That is the question. Yes, no or maybe? What changes would you make to update them? A name change perhaps? Pricing, etc.
Personally I'd love to see them come back. 3 rares(or 2 and a mythic), 10 uncommons and a chunk of commons and lands and a guaranteed foil of any rarity. 75 cards in a box with a rules insert. I'd name it something else though. Tournament pack really is a misnomer. It also has a side bonus of those who don't like the waste of mylar/plastic for 3 booster packs can keep the box for storage of dice, counters or bulk commons or lands.
Maybe it is a relic of the past, but I've been buying a few old ones recently and really enjoying the experience of opening them. Any thoughts?
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
If you would say yes, what would MSRP be? $11.99 or $12.99?
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
What purpose did those serve back when they were around? I bought them when I was young, but I don't think I ever thought about it.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
What purpose do they serve, though? Who would buy them?
Casuals. Collectors. LGS. Booster box buyers. (12 big packs in a box, over the 36 in a booster box) Don't know the numbers but I would assume they probably still make up a majority of the end consumers of magic product.
Could be another avenue to introduce Buy a Box style promos as well. One foil promo in every Tourney Pack guaranteed or one in every 3 or 4 packs. We have seen blister packs of 3 Unstable packs, 3 Masters packs as well. Could be aimed at casual draft I suppose.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Casuals. Collectors. LGS. Booster box buyers. (12 big packs in a box, over the 36 in a booster box) Don't know the numbers but I would assume they probably still make up a majority of the end consumers of magic product.
Could be another avenue to introduce Buy a Box style promos as well. One foil promo in every Tourney Pack guaranteed or one in every 3 or 4 packs. We have seen blister packs of 3 Unstable packs, 3 Masters packs as well. Could be aimed at casual draft I suppose.
Sorry my point wasn't very clear. My point wasn't that the product idea was bad, it was that WotC basically still makes them, they're just slightly different now with a new name, so reintroducing the old ones would be counterproductive. WotC already produces Planeswalker decks and Challenger decks which fill essentially the same niche. There's no reason for them to also produce Tournament packs.
Those are not analogous. Preconstructed decks vs. random packs are VERY different.
Think of these as a supplement to standard boosters analagous to the 3 pack blister packs of things like Conspiracy, Battlebond, Masters25, Iconic Masters and UnStable. All of which could be bought as single boosters or in a blister 3 pack.
Again, it could be an avenue of distribution of promos as well. Put an attractive $11.99 MSRP on them you get more value than just buying 3 loose boosters as you would get nearly 30 lands and a guaranteed foil. Just a thought. Were you not playing when these were available?
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Oh wow. I was thinking of Theme decks which came in the same little crappy deckboxes. My bad.
No problem. I can see the confusion. Yes they would be like the old Tournament Packs, not Theme decks. If done, I'd like to see the cardboard boxes upsized to the ones like in current Planeswalker decks so they could hold 75 sleeved cards. They could still be made of cardboard (to save Wizards money) and they could even include a spindown counter in the box with the 75 cards. Maybe crank the MSRP up to $12.99 then instead of 11.99.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Oh wow. I was thinking of Theme decks which came in the same little crappy deckboxes. My bad.
No problem. I can see the confusion. Yes they would be like the old Tournament Packs, not Theme decks. If done, I'd like to see the cardboard boxes upsized to the ones like in current Planeswalker decks so they could hold 75 sleeved cards. They could still be made of cardboard (to save Wizards money) and they could even include a spindown counter in the box with the 75 cards. Maybe crank the MSRP up to $12.99 then instead of 11.99.
Anyone else want to chime in?
They'd be good for draft and limited games. Tournament decks are the origins of what became the fat pack / bundle box of today in a sense. They did continue them for a bit while fat packs were kicking around, but it looks like they retired them shortly after fat packs came about. My guess is the fat packs proved more popular items due to the storage box, included novel, and packs. They could bring them back, but given no other card game bothers with them, I'm not sure there is enough of an advantage over buying booster packs to warrant them returning.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Back in the day, my LGS used to give players a tournament pack and two boosters for sealed decks. It was a tournament pack... for limited tournaments.
Was that just us or was that the norm?
I think that was normal. Back then people didn't have basic lands at the ready and there were more players who were new to the game, so it made sense to give them the extra lands. Now the market is so flooded with basics that people can walk into most LGS and get some from a land station. That or they have them from the Fat packs and various starter products.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Tournament packs had basic lands in them and pretty much cards to play a Sealed Event with.
Usually they contain BETTER cards than in normal boosters, as they had an extra uncommon in place of a land (so much better value, as the prize of the packs was roughly 3 booster packs, nobody should ever buy booster packs if they had to choose).
Also back in the day boosters had actually 15 cards, now we get a basic land instead, thanks WotC ... thanks for nothing ... (the reasoning behind that is actually that players need basic lands, the tournament pack had basic lands provided! 30 of them!).
And each pack is sealed with a wrapper, which is additional protection against scummy stores that open packs to reseal them (resealing this wrapper is much more difficult than "gluing" a booster back together).
Some of them contain little rule / story books, like really really tiny ones, as they did fit in the small cardboard box.
Another special thing is that you do not get duplicate rares in the tournament packs. If you just buy random booster packs you might get duplicates, so the spread is better too.
Overall the value was so drastically better than boosters i only bought tournament packs back in the days (it was even better to store all the cards, as you had these little paper boxes to store them).
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The last time in Shards of Alara you could get any number of mythic rares in a tournament pack, so they could very well be incredible value.
For each PreRelease you got a tournament pack and boosters of the set that the PreRelease was for (Tournament Packs only existed for the "big" 1st set of each block).
With all the basic lands ready and loaded in the packs that was also a time saving, now you either bring your own or waste time getting basics from a land station.
----
Tournament packs are strictly superior to normal booster packs in every imaginable way.
Simply too good, Wotc cant allow good things to exist, so the stuff was replaced by "Intro decks" (yea ... genius).
Thats also the reason they probably wont ever return, as the product was simply TOO GOOD ... its crazy ...
My guess is the fat packs proved more popular items due to the storage box, included novel, and packs.
A valid point, but I'm having a hard time agreeing when the option of buying a single booster vs. 10 boosters in a Fat Pack with a price spread of $3.99 vs. $39.99. There is room in there for a multiple pack product as evidenced by their making the 3 booster draft packs. I know there are packaging and collation issues but they did it once and they did it for nearly 15 years. They could be LGS only product as well, no big box store sales. Could be a way to help out the LGS owners on the main lines.
And each pack is sealed with a wrapper, which is additional protection against scummy stores that open packs to reseal them (resealing this wrapper is much more difficult than "gluing" a booster back together).
Some of them contain little rule / story books, like really really tiny ones, as they did fit in the small cardboard box.
Another special thing is that you do not get duplicate rares in the tournament packs. If you just buy random booster packs you might get duplicates, so the spread is better too.
Overall the value was so drastically better than boosters i only bought tournament packs back in the days (it was even better to store all the cards, as you had these little paper boxes to store them).
Excellent points. I always preferred buying the Tourney packs. Just better value plain and simple. And yes, I wonder at times if the decision to kill them was because of just that. Easier to push single boosters at a higher margin I guess. Unfortunate. Its why I'm bringing it up. Enough players chatter about it maybe it will catch someones attention at WotC. (I won't hold my breath on that though.)
Still don't really see the appeal. Maybe as something to sell in big box stores? All I know is that I'd never buy one.
So you wouldn't buy one because it would offer greater value than 3 boosters? An extra uncommon 10 vs. 9, a guaranteed foil, a small storage box and 27 extra lands, all for the price of 3 boosters?
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
That is the question. Yes, no or maybe? What changes would you make to update them? A name change perhaps? Pricing, etc.
Personally I'd love to see them come back. 3 rares(or 2 and a mythic), 10 uncommons and a chunk of commons and lands and a guaranteed foil of any rarity. 75 cards in a box with a rules insert. I'd name it something else though. Tournament pack really is a misnomer. It also has a side bonus of those who don't like the waste of mylar/plastic for 3 booster packs can keep the box for storage of dice, counters or bulk commons or lands.
Maybe it is a relic of the past, but I've been buying a few old ones recently and really enjoying the experience of opening them. Any thoughts?
Yes I for one miss Tourniment packs and their extra uncommmon (in the price compairson to the same number of booster packs. (also if they made them so its 1 mythic and 2 rares even better since it helps even out the frustarting mythic luck factor on box openings.
Well, for us the main reason was the boxes themselves. I didn't sleeve a deck for probably the first ten years ten years of playing lol--these were what we *all* used back then.
I recall they included an extra uncommon too or something. Whatever, I wish they hadn't done away with them completely.
So you wouldn't buy one because it would offer greater value than 3 boosters? An extra uncommon 10 vs. 9, a guaranteed foil, a small storage box and 27 extra lands, all for the price of 3 boosters?
Well that's because the only reason I would ever buy 3 boosters is because I'm drafting, and it is my understanding that these tournament packs aren't suitable for that (being a single sealed product instead of 3 individual packs). I acquire all of my cards through Limited play/prize pools (and occasionally Commander Precons) so no, I would never buy anything resembling loose packs. I guess I'm not the target audience.
OK, I have attached a poll to try to get some raw data. Thanks for voting.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
From what I recall, in the days of tournament packs, sealed deck limited was a tournament pack, plus 2 boosters (when a full block was out, it was a tournament pack of the big set, and 1 booster each of the small set). So effectively a sealed pool was made up of 5 packs (approximately-you had the extra uncommon in the tournament pack).
I do recall on MTGO, since there was no way to "win" tournament packs but yet they were needed to enter sealed events, that these maintained a premium price in the online market. If you ever wanted to buy event tix, buy a tournament pack and you could trade it for more than its value in tix...
I sort of remember the move to 6 pack sealed coming at the same time that tournament packs were removed. Cynically, this moves more packs per event, but as most limited outside of pre-releases are drafts, probably not a huge impact on the decision. It's probably more likely that since draft has become the dominant way to play limited, the demand for these simply dried up...
I'm not surprised they were eventually scrapped, they were much harder to get people addicted on the front - you see people cracking booster after booster back then and now, but I barely saw anyone who cracked a tournament pack, said "meh rares" and asked for another tournament pack to crack (actually I might not have even seen anyone do that... I actually can't even remember).
Intro Packs / Planeswalker decks did not replace these - they replaced theme decks. Fat Packs did not replace this, they were around even when tournament packs were around (and essentially replaced itself every time they re-furbished the product, but it never really left).
The closest thing that replaced these were... Prerelease Packs. Yes, that box with 6 boosters, a die and a foil promo we use for prerelease nowadays, which is probably the only "regular" sealed event left, considering you'll need a GPT/PPTQ-level event otherwise minimum to get people to actually play sealed nowadays.
My honest reply is that I think we're just getting nostalgia out of it. From an objective standpoint, honestly they serve no function now because all sets pretty much are standalone Limited formats, so even if they re-created a similar product, it would probably be a 6-pack-worth for sealed purposes instead. Also, I think it's impossible to get a repeat card in a tournament pack excluding the foil, so 3 packs with no guaranteed repeat common was always a awkward position considering there were 2-3 more standalone boosters in a sealed pool even back in the day.
Actually come to think of it, I'd rather buy a prerelease pack and get a free extra foil rare/mythic than an extra uncommon. Prerelease packs should be an actual product for sale.
Back in the days a tournament pack did cost $9.99 , which was just stupidly better than buying booster packs.
Everyone and anybody did buy tournament packs to the point they pretty much always sold out right away ; so all the "newbie" players could not buy them and bought booster packs, just to later find out that tournament packs are strictly superior (or they never found it, depending on if they ever got in contact with a slightly more experienced player in the LGS).
If a booster draft would simply require the use of a tournament pack, and would just put like a "divider" in the packs to suite up the 15 cards, it would totally do the trick, provide basic lands, and promotion stuff.
Currently, they put promotion stuff on actual cards, the insanely annoying booster pack insert cards, that just eat up a REAL magic card, total waste of paper and goes directly in the bin ; talking protection nature ...
The basic land in the booster packs is completely mind boggling stupidity, but players can be brainwashed to accept pretty much anything, as they just tell themselves over and over again "Its just a common that is replaced" , yea, with a BASIC land ... oh gosh ... total failure.
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Nostalgia is absolutely a thing here.
But face it, the product was just better, cheaper, offered more content than any booster packs do and everything it did was strictly superior to booster packs.
It was literally the very best magic product to buy of all of them, as it offered you everything and did so for everyone newbie or experienced player alike, everyone could just grab a tournament pack and start playing with the piles. WotC tried to do that with "pack wars" and silly stuff, which never really worked out (but kudos to the sad people that still do pack wars, i can feel with you).
The biggest deal of the tournament packs is that they directly compete with booster packs and as they are strictly better than having 3 booster packs, WotC could not keep them around anymore, as some "genius" wanted to push more booster packs, which is much easier to mass-produce.
As i said, tournament packs had much more content, the package was actually SEALED by a wrapper with a actual factory SEAL to ensure its not opened. That does not exist on booster packs, which is a tremendously big deal if a booster pack wants to have any "value" (for old sets, tournament packs are much more secure to pay like 1000$+ for, single booster packs are almost guaranteed to be opened or otherwise scanned/checked for expensive cards, unless you really really really really trust your merchant, and you really really should never trust a person that wants to sell you something that much).
Would you do a tournament pack TODAY , you could just upgrade it with all the goodies to actually reflect what it was back then.
If you want to just screw the product all over, thats naturally not very difficult.
And i would totally trust WotC to screw it up left and right, from the bottom to the top, Wizards Quality Failure Assurance ticks all the boxes.
Yes Yes Yes
I would love for Starter Decks to be a thing again.
Better than Boosters and not as money to put up like a Bundle is now.
When I "Started" all I would buy is Starter decks from 4th, Revised, and Ice Age.
After I took a break for a while, Ravnica:City of Guilds Tournament Packs is where I picked back up.
Miss them sorely
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I liked the fact that all cards would be different and there is a greater chance of getting a specific card than if you just bought 3 boosters. With 3 boosters you could easily get doubles.
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Standard
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Modern UBG B/U/G control BBB MBC WUR Control WWW Prison RRR Goblins
Legacy BBB Pox UBG B/U/G Control UWU StoneBlade UW Miracle Control
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Personally I'd love to see them come back. 3 rares(or 2 and a mythic), 10 uncommons and a chunk of commons and lands and a guaranteed foil of any rarity. 75 cards in a box with a rules insert. I'd name it something else though. Tournament pack really is a misnomer. It also has a side bonus of those who don't like the waste of mylar/plastic for 3 booster packs can keep the box for storage of dice, counters or bulk commons or lands.
Maybe it is a relic of the past, but I've been buying a few old ones recently and really enjoying the experience of opening them. Any thoughts?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
If you would say yes, what would MSRP be? $11.99 or $12.99?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Casuals. Collectors. LGS. Booster box buyers. (12 big packs in a box, over the 36 in a booster box) Don't know the numbers but I would assume they probably still make up a majority of the end consumers of magic product.
Could be another avenue to introduce Buy a Box style promos as well. One foil promo in every Tourney Pack guaranteed or one in every 3 or 4 packs. We have seen blister packs of 3 Unstable packs, 3 Masters packs as well. Could be aimed at casual draft I suppose.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Think of these as a supplement to standard boosters analagous to the 3 pack blister packs of things like Conspiracy, Battlebond, Masters25, Iconic Masters and UnStable. All of which could be bought as single boosters or in a blister 3 pack.
Again, it could be an avenue of distribution of promos as well. Put an attractive $11.99 MSRP on them you get more value than just buying 3 loose boosters as you would get nearly 30 lands and a guaranteed foil. Just a thought. Were you not playing when these were available?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
No problem. I can see the confusion. Yes they would be like the old Tournament Packs, not Theme decks. If done, I'd like to see the cardboard boxes upsized to the ones like in current Planeswalker decks so they could hold 75 sleeved cards. They could still be made of cardboard (to save Wizards money) and they could even include a spindown counter in the box with the 75 cards. Maybe crank the MSRP up to $12.99 then instead of 11.99.
For clarity's sake:
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Tournament_pack
Anyone else want to chime in?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Was that just us or was that the norm?
They'd be good for draft and limited games. Tournament decks are the origins of what became the fat pack / bundle box of today in a sense. They did continue them for a bit while fat packs were kicking around, but it looks like they retired them shortly after fat packs came about. My guess is the fat packs proved more popular items due to the storage box, included novel, and packs. They could bring them back, but given no other card game bothers with them, I'm not sure there is enough of an advantage over buying booster packs to warrant them returning.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I think that was normal. Back then people didn't have basic lands at the ready and there were more players who were new to the game, so it made sense to give them the extra lands. Now the market is so flooded with basics that people can walk into most LGS and get some from a land station. That or they have them from the Fat packs and various starter products.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Usually they contain BETTER cards than in normal boosters, as they had an extra uncommon in place of a land (so much better value, as the prize of the packs was roughly 3 booster packs, nobody should ever buy booster packs if they had to choose).
Also back in the day boosters had actually 15 cards, now we get a basic land instead, thanks WotC ... thanks for nothing ... (the reasoning behind that is actually that players need basic lands, the tournament pack had basic lands provided! 30 of them!).
And each pack is sealed with a wrapper, which is additional protection against scummy stores that open packs to reseal them (resealing this wrapper is much more difficult than "gluing" a booster back together).
Some of them contain little rule / story books, like really really tiny ones, as they did fit in the small cardboard box.
Another special thing is that you do not get duplicate rares in the tournament packs. If you just buy random booster packs you might get duplicates, so the spread is better too.
Overall the value was so drastically better than boosters i only bought tournament packs back in the days (it was even better to store all the cards, as you had these little paper boxes to store them).
----
The last time in Shards of Alara you could get any number of mythic rares in a tournament pack, so they could very well be incredible value.
For each PreRelease you got a tournament pack and boosters of the set that the PreRelease was for (Tournament Packs only existed for the "big" 1st set of each block).
With all the basic lands ready and loaded in the packs that was also a time saving, now you either bring your own or waste time getting basics from a land station.
----
Tournament packs are strictly superior to normal booster packs in every imaginable way.
Simply too good, Wotc cant allow good things to exist, so the stuff was replaced by "Intro decks" (yea ... genius).
Thats also the reason they probably wont ever return, as the product was simply TOO GOOD ... its crazy ...
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
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A valid point, but I'm having a hard time agreeing when the option of buying a single booster vs. 10 boosters in a Fat Pack with a price spread of $3.99 vs. $39.99. There is room in there for a multiple pack product as evidenced by their making the 3 booster draft packs. I know there are packaging and collation issues but they did it once and they did it for nearly 15 years. They could be LGS only product as well, no big box store sales. Could be a way to help out the LGS owners on the main lines.
Excellent points. I always preferred buying the Tourney packs. Just better value plain and simple. And yes, I wonder at times if the decision to kill them was because of just that. Easier to push single boosters at a higher margin I guess. Unfortunate. Its why I'm bringing it up. Enough players chatter about it maybe it will catch someones attention at WotC. (I won't hold my breath on that though.)
So you wouldn't buy one because it would offer greater value than 3 boosters? An extra uncommon 10 vs. 9, a guaranteed foil, a small storage box and 27 extra lands, all for the price of 3 boosters?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Yes I for one miss Tourniment packs and their extra uncommmon (in the price compairson to the same number of booster packs. (also if they made them so its 1 mythic and 2 rares even better since it helps even out the frustarting mythic luck factor on box openings.
I recall they included an extra uncommon too or something. Whatever, I wish they hadn't done away with them completely.
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STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I do recall on MTGO, since there was no way to "win" tournament packs but yet they were needed to enter sealed events, that these maintained a premium price in the online market. If you ever wanted to buy event tix, buy a tournament pack and you could trade it for more than its value in tix...
I sort of remember the move to 6 pack sealed coming at the same time that tournament packs were removed. Cynically, this moves more packs per event, but as most limited outside of pre-releases are drafts, probably not a huge impact on the decision. It's probably more likely that since draft has become the dominant way to play limited, the demand for these simply dried up...
Intro Packs / Planeswalker decks did not replace these - they replaced theme decks. Fat Packs did not replace this, they were around even when tournament packs were around (and essentially replaced itself every time they re-furbished the product, but it never really left).
The closest thing that replaced these were... Prerelease Packs. Yes, that box with 6 boosters, a die and a foil promo we use for prerelease nowadays, which is probably the only "regular" sealed event left, considering you'll need a GPT/PPTQ-level event otherwise minimum to get people to actually play sealed nowadays.
My honest reply is that I think we're just getting nostalgia out of it. From an objective standpoint, honestly they serve no function now because all sets pretty much are standalone Limited formats, so even if they re-created a similar product, it would probably be a 6-pack-worth for sealed purposes instead. Also, I think it's impossible to get a repeat card in a tournament pack excluding the foil, so 3 packs with no guaranteed repeat common was always a awkward position considering there were 2-3 more standalone boosters in a sealed pool even back in the day.
Actually come to think of it, I'd rather buy a prerelease pack and get a free extra foil rare/mythic than an extra uncommon. Prerelease packs should be an actual product for sale.
Everyone and anybody did buy tournament packs to the point they pretty much always sold out right away ; so all the "newbie" players could not buy them and bought booster packs, just to later find out that tournament packs are strictly superior (or they never found it, depending on if they ever got in contact with a slightly more experienced player in the LGS).
If a booster draft would simply require the use of a tournament pack, and would just put like a "divider" in the packs to suite up the 15 cards, it would totally do the trick, provide basic lands, and promotion stuff.
Currently, they put promotion stuff on actual cards, the insanely annoying booster pack insert cards, that just eat up a REAL magic card, total waste of paper and goes directly in the bin ; talking protection nature ...
The basic land in the booster packs is completely mind boggling stupidity, but players can be brainwashed to accept pretty much anything, as they just tell themselves over and over again "Its just a common that is replaced" , yea, with a BASIC land ... oh gosh ... total failure.
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Nostalgia is absolutely a thing here.
But face it, the product was just better, cheaper, offered more content than any booster packs do and everything it did was strictly superior to booster packs.
It was literally the very best magic product to buy of all of them, as it offered you everything and did so for everyone newbie or experienced player alike, everyone could just grab a tournament pack and start playing with the piles. WotC tried to do that with "pack wars" and silly stuff, which never really worked out (but kudos to the sad people that still do pack wars, i can feel with you).
The biggest deal of the tournament packs is that they directly compete with booster packs and as they are strictly better than having 3 booster packs, WotC could not keep them around anymore, as some "genius" wanted to push more booster packs, which is much easier to mass-produce.
As i said, tournament packs had much more content, the package was actually SEALED by a wrapper with a actual factory SEAL to ensure its not opened. That does not exist on booster packs, which is a tremendously big deal if a booster pack wants to have any "value" (for old sets, tournament packs are much more secure to pay like 1000$+ for, single booster packs are almost guaranteed to be opened or otherwise scanned/checked for expensive cards, unless you really really really really trust your merchant, and you really really should never trust a person that wants to sell you something that much).
Would you do a tournament pack TODAY , you could just upgrade it with all the goodies to actually reflect what it was back then.
If you want to just screw the product all over, thats naturally not very difficult.
And i would totally trust WotC to screw it up left and right, from the bottom to the top, Wizards Quality Failure Assurance ticks all the boxes.
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👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
I would love for Starter Decks to be a thing again.
Better than Boosters and not as money to put up like a Bundle is now.
When I "Started" all I would buy is Starter decks from 4th, Revised, and Ice Age.
After I took a break for a while, Ravnica:City of Guilds Tournament Packs is where I picked back up.
Miss them sorely
Keep the votes coming.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
none
Modern
UBG B/U/G control
BBB MBC
WUR Control
WWW Prison
RRR Goblins
Legacy
BBB Pox
UBG B/U/G Control
UWU StoneBlade
UW Miracle Control