Even before Covid, paper standard was struggling in my area. Part of that was because modern has traditionally been the preferred format. This is mostly due to the format being seen as more diverse, especially 4-5 years ago. The other reason is some people just don't like the concept of rotation, which is also why standard is basically nonexistent right now. Nobody wants to pay for paper cards they might not even be able to use in paper before they rotate. I've heard some people say that it might be a good time to get cards that will be around after rotation, such as Zendikar Rising cards and Kaldheim cards
Even before Covid, paper standard was struggling in my area. Part of that was because modern has traditionally been the preferred format. This is mostly due to the format being seen as more diverse, especially 4-5 years ago. The other reason is some people just don't like the concept of rotation, which is also why standard is basically nonexistent right now. Nobody wants to pay for paper cards they might not even be able to use in paper before they rotate. I've heard some people say that it might be a good time to get cards that will be around after rotation, such as Zendikar Rising cards and Kaldheim cards
Even Digital Standard on MTG Arena is struggling due to Wizards of the Coast's inability to balance the format with power creep issues involving Teferi, Time Raveler to just violating the rules of the game and how they historically printed things that made things more balanced. There's two big examples one of which being Questing Beast. So there was a point in the card design of MTG where certain colors could only do certain things based on the color pie / color wheel and what happened was over the course of the game's history a lot of players complained about certain styles of MTG specifically the big issue was that players hated losing against Blue decks. They hated counterspells, they hated getting their permanents bounced but that was introduced as a mechanic more recently because they took counters away from Blue. They wanted to make creature spells more powerful than instant / sorcery spells and we've already seen how that went with Planeswalkers with Oko, Thief of Crowns, Wrenn and Six, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Oko I think had the most negative impact compared to the others in formats like Standard and Modern possibly Pioneer.
So there was a shift that occurred in the game where all the colors started to kind of blur and merge as players started complaining about losing to certain playstyles and so we've arrived at a place now where Green and Red are VERY VERY imbalanced. Green does every single thing that other colors do. So your Blue cards that used to be Blue are now Green. Your cards that used to be Red are either Red and Green or now they're all Green. Cards that used to be Black are now all Green. The lead developer for MTG has gone on record saying that they're a Green mage, they love Green magic, and as a result that's imbalanced the game a lot as far as Standard goes. Questing Beast has seven abilities: Vigilance being a White ability, Deathtouch being a Black ability, Haste being a Red ability, Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less being a Green ability that's more of a Red or Black ability, Combat damage that can't be prevented is a Red ability, then Deals same damage to Planeswalker that player controls, all while being a 4/4 Legendary Creature for 4 CMC. Did it ever see EDH / Commander play at LGSs? No but it was a powerful card for Standard when Throne of Eldraine was first released.
That's roughly five abilities that don't even belong to Green! Somewhere down the line Wizards of the Coast has lost their ability to design cards effectively because players got tired of their spells getting countered, they got tired of spot removal actually existing, and so as a result Questing Beast wouldn't be that big of a deal If it didn't exist in an environment where you really didn't have a way to deal with it. Then there's Winota, Joiner of Forces. If you guys had told me a decade ago that there would be a Boros creature that dug six cards deep that was a 4/4 for 4 CMC and could put two to three permanents on the battlefield regardless of their converted mana cost, attacking, and while triggering ETB effects then I would've said you were crazy. Cards like Questing Beast and Winota, Joiner of Forcesbreak the game as it turns it into an arms race to see who gets their flashy combos out first. The sensation of playing Solitaire where I sit down, I'm playing, and either my cards go off and I win or their cards go off and they win where there's no player interaction in between is miserable and that's the primary problem that's killing MTG.
You also take into account the fact that actual player interaction has shifted from Paper to Arena and Online play not just because of 2020 and what happened that year but because Local Game Stores (LGSs) are going the way of Blockbuster with the last one located in Bend, Oregon which was one of the staples that made MTG great. So picture someone like me playing MTG Arena and now I'm playing Solitaire, I'm in an online client, with no voice chat, and the games are miserable. I can kind of emote (kinda) but not really it's just kind of a text box pretty much. What people don't seem to realize when they play MTG Arena is that the game is still tied to Paper Magic so there's really no ability to work inside the digital space so the only way Wizards of the Coast can fix anything on MTG Arena is If they print something that's bad or is broken enough to ban with little to no prior playtesting involved. That's a miserable experience for anybody right? So you have these cards and synergies that define a metagame and similar to Legends of Runeterra where If things get out of balance the designers can do a balance patch and adjust a number up or down.
For MTG Arena, Wizards of the Coast can't really do that. They have to ban it because the game is constrained by a real life Paper card due to the Secondary Market (which they're unable to publicly acknowledge resulting in federal lawsuits) and they can't change those cards with new errata once after they're printed (in regards to Companions in Ikoria they didn't have much of a choice). Yu-Gi-Oh! was once notorious for this which resulted in a lot of confusion with how certain cards properly worked and whatnot which led to a lot of players and judges "rule sharking". Another problem is that Wizards of the Coast doesn't care about what happens to MTG Arena or Paper Magic as long as they make the shareholders at Hasbro happy and to a lesser extent EDH / Commander players in general. MTG has been in a really bad place for nearly three years with a Intellectual Property tie-in that no one asked for until it almost got out of hand with a Secret Lair drop with the Walking Dead. Also we still don't have EDH / Commander on MTG Arena. We have Brawl however nobody wants to play it due to the concept of rotation. Why would I want to play EDH / Commander on Spelltable or MTGO which really shouldn't be a thing anymore?
Also let's be real here, a lot of former MTG veterans who once played aren't ever coming back. There's this running joke that says, "You never quit MTG forever!" Right? Like If I had a dollar for every time I quit MTG you take a break. No, these last three years have been really hard on the game in general and I don't think that players are coming back. If you take a look at a lot of the big names that were once famous in MTG they're now exploring other card games whether If they're Paper or Digital. More so Digital due to costing less resources to produce and manufacture so there's that. They're exploring other card games such as Hearthstone, Shadowverse, Legends of Runeterra, Flesh and Blood TCG, Final Fantasy TCG, etc. because a lot of these Digital exclusive card games that are purely Digital aren't bound by a Secondary Market like MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon TCG where they can patch the game up without getting into any sort of legal issues with publicly acknowledging the Secondary Market which costs these companies their business when they can just patch these games up If they're Digital exclusive. Why live in constant fear of losing money from a deck getting banned?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
So there was a shift that occurred in the game where all the colors started to kind of blur and merge as players started complaining about losing to certain playstyles and so we've arrived at a place now where Green and Red are VERY VERY imbalanced. Green does every single thing that other colors do. So your Blue cards that used to be Blue are now Green. Your cards that used to be Red are either Red and Green or now they're all Green. Cards that used to be Black are now all Green. The lead developer for MTG has gone on record saying that they're a Green mage, they love Green magic, and as a result that's imbalanced the game a lot as far as Standard goes. Questing Beast has seven abilities: Vigilance being a White ability, Deathtouch being a Black ability, Haste being a Red ability, Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less being a Green ability that's more of a Red or Black ability, Combat damage that can't be prevented is a Red ability, then Deals same damage to Planeswalker that player controls, all while being a 4/4 Legendary Creature for 4 CMC. Did it ever see EDH / Commander play at LGSs? No but it was a powerful card for Standard when Throne of Eldraine was first released.
That's roughly five abilities that don't even belong to Green!
Those are all green abilities pal, how long have you been playing?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Those are all green abilities pal, how long have you been playing?
Since Onslaught and 8th Edition back in 2002-2003.
Why do you ask?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Those are all green abilities pal, how long have you been playing?
Since Onslaught and 8th Edition back in 2002-2003.
Why do you ask?
Then I wonder how you look at Questing Beast and claim most of its abilities don't belong in green when green has had a history of using all of those. Very odd in your point in trying to say the color pie has been broken when you present a cards that fits right in.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Then I wonder how you look at Questing Beast and claim most of its abilities don't belong in green when green has had a history of using all of those. Very odd in your point in trying to say the color pie has been broken when you present a cards that fits right in.
Mark says it right in 1. "some of this will change over time" , so the color pie of mechanics is just a baseline to look at, but they put any ability everywhere if they wish to (especially when they design a card by flavor first).
Haste and Flying are so rare at "green" that they basically only use it as an excuse to print a bunch of rare cards they want the abilities on.
Protection from X is similar. Basically any color can get it, but only white really has the color pie for it, the other colors just steal it for some Black Knight / White Knight mini cycle situations, or outright powerlevel reasons to give a card a massive bump to fight a meta-game.
(Even Goblin Piledriver has protection from blue, only because they wanted it to be better at a potential "wizard tribal" meta game)
----
Questing beast is without a doubt an abomination of abilities slapped on a card to force it to be relevant, and many of the abilities are not primarly green, not even secondary, but outright "exceptions".
they hated getting their permanents bounced but that was introduced as a mechanic more recently because they took counters away from Blue.
Unsummon was in Alpha and Boomerang was in Legends. That definitely isn't "more recently".
Questing Beast has seven abilities: Vigilance being a White ability, Deathtouch being a Black ability, Haste being a Red ability, Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less being a Green ability that's more of a Red or Black ability, Combat damage that can't be prevented is a Red ability, then Deals same damage to Planeswalker that player controls, all while being a 4/4 Legendary Creature for 4 CMC.
Monogreen has been using Vigilance since Legends (Rabid Wombat), plus Exodus (Mirri, Cat Warrior), Mercadian Masques (Stamina), and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (Oakgnarl Warrior, Favor of the Overbeing). Deathtouch (or its triggered equivalent) has been in monogreen since Alpha (Cockatrice). Haste in monogreen was (somewhat) in Alpha (Instill Energy), then in Legends (Concordant Crossroads), Ice Age (Touch of Vitae), Alliances (Yavimaya Ants), and Torment (Centaur Chieftain). The "power 2 or less" ability has been monogreen (and colourless) since it was introduced a few years ago. I'll grant you the non-prevention clause as non-green (there's Whippoorwill, but a single really old card doesn't really set a precedent), and that the card is pushed for its mana cost, but the majority of the card fits in monogreen.
I won't argue that the cards you mentioned aren't pushed (they are), but if you're going to make colour pie arguments, make sure you actually know what abilities are in what slice of the colour pie.
More on-topic, where I live we've had varying levels of lockdowns (or more often a lack thereof), and at least one of my city's LGSs held several pre-release events for each Standard set this year, plus Commander Legends. The events were all capped at a small number of participants, and from what I'm told people were turned away from every one. I'm pretty sure that as soon as our current restrictions are lifted again, that store (and the others in my city) will be right back at it again. Additionally, many people I know from our regular drafts are champing at the bit to get back to drafting in person ASAP (Arena is nice, but it just isn't the same). It may take a while for everyone to get back into playing at stores once the vaccines are administered, but I strongly doubt that in-store play is going to disappear.
they hated getting their permanents bounced but that was introduced as a mechanic more recently because they took counters away from Blue.
Unsummon was in Alpha and Boomerang was in Legends. That definitely isn't "more recently".
Questing Beast has seven abilities: Vigilance being a White ability, Deathtouch being a Black ability, Haste being a Red ability, Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less being a Green ability that's more of a Red or Black ability, Combat damage that can't be prevented is a Red ability, then Deals same damage to Planeswalker that player controls, all while being a 4/4 Legendary Creature for 4 CMC.
Monogreen has been using Vigilance since Legends (Rabid Wombat), plus Exodus (Mirri, Cat Warrior), Mercadian Masques (Stamina), and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (Oakgnarl Warrior, Favor of the Overbeing). Deathtouch (or its triggered equivalent) has been in monogreen since Alpha (Cockatrice). Haste in monogreen was (somewhat) in Alpha (Instill Energy), then in Legends (Concordant Crossroads), Ice Age (Touch of Vitae), Alliances (Yavimaya Ants), and Torment (Centaur Chieftain). The "power 2 or less" ability has been monogreen (and colourless) since it was introduced a few years ago. I'll grant you the non-prevention clause as non-green (there's Whippoorwill, but a single really old card doesn't really set a precedent), and that the card is pushed for its mana cost, but the majority of the card fits in monogreen.
I won't argue that the cards you mentioned aren't pushed (they are), but if you're going to make colour pie arguments, make sure you actually know what abilities are in what slice of the colour pie.
The argument raised was that green could really use having more access to haste. Black didn't end up using it all that much, and, because of the creation of menace, black and red had another overlapping mechanic. In the end, R&D decided to move green from tertiary to secondary in haste, meaning that riot (what the new mechanic got called) could be used in Gruul.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Mark says it right in 1. "some of this will change over time" , so the color pie of mechanics is just a baseline to look at, but they put any ability everywhere if they wish to (especially when they design a card by flavor first).
Haste and Flying are so rare at "green" that they basically only use it as an excuse to print a bunch of rare cards they want the abilities on.
Protection from X is similar. Basically any color can get it, but only white really has the color pie for it, the other colors just steal it for some Black Knight / White Knight mini cycle situations, or outright powerlevel reasons to give a card a massive bump to fight a meta-game.
(Even Goblin Piledriver has protection from blue, only because they wanted it to be better at a potential "wizard tribal" meta game)
----
Questing beast is without a doubt an abomination of abilities slapped on a card to force it to be relevant, and many of the abilities are not primarly green, not even secondary, but outright "exceptions".
Part of the reason why I think they're breaking the color pie / color wheel the way they have is so that they help specific colors in EDH / Commander that are severely lacking in certain areas which in turn is creating an imbalance in competitive formats that tend to rely on the color pie / color wheel to keep certain playstyles in check.
Anyway back on topic. Speaking of financial aid to Local Game Stores (LGSs) struggling with the pandemic is another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds:
With the signing of the $900 billion U.S. Coronavirus relief bill over the holidays, a new pot of $285 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program has been approved, making new loans available to small businesses impacted by the Covid pandemic.
The forgivable loans are available through banks to small businesses that had a sales decline of 25% or more from the previous year for Q2, Q3, or Q4 2020. As was the case with the first round of PPP loans, amounts can be for up to 2.5 months of average 2019 payroll costs (including benefits). If the business spends the money on approved expenses (from a broader list than the first round) in either an eight or 24-week period, the loan can be totally forgiven. The forgiveness process has also been streamlined.
There’s a couple of pieces of good news in the bill for companies that received PPP loans in the first round. One is that businesses can have a second bite of the apple, based on the new sales decline criteria, even if they received a PPP loan in the first round. And a change to the tax treatment of the first round allows companies to deduct the expenses that were paid for with PPP money even though the forgiven PPP loan was already to be excluded from income for tax purposes.
Changes to the criteria for the businesses that can apply mean that PPP funds for the second round should go further, but the amount approved by Congress is also smaller than the first round, so there’s likely to be a rush as soon as banks begin taking applications. A change in the structure of compensation for banks means that they no longer have an incentive to process the largest loans first, which may help make more money available to smaller businesses. Hopefully the rollout of the application process by banks will be smoother than the first time around, which was marred by problems (see "Federal Programs for Small Businesses Run Out of Money").
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
sorry for my ignorance, but in the US, are a lot of card stores allowed to have customers inside the store right now or are they forced t be closed? a lot of Canadian provinces are in a second wave of lockdowns so non-essential businesses aren't allowed to have customers inside the store. I've been relying on curbside pickups for a few weeks now
Yes most stores in the country have indoor shopping with some degree of limited capacity depending on the State.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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."
Just recently heard that a new strain of COVID-19 was recently discovered in Japan distinct from the UK and South Africa types meaning that there are now 4 strains of COVID-19. Just how screwed is humanity? I figured with the virus mutating that it would get weaker but it seems to be getting stronger as time goes on. Luckily the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was super effective against the UK and South Africa strains but as for the Japanese strain of the virus it's still up in the air at this point (not trying to be sarcastic). There was another Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game outside of MTG that me and my friends used to play that we just recently decided to get out of due to complications with the pandemic and power creep issues with the game in general so we figured it was best to stick with EDH / Commander in MTG while liquidating everything we have for Cardfight!! Vanguard. I don't know If we plan on getting into any other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games in the near future or when the pandemic is finally past us so that we can have Organized Play again however I feel like we're going to be in this for the long haul even with effective vaccines.
I do feel as though things seem to be getting better. During the height of the pandemic back in Spring 2020 me and my co-workers at work were on cleaning duty most of the time especially when on carts since I work at a retail Supermarket. Back when everyone thought that the virus was contagious on physical contact we never really had time to sack groceries since we mainly just cleaned windows, doors, and other chores but as we gathered more data on the virus we eventually got back to doing our main duties again. Don't know If that will change with these new strains of the virus recently being discovered so we'll just have to wait and see. To answer your question earlier motleyslayer, Local Game Stores (LGSs) in the U.S. are still allowed to have customers inside the store as long as it's at a limited capacity due to safety concerns. Right now I'm just doing my due diligence supporting my Local Game Store (LGS) during their time of need by buying singles for EDH / Commander especially since they've made a ton of money on Commander Legends. My other Local Game Store which is primarily a Comic Book Shop is doing just fine right now as I periodically check on them via Facebook.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I feel that the fact that we have a vaccine is enough to give us hope for this being resolved soon. I myself just wanna be able to grind paper events with friends again, although that might still be a bit. I'm really missing the travel/grind aspect of Magic that playing online doesn't have
It seems at least some part of Canada is breaking a record of daily cases every day so part of me thinks it could still be a bit before we can actually play paper. Especially with lockdowns and curfews being stricter now
No Organized Play Until At Least Third Quarter. At least, the major companies won't offer OP till then. There are a few companies that are currently offering some form of organized play but the larger ones, WotC, Konami, and The Pokemon Company, have indicated they still plan to hold off authorizing in-store Organized Play for the foreseeable future (see "Wizards of the Coast Expands the Suspension of 'Magic: The Gathering' In-Store Play"). None of them want to deal with the negative publicity that would accompany an outbreak of COVID-19 at any sanctioned event, whether in-store or at a professional level event. Once a vaccine gets widely distributed, the likelihood of the virus spreading at large events drops drastically. My best guess, from what I have read, is that we will see most of North America, Asia and Europe vaccinated and the virus under control by early summer. Although we may see in-store play start up by then, the logistics of running a large event are a lot for companies to commit to, and I would not expect to see any OP launch before September and maybe not until 2022.
No Major Conventions for 2021. The same problem affecting Organized Play will likely preclude any large conventions until next year. Lining up convention space, getting guests and organizing lodging, and events takes a lot of organization. And again, given that conventions do not want to have an outbreak of COVID-19 during their event, and we are not likely to see the virus under control until summer, which is prime gaming and comic convention season, I doubt we will see large events take place. However, I would not be surprised to see comparatively small local and regional events attracting a few hundred to a thousand or so take place. Speaking from experience, it is possible to pull together a small convention with a couple of months lead time (see "Rolling for Initiative -- How to Host a (Gaming) Convention During an Epidemic"). However, I would expect the organizers to take quite a few precautions in order to keep attendees safe and we will probably see these continue until 2022.
Magic Theme Boosters End. Based on sales, I expect to see WotC quietly shelve Theme Boosters. Unlike Draft, Collector, and Set Boosters, we have seen very little interest in Theme Boosters since the first set in which they were released. Here, interest was so low, we did not order any Theme Boosters for the last two sets and never had a customer enquire about them. WotC has tried to drive interest in them by including cards that are not available in other boosters but players appear willing to buy those cards individually instead of buying a booster with 34 other cards of a color they do not want to play or are common enough that they are available in other sets. Here’s hoping they drop the Theme Booster and come out with a good beginner set instead.
What do you think? Am I off the mark? Email your thoughts and predictions for 2021 to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, over 75 cases of the UK strain have been identified in other states aside from Colorado such as New York, Georgia, Connecticut, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. In California at least 32 cases have been detected while 22 cases have so far been identified in Florida. The CDC has predicted that the UK strain (a.k.a. The B.1.1.7 variant) could become the dominant strain in the United States by March 2021. Aside from the UK and South Africa strains of the virus there's been reports of another new strain found in Brazil which has been raising concerns about whether the current existing vaccines will be effective against all of them. While the new mutation doesn't appear to be deadlier than the previous strain, it's rate of transmission is concerning. Unfortunately the U.S. doesn't have a robust, centralized system for identifying genetic variants of COVID-19 like other countries do. The current vaccines available were developed to create antibodies to multiple regions of the virus's spike protein that enters human cells.
Unfortunately some of the mutations in the newly identified variants won't effect the efficacy of the vaccines. Vaccines don't just work against one form of the virus's spike protein as it helps the body create an immune response to multiple aspects of receptors of those spike proteins. So until the U.S. ramps up it's vaccination numbers, therapeutic treatments should also be bolstered. There have been some concerns that antibody treatments may not work as well If the virus has mutated so it's unclear to what extent these new variants or strains evade the antibody treatments we currently have as further research is necessary to determine that. As for how long immunity against the virus lasts, the vaccine is said to only give 5 months of protection so If you have a weak immune system then you're destined to have a COVID-19 vaccine booster every 5 months. So the bigger question is what does this all mean for Local Game Stores (LGSs) trying to survive this pandemic? It could mean that businesses may have to scale back it's retail space again similar to what happened last Spring and early Summer with less indoor activities involved.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Stores in a lot of Canada haven't been able to have people play in their stores for close to a month now due to lockdowns in various provinces and the in store play suspension. I know a few stores that didn't even allow in store play even when they were allowed to by local/provincial guidelines. At first I thought the second wave of lockdowns wouldn't be as bad/long as the first but I'm getting doubtful of when we will see the return of in store play again. It might be a few months still for even small, local level events. I can't see Magic Fests happening again until next year and I'm really starting to miss large events now
Stores in a lot of Canada haven't been able to have people play in their stores for close to a month now due to lockdowns in various provinces and the in store play suspension. I know a few stores that didn't even allow in store play even when they were allowed to by local/provincial guidelines. At first I thought the second wave of lockdowns wouldn't be as bad/long as the first but I'm getting doubtful of when we will see the return of in store play again. It might be a few months still for even small, local level events. I can't see Magic Fests happening again until next year and I'm really starting to miss large events now
I know everyone has their preferred method of playing Paper Magic but why not try to get a playgroup together to play EDH / Commander at your LGS, online via Spelltable, or at a friends' house? It's not as hard for me since I've always been more casual than competitive ever since I started playing back in 2002-2003 back when 60 card Kitchen Table Casual was all we had before EDH / Commander was first conceived in 2009. It might not be your thing but cEDH might appeal to your liking since you're more of a competitive player than I am though I would advise to tone down the power level and mana curve to adapt to what your playgroup is actually capable of handling.
My first taste of cEDH was going up against Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and Food Chain which was a pain to go up against but was a good learning experience to help measure the power level between my deck and my opponents'. Eventually I got better at trying to lower the mana curve of my decks the more options are available. It's more about understanding the efficiency of what you have to work with that makes for consistent builds, knowing what synergies / combos you're trying to put forth, and going with it. The goal is to try not to ruin your playgroups fun but to make games as interesting as possible while still racing toward a potential win and If you don't then at least you had fun playing.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
so why would you want Paper versions of cards you can already obtain on MTG Arena when you can't really use them other than for EDH / Commander and maybe Pioneer?
Because some of us play for fun in person with family and friends and don't rely on outside bodies to schedule events so we can have "organized fun". And some of us actually prefer REAL physical cards that aren't 0's and 1's that could be taken away at anytime by WotC for whatever reason.
Real>Virtual in my book always and forever.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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."
On a positive note, the recent daily cases / deaths for COVID-19 are down to almost all countries by a significant gap recently as of last weekend. Then again, mutations in the COVID-19 genome were bound to happen eventually as some strains become more resistant to the antibodies that the vaccines develop. mRNA mutates faster than vaccines can adapt, and hoo boy, even an mRNA vaccine can't adapt as fast as an alive mRNA virus. On a morbid joke, George Carlin once said that viruses and diseases are Earth's tools to get rid of us pesky humans...
If only we were a society dedicated to responsibility rather than false notions of freedom. If people are going to be forced to wear a face mask at home aside from wearing one out in public then so be it. After all a person's ability to breathe is less important than people's LIFE AND DEATH, asthma be damned. A gaming hobby that requires direct social interaction has no place in the middle of an ongoing pandemic and eventually someone who frequents their LGS nowadays is going to contract COVID-19 while only having themselves to blame for. The risk just isn't worth the reward.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
So I kind of want to go over the Federal Minimum Wage increase to $15 an hour that U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law as an executive order, how it pertains to COVID-19, and it's effects on the Local Game Store (LGS). So when you combine Hazard Pay, Tax cuts for the Middle Class and Poor, and a Federal Minimum Wage increase to $15 an hour or $10 an hour pending on State Governments it creates a scenario where Local Game Stores (LGSs) are forced to overcharge what they sell in order to compensate how much they're able to pay their employees to stay in business. That means the price of sealed products and card singles are going to be much higher than what the Secondary Market and MSRP currently demands by forcing potential customers to buy online from other retailers with no overhead.
They can't survive that especially If they're paying insurance and $1,000 loans because most of the money will have gone to the employees with no meat on the bone for these businesses to stay afloat. From a practical perspective when you're having to pay bills, insurance salaries, plus the bills to even own a business it just doesn't pan out. If you're being forced to spend less at your LGS due to competitive pricing while having to purchase through online retailers then you're not going to have a physical location to socially interact with playgroups in-person despite the lack of foot traffic from the ongoing pandemic. By the time everyone is vaccinated and the pandemic is already behind us there probably won't be a Local Game Store (LGS) left within the United States that can weather the financial storm.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Just to point out, the minimum wage change was for FEDERAL workers. There is a long ways to go for a Federal Minumum Wage. It will be YEARS before minumum wage in each state is over $15 per hr. Some states passed the law such as CA & NY which needed it, while others like LA & NE the current $10-12 is a lot more valuable based on cost of living.
yes, without MSRP, the cost of a pack will end up higher in Cali than Colorado, but that is like most everything.
As stated the Federal workers minimum wage was increased, not States minimum wages. It also doesn't matter what MSRP (Manufacturer's SUGGESTED retail price)is, it is just that a suggestion. Areas and LGS in those areas that jump to a $15 minimum wage WILL see an increase to the price of a pack or any product. Employers aren't going to eat that loss, they will pass it along to the consumer or cut minimum wage jobs/hours in the process. And yes if an LGS owner can't afford $15 hourly staff they will cut that staff or hours of that person or they will have to adjust their prices upwards accordingly. MTG is going to become MORE expensive over the next few years. Above what it normally would adjusted for inflation. Get ready for it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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."
As stated the Federal workers minimum wage was increased, not States minimum wages. It also doesn't matter what MSRP (Manufacturer's SUGGESTED retail price)is, it is just that a suggestion. Areas and LGS in those areas that jump to a $15 minimum wage WILL see an increase to the price of a pack or any product. Employers aren't going to eat that loss, they will pass it along to the consumer or cut minimum wage jobs/hours in the process. And yes if an LGS owner can't afford $15 hourly staff they will cut that staff or hours of that person or they will have to adjust their prices upwards accordingly. MTG is going to become MORE expensive over the next few years. Above what it normally would adjusted for inflation. Get ready for it.
It also doesn't help that the next round of Stimulus Checks (assuming it's still $600 compared to $1,200 the first time around) will continue to drive more market demand for card singles because whales are still dumb enough to spend their $600 checks on EDH / Commander and/or Reserve List singles instead of saving it for items actually necessary to survive off of that aren't tied to a luxury item like Paper Magic. Looking at the current release schedule that Wizards of the Coast has set up for Paper Magic right now our only hope for more reprints is more than likely going to be in Modern Horizons 2 assuming they fulfill the promise on reprinting the Enemy Fetches after the Secret Lair drop disaster from last year. Why can't they separate what cards to reprint for Standard and cards to reprint for Eternal formats?
The majority of the most popular cards in EDH / Commander right now are above $20+ with not enough supply within the Secondary Market to help circumvent the demand for these cards in which EDH / Commander Precon exclusive cards such as Dockside Extortionist and Blade of Selves have sort of already become a pseudo Reverse List of sorts along with the majority of "The List" cards from Mystery Booster that's probably become a one time thing. With no Organized Play at Local Game Stores due to the ongoing pandemic, Standard is unable to keep the Secondary Market for a lot of Eternal formats in check because most players are buying cards for those formats not because they want to but because it's the ONLY WAY they can play Paper Magic right now during the pandemic whether In-Person or on Spelltable.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
tbh I'm not surprised edh/commander staples (reserved list as well I guess) are pretty high. Because of the lack of ability to play in store, we can only really play at home with friends and edh is a great format to play with friends.
I keep forgetting that Modern Horizons 2 is this year but it should have some good staples, including I believe fetchlands which might have been confirmed already
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So there was a shift that occurred in the game where all the colors started to kind of blur and merge as players started complaining about losing to certain playstyles and so we've arrived at a place now where Green and Red are VERY VERY imbalanced. Green does every single thing that other colors do. So your Blue cards that used to be Blue are now Green. Your cards that used to be Red are either Red and Green or now they're all Green. Cards that used to be Black are now all Green. The lead developer for MTG has gone on record saying that they're a Green mage, they love Green magic, and as a result that's imbalanced the game a lot as far as Standard goes. Questing Beast has seven abilities: Vigilance being a White ability, Deathtouch being a Black ability, Haste being a Red ability, Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less being a Green ability that's more of a Red or Black ability, Combat damage that can't be prevented is a Red ability, then Deals same damage to Planeswalker that player controls, all while being a 4/4 Legendary Creature for 4 CMC. Did it ever see EDH / Commander play at LGSs? No but it was a powerful card for Standard when Throne of Eldraine was first released.
That's roughly five abilities that don't even belong to Green! Somewhere down the line Wizards of the Coast has lost their ability to design cards effectively because players got tired of their spells getting countered, they got tired of spot removal actually existing, and so as a result Questing Beast wouldn't be that big of a deal If it didn't exist in an environment where you really didn't have a way to deal with it. Then there's Winota, Joiner of Forces. If you guys had told me a decade ago that there would be a Boros creature that dug six cards deep that was a 4/4 for 4 CMC and could put two to three permanents on the battlefield regardless of their converted mana cost, attacking, and while triggering ETB effects then I would've said you were crazy. Cards like Questing Beast and Winota, Joiner of Forces break the game as it turns it into an arms race to see who gets their flashy combos out first. The sensation of playing Solitaire where I sit down, I'm playing, and either my cards go off and I win or their cards go off and they win where there's no player interaction in between is miserable and that's the primary problem that's killing MTG.
You also take into account the fact that actual player interaction has shifted from Paper to Arena and Online play not just because of 2020 and what happened that year but because Local Game Stores (LGSs) are going the way of Blockbuster with the last one located in Bend, Oregon which was one of the staples that made MTG great. So picture someone like me playing MTG Arena and now I'm playing Solitaire, I'm in an online client, with no voice chat, and the games are miserable. I can kind of emote (kinda) but not really it's just kind of a text box pretty much. What people don't seem to realize when they play MTG Arena is that the game is still tied to Paper Magic so there's really no ability to work inside the digital space so the only way Wizards of the Coast can fix anything on MTG Arena is If they print something that's bad or is broken enough to ban with little to no prior playtesting involved. That's a miserable experience for anybody right? So you have these cards and synergies that define a metagame and similar to Legends of Runeterra where If things get out of balance the designers can do a balance patch and adjust a number up or down.
For MTG Arena, Wizards of the Coast can't really do that. They have to ban it because the game is constrained by a real life Paper card due to the Secondary Market (which they're unable to publicly acknowledge resulting in federal lawsuits) and they can't change those cards with new errata once after they're printed (in regards to Companions in Ikoria they didn't have much of a choice). Yu-Gi-Oh! was once notorious for this which resulted in a lot of confusion with how certain cards properly worked and whatnot which led to a lot of players and judges "rule sharking". Another problem is that Wizards of the Coast doesn't care about what happens to MTG Arena or Paper Magic as long as they make the shareholders at Hasbro happy and to a lesser extent EDH / Commander players in general. MTG has been in a really bad place for nearly three years with a Intellectual Property tie-in that no one asked for until it almost got out of hand with a Secret Lair drop with the Walking Dead. Also we still don't have EDH / Commander on MTG Arena. We have Brawl however nobody wants to play it due to the concept of rotation. Why would I want to play EDH / Commander on Spelltable or MTGO which really shouldn't be a thing anymore?
Also let's be real here, a lot of former MTG veterans who once played aren't ever coming back. There's this running joke that says, "You never quit MTG forever!" Right? Like If I had a dollar for every time I quit MTG you take a break. No, these last three years have been really hard on the game in general and I don't think that players are coming back. If you take a look at a lot of the big names that were once famous in MTG they're now exploring other card games whether If they're Paper or Digital. More so Digital due to costing less resources to produce and manufacture so there's that. They're exploring other card games such as Hearthstone, Shadowverse, Legends of Runeterra, Flesh and Blood TCG, Final Fantasy TCG, etc. because a lot of these Digital exclusive card games that are purely Digital aren't bound by a Secondary Market like MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon TCG where they can patch the game up without getting into any sort of legal issues with publicly acknowledging the Secondary Market which costs these companies their business when they can just patch these games up If they're Digital exclusive. Why live in constant fear of losing money from a deck getting banned?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Those are all green abilities pal, how long have you been playing?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Why do you ask?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Then I wonder how you look at Questing Beast and claim most of its abilities don't belong in green when green has had a history of using all of those. Very odd in your point in trying to say the color pie has been broken when you present a cards that fits right in.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Questing beast is quite the insult to the color pie.
Its a mesh of abilities to make the card relevant for constructed.
Its like arguing that Akroma, Angel of Wrath is the example of a white creature and so putting all that abilities on white creatures is totally fine.
These high rarity cards hurt the color pie, but they need the abilities to compete in the powercreep.
----
The entire color pie got quite the shake-up with the amount of multicolor cards and combinations WotC wanted to do:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2017-2017-06-05
Mark says it right in 1. "some of this will change over time" , so the color pie of mechanics is just a baseline to look at, but they put any ability everywhere if they wish to (especially when they design a card by flavor first).
Haste and Flying are so rare at "green" that they basically only use it as an excuse to print a bunch of rare cards they want the abilities on.
Protection from X is similar. Basically any color can get it, but only white really has the color pie for it, the other colors just steal it for some Black Knight / White Knight mini cycle situations, or outright powerlevel reasons to give a card a massive bump to fight a meta-game.
(Even Goblin Piledriver has protection from blue, only because they wanted it to be better at a potential "wizard tribal" meta game)
----
Questing beast is without a doubt an abomination of abilities slapped on a card to force it to be relevant, and many of the abilities are not primarly green, not even secondary, but outright "exceptions".
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Art is life itself.
Unsummon was in Alpha and Boomerang was in Legends. That definitely isn't "more recently".
Monogreen has been using Vigilance since Legends (Rabid Wombat), plus Exodus (Mirri, Cat Warrior), Mercadian Masques (Stamina), and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (Oakgnarl Warrior, Favor of the Overbeing). Deathtouch (or its triggered equivalent) has been in monogreen since Alpha (Cockatrice). Haste in monogreen was (somewhat) in Alpha (Instill Energy), then in Legends (Concordant Crossroads), Ice Age (Touch of Vitae), Alliances (Yavimaya Ants), and Torment (Centaur Chieftain). The "power 2 or less" ability has been monogreen (and colourless) since it was introduced a few years ago. I'll grant you the non-prevention clause as non-green (there's Whippoorwill, but a single really old card doesn't really set a precedent), and that the card is pushed for its mana cost, but the majority of the card fits in monogreen.
I won't argue that the cards you mentioned aren't pushed (they are), but if you're going to make colour pie arguments, make sure you actually know what abilities are in what slice of the colour pie.
More on-topic, where I live we've had varying levels of lockdowns (or more often a lack thereof), and at least one of my city's LGSs held several pre-release events for each Standard set this year, plus Commander Legends. The events were all capped at a small number of participants, and from what I'm told people were turned away from every one. I'm pretty sure that as soon as our current restrictions are lifted again, that store (and the others in my city) will be right back at it again. Additionally, many people I know from our regular drafts are champing at the bit to get back to drafting in person ASAP (Arena is nice, but it just isn't the same). It may take a while for everyone to get back into playing at stores once the vaccines are administered, but I strongly doubt that in-store play is going to disappear.
To note they moved haste to be secondary in green during Ravnica 3 and Riot;
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/building-allegiances-part-2-2019-01-07
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Anyway back on topic. Speaking of financial aid to Local Game Stores (LGSs) struggling with the pandemic is another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds:
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/47262/another-round-ppp-funding-open-small-businesses
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
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 feel as though things seem to be getting better. During the height of the pandemic back in Spring 2020 me and my co-workers at work were on cleaning duty most of the time especially when on carts since I work at a retail Supermarket. Back when everyone thought that the virus was contagious on physical contact we never really had time to sack groceries since we mainly just cleaned windows, doors, and other chores but as we gathered more data on the virus we eventually got back to doing our main duties again. Don't know If that will change with these new strains of the virus recently being discovered so we'll just have to wait and see. To answer your question earlier motleyslayer, Local Game Stores (LGSs) in the U.S. are still allowed to have customers inside the store as long as it's at a limited capacity due to safety concerns. Right now I'm just doing my due diligence supporting my Local Game Store (LGS) during their time of need by buying singles for EDH / Commander especially since they've made a ton of money on Commander Legends. My other Local Game Store which is primarily a Comic Book Shop is doing just fine right now as I periodically check on them via Facebook.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
It seems at least some part of Canada is breaking a record of daily cases every day so part of me thinks it could still be a bit before we can actually play paper. Especially with lockdowns and curfews being stricter now
https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/47310/rolling-initiative-three-predictions-2021
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, over 75 cases of the UK strain have been identified in other states aside from Colorado such as New York, Georgia, Connecticut, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. In California at least 32 cases have been detected while 22 cases have so far been identified in Florida. The CDC has predicted that the UK strain (a.k.a. The B.1.1.7 variant) could become the dominant strain in the United States by March 2021. Aside from the UK and South Africa strains of the virus there's been reports of another new strain found in Brazil which has been raising concerns about whether the current existing vaccines will be effective against all of them. While the new mutation doesn't appear to be deadlier than the previous strain, it's rate of transmission is concerning. Unfortunately the U.S. doesn't have a robust, centralized system for identifying genetic variants of COVID-19 like other countries do. The current vaccines available were developed to create antibodies to multiple regions of the virus's spike protein that enters human cells.
Unfortunately some of the mutations in the newly identified variants won't effect the efficacy of the vaccines. Vaccines don't just work against one form of the virus's spike protein as it helps the body create an immune response to multiple aspects of receptors of those spike proteins. So until the U.S. ramps up it's vaccination numbers, therapeutic treatments should also be bolstered. There have been some concerns that antibody treatments may not work as well If the virus has mutated so it's unclear to what extent these new variants or strains evade the antibody treatments we currently have as further research is necessary to determine that. As for how long immunity against the virus lasts, the vaccine is said to only give 5 months of protection so If you have a weak immune system then you're destined to have a COVID-19 vaccine booster every 5 months. So the bigger question is what does this all mean for Local Game Stores (LGSs) trying to survive this pandemic? It could mean that businesses may have to scale back it's retail space again similar to what happened last Spring and early Summer with less indoor activities involved.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
My first taste of cEDH was going up against Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and Food Chain which was a pain to go up against but was a good learning experience to help measure the power level between my deck and my opponents'. Eventually I got better at trying to lower the mana curve of my decks the more options are available. It's more about understanding the efficiency of what you have to work with that makes for consistent builds, knowing what synergies / combos you're trying to put forth, and going with it. The goal is to try not to ruin your playgroups fun but to make games as interesting as possible while still racing toward a potential win and If you don't then at least you had fun playing.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Because some of us play for fun in person with family and friends and don't rely on outside bodies to schedule events so we can have "organized fun". And some of us actually prefer REAL physical cards that aren't 0's and 1's that could be taken away at anytime by WotC for whatever reason.
Real>Virtual in my book always and forever.
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."
On a positive note, the recent daily cases / deaths for COVID-19 are down to almost all countries by a significant gap recently as of last weekend. Then again, mutations in the COVID-19 genome were bound to happen eventually as some strains become more resistant to the antibodies that the vaccines develop. mRNA mutates faster than vaccines can adapt, and hoo boy, even an mRNA vaccine can't adapt as fast as an alive mRNA virus. On a morbid joke, George Carlin once said that viruses and diseases are Earth's tools to get rid of us pesky humans...
If only we were a society dedicated to responsibility rather than false notions of freedom. If people are going to be forced to wear a face mask at home aside from wearing one out in public then so be it. After all a person's ability to breathe is less important than people's LIFE AND DEATH, asthma be damned. A gaming hobby that requires direct social interaction has no place in the middle of an ongoing pandemic and eventually someone who frequents their LGS nowadays is going to contract COVID-19 while only having themselves to blame for. The risk just isn't worth the reward.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
They can't survive that especially If they're paying insurance and $1,000 loans because most of the money will have gone to the employees with no meat on the bone for these businesses to stay afloat. From a practical perspective when you're having to pay bills, insurance salaries, plus the bills to even own a business it just doesn't pan out. If you're being forced to spend less at your LGS due to competitive pricing while having to purchase through online retailers then you're not going to have a physical location to socially interact with playgroups in-person despite the lack of foot traffic from the ongoing pandemic. By the time everyone is vaccinated and the pandemic is already behind us there probably won't be a Local Game Store (LGS) left within the United States that can weather the financial storm.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
yes, without MSRP, the cost of a pack will end up higher in Cali than Colorado, but that is like most everything.
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."
The majority of the most popular cards in EDH / Commander right now are above $20+ with not enough supply within the Secondary Market to help circumvent the demand for these cards in which EDH / Commander Precon exclusive cards such as Dockside Extortionist and Blade of Selves have sort of already become a pseudo Reverse List of sorts along with the majority of "The List" cards from Mystery Booster that's probably become a one time thing. With no Organized Play at Local Game Stores due to the ongoing pandemic, Standard is unable to keep the Secondary Market for a lot of Eternal formats in check because most players are buying cards for those formats not because they want to but because it's the ONLY WAY they can play Paper Magic right now during the pandemic whether In-Person or on Spelltable.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I keep forgetting that Modern Horizons 2 is this year but it should have some good staples, including I believe fetchlands which might have been confirmed already