It's a tepid promotional effort at best. A lottery ticket for winning (because that's how 90% of LGS will distribute these) at Standard on a Saturday...not that exciting. I don't want to bring my jank, inconsistent brews to get crushed by $300 goodstuff decks chock full of blatantly pushed staples, so this appeals to me very little.
then don't do that. it should be obvious this program isn't targeted for you. if you are not interested enough in standard to play competitively with competitive decks, then what outcome do you expect? it seems trivial to me that the people who put the effort into their decks and their play get rewarded.
you are acting as though it's somehow a negative that good players and good decks will win more often that they lose. to me it seems obvious that players should be incentivized to do well in any tournaments. if you make bad decks and never tip your toe in competitive REL events you are obviously going to lose to the better players. this is NOT a failure of the format. there is nothing wrong with the format. from an objective standpoint standard is now cheaper than it has been in years, and there is good diversity among well performing decks even at the top level of play. if there was a magical way to make the format suddenly better for everyone, WOTC would have found it by now. stop being so sour and fix your priorities in magic. you can't have your cake and eat it too. success demands effort. if you don't put in the effort, don't expect anyone to hand out tournament prices to you. seems like and obvious thing.
I can only speak for myself and maybe some other like minded Spikes, but if Wizards wants to get me in the door of my LGS for a Standard Constructed event on a Saturday it HAS to be worth my while. If I travel 20 miles one way to my LGS (40 round trip) and spend a few hours there I need to see a prize or participatory gift that is worth the effort and money that I put into it. Hey I think its great they are offering "free" stuff in the first place. But if I participate after the gas money to travel and time on a weekend away from family or other life chores it needs to be more than just a chance at a money card. There are going to be people coming away with a foil common and a couple of bulk rares not worth a dollar when added together. I'm not looking for an entitlement, I'm looking for return on investment. Again, I can only speak for the Spike in me. I hope the program works so it can be improved in the future.
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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."
I'm not looking for an entitlement, I'm looking for return on investment.
ROI spikes who are beholded to no shop probably aren't the target audience here.
This would appear to be about getting locals in the door and keeping them invested in the standard environment when a quickly rotating format and CoCo chased them away.
Wotc has rarely had to care about keeping spikes invested though I can see where you're coming from. I love high stakes events and this doesn't really benefit that in anyway.
I guess what I'm getting at is that this promotion isn't for spikes -- although many will benefit from it. Every now and then, a timmy, johnny, or vorthos will "spike" a tourney, pull a "masterpiece" and have card liquidity to continue their foray into competitive magic -- a premise that I can't hate.
Standard is in a fine place right now, especially for those that are competitive minded. If you don't like the competitive mindset, play a casual format.
So what you're saying is that Standard, THE entry level format for most new players, should cater to super-competitive cutthroat Spikes? That is the most backwards nonesense I've heard all week.
Standard is in a fine place right now, especially for those that are competitive minded. If you don't like the competitive mindset, play a casual format.
So what you're saying is that Standard, THE entry level format for most new players, should cater to super-competitive cutthroat Spikes? That is the most backwards nonesense I've heard all week.
One of the things that keeps newer players out is spikes. However, the cheaper the format, the easier it is to beat said spikes. I think Glav was getting at that there are multiple competitive decks to play right now and W/R Vehicles isn't as expensive as, say, Jeskai Black from last year (which clocked in ~ $700 if I recall). W/R in paper is a little over $200 bucks? That's a bargain in paper compared to previous formats even if it isn't inline with a "competitive magic should be less than $50" mindset. If you are competitive, you can play an established deck or you can brew to beat the established decks (admittedly, more work than one would expect). Even a new player can do this, assuming they are thinking and practicing to beat the best decks -- not just showing up and expecting their untuned combo to work.
Standard benefits those who build good, consistent decks -- not inconsistent combos that durdle incessantly. The most powerful decks in the format have a nice rock-paper-scissors interaction currently with an underpinning of non-t1 decks lurking to pick-off the top dogs (Bx Zombies, RGx Aggro, Aetherworks Marvel decks). Build a deck that preys on a room and you will have success. Build something that just makes your Timmy, Johnny, or Vorthos happy? Well, maybe winning isn't everything, huh.
In a format where knowledge and tech are key, a competitive mindset will go a longer way than uninformed speculation. A new player can have establish a competitive mindset as well as a seasoned one.
Incentive like what wotc has set out will allow smaller rooms for newer players to get established. They'll be able to work their way and understand a 20 person meta and maybe even win some events after a few months. This is easier than, say, spiking an old PTQ or even playing against a 20-man of all the area grinders like our current PPTQ system.
I think standard and this promotion benefit the player who has started to push some money towards the game but really hasn't made the jump by buying something like Gideons, Avacyns, or Grim Flayers.
I hope our MTGS regulars can open some sick Inventions and buy those Mythics they've been eyeing.
I remember buying my Snapcaster Mages back in Innistrad. They were the best Magic purchase I have ever made.
I remember buying my Stormbreath Dragons back in Theros. They were the most enjoyable Magic purchase I have ever made.
By distributing more lottery tickets, Wotc is allowing more kids to make that "big purchase" and really enjoy the most powerful cards of the format. Sure, a lot will be soaked up by Spikes who haven't got anything better to do with their time but enough will trickle down that I think there's no reason to hate these events.
When: Every Saturday beginning Nov 26 - Dec 17 at 2:00pm
Entry: FREE
Format: Standard - Swiss 3 Rounds - 32 Player Cap
Prizes:
3-0: 2x Standard Showdown Booster Packs
All remaining Standard Showdown Booster Packs will be given out randomly at event conclusion. (We are allotted 10 Standard Showdown Booster Packs per event from Wizards of the Coast.)
If this is typical, we can deduce certain things:
The payout (max average $8) for winning is not worth travel expenses, much less anybody's time.
There will be some random packs lotteried away (32/(2**3)=4, 2 packs for top four leaves 2 to be lotteried. This store doesn't even get 16 for free Wednesday night events that provide comparable amounts of store credit. With less than 32 participants, there may be less than 4 people going 3-0, thus more lottery packs)
This is a competitive game created by a for-profit company. So yeah, the bulk of the prizes will go to the most skilled players who have invested in non-budget decks. How else do we get incentive to buy product or play or brew better?
But seriously folks, this is way below minimum wage. If you don't enjoy playing competitive standard independent of the payout, do something else.
Standard is in a fine place right now, especially for those that are competitive minded. If you don't like the competitive mindset, play a casual format.
So what you're saying is that Standard, THE entry level format for most new players, should cater to super-competitive cutthroat Spikes? That is the most backwards nonesense I've heard all week.
Standard has more competitive events than all other formats. Your opinion might be that it's an entry level format, but your opinion also doesn't change facts. Standard has the most competitive events by a long shot, so therefore I think it's fair to have events like this cater to spikes.
You're complaining about the premiere competitive format being played competitively. THAT is backwards nonsense my friend.
then don't do that. it should be obvious this program isn't targeted for you. if you are not interested enough in standard to play competitively with competitive decks, then what outcome do you expect? it seems trivial to me that the people who put the effort into their decks and their play get rewarded.
If you view this pilot program as a means for Wizards to kickback a bit more to the entrenched Standard playerbase then, sure, this sort of Spikey-ness holds true. But I don't think that is the aim of these events, which are more geared towards enticing Magic players on the fence to hop into Standard (because it is WotC's bread and butter format as far as revenue goes), to drive sales of new sets. As such, it is important to reward players on the margins to get them into events, into the format, rather than present yet another grinder-oriented scheme that does little to motivate them.
And that's not a great way to grow the Standard playerbase.
from an objective standpoint standard is now cheaper than it has been in years
Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that Standard costs are still going to be a tough pill for many players to swallow. Dropping $300-$400 dollars on a Tier 1 deck, of which most of the pieces will trend towards bulk at or past rotation, is unthinkable to many of the Magic population, especially when non-rotating options can be around the same price or cheaper.
A modern Grixis Delver list can be had for roughly the cost of U/W Flash or B/G Delirium if one substitutes Mires for Tarns without a huge loss in performance. Modern Dredge and Burn hover around that price as well. And this is only talking about more invested players...what would a typical casual think of paying $30-$40 a piece for staples like Gideon or Liliana? You can buy an entire Commander deck that will never rotate out of use for that kind of cash? Why bother getting crushed in Standard because you couldn't pay to play?
if there was a magical way to make the format suddenly better for everyone, WOTC would have found it by now.
There's one weird trick to make Standard better for the entirety of the playerbase...stop printing hyper-pushed, format-warping staples at Mythic rarity (e.g. Gideon, Avacyn, Grim Flayer) and print better cards at Common/Uncommon.
They used to do this, but not anymore. One can only wonder why...
stop being so sour and fix your priorities in magic. you can't have your cake and eat it too. success demands effort. if you don't put in the effort, don't expect anyone to hand out tournament prices to you. seems like and obvious thing.
No sourness here...I'm just staying out of Standard besides helping some of the local grinders playtest (with their cards or proxies). I have evaluated my priorities in Magic and so have many others in my area. Unfortunately for Wizards, that means many of the stores in my area no longer fire non-PPTQ or Game Day Standard events as the playerbase isn't interested.
3-1, got dealt just one booster but opened Ob Nixilis and an expedition Breeding Pool! I almost ***** my pants because I thought I had opened Liliana first.
all of the entry fees were distributed among players so I got well rewarded.
So I went to Endgame in Oakland, CA or the Standard Showdown. I chose the shop for a couple of reasons. 1. Its a shop that I have not played Magic at but I know had ample space for good sized Magic Tournaments. 2. I wanted to do what the Standard Showdown was meant to do which is bring players into a shop to play standard. I felt since I have not played at this shop, that me going there and playing will make sure the events fire being as this place does not usually have a lot of standard tournaments.
We had 26 players show up (which shocked a lot of people being that this store never usually gets that many players). The players were nice, and the diversity of decks was in abundance. I saw U/W Flash, U/W Blink, U/R spells, B/G delirium, Jund Delirium, Grixis Emerge, U/B control, BW Fabricate, R/G Pummeler, Temur Energy(thats what I played), 5 Color Deploy the Gatewatch, Midrange Abzan, BR Aggro, Jeskai Metalworks. The meta was diverse. This means that initially the program worked. Getting people to play standard, and see what types of different decks can be played.
I went 3 and 1 with Temur Energy. I played against Abzan round 1 (lost 1-2), UR Spells (won 2 and 0), U/B Control (won 2-1), and Jeskai Metalworks (2-0). I finished in 6th. Now here is where I was a little annoyed with the shop.
There was 3 3-0-1 plays so naturally they earned the Special Packs. So there was 7 More Special Packs to give. How they decided to hand out those packs was kind of shady. Basically they gave those packs to the Return players. Players who never played at the store before got no special packs. Players who had records of 1 and 3, players I beat got special packs. This confused me because they initially said the Special Packs go to players who have never played at the shop before, then when it came time to pass out packs they gave them to players who have played there before. I played 5 bucks to play in the tourney, and I end up with 7 dollars in store credit. Undefeated players each got 30 bucks. So they got special packs and 30 bucks in store credit.
This to me defeats the Purpose of Standard Showdown. It is made to get people into the stores to play standard. You want to incentivize newer players playing at your store. Nothing is more than a kick in the teeth to a newer player when unless you undefeated, you are on the bottom of the totem pole. The store usual, who would almost certainly keep they're business in the store even if they did not get a special pack, were the ones incentivized.
The letter Wizards sent stores as suggestions for prize payout, said undefeated players first, then newer players, then your regulars. Why Endgame decided to do the opposite frustrates me. It only makes it so I do not want to play at that store again.
It was a shame too because I had a ton of fun playing Magic. I just left with a sour taste in my mouth
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I'm kinda disappointed in these boosters. At the store we opened 10. It was split as 4,3,2,1. Dumb way to distribute them. We only had 9 players. The place could have given 1 to each player and 2 to the winner I guess and make everyone happy.
We got an expedition Strip Mine which was very lucky, but the amount of trash rares and foils were absurd. The second best pull was a measly foil island. Not even a 1-dollar rare, just bulk crap. Maybe these were very unlucky pulls, but with the prices I see some around ebay for sealed pack, it doesn't feel worthy opening them. The odds of getting something good seem worse for the nonfoil slot than regular pack. Too much variation.
Went today, won a booster and opened nothing useful (UB dual land and a toolcraft exemplar) but my store typically does 5 dollar entry with 20 bucks for 4-0 and 10 for 3-1 so this was the same structure but with the 3 card boosters. It was ok, turnout was decently. One of my opponents had a serious medical issue which really sucked but other than that it was a good experience
So I went to Endgame in Oakland, CA or the Standard Showdown. I chose the shop for a couple of reasons. 1. Its a shop that I have not played Magic at but I know had ample space for good sized Magic Tournaments. 2. I wanted to do what the Standard Showdown was meant to do which is bring players into a shop to play standard. I felt since I have not played at this shop, that me going there and playing will make sure the events fire being as this place does not usually have a lot of standard tournaments.
We had 26 players show up (which shocked a lot of people being that this store never usually gets that many players). The players were nice, and the diversity of decks was in abundance. I saw U/W Flash, U/W Blink, U/R spells, B/G delirium, Jund Delirium, Grixis Emerge, U/B control, BW Fabricate, R/G Pummeler, Temur Energy(thats what I played), 5 Color Deploy the Gatewatch, Midrange Abzan, BR Aggro, Jeskai Metalworks. The meta was diverse. This means that initially the program worked. Getting people to play standard, and see what types of different decks can be played.
I went 3 and 1 with Temur Energy. I played against Abzan round 1 (lost 1-2), UR Spells (won 2 and 0), U/B Control (won 2-1), and Jeskai Metalworks (2-0). I finished in 6th. Now here is where I was a little annoyed with the shop.
There was 3 3-0-1 plays so naturally they earned the Special Packs. So there was 7 More Special Packs to give. How they decided to hand out those packs was kind of shady. Basically they gave those packs to the Return players. Players who never played at the store before got no special packs. Players who had records of 1 and 3, players I beat got special packs. This confused me because they initially said the Special Packs go to players who have never played at the shop before, then when it came time to pass out packs they gave them to players who have played there before. I played 5 bucks to play in the tourney, and I end up with 7 dollars in store credit. Undefeated players each got 30 bucks. So they got special packs and 30 bucks in store credit.
This to me defeats the Purpose of Standard Showdown. It is made to get people into the stores to play standard. You want to incentivize newer players playing at your store. Nothing is more than a kick in the teeth to a newer player when unless you undefeated, you are on the bottom of the totem pole. The store usual, who would almost certainly keep they're business in the store even if they did not get a special pack, were the ones incentivized.
The letter Wizards sent stores as suggestions for prize payout, said undefeated players first, then newer players, then your regulars. Why Endgame decided to do the opposite frustrates me. It only makes it so I do not want to play at that store again.
It was a shame too because I had a ton of fun playing Magic. I just left with a sour taste in my mouth
this is a real shame. from what I've read on facebook people have had similar issues with stores failing to run these events properly. I'm so glad I never have to deal with these kind of issues.
I went to two of these.
The first was at a store that I like that normally only has Modern at 6. This tournament was at 1. The information on the website, the Facebook page and the Google calendar were all wrong or missing. There were still 7 people: 4 regulars, 3 new. There was $5 entry, 3 rounds and a pack of both Kaladesh and Showdown per win. Yeah, the numbers don't add up. I went 2-1, got 2 Kaladesh packs and 2 Showdown packs. I saw an expedition, a Grim Flayer and a foil Combustible Gearhulk opened from Showdown packs (I didn't open mine)
The other store normally has a Saturday standard event that draws about 10 people with $5 entry. The tournament is capped at 16, as it's a small store that has other game and pub things going on. They hit capacity with some new players and distributed the Showdown packs to the top 8 and two other players randomly. A lot of these packs were unopened as people thought they might be more valuable that way. But I saw someone very happy with another Grim Flayer from a Showdown pack and other good rares including Ulamog, so I don't think the Showdown packs are skewed towards crap.
@xover - ouch. Obviously, now you know to check the local prize structure. D20 in Alameda? published that they give out 1 each to top 4 and 4 randomly (and what about the other two?). I didn't check the 2 places in Berserkly, but they might work better for you.
I'm confused. If Standard attendance is falling largely due to card prices, how will fledgling standard players who are having a hard time getting meta-decks together be able to go undefeated against players who have the full meta-deck, just to win a promo pack? This sounds more like a reward for meta-deck players, as they'll probably win and get the ~$50 promo pack (singles resell value).
I wanted to go to the store I have not gone too. Plus D20 is usually smaller and claustrophobic. Endgame did not say how they were distributing prizes on the website other than store credit. I usually play at D20 or bigger better games in fremont. I just wanted to try a shopp that could be another option for me. The turnout and atmosphere was great. The payout was not.
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Today I went to one of the stores that I went to last week. They had had only 7, but I was curious about how much of that was due to the holiday weekend and some confusing publicity. Today that had 14. Each time about half of participants that had not been regular standard participants. I brought a friend that had never played standard competitively before. We both thought it was fun, and it seemed like a qualified success.
As I consider this promotion, I wonder whether is is somewhat greedy and self-defeating to be promoting Saturday events. Would it be better to let stores add the packs to the prize pools of their regular tournaments? The store I went to has Saturday evening Modern tournaments, so they scheduled the tournament for 1PM. Very few stores have Standard tournaments on Saturday. This promotion seems unlikely to establish a regular Saturday tournament, so the store will probably just go back to the previous schedule after the promotion ends. If the store could use the promotion to build attendance at the regular Monday Standard tournaments, it seems like that would do more for standard than a short series of oddball tournaments.
Obviously the majority of players didn't like the rotation change not to mentioning the dumbing down of the game . Standard seems like it's nothing but creatures and Planeswalker anymore. They need to ratchet up the power level of sets again especially instant spells and Global/Static Enchantments and Artifacts. For me standard hasn't been fun since Khans even with Rhino everywhere. Khans block had a good mixture of power across the board Good Lands, Creatures, Spells, Planeswalkers . Enchantments and Artifacts were a little weak but playable. I Think it would go a long way just to make great sets again. There is a reason we has these worst set since homlands threads every new set lately, it's because there is some truth to it.
Today I went to one of the stores that I went to last week. They had had only 7, but I was curious about how much of that was due to the holiday weekend and some confusing publicity. Today that had 14. Each time about half of participants that had not been regular standard participants. I brought a friend that had never played standard competitively before. We both thought it was fun, and it seemed like a qualified success.
As I consider this promotion, I wonder whether is is somewhat greedy and self-defeating to be promoting Saturday events. Would it be better to let stores add the packs to the prize pools of their regular tournaments? The store I went to has Saturday evening Modern tournaments, so they scheduled the tournament for 1PM. Very few stores have Standard tournaments on Saturday. This promotion seems unlikely to establish a regular Saturday tournament, so the store will probably just go back to the previous schedule after the promotion ends. If the store could use the promotion to build attendance at the regular Monday Standard tournaments, it seems like that would do more for standard than a short series of oddball tournaments.
I disagree this setup opened my lgs to have more standard Saturday events, as most people couldn't make a weekday tournament. They sometimes barely get four during the week, but have consistently been getting 8+.I have been two, went 2-2 and 4-0, everyone gets a pack and the winner gets a second pack and sc is distributed(depending on how many players) I really hope this continues. For the record my packs have pulled me 3 hits shambling Vent,insidious will foil, and full art plains.
I think my shop is a minority, but nonetheless a big success. Now Wizards give us back the rewards program!
I think Kaladesh Showdown was a success because of it being on Saturday and that you just had to get top 8 (at my shop) to get two packs. If they have an Aether Revolt Showdown, it will be just as good. My only complaint? No-one opened any Masterpieces. I got Arid Mesa and Grim Flayer out of one and one of us would get an expedition every week.
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then don't do that. it should be obvious this program isn't targeted for you. if you are not interested enough in standard to play competitively with competitive decks, then what outcome do you expect? it seems trivial to me that the people who put the effort into their decks and their play get rewarded.
you are acting as though it's somehow a negative that good players and good decks will win more often that they lose. to me it seems obvious that players should be incentivized to do well in any tournaments. if you make bad decks and never tip your toe in competitive REL events you are obviously going to lose to the better players. this is NOT a failure of the format. there is nothing wrong with the format. from an objective standpoint standard is now cheaper than it has been in years, and there is good diversity among well performing decks even at the top level of play. if there was a magical way to make the format suddenly better for everyone, WOTC would have found it by now. stop being so sour and fix your priorities in magic. you can't have your cake and eat it too. success demands effort. if you don't put in the effort, don't expect anyone to hand out tournament prices to you. seems like and obvious thing.
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ROI spikes who are beholded to no shop probably aren't the target audience here.
This would appear to be about getting locals in the door and keeping them invested in the standard environment when a quickly rotating format and CoCo chased them away.
Wotc has rarely had to care about keeping spikes invested though I can see where you're coming from. I love high stakes events and this doesn't really benefit that in anyway.
I guess what I'm getting at is that this promotion isn't for spikes -- although many will benefit from it. Every now and then, a timmy, johnny, or vorthos will "spike" a tourney, pull a "masterpiece" and have card liquidity to continue their foray into competitive magic -- a premise that I can't hate.
One of the things that keeps newer players out is spikes. However, the cheaper the format, the easier it is to beat said spikes. I think Glav was getting at that there are multiple competitive decks to play right now and W/R Vehicles isn't as expensive as, say, Jeskai Black from last year (which clocked in ~ $700 if I recall). W/R in paper is a little over $200 bucks? That's a bargain in paper compared to previous formats even if it isn't inline with a "competitive magic should be less than $50" mindset. If you are competitive, you can play an established deck or you can brew to beat the established decks (admittedly, more work than one would expect). Even a new player can do this, assuming they are thinking and practicing to beat the best decks -- not just showing up and expecting their untuned combo to work.
Standard benefits those who build good, consistent decks -- not inconsistent combos that durdle incessantly. The most powerful decks in the format have a nice rock-paper-scissors interaction currently with an underpinning of non-t1 decks lurking to pick-off the top dogs (Bx Zombies, RGx Aggro, Aetherworks Marvel decks). Build a deck that preys on a room and you will have success. Build something that just makes your Timmy, Johnny, or Vorthos happy? Well, maybe winning isn't everything, huh.
In a format where knowledge and tech are key, a competitive mindset will go a longer way than uninformed speculation. A new player can have establish a competitive mindset as well as a seasoned one.
Incentive like what wotc has set out will allow smaller rooms for newer players to get established. They'll be able to work their way and understand a 20 person meta and maybe even win some events after a few months. This is easier than, say, spiking an old PTQ or even playing against a 20-man of all the area grinders like our current PPTQ system.
I think standard and this promotion benefit the player who has started to push some money towards the game but really hasn't made the jump by buying something like Gideons, Avacyns, or Grim Flayers.
I hope our MTGS regulars can open some sick Inventions and buy those Mythics they've been eyeing.
I remember buying my Snapcaster Mages back in Innistrad. They were the best Magic purchase I have ever made.
I remember buying my Stormbreath Dragons back in Theros. They were the most enjoyable Magic purchase I have ever made.
By distributing more lottery tickets, Wotc is allowing more kids to make that "big purchase" and really enjoy the most powerful cards of the format. Sure, a lot will be soaked up by Spikes who haven't got anything better to do with their time but enough will trickle down that I think there's no reason to hate these events.
If this is typical, we can deduce certain things:
This is a competitive game created by a for-profit company. So yeah, the bulk of the prizes will go to the most skilled players who have invested in non-budget decks. How else do we get incentive to buy product or play or brew better?
But seriously folks, this is way below minimum wage. If you don't enjoy playing competitive standard independent of the payout, do something else.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Standard has more competitive events than all other formats. Your opinion might be that it's an entry level format, but your opinion also doesn't change facts. Standard has the most competitive events by a long shot, so therefore I think it's fair to have events like this cater to spikes.
You're complaining about the premiere competitive format being played competitively. THAT is backwards nonsense my friend.
If you view this pilot program as a means for Wizards to kickback a bit more to the entrenched Standard playerbase then, sure, this sort of Spikey-ness holds true. But I don't think that is the aim of these events, which are more geared towards enticing Magic players on the fence to hop into Standard (because it is WotC's bread and butter format as far as revenue goes), to drive sales of new sets. As such, it is important to reward players on the margins to get them into events, into the format, rather than present yet another grinder-oriented scheme that does little to motivate them.
And that's not a great way to grow the Standard playerbase.
Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that Standard costs are still going to be a tough pill for many players to swallow. Dropping $300-$400 dollars on a Tier 1 deck, of which most of the pieces will trend towards bulk at or past rotation, is unthinkable to many of the Magic population, especially when non-rotating options can be around the same price or cheaper.
A modern Grixis Delver list can be had for roughly the cost of U/W Flash or B/G Delirium if one substitutes Mires for Tarns without a huge loss in performance. Modern Dredge and Burn hover around that price as well. And this is only talking about more invested players...what would a typical casual think of paying $30-$40 a piece for staples like Gideon or Liliana? You can buy an entire Commander deck that will never rotate out of use for that kind of cash? Why bother getting crushed in Standard because you couldn't pay to play?
There's one weird trick to make Standard better for the entirety of the playerbase...stop printing hyper-pushed, format-warping staples at Mythic rarity (e.g. Gideon, Avacyn, Grim Flayer) and print better cards at Common/Uncommon.
They used to do this, but not anymore. One can only wonder why...
No sourness here...I'm just staying out of Standard besides helping some of the local grinders playtest (with their cards or proxies). I have evaluated my priorities in Magic and so have many others in my area. Unfortunately for Wizards, that means many of the stores in my area no longer fire non-PPTQ or Game Day Standard events as the playerbase isn't interested.
all of the entry fees were distributed among players so I got well rewarded.
Youtube Channel
We had 26 players show up (which shocked a lot of people being that this store never usually gets that many players). The players were nice, and the diversity of decks was in abundance. I saw U/W Flash, U/W Blink, U/R spells, B/G delirium, Jund Delirium, Grixis Emerge, U/B control, BW Fabricate, R/G Pummeler, Temur Energy(thats what I played), 5 Color Deploy the Gatewatch, Midrange Abzan, BR Aggro, Jeskai Metalworks. The meta was diverse. This means that initially the program worked. Getting people to play standard, and see what types of different decks can be played.
I went 3 and 1 with Temur Energy. I played against Abzan round 1 (lost 1-2), UR Spells (won 2 and 0), U/B Control (won 2-1), and Jeskai Metalworks (2-0). I finished in 6th. Now here is where I was a little annoyed with the shop.
There was 3 3-0-1 plays so naturally they earned the Special Packs. So there was 7 More Special Packs to give. How they decided to hand out those packs was kind of shady. Basically they gave those packs to the Return players. Players who never played at the store before got no special packs. Players who had records of 1 and 3, players I beat got special packs. This confused me because they initially said the Special Packs go to players who have never played at the shop before, then when it came time to pass out packs they gave them to players who have played there before. I played 5 bucks to play in the tourney, and I end up with 7 dollars in store credit. Undefeated players each got 30 bucks. So they got special packs and 30 bucks in store credit.
This to me defeats the Purpose of Standard Showdown. It is made to get people into the stores to play standard. You want to incentivize newer players playing at your store. Nothing is more than a kick in the teeth to a newer player when unless you undefeated, you are on the bottom of the totem pole. The store usual, who would almost certainly keep they're business in the store even if they did not get a special pack, were the ones incentivized.
The letter Wizards sent stores as suggestions for prize payout, said undefeated players first, then newer players, then your regulars. Why Endgame decided to do the opposite frustrates me. It only makes it so I do not want to play at that store again.
It was a shame too because I had a ton of fun playing Magic. I just left with a sour taste in my mouth
Tried to pull away, but now I'm Back At it
Love is Emphatic, cards need to be played
Hailing from the BA, accumulating CA"
We got an expedition Strip Mine which was very lucky, but the amount of trash rares and foils were absurd. The second best pull was a measly foil island. Not even a 1-dollar rare, just bulk crap. Maybe these were very unlucky pulls, but with the prices I see some around ebay for sealed pack, it doesn't feel worthy opening them. The odds of getting something good seem worse for the nonfoil slot than regular pack. Too much variation.
this is a real shame. from what I've read on facebook people have had similar issues with stores failing to run these events properly. I'm so glad I never have to deal with these kind of issues.
Youtube Channel
The first was at a store that I like that normally only has Modern at 6. This tournament was at 1. The information on the website, the Facebook page and the Google calendar were all wrong or missing. There were still 7 people: 4 regulars, 3 new. There was $5 entry, 3 rounds and a pack of both Kaladesh and Showdown per win. Yeah, the numbers don't add up. I went 2-1, got 2 Kaladesh packs and 2 Showdown packs. I saw an expedition, a Grim Flayer and a foil Combustible Gearhulk opened from Showdown packs (I didn't open mine)
The other store normally has a Saturday standard event that draws about 10 people with $5 entry. The tournament is capped at 16, as it's a small store that has other game and pub things going on. They hit capacity with some new players and distributed the Showdown packs to the top 8 and two other players randomly. A lot of these packs were unopened as people thought they might be more valuable that way. But I saw someone very happy with another Grim Flayer from a Showdown pack and other good rares including Ulamog, so I don't think the Showdown packs are skewed towards crap.
@xover - ouch. Obviously, now you know to check the local prize structure. D20 in Alameda? published that they give out 1 each to top 4 and 4 randomly (and what about the other two?). I didn't check the 2 places in Berserkly, but they might work better for you.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I wanted to go to the store I have not gone too. Plus D20 is usually smaller and claustrophobic. Endgame did not say how they were distributing prizes on the website other than store credit. I usually play at D20 or bigger better games in fremont. I just wanted to try a shopp that could be another option for me. The turnout and atmosphere was great. The payout was not.
Tried to pull away, but now I'm Back At it
Love is Emphatic, cards need to be played
Hailing from the BA, accumulating CA"
As I consider this promotion, I wonder whether is is somewhat greedy and self-defeating to be promoting Saturday events. Would it be better to let stores add the packs to the prize pools of their regular tournaments? The store I went to has Saturday evening Modern tournaments, so they scheduled the tournament for 1PM. Very few stores have Standard tournaments on Saturday. This promotion seems unlikely to establish a regular Saturday tournament, so the store will probably just go back to the previous schedule after the promotion ends. If the store could use the promotion to build attendance at the regular Monday Standard tournaments, it seems like that would do more for standard than a short series of oddball tournaments.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I disagree this setup opened my lgs to have more standard Saturday events, as most people couldn't make a weekday tournament. They sometimes barely get four during the week, but have consistently been getting 8+.I have been two, went 2-2 and 4-0, everyone gets a pack and the winner gets a second pack and sc is distributed(depending on how many players) I really hope this continues. For the record my packs have pulled me 3 hits shambling Vent,insidious will foil, and full art plains.
I think my shop is a minority, but nonetheless a big success. Now Wizards give us back the rewards program!