I'm at this point doubtful that we will see 15 Weapons but it's not like we will see 8 or 10 or anything like that. If we see another weapon coming from one of the minor gods then we can guess that we will in fact be getting 15. Just because they are holding weapons does not mean we will see"weapon" cards. For Xenegos his staff is a large part of his look much like Garruk's axe.
The reason I frankly don't want to see 10 more weapons is because it takes a lot of the surprise out of the next two sets. I'd rather see "weapon" cards that are equipments or something like that. It still confuses me from time to time that the first 5 were not.
I have ended up with a lot of odd sleaves over the years because of picking up singles so I just use them for tokens or PW emblems. You can also use them for sleaving your commander so it's easier to spot them when you first grab your deck.
I'm also in the process of switching all my decks over to Ultra Pro matte black sleaves so it's not a problem if one gets damaged. We also have a very small play group and it's not hard to learn which decks are in which sleaves so soon they will all be the same.
I would think they would want to separate the two blocks as the themes are similar however different the two cultures are. I did a little digging and we are in year 3 of a 7 year plan so the earliest we would see Rome as a theme would be 2018.
We also have to remember that we have had leaks of themes like Egypt that we are FAR more likely to see before seeing anything like Rome. We also have not had a "normal" Magic set for some time so I would see that coming a lot sooner.
I have a supervisor who walks around like a Howling Banshee.
Seriously the guy will find anything to yell about and will focus on the 2% you did wrong not the 98% done right. Now I know there are places where any mistake can cost millions but he's the dairy supervisor at a grocery store. I've been told by people above him in rank to just ignore him and keep working but I work the frozen foods section and have to see the guy a lot.
I'll probably start looking now that this thread is here.
I would say use something like a quarter or I have round monster tokens from my days of playing Mage Knight. One side means Monsterous the other means Was Monsterous. Or you could use something a little more 3D like a D4 on each of them that is monsterous.
Remember to only use as much sorting as you're willing to maintain. If you build and dismantle decks frequently, having a complex sorting scheme becomes very tiresome.
This is probably some of the best advice I've seen in a long time. A lot of why I'm looking to revamp a bit is because of what it takes to take a deck apart and put a new one together. I also play a lot of EDH so that means looking though non-basics a lot and that's why I'm not going to alphabetize anything let alone lands.
* Group ability lands with the color(s) required to activate their abilities. Most people won't ever have a reason to look for colorless lands specifically, and would only use these over basics if they can activate the color-specific ability. Nephalia Drownyard goes in the same pile as Watery Grave.
This is something I've debated doing in the past and I might try it.
Truth be told, if there's a part of my post I'm iffy about, it's that one. I figured I'm more likely to be looking for splash assistance with a deck centered on one color than to be looking for five-color lands. Though maybe pairing them with Reflecting Pool in the sort order might be the best thing to do!
Honestly when it comes to things like Vivids, Reflecting Pool, and Mirrodin's Core I've looked at them as cards that have potential to create 5 colors so I put them with the 5 color lands so I know where they are.
@Rhinoflipper
No there are no 4 color lands, I've looked because I've wondered the same thing.
But alphabetical leaves me with the same problem of having to go though everything to make decks.
Say I'm building a BW deck. Sorted by color I would only have to go though 2/5 of the 1 color lands, 1/10 of the two color, skip the 3 and 5, and then go though the ability lands.
I'm running into a problem sorting my non-basic lands. I'm not sure how to go about it anymore. Right now they are like this
Ability lands (swarmyard)
5 Color
3 color - by cycle
2 color - by cycle
1 color - by cycle
This works really well when I'm filling in missing cards with singles but it makes it really hard to make decks so I'm thinking of switching to
Ability lands
5 color
Wedge
Arc
Pairs
WUBRG
and I'm just wondering what the rest of you think of that or if you have any better ideas?
Also before ideas get too grand my lands only take up a little more then 2/3 of a holiday gift box so going though all of them doesn't take that long if I ever have to.
In reading a lot of threads like this I see a lot of the same complaints that boil down to- "Why doesn't this product help me add 4 foil Tarmogoyf's to my collection?"
Simple - It's not for you.
More complicated is this feeling from long time players that they sould be able to rip apart any MTG product and help their Cube/Legacy deck/Vintage deck. I was amazed at the number of users here that were upset that Command Tower wouldn't help Vintage with another 5 color land. The point of that land was to help Commander, not other formats. Wizards didn't want to see those decks getting bought by experienced players just for the one land. They wanted casual players to buy them.
I've been playing since 8th and I still buy the intro decks here and there mostly because of the front rare being something I want and haven't been able to pull from packs but also because they can give you a fun deck to play. My girlfriend started playing Magic about a year ago and she's really not that good yet. I'll play her with the intro decks because they handicap me and give her more of a chance to win. It's the same reason I buy the Duel decks for the most part. Fun rares and decks of about the same power level.
So if you don't like them don't buy them. Plenty of other people will.
Well, Ral Zarekwas the maze runner, but they changed it to Melek later in design so that the Izzet EDH players wouldn't feel left out. This is especially noticeable when you read the DGM novel...
And having 10 minor gods is only for gameplay reasons. There's nothing that says the world of Theros needs 10 of them, there could very well have been only 9 for all that time before Xenagos.
I should rephrase somewhat.
It feels like when people said we would not get an UR Legend card in DRM because we were getting Ral. The storyline can be whatever it wants to be and if the RG god card that we get isn't talked about at all and Xenegos is talked about instead well then that's just another example of the story and the cards not always lining up.
Remember that as far as the storyline is concerned Tezzeret is part artifact but his card is not.
We have had All X sets in the past and parts of them really flopped. A bit of the hard parts of that were explored by GuildCaster. Why force a card to be an enchantment with flash that can be sacrificed for an effect when you can just make it an instant.
When you have the time I suggest watching this entire video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwpr9wSLDbM
But for this thread I would start at the 35:00 mark when he's talking about Conflux and Alara Reborn. One of the things he keeps saying is "No more icecream for dinner" style sets. No more forcing a theme for the sake of a theme. An all enchantment set is exactly that so the chances of it are so low that this thread just can't go anywhere good.
I can't help feeling like the Xenagos will be the RG God argument sounds a lot like the argument that Ral Zarek was going to be the Izzet maze runner.
The pantheon of gods existed well before any of the events of this block so I really don't see why we can't get a card for which ever god Xenegos would likely replace and see his godhood told in other cards.
We also have to keep in mind the "planeswalker uniqueness rule" and that since walkers have started no new walker has become a creature and no other types have been printed on the planeswalker type line. I could be wrong and this could finally be the time that wizards breaks that flavor rule and we get both a PW and a creature card of Xenegos but I would say it's unlikely.
I can't remember what kind of life total I was getting up to (300+) but I was playing Mono G in the later parts of Mirrodin block and I had an Ageless Entity equipped with 2 Loxodon Warhammers. Since it was the old wording I gained 2 life for each 1 damage dealt. I swung with a 102/96 entity and before I could do the math the rest of the table scooped.
Welcome to the Name and Number Crunch http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=534109
IF some other color were to show up we would have a giant gap where such a color would be placed. Since we don't I would say this theory is even more done then it was when it started.
I would guess that it could also be a nod to Commander players.Daxos would be rather worthless as a commander if cards he exiles couldn't be played because you can only generate W and U mana.
Sure we could see more (like 3 more) but we won't see a lot of them since people might start to get a little tired of muticolor and mechanics that support it.
The reason I frankly don't want to see 10 more weapons is because it takes a lot of the surprise out of the next two sets. I'd rather see "weapon" cards that are equipments or something like that. It still confuses me from time to time that the first 5 were not.
I'm also in the process of switching all my decks over to Ultra Pro matte black sleaves so it's not a problem if one gets damaged. We also have a very small play group and it's not hard to learn which decks are in which sleaves so soon they will all be the same.
I would think they would want to separate the two blocks as the themes are similar however different the two cultures are. I did a little digging and we are in year 3 of a 7 year plan so the earliest we would see Rome as a theme would be 2018.
We also have to remember that we have had leaks of themes like Egypt that we are FAR more likely to see before seeing anything like Rome. We also have not had a "normal" Magic set for some time so I would see that coming a lot sooner.
Seriously the guy will find anything to yell about and will focus on the 2% you did wrong not the 98% done right. Now I know there are places where any mistake can cost millions but he's the dairy supervisor at a grocery store. I've been told by people above him in rank to just ignore him and keep working but I work the frozen foods section and have to see the guy a lot.
I'll probably start looking now that this thread is here.
This is probably some of the best advice I've seen in a long time. A lot of why I'm looking to revamp a bit is because of what it takes to take a deck apart and put a new one together. I also play a lot of EDH so that means looking though non-basics a lot and that's why I'm not going to alphabetize anything let alone lands.
This is something I've debated doing in the past and I might try it.
Honestly when it comes to things like Vivids, Reflecting Pool, and Mirrodin's Core I've looked at them as cards that have potential to create 5 colors so I put them with the 5 color lands so I know where they are.
@Rhinoflipper
No there are no 4 color lands, I've looked because I've wondered the same thing.
Say I'm building a BW deck. Sorted by color I would only have to go though 2/5 of the 1 color lands, 1/10 of the two color, skip the 3 and 5, and then go though the ability lands.
Ability lands (swarmyard)
5 Color
3 color - by cycle
2 color - by cycle
1 color - by cycle
This works really well when I'm filling in missing cards with singles but it makes it really hard to make decks so I'm thinking of switching to
Ability lands
5 color
Wedge
Arc
Pairs
WUBRG
and I'm just wondering what the rest of you think of that or if you have any better ideas?
Also before ideas get too grand my lands only take up a little more then 2/3 of a holiday gift box so going though all of them doesn't take that long if I ever have to.
Simple - It's not for you.
More complicated is this feeling from long time players that they sould be able to rip apart any MTG product and help their Cube/Legacy deck/Vintage deck. I was amazed at the number of users here that were upset that Command Tower wouldn't help Vintage with another 5 color land. The point of that land was to help Commander, not other formats. Wizards didn't want to see those decks getting bought by experienced players just for the one land. They wanted casual players to buy them.
I've been playing since 8th and I still buy the intro decks here and there mostly because of the front rare being something I want and haven't been able to pull from packs but also because they can give you a fun deck to play. My girlfriend started playing Magic about a year ago and she's really not that good yet. I'll play her with the intro decks because they handicap me and give her more of a chance to win. It's the same reason I buy the Duel decks for the most part. Fun rares and decks of about the same power level.
So if you don't like them don't buy them. Plenty of other people will.
I should rephrase somewhat.
It feels like when people said we would not get an UR Legend card in DRM because we were getting Ral. The storyline can be whatever it wants to be and if the RG god card that we get isn't talked about at all and Xenegos is talked about instead well then that's just another example of the story and the cards not always lining up.
Remember that as far as the storyline is concerned Tezzeret is part artifact but his card is not.
We have had All X sets in the past and parts of them really flopped. A bit of the hard parts of that were explored by GuildCaster. Why force a card to be an enchantment with flash that can be sacrificed for an effect when you can just make it an instant.
When you have the time I suggest watching this entire video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwpr9wSLDbM
But for this thread I would start at the 35:00 mark when he's talking about Conflux and Alara Reborn. One of the things he keeps saying is "No more icecream for dinner" style sets. No more forcing a theme for the sake of a theme. An all enchantment set is exactly that so the chances of it are so low that this thread just can't go anywhere good.
The pantheon of gods existed well before any of the events of this block so I really don't see why we can't get a card for which ever god Xenegos would likely replace and see his godhood told in other cards.
We also have to keep in mind the "planeswalker uniqueness rule" and that since walkers have started no new walker has become a creature and no other types have been printed on the planeswalker type line. I could be wrong and this could finally be the time that wizards breaks that flavor rule and we get both a PW and a creature card of Xenegos but I would say it's unlikely.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=534109
IF some other color were to show up we would have a giant gap where such a color would be placed. Since we don't I would say this theory is even more done then it was when it started.
Sure we could see more (like 3 more) but we won't see a lot of them since people might start to get a little tired of muticolor and mechanics that support it.