Well, I'm going to jump into the cage with the wolves and say that I, for one, like the differing sealed experience. I like trying different things. I play plenty enough of sealed decks online all season long and enjoy playing a different format at pre-release. I also like that I can look at the different promos and choose which one I like best and be sure to get it. If you're a spike, you can evaluate the different packs and colors and maximize your chances of winning, too.
(I have cards like the helm of kaldra promo that I've never used, always found the art horrible and would have liked to have a choice of other rare as promo instead. I only keep it because it has the promo date-mark, as a kind of keepsake.)
Honestly, I'd be more willing to bet that there are more people who want to have a 'fun' Prerelease than a traditional Sealed tournament. Prereleases were never supposed to be serious business, and I wince every time I hear someone treat it as such.
Because fun means the exact same thing to every person.
I was really interested in the potential for this gimmick as the details were revealed on Twitter during the SDCC. Gimmicks can be very fun and my buddies and I like to grab packs and play regular limited at home sometimes anyway. Once I learned that all of this culminated at Gameday with Standard decks I lost interest entirely. My group and I like to play Limited and EDH and that's pretty much it. Standard is supposedly the biggest and most popular format so maybe I'm just part of a vocal minority?
Honestly, I'd be more willing to bet that there are more people who want to have a 'fun' Prerelease than a traditional Sealed tournament. Prereleases were never supposed to be serious business, and I wince every time I hear someone treat it as such.
That's not what they're doing. They're just saying that the epic quest thing detracts from the fun of more people than it adds for others. Traditional sealed deck has succeeded for a reason.
Not that I necessarily agree. I think that the fact that you can go in with certain metagame expectations that never happen outside of prereleases is fun. I like the theorizing and trying to game expectations. I couldn't care less for the format ultimately being balanced, since it's just the one weekend's worth of events and then it's done.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
That's not what they're doing. They're just saying that the epic quest thing detracts from the fun of more people than it adds for others. Traditional sealed deck has succeeded for a reason.
Not that I necessarily agree. I think that the fact that you can go in with certain metagame expectations that never happen outside of prereleases is fun. I like the theorizing and trying to game expectations. I couldn't care less for the format ultimately being balanced, since it's just the one weekend's worth of events and then it's done.
I think that they view sealed as having two basic problems as an entry point for new players: 1) it's kinda hard 2) the variation of power level between pools can be significant
Giving out guildpacks, or in this case I guess they're color packs, helps with both of those things. It makes it easier for people who don't play limited to build decks and it helps level out power. I tend to not like it because I really enjoy sealed and I think this approach dumbs it down somewhat. Still, from their perspective it's a pretty smart move. Still, I think a lot of players (probably not the types that would frequent this forum) enjoy these shifts to "traditional sealed" more than others. I mean, I lost to a guy who had been playing magic for three weeks at the prerelease (mostly because I reminded him of several triggers :p), and he was very excited to beat me. If I had beat him I would have barely remembered it.
They should just hand out the preconstructed 40 card theme decks and stop calling it Sealed. Then you can really pick your favorite, and you don't have to think at all! Maybe just for the prerelease they can make a special rule that you can order your cards before each match and don't have to shuffle, because it's SO SAD when you don't draw your best cards.
I understand I'm in the minority here (so it seems) but I don't see the value of running a gameplay gimmick on day one of a new set. At least let us get bored of the format before breaking out the variants!
Honestly, I'd be more willing to bet that there are more people who want to have a 'fun' Prerelease than a traditional Sealed tournament. Prereleases were never supposed to be serious business, and I wince every time I hear someone treat it as such.
When first place is 3 boxes/FTV I think it's pretty reasonable to treat it somewhat seriously =|
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When first place is 3 boxes/FTV I think it's pretty reasonable to treat it somewhat seriously =|
That's somewhat your store's fault for treating a prerelease like a ptq. It doesn't really make sense to put huge prizes on prereleases, because they're supposed to be fun, casual events. With the way they've been taking prereleases lately, I cannot see a system for this that doesn't end in frustration for a lot of people.
When first place is 3 boxes/FTV I think it's pretty reasonable to treat it somewhat seriously =|
Wow every PR I've been to has been gradually tapering off prizes and spreading them out more evenly i.e. 1 pack per match win or something like that. That's crazy prize support!
Wow every PR I've been to has been gradually tapering off prizes and spreading them out more evenly i.e. 1 pack per match win or something like that. That's crazy prize support!
It was kind of annoying getting second at the RTR PR and getting 8 packs though. I think he's doing that sort of thing mostly to drum up some players as prior to Innistrad they couldn't get many players.
He does $10 drafts with pack per player prize support too. Honestly don't get why people go to any other FNM in the area.
That is to say, they probably are not thinking of the tournament quality of any tournament with prizes way higher than usual, or prizes a lot more topheavy than normal, when designing the prerelease gimmick. Nor should they really.
I wasn't really implying they were. It's just silly to say that no one should take PRs seriously when there are obviously some reasons to do so.
Heck, even when they had the big PRs you were looking at 3-1 for 6-7 packs 4-0 for 12 packs. It made a pretty big difference to take things a bit seriously, having 12-24 packs of the new set two weeks before release was nice.
(I have cards like the helm of kaldra promo that I've never used, always found the art horrible and would have liked to have a choice of other rare as promo instead. I only keep it because it has the promo date-mark, as a kind of keepsake.)
Because fun means the exact same thing to every person.
That's not what they're doing. They're just saying that the epic quest thing detracts from the fun of more people than it adds for others. Traditional sealed deck has succeeded for a reason.
Not that I necessarily agree. I think that the fact that you can go in with certain metagame expectations that never happen outside of prereleases is fun. I like the theorizing and trying to game expectations. I couldn't care less for the format ultimately being balanced, since it's just the one weekend's worth of events and then it's done.
I think that they view sealed as having two basic problems as an entry point for new players: 1) it's kinda hard 2) the variation of power level between pools can be significant
Giving out guildpacks, or in this case I guess they're color packs, helps with both of those things. It makes it easier for people who don't play limited to build decks and it helps level out power. I tend to not like it because I really enjoy sealed and I think this approach dumbs it down somewhat. Still, from their perspective it's a pretty smart move. Still, I think a lot of players (probably not the types that would frequent this forum) enjoy these shifts to "traditional sealed" more than others. I mean, I lost to a guy who had been playing magic for three weeks at the prerelease (mostly because I reminded him of several triggers :p), and he was very excited to beat me. If I had beat him I would have barely remembered it.
*DCI Rules Advisor*
I understand I'm in the minority here (so it seems) but I don't see the value of running a gameplay gimmick on day one of a new set. At least let us get bored of the format before breaking out the variants!
When first place is 3 boxes/FTV I think it's pretty reasonable to treat it somewhat seriously =|
That's somewhat your store's fault for treating a prerelease like a ptq. It doesn't really make sense to put huge prizes on prereleases, because they're supposed to be fun, casual events. With the way they've been taking prereleases lately, I cannot see a system for this that doesn't end in frustration for a lot of people.
*DCI Rules Advisor*
Wow every PR I've been to has been gradually tapering off prizes and spreading them out more evenly i.e. 1 pack per match win or something like that. That's crazy prize support!
It was kind of annoying getting second at the RTR PR and getting 8 packs though. I think he's doing that sort of thing mostly to drum up some players as prior to Innistrad they couldn't get many players.
He does $10 drafts with pack per player prize support too. Honestly don't get why people go to any other FNM in the area.
I wasn't really implying they were. It's just silly to say that no one should take PRs seriously when there are obviously some reasons to do so.
Heck, even when they had the big PRs you were looking at 3-1 for 6-7 packs 4-0 for 12 packs. It made a pretty big difference to take things a bit seriously, having 12-24 packs of the new set two weeks before release was nice.