Me. I've opened exactly 1 expedition, a Mystic Gate. Since BFZ, I have opened 0 other premium cards. I have watched other people open them though - some of my magic friends have opened a small handful at this point.
I have opened 1. These expeditions are having the opposite effect on me - I am reminded each week to not buy more packs because I am not getting the ultra chase rares that eat up their EV.
Wow. It sounds like an employee thought it would be expedient to stick the buy a box promos in the box. The promos are limited, so maybe they decided to tie one to each box physically. A small error in judgement, but the reality is they're selling loose packs all day so they probably don't really view the sealed box as "sealed", just the packs. I don't think it reflects poorly on them at all, especially since it sounds like you decided to passively aggressively bring up the matter online instead of to their face.
Was it too hard to ask for a sealed box if it bothered you that much? If they're like most stores, they have tons more boxes in the back.
Starcitygames is the best and I fully recommend checking them out if you're going to a GP or Open to buy/sell/trade. They always have great deals on played cards and offer top dollar on cards. I had an issue that they were fully within their rights to ignore and they chose to rectify it. A+
How does Jeskai Control synergize with that combo? Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian are do nothings without each other. They would just be another finisher in that respect, but Torrential Gearhulk and Avacyn are flash and capable of finishing out the game already.
I don't think it's an issue - it's a rather janky combo with no synergistic backup plan. If there is a deck that happens to use those components and the combo is icing on the cake, then I could believe it would have an effect on standard. As it is, this smells like Tier 2 jank.
This new set is interesting, but the preorders are even more interesting to me. No white hot cards - the most expensive single is $12. I think more action is likely with Standard cards from prior sets. Black looks very strong - I could see more Liliana action in the future. It's $30 on tcgplayer, but at GP Louisville the cheapest I could find was $38. Everyone was also targeting Collective Brutality like crazy - maybe it was the Legacy environment, but SCG had theirs for $9/each. Vendors were buying @ 4.
Besides interesting, this new set *has* to shake up standard. I only have anecdotal evidence, but standard participation is way down locally. People hate the stale format. If this set doesn't make standard more appealing, we're in for a looooooooooooooong year.
Dumbass Rudy and his Alpha Investments scam spread that rumor. It'll be true until next week when WOTC announces a run of Commander decks featuring only Atraxa packs.
This format is a janky way to create interest in overprinted cards that have no use otherwise. Speed bump - Magic needs more players or the secondary market is in for a bumpy ride.
I think Magic is in/headed for a recession. Anecdotally, I haven't seen player turnout so depressed since I came back for AVR. Local store ran a PPTQ and only 12 people showed up. Another one about an hour drive away barely scraped together 8. The saturday standard showdown promotion was a miserable failure locally. My LGS feels WOTC overprinted the Planchase anthology and now he's stuck with so many of them that he can't sell for $90. There seems to be zero financial reasons to buy standard cards - hardly any of it is any good eternally, and while most of it is cheap, the really expensive cards like Gideon, Liliana and Avacyn are only high because of standard demand.
People are going to learn the hard way that finance is a huge part of this game. When cards only fall instead of rise in price, enthusiasm wanes. Big time. When you never get your Draft $$$ back in card value, drafting enthusiasm wanes. You can talk about the purity of the game all you want, but people like thinking their cards are worth money. Weak standard combined with WOTC signalling hard that reprints are going to come hard and fast - the second run of EMA and the huge run of MM15 are solid indicators. No more profit for individuals and stores, Wizards is taking their cut on the secondary market (Anthologies are their way of taking a slice of that pie too). I have no faith after that, I'd rather be holding real stock at this point.
Lots of commander players, but they don't drive pack sales. I hope I don't regret cashing out of my collection, but I'm less conflicted about it than I was a month ago. I'm keeping some standard staples and I'll stay abreast of FNM standard - you don't need fancy cards to win there.
Plus WOTC the company sucks - I'm glad to not be spending money with them.
Huh. So, making Mask of Riddles or Mask of Memory equip for free in exchange for summoning sickness makes it Standard playable, huh? I guess that's not too much of a stretch.
That's cool. Soak up the value, equipment, soak it up. Make all the sweet Johnny cards free, it's cool.
I mean, think of it more like a hybrid of Skeleton Key and Lightning Greaves - it gives your dudes haste for free, a loot ability, evasion, and potentially even up to +2 power. That's a ton of value for a one-time mana commitment of just 2.
In other news, I'd keep an eye on Fleetwheel Cruiser. While it may not be making as big of a splash in Standard, it's absolutely brutal in Legacy and Vintage. If it picks up in Standard at all, it could easily maintain an $8-10 pricetag for the long-term.
Morning of Day 1 of Kaladesh release and prices are already dipping. 20% haircut on almost everything. Chandra is $30 and dropping.
Also worthy to mention that BFZ is one of the lowest EV sets I've ever seen. I haven't crunched the numbers myself, but Gideon is down to $14 tcglow. The next most expensive mythic is $10 for Ulamog, and then $4 for Ob Nixlis. Most expensive rare is Prairie Stream at $2. Ridiculous. Expedition depression is real.
I really had second thoughts about posting because I try to avoid putting myself out there. I do not post with an agenda and I laid my cards on the table in terms of how much/little I have invested in this set so far. I thought, however, that some players have not been around since BFZ or KTK and have not seen preorder prices crash to almost nothing. Well, I think this set will be an order of magnitude worse than either one of those sets, in terms of packs opened per player. Fastland prices have already dropped by about 10% since the Kaladesh Expeditions were announced. We may see the lesser played fastlands dip to $2 or lower.
But maybe I'm wrong. I ain't no future seeing wizard even though I play magic. Take what I say with a grain of salt, but to me, this means a total shift in how standard legal set pricing is going to work. The new mega mythics will cause eternal players to "buy in" to standard sets more than if they were after one or two cards. Their purchases for these new mega mythics will cause more pack openings than otherwise. If you don't believe me, that's fine. We'll see how it turns out.
Also, I am the first to accuse people of having secondary agendas, but when I read your accusation to me, that made me really rethink how I approach internet posts. A healthy dose of skepticism is fine, but really, what could my objective possibly be? To convince all 10 readers of this subforum to not buy preorders so I can watch cards tank and scoop up $200 Mana Vaults instead of $205 Mana Vaults? Get real dude.
I don't think there are any mana vault powered cards in this new set, thus your point is faulty. Players will still want the standard legal cards and if you enjoy that; getting a cheap preorder may not be a bad idea. Only the fast lands really interest me. A few of the new artifacts look good, but their CMC is high for affinity. When you post ideas that we should not do anything with this set and have such high negativity, viewers here loose interest in reading/communicating in our forum. You said it, 10 people read this. Why? The reasons are that certain members are negative, rude, lack social skills, and think they are god's gift to magic. Thanks for killing the market street. I am being real, and find your thread just spreading negativity to something new. We need new players and more people buying into the game so we can enjoy it for as long as possible.
"This country (forum) will never fall from an invading force, but instead it will fall from within...."
Lincoln.
You should really learn to read before you post. The whole PREMISE of this post is about MANA VAULT being reprinted at mega mythic rarity. Jeesh.
I think you're the one lacking social graces. I call a spade a spade, and you can't even be bothered to read my posts before heaping disdain upon them. Look in the mirror there sport before you start spouting off about rude people. I'll take rude over dumb any day.
Also, I am not disputing that historically preordering has been a bad idea. I just think some of you don't get how much of a shift this might be in terms of mythic/rare singles availability. An order of magnitude of depression of singles, and any microscarcities of hot cards resolved in days rather than weeks. Paradigm shifting. Buzzy word, but appropriate I think.
I am amused to see Chandra losing at least 50% of its value within the weeks from now to the beginning of the PT.
The value of the singles will become super low.
But this is not compareable to Homelands.
It is compareable to recent sets, even with differences.
- BFZ cards have almost no value, because they are mostly bad, and they lost a lot due to existence of Expeditions.
- KTK cards have a very low value, compared to their power (Siege Rhino), reason was the existence of Fetchlands
- OGW cards with decent power have a little value, but not much. The value mostly exists because the set is a small one.
Kaladesh with have some cards with a good power level, but the Masterpieces are just a little bit more crazy than the Expeditions, so I expect they will really take over the prices. Like written in the article.
I would argue that this set potentially combines characteristics of all of those sets that caused them to be good selling sets to make one set that outsells them all. And it's a large fall set to boot. Analogies to perfect storms and what-not. But we'll see! The full set hasn't even been spoiled yet. This whole set could end up being hot garbage like BFZ, no one really knows yet.
I have opened 1. These expeditions are having the opposite effect on me - I am reminded each week to not buy more packs because I am not getting the ultra chase rares that eat up their EV.
Was it too hard to ask for a sealed box if it bothered you that much? If they're like most stores, they have tons more boxes in the back.
This new set is interesting, but the preorders are even more interesting to me. No white hot cards - the most expensive single is $12. I think more action is likely with Standard cards from prior sets. Black looks very strong - I could see more Liliana action in the future. It's $30 on tcgplayer, but at GP Louisville the cheapest I could find was $38. Everyone was also targeting Collective Brutality like crazy - maybe it was the Legacy environment, but SCG had theirs for $9/each. Vendors were buying @ 4.
Besides interesting, this new set *has* to shake up standard. I only have anecdotal evidence, but standard participation is way down locally. People hate the stale format. If this set doesn't make standard more appealing, we're in for a looooooooooooooong year.
If you want foils, that seems like an OK option right now. 7-8 bucks for NM.
This is purely Frontier "demand." Smells like Tiny Leaders, but may take off as there are quite a few tournaments firing on the format.
See also Hangarback Walker, JVP, Anafenza.
People are going to learn the hard way that finance is a huge part of this game. When cards only fall instead of rise in price, enthusiasm wanes. Big time. When you never get your Draft $$$ back in card value, drafting enthusiasm wanes. You can talk about the purity of the game all you want, but people like thinking their cards are worth money. Weak standard combined with WOTC signalling hard that reprints are going to come hard and fast - the second run of EMA and the huge run of MM15 are solid indicators. No more profit for individuals and stores, Wizards is taking their cut on the secondary market (Anthologies are their way of taking a slice of that pie too). I have no faith after that, I'd rather be holding real stock at this point.
Lots of commander players, but they don't drive pack sales. I hope I don't regret cashing out of my collection, but I'm less conflicted about it than I was a month ago. I'm keeping some standard staples and I'll stay abreast of FNM standard - you don't need fancy cards to win there.
Plus WOTC the company sucks - I'm glad to not be spending money with them.
Can you elaborate on how this is good in Legacy?
Also worthy to mention that BFZ is one of the lowest EV sets I've ever seen. I haven't crunched the numbers myself, but Gideon is down to $14 tcglow. The next most expensive mythic is $10 for Ulamog, and then $4 for Ob Nixlis. Most expensive rare is Prairie Stream at $2. Ridiculous. Expedition depression is real.
You should really learn to read before you post. The whole PREMISE of this post is about MANA VAULT being reprinted at mega mythic rarity. Jeesh.
I think you're the one lacking social graces. I call a spade a spade, and you can't even be bothered to read my posts before heaping disdain upon them. Look in the mirror there sport before you start spouting off about rude people. I'll take rude over dumb any day.
Also, I am not disputing that historically preordering has been a bad idea. I just think some of you don't get how much of a shift this might be in terms of mythic/rare singles availability. An order of magnitude of depression of singles, and any microscarcities of hot cards resolved in days rather than weeks. Paradigm shifting. Buzzy word, but appropriate I think.
I would argue that this set potentially combines characteristics of all of those sets that caused them to be good selling sets to make one set that outsells them all. And it's a large fall set to boot. Analogies to perfect storms and what-not. But we'll see! The full set hasn't even been spoiled yet. This whole set could end up being hot garbage like BFZ, no one really knows yet.