Reprinting things doesn't devalue the brand. Maybe your cards, but if more people are playing the game because it's affordable, the better off the company will be.
I'm sorry you've had a relatively rough go of things educationally and professionally, but you're a perfect example of somebody who can only afford the Honda, but wants the BMW. BMW doesn't make cars for you, nor do they care about making cars you can afford. WotC doesn't make cards for you, nor do they care about making cards you can afford... because you aren't their target market. Being emotionally invested into the storyline doesn't give you a right to buy the cards, you can follow the story just fine without them, so I don't want to hear that. Now, it's not your fault per se that you cannot afford to play MTG, and you are a victim of circumstance, but life isn't fair. It's tough, and it sucks for you, but you aren't nor will you likely ever be MTG's target market.
First off, your analogy that Legacy is a BMW is off. Keep in mind, the biggest problem with Magic right now is the reserved list. That's what's causing all of the pricing problems, and it's really easy to fix. I've been playing Magic off and on since 97' and remember when Legacy and Vintage were just being created as formats. Dual lands and many of the staples you are referring to were affordable then, and even later on, from 2000-2010. You could obtain a full play-set of dual lands for about 1K. Most duals were about $25 each, and some above that, but in general it was affordable. So Legacy was essentially the Honda you are talking about now. That's the problem. Imagine if a car was always affordable to you for years and then suddenly is posing as a luxury car despite not a single change happening to the car. That's what has happened to Legacy. Vintage is a different beast, because THAT is the format that is more like the BMW, not Legacy. Legacy was created as a cheaper format for those who couldn't or didn't want to buy power 9. Also, please stop with the elitist nonsense. Wizards' target audience are people who are interested in TCG's and strategy, as well as those who like to collect. It isn't targeting people who make good money. The game would never survive if that was the case.
Question is, what's on the Reserved List that people would want, besides the Power Nine (which I don't think ANYONE is expecting to see back, Reserved List or no...Well, maybe Timetwister)? No, that's not rhetorical; I'm just not coming up with much offhand. (Except Scarwood Bandits, but I'm probably in a marked minority there.)
Are you serious? Gee, I don't know... Dual lands perhaps!!!!!
The elixir is a great suggestion. I do get around the lack of haste by either Akroma's Memorial or casing them (or reanimating) at eot thanks to Prophet of Kruphix.
By the way, how does your build run? Any particular interactions of worthy mention?
Well, another card I have in my build is Greater Good. I was fooling around with Sidisi testing different interactions and I realized that with Sidisi out, Greater Good, and a dredge creature in the graveyard, you could potentially cycle through your entire library (you need an initial creature to start the process). While in this process, I usually came across another dredge creature which netted me an additional zombie per dredge. After flipping my deck over, I sacrifice 3 zombies and cast dread return targeting laboratory maniac, sacrifice Sidisi to Greater Good, and win. I also run Necrotic Ooze/Phyrexian Devourer/Triskellion (I'll remove this depending on the group I'm playing with). Also, I'm not sure whether you've had a chance to test it, but you need to run Kessig Cagebreakers (you may not have it due to interference with the zombie theme). It's pretty easy to get 4-6 wolves without committing too much of your graveyard. I'll post my list once I have some time to list everything out.
I think these are good lands and I use them in most of my wedge decks. Usually I'll go 3 shocklands, 3 checklands, 3 fetchlands, and 3 painlands. 1 damage is nothing in EDH and I will always choose these over any "Enters play tapped" land. Plus the affordability makes these an auto-include.
I too have been using Zedruu since she first came out and I love the deck. I have 3 different versions of her, and enchantment version, exchange, . I'd recommend creating a strategy and focusing on that instead of trying to clutter the deck with different strategy-dependent cards. My exchange version has cards like Puca's Mischief, Juxtapose, and Reins of Power for example.
Some other simple changes have been so paramount in making this deck work even more. Adding Victimize has had no price. One game I was able to do something epic by casting Filth and then sacrificing it for Victimize next turn to get Prophet of Kruphix and Consecrated Sphinx in play by turn 5. I have yet to test the potential of other cards that I've literally yet to even draw, like Ghoulcaller Gisa. She's fat and slow, but something about making an insane amount of zombies all the while having a sac outlet is too alluring to pass up. There's just so much promise - especially when you want creatures to be in the graveyard. Sac outlets are too important in this deck. Another game I played allowed me to sac Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to Altar of Dementia in response to having my graveyard be exiled. So not only did I mill 10 cards from my opponent, but I saved my graveyard and got some zombies in the process all the while exiling the creatures milled (also had Undead Alchemist in play). This deck is just too much fun to play!
I'm creating a Sidisi deck also, with my deck focusing on a creature theme with dredge as an enabler. Since I'm using dredge, I have creatures like Ashen Ghoul, Nether Shadow, and Bloodghast with the obvious skullclamp. I use Ghoulcaller Gisa in my list and she works quite well. One way of negating her slow speed is using Thousand-Year Elixir. It allows you to use activated abilities immediately to negate her expensive cost. I can see that your list is pretty tight, but since you have some creatures with activated abilities, you may want to consider the elixir.
Do you think being a good chess player would make one a good Magic player?
I currently play chess with some frequency (also poker from time to time) and I can definitely say that chess helps immensely. Chess is a much deeper game with no luck involved, so moving to a game where luck has an impact will definitely help your chances. Of course, you still will progress with experience, and there's no substitute for that.
Skyshroud Elite simply has one of the best flavor texts on a magic card. Mainly because it's so true. As for the functionality, it's just way past its prime. It was great in old extended decks (stompy mainly), where you could get an easy 4-6 damage in before it encountered any removal.
I agree with all of them but this one. As someone who finds it immensely difficult to look people in the eye (BTW, not autism, social anxiety.) I only feel worse to know that you dislike me for not doing so.
I disagree with this one also. I find it incredibly intrusive for someone to look into my eyes when they are speaking to me unless it's someone I'm close with (family, girlfriend). I will look in your general direction if we are playing a game, but not into your eyes since I'm against it myself.
I'd like to see some more cards that incentivize playing monocolor decks since right now there aren't a lot of reasons to stick with only a single color, and I think that monocolor decks need more love in this format.
I think one reason it's difficult to make an interesting mono-colored deck is because you're always going to be at the mercy of whatever weakness that color happens to have. With 2 and above you can cover weaknesses of one color with another if necessary (unless you're going with a particular theme).
It doesn't seem hard to understand. I don't complain that more Ferraris need to be made so that I can afford one, I just drive my Nissan and dream. It isn't like I can't drive if I don't have a Ferrari. I just can't keep up with Ferraris. How is Magic any different? You don't need a Ferrari. In fact, you don't need a car at all if you can't afford it--buy a bike, or walk! Magic is a hobby with wildly variable costs associated with playing it. If you can't hang with the Legacy or Vintage crowd, play something else.
This isn't a good example because unlike Ferraris, Legacy staples were affordable at one time, and were made unaffordable by the RL. It's not like you were able to afford a Ferrari and then all of a sudden, some external factor caused them to be unaffordable to you. It was not long ago that a full set of duals were around $1000. Now, mainly due to this reserved list, a full set of duals are probably around 5000-7000 depending on where you get them. When the price of a product increases to the point that the format becomes unaffordable, people will turn to other options (counterfeits). And once they are put in sleeves, are you really going to notice them at a tournament? I'm willing to bet most people who purchase these things don't even want to rip anyone off, they just want to play. So time will tell how damaging the counterfeits will be, but one thing is certain: Something needs to be done about it.
First off, your analogy that Legacy is a BMW is off. Keep in mind, the biggest problem with Magic right now is the reserved list. That's what's causing all of the pricing problems, and it's really easy to fix. I've been playing Magic off and on since 97' and remember when Legacy and Vintage were just being created as formats. Dual lands and many of the staples you are referring to were affordable then, and even later on, from 2000-2010. You could obtain a full play-set of dual lands for about 1K. Most duals were about $25 each, and some above that, but in general it was affordable. So Legacy was essentially the Honda you are talking about now. That's the problem. Imagine if a car was always affordable to you for years and then suddenly is posing as a luxury car despite not a single change happening to the car. That's what has happened to Legacy. Vintage is a different beast, because THAT is the format that is more like the BMW, not Legacy. Legacy was created as a cheaper format for those who couldn't or didn't want to buy power 9. Also, please stop with the elitist nonsense. Wizards' target audience are people who are interested in TCG's and strategy, as well as those who like to collect. It isn't targeting people who make good money. The game would never survive if that was the case.
Are you serious? Gee, I don't know... Dual lands perhaps!!!!!
Well, another card I have in my build is Greater Good. I was fooling around with Sidisi testing different interactions and I realized that with Sidisi out, Greater Good, and a dredge creature in the graveyard, you could potentially cycle through your entire library (you need an initial creature to start the process). While in this process, I usually came across another dredge creature which netted me an additional zombie per dredge. After flipping my deck over, I sacrifice 3 zombies and cast dread return targeting laboratory maniac, sacrifice Sidisi to Greater Good, and win. I also run Necrotic Ooze/Phyrexian Devourer/Triskellion (I'll remove this depending on the group I'm playing with). Also, I'm not sure whether you've had a chance to test it, but you need to run Kessig Cagebreakers (you may not have it due to interference with the zombie theme). It's pretty easy to get 4-6 wolves without committing too much of your graveyard. I'll post my list once I have some time to list everything out.
I'm creating a Sidisi deck also, with my deck focusing on a creature theme with dredge as an enabler. Since I'm using dredge, I have creatures like Ashen Ghoul, Nether Shadow, and Bloodghast with the obvious skullclamp. I use Ghoulcaller Gisa in my list and she works quite well. One way of negating her slow speed is using Thousand-Year Elixir. It allows you to use activated abilities immediately to negate her expensive cost. I can see that your list is pretty tight, but since you have some creatures with activated abilities, you may want to consider the elixir.
I currently play chess with some frequency (also poker from time to time) and I can definitely say that chess helps immensely. Chess is a much deeper game with no luck involved, so moving to a game where luck has an impact will definitely help your chances. Of course, you still will progress with experience, and there's no substitute for that.
I disagree with this one also. I find it incredibly intrusive for someone to look into my eyes when they are speaking to me unless it's someone I'm close with (family, girlfriend). I will look in your general direction if we are playing a game, but not into your eyes since I'm against it myself.
Casting Cost - 0
Commander Mox
Artifact
Tap: Add one mana of any color in your commander
I admit it's probably a bit boring since every deck would want one, but it would provide some nice acceleration.
I think one reason it's difficult to make an interesting mono-colored deck is because you're always going to be at the mercy of whatever weakness that color happens to have. With 2 and above you can cover weaknesses of one color with another if necessary (unless you're going with a particular theme).
This isn't a good example because unlike Ferraris, Legacy staples were affordable at one time, and were made unaffordable by the RL. It's not like you were able to afford a Ferrari and then all of a sudden, some external factor caused them to be unaffordable to you. It was not long ago that a full set of duals were around $1000. Now, mainly due to this reserved list, a full set of duals are probably around 5000-7000 depending on where you get them. When the price of a product increases to the point that the format becomes unaffordable, people will turn to other options (counterfeits). And once they are put in sleeves, are you really going to notice them at a tournament? I'm willing to bet most people who purchase these things don't even want to rip anyone off, they just want to play. So time will tell how damaging the counterfeits will be, but one thing is certain: Something needs to be done about it.