poorly-edited opinions, this site may as well give up on the articles and just be forums.
Sorry, wanted to get that off my chest. With regards to the content of the article, have you ever played ZZZ limited? Kraken Hatchling is a fine man. He carries all the common equipment excellently, blocks, blocks, generally doesn't afraid of anything, and blocks. And the complaints about the quality of commons? I point you towards the visual spoiler, where you will encounter cards like Treasure Hunt, Searing Blaze, Explore, Bojuka Bog and Halimar Depths as obviously constructed-worthy commons, together with a myriad of exceptionally powerful uncommons and a bunch of commons which are awesome in limited.
Finally, you really think Overflowing Chalice is comparable to Cylian Elf? The card is awesome, and pretty much every professional writer agrees.
Wow, there are some harsh critics on here... LOL, but I suppose if you attack mtg then you are leaving yourself wide open to the hate from people who have nothing but Magic... I agree with you... If Zendikar and M10 were the high points of set design, then WWK is probably the low. I feel that many of the cards did very little to alter existing archetypes, and if anything increased the "hate cards" available in the format. So now when 2 Boros Decks play each other they can both drop the "hard Kor hate". Also, I was depressed once again that wizards decided to take a dump on Blue. LOL, and I even hate Blue... I just feel like it is not really fun to have an entire environment where mindless aggression precludes thought. Never mind the total lack of even respectable mono color card draw in this format. I am sure people will blast me for not following the "Magic is always healthy crowd". Lastly,when I say health of the game I mean the balance within it. Clearly this set has done nothing to change that. For those reasons alone this set gets a 6/10 maybe even a 5/10 for me... Thanks for the great read.
This may seem strange, but I'm actually excited about Worldwake BECAUSE I haven't been very wowed by most of its rares. As a budget player (I still haven't managed to get sets of the fetches from Zendikar), I'm happy to see a set whose most appealing cards (to me) are mostly commons and uncommons. I already have a deck where I could put Bestial Menace and Explore, and there are several other cards I like as well. Some of the rares are interesting, and if I happen to get multiples of certain ones they could lead to interesting decks, but I don't feel like I have to get rare card X in order to stay semi-competitive. I like that. Of course, if someone is on a bigger budget, then they'll probably be less excited about WWK.
To all the grammar criticisms: be a little kinder in the delivery, alright? There's no call to be ripping on him like he's some kind of idiot. There's nothing wrong with critiquing someone's writing or suggesting the use of an editor (I am, in fact, about to do both), but you could at least be civil about it. It's not like he's personally attacking someone with his grammar and you need to fight back. Calm down, people.
Meyou: I'm sorry people have been so mean in their critiques of your grammar/writing. Even so, I have noticed that such comments come in fairly consistently from article to article. Do you see the validity in these allegations? Like others here, I often (in fact, usually) find the technical and mechanical shortcomings in your articles to be jarring to the point of distracting the reader from the content of the article. How have you/will you address this? Unless I missed something (if so, please correct me), it seems you have ignored these consistent indications that your writing needs improvement on the technical side of things. This makes it look like either (a) you are aware of the problem, but choose not to address it, which hurts your credibility; or (b) your wounded pride prevents you from acknowledging your areas of weakness, which seems to contradict claims you made in a recent article about you being more rational than emotional. Please, do something about this. I, for one, am tired of the forums being full of grammar critiques instead of content-related discussion, and I would think that you would be too.
P.S. I'd be willing to take a stab at editing an article, free of charge. Just sayin'.
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The one thing i was curious about is when you talked about people not voicing their opinion for not liking Worldwake. May i ask your opinion to why its only a 6 outta 10?
The GJ way path to no lynching:
This may have something to do with it:
Sig by ChibiSwan~!
"Well, well, if it isn't the most diabolical haters this side of the Mississippi."
Alters and Commissions at [URL="noodlesndoodlesalters.tumblr.com/"]Noodles & Doodles Alters[/URL]!
On topic: I've been watching spoilers (now finished) for WWK and have been disappointed by most of what I have seen, so I can understand the way you feel about the set.
What you have to do is look for cards that might go in other formats. Example:
Kitesail Apprentice W
Creature - Kor Soldier
As long as Kitesail Apprentice is equipped, it gets +1/+1 and has flying.
1/1
So, I throw down this and Bone Saw turn one, equip and attack with a 3/2 flyer turn 2? It's no Steppe Lynx, but it is good. It's like a reciprocal Kird Ape!
This could go into a fun little white weenie pauper deck, a white weenie equip deck, a soldier deck, a Kor deck...
To use your movie analogy, just because the movie sucks (like Sorority Row [23% on RottenTomatoes]) doesn't mean it lacks something of value (girls in undies tied up to a bed).
If you need an editor I can look over your articles for cheap.
Seriously, you're complaining about the flores spoiler, which is one of the few good cards in the set, but you say stone idol trap is a "bomb rare", along with the black avatar guy. You also complained about the filler commons of zendikar, but look at even the best sets in history, they even had filler commons.
Point Blank: This set is awful, and the exact opposite of every hope i had the 2nd set of my favorite set since lorwyn.
SClone got it exactly right on the rambling as well, so go him.
Don't take this comment as constructed criticism like the last one, take this as me telling you to take a completely different approach to writing articles, because obviously this one isn't working.
145cards vs 427cards is indeed a huge void.
But nevertheless is always good to get these expansions because they tend to have the most Bombiest and Sexiest cards of the entire block.
They carry the burden of "must sell like previous one" so thats why they do this, and yes, everything else in comparison seems like utter crap.
I got used to it, Its almost sad to expect a lot of crap in some xpansions.
I feel the need to compare this to pizza edges, the big majority doesnt like them, but they are part of the pizza, and there is that friend of your friend who loves pizza edges.
However I enjoy very much playing in pre- doesn´t matter the cards released.
URPyromancer ascension RU
lolaphants - the only one card win .deck left in standard UGB
The rares are pretty good. I don't think anybody in this set will scoff at too many of them. I find the commons most disappointing. Personally, I don't think commmons have to be great. They don't have to suck either. Repulse, Recoil, Horned Kavu, Goblin Legionaire, Faceless Butcher were all great commons.
Put it this way, take away all the rares and uncommons.
Would you still want to buy the set?
I wouldn't it. It is my personal belief commons and uncommons have a larger impact than rares on the appeal of a set. I believe it is one of the reasons the Invasion block was so appealing. Apocalypse was full of good commons.
I agree, and i expected something like this, they revealed Jace really early, and then held out on releasing other cards, making me think they were hoping on driving up preorder boxes. Making the u/w manland the box promo was icing on the cake for that.
The GJ way path to no lynching:
But to be on topic, this article in particular is just plain a waste of space. The cards in the set are fine, there are several highly playable rares and uncommons, and although admittedly a lot of the commons are more appropriate for Limited, this pretty much mimics nearly every smaller set that gets released. If you really examine your Magic history, only a fraction of the cards in a given set see any real constructed play at all to begin with. Wizards aren't releasing an inferior, overhyped set. They are releasing a decent, normal set that will nonetheless change decks and deck archetypes. I swear, power creep over the past couple of years have people clamoring in disgust at the average card when in reality Magic has never been healthier or more fun to play. Just looking at the commons, there's almost nothing vanilla. That's far ahead of the state of the game only a couple of years back.
Nextly, these silly analogies that keep cluttering your articles. Now, I was an English major and I can appreciate similes and metaphors as much as the next guy, but dude, you are simply trying too hard. Zendikar was the "film," and Worldwake is the "movie"? Worse, it's apparently the blockbuster sequel with flashy effects that lacks the story and heart of the original. Cut the movie comparison nonsense, Magic isn't film and the allegory doesn't work. It's a strategy card game with a fantasy setting, and the cards in Worldwake aren't buttered popcorn, they are pieces of cardboard that expand the possibilities of strategic advancement.
Most of my other issues with this piece have to do with excessive rambling, bad grammar, random opinions stated as fact, and sheer pretentiousness. I don't need to expand on this, as others have already done so. I suggest you take some time off to clear your head, but that's just me.
also why the hell would people reading a magic article want to hear about your sick cat and ill relative. it seems another way your own negative attitude comes across in your writing
when i read a spoiler interview/opinion i wanna hear how cool something is going to be, i wanna hear the combos of filth that people are going to come up with. I want to imagine the look on my mates faces when i drop that new big fattie in a multi-player game and then i die horribly, as four people realise as one that i must die fast. Why would i want to hear those new cards that im going to get aren't quite as good as the some guy thinks they could have been and that in fact i should have played magic x years ago when things all cards were powerhouses and life was fantastic.
plus i agree with the stuff everyone else has said above about the rambling/movie comparisons and editing
"admonition angel is the only eye-popping rare"
never mind jace, colonnade or tar pits, they're nothing special
everyone hates every set. I've thoroughly enjoyed every set that's come out recently aside from maybe conflux, which had some good cards anyway. do me a favor and look through the commons and uncommons of old sets and count the jank. There's so much that it's not even worth owning almost any of them. I have probably 6 towering stacks of onslaught and masques uncommons and commons that I wouldn't mind seeing burned all to hell. The overall quality of cards has improved substantially. I'm not saying worldwake is going to be awesome. I think multikicker turned out to be a pretty big joke. However, everyone is condemning the set and they haven't even played with it yet. Every set has and needs limited fodder, don't get mad about it. Besides, wizards comes out with 3-4 sets a year, they aren't all going to be masterpieces (like lorwyn or odyssey!)
Cube list thread
Cubetutor
Sorry, wanted to get that off my chest. With regards to the content of the article, have you ever played ZZZ limited? Kraken Hatchling is a fine man. He carries all the common equipment excellently, blocks, blocks, generally doesn't afraid of anything, and blocks. And the complaints about the quality of commons? I point you towards the visual spoiler, where you will encounter cards like Treasure Hunt, Searing Blaze, Explore, Bojuka Bog and Halimar Depths as obviously constructed-worthy commons, together with a myriad of exceptionally powerful uncommons and a bunch of commons which are awesome in limited.
Finally, you really think Overflowing Chalice is comparable to Cylian Elf? The card is awesome, and pretty much every professional writer agrees.
To all the grammar criticisms: be a little kinder in the delivery, alright? There's no call to be ripping on him like he's some kind of idiot. There's nothing wrong with critiquing someone's writing or suggesting the use of an editor (I am, in fact, about to do both), but you could at least be civil about it. It's not like he's personally attacking someone with his grammar and you need to fight back. Calm down, people.
Meyou: I'm sorry people have been so mean in their critiques of your grammar/writing. Even so, I have noticed that such comments come in fairly consistently from article to article. Do you see the validity in these allegations? Like others here, I often (in fact, usually) find the technical and mechanical shortcomings in your articles to be jarring to the point of distracting the reader from the content of the article. How have you/will you address this? Unless I missed something (if so, please correct me), it seems you have ignored these consistent indications that your writing needs improvement on the technical side of things. This makes it look like either (a) you are aware of the problem, but choose not to address it, which hurts your credibility; or (b) your wounded pride prevents you from acknowledging your areas of weakness, which seems to contradict claims you made in a recent article about you being more rational than emotional. Please, do something about this. I, for one, am tired of the forums being full of grammar critiques instead of content-related discussion, and I would think that you would be too.
P.S. I'd be willing to take a stab at editing an article, free of charge. Just sayin'.