MTG Salvation

Pro Tour Paris (1997) was Mirage Block constructed. Specifically it was only Mirage and Visions (Weatherlight hadn't been released at the time of the event).
The event was in April and Weatherlight released in June. Also why no one simply played Abeyance to stop all the Pros Bloom decks.

I think what annoys me most is when they change rules NOT to make the game better (which is what rules changes should do), but simply to make their set gimmick work. Legends are perfect examples. They changed it in Kamigawa block because it's very Legends heavy (Chinese/Japanese folklore and mythology inspired). At that time only the oldest Legend stayed if another was played. Which meant you couldn't play your copy and it got stuck in your hand if they had a copy out already. Let's just make them kill each other. Planeswalkers - Oh, they kill each other too. Let's change it again so people can both have Jace in play at the same time. Ixilan - our new Jace doesn't work with that rule because his copies would just instantly die. Planeswalkers are now Legendary. I think it detracts from the creativity of a set when you simply change rules for no reason other than to force your gimmick to work. Also: Like rainbows? Like dinosaurs? Want both together? Rainbow dinosaurs (with feathers)!

The white cards make it difficult to read power/toughness due to the background on the original frames. Other than that I prefer the old card frames myself.

I mean you could go after the retail stockers, but Wal-Mart and Target are going to sell whatever product is on their shelves. If Hasbro/WotC do that the box stores wonder why they have an empty card game section they can use as impulse items (in regards to hammering the early shelf stockers). They do profit off of renting that shelf space and/or taking a percentage of product sales. That'd be my guess on how they operate in regards to Magic product. Anyway...we got four people together Thursday night and had an awesome time with our early pack purchases. It's also not a product designed for Modern/Standard play. This is a specialty set (though they stock other stuff early too that is current). The street dates are to protect Standard/Modern formats and to move draft packs.

Revenues from last year: Hasbro $4.1 billion. Target $73 billion. Wal-Mart $482 billion. You really think Hasbro is going to tank their relationship with Target and Wal-Mart over two days and a $250 million subsidiary division of theirs (WotC)? Probably not. WotC and Hasbro need Target and Wal-Mart to move toys and products for them. Not the other way around.

Problem is WotC can threaten local LGS's by taking away tournament and specialty product eligibility. They can't threaten Target and Wal-Mart who just sell product. Plus, Hasbro isn't going to shun profit from major chain stores. How exactly are you going to crack down on them?

I agree and disagree with reprints. Reprinting staples that only have a few printings so that we can have a healthy play environment and accessibility to the game components remains viable? Yes. Reprinting Llanowar Elves for the eighteenth time? No. We can simply have a reprint of another 1/1 that does the same thing with a different name just as easily. No wait...they already do that constantly.

The thing with mana burn was most of the time it never mattered. Most of the time the two you take from bringing an untapped Shock into play never matters either. Until it does. Then it matters in a big way. I can't remember the last game of Magic I played where I specifically lost because of the two points I took from a Shockland that I wasn't probably going to lose already after all was said and done. Mana burn works the same way. You never notice it until the game you lose because someone plays Eldrami's Vineyard or Mana Flare on you and you end up taking damage for over-producing mana the whole game due to the odd mana casting costs in your hand. Both cards to which I've lost plenty of life in a game due to a handful of mana burn points throughout a game. Does it happen hardly ever? No. Do you notice it when those point cost you a game? Absolutely.

Are you allowed to pile shuffle for a count, then randomize fully via riffles-overhands-etc, then pile shuffle again to re-verify your deck count? Or is that suspicious? Because losing a game because some cards stuck together before your shuffle would be a mistake. That could be avoided by a second pile shuffle count after randomizing. How's that suspicious?

There was concern that the US-Germany would intentional draw because West Germany-Austria had done the same thing in 1982. They fixed the game results 1-0 and then kicked the ball around for eighty minutes. Because you can't force them to play, right? Algeria got screwed out of the next round by it and West Germany/Austria were shamed by the football playing community for fixing a game in order to advance. Too bad that Magic players don't have the same respect for sportsmanship and competitive play. The win is the only thing that matters to them. Can I win by not actually playing this game? Awesome! I myself thought that the Germany-US game to close the first round was an excellent game. I'm glad they actually played it out instead of just taking the guaranteed advancement that was on the table.

I complain about luck in this game when I win too. The game play is structured in such a way that opening hands are now far, far too important in deciding outcomes in games. Then again...when you only see an average of 30-35% of your deck in a game, what do you expect? Kibler said it best..."If you can't handle losing, Magic is the wrong game for you."

The funny thing about that is the average Magic player has developed a ridiculous ego where they think luck screwed them anytime they lose and it was a brilliant play when they top deck a 5% draw to win.

Not a fan of it either. Doesn't matter though. They already know they can do whatever they want and people will just complain while continuing to buy product.

Maro has already hinted at them being in the fall block. Can't really think of anything else that players "have been asking us to do for a long time" besides those. I'm thinking it'll be like Shocklands where they do five, five, and then include all of them as part of the last set.

They stopped selling the Premium Deck Series because they were giving away too much value in product for the price they were charging. Graveborn in particular.

I personally am fine with the play aspect vs. physical aspect of MTGO. Yeah - if it crashes or goes defunct I lose my investment, but it's no more or less tangible to me then say, going to the movies or paying tournament fees where I go 0-2 and drop. The upside is: People can't cheat. I can block people who are no fun to play against casually. I don't have to shuffle. Cards are often significantly less (especially in Vintage/Legacy). If I want to play Dredge in Classic it costs me $60 for a playset of Bazaar instead of $1200. Most duals are only in the $25-$50 range. So blue-black doesn't cost me $1000 just for the Undergrounds. Imperial Seal isn't $700. ALSO...People can't cheat and I don't have to shuffle.

Then again - if MTGO ever goes down then I think Magic as a whole is on the way out. Since WotC makes well over half their income for Magic from MTGO at this point - them killing the server on it would be a really bad sign.