So what is the pack art of? Dig through time has its khans art and the pack art isn't on any card. So are there alternate art promos somewhere or what? I know they've used art for promotions before that didn't show up in set but they've never done it with a masters set before.
They still did better than the last master sets of getting a packs worth of cards and some sites forbid that $335 I’m seeing pre-orders much closer to that $240 from the other sets
They still did better than the last master sets of getting a packs worth of cards and some sites forbid that $335 I’m seeing pre-orders much closer to that $240 from the other sets
The part people aren't seeing is the EV and the kinds of cards that are making up the value. The reason the boxes are still sitting at 264 usd is because the majority of the cards are taking a huge hit.
I believe Seth's math has the box without topper, but with foils, at around 370 dollars a box. That is only 35 dollars above MSRP, so no way this is going to allow a box price that high. They really needed more hits in the uncommon slot to make up for the bulk in the rares.
Also, because the selling price on boxes are so low, it is more profitable for sellers to just sell the singles by breaking open boxes than selling the boxes themselves, so the prices on singles are just going to keep going down.
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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!
I think something that people aren’t considering regarding this set is that the foils are strong. There are a large number of uncommon and rare foils that will command a nice premium. It will be very possible to open $40-50 worth of foils in a box without hitting a money rare.
Guess I should correct my statement since it was kind of a black and white one. I more so meant that it's not something people would just walk into a store blind and draft as much as do a planned visit. My LGS has people that just walk in and do mini-drafts and chaos drafts.
That depends on a store's main type of customers. I would imagine it's possible for random walk-in drafts to fire if a store main consists of the same type of target demographic Masters sets target - the older, "casual" players that grew with the game and now have disposable income. If I've seen players/customers/people of that caliber walk and buy Standard boxes "just to have fun opening packs and to support the store because I grew up with the game and I enjoy it even if I'm not as invested in it now", I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Draft-Variant of those players making a majority of some stores out there.
Note I emphasized on "not invested in the game as much" along with "grew up with the game and now have disposable income", because I think by now we've blatantly proved that past some point of being "invested" in the game would include "being calculative financially regardless of one's actual financial situation", if anything about vocal feedback is trying to convey. As much as I do agree with some points made as a player myself, sometimes it's gets so overwhelming that people think "I'm invested in other ways, therefore WotC should cater to my financial demands" when WotC's message is almost like "Err no, uninvested players actually spend more than you do, "invested" players are technically just worse customers so why should we care?"
That all being said, from a personal standpoint I do feel Masters' Draft is pointless, firstly because the guaranteed foil system dramatically raises the "risk" of drafting double-rare packs (and hey I'm a penny-pinching "invested" player) and the experience honestly just feels like a powered-down Cube. Secondly, from the perspective of someone who has a Cube, it feels like the people drafting Masters' sets are just too lazy to build their own Cube and settling from the easier but inferior choice. But who am I to dictate other's preferences of playing Limited Games (or even assume they don't Cube, there's likely to be people who enjoy both), even if I do feel they're settling for mediocrity.
Anyway, back to the full spoiler. I said when the set was announced this is just a "Bigger Masters with Better Cards at a Higher Price" and I've been proven correct. I did pre-order a box due to various factors (decided to support my store since it is the last Masters for some time and I don't buy Standard boxes so I've honestly not been the best (or even good) of a customer like most of the time I'm there, plus the downshifts are valuable additions for my Cube, so I'm not buying for pure lottery reasons at rare/mythic levels), but I pre-ordered with the exact same expectations I set before and I'm not disappointed. The actual value of commons/uncommons did fall a bit on the lower end of my expectations, but the rares actually turned out to be generally better than I thought and I think the downshifts were dramatically better than what I saw from the likes of IMA/A25 (which I didn't bother touching packs of, for the record).
So bluntly put, while in general I do fall into the "invested" category of being calculative (hence my general unwillingness to buy sealed product most of the time), I recognize that this was ultimately just another Masters set with pretty much the same target demographic and when I made the decision to pre-order I set my standards to match accordingly, especially when we have precedent and I'm glad to say I'm not actually disappointed by the set.
Sure the MSRP went up not-so-insignificantly, but gotta love how people vocally responded like the it rose dramatically (like their imaginative expectations) while the actual market (consisting of the actual target demographic group of people) actually behaved quite docilely (in the sense no one actually bought the idea it would be the "best thing ever" and complied with MSRP at all, considering pretty much everyone is going below it). Wouldn't be surprised if some of these vocals came from people who never touched any Masters product to begin with (and were never the target demographic either).
They still did better than the last master sets of getting a packs worth of cards and some sites forbid that $335 I’m seeing pre-orders much closer to that $240 from the other sets
The part people aren't seeing is the EV and the kinds of cards that are making up the value. The reason the boxes are still sitting at 264 usd is because the majority of the cards are taking a huge hit.
I believe Seth's math has the box without topper, but with foils, at around 370 dollars a box. That is only 35 dollars above MSRP, so no way this is going to allow a box price that high. They really needed more hits in the uncommon slot to make up for the bulk in the rares.
Also, because the selling price on boxes are so low, it is more profitable for sellers to just sell the singles by breaking open boxes than selling the boxes themselves, so the prices on singles are just going to keep going down.
I know that I just love reprint sets regardless of not worth a pack
(I just buy singles and I don’t want to hear it.)
I still don’t see why people hate iconic when that had a tidal wave of highly request reprints for commander
Have they released what the tokens are going to look like?
Nope. Come to think of it this would be the first time we're getting a nonfoil Marit Lage... which makes Marit Lage the first token to have 3 variations (nonfoil, FTV foil and "release-foil" (the prerelease one uses the same tech for release foils of its era if I'm not wrong)). Ironically it lacks the regular foiling version, but to be fair most tokens don't even get anything special to begin with (short of the ones who full-art foiled in Unstable), so it's still winning as far as tokens go I guess.
Good thing nobody is actually paying $14/pk. They're handily available on eBay for $265 (and even less right now with 15% coupon if purchased from app) or as cheap as $220 without box topper. That's $9-11/pk and a steal for the $400+ box EV you're getting.
$10 packs still isn't worth it, but hey if you like opening that $1 rare in a $10 pack then that's great, you make your own kind of fun.
I'm alright with $1 rares in $4 packs, but never in anything above that.
Good thing nobody is actually paying $14/pk. They're handily available on eBay for $265 (and even less right now with 15% coupon if purchased from app) or as cheap as $220 without box topper. That's $9-11/pk and a steal for the $400+ box EV you're getting.
$10 packs still isn't worth it, but hey if you like opening that $1 rare in a $10 pack then that's great, you make your own kind of fun.
I'm alright with $1 rares in $4 packs, but never in anything above that.
A voice of reason in a sea of insanity. Thank you.
As for the spoiler itself. I'm glad I'm into Pauper right now. Downshifts keep things interesting.
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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."
I'm getting interested in Pauper too, but not much has been made common from other rarities in this set. I'm glad to see the Umbra cycle reprinted, and some of the Incarnations, though.
I'm getting interested in Pauper too, but not much has been made common from other rarities in this set. I'm glad to see the Umbra cycle reprinted, and some of the Incarnations, though.
Um, they made freaking Canker Abomination common, which is an insane body at four mana against some decks. I'd play that in a control shell where I'm just killing stuff for days easily, or even as a card in stompy against some decks. Fire // Ice is also an all-star and will play a big role in the format. Demir Guildmage is better than it looks in pauper since it can work as a foil against Tron. Foil is absolutely a crazy new addition since it can combo with something like Gush because it is a hard counter. I also like Groundskeeper at common due to retrace and cards like Tortured Existence. Over all, really cool stuff being added to pauper.
Oh wow, I totally missed them throwing in Arena Athlete. Hello unblockable creature boost decks.
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 feel like there is a lot of hate going on in this thread and those who think "this isn't worth $14 a pack!!11!" really think they are actually going to sell at $14 a pack. Boxes seem to be hovering around the $250 mark, well below the suggested price. This set is loaded with things that haven't been reprinted often or reprinted since their first printing. While I agree it isn't worth the price WotC was suggesting, I do think it's worth the price it's currently sitting at with the box topper. I also believe that there is the possibility that it could take the IMA route, start dropping off even lower than what it is now once it actually gets into the market, then go back up once everything stabilizes. I invested into IMA when boxes were dirt cheap, and looking at it now, what what I did manage to pull from my boxes, I think I made back more then I left with. Sure, there was missed opportunity for reprints. Realistically though, there's room in other sets for reprints as well. Hell, Manamorphose could get reprinted in the next guilds set because it's a Gruul color card.
Guess I should correct my statement since it was kind of a black and white one. I more so meant that it's not something people would just walk into a store blind and draft as much as do a planned visit. My LGS has people that just walk in and do mini-drafts and chaos drafts.
That depends on a store's main type of customers. I would imagine it's possible for random walk-in drafts to fire if a store main consists of the same type of target demographic Masters sets target - the older, "casual" players that grew with the game and now have disposable income. If I've seen players/customers/people of that caliber walk and buy Standard boxes "just to have fun opening packs and to support the store because I grew up with the game and I enjoy it even if I'm not as invested in it now", I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Draft-Variant of those players making a majority of some stores out there.
Note I emphasized on "not invested in the game as much" along with "grew up with the game and now have disposable income", because I think by now we've blatantly proved that past some point of being "invested" in the game would include "being calculative financially regardless of one's actual financial situation", if anything about vocal feedback is trying to convey. As much as I do agree with some points made as a player myself, sometimes it's gets so overwhelming that people think "I'm invested in other ways, therefore WotC should cater to my financial demands" when WotC's message is almost like "Err no, uninvested players actually spend more than you do, "invested" players are technically just worse customers so why should we care?"
That all being said, from a personal standpoint I do feel Masters' Draft is pointless, firstly because the guaranteed foil system dramatically raises the "risk" of drafting double-rare packs (and hey I'm a penny-pinching "invested" player) and the experience honestly just feels like a powered-down Cube. Secondly, from the perspective of someone who has a Cube, it feels like the people drafting Masters' sets are just too lazy to build their own Cube and settling from the easier but inferior choice. But who am I to dictate other's preferences of playing Limited Games (or even assume they don't Cube, there's likely to be people who enjoy both), even if I do feel they're settling for mediocrity.
Anyway, back to the full spoiler. I said when the set was announced this is just a "Bigger Masters with Better Cards at a Higher Price" and I've been proven correct. I did pre-order a box due to various factors (decided to support my store since it is the last Masters for some time and I don't buy Standard boxes so I've honestly not been the best (or even good) of a customer like most of the time I'm there, plus the downshifts are valuable additions for my Cube, so I'm not buying for pure lottery reasons at rare/mythic levels), but I pre-ordered with the exact same expectations I set before and I'm not disappointed. The actual value of commons/uncommons did fall a bit on the lower end of my expectations, but the rares actually turned out to be generally better than I thought and I think the downshifts were dramatically better than what I saw from the likes of IMA/A25 (which I didn't bother touching packs of, for the record).
So bluntly put, while in general I do fall into the "invested" category of being calculative (hence my general unwillingness to buy sealed product most of the time), I recognize that this was ultimately just another Masters set with pretty much the same target demographic and when I made the decision to pre-order I set my standards to match accordingly, especially when we have precedent and I'm glad to say I'm not actually disappointed by the set.
Sure the MSRP went up not-so-insignificantly, but gotta love how people vocally responded like the it rose dramatically (like their imaginative expectations) while the actual market (consisting of the actual target demographic group of people) actually behaved quite docilely (in the sense no one actually bought the idea it would be the "best thing ever" and complied with MSRP at all, considering pretty much everyone is going below it). Wouldn't be surprised if some of these vocals came from people who never touched any Masters product to begin with (and were never the target demographic either).
Per person, invested players spend far more than most walk in newbie youngsters who also dabble in Big box store products. For Hasbro the customer base they are used to dealing with is the new and uninvested youngster, while wizards of the coast originally catered to a niche market of players that were part of the pop cap / card collecting socializing types. Out of the two the latter became the core of what keeps this game alive at all, but the company has made so many mistakes on supporting this group that it is also murdering the formers growth.
Ultimately Wizards doesn't want to deal with their problems. Given the last few years they rather ignore them and just let the issue die off somehow, but because of the wondrous power of the internet that strategy has backfired spectacularly and eroded peoples confidence in the company, which came to a head last year when everyone got so sure wizards would not reprint anything they went and bought up everything in a frenzy. I'm just praying to the heavens they are going to spread the reprints into normally priced boxes, work as many as they can through standard to get their prices dropped, and stop their attack on the people who are actually keeping this game alive.
I mean seriously, who do they think spends the biggest dollar amount here? The guy walking in doing draft on set release, or the person who is buying all those singles on the secondary market and making the singles market actually function? Without that singles market, the game would just die because the creativity of this design team is paltry compared to what has been done by other games now.
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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!
Good thing nobody is actually paying $14/pk. They're handily available on eBay for $265 (and even less right now with 15% coupon if purchased from app) or as cheap as $220 without box topper. That's $9-11/pk and a steal for the $400+ box EV you're getting.
$10 packs still isn't worth it, but hey if you like opening that $1 rare in a $10 pack then that's great, you make your own kind of fun.
I'm alright with $1 rares in $4 packs, but never in anything above that.
I guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
/shrug. Either way, I put my money where my mouth is and bought two boxes.
They also redid the art on a bunch of the commons, such as the 2/2 elf with persist. One of my wishes is that WotC interacts with the players a bit more on cool bonuses like artwork and such. I know lots of people would gladly help pay artists to make cool works for cards or be willing to pitch money into better card stock at this point.
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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!
I guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
When I looked yesterday (local, $cnd), snappy went from 90 to 65 for UMA version, noble hierarch from 100 to 75 UMA, Gaddock Teeg from 55 to 30 UMA. Similar for Karn, etc. Make sure to double check that EV. Especially for underplayed, rarely reprinted ones.
On a good note, I'll probably snatch a Teeg or two. (I opened two of the standard demons as trade-in value in the last two FNM...) The others are still to high for me. (They merely went back to their March '18 price, before their ludicrous rise.)
I guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
When I looked yesterday (local, $cnd), snappy went from 90 to 65 for UMA version, noble hierarch from 100 to 75 UMA, Gaddock Teeg from 55 to 30 UMA. Similar for Karn, etc. Make sure to double check that EV. Especially for underplayed, rarely reprinted ones.
On a good note, I'll probably snatch a Teeg or two. (I opened two of the standard demons as trade-in value in the last two FNM...) The others are still to high for me. (They merely went back to their March '18 price, before their ludicrous rise.)
I've been following SaffronOlive's live EV updates; still sitting around $420 without Toppers. Value for many of the cards are holding strong because these are a LOT of Modern and Commander staples.
But we all need to remember, these price dips are temporary. Remember when Snapcaster Mage was reprinted in MM17? And went from $70 to $35? But shot right back up there to $70? (I remember, because I flash sold mine immediately when the reprint was announced, and then bought ISD foils during the price crash at $70-80 a piece). That's the Masters Effect: prices dip and return for anything even remotely in demand. If you're going to buy them, you have a window of opportunity to do so before they shoot right back up. The amount of Imperial Recruiters in this set is fairly low; most expensive cards here are expensive because they see play across multiple formats.
I guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
/shrug. Either way, I put my money where my mouth is and bought two boxes.
That's an incredibly smug way of saying something, but good on you. You must not understand how luck works and each pack has a much higher chance of not breaking even, but don't let obvious things like that get in the way of your smugness.
I guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
/shrug. Either way, I put my money where my mouth is and bought two boxes.
That's an incredibly smug way of saying something, but good on you. You must not understand how luck works and each pack has a much higher chance of not breaking even, but don't let obvious things like that get in the way of your smugness.
I'm just saying that the backlash on the set is based around something that isn't even true ($14/pack) or something that is petty and selfish (doesn't contain random card X, Y, or Z). I fully think this set is amazing and see massive value, and I stand by that claim by purchasing it (as do the thousands of other people buying boxes).
There are things to nitpick, sure, but this is easily the best Masters set WOTC has ever made, and people still whine and complain about it.
Yeah, I mean this just proves the rule that the 'community' will never be happy. This sets amazing, and if wasnt 1 foot out the door on Modern already, I'd buy a box for sure.
I'm just saying that the backlash on the set is based around something that isn't even true ($14/pack) or something that is petty and selfish (doesn't contain random card X, Y, or Z). I fully think this set is amazing and see massive value, and I stand by that claim by purchasing it (as do the thousands of other people buying boxes).
There are things to nitpick, sure, but this is easily the best Masters set WOTC has ever made, and people still whine and complain about it.
The $14 packs are something to complain about, fact is WotC thought that this was worth that much. Just because people aren't willing to pay that doesn't mean that isn't an incredible fault of WotC thinking that. There has yet to be a reason as to why they did this and there isn't one.
This set is average and nothing more. Even if I had money I wouldn't buy packs of this.
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The part people aren't seeing is the EV and the kinds of cards that are making up the value. The reason the boxes are still sitting at 264 usd is because the majority of the cards are taking a huge hit.
I believe Seth's math has the box without topper, but with foils, at around 370 dollars a box. That is only 35 dollars above MSRP, so no way this is going to allow a box price that high. They really needed more hits in the uncommon slot to make up for the bulk in the rares.
Also, because the selling price on boxes are so low, it is more profitable for sellers to just sell the singles by breaking open boxes than selling the boxes themselves, so the prices on singles are just going to keep going down.
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!
That depends on a store's main type of customers. I would imagine it's possible for random walk-in drafts to fire if a store main consists of the same type of target demographic Masters sets target - the older, "casual" players that grew with the game and now have disposable income. If I've seen players/customers/people of that caliber walk and buy Standard boxes "just to have fun opening packs and to support the store because I grew up with the game and I enjoy it even if I'm not as invested in it now", I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Draft-Variant of those players making a majority of some stores out there.
Note I emphasized on "not invested in the game as much" along with "grew up with the game and now have disposable income", because I think by now we've blatantly proved that past some point of being "invested" in the game would include "being calculative financially regardless of one's actual financial situation", if anything about vocal feedback is trying to convey. As much as I do agree with some points made as a player myself, sometimes it's gets so overwhelming that people think "I'm invested in other ways, therefore WotC should cater to my financial demands" when WotC's message is almost like "Err no, uninvested players actually spend more than you do, "invested" players are technically just worse customers so why should we care?"
That all being said, from a personal standpoint I do feel Masters' Draft is pointless, firstly because the guaranteed foil system dramatically raises the "risk" of drafting double-rare packs (and hey I'm a penny-pinching "invested" player) and the experience honestly just feels like a powered-down Cube. Secondly, from the perspective of someone who has a Cube, it feels like the people drafting Masters' sets are just too lazy to build their own Cube and settling from the easier but inferior choice. But who am I to dictate other's preferences of playing Limited Games (or even assume they don't Cube, there's likely to be people who enjoy both), even if I do feel they're settling for mediocrity.
Anyway, back to the full spoiler. I said when the set was announced this is just a "Bigger Masters with Better Cards at a Higher Price" and I've been proven correct. I did pre-order a box due to various factors (decided to support my store since it is the last Masters for some time and I don't buy Standard boxes so I've honestly not been the best (or even good) of a customer like most of the time I'm there, plus the downshifts are valuable additions for my Cube, so I'm not buying for pure lottery reasons at rare/mythic levels), but I pre-ordered with the exact same expectations I set before and I'm not disappointed. The actual value of commons/uncommons did fall a bit on the lower end of my expectations, but the rares actually turned out to be generally better than I thought and I think the downshifts were dramatically better than what I saw from the likes of IMA/A25 (which I didn't bother touching packs of, for the record).
So bluntly put, while in general I do fall into the "invested" category of being calculative (hence my general unwillingness to buy sealed product most of the time), I recognize that this was ultimately just another Masters set with pretty much the same target demographic and when I made the decision to pre-order I set my standards to match accordingly, especially when we have precedent and I'm glad to say I'm not actually disappointed by the set.
Sure the MSRP went up not-so-insignificantly, but gotta love how people vocally responded like the it rose dramatically (like their imaginative expectations) while the actual market (consisting of the actual target demographic group of people) actually behaved quite docilely (in the sense no one actually bought the idea it would be the "best thing ever" and complied with MSRP at all, considering pretty much everyone is going below it). Wouldn't be surprised if some of these vocals came from people who never touched any Masters product to begin with (and were never the target demographic either).
I know that I just love reprint sets regardless of not worth a pack
(I just buy singles and I don’t want to hear it.)
I still don’t see why people hate iconic when that had a tidal wave of highly request reprints for commander
Nope. Come to think of it this would be the first time we're getting a nonfoil Marit Lage... which makes Marit Lage the first token to have 3 variations (nonfoil, FTV foil and "release-foil" (the prerelease one uses the same tech for release foils of its era if I'm not wrong)). Ironically it lacks the regular foiling version, but to be fair most tokens don't even get anything special to begin with (short of the ones who full-art foiled in Unstable), so it's still winning as far as tokens go I guess.
$10 packs still isn't worth it, but hey if you like opening that $1 rare in a $10 pack then that's great, you make your own kind of fun.
I'm alright with $1 rares in $4 packs, but never in anything above that.
As for cards I would've liked to see reprinted regardless, Bloom Tender is right up there.
edit: Also, strongly dislike most of the new artwork. Cheap and nasty.
A voice of reason in a sea of insanity. Thank you.
As for the spoiler itself. I'm glad I'm into Pauper right now. Downshifts keep things interesting.
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."
Um, they made freaking Canker Abomination common, which is an insane body at four mana against some decks. I'd play that in a control shell where I'm just killing stuff for days easily, or even as a card in stompy against some decks. Fire // Ice is also an all-star and will play a big role in the format. Demir Guildmage is better than it looks in pauper since it can work as a foil against Tron. Foil is absolutely a crazy new addition since it can combo with something like Gush because it is a hard counter. I also like Groundskeeper at common due to retrace and cards like Tortured Existence. Over all, really cool stuff being added to pauper.
Oh wow, I totally missed them throwing in Arena Athlete. Hello unblockable creature boost decks.
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!
Fully-powered 600-Card "Dream Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dreamcube
450-Card "Artificer's Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/artificer
Cubing in Indianapolis...send me a PM!!
Beggars can't be choosers.
Lymphoma Cancer Survivor!
Per person, invested players spend far more than most walk in newbie youngsters who also dabble in Big box store products. For Hasbro the customer base they are used to dealing with is the new and uninvested youngster, while wizards of the coast originally catered to a niche market of players that were part of the pop cap / card collecting socializing types. Out of the two the latter became the core of what keeps this game alive at all, but the company has made so many mistakes on supporting this group that it is also murdering the formers growth.
Ultimately Wizards doesn't want to deal with their problems. Given the last few years they rather ignore them and just let the issue die off somehow, but because of the wondrous power of the internet that strategy has backfired spectacularly and eroded peoples confidence in the company, which came to a head last year when everyone got so sure wizards would not reprint anything they went and bought up everything in a frenzy. I'm just praying to the heavens they are going to spread the reprints into normally priced boxes, work as many as they can through standard to get their prices dropped, and stop their attack on the people who are actually keeping this game alive.
I mean seriously, who do they think spends the biggest dollar amount here? The guy walking in doing draft on set release, or the person who is buying all those singles on the secondary market and making the singles market actually function? Without that singles market, the game would just die because the creativity of this design team is paltry compared to what has been done by other games now.
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 guess I'm the only one who knows how box EV works? Or can see that nearly every mythic and the majority of rares are more than the price of a pack?
/shrug. Either way, I put my money where my mouth is and bought two boxes.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
They also redid the art on a bunch of the commons, such as the 2/2 elf with persist. One of my wishes is that WotC interacts with the players a bit more on cool bonuses like artwork and such. I know lots of people would gladly help pay artists to make cool works for cards or be willing to pitch money into better card stock at this point.
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!
When I looked yesterday (local, $cnd), snappy went from 90 to 65 for UMA version, noble hierarch from 100 to 75 UMA, Gaddock Teeg from 55 to 30 UMA. Similar for Karn, etc. Make sure to double check that EV. Especially for underplayed, rarely reprinted ones.
On a good note, I'll probably snatch a Teeg or two. (I opened two of the standard demons as trade-in value in the last two FNM...) The others are still to high for me. (They merely went back to their March '18 price, before their ludicrous rise.)
I've been following SaffronOlive's live EV updates; still sitting around $420 without Toppers. Value for many of the cards are holding strong because these are a LOT of Modern and Commander staples.
But we all need to remember, these price dips are temporary. Remember when Snapcaster Mage was reprinted in MM17? And went from $70 to $35? But shot right back up there to $70? (I remember, because I flash sold mine immediately when the reprint was announced, and then bought ISD foils during the price crash at $70-80 a piece). That's the Masters Effect: prices dip and return for anything even remotely in demand. If you're going to buy them, you have a window of opportunity to do so before they shoot right back up. The amount of Imperial Recruiters in this set is fairly low; most expensive cards here are expensive because they see play across multiple formats.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
That's an incredibly smug way of saying something, but good on you. You must not understand how luck works and each pack has a much higher chance of not breaking even, but don't let obvious things like that get in the way of your smugness.
I'm just saying that the backlash on the set is based around something that isn't even true ($14/pack) or something that is petty and selfish (doesn't contain random card X, Y, or Z). I fully think this set is amazing and see massive value, and I stand by that claim by purchasing it (as do the thousands of other people buying boxes).
There are things to nitpick, sure, but this is easily the best Masters set WOTC has ever made, and people still whine and complain about it.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Spirits
The $14 packs are something to complain about, fact is WotC thought that this was worth that much. Just because people aren't willing to pay that doesn't mean that isn't an incredible fault of WotC thinking that. There has yet to be a reason as to why they did this and there isn't one.
This set is average and nothing more. Even if I had money I wouldn't buy packs of this.