I sort of get blue's creature replacement strategy, but I would rather see this in green. Blue doesn't need or deserve mass creature destruction of this caliber. It has enough to do with its mana.
Several people are talking about losing stuff in USPS. I ship stuff out on occasion, and have yet to have had a problem. No doubt this happens a lot though. How do you all ship your cards, what measures do you take to package them?
I personally stick 2 or 3 sheets of paper in, sleeve the singles if its less than 7 cards, and tape the pack into the center of the trifolded pages. the space from the folded edge of the page should keep the cards from getting banged up and the extra paper should help the envelope stay rigid going through the machinery in their processing equipment.
seeing as how enchantments are rarely good enough to see the spotlight as opposed to the other card types.
We should be asking 'Why aren't they good enough?' What makes them so inferior? Most importantly, what can be done to make us want to play enchantments more effectively or competitively. A good start is making ones that people like, and innovating the card type. I think enchantment won as the next YMTC type because people want that as well.
I was for this card from the beginning. I wanted an enchantment because I knew a land was not going to end up being as amazing as we want it to be. The individuals at WoTC, who design cards, make the best cards by accident most of the time. That is to say, all those cards we love for competitive play that seem soooo powerful were usually not intended to be as powerful and unbalanced as they are. So you cannot expect a card getting created that is too powerful from YMTC these days.
Think about the power of the forums now. Even when Crucible was made, the forums for magic were not this strong. Now, the guys in R & D and the individuals heading the YMTC contest, guiding it; they have access to the forums. They have the ability to see the perspective of thousands of people who review the card ideas. They know what people want before we got our top 8 and they surely picked these cards with some of that in mind.
I think Blood in the Watering Can was very linear. Those saying that Revenge of Necromancy doesn't have the potential to be competitive are not thinking outside the box. It is only recently that one could win by just running monsters over the table to kill the opponent. I want complexity.
I ultimately voted for Blood in the Watering Can because I thought it would be easier to take advantage of. I kind of regret not throwing my last vote behind the most fun and exciting card I wanted form the start of the top 8. I am not upset though that Revenge won because, if they cost it efficiently, we may get a chance to make that card amazing. Yes it will need more support -- way more support than BitWC, but it will be fun trying to break it.
This game is definitely not all about competitive decks and play styles. The majority of people will likely never play it competitively. People want to have fun, and this is the kind of card that gets cogs turning, even if it never gets anywhere, it will spurn thought and get people more creative with their playstyle -- which is much more intriguing for the future of standard than the 'smash face' mentality of the current environment.
Nothing on here is as good as revenge of necromancy. Some things look very fun, that rites card is interesting -- actually i still want them to consider just giving black cards like this again, but revenge of necromancy is a great way to make discard useful again.
However, it has got to be cheap. I'm not paying more than 3 for an effect the opponent can somewhat control, and 2 cmc is probably asking too much. It will probably win and get stuck at 1BB, but it might....just might get put in at BB for mana cost.... again, I'm putting too much faith in the powers of r&d up there, and the cost will just end up being unplayable at 4 cmc...
Voted enchantment... I'd like to see them push enchantments some. Artifacts are very broad,. There's still lots of room for development on lands, honestly I think Wizards is capable expanding on that on their own. We need to show wizards the interesting things they should be willing to do with enchantments. Color restrictions allow for more interesting gameplay in general. I want to see an enchantment that does something fresh or does something more efficiently - to the point that people feel a need to react to it immediately.
I don't want to see enchantments that turn into creatures til EOT, or create tokens...or are just some kind of Seal...i don't want to create some impossible to comprehend repeatable effect that gets bigger and becomes a mind numbing threat that causes your opponent to scoop.
I want a threat on the table and I want it to cost 3 or less.
I don't even like enchantments that much, though I think it has something to do with their weaker design. I know the result may not necessarily be based on our votes and if we go too far, Wizards will ignore those ... more outrageous requests, but we have the potential to make this interesting.
Oh the glory days. I was lucky enough to live within 30 minutes of our Prerelease location. There were many pros and cons to the event compared to the LGS setup, but they were always a blast.
My first was Scourge, when my friends and I could drive there. It was my first sanctioned game. There were over 200 people and every one of them was wrapped around the interior of the convention center where it was held at like 9 am. I didn't think there were that many people in the state who played.
pros:
massive amount of people, great for meeting/trading/sidegames - the most bang for your buck. Games went on allllll day.
tons of vendors selling cheap staples - and don't forget the dice game.
sanctioned drafting for 15 bucks - all you can eat buffet for drafting the new set if you bomb out in the main sealed.
Getting to play against new people, you never play the same people over and over at these events.
Frequently, we had guest artists to do signings and buy prints from
cons:
tons of people mean games could last too long... this wasn't always the case, but i placed 32nd in the ravnica tournament that went from 9 am to 1 am... we over 300 people show up for swiss rounds.
cost was a bit higher than it is now. Though when it started, I think Scourge was like 20 or 25, just went up more later.
less people seem to care about their hygiene at these bigger events... at least there's more of a chance of having people who don't bathe.
food...bring coolers, it's like going to the fair when the fair is closed. Rarely a food vendor, some lone hotdog stand would be overwhelmed between rounds, and they only took dollar bills, like 8 of them for one hot dog...ha
LGS's have no people coming in on those days. Sometimes people come back after to talk about their experiences, but it was a huge slump day for LGS's
I don't always preorder cards... but when I do, It's Thespian's Stage... What a card... I can smell mountains of potential here... I haven't been impressed like that in a long time.
I don't care at all that this land is actually good. I'm more concerned about how awesome it is at world building. I still remember the opening chapters from the first Ravinca book, when Agrus Kos and Feather had to break up a play about the founding of the Guildpact because an actor was using illegal magic.
Hey if they're in the middle of "The Absolution of the Guildpact" does that mean the two actors on stage are play Szadek and Kos?
And I think you are indeed correct about that. It looks like the story of how kos fought szadek being retold on stage.
The guild pack provides 11-14 playable [edit] cards for your deck in a guild. If you are constructing a 40 card deck with 22-23 cards, that is at least half of your cards in most cases. You will have 70 more cards at various rarities to find the other 11-13 cards for your deck.
Those numbers are good. Granted you may just pull better from your regular packs, but keep in mind, they are building the guild packs for you, with the intention of making a deck with a specific guild.
They aren't shafting people on these cards, they are giving you the foundation for the given guild's deck. I believe there were 8 different variations of each combinations' guild pack... if I remember correctly from the MaRo tweet.
An update. This drafting model was fun. We cracked a third of an M13 box like this. It was great because we played 4 different types of decks and didn't feel like anyone was being locked out of colors. We fought over a few primary colors and definitely knew what the other was playing pretty early on but it was very fun and a good way to get familiar with a set. Neither of us had played M13 yet.
Regarding the way we played before, the second deck we made was kind of forced. Lots of good stuff would be nabbed by the main decks. Both of some agreed this made for a good replacement of our Draft style.
My buddy and I have been doing this for years. We would always play pretty casually but did wanna get into each new set a bit, so we started drafting a box in this manner. 3 games like this per box. Lots of play value even for garbage cards.
I should add, we have a different way of doing the second deck. We only Draft a main deck each at a time. The second set of packs are in the rotation and we have a left hand side that grabs the first rare and a random card from each passed pack. After we complete the first rotation we have 3 effectively shuffled packs with rares neither of us has seen. We do an open Draft where alternating between one another's packs, we make our second deck's Draft picks for the other to see.
Aurelia, The Warleader definitely brings back that original Ravnica feeling from years past. That is an awesome angel with an equally awesome set of abilities.
with concern to blustersquall, what doesnt it shut down in this set? I wasn't sold on it immediately, but the arguments are strong that its utility is overpowering on the overload ability. While it's lackluster on its normal casting cost, that may be all you need. I think my vote stands with blustersquall on this. Though I think the troll could be handy for golgari's limitations. And the weird definitely has its advantages in the right scenario. Blustersquall may be the last thing a deck running blue needs to punch through for a win.
I suppose it's to be expected but every time I buy a box I end up with so much leftover crap that's completely unplayable. I really wish wizards would starting making less bad cards, or at least make the bad cards better, the playability gap between good limited cards and good constructed cards is HUGE.
besides limited sucks anyway.
So much of this game is supposed to be for limited... It's a game that can be played many ways. Limited definitely doesn't suck. It's a huge design angle and definitely my favorite format. Constructed has a lot of good stuff coming out in this set. It seems the real issue is that you don't enjoy one of the biggest parts of this game. That's why you can buy boxes or even just your singles and not knock on what makes limited challenging: limited cards/pools/resources etc.
I know that most of us wants to get everything *now*, but we also have to realize that this leak is a blow to everyone working on the pre-release. Articles written will be nullified and advertising revenue is obviously hurt. I am surprised that MTGS allows for such - I am no lawyer, but it smells to me. It may very well be the reason for their rather cool attitude towards this web-site.
Dude what are you talking about? It's this kind of backwards thinking that makes companies like apple and Samsung think they need to sue each other into oblivion, thus wasting the space in the news for real information.
Most people don't know these spoilers exist, especially not the people who just want to have a good experience this upcoming prerelease weekend (please try not to read too much into that guys, I'm not excluding anyone and certainly not talking bad about anyone who just wants to have fun with the new set.) I knew about these spoilers for several sets before I decided to take advantage of them because the experience at the time for me was more about seeing everything at once- no clue what to expect. As I got more competitive and with concern that I may give up a good and valuable card I didn't acknowledge immediately in draft or in trade on the first weekend, I decided it would be best to take advantage of this kind of material.
Spoilers exist in all different types of media. Mtg is no different. I commend anyone willing to work so much to make all this information available early (but not too early) so we can get a feel for the set.
Wizards should not feel obligated to throw lawsuits out over anything similar to this. I for one am still disgusted by the way things turned out with rancoredelf so long ago. Do not feed the corporate copyright policy machine that eats away everything fun about something as simple as a card game. These spoilers help wotc make money by generating interest.
/rant
I personally stick 2 or 3 sheets of paper in, sleeve the singles if its less than 7 cards, and tape the pack into the center of the trifolded pages. the space from the folded edge of the page should keep the cards from getting banged up and the extra paper should help the envelope stay rigid going through the machinery in their processing equipment.
We should be asking 'Why aren't they good enough?' What makes them so inferior? Most importantly, what can be done to make us want to play enchantments more effectively or competitively. A good start is making ones that people like, and innovating the card type. I think enchantment won as the next YMTC type because people want that as well.
Think about the power of the forums now. Even when Crucible was made, the forums for magic were not this strong. Now, the guys in R & D and the individuals heading the YMTC contest, guiding it; they have access to the forums. They have the ability to see the perspective of thousands of people who review the card ideas. They know what people want before we got our top 8 and they surely picked these cards with some of that in mind.
I think Blood in the Watering Can was very linear. Those saying that Revenge of Necromancy doesn't have the potential to be competitive are not thinking outside the box. It is only recently that one could win by just running monsters over the table to kill the opponent. I want complexity.
I ultimately voted for Blood in the Watering Can because I thought it would be easier to take advantage of. I kind of regret not throwing my last vote behind the most fun and exciting card I wanted form the start of the top 8. I am not upset though that Revenge won because, if they cost it efficiently, we may get a chance to make that card amazing. Yes it will need more support -- way more support than BitWC, but it will be fun trying to break it.
This game is definitely not all about competitive decks and play styles. The majority of people will likely never play it competitively. People want to have fun, and this is the kind of card that gets cogs turning, even if it never gets anywhere, it will spurn thought and get people more creative with their playstyle -- which is much more intriguing for the future of standard than the 'smash face' mentality of the current environment.
However, it has got to be cheap. I'm not paying more than 3 for an effect the opponent can somewhat control, and 2 cmc is probably asking too much. It will probably win and get stuck at 1BB, but it might....just might get put in at BB for mana cost.... again, I'm putting too much faith in the powers of r&d up there, and the cost will just end up being unplayable at 4 cmc...
I don't want to see enchantments that turn into creatures til EOT, or create tokens...or are just some kind of Seal...i don't want to create some impossible to comprehend repeatable effect that gets bigger and becomes a mind numbing threat that causes your opponent to scoop.
I want a threat on the table and I want it to cost 3 or less.
I don't even like enchantments that much, though I think it has something to do with their weaker design. I know the result may not necessarily be based on our votes and if we go too far, Wizards will ignore those ... more outrageous requests, but we have the potential to make this interesting.
My first was Scourge, when my friends and I could drive there. It was my first sanctioned game. There were over 200 people and every one of them was wrapped around the interior of the convention center where it was held at like 9 am. I didn't think there were that many people in the state who played.
pros:
massive amount of people, great for meeting/trading/sidegames - the most bang for your buck. Games went on allllll day.
tons of vendors selling cheap staples - and don't forget the dice game.
sanctioned drafting for 15 bucks - all you can eat buffet for drafting the new set if you bomb out in the main sealed.
Getting to play against new people, you never play the same people over and over at these events.
Frequently, we had guest artists to do signings and buy prints from
cons:
tons of people mean games could last too long... this wasn't always the case, but i placed 32nd in the ravnica tournament that went from 9 am to 1 am... we over 300 people show up for swiss rounds.
cost was a bit higher than it is now. Though when it started, I think Scourge was like 20 or 25, just went up more later.
less people seem to care about their hygiene at these bigger events... at least there's more of a chance of having people who don't bathe.
food...bring coolers, it's like going to the fair when the fair is closed. Rarely a food vendor, some lone hotdog stand would be overwhelmed between rounds, and they only took dollar bills, like 8 of them for one hot dog...ha
LGS's have no people coming in on those days. Sometimes people come back after to talk about their experiences, but it was a huge slump day for LGS's
edit:
And I think you are indeed correct about that. It looks like the story of how kos fought szadek being retold on stage.
Those numbers are good. Granted you may just pull better from your regular packs, but keep in mind, they are building the guild packs for you, with the intention of making a deck with a specific guild.
They aren't shafting people on these cards, they are giving you the foundation for the given guild's deck. I believe there were 8 different variations of each combinations' guild pack... if I remember correctly from the MaRo tweet.
Regarding the way we played before, the second deck we made was kind of forced. Lots of good stuff would be nabbed by the main decks. Both of some agreed this made for a good replacement of our Draft style.
I should add, we have a different way of doing the second deck. We only Draft a main deck each at a time. The second set of packs are in the rotation and we have a left hand side that grabs the first rare and a random card from each passed pack. After we complete the first rotation we have 3 effectively shuffled packs with rares neither of us has seen. We do an open Draft where alternating between one another's packs, we make our second deck's Draft picks for the other to see.
BTdubbs, her name is now Areola.
So much of this game is supposed to be for limited... It's a game that can be played many ways. Limited definitely doesn't suck. It's a huge design angle and definitely my favorite format. Constructed has a lot of good stuff coming out in this set. It seems the real issue is that you don't enjoy one of the biggest parts of this game. That's why you can buy boxes or even just your singles and not knock on what makes limited challenging: limited cards/pools/resources etc.
Dude what are you talking about? It's this kind of backwards thinking that makes companies like apple and Samsung think they need to sue each other into oblivion, thus wasting the space in the news for real information.
Most people don't know these spoilers exist, especially not the people who just want to have a good experience this upcoming prerelease weekend (please try not to read too much into that guys, I'm not excluding anyone and certainly not talking bad about anyone who just wants to have fun with the new set.) I knew about these spoilers for several sets before I decided to take advantage of them because the experience at the time for me was more about seeing everything at once- no clue what to expect. As I got more competitive and with concern that I may give up a good and valuable card I didn't acknowledge immediately in draft or in trade on the first weekend, I decided it would be best to take advantage of this kind of material.
Spoilers exist in all different types of media. Mtg is no different. I commend anyone willing to work so much to make all this information available early (but not too early) so we can get a feel for the set.
Wizards should not feel obligated to throw lawsuits out over anything similar to this. I for one am still disgusted by the way things turned out with rancoredelf so long ago. Do not feed the corporate copyright policy machine that eats away everything fun about something as simple as a card game. These spoilers help wotc make money by generating interest.
/rant