In my current r/w/b midrange build, the only uncommons are two rakdos keyrunes. Other than that, there's 2 sin collector in the sideboard, and some basic lands. I've tested with magma jet, doom blade, warleader's helix, read the bones, but they all felt a bit lacking so I'm just packing generic answers like hero's downfall and anger of the gods and mizzium mortars, and underworld connections. At least last season I ran unburial rites, lingering souls, and faithless looting which weren't rare.
In response to the original poster's question, the most recent GPwinning Decklist only has two rares in the maindeck and only a few rares in the sideboard.
In response to the original poster's question, the most recent GPwinning Decklist only has two rares in the maindeck and only a few rares in the sideboard.
The main deck has a set of shocklands which makes it to three. Stlll a lot cheaper than most T1 decks.
My Mono Red deck just costs $75, the only rares being Ash Zealot and Chandra's Phoenix, yet I constantly beat the hundreds of dollars decks like Esper, Gruul or Monoblack.
So . . . is it your belief Hasbro should become a not-for-profit company??? I sure hear a lot of people complain when a private company does something to either keep in business or make a profit. Besides the US gov, I don't know very many other organizations that strive to work at a constant loss.
There's no such thing as businesses that don't make a profit, because in America, if you don't make a profit, there's no point in being a business. Shops that only break even tend to have a very short shelf life.
HOWEVER
That doesn't mean Hasbro should turn Magic into a, and I quote, "he who pays, wins" game.
I think Hero's demise is in the unfortunate position of being a failsafe for a thing that the game wants to be played a lot. NWO wants planewalkers to be good they are just a little bit afraid of a JTMS version two coming along. Hence HD's existence. All in all I can forgive it being a rare just for the sake that I'm glad it exists
What really gets on my tits atm is that the three best walkers are all in the same colours. I hate running 4 pithing needles main soooo much but I do not see another way of winning.
There's no such thing as businesses that don't make a profit, because in America, if you don't make a profit, there's no point in being a business. Shops that only break even tend to have a very short shelf life.
HOWEVER
That doesn't mean Hasbro should turn Magic into a, and I quote, "he who pays, wins" game.
Depends on the business model. I know of a few LGS that run the LGS to break even and make all their money off the web site they run from the LGS with a different name from the LGS (so they can not be connected). This type of set up allows for the LGS side of the business to get their hands on cards and products to sell on their web site.
Depends on the business model. I know of a few LGS that run the LGS to break even and make all their money off the web site they run from the LGS with a different name from the LGS (so they can not be connected). This type of set up allows for the LGS side of the business to get their hands on cards and products to sell on their web site.
How exactly does a brick and mortar store hide its address from the online side of things? All the brick and mortar stores on ebay for instance make there addresses known.
I'm missing something in all these accusations of HASBRO trying desperately to gouge their consumers by including most of the good cards at the rare/mythic level.
How exactly does that work?
HASBRO doesn't participate in the aftermarket - how can they possibly make huge bucks this way? The only folks who are making out like bandits are the aftermarket sellers.
In fact - I believe they are actually hurting themselves financially in this regard. Players who want the rare/mythics realize how many packs they have to go through to get the rares and simply bypass the process of buying boosters - going straight to the aftermarket.
IMHO, at some point, I believe HASBRO will relegate the best cards to the uncommon slot to balance out this effect [leaving the rare/mythics for the 'bad' cards Maro claims are necessary for the metagame - never wrapped my head around the concept of 'bad rares are necessary'].
Honestly, I don't know what to make of this. Every now and then they throw us a bone like Delver of Secrets or Wild Nacatl, both of which are some of the best cards in the decks that play them and show up in Legacy. But for the most part... Wasn't it always a bit like this? The best cards in the game always had a large portion of rares in them compared to commons and uncommons. Granted, utility instants and sorceries used to be uncommon for the most part, but still. I think (And this is just my personal opinion) that it's not so much the rarities going up a whole ton, but rather the price of Magic in general going up these days.
Think about it. Back in Invasion block, could you imagine paying in the neighbourhood of 50 $ for a Standard card like Liliana or VoR? Even paying over 20 for something like Snapcaster would be above the norm. Magic's just more expensive across the board these days, with even individual rares and mythics being more than they used to be. And if the announcement MaRo gave at the dawn of the mythic rarity is to be trusted (And I don't see why it wouldn't be), rares are actually more common these days than they were back then, with mythics being only slightly more sparse than old rares. So... What gives? You'd figure that if it was just Magic being more popular, that would mean more boosters being cracked and more cards being in circulation.
Try to keep in mind that one factor that increases the value of cards nowadays is the massive increase in the size of the playerbase. More players=more demand=higher prices.
How exactly does a brick and mortar store hide its address from the online side of things? All the brick and mortar stores on ebay for instance make there addresses known.
They have different names and they dont cross advertise. So the LGS name may be 'The Card Store' but the online store is 'John Doe Cards'.
Try to keep in mind that one factor that increases the value of cards nowadays is the massive increase in the size of the playerbase. More players=more demand=higher prices.
Except that more players should equal more product opened, so more supply to compensate for the increased demand, and prices stay the same.
Ddoes not work for eternal formats where wizards cuts off thier foot proffit wise by making enough reprints to keep up with demand. but for Standard legal cards it should work this way, and does not.
The problem here is that compeatitive players are not buying the product like they used to, most of the people I played with 10 years ago had actual collections so they could switch decks, partly because there is not incentative to open packs, as there are not enough cood cards you can pull, as well the deck diversity in standard is a sham compared to what it once was (there are not enough playable decks/deck types) which has lead to to much of the purchasing being by limited and casual players which takes time to get opened, and as a result filters cards into the card pool slowley.
There is not increase in sales as the drafters and casual players would be buying just as many packs, and are selling some of the chase cards that they open, which is where to many of the cards in compeative decks come from.
This with people following the winning decks causes card prices to be more volitile then they use to be. As cards go from being unwanted to everyone wanting 4 over night to often.
All puttiong all the playable cards at rare does is make life easier on the casual players, it is worse for compeartive play both in terms of deck diversity, and cost, makes it harder on brewers, and to make matters worse it does not make limited any better. All it is doing is making a stronger case for modern as that costs less in the long run, and is more value for our money as the cards will hold their value. But wizards does not make money from modern like it can from standard, because they are afraid to reprint on the level that is required.
to much money if goign to stores who are riding the market fluctuations, buying cards when they are low then sellign them high once they spike. Which is more money froms tandard leaving the player base and not goign to Wizards.
This is the problem. Right here. The idea that better=rare. It was not always the case, but it sure is now. Glad I don't play standard.
It was not always the case? Then why was Ancestral Recall made into a rare while the rest of the Alpha boons were common? Rare equaling better in some instances is a fundamental part of the collectible card game genre. That doesn't mean common can't be good in some instances and rare can't be bad in some instances. It's all just the nature of the genre and if you don't feel like ensuring the future of the game is preferable to catering to whims and crashing the market, then you should probably find something else to play. There's a lot of gaming alternatives to Magic.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself." - William Blake
It was not always the case? Then why was Ancestral Recall made into a rare while the rest of the Alpha boons were common? Rare equaling better in some instances is a fundamental part of the collectible card game genre. That doesn't mean common can't be good in some instances and rare can't be bad in some instances. It's all just the nature of the genre and if you don't feel like ensuring the future of the game is preferable to catering to whims and crashing the market, then you should probably find something else to play. There's a lot of gaming alternatives to Magic.
Remember delver? 4x delver 4x vapor snag 4x ponder 4x mana leak 4x probe. The only thing expensive in that deck was GoST and snap caster and a sword which was a one of maybe
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTG is a hobby, cant afford it? GTFO! Don't complain about prices.
Nice strawman, btw. There is a pretty large gap between having all of the good cards bumped up in rarity and market crash, death of magic.
Did I prove myself wrong, really? All I said was that having good cards as rares, not all good cards but some, is good for the game. Considering the explosion in the game's popularity since Alara block, I'd say Wizards' sales figures prove you wrong.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself." - William Blake
Remember delver? 4x delver 4x vapor snag 4x ponder 4x mana leak 4x probe. The only thing expensive in that deck was GoST and snap caster and a sword which was a one of maybe
they missed the synergy of that deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I speak in sarcasm because calling people ******* ******** is not allowed.
Did I prove myself wrong, really? All I said was that having good cards as rares, not all good cards but some, is good for the game. Considering the explosion in the game's popularity since Alara block, I'd say Wizards' sales figures prove you wrong.
Looking back at your earlier response, I don't think you understand the point being made.
This is the problem. Right here. The idea that better=rare. It was not always the case, but it sure is now. Glad I don't play standard.
The function of the = sign is being used as an if statement. I suppose I should have used a => symbol. Here's the point: the idea that if a card is powerful, it should be rare, is problematic. It was in response to a comment that we should expect all of the powerful cards to be rarer.
Simply put:
In the past, tournament worthy cards were spread across common and uncommon cards quite often, NOT JUST RARE.
You responded to this comment as if I said that NO powerful cards should be rare, which I never said. Thus,
All I said was that having good cards as rares, not all good cards but some, is good for the game.
Think about it. Back in Invasion block, could you imagine paying in the neighbourhood of 50 $ for a Standard card like Liliana or VoR? Even paying over 20 for something like Snapcaster would be above the norm. Magic's just more expensive across the board these days, with even individual rares and mythics being more than they used to be.
Removal got bumped up in rarity to make limited better
Jeez you're so naive. They did it because that way they sell more packs.
They realized the increasing influx of older, salary owner, players in the game and decided they had space to push up competitive prices.
The best limited formats had pretty good removal at common/uncommon like M13. Bad removal doesn't make good limited although too good removal makes bad limited.
Jeez you're so naive. They did it because that way they sell more packs.
They realized the increasing influx of older, salary owner, players in the game and decided they had space to push up competitive prices.
The best limited formats had pretty good removal at common/uncommon like M13. Bad removal doesn't make good limited although too good removal makes bad limited.
Could you actually ever say that M13 is one of the best limited formats ever with a straight face? Seriously?
Could you actually ever say that M13 is one of the best limited formats ever with a straight face? Seriously?
I actually love M13 limited. I thought there were a lot of fun cards and decks in the format. It wasn't especially fast like M12, nor was it as slow as M14. Each color had multiple ways to play, and the tricks and removal were varied.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A Think Twice in hand is worth two in the grave.
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/1356
RWGisela, Blade of Explosions
Also, I don't think NWO is to blame for this phenomenon. NWO doesn't mean that commons have to be weaker, just less complex. Remember that NWO gave us commons like Doom Blade, Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede, Glistener Elf, Delver of Secrets, Vapor Snag, Goblin Electromancer and many others. Not to mention classics like Duress, Lightning Bolt and Mana Leak which also fit.
NWO certainly affects the game, but it doesn't have anything to do with upgrading uncommon cards to rares or rares to mythics.
I don't always post about Rafiq of the Many, but when I do, I cardlink to the original artwork, and not the supplementary product version.
"I trust myself to do my duty, even unto death. It's what comes after that I'm afraid of."
"Just fight without fear. Your soul is protected by the hand of Avacyn and will never submit to evil."
The main deck has a set of shocklands which makes it to three. Stlll a lot cheaper than most T1 decks.
My Mono Red deck just costs $75, the only rares being Ash Zealot and Chandra's Phoenix, yet I constantly beat the hundreds of dollars decks like Esper, Gruul or Monoblack.
Creativity goes a long way in Magic.
There's no such thing as businesses that don't make a profit, because in America, if you don't make a profit, there's no point in being a business. Shops that only break even tend to have a very short shelf life.
HOWEVER
That doesn't mean Hasbro should turn Magic into a, and I quote, "he who pays, wins" game.
What really gets on my tits atm is that the three best walkers are all in the same colours. I hate running 4 pithing needles main soooo much but I do not see another way of winning.
Depends on the business model. I know of a few LGS that run the LGS to break even and make all their money off the web site they run from the LGS with a different name from the LGS (so they can not be connected). This type of set up allows for the LGS side of the business to get their hands on cards and products to sell on their web site.
How exactly does a brick and mortar store hide its address from the online side of things? All the brick and mortar stores on ebay for instance make there addresses known.
How exactly does that work?
HASBRO doesn't participate in the aftermarket - how can they possibly make huge bucks this way? The only folks who are making out like bandits are the aftermarket sellers.
In fact - I believe they are actually hurting themselves financially in this regard. Players who want the rare/mythics realize how many packs they have to go through to get the rares and simply bypass the process of buying boosters - going straight to the aftermarket.
IMHO, at some point, I believe HASBRO will relegate the best cards to the uncommon slot to balance out this effect [leaving the rare/mythics for the 'bad' cards Maro claims are necessary for the metagame - never wrapped my head around the concept of 'bad rares are necessary'].
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1988614295/worlds-finest-mtg-pewter-life-spinner-is-about-to?ref=category
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=16581
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH_UXXKRzlM
Try to keep in mind that one factor that increases the value of cards nowadays is the massive increase in the size of the playerbase. More players=more demand=higher prices.
Understood - but they are buying at the WHOLESALE cost, not RETAIL. This undercuts the ability of WOTC to stuff their wallets.
Again - the only folks who are gouging/making serious money are the aftermarket folks.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1988614295/worlds-finest-mtg-pewter-life-spinner-is-about-to?ref=category
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=16581
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH_UXXKRzlM
They have different names and they dont cross advertise. So the LGS name may be 'The Card Store' but the online store is 'John Doe Cards'.
There are rares that aren't worth past a buck, and uncommons worth 2 dollars.
Except that more players should equal more product opened, so more supply to compensate for the increased demand, and prices stay the same.
Ddoes not work for eternal formats where wizards cuts off thier foot proffit wise by making enough reprints to keep up with demand. but for Standard legal cards it should work this way, and does not.
The problem here is that compeatitive players are not buying the product like they used to, most of the people I played with 10 years ago had actual collections so they could switch decks, partly because there is not incentative to open packs, as there are not enough cood cards you can pull, as well the deck diversity in standard is a sham compared to what it once was (there are not enough playable decks/deck types) which has lead to to much of the purchasing being by limited and casual players which takes time to get opened, and as a result filters cards into the card pool slowley.
There is not increase in sales as the drafters and casual players would be buying just as many packs, and are selling some of the chase cards that they open, which is where to many of the cards in compeative decks come from.
This with people following the winning decks causes card prices to be more volitile then they use to be. As cards go from being unwanted to everyone wanting 4 over night to often.
All puttiong all the playable cards at rare does is make life easier on the casual players, it is worse for compeartive play both in terms of deck diversity, and cost, makes it harder on brewers, and to make matters worse it does not make limited any better. All it is doing is making a stronger case for modern as that costs less in the long run, and is more value for our money as the cards will hold their value. But wizards does not make money from modern like it can from standard, because they are afraid to reprint on the level that is required.
to much money if goign to stores who are riding the market fluctuations, buying cards when they are low then sellign them high once they spike. Which is more money froms tandard leaving the player base and not goign to Wizards.
It was not always the case? Then why was Ancestral Recall made into a rare while the rest of the Alpha boons were common? Rare equaling better in some instances is a fundamental part of the collectible card game genre. That doesn't mean common can't be good in some instances and rare can't be bad in some instances. It's all just the nature of the genre and if you don't feel like ensuring the future of the game is preferable to catering to whims and crashing the market, then you should probably find something else to play. There's a lot of gaming alternatives to Magic.
"Stoned players can't attack, block, or play spells or abilities."
You just proved yourself wrong. Yes, Ancestral Recall was a rare, but Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor, and Swords to Plowshares were uncommon, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt were common, etc etc.
The point is that better did NOT equal rare. In the earlier days, there were tournament worthy commons and uncommons very often.
Nice strawman, btw. There is a pretty large gap between having all of the good cards bumped up in rarity and market crash, death of magic.
Did I prove myself wrong, really? All I said was that having good cards as rares, not all good cards but some, is good for the game. Considering the explosion in the game's popularity since Alara block, I'd say Wizards' sales figures prove you wrong.
"Stoned players can't attack, block, or play spells or abilities."
they missed the synergy of that deck.
Looking back at your earlier response, I don't think you understand the point being made.
Breaking down my original comment:
The function of the = sign is being used as an if statement. I suppose I should have used a => symbol. Here's the point: the idea that if a card is powerful, it should be rare, is problematic. It was in response to a comment that we should expect all of the powerful cards to be rarer.
Simply put:
In the past, tournament worthy cards were spread across common and uncommon cards quite often, NOT JUST RARE.
You responded to this comment as if I said that NO powerful cards should be rare, which I never said. Thus,
does not at all counter anything that I said.
While slightly after Invasion, I played standard from Odyssey to Scourge. I do remember there being a few cards that reached $30+ during that stretch, including Call of the Herd, Exalted Angel, Decree of Justice, and Goblin Piledriver. I think Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Arcanis, the Omnipotent, Goblin Sharpshooter, and Nantuko Shade hovered around $20, and I'm sure there are others I can't recall.
That said, I think the overall count of rares was still much lower than it is today (remember Madness/Threshold decks?).
How complex is Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore?
Jeez you're so naive. They did it because that way they sell more packs.
They realized the increasing influx of older, salary owner, players in the game and decided they had space to push up competitive prices.
The best limited formats had pretty good removal at common/uncommon like M13. Bad removal doesn't make good limited although too good removal makes bad limited.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Could you actually ever say that M13 is one of the best limited formats ever with a straight face? Seriously?
I actually love M13 limited. I thought there were a lot of fun cards and decks in the format. It wasn't especially fast like M12, nor was it as slow as M14. Each color had multiple ways to play, and the tricks and removal were varied.
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.