This has nothing to do with the original topic, but it is commentary on a potential pitfall of the new packaging. I've opened almost a booster box of single booster packs and have noticed that many of the cards are kinda damaged, some even to the point of being considered "slightly played". Both my Noble Hierarch and Cryptic Command pulls look pretty bad for pack fresh cards. IDK if this has anything to with the packaging, but I have yet to see booster pulls be so uniformly damaged over multiple booster boxes (all from legit game stores). They should not use this packaging again IMO.
I whole heartedly agree. My 1st box, I put the uncommons and commons back in the packs. Put the box in my car, drove ~300 miles for work today, and just took them back out of their re-packs. Some are really feeling different than the other cards. Almost the whole edge of some of them have that "slightly played" or even a "played" feel. Definitely would be considered marked cards in a sleeveless deck in a tourney. Finally, concerning my 1st box, as I mentioned in my previous posts in this thread, the glue... This box had an excess of glue on several of the packs. Like small sticky hairs on the outsides of a few of the packs. Not something you want to have if you plan to reuse the packs for anything: dividers, draft cube re-packs, etc.
As for quality: The last two commons in my 2nd box all have the top left corner not cut to match the other cards. It's a fraction of a millimeter off. Stacking up the cards, in pack order, you can see the noticeable difference. Whole box is this way.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I pulled the mythic/rares and foils and put them into a deck box and KMC perfect fits almost right away.
Haven't done a tally of the damaged edges for the cards. I do see and feel it. Checked both boxes as I was writing this post. I'll do a tally and fire off a nasty gram. When I crack a pack, I want it pack fresh - Not near mint - let alone "marked".
So... anyone got a line on some Chinese or Japanese packs?
For everyone that thinks this is good, you do realize these are pretty easy to reseal...
For the extra slow, people are going to open packs look at the cards reseal them and sell them on ebay just like people used to look through the pack and see what was in it prior to ice age. This was the one of dumbest thing that they ever could have done
Wizards has damage-controlled that they tested for security and they are confident there are no issues... but are they believable? Who's right? The YouTubers and forum posters saying it's easy, or Wizards who say it's not? I don't trust either, I just need to see a pack for myself to determine I guess. I'm slightly worried about it, though. I have a box coming soon, it should be shrinkwrapped, right? If it's not, do I have a problem on my hands?
Yes. That's a problem.
You will see after your box how easy these are to tamper with and the residual/excess glue on the outside of the packs is noticeable. I have 2 more boxes to open and at a 1/12 excess glue rate, well, you all can do the math
For everyone that thinks this is good, you do realize these are pretty easy to reseal...
For the extra slow, people are going to open packs look at the cards reseal them and sell them on ebay just like people used to look through the pack and see what was in it prior to ice age. This was the one of dumbest thing that they ever could have done
^ This.
And the excess glue on the outside of the packs will make them unusable as a build your own draft cube card holder.
Just a quick summary, if anyone is interested. I am sorely disappointed with the extent of this in MM15, especially if you compare it to the previous MM:
That is what? 25? 35 cards that are good or okay-ish in Modern, out of 249 cards. Going to need more than a seventh of a set made specifically for a format. That would be like if they made a Tiny Leaders set and putting 75% of the cards in it over 4 CMC.
People don't want to crack open more cards that have been reprinted 2 times in the last year or two, as they probably have plenty of them and even if they don't they are easy to acquire. There shouldn't be cards being opened that I could find in a basic core set, like Mighty Leap or Raise the Alarm, what there should be are commons and uncommons that are in need of a dire reprint that haven't seen a new version in 5-10+ years that should have been a shoe in, as it would have been similar to MM1, but it seems more like they gave up after the mythics and half the rares and just decided to start throwing darts at a board to see what should be in it.
Cracking open a pack should be more than a $10 lottery ticket to see if you won the $160 Goyf prize. The packs going up $3 and yet having worse uncommon and common value isn't going to make people happy. Had the packs stayed at $7 this would have been a little more acceptable, but unfortunately that isn't the case and folks are not happy with it, and for very good reason, this set is just plain lackluster.
The set is serviceable on the whole merely because it reprints some cards but is definitely not "filled with modern staples" as they account for not even 20% of the set. You listed 40 something cards there of which a quarter are too cheap to need reprinting and of the remaining 30 half are mythics.
As has been explained (too) many times in the last few days, that makes actually opening boosters far to risky to be worth it at current prices. It makes drafts unappealing because with such high prices and low probabilities you need to pick up anything worth money even if its unplayable (like Daybreak Coronet).
MTG boosters are well priced impulse buys. Impulse buys need to be cheap, otherwise they're not impulse buys. No one except the Sultan of Brunei buys a car on impulse. At 10$ buying MM was going to be a calculated risk and we all knew it. You play the Goyf lottery but count on a staple or two to cover your bases, at least partially. You open a path, or a serum visions and you've had your fun of cracking a pack making up for the expected "loss". But approximately three out of four boosters of MM15 will be filled with total, unusable garbage. 30$ down already, are you really going to go for the fourth one and play the odds?
Its not rage or entitlement, its simply a calculation.
If we didn't have the GP's to stimulate interest I don't know how we'd ever get enough packs opened.
^ and this.
I think you two nailed "it" for this thread. Thank you.
The shops I frequent do NOT do a lot of drafting. The pull is Standard. With that pull, it pulls all other events - like Modern and Commander. Then after those three comes - drafting. At most, I have seen 8 people draft on one of the larger store's FNM. The other stores have 4 drafters. Commander might have slightly more pull than the drafting. But Standard is the big crowd puller.
So, WotC supports Standard - that's their flagship, the bread and butter, the money maker. Hello and welcome to faster set rotation.
Support for Commander is once a year - Product released in November
They have done a Draft support product three years in a row: MM1, Conspiracy, and now MM2.
And the Modern support was the Modern Event deck without the proper mana base. (Sorin's deck from Sorin V. Tibalt was better.)
My fear is that Conspiracy will be better than MM2... and I have more than enough Conspiracy. (It was a hoot and a half to draft and play.)
A 6th "basic land" type will never be a thing. No Barry's land aka "Cave" - No to a "ruins" basic land. Sure the article is 6 years old. But this is one point I don't see MaRo going back on. Take out basic land on that Ruins land and you might just have something.
Some things to consider when home brewing this one to speculate:
Each DD will have at most 3 cards that are 2x, including the cards in the mana base.
Based on the last few DD's, they tend to have mostly 1 of's in them. Very VERY few cards are 2 in the deck. The Jace deck (in Jace vs. V) had 2X Krovikan Mist, 2x Thought Scour, and 2x Halimar Depths. Vraska's deck had 2x Gatecreeper Vine, 2x Tragic Slip, and 2x Tainted Wood (THANK YOU FOR THIS REPRINT!!!!!!111). The rest were 1 of cards.
For the mana base, in ZvE, it will be 24 lands in each deck - mostly be basic land cards, 2x Evolving Wilds, and 2x something else - IF they are being magnanimous. If we are thrown the ultimate bone, the Eldrazi deck will have all unique cards for the creatures and spells. The lands will be 2x each of the Urza lands, 2x Evolving Wilds, 8x forests, and 8x mountains for you total of 24 lands - which has been the norm. Calling R/G Eldrazi ramp.
Therefore, I pre-ordered a whole display form my LGS.
I have pre-ordered one whole display from my LGS. Expecting to pay between $95.81 and $114.97, after the store discount and adding in local sales tax. (Not sure if they will do the 25% discount or if that only applies to booster boxes.)
I whole heartedly agree. My 1st box, I put the uncommons and commons back in the packs. Put the box in my car, drove ~300 miles for work today, and just took them back out of their re-packs. Some are really feeling different than the other cards. Almost the whole edge of some of them have that "slightly played" or even a "played" feel. Definitely would be considered marked cards in a sleeveless deck in a tourney. Finally, concerning my 1st box, as I mentioned in my previous posts in this thread, the glue... This box had an excess of glue on several of the packs. Like small sticky hairs on the outsides of a few of the packs. Not something you want to have if you plan to reuse the packs for anything: dividers, draft cube re-packs, etc.
As for quality: The last two commons in my 2nd box all have the top left corner not cut to match the other cards. It's a fraction of a millimeter off. Stacking up the cards, in pack order, you can see the noticeable difference. Whole box is this way.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I pulled the mythic/rares and foils and put them into a deck box and KMC perfect fits almost right away.
Haven't done a tally of the damaged edges for the cards. I do see and feel it. Checked both boxes as I was writing this post. I'll do a tally and fire off a nasty gram. When I crack a pack, I want it pack fresh - Not near mint - let alone "marked".
So... anyone got a line on some Chinese or Japanese packs?
Yes. That's a problem.
You will see after your box how easy these are to tamper with and the residual/excess glue on the outside of the packs is noticeable. I have 2 more boxes to open and at a 1/12 excess glue rate, well, you all can do the math
^ This.
And the excess glue on the outside of the packs will make them unusable as a build your own draft cube card holder.
I for one am and have been TRYING to forget Theros. New flavor is a dislike for me for this one.
I'm going to keep them for when SV is NOT in Origins and/or NOT in DD:ZvE.
^ This
^ and this.
I think you two nailed "it" for this thread. Thank you.
Purple is for Portal. See? Remember the big Inquest article many many many many moons ago?
So, WotC supports Standard - that's their flagship, the bread and butter, the money maker. Hello and welcome to faster set rotation.
Support for Commander is once a year - Product released in November
They have done a Draft support product three years in a row: MM1, Conspiracy, and now MM2.
And the Modern support was the Modern Event deck without the proper mana base. (Sorin's deck from Sorin V. Tibalt was better.)
My fear is that Conspiracy will be better than MM2... and I have more than enough Conspiracy. (It was a hoot and a half to draft and play.)
^ This.
A 6th "basic land" type will never be a thing. No Barry's land aka "Cave" - No to a "ruins" basic land. Sure the article is 6 years old. But this is one point I don't see MaRo going back on. Take out basic land on that Ruins land and you might just have something.
Besides, Purple is the 6th color. DUH!
I will be playing the mythic (not looking at you Comet Storm) lottery with this one.
Each DD will have at most 3 cards that are 2x, including the cards in the mana base.
Based on the last few DD's, they tend to have mostly 1 of's in them. Very VERY few cards are 2 in the deck. The Jace deck (in Jace vs. V) had 2X Krovikan Mist, 2x Thought Scour, and 2x Halimar Depths. Vraska's deck had 2x Gatecreeper Vine, 2x Tragic Slip, and 2x Tainted Wood (THANK YOU FOR THIS REPRINT!!!!!!111). The rest were 1 of cards.
For the mana base, in ZvE, it will be 24 lands in each deck - mostly be basic land cards, 2x Evolving Wilds, and 2x something else - IF they are being magnanimous. If we are thrown the ultimate bone, the Eldrazi deck will have all unique cards for the creatures and spells. The lands will be 2x each of the Urza lands, 2x Evolving Wilds, 8x forests, and 8x mountains for you total of 24 lands - which has been the norm. Calling R/G Eldrazi ramp.
Therefore, I pre-ordered a whole display form my LGS.
Why? that's in the speculation forum.