I was in the closed beta for a while, and I watched this program evolve from ah bug-ridden-mess to a not-so-bad client. It still needs more time to bake though. I'm kind of surprised that they pushed this out now.
But maybe this will allow much greater feedback for further improvement of the client. During the closed beta, the developers seemed somewhat receptive and things did get incrementally better each week. And that was with only a few dozen people online at a time and forums that were virtually dead.
One of the reasons this sneak peak is being done now is to leave enough time for substantial changes based on feedback before launch. This is probably the last window for major changes before launch.
Even if they were to do this (and I don't think they ever will), they wouldn't make the super-uncommon as frequent as rares; it would be somewhere between the other uncommons and the rares.
Soulbond seems terribad; all you need to do to make it useless is kill one of the creatures, seeing as it only triggers on ETB. That paladin is basically a 2/2 for three if that happens. Plus, when compared to Mirran Champion, this card is awful.
Triggers each time a creature ETB, so you could reuse Soulbond on a new creature if its partner is killed.
Why does anyone care what "rarity" is printed on this thing? These are precons, all of the cards in a precon are equally rare (though this does rate to be in all of them).
Confirmed: the war tokens are just how you pick which faction you are during the prerelease events. They have beta events up now with two entry options: "30 event tickets + 1 mirran war token" or "30 event tickets + 1 phyrexian war token"
The only question now is how the player will obtain the marks in the first place.
Every account is going to get some number of each, and they may give them as prizes to the PR events as well (to replace the one you burn when entering).
Yes, these are the gateway promos from Eventide. I would scan them, but I destroyed my printer/scanner in a fit of rage a couple of weeks ago, by forgettng about the glass top and thumping it.
What is the promo purpose they are being used for in MTGO?
They'll probably be used for MOPR in some future month. And/or possibly Shadowmoor farewell events.
Someone on the WotC MtGO forums suggested that they could have accomplished their goals pretty well by making a new rule that says "Creatures that have been removed from combat now have their combat damage prevented".
As described by Lee Sharpe in #mtg, this is a horrible horrible idea, because then any change in power after damage is on the stack has no effect on damage, except if toughness drops to 0. It makes pretty much no sense that Last Gasp on a 3/3 would prevent it from dealing damage, but a 3/4, with one point of toughness more, wouldn't affect damage at all.
Hey look, I'm famous!
I'm not sure Lee said it was a horrible horrible idea, just that it was still unintuitive so it didn't fit what they were trying to do. I was convinced that he's probably right, but I'm still not convinced that the new way is better than the old way. I don't think it will have the impact many believe it will, but there is a non-negligible loss of strategy. It feels like they traded elegance for flavor, while at the same time removing a very flavorful rule (mana burn) with little impact.
For the safety of those whose passwords were displayed, it is not a good idea for anyone to see the list other than staff. That includes all 'i don't feel safe' cases. What stops a random person from hijacking your account and getting you banned.
Agreed, though as a VCL for the WotC I would be interested to see the list and see if it matches up with names I recognize from there (since we don't know where was hacked). If you don't want to trust me, please send the link to either Solice or Michelle at WotC (I have e-mail addresses if you need them).
I received the same. Seems like a really weak phishing attempt, since it actually tells you to change your password and only contact the addy given with problems.
Full e-mail source in the cut (with my own info redacted):
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Your passwords may have been compromised.
It was discovered by a user who passed the info on to staff. I suggest changing your pass as soon as possible.
If you have any issues with this, please email me at [EMAIL="shaara_song@%28nospam%29yahoo.com"]shaara_song@(nospam)yahoo.com[/EMAIL].
So I'm thinking one of the best uses of this card is for multiplayer team games.
Donate Lich's Mirror to your teammate, and all of a sudden they can't lose the game anymore until someone gets rid of it.
Unless of course they kill *you*:
Quote from CR »
600.4a. When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 200.8) owned by that player leave the game, all spells and abilities controlled by that player on the stack cease to e0xist, and any change-of-control effects which give that player control of any objects end. ...
Let's all give WotC some small amount of credit at least; everyone lambasted them over the R_E thing because there was no simple request to remove the offending images before the lawsuit was launched. They did that this time, and everyone *still* jumps on their back. We all love rumors (why else would we come here), but WotC is just exercising their right over their own intellectual property and at least this time they were nice about it.
On topic: I've been a believer in 422 and the purple symbol for a long time now, and this just re-enforces that belief. The independant rumors from seperate sources have just fit too well together to be anything other than real. It would take a large conspiracy by WotC to fabricate such an intricate web of false rumors.
As for the distribution, I still see them as a fixed distribution in boosters, likely replacing a couple of commons throughout the block (all coming from the same bonus pool). However, there is little evidence pointing towards ANY particular distribution method, so not much would suprise me at this point (MaRo better tell us Monday!)
One of the reasons this sneak peak is being done now is to leave enough time for substantial changes based on feedback before launch. This is probably the last window for major changes before launch.
Triggers each time a creature ETB, so you could reuse Soulbond on a new creature if its partner is killed.
Every account is going to get some number of each, and they may give them as prizes to the PR events as well (to replace the one you burn when entering).
They'll probably be used for MOPR in some future month. And/or possibly Shadowmoor farewell events.
Hey look, I'm famous!
I'm not sure Lee said it was a horrible horrible idea, just that it was still unintuitive so it didn't fit what they were trying to do. I was convinced that he's probably right, but I'm still not convinced that the new way is better than the old way. I don't think it will have the impact many believe it will, but there is a non-negligible loss of strategy. It feels like they traded elegance for flavor, while at the same time removing a very flavorful rule (mana burn) with little impact.
Agreed, though as a VCL for the WotC I would be interested to see the list and see if it matches up with names I recognize from there (since we don't know where was hacked). If you don't want to trust me, please send the link to either Solice or Michelle at WotC (I have e-mail addresses if you need them).
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Rule breakdown below
pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
Your passwords may have been compromised.
It was discovered by a user who passed the info on to staff. I suggest changing your pass as soon as possible.
If you have any issues with this, please email me at [EMAIL="shaara_song@%28nospam%29yahoo.com"]shaara_song@(nospam)yahoo.com[/EMAIL].
Unless of course they kill *you*:
On topic: I've been a believer in 422 and the purple symbol for a long time now, and this just re-enforces that belief. The independant rumors from seperate sources have just fit too well together to be anything other than real. It would take a large conspiracy by WotC to fabricate such an intricate web of false rumors.
As for the distribution, I still see them as a fixed distribution in boosters, likely replacing a couple of commons throughout the block (all coming from the same bonus pool). However, there is little evidence pointing towards ANY particular distribution method, so not much would suprise me at this point (MaRo better tell us Monday!)