The fact that Skinshifter can only activate his ability once every turn fully neuters the card. He will be bulk in a few months. Also not permanently changing to the mode also hurt him from ever seeing play.
After rotation, I think Archon of Justice is actually a card to look out for. With Birthing Pod already a key part of the metagame, I believe post rotation, pod will be a huge player, possibly even the best deck. Archon is not used right now in most Pod builds, but he seems like he could do some serious work in the right build.
I have one suggestion in regards to the sportsmanship vote. Instead of just voting for 1 player, each individual player should rank eachother. Add up all your votes, lowest would actually be the winners and distribute points accordingly. 1st place gets x points, x = # of players, 2nd gets x-1 and so forth. This should help fix a small portion of that point becoming a popularity contest. Also, vote could be hidden/anonymous, not sure if there are benefits to either.
I run an achievement based league at my LGS and it's getting a little tedious at times. This seems much more fun and streamlined. Thanks for the ideas!
I dont mind people comboing off, as long as it is complicated, can be seen from a mile away and does not happen early on in the game. Basically there should be a chance for the game to actually be played. Slapping a Curiosity on a Niv-Mizzet all in the same turn while you have mana advantage from destroying other players lands is 0 fun for everyone else except yourself. It's all really in the delivery and intent of the combo. Also I do think every game needs to end in a decent amount of time so comboing off after a great long game is usually acceptable.
Another solution is when someone combo's off, they explain it then they scoop and the rest of the game continues. They are the winner, but actually the first loser if you really think about it, and the rest of the players are get to continue on playing for the winner of second place. After a few times of doing this the combo player will hopefully get bored of comboing off. If they don't then they need to assess why they play magic.
Beware the allure of foiling out a deck!!!! It can get MIGHTY pricey. One tip, when cards start approaching $100 you certainly won't want them to get scuffed as foils easily do. I use perfect fit sleeves and double sleeve them into ultra pro sleeves. This is the best way I find to prevent the foils from getting scuffed.
Not sure if anyone else plays these cards regularly, but I find them to work pretty well. Scourge of Kher Ridges and Soul's Majesty. I also think Wood Elves and Yavimaya Dryad are very underused if you have the duals and shock lands to support them.
Most additional combat spells say if this was the first combat phase you get an additional phase to stop stacking so Conspire doesn't really work well with them.
But with Savage Beating it says "or untap all creatures you control and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase." So if I conspire this do I end up getting 2 additional combat phases after this phase? Or do they just overlap and does the 2nd one just become redundant?
I'm glad to see that the regional pre-releases are going to be gone. Now in all fairness that may just be due to the fact that the ones that are run here in Toronto are run by Marv and I find him to be a detestable person. He has had a stranglehold on virtually all large events in the area and as a result he overcharges whenever possible for events and singles( he had a rough time selling his singles at the GP considering every other vendor had better prices). Although to be fair I do enjoy it when events are run out of the primrose hotel as that is a great location. Unfortunately most of the time the tourneys are not located there.
I go to prereleases to trade more than anything. I get my play fix at midnight prereleases. Thats the only thing I will miss from Marv run events.
Honestly, I think some stores will rent bigger spaces to host things like Prereleases and GP Trials so that they can host more people and thus make more profit.
Yeah what's to stop organizers from continuing to run the regional prereleases just like they did with Champs/States/Provincials or what ever it is called?
The only thing that I can see that will be different is that they won't be able to get the prize support, just the prerelease product based on their prerelease attendance numbers. This means either money or current product will have to be used for prizes.
I am not sure how the large regional prereleases work, but I think WotC provided some prize support. I know when I had a store, for the Xth edition release they gave us 1 or 2 boxes for free for prizes. This just takes their hand out of the whole thing and leaves the ball in the court of the large organizers.
The increased GPs and private PTs is not even an issue. No reason to complain when we are getting more events, regardless that most will probably be in North America. If they up the coverage on the PTs to Worlds level or better it will only make the experience better. Who cares about the lack of side events at a PT if there will be double the chances for you to actually play the main event at a GP AND side events as well.
Not sure if this has been stated, but one thing going against the prices of SOM cards as a whole is this next season is all limited, so once states is done, I can see everything dropping more than normal. Cards will not be REQUIRED for ptq's and high level events. FNMs and casual are still there but some people out there will not put down $40-50 for a card for FNM, but will if it's for a PTQ.
Plus all the limited events and practice before hand will also increase the cardpool slightly. Add in MTGO redemptions and there is no reason for any cards, even the best to stay or gain in value. I could see Koth dropping by at least $10 even though I believe in his strength.
Just look at how Goyf has gone up and down depending on the previous extended seasons.
So if you don't desperately REQUIRE your hot SOM cards wait it out for about a month once the MTGO redemption hits. I expect greater price drops than normal at that time.
Good suggestion Jeff. Nothing I didn't already know.... but what's good about it is that you gave me some motivation. I'll do some standard-legal sets this weekend. Usually I lose interest in updating prices, unless I run across something I know is wrong, once my inventory in that set is mostly gone. But I should still do my best regardless.
Not sure if this is possible with the system you have, but how about taking offers for older cards? and set an auto decline limit just so you dont get spammed by things like a $1 card for 1cent etc... I know it would be a lot of work to set it up right now, but if you built it into your site from now going forward im sure you would get some sales through it. And obviously "turn it off" for the newer stuff, but still have it set up in the background.
Also cant believe your Voltaic Key foil is still there for $6. I would have bought it if I didnt find a playset on ebay for a compareable price. After the set dies down, that card is going to be $10 minimum, plus if its bonkers in some artifact deck in Scars standard, even better for its price!
Just wondering, I thought the point of this upgrade from regular Poly to Mass Poly was so you can run more regular creatures? Wouldnt something like Overgrown Battlement be a good card in the deck to give it a fighting chance vs anything with creatures coming out in the first few turns?I would even probably play Lotus Cobra, but I havent worked out a decklist so I am not sure how much room there is.
without damage stacking because wizards likes dumbing the game down for ☺☺☺☺☺☺ noobs, the card is merely just ok. nice in limited, but no longer good enough for serious standard. thnx wizards.
My brother runs a BW midrange deck with this guy, a Stoneforge Mystic tool box of 2 Collars, and a Whispersilk Cloak, Scullers and Kor Skyfisher as the keys to the deck.
Collar is Really good on the persecutor because if you do get them to 0 or lower, there is not much they can do to kill you with a Abyssal Persecutor with a Collar on the defense. Buys you time to get the Skyfisher, path or Day of Judgment.
Whispersillk is an iffy card, but he finds it makes Sculler a lot better and gives him more of a purpose.
I think the card is fine at $20. but I could see it dropping to $15 until it finds home in a widely played deck.
After rotation, I think Archon of Justice is actually a card to look out for. With Birthing Pod already a key part of the metagame, I believe post rotation, pod will be a huge player, possibly even the best deck. Archon is not used right now in most Pod builds, but he seems like he could do some serious work in the right build.
I run an achievement based league at my LGS and it's getting a little tedious at times. This seems much more fun and streamlined. Thanks for the ideas!
Another solution is when someone combo's off, they explain it then they scoop and the rest of the game continues. They are the winner, but actually the first loser if you really think about it, and the rest of the players are get to continue on playing for the winner of second place. After a few times of doing this the combo player will hopefully get bored of comboing off. If they don't then they need to assess why they play magic.
But with Savage Beating it says "or untap all creatures you control and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase." So if I conspire this do I end up getting 2 additional combat phases after this phase? Or do they just overlap and does the 2nd one just become redundant?
Please let dead threads rest in peace. -Carsten
I go to prereleases to trade more than anything. I get my play fix at midnight prereleases. Thats the only thing I will miss from Marv run events.
Yeah what's to stop organizers from continuing to run the regional prereleases just like they did with Champs/States/Provincials or what ever it is called?
The only thing that I can see that will be different is that they won't be able to get the prize support, just the prerelease product based on their prerelease attendance numbers. This means either money or current product will have to be used for prizes.
I am not sure how the large regional prereleases work, but I think WotC provided some prize support. I know when I had a store, for the Xth edition release they gave us 1 or 2 boxes for free for prizes. This just takes their hand out of the whole thing and leaves the ball in the court of the large organizers.
The increased GPs and private PTs is not even an issue. No reason to complain when we are getting more events, regardless that most will probably be in North America. If they up the coverage on the PTs to Worlds level or better it will only make the experience better. Who cares about the lack of side events at a PT if there will be double the chances for you to actually play the main event at a GP AND side events as well.
Plus all the limited events and practice before hand will also increase the cardpool slightly. Add in MTGO redemptions and there is no reason for any cards, even the best to stay or gain in value. I could see Koth dropping by at least $10 even though I believe in his strength.
Just look at how Goyf has gone up and down depending on the previous extended seasons.
So if you don't desperately REQUIRE your hot SOM cards wait it out for about a month once the MTGO redemption hits. I expect greater price drops than normal at that time.
Not sure if this is possible with the system you have, but how about taking offers for older cards? and set an auto decline limit just so you dont get spammed by things like a $1 card for 1cent etc... I know it would be a lot of work to set it up right now, but if you built it into your site from now going forward im sure you would get some sales through it. And obviously "turn it off" for the newer stuff, but still have it set up in the background.
Also cant believe your Voltaic Key foil is still there for $6. I would have bought it if I didnt find a playset on ebay for a compareable price. After the set dies down, that card is going to be $10 minimum, plus if its bonkers in some artifact deck in Scars standard, even better for its price!
And even without damage stacking, the creature is still pretty awesome.
Also, People said Siege-Gang was going to suck after the changes but it is still a top notch card.
Collar is Really good on the persecutor because if you do get them to 0 or lower, there is not much they can do to kill you with a Abyssal Persecutor with a Collar on the defense. Buys you time to get the Skyfisher, path or Day of Judgment.
Whispersillk is an iffy card, but he finds it makes Sculler a lot better and gives him more of a purpose.
I think the card is fine at $20. but I could see it dropping to $15 until it finds home in a widely played deck.