My instincts tell me that Extractor Demon is a card to watch, if not for Dredge than because when applied properly it can mill the opponent's deck outright in one turn.
So the Etherium sculptor could have something to do with the decision to ban Top in extended.
That, 2 tops and a Brain freeze = death to opponent.
Just a thought.
And with the artificer Planeswalker in this set...Ov vey.
How does Unearth interact with Momentary Blink? Am I right for thinking that since the replacement effect removes the card from the game anyways, the Blink will return it?
Under that logic, WoTC should stop printing control cards altogether, since trying to stay alive usually takes a lot more thinking and card manipulation than simply turning your guys sideways turn after turn. Of course if that is the case, I might just as well go play something else, since to me Magic's number one selling point is the fact that the road to victory is whatever you want it to be. Turn it into a silly card game of turning creatures sideways and I might as well just put my money on another game; YuGi-level interactions are a bit too childish for my taste...
You're begging the question. Stop it. There's legitimate differences between control cards that advance the game in one direction or another and Top.
Also Dream Halls + Painters Servant = Win?? or win more ?
Both players can pitch anything to play any spell in hand, basically. In a deck that can abuse it, this could be potentially busted since symmetrical effects never are.
Yup, as long as you shell out the 2 mana to pay for it you can take infinite turns. However, considering that it's only playable in a format filled with spells that can take it to task I doubt it will be overly powerful.
BAH! Why banning top and not counterbalance? I'm confused...
By the way, some legacy decks are still effective on using the counter-top lock. Like angelbalance. I was also hoping to use it on extended after rotation, but seems we will see lots of new decks next season.
About vintage:
Except brainstorm, what makes this historical deck unplayable? Why Dream Halls got restricted some time ago and now is unrestricted?
Prerelease speculators are hindered only (and it seems like it will change things legitimately) in the fact that the prerelease is now one week before the release. I don't see at all how 'limiting the product' is going to change anything significantly. The one week gap is going to change things, but speculation prices are always going to be the prices we get initially for sets. The Tarmogoyfs and Bitterblossoms will be cheap on release, and then people will realize how amazing they are, so prices will rightfully adjust.
The secondary market does not bend to the will of rare drafters at prereleases...the prices are influenced by online presales mainly, which involve cards opened from product that is obtained on release.
To a large extent this is true, but my main point was that there's a contigent of people outside of those presales who artificially drive up demand for cards by being able to obtain playsets at prereleases either from buying them cheap from vendors or by trading with other players. Consequently, the amount paid for card X goes up because clearly if it sells on eBay in a presale it's gotta be good, or at the very least profitable. So everyone rushes to it and if it's a good card - like Mutavault, Bitterblossom, etc. - the price spikes and stays extremely high because of increased demand for a limited amount of product. This is further hurt - especially in the weeks following the release - by those speculators holding onto cards in the hope of earning a windfall profit. Without "in hand" speculation, prices on these cards would be substantially lower since supply would be higher without as much demand for the cards at such a premium price point.
That having been said, Wizards took steps to correct that by adjusting the set size and along with the changes to the prerelease it seems as though there might be a chance that we'll see an overall drop in prices in the coming future for singles, which is extremely welcome.
so essentially limiting every magic player to one 24 person flight the entire p-r weekend with shafted prize support = allowing people to play. Ok, then...
enjoy saving some gas in order to get a tiny, pitiful fraction, of the P-R experience you used to. I'll save a 30 minute bus ride to get a pitiful fraction of the P-R experience I used to, yay?
If you actually had responded to the entire post rather than cherry-picking something to slam me on, you'd see that I have a valid point. The amount of time that judging and running a large event like a pre-release requires is insane. Think about it this way: judges and TOs used to start tournaments at 8 in the morning and with all of the side events most would get out past 11 PM. Add an hour in each direction for cleaning up after the event and you have a day that starts at 7 AM and ends at midnight. Even with a large staff running the entire thing, those are very long days. Plus, a lot of the smaller stores actually can run prerelease events now and participate in the fun of it all.
It also seems to me that your discontent with this whole change is based on Wizards limiting the amount of content you can get from the new set before it's even released, when the entire point of a prerelease was always to preview the new set and have fun. I still think Wizards is making a smart move here and I have another reason for it beyond what I've already stated: the secondary market is out of control and by doing this, Wizards gets rid of prerelease speculators who drive up prices for cards even months after the set's release. The fact of the matter is that by allowing people to play in multiple Limited events - especially with smaller set sizes like in ALA - you're allowing players the chance to consolidate all of the chase rares in very few hands and since there are so very few, the price skyrockets. The fallout from this is that most people cannot afford or wish to pay those ridiculous prices and therefore get shafted from getting the rares they want.
That aspect of the secondary market needs to go and with Wizards' changes, it's a step in the right direction.
This makes negative sense. The pre-release location I've gone to on multiple occasions is Pastimes in IL. They generally do many, many flights throughout the day, and even offer incentives to sign up for multiples. They also run many, many side events including booster drafts and 2HG. ADDITIONALLY, they run Saturday events, Sunday Events, and even recently Friday Midnight events.
So let me get this straight. Instead of selling all that product, they are now going to sell a couple cases of sealed and boosters?
I also go to Pastimes for prereleases and as someone living 30-45 minutes away, I'm loving this change. Being able to head to the comic book store right down the street and play in a prerelease event is much easier on my wallet, what with gas being $4 a gallon and all. Plus, prereleases were always such a huge hassle since you had to go to one of the three prereleases locations. I know there are many times that I missed out because I really couldn't justify driving 30+ minutes there and back. My belief is that not only will this be good for the players, but also for TOs and judges. With large events, there's lots of confusion and with so many side events running, prereleases tend to end past midnight some times. Doing that two days in a row is a pain in the ass for judges and TOs, so I congratulate Wizards on making such an astute decision to allow people to play the game and balance that with the well-being of the people running the game.
Evershrike is one of those cards that screams for players to build around it. Unlike most cards of that ilk, however, Evershrike is actually Constructed playable. My bet is that this card will show up in other formats outside of Block and Standard.
I guess I'm not the only person here who sees Snakeform for what it really is: above the curve green-based instant speed removal. Snakeform, especially at common, will be insane in multiples for SHM/EVE drafts.
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Hrm...am I the only one that suspects that Enlightened Tutor might jump in value?
I am? Oh.
Okay.
An army of locks.
And with the artificer Planeswalker in this set...Ov vey.
You're begging the question. Stop it. There's legitimate differences between control cards that advance the game in one direction or another and Top.
Both players can pitch anything to play any spell in hand, basically. In a deck that can abuse it, this could be potentially busted since symmetrical effects never are.
Yup, as long as you shell out the 2 mana to pay for it you can take infinite turns. However, considering that it's only playable in a format filled with spells that can take it to task I doubt it will be overly powerful.
I wonder as to whether or not there's enough of a deck surrounding Dream Halls for it to see play.
To a large extent this is true, but my main point was that there's a contigent of people outside of those presales who artificially drive up demand for cards by being able to obtain playsets at prereleases either from buying them cheap from vendors or by trading with other players. Consequently, the amount paid for card X goes up because clearly if it sells on eBay in a presale it's gotta be good, or at the very least profitable. So everyone rushes to it and if it's a good card - like Mutavault, Bitterblossom, etc. - the price spikes and stays extremely high because of increased demand for a limited amount of product. This is further hurt - especially in the weeks following the release - by those speculators holding onto cards in the hope of earning a windfall profit. Without "in hand" speculation, prices on these cards would be substantially lower since supply would be higher without as much demand for the cards at such a premium price point.
That having been said, Wizards took steps to correct that by adjusting the set size and along with the changes to the prerelease it seems as though there might be a chance that we'll see an overall drop in prices in the coming future for singles, which is extremely welcome.
If you actually had responded to the entire post rather than cherry-picking something to slam me on, you'd see that I have a valid point. The amount of time that judging and running a large event like a pre-release requires is insane. Think about it this way: judges and TOs used to start tournaments at 8 in the morning and with all of the side events most would get out past 11 PM. Add an hour in each direction for cleaning up after the event and you have a day that starts at 7 AM and ends at midnight. Even with a large staff running the entire thing, those are very long days. Plus, a lot of the smaller stores actually can run prerelease events now and participate in the fun of it all.
It also seems to me that your discontent with this whole change is based on Wizards limiting the amount of content you can get from the new set before it's even released, when the entire point of a prerelease was always to preview the new set and have fun. I still think Wizards is making a smart move here and I have another reason for it beyond what I've already stated: the secondary market is out of control and by doing this, Wizards gets rid of prerelease speculators who drive up prices for cards even months after the set's release. The fact of the matter is that by allowing people to play in multiple Limited events - especially with smaller set sizes like in ALA - you're allowing players the chance to consolidate all of the chase rares in very few hands and since there are so very few, the price skyrockets. The fallout from this is that most people cannot afford or wish to pay those ridiculous prices and therefore get shafted from getting the rares they want.
That aspect of the secondary market needs to go and with Wizards' changes, it's a step in the right direction.
I also go to Pastimes for prereleases and as someone living 30-45 minutes away, I'm loving this change. Being able to head to the comic book store right down the street and play in a prerelease event is much easier on my wallet, what with gas being $4 a gallon and all. Plus, prereleases were always such a huge hassle since you had to go to one of the three prereleases locations. I know there are many times that I missed out because I really couldn't justify driving 30+ minutes there and back. My belief is that not only will this be good for the players, but also for TOs and judges. With large events, there's lots of confusion and with so many side events running, prereleases tend to end past midnight some times. Doing that two days in a row is a pain in the ass for judges and TOs, so I congratulate Wizards on making such an astute decision to allow people to play the game and balance that with the well-being of the people running the game.