I agreed with your post but i dont see this materialising in real life? Care to explain on that?
I aint against your reasoning. In fact, i totally hate the price hikes everytime someone decides to tempt the market with inflated prices. Who buys them at those prices anyway? The worst situation is someone decides to hold onto their cards in hope that someone else will raises their prices so they can sell at a higher price. I never ever see prices falling as much as they are raising.
Which part do you not see materializing? Like I said, Scroll Rack and Personal Tutor jumped because of Miracles and have yet to come down. Land Tax just got unbanned but does anyone really think it's going to make an impact? It might be a bit piece in a fringe deck, but does that warrant a $40-60 price tag? Other examples: Modern hadn't even been announced yet and Shocklands were selling out and their prices were becoming inflated. Hell, I remember even a couple of years ago, Revised Dual Lands ranged from $20 for Plateau and Savannah to $40 for Underground Sea. Now you'd be lucky to find any of the for less than $50 with multiple duals now going for $100+. Candelabra was a $30 card forever and after it won one tournament it's now worth $250? No it's not. It's crazy.
I don't know how stores can justify those prices. Maybe some idiot on Ebay once bought an Underground Sea for $100 and that gave them justification to raise all the dual lands? I know Legacy has seen an upswing recently but are there really enough payouts to justify $1000 mana bases? Of course not. It's people either viewing these cards as "investments", something to put back for a couple years and sell later at a profit or if they're really bold, they think they're good enough to have a shot at winning their money back. Both lines of thinking are ridiculous. The investors are basing their investments on false information and inflated numbers and the "professionals" are likely vastly overestimating their ability.
It use to be (around Onslaught at least) a card in Standard wouldn't rise above $20 (those were the Onslaught Fetches), then a couple years later, vendors figured out people would buy Shocklands for $30, then Goyfs for $50, then finally JTMS for $100. $100 for a card that is still in Standard. The prices of Goyf and JTMS were not based on consumer pressures. They were based on vendors figuring out if there was enough hype surrounding a card or they started the prices high and raised them every time they "Sold Out", they could justify continually raising their prices when in fact, the actual value of those cards had already been exceeded many times over.
It's a completely unsustainable system and I think it behooves WotC to step in if they want Legacy and Modern to continue to be successful. It use to be that a player could have a viable deck in Standard and even Extended for no more than $100-200. With the exception of the JTMS fiasco, Standard has more or less remained this way (though the continuous presence of $25-30 Mythics coming out every set is definitely threatening this). Modern's mana bases are easily a couple hundred then when you factor in Goyfs, Bobs, Cliques or whatever else, you could easily be looking at $500+ decks or more. Legacy use to be a ~$300-400 venture (mainly because of the duals) but now, good luck building a Legacy deck for less than a grand (excluding obviously the decks that are built to keep costs down like Elves or Dredge).
I don't know what can be done though. I guess what really needs to happen is WotC release a "From the Vault: Legacy" with Bobs, Goyfs, Cliques, Land Tax and whatever else to try to wrangle in prices. Obviously they're hampered somewhat by the Reprint List, but there are certainly plenty of cards they role-playing cards they can reprint to keep costs down. It's something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.
These massive, arbitrary price hikes and the huge amount of speculation that has been going on as a result of them are the reason Legacy is declining. It's simply too expensive to break into the format and half of those expenses are based on price gouging rather than actual market pressures. Someone, somewhere decides Land Tax should be a $60 card so now everyone sells it at that price. It doesn't matter if it ever sees play (like Scroll Rack or Personal Tutor have failed to see play), those artificially raised prices are going to stay that high for years because the speculators that bought up those cards aren't going to part with them a lower prices once they've seen people can be convinced to buy them at exorbitant prices. As a result, the card prices will prevent people from playing in the format and attendance will suffer until the whole thing collapses. Granted, that may take a couple years, but it's a pretty obvious bubble being formed. I'm not sure how to stop it other than to stop supporting the companies that are benefiting from this system the most (SCG) or WotC printing more older cards to match demand (which I think they should have been doing all along). Either way, something's got to give. This game's not going to be able to continue to support these kinds of massive price gouging efforts.
So we get a fixed Banding and what is quite possibly one of the most annoying and confusing abilities since Banding. Miracle is going to be a rules nightmare and people will cheat with it. I thought the "first card draw" ability died for the same reason the Nether Shadow ability died, it's too confusing and too easy to manipulate for cheating. I guess we'll see.
The red Miracle card seems insane for Burn and Soulbond Knight is really good too.
Well those first two links definitely look like the 10 Duals. Maybe they're going to be alt. art promos for MTGO? I wouldn't get my hopes up for paper remakes.
Glacial Chasm (it is so obvious that that art is for this card. I mean cmon, why is anyone entertaining the thought of something else?)
Yeah, there's a 99% chance that it's Glacial Chasm. There is an ever-so-slight chance that it could be Mouth of Ronom but that's just because I want a card other than Chasm. Though given their history with FTV, they do love throwing in near-useless filler cards, so Chasm would fit in perfectly.
If I'm understanding this correctly, he wouldn't have been able to block either way, though he could have tapped down on of your guys. If you knew this and suggested otherwise to attempt to distract from this fact, I don't think it's cheating, it's just scummy behavior. I just would have kept my mouth shut and let my opponent make his own decision.
Alright let's be realistic with a card list, shall we?:
Wasteland (the big ticket, is also only around $40 at the moment so reprinting it wouldn't devastate its value like reprinting Karakas would)
Reliquary Tower Thawing Glaciers Glacial Chasm
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/ Bojuka Bog (black land)
City of Brass
Command Tower
Flagstones of Trokair (white land)
Tolaria West/ Cephalid Colosseum (blue land)
Pendelhaven/ Dryad Arbor (green land)
Crystal Quarry
Barbarian Ring (red land)
Gemstone Mine Lotus Vale Forbidden Orchard/ Exotic Orchard
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Ancient Tomb/ Blinkmoth Nexus
Thats not playing favours at all, at least not in a bad way.
Do you know how long this guy has bought a case before he was given that deal? if not don´t say something like that.
Stores do favours for good customers thats called customer service.
Back in another town there was a miniature and Wargaming shop where I got free coffee, and could go in the backroom without asking and I could borrow tools, terrain and so on, I was given special discounts and so on.
Only a small handfull of people was allowed to do that and if people asked why they weren´t allowed to do that, the answer was simple and friendly.
"X here is known to us for a long time and the revenue he has created has paid for much more than he usually borrows and alwo we trust him because we know him"
That deal should be extended to everyone. If the owner wants to give a regular a deal because he shops there often, that's fine, but anyone should be given the chance to become a regular and thereby qualify for such a deal and in this case, it did not seem like this was possible because the customer was so well known by the owner.
This is always a problem if people don´t understand that the store owner who acts like a buddy to some guys, isn´t their buddy, although he is nice to everybody.
And its ok for the TO to lend decks, cards, whatever to anybody.
I also lend my decks to friends to play, not to strangers.
He is giving decks to people he trusts and maybe as a favour because they are good customers. But thats not what favoritism is usually used for .
Favoritism would be if he would use his power as a store owner or as the TO to judge always in their favour like in a situation where no answer can be found. Of if their cards would always be "no thats not marked" and the other guys would always be " oh thats marked, sorryZ, but XY gets the win"
Thats favoritism.
Also if you know that they get deck x, there is nothing stopping you playing the same deck or metagaming against it.
No it's favoritism for the TO to give cards (and entire decks) to some people he personally knows but not to others. This typically happened in 10 proxy Legacy tournaments where the TO was giving these players cards from his own collection and from the store's case and not counting it toward their 10 proxy limit, whereas someone such as myself still had to pay full price for his deck and was not given leniency for his proxies. It's a double standard and calls into question the legitimacy of the tournament and the TO.
1. Not starting on time. Honestly this happens so much at my LGS that I've become numb to it.
2. Not paying out what they promised or not telling people the payouts ahead of time if they have changed.
3. Overcharging on singles/packs. The LGS I frequent looks up their prices directly from SCG and has on occasion rounded up to the nearest dollar ($1.75->$2.00) saying that I would be saving on shipping by buying in store. Haven't bought a single from them since.
4. The biggest problem: Playing favorites with patrons. I can understand cutting someone a deal if they regularly order 6 boxes from you, but that deal should be for anyone in that situation. Also, I've seen the TO allow people to use his own personal known tournament-winning decks and not extend the offer to others. Also, the TO (who also manages the store) has allowed these regulars to use cards directly from the case for an upcoming tournament, again not allowing others to do the same. It's very disheartening to see this kind of blatant favoritism take place.
You did the right thing. Ripping people off (even if both parties are fine with the deal) isn't okay. I definitely would have stepped in over something this egregious.
Let's say I control 10 lands. I then Genesis Wave with X=7. I hit Warstorm Surge, Avenger of Zendikar, and 5 lands.
1.) How many Plant tokens will I get (assuming I stack everything optimally)? 10 or 15?
2.) Will my Plant tokens be 5/6s and deal 5 damage after triggering Warstorm Surge or will they be "locked into" 0/1s for the purposes of Surge?
Thanks for the help!
Please use cardtags on all relevant cards. ~parinoid
Which part do you not see materializing? Like I said, Scroll Rack and Personal Tutor jumped because of Miracles and have yet to come down. Land Tax just got unbanned but does anyone really think it's going to make an impact? It might be a bit piece in a fringe deck, but does that warrant a $40-60 price tag? Other examples: Modern hadn't even been announced yet and Shocklands were selling out and their prices were becoming inflated. Hell, I remember even a couple of years ago, Revised Dual Lands ranged from $20 for Plateau and Savannah to $40 for Underground Sea. Now you'd be lucky to find any of the for less than $50 with multiple duals now going for $100+. Candelabra was a $30 card forever and after it won one tournament it's now worth $250? No it's not. It's crazy.
I don't know how stores can justify those prices. Maybe some idiot on Ebay once bought an Underground Sea for $100 and that gave them justification to raise all the dual lands? I know Legacy has seen an upswing recently but are there really enough payouts to justify $1000 mana bases? Of course not. It's people either viewing these cards as "investments", something to put back for a couple years and sell later at a profit or if they're really bold, they think they're good enough to have a shot at winning their money back. Both lines of thinking are ridiculous. The investors are basing their investments on false information and inflated numbers and the "professionals" are likely vastly overestimating their ability.
It use to be (around Onslaught at least) a card in Standard wouldn't rise above $20 (those were the Onslaught Fetches), then a couple years later, vendors figured out people would buy Shocklands for $30, then Goyfs for $50, then finally JTMS for $100. $100 for a card that is still in Standard. The prices of Goyf and JTMS were not based on consumer pressures. They were based on vendors figuring out if there was enough hype surrounding a card or they started the prices high and raised them every time they "Sold Out", they could justify continually raising their prices when in fact, the actual value of those cards had already been exceeded many times over.
It's a completely unsustainable system and I think it behooves WotC to step in if they want Legacy and Modern to continue to be successful. It use to be that a player could have a viable deck in Standard and even Extended for no more than $100-200. With the exception of the JTMS fiasco, Standard has more or less remained this way (though the continuous presence of $25-30 Mythics coming out every set is definitely threatening this). Modern's mana bases are easily a couple hundred then when you factor in Goyfs, Bobs, Cliques or whatever else, you could easily be looking at $500+ decks or more. Legacy use to be a ~$300-400 venture (mainly because of the duals) but now, good luck building a Legacy deck for less than a grand (excluding obviously the decks that are built to keep costs down like Elves or Dredge).
I don't know what can be done though. I guess what really needs to happen is WotC release a "From the Vault: Legacy" with Bobs, Goyfs, Cliques, Land Tax and whatever else to try to wrangle in prices. Obviously they're hampered somewhat by the Reprint List, but there are certainly plenty of cards they role-playing cards they can reprint to keep costs down. It's something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.
The red Miracle card seems insane for Burn and Soulbond Knight is really good too.
Yeah, there's a 99% chance that it's Glacial Chasm. There is an ever-so-slight chance that it could be Mouth of Ronom but that's just because I want a card other than Chasm. Though given their history with FTV, they do love throwing in near-useless filler cards, so Chasm would fit in perfectly.
Fair enough.
Thawing Glaciers-> Glacial Chasm
Lotus Vale-> Forbidden Orchard
Happy?
Wasteland (the big ticket, is also only around $40 at the moment so reprinting it wouldn't devastate its value like reprinting Karakas would)
Reliquary Tower
Thawing GlaciersGlacial ChasmUrborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/ Bojuka Bog (black land)
City of Brass
Command Tower
Flagstones of Trokair (white land)
Tolaria West/ Cephalid Colosseum (blue land)
Pendelhaven/ Dryad Arbor (green land)
Crystal Quarry
Barbarian Ring (red land)
Gemstone Mine
Lotus ValeForbidden Orchard/ Exotic OrchardBoseiju, Who Shelters All
Ancient Tomb/ Blinkmoth Nexus
That deal should be extended to everyone. If the owner wants to give a regular a deal because he shops there often, that's fine, but anyone should be given the chance to become a regular and thereby qualify for such a deal and in this case, it did not seem like this was possible because the customer was so well known by the owner.
No it's favoritism for the TO to give cards (and entire decks) to some people he personally knows but not to others. This typically happened in 10 proxy Legacy tournaments where the TO was giving these players cards from his own collection and from the store's case and not counting it toward their 10 proxy limit, whereas someone such as myself still had to pay full price for his deck and was not given leniency for his proxies. It's a double standard and calls into question the legitimacy of the tournament and the TO.
2. Not paying out what they promised or not telling people the payouts ahead of time if they have changed.
3. Overcharging on singles/packs. The LGS I frequent looks up their prices directly from SCG and has on occasion rounded up to the nearest dollar ($1.75->$2.00) saying that I would be saving on shipping by buying in store. Haven't bought a single from them since.
4. The biggest problem: Playing favorites with patrons. I can understand cutting someone a deal if they regularly order 6 boxes from you, but that deal should be for anyone in that situation. Also, I've seen the TO allow people to use his own personal known tournament-winning decks and not extend the offer to others. Also, the TO (who also manages the store) has allowed these regulars to use cards directly from the case for an upcoming tournament, again not allowing others to do the same. It's very disheartening to see this kind of blatant favoritism take place.