Besides what other people said, there is one more reason this rumor likely isn't true -- the math for collation.
Currently, for a large set, rare appears at 2/121 probability in a pack, or roughly one in 60 packs. Uncommon appears at 3/60, or one in 20 packs, three times as likely as a rare.
If everything OP said is true, the "rare" uncommons need to be reduced too one in 60 packs as well, which means 3/180. And the "ordinary" uncommons stay at 3/60, or 9/180 probability. This is impossible to work out while keeping the total number of uncommons at 60.
Return to Ravnica, on the other hand, has a different number of total cards in a large set...
You had me slighty worried/excited for a moment. Good to know.
Sorry for the confusion and the disappointment after unnecessary excitation.
I looked at the picture. Yes it's indeed Traditional Chinese. Your Smokestack is a Traditional Chinese one, too.
Personally I'd value a T-Chinese playable card more than an English one, but that's probably because I can read Chinese. Regardless, as Juju said, you can't apply the price difference between languages derived from recent sets to old sets.
That's weird. I have two simplified chinese smokestacks and the symbols for "Artifact" are the same, so I assumed it was chinese. Let me upload a picture.
After double checking, I was wrong. Tempest was indeed released in Traditional Chinese, just not in Simplified Chinese.
Well, seeing that Tempest was never released in either Chinese languages, I'd say if your card is indeed Chinese and authentic, it would be VERY valuable.
Or more realistically, it would be Japanese, and neither you or your LGS can tell the difference between Asian languages. :-P
If it was an 8-man, I apologize. The front page of SCG coverage says they're running Win-a-Box tournaments for Modern, so I just assumed. As I mentioned in my post, I missed it.
No, I wasn't trying to say you are misleading people, no need to apologize. Actually I believe their 8-man events are win-a-box events. From this SCG Open's Facebook page:
SIDE EVENTS
...
Single elimination constructed tournaments
Formats: Standard, Legacy, MODERN!
Entry Fee: $15.00
Prizes: Box (36 Packs) to 1st Place
I was just trying to tell people not to put too much emphasis on this match by calling it "finals" left and right.
I saw RizenPhoenix saying it's a win-a-box side event, where does anyone said it's 8-man event? You hardly get any information about which archtypes are good from a single 8-man event.
That Boom/Bust-Zoo vs. Affinity final is for an 8-man side event (they run all kinds of 8-mans as side events, legacy, standard, draft, and now modern). Stop panicking, guys.
And yes, cascade into the Bust half of Boom/Bust has been legal since day one. Boom/Bust Zoo was a viable deck in the old extended (the one dominated by Thopter Depths).
there are too many board whipes that get rid of the encantment along with the creature....and many other ways...
I don't know what you are trying to imply with this statement, but I'd like to point out that if you destroy Angelic Destiny and the creature it enchants at the same time, for example, using Akroma's Vengeance, Angelic Destiny's last ability will still trigger and you can return it to your hand.
Austere Command is likely going to destroy Angelic Destiny for good, but I'm not 100% sure.
First, although I am not the one asked the question and don't exactly need help about deciding to subscribe to SCG Premium, I'd like to thank you for this well-written opinion.
my personal experience as a person who's subscribed to the service long enough to have seen PVDDR be one of my favorite SCG Premium writers, to writing pretty poorly on CFB, to regain his composure and voice as a writer and start producing content I will once again not hesitate to read.
If you don't mind, I'd like to ask question about this. PV is also a favorite writer of mine, and I've followed him from SCG to CFB, but I didn't really notice the quality drop in his articles that you mentioned. Granted, his article quality has a large variation, and some of them don't interest me at all, but can you elaborate which time period you consider as PV's "writing poorly" era? Thanks.
I don't think it's practical to ask a non-Chinese-speaker to tell the difference from the strokes. At least not when he/she doesn't have two copies of the same card in the two languages to compare with.
Somebody mentioned the position of periods, but no one explained more. I actually think it's the best way for a non-Chinese-speaker to tell. And it's not only periods, it's almost all punctuation marks, most importantly commas and periods, so you should have one on every card.
The Simplified Chinese cards have the punctuation marks at the left bottom corner of the square where the character is supposed to be; the Traditional Chinese cards have the punctuation marks at the center of the square.
All for cards shown by the OP can be differentiated this way. I don't know any exceptions in Magic cards.
Updated the first post to include links to Morphling and Sinkhole (changed the thread subject to reflect that as well). Also show the picture Cruz attached.
Currently, for a large set, rare appears at 2/121 probability in a pack, or roughly one in 60 packs. Uncommon appears at 3/60, or one in 20 packs, three times as likely as a rare.
If everything OP said is true, the "rare" uncommons need to be reduced too one in 60 packs as well, which means 3/180. And the "ordinary" uncommons stay at 3/60, or 9/180 probability. This is impossible to work out while keeping the total number of uncommons at 60.
Return to Ravnica, on the other hand, has a different number of total cards in a large set...
Sorry for the confusion and the disappointment after unnecessary excitation.
I looked at the picture. Yes it's indeed Traditional Chinese. Your Smokestack is a Traditional Chinese one, too.
Personally I'd value a T-Chinese playable card more than an English one, but that's probably because I can read Chinese. Regardless, as Juju said, you can't apply the price difference between languages derived from recent sets to old sets.
After double checking, I was wrong. Tempest was indeed released in Traditional Chinese, just not in Simplified Chinese.
Or more realistically, it would be Japanese, and neither you or your LGS can tell the difference between Asian languages. :-P
No, I wasn't trying to say you are misleading people, no need to apologize. Actually I believe their 8-man events are win-a-box events. From this SCG Open's Facebook page:
I was just trying to tell people not to put too much emphasis on this match by calling it "finals" left and right.
I saw RizenPhoenix saying it's a win-a-box side event, where does anyone said it's 8-man event? You hardly get any information about which archtypes are good from a single 8-man event.
The SCG live broadcast cut away from the modern match when it was tied 1-1. I don't know who won.
And yes, cascade into the Bust half of Boom/Bust has been legal since day one. Boom/Bust Zoo was a viable deck in the old extended (the one dominated by Thopter Depths).
I don't know what you are trying to imply with this statement, but I'd like to point out that if you destroy Angelic Destiny and the creature it enchants at the same time, for example, using Akroma's Vengeance, Angelic Destiny's last ability will still trigger and you can return it to your hand.
Austere Command is likely going to destroy Angelic Destiny for good, but I'm not 100% sure.
If you don't mind, I'd like to ask question about this. PV is also a favorite writer of mine, and I've followed him from SCG to CFB, but I didn't really notice the quality drop in his articles that you mentioned. Granted, his article quality has a large variation, and some of them don't interest me at all, but can you elaborate which time period you consider as PV's "writing poorly" era? Thanks.
Somebody mentioned the position of periods, but no one explained more. I actually think it's the best way for a non-Chinese-speaker to tell. And it's not only periods, it's almost all punctuation marks, most importantly commas and periods, so you should have one on every card.
The Simplified Chinese cards have the punctuation marks at the left bottom corner of the square where the character is supposed to be; the Traditional Chinese cards have the punctuation marks at the center of the square.
All for cards shown by the OP can be differentiated this way. I don't know any exceptions in Magic cards.
Goblin Guide, Vampire Lacerator, Abyssal Persecutor, and Demon of Death's Gate all beg to differ. And these are just from the top of my head, and all four have seen play in top Standard decks.
Or maybe what you really miss is a specific sub-set of drawbacks that you haven't articulated yet.
He also posted pictures of the other two Judge Promos sent out at worlds: Morphling and Sinkhole with new art. Both of these are in new frame.
Cruz pasted the image of Sword at reply #74 for those of you who can't access Facebook for whatever reasons: