Maybe just a new product name for the Booster-Battle-Packs ?
My thought after seeing still how many of the battle packs are still sitting on shelves is that this is a replacement for them. They were a good idea but with ZERO incentive for players with any kind of experience to buy them I wouldn't be surprised if their sales are dismal.
I buy stuff like the dual decks to play against my girlfriend at times because she can get really discouraged playing against my normal decks. If this really was something like 90 cards split into two card pools for two 40 card decks and the contents were semi random then yeah I would probably buy one of those instead of packs because then the two of us could play and one or both of us could get new cards.
The battle packs were just junk cards and I have thousands of those to make decks out of if I ever want to teach that way.
The 20 extra cards have an explanation, they upped the uncommon count.
I like the idea of changing up how packs are done but I feel like the uncommon number in packs is good.
A few changes I would like to see is.
1. No more "add cards", just give us a token that could be usefull and put an add on the back rather then something with adds on both sides that's just going to end up in the trash.
2. Tokens getting a rarity symbol. It would help with knowing why some tokens just aren't coming up in packs.
and unlikely but
3. get rid of the land in every pack and maybe lands now have a chance of showing up instead of a common or something like that.
I really don't feel like pulling up the video yet again because these type of threads pop up just about every block.
NO, we will not see another "everything is _____" block until there are major changes in who is in charge of Magic because people like Maro were around and saw how poorly Alara Reborn was received (I personally liked it but I got the feeling he was talking more about tournament players). The example he gave was icecream for supper every night. You just don't want to do it because it's just too much of a good thing.
As for enchantment lands, what did we learn from Artifact lands?
Here's the thing that the OP was trying to explain.
Look at Elvish Mystic The mana that it costs and the mana it produces are equal. Both are green mana.
Now look at Palladium Myr. The mana that it costs is 3 of any color so WWW WUW WUU WBW WBB WRW WRR WGW WGG
are just a fraction of the different ways to PAY for it.
But when you tap it, what gets added to your mana pool? 2 that's it, there's only one result so the two things are really not equal.
Is it a problem, not really but a change in it could be a good thing.
Not sure how you missed that they were missing the oversized cards since those are right in the front of the package but most stores like Walmart and Target see a lot of theft in those areas so you shouldn't have a problem getting a new one.
I see what he's saying and it answers many of you.
Cards like Blightsteel Colossus would still have costs like 11
But lands like Shimmering Grotto would look more like "t add @ to your mana pool" so that mana costs of any color would stay the same but colorless mana being added would be something different.
I've never encountered any real trouble with the difference between the two but then again we didn't have trouble with into play versus play a spell and those are now into the battlefield and cast so wizards does sometimes do stuff to solve problems that aren't really there.
He said three. Neither of your examples fit the bill. Scars block had two and Garruk from DKA wasn't black in any way besides flavorfully. Mono-black couldn't play him without a splash, mono-green could without a splash. He was mono-green.
My point more then anything was that Wizards can include any number of planeswalkers with whatever colors they need to be in a set and that there hasn't been a good balance since the first five were printed. Yes standard does have to be a factor as all these walkers will be there together but as it has been pointed out we have some fairly creature heavy PW's so running all of them together would probably be a really bad idea.
Despite the fact that I'd absolutely love for there to be U/G Kiora and W/G Ajani so that my Cube can breath a sigh of relief, I just don't see them putting 3 X/G Planeswalkers in the same block.
We also just came off RTR block where B got a whole half walker. How many times does it have to be said that Planeswalkers will be the colors that the story needs them to be and not what ________ (Standard, Modern, Legacy,missing walker colors -pick one) needs them to be.
I buy them for the boxes (for junk cards), the player guide, and the dice (I don't know why I have so many but I like them). I don't mind paying $4 for those things. I've also been giving the art to my girlfriend for the walls of her room.
Just like all the other stuff that Wizards puts out there, if you don't like it then don't buy it.
One of my most devistating wins back at our old card shop came from playing Thorn Elemental. It was an 8 player game so I played my slower RG elemental deck and with Forgotten Ancient I was able to pump my thorn up to a 20/20 and just started swinging at people. So yeah I would have to agree with most of the posters here already it's a fun mechanic to play but not to play against so it's numbers should be kept low.
I'd like to focus mainly on one of your points and that's about blue zombies.
You say that since we got them on Innistrad it should be easy for us to get them in blue going forward. But you have to ask yourself "why we got blue zombies'. You touched on it already that on Innistrad we got flesh stitching mad scientists who were creating the zombies and not the traditional necromantic zombies. What would the reaction be if for Innistrad and the next 3 blocks after that we got blue zombies created by "stitchers" and then for no reason then Wizards can we got 3 blocks of demonic red zombies? Tribal decks would become VERY hard to make and would all end up turning into 5 color monsters more then some of them already are for one.
If we are doing things like blue zombies then why not ...
Angels
hydras
demons
elves
goblins?
It was touched on by Dr Worm but "checklist" design is a bad way of doing things. It can feel super forced to do things just for the sake of doing them and saying nothing of world building and the strength of each color and what it can do. If each color got giant beasts and flight blocking spiders then what would make green special? If each color got cheap soldiers and group buffs then why would anyone play white? If every color got counterspells then why play blue? I know there are corner cases of each of these (Illusory Angel) but single cards aren't going to do any harm since there is no real way to make a "blue angel deck" with one card.
Divisions need to exist between the colors to give each of them strengths and weaknesses. If dragons could just be printed at any color and would be the big flying creature for each color then there would be no reason to print a sphinx, demon, or angel. If goblins could be printed at any color then why would you print any other race at the 1-3 power range? They can just be goblins and we can all be playing decks of goblins, beasts, and dragons and no other races.
There is a real dark side to checklist design and I hope now that you will start to see that.
Maybe this card would be a good way to use those half price packs from Walgreens. Or, since it never says exactly what kind of booster there are always things like Guild Boosters, Faction Boosters (SOM block), or the 9 card packs that are always $2. Come on people this is an Un card at heart and as I learned from Ender Wiggin - "If they're going to cheat then so will we".
Started playing right at the tail end of Onslaught. Got some advice at the shop to start playing R so I though together mono R Burn with cards like Raging Goblin, Shock, and what ever else I had around. I even won my first game.
My thought after seeing still how many of the battle packs are still sitting on shelves is that this is a replacement for them. They were a good idea but with ZERO incentive for players with any kind of experience to buy them I wouldn't be surprised if their sales are dismal.
I buy stuff like the dual decks to play against my girlfriend at times because she can get really discouraged playing against my normal decks. If this really was something like 90 cards split into two card pools for two 40 card decks and the contents were semi random then yeah I would probably buy one of those instead of packs because then the two of us could play and one or both of us could get new cards.
The battle packs were just junk cards and I have thousands of those to make decks out of if I ever want to teach that way.
I like the idea of changing up how packs are done but I feel like the uncommon number in packs is good.
A few changes I would like to see is.
1. No more "add cards", just give us a token that could be usefull and put an add on the back rather then something with adds on both sides that's just going to end up in the trash.
2. Tokens getting a rarity symbol. It would help with knowing why some tokens just aren't coming up in packs.
and unlikely but
3. get rid of the land in every pack and maybe lands now have a chance of showing up instead of a common or something like that.
Also
Ajani's Chosen
Ethereal Armor
Fountain Watch
Greater Auramancy
Lagonna-Band Elder
Mine Excavation
Oath of the Ancient Wood
Serra's Sanctum
Sterling Grove
Ward of Bones (each would count twice)
NO, we will not see another "everything is _____" block until there are major changes in who is in charge of Magic because people like Maro were around and saw how poorly Alara Reborn was received (I personally liked it but I got the feeling he was talking more about tournament players). The example he gave was icecream for supper every night. You just don't want to do it because it's just too much of a good thing.
As for enchantment lands, what did we learn from Artifact lands?
Look at Elvish Mystic The mana that it costs and the mana it produces are equal. Both are green mana.
Now look at Palladium Myr. The mana that it costs is 3 of any color so
WWW
WUW
WUU
WBW
WBB
WRW
WRR
WGW
WGG
are just a fraction of the different ways to PAY for it.
But when you tap it, what gets added to your mana pool? 2 that's it, there's only one result so the two things are really not equal.
Is it a problem, not really but a change in it could be a good thing.
Cards like Blightsteel Colossus would still have costs like 11
But lands like Shimmering Grotto would look more like "t add @ to your mana pool" so that mana costs of any color would stay the same but colorless mana being added would be something different.
I've never encountered any real trouble with the difference between the two but then again we didn't have trouble with into play versus play a spell and those are now into the battlefield and cast so wizards does sometimes do stuff to solve problems that aren't really there.
My point more then anything was that Wizards can include any number of planeswalkers with whatever colors they need to be in a set and that there hasn't been a good balance since the first five were printed. Yes standard does have to be a factor as all these walkers will be there together but as it has been pointed out we have some fairly creature heavy PW's so running all of them together would probably be a really bad idea.
If you think Garruk, the veil-cursed isn't a black card then you might want to check out Pact of Negation, Evermind, or Kobolds of Kher Keep.
Why wouldn't they?
Remember Scars block?
Elspeth Tirel
Venser, the Sojourner
How about Innistrad block?
Liliana of the Veil
Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
We also just came off RTR block where B got a whole half walker. How many times does it have to be said that Planeswalkers will be the colors that the story needs them to be and not what ________ (Standard, Modern, Legacy,missing walker colors -pick one) needs them to be.
Just like all the other stuff that Wizards puts out there, if you don't like it then don't buy it.
@Ophidian Eye there is already a "grizzly bear" supertrample --> Lone Wolf.
You say that since we got them on Innistrad it should be easy for us to get them in blue going forward. But you have to ask yourself "why we got blue zombies'. You touched on it already that on Innistrad we got flesh stitching mad scientists who were creating the zombies and not the traditional necromantic zombies. What would the reaction be if for Innistrad and the next 3 blocks after that we got blue zombies created by "stitchers" and then for no reason then Wizards can we got 3 blocks of demonic red zombies? Tribal decks would become VERY hard to make and would all end up turning into 5 color monsters more then some of them already are for one.
If we are doing things like blue zombies then why not ...
Angels
hydras
demons
elves
goblins?
It was touched on by Dr Worm but "checklist" design is a bad way of doing things. It can feel super forced to do things just for the sake of doing them and saying nothing of world building and the strength of each color and what it can do. If each color got giant beasts and flight blocking spiders then what would make green special? If each color got cheap soldiers and group buffs then why would anyone play white? If every color got counterspells then why play blue? I know there are corner cases of each of these (Illusory Angel) but single cards aren't going to do any harm since there is no real way to make a "blue angel deck" with one card.
Divisions need to exist between the colors to give each of them strengths and weaknesses. If dragons could just be printed at any color and would be the big flying creature for each color then there would be no reason to print a sphinx, demon, or angel. If goblins could be printed at any color then why would you print any other race at the 1-3 power range? They can just be goblins and we can all be playing decks of goblins, beasts, and dragons and no other races.
There is a real dark side to checklist design and I hope now that you will start to see that.
I'd still really like to know who's over Calculon's right shoulder.
I know I've seen that white and blue guy before but I can't remember where.