If Gary Johnson is liberal enough to attract moderate Democrats and conservative enough to attract moderate Republicans, why does he lucky to break out of the single digits? Let me suggest an alternative explanation: Although Johnson arrives at views which are on the surface in agreement with various Democrats and various Republicans, depending on the issue, the underlying reasoning which informs his positions differs radically from the reasoning of both Democrats and Republicans. I think most Americans correctly view the Libertarian party's view of the world as incredibly naive and simplistic. It leads him to support such obviously bad ideas as private prisons and abolishing the department of education. Opinion polls put support for the latter at less than 20%.
You should go out and ask people if they'd consider voting for Gary Johnson, and why. I'd bet that your 2 biggest reasons are:
1. It's a wasted vote
2. Gary Who?
Neither of which indicate that they actually disagree with his policies.
So I was at a Modern tournament tonight, and I completely bombed 2 matches in a row against what should have been easy matchups. I got flustered, and dropped and went home. However, I'm not sure if that wasn't kind of salty and a little rude.
My question to you is, what is the protocol for dropping; is it kinda rude to drop when you do badly, or is it common and even expected? Did I do something rude or inconsequential?
People drop all the time It's usually a good idea to tell the TO that they're dropping so that you don't get paired against somebody.
1.
The thing that's changed is that all the 14 year old kids that use to not be able to afford to dump $500 on a deck now have adult jobs and they can.
But that only applies if you feel like taking down sanctioned constructed tournaments. If you're OK just playing for fun, you can certainly play casually. You can still make budget decks that can win a match sometimes at FNM. Some people have draft cubes, that you can draft for free, etc
2.
Back in your day, you might have had this thing called "Type 1" Today, we call that type Vintage, but we have other non-rotating formats too like Legacy or Modern. Again, it's expensive if you want to take down a tournament, but it is still possible to sleeve up a sub-optimal deck sometimes win some matches with it.
3.
What do you think the word "pro" means?
4.
You can begin with drafts. Some people do nothing but drafts. Essentially you buy 3 packs(and perhaps a fourth pack for the prize pool), you draft them with 7 other players, and you make a deck out of the cards that you drafted. If you want to play casual constructed, you can build a deck out of those cards.
Conclusion:
If you don't feel like continually investing a ton of time and effort and capital into any game, then you're not going to be a truly competitive player, but you don't have to be competitive to have fun with the game.
force of will and abrupt decay are cards that people usually think of as OP, but in reality they end up being some of the most balanced cards ever printed. They're always useful, but not overpowering no matter how powerful the format is.
Furthermore, they both actively mitigate other imbalances in the formats that they exist in.
Sure, cards like Giant Growth are useful but not overpowering in draft and sometimes in standard, but does the power of giant growth scale with the power of the format as a whole? I don't think so. Does Giant Growth put a stopper on fast combo and other broken things, while interacting reasonably with he balanced things? No.
Not to mention that Worldgorger Dragon is exactly the kind of card WotC explicitly implemented mythic rarity for.
How so? Especially in a set like this.
In the beginning, the Mythic rarity was originally intended for big flashy cards that did big flashy things, or legendary cards that were significant to the plot. It was explicitly not intended to be for tournament staples and money cards; it's become that way over the course of time.
So are you saying that you'd rather open twice as many worldgorger dragons?
That's so clearly not the point he was making that I can't help but feel like you're being intentionally obtuse.
Well then what point was he making? He clearly doesn't want Worldgorger dragon in his pack, but his contempt of the "too broken in limited draft to make it a rare" argument seems to indicate that he wouldn't mind so much if it were in the rare slot.
Those are completely contradictory notions.
He obviously doesn't want Worldgorger Dragons at Mythic rarity. Do you honestly not understand the desire to have a card that is valuable at the extra-rare rarity level? If there was some burning desire to include Worldgorger Dragon it could have been done at rare while replacing the mythic slot with something that actually deserves it. Or better yet, leave the Dragon out entirely as the card is readily available, in low demand, and doesn't even contribute to an interesting Limited format. It's like if they had decided to bump up Llanowar Elves to rare and you responded with "well at least now you'll open fewer Llanowar Elves!"
But we all know the truth. Wizards needed to include a few dud mythics because humans are suckers for gambling and the all-or-nothing thrill of opening packs entices people to open more.
I can understand why people might not want it to be printed at all at any rarity, but when you also include talk about prices and rarity, it really doesn't make sense.
If you spend a lot of money on a pack, you want that pack to have a large expected value. If you swapped the rarities of say... wasteland and worldgorger dragon, the the expected value goes down, not up.
Some people seem to be operating under the assumption that swapping the rarities of a crappy mythic and a good rare make the EV go up, but that's just plain wrong.
So are you saying that you'd rather open twice as many worldgorger dragons?
That's so clearly not the point he was making that I can't help but feel like you're being intentionally obtuse.
Well then what point was he making? He clearly doesn't want Worldgorger dragon in his pack, but his contempt of the "too broken in limited draft to make it a rare" argument seems to indicate that he wouldn't mind so much if it were in the rare slot.
It would be better at rare so that Wizards could put an expensive card at mythic if it was a card they weren't willing to put at rare. It could have been Blood Moon or Imperial Recruiter.
So are you saying that you'd rather open twice as many worldgorger dragons?
You should go out and ask people if they'd consider voting for Gary Johnson, and why. I'd bet that your 2 biggest reasons are:
1. It's a wasted vote
2. Gary Who?
Neither of which indicate that they actually disagree with his policies.
People drop all the time It's usually a good idea to tell the TO that they're dropping so that you don't get paired against somebody.
The thing that's changed is that all the 14 year old kids that use to not be able to afford to dump $500 on a deck now have adult jobs and they can.
But that only applies if you feel like taking down sanctioned constructed tournaments. If you're OK just playing for fun, you can certainly play casually. You can still make budget decks that can win a match sometimes at FNM. Some people have draft cubes, that you can draft for free, etc
2.
Back in your day, you might have had this thing called "Type 1" Today, we call that type Vintage, but we have other non-rotating formats too like Legacy or Modern. Again, it's expensive if you want to take down a tournament, but it is still possible to sleeve up a sub-optimal deck sometimes win some matches with it.
3.
What do you think the word "pro" means?
4.
You can begin with drafts. Some people do nothing but drafts. Essentially you buy 3 packs(and perhaps a fourth pack for the prize pool), you draft them with 7 other players, and you make a deck out of the cards that you drafted. If you want to play casual constructed, you can build a deck out of those cards.
Conclusion:
If you don't feel like continually investing a ton of time and effort and capital into any game, then you're not going to be a truly competitive player, but you don't have to be competitive to have fun with the game.
Furthermore, they both actively mitigate other imbalances in the formats that they exist in.
Sure, cards like Giant Growth are useful but not overpowering in draft and sometimes in standard, but does the power of giant growth scale with the power of the format as a whole? I don't think so. Does Giant Growth put a stopper on fast combo and other broken things, while interacting reasonably with he balanced things? No.
In the beginning, the Mythic rarity was originally intended for big flashy cards that did big flashy things, or legendary cards that were significant to the plot. It was explicitly not intended to be for tournament staples and money cards; it's become that way over the course of time.
Imagine swapping giant tortious to mytich with force of will to common. now That would be a set that I want to open.
I can understand why people might not want it to be printed at all at any rarity, but when you also include talk about prices and rarity, it really doesn't make sense.
If you spend a lot of money on a pack, you want that pack to have a large expected value. If you swapped the rarities of say... wasteland and worldgorger dragon, the the expected value goes down, not up.
Some people seem to be operating under the assumption that swapping the rarities of a crappy mythic and a good rare make the EV go up, but that's just plain wrong.
Well then what point was he making? He clearly doesn't want Worldgorger dragon in his pack, but his contempt of the "too broken in limited draft to make it a rare" argument seems to indicate that he wouldn't mind so much if it were in the rare slot.
Those are completely contradictory notions.
Well, I disagree. I actually don't want to open more worldgorger dragons. I want to open fewer of them. That way, I get more of the good cards.
So are you saying that you'd rather open twice as many worldgorger dragons?
That way, you'll be pulling it twice as often.