Quote from Teia Rabishu »There's a lot about the pro scene that really trickles some bad values down through the playerbase when you get right down to it. Problem is I can only antagonize so many people in one article, you know?
True that.
There's only so many times I can handle people questioning why I mainboard Duress instead of Thoughtseize or inquisition of Kozilek, when those cards are outrageously priced and someone would have to have either gotten lucky with their drafts or have a lot of disposable income devoted to magic just to have them. But yeah, it goes back to the whole deal of Wizards needing to print something like Vingolf Engage Knights each rotation that contains all the dominant main deck cards found in top pro-tour decks that are rotating out. Just slap two of each in there and sell them at msrp 35 usd to all major retailers.
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Okay, I can't help it: You saw this coming.
For modern this looks good, but unfortunately they really need slow enemy lands and fast allied right now. Enemy lands are way stronger in the current standard and even frontier right now.
My time table always makes my game times questionable these days, but I try to make one day a month a card game night, whether it's MtG or Force of Will (right now the later). The big issue I've ran into coming back is Vingolf 3 was severely under printed. I've got two boxes on order from a store and the distributors are completely out, so the order is delayed almost indefinitely. The company just got around to printing more Legacy Lost because of the popularity being higher than expected, which is why Lumia is so pricy despite Pricia being the most rampant ruler strategy on the competitive block.
I'm hoping they will get around to another print run of vingolf 3 by May. I'm just not sure if the Force of Will Company is able to react fast enough to get a run out in time.
The one lesson I learned from looking at the history of TCGs is never under-estimate the march of time. That and I got a feeling that wizards will be starting their next non-rotating format from BFZ and up. Given the card feel and security measures it seems like they were prototyping in M15-Origins and BFZ is where they got the new security measures largely in place for counter fits. The other factor is that they don't want fetches in the next format because they have too many powerful synergies with some of the mechanics they now have like Delirium, revolt, etc.
I've actually been trading out of a lot of m15 and kahns block stuff myself except for things I want for commander because the two sets are almost 100% guaranteed modern only. Origins is up in the air, but I doubt it will make the cut due to being under opened and being a core set.
The thing with cards like Tarn is that we are in the post release popularity spike for hot cards. It's a rare land that is in high demand across the board and a huge number of players never got their copies. Karn and Noble Heirarch had the same kind of price pattern as the new lands, so it will "slow burn" down as Wedge puts it in his videos as time goes on. That and as of right now stores can still order boxes of MM2017 directly from wizards, so sealed product is still available for opening and drafting.
Also, there is the factor of how popular Amonket will be after the ravages of the current standard, which coincidently pushed a lot of players into modern or other formats / games. If trends continue we may see more MM2017 get drafted than people expect. Modern is just a better format right now than standard is, and while wizards will likely print counters to vehicles and +1/+1 counter decks in amonket, they definitely didn't account for the Saheeli combo and have no way to react to it. Plus they have cards going all the way back to BFZ still in standard that should have rotated. That means anyone wanting to pick giddeon up for modern will still be waiting for fall and will likely turn to MM2017 uncommons / commons to buy up, as those prices are pretty level right now and as low as they are going to go. (Looking at you Path to Exile, Abrupt Decay, Inquisition of Kozilek).
A lot of people play frontier, you just don't see coverage of it as much as modern or standard because it's so young. It's basically the middle ground between pauper and modern in my own mind. At least until time itself ticks the costs up and makes it as expensive as the modern format.
Take something like the mana symbol and the power and toughness. There is a reason they have the color identity along with a drop shadow under the symbols: It makes the casting costs clear to the player and increases legibility. Also, the positioning is just as important as when the future sight cards were revealed that was one of the big issues that design had. Another problem with the new cards is the power and toughness. The lack of drop shadow and bold, dark colors against the back make them hard to read, and the change of orientation will confuse anyone new to the game as to what the numbers mean.
Next, we got the color identity and the artwork. The artwork is fantastic as always, but due to the chunky design of the pillars and border they had to reduce the space for the artwork to what appears to be 3/4 or 5/6 the area of the inventions (if anyone wants to get the exact shrinkage please feel free). The color identity as printed on the card can easily be mistaken as a printing mishap when dealing with blue, as cyan is one of the four printing colors that show up when running out of ink. Also, the fact it doesn't take up a more identifiable area of the card amplifies the issue with the mana symbols not having enough contrast.
As for typography: I don't care what MaRo or any WoTC designer says their intent was. This is a card game and people need to be able to legibly read the card name whether it is a promotional lottery card or not. They had options at their disposal for better fonts and there are ways to work standard highly legible fonts into the design. My graphic design instructor for the Typography class would have failed the student trying to present this card design because it fails even the basic requirements.
Wizards will definitely print something that will help UWx. The question of what that something is remains to be seen and if the pleas for stronger counters, better card draw options, and a stronger blue walker all hit home soon enough to affect what gets put into the fall quarter of 2017. The one catch is if they can find some way to strengthen blue in modern without messing up whatever new non-rotating format they decide to come up with.
If wizards can't even support the current non-rotating format I don't really see how they are going to be able to support a future one properly. Not with how they are acting with reprinting older cards.
As for legacy, that has the reserved list.
Going to agree that selling them as legitimate originals is a big no no, though. That's actually one of the problems with selling ones that look identical to the original cards.
It is still out there whether they pick battle for zendikar or origins as the start. BFZ block feels more likely due to the land cycles starting there.
Regardless of format, they will never be able to run a non-rotating format for casual and competitive players if they have to honor secondary market price increases, as it means the company can't adequately answer demands on rotated cards.
The community at large has been pushing back against this for a while, though, so there is hope out there.
Modern prices do get impacted by the health of standard indirectly, though. Standard drives interest in Magic and the more interest in Magic the more opportunities there are for players to get introduced to alternative formats like Modern. A weak standard drops interest in the game as a whole, which leaves the market in the hands of players who are mostly already established in it.