I feel like the commander 2016 cards had something similar going on. Especially with the foils. They have about the thickness of the Chinese counterfeit cards. And the majority of mine came out of the box warped. I hope it's a fluke. They like to change their process every few years. I feel like they've caught failures in the past (the super saturated mirage printing process comes to mind) I hope that's all it is. Mtg is teetering very close to losing me again. If this block is equivalent to urzas saga (combos galore, artifacts everywhere) then we need to prepare for amonkhet to feel like masques. If anyone was playing back then, you'll know what I mean
I personally doubt it, it's been like 2 years since Khans of Tarkir. We're looking at Nicol Bolas, so it's probably going to be a multicolor block. Which normally translates into interesting stuff.
Well i just think that Amonkhet is just dominaria 2.0 (for bolas) as we have seen he owns some part of influence on the plane, maybe he is a god-emperor siting in his chair planning his next plot while the gatewatch invades his plane ( how rude).
For the question: Is Bolas more powerfull than a god? I would say Yes. Kruphix said prety loud that he had couserns with the threats that Elspeth and Ajani where possibly facing, and one of the things was clearly Bolas. Like he never really lost a batle against other being, Ajani? Yeah, he got a chalenge against a Avatar mirroring hinself, he "died" because Umezawa destroyed a portal to his meditation healm while he was in it, killed Ugin with litle help. Yeah Bolas is a foe that needs to be feared.
I think it's important to keep in mind that even though Bolas is powerful he's incredibly manipulative. That's more likely to destroy the Gods, in fighting while Bolas goes about doing whatever Bolas does, turning the population against them and what have you. I'm not saying he can't overpower all 14 of them working together, but at the same time I would say that is an unlikely scenario to occur.
That and also he has achieved Super Dragon Planeswalker God Super Dragon Planeswalker or SDPGSDP Nicol Bolas. Although after that will come Super Planeswalker Grixis.
Has Battle of Wits and a mix of many different strategies.. I would assume that deck is over 200 cards. Must be hard to shuffle a deck with that many cards. @___@
But I do agree that it would have been funny. You never know what sort of combo he's going to use.
I played against Extended Battle of Wits deck, this was after Odyssey released.
A. Playing Dimir control. Haunting Echoes on his graveyard, he scooped because he didn't want me searching and having to totally reshuffle everything.
B. Another player plays blue control and plays Traumatize on his deck, nerfing his main win-con
Needless to say he did not get to enjoy the deck as much as he would have liked.
The first problem with Magic has been that limited has crept in and taken out the design of removal cards and new removal entering the format. Fatal Push is the first real Modern removal in a number of years not printed at rare. The new world order and no printing of level 5 commons has created making uncommons more expensive. Sudden Push might've been a common years ago, now it's uncommon driving the price up.
With the limited amount of answers in Magic was mainly for Limited, which hurts constructed and the trickle down towards us in Modern. The Eldrazi and new dredge cards made the format more diverse over time, the lack of new answers has stagnated decks. With Khans we saw the creation of Grixis into a tier 1 deck for a while and settling around a good Tier 2 deck for control. That was in part because of land options finally being reprinted and new removal options with Kolaghan's Command. Once those two were set in place, we also saw Mardu control peak around more as well.
The issue with Magic is not to much that there is a lack of diversity, that there is a lack of diversity within removal itself for different color combinations. Sultai's problem is not blue black, rather black and blue itself is weak on removal. Black and White face a lack of creature support that would otherwise dominate to allow Mardu to be better. With increased removal diversity over the years we may see Sultai and Mardu go the way of Grixis and become better if not already with Fatal Push.
So the move in design to return removal to it's old power level is a great start, that may very well begin to diversify Magic control once more. While Jund is an awesome deck, Sultai and other decks, similar to Grixis, need to shine.
Gaming? No, unless if you were seriously involved in actually coding, developing and creating products like a modpack. "Coding modpacks for X highly acclaimed modpack" for an IT position or a marketing position where you created the website, did copywriting, and on and on and it's a part of your portfolio is hells bells yes. A youtube channel with a benign hobby, then yes it can work. Mostly g-rated stuff that you would put into a professional portfolio, that intersects with an obvious hobby to show a skill is good. And presentation on video is a form of sales, it's called demonstration. You running around and making corny jokes isn't.
Or similar other "question raisers" depends on the company culture. If you're going for say a sales position, applied before without any success for an interview. Something like that can help to indicate you have a personality, but use it very sparingly and only on a company where you applied to say 50,000 times.
I believe we'll see far more of a nationalistic tone under Trump with higher tariffs and higher consumption taxes with lower personal income taxes and lower business taxes. NAFTA and the other trade deals are going to get seriously underscored, and Trump has been on record to really hate China.
I feel the largest issue has been the nationalism of the Chinese and the unwillingness of Chinese firms and American firms who have large investments in China to pay those foreign workers better. China needs wealth, but also consumption. There are American products the Chinese want to buy and American goods like Magic the Gathering that do sell well. The problem is mostly the Chinese Communist Party and it's control over media and always wanting to keep labor cheap to keep exports high.
While I do not believe that the US will ever become what it was with manufacturing, you have to take into account that Trump will push more aggressively for US firms. He was elected in part to be more nationalistic and nation building at home, and I feel that he has had that rhetoric for a few years now and it will be a platform.
My largest issues with Trump are thus; he'll obliterate the healthcare system and smash it to pieces. The repeal of Obamacare will cause a lot of issues over the next two years. A gradual building on the Obamacare system with things like a health savings account system among other aspects to build on top of the system would be a good start. The repeal and replace has been one of the most ridiculous concepts I have seen as a conservative.
Reminds me of the flag burning amendment that was floated a number of years ago before 9/11 and Terry Shiavo. Both news stories really turned me off to politics, because they were inconsequential. Shiavo was a vegetable with no hope of returning to any semblance of a normal life, and had previously stated to her husband in passing that she wanted to die if ever like that.
The flag burning amendment was inherently unconstitutional and a waste of time to even discuss.
Loving the art, across the board. Very happy to see that Ajani is sticking around. Though if this is true, do you know what the best part is? The fact that it would mean that Ravnica 3 isn't coming after Amonkhet!
One can only hope. Remember Amonkhet came after Kaladesh, so Ravnica 3 could unfortunately come after Atlazan. Vraska could be the lead right into Ravnica 3. And that, of course, would be terrible.
It would be wonderful, we need shock prices to go back down.
Nobody in this thread have responded to my inisial conserns with liberterianism in a satifying way.
The fact that you think you would 'winn an argument about disney' does not change the fact that my goverment sett in motion countermesure to offer a better alternative for choildrem when the disney channel launched.
Japan produced quality goods, their entertainment industry has a number of issues such as low pay for animators. I will say that there are many excellent products and goods that come out of Japan.
The US and equally Hong Kong have done more to forward Chinese culture than China itself has for much of the 20th and 21st century.
Khans of Tarkir
Kung Fu Panda
Bruce Lee
Jackie Chan
Anng The Last Avatar
The Legend of Korra
Jet Li was born in Beijing, China
So basically from there, Hong Kong using British ideas and adaptation created a lot of excellent works and produced some amazing stuff. The US with its fascination about the East has created some excellent works.
And least we not forget India's reaction to Modernity is Bollywood. And they do really well with musicals, so much so that they export them globally and are well recognized.
We have to face that Disney has existed for multiple decades. Just like Marvel and DC.
But Dragonball Z, Naruto, and other such shows have gained traction in the US. You can walk into a store and purchase Eastern goods. And the US has reacted with various shows. America has also enriched Jeti Li and Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
Alternatives are good, exporting quality products is better. We make Blade Runner. The Japanese made Ghost in the Shell. Both very good products, that anyone can watch and not be embarrassed to say its quality. Perhaps it is Norway that needs to step up production, just like China.
As an aside America has also "reacted" to having cartoon blocks disappear like Toonami that used to popularize a lot of these shows on television to be replaced by shows like Build Destroy Build. Then there were excellent shows like Young Justice that was replaced by lesser quality television shows aimed at boys who like random humor. Rather it was Young Justice who were bringing in women and little girls. The show had high ratings. It was taken off the air because merchandisers wanted to sell stuff to 8-12 year old boys, and in recent years they have instead began a superhero girls show with DC characters. Ironically, Sailor Moon already did that in the 1990's through Toonami which was a profitable show with merchandise ON THE VERY SAME STATION.
So even if Americans are prolific, they do make stupid decisions. Like making unisex action shows or girl centered action shows, because it didn't hit their target demographics. Instead of just summing up success and profiting from a new, expanded audience; girls. That's the real issue.
To quote Bruce Timm the creator of Young Justice and the decades long successful DC Animated Universe: "If they're (consumers, namely girls) aren't going to buy action figures, then sell them an umbrella or something."
So yeah, I'm not too keen on "card value" with this game. Having to pay 20 usd for a craterhoof behemoth or 90+ for a Scalding Tarn when those cards may become historic artifacts at some point sounds like a really poor decision.
You can play Grixis without Scalding Tarn using Drowned Catacombs and other substitute fetches that are cheaper. Then when Tarns are reprinted in Standard, take the other fetch and use for another deck project. It's fairly simple long term adjustments.
Most of the issues are with universal pieces versus specific pieces. Affinity isn't a deck that's very good to maintain value because parts of it are probably ban worthy in the right metagame shift. However, historically it has been around since the inception of the format which lends some credibility for it to be around for a few more years in some form.
Now, taking Twin as an example. Yes the combo cards became next to worthless. Splinter Twin is a $3 card as of right now for the Modern Masters version. There are cards from that specific deck that are still good in other decks such as fetches and shock lands that maintain both value and replay value.
The issue lays with the pieces of the deck and how many different decks can be constructed out of those decks. Amulet Bloom only had good parts because Amulet Bloom pieces are necessarily specific to that deck. Affinity has some flexibility with Tezzerator and that other artifact control deck. Tron has again a lot of specific pieces, but typically parts can be used for Mono Blue Tron, Colorless Eldrazi, RG Eldrazi, or RG Tron.
Amulet Bloom for a new player without a "garage" of decks was a bad buy.
Twin was a good buy because of the effectiveness of the surrounding pieces to become Jeskai Nahiri, Grixis Control, Grixis Delver, Temur Tempo, and various other decks.
Affinity for a new player is a bad buy because of the lack of flexibility that the pieces have with other decks.
Typically there are decks that are good for entry level such as BW Tokens that can become Esper or Abzan later as "flex decks" that add upward mobility and flexibility in card buying purchases.
Ideally you want to build a deck that when you tear it apart to build another deck or two, you don't need to spend much money to build those other decks.
Which is why again I suggest having two separate decks in the start that can mix and match with other aspects of the collection to build other decks. Unless if you really have a love for that deck like Affinity or that combo deck like Amulet Bloom with the wisdom that the deck can go south if a card is banned out of that deck. Even then, you still want a good standby deck in another archetype to increase variety of replayability.
A. It's all about your land base. If you don't have a good land base you're never going to play Modern. In recent years, if you play Standard you will be getting SOME lands that are good in Modern.
B. Pick an archetype, not a specific deck. You can swap out some pieces for others.
C. Tier 2 is a good place to start, there are some cheap decks.
D. Get used to substitutions.
E. Play to your local metagame, not the Grand Prix.
F. Have two Modern decks. This is because the format has a popularity influx where certain decks vie for Tier 1 status. Equally, if you're that "one guy" who spent his milk money on building Amulet Vial combo deck and then have to quit after it got banned. It does happen, mainly combo decks.
G. Get used to looking at reprint cycles and speculation cycles:
-4th quarter around Christmas card prices tend to fall and then sharply rally during January and oscillate through summer during "Modern season"
-Modern Masters tends to place a downward pressure on prices through to the release and slightly after. Buy up specific reprints.
H. Make friends and borrow decks.
I. Buy Khans Fetch Lands now, starting with Windswept Heath->Blue->Black in that order.
J. Trade off or sell off Standard fodder at the high for Modern staples.
K. Quit Standard
That's how I got to play this lovely format owning a number of good decks. Only have 3 left I really want to build. Ironically, they're the most expensive ones :s.
What do you want to do with these decks? Are we talking Friday Night Magic, or are do you want to win at a much larger tournament? There are also some different aspects to come into play here in how to approach builds and sideboard strategies as well as deck overlap. There are also what is called "flex decks" where you can flex say Grixis to Nahiri Jeskai easily or Abzan into Jund and back.
I would look at the top tier one cards right now and reflect what you have in your collection and budge first. Then look at the larger historic decks. Jund, Affinity, and Burn are typically tier 1. I'd try out some of the tier 1 decks first, then decide on what fits your play style. Just because Burn is Tier 1, doesn't mean you will like the deck.
Looking at some of the options, there are some decent picks I didn't see before. However, there's no leeway for political effects or punisher triggers.
I personally doubt it, it's been like 2 years since Khans of Tarkir. We're looking at Nicol Bolas, so it's probably going to be a multicolor block. Which normally translates into interesting stuff.
That and also he has achieved Super Dragon Planeswalker God Super Dragon Planeswalker or SDPGSDP Nicol Bolas. Although after that will come Super Planeswalker Grixis.
1. Damnation
2. Tarmogoyf
3. Dark Confidant or Liliana of the Veil
4. Ancestral Visions
I played against Extended Battle of Wits deck, this was after Odyssey released.
A. Playing Dimir control. Haunting Echoes on his graveyard, he scooped because he didn't want me searching and having to totally reshuffle everything.
B. Another player plays blue control and plays Traumatize on his deck, nerfing his main win-con
Needless to say he did not get to enjoy the deck as much as he would have liked.
With the limited amount of answers in Magic was mainly for Limited, which hurts constructed and the trickle down towards us in Modern. The Eldrazi and new dredge cards made the format more diverse over time, the lack of new answers has stagnated decks. With Khans we saw the creation of Grixis into a tier 1 deck for a while and settling around a good Tier 2 deck for control. That was in part because of land options finally being reprinted and new removal options with Kolaghan's Command. Once those two were set in place, we also saw Mardu control peak around more as well.
The issue with Magic is not to much that there is a lack of diversity, that there is a lack of diversity within removal itself for different color combinations. Sultai's problem is not blue black, rather black and blue itself is weak on removal. Black and White face a lack of creature support that would otherwise dominate to allow Mardu to be better. With increased removal diversity over the years we may see Sultai and Mardu go the way of Grixis and become better if not already with Fatal Push.
So the move in design to return removal to it's old power level is a great start, that may very well begin to diversify Magic control once more. While Jund is an awesome deck, Sultai and other decks, similar to Grixis, need to shine.
Time Person of the Year 2006
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_(Time_Person_of_the_Year)
Or similar other "question raisers" depends on the company culture. If you're going for say a sales position, applied before without any success for an interview. Something like that can help to indicate you have a personality, but use it very sparingly and only on a company where you applied to say 50,000 times.
I feel the largest issue has been the nationalism of the Chinese and the unwillingness of Chinese firms and American firms who have large investments in China to pay those foreign workers better. China needs wealth, but also consumption. There are American products the Chinese want to buy and American goods like Magic the Gathering that do sell well. The problem is mostly the Chinese Communist Party and it's control over media and always wanting to keep labor cheap to keep exports high.
While I do not believe that the US will ever become what it was with manufacturing, you have to take into account that Trump will push more aggressively for US firms. He was elected in part to be more nationalistic and nation building at home, and I feel that he has had that rhetoric for a few years now and it will be a platform.
My largest issues with Trump are thus; he'll obliterate the healthcare system and smash it to pieces. The repeal of Obamacare will cause a lot of issues over the next two years. A gradual building on the Obamacare system with things like a health savings account system among other aspects to build on top of the system would be a good start. The repeal and replace has been one of the most ridiculous concepts I have seen as a conservative.
The flag burning amendment was inherently unconstitutional and a waste of time to even discuss.
It would be wonderful, we need shock prices to go back down.
Japan produced quality goods, their entertainment industry has a number of issues such as low pay for animators. I will say that there are many excellent products and goods that come out of Japan.
The US and equally Hong Kong have done more to forward Chinese culture than China itself has for much of the 20th and 21st century.
Khans of Tarkir
Kung Fu Panda
Bruce Lee
Jackie Chan
Anng The Last Avatar
The Legend of Korra
Jet Li was born in Beijing, China
So basically from there, Hong Kong using British ideas and adaptation created a lot of excellent works and produced some amazing stuff. The US with its fascination about the East has created some excellent works.
China's challenge to Kung Fu Panda: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/China-s-culture-clash-over-Kung-Fu-Panda-2365499.php
My own opinion is that when China, that is Hong Kong, takes the best of the west they really run with it in excellent ways.
Then we have Nigeria's booming industry: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/africa/with-a-boom-before-the-cameras-nigeria-redefines-african-life.html
And least we not forget India's reaction to Modernity is Bollywood. And they do really well with musicals, so much so that they export them globally and are well recognized.
We have to face that Disney has existed for multiple decades. Just like Marvel and DC.
But Dragonball Z, Naruto, and other such shows have gained traction in the US. You can walk into a store and purchase Eastern goods. And the US has reacted with various shows. America has also enriched Jeti Li and Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
Alternatives are good, exporting quality products is better. We make Blade Runner. The Japanese made Ghost in the Shell. Both very good products, that anyone can watch and not be embarrassed to say its quality. Perhaps it is Norway that needs to step up production, just like China.
As an aside America has also "reacted" to having cartoon blocks disappear like Toonami that used to popularize a lot of these shows on television to be replaced by shows like Build Destroy Build. Then there were excellent shows like Young Justice that was replaced by lesser quality television shows aimed at boys who like random humor. Rather it was Young Justice who were bringing in women and little girls. The show had high ratings. It was taken off the air because merchandisers wanted to sell stuff to 8-12 year old boys, and in recent years they have instead began a superhero girls show with DC characters. Ironically, Sailor Moon already did that in the 1990's through Toonami which was a profitable show with merchandise ON THE VERY SAME STATION.
So even if Americans are prolific, they do make stupid decisions. Like making unisex action shows or girl centered action shows, because it didn't hit their target demographics. Instead of just summing up success and profiting from a new, expanded audience; girls. That's the real issue.
To quote Bruce Timm the creator of Young Justice and the decades long successful DC Animated Universe: "If they're (consumers, namely girls) aren't going to buy action figures, then sell them an umbrella or something."
You can play Grixis without Scalding Tarn using Drowned Catacombs and other substitute fetches that are cheaper. Then when Tarns are reprinted in Standard, take the other fetch and use for another deck project. It's fairly simple long term adjustments.
Most of the issues are with universal pieces versus specific pieces. Affinity isn't a deck that's very good to maintain value because parts of it are probably ban worthy in the right metagame shift. However, historically it has been around since the inception of the format which lends some credibility for it to be around for a few more years in some form.
Now, taking Twin as an example. Yes the combo cards became next to worthless. Splinter Twin is a $3 card as of right now for the Modern Masters version. There are cards from that specific deck that are still good in other decks such as fetches and shock lands that maintain both value and replay value.
The issue lays with the pieces of the deck and how many different decks can be constructed out of those decks. Amulet Bloom only had good parts because Amulet Bloom pieces are necessarily specific to that deck. Affinity has some flexibility with Tezzerator and that other artifact control deck. Tron has again a lot of specific pieces, but typically parts can be used for Mono Blue Tron, Colorless Eldrazi, RG Eldrazi, or RG Tron.
Amulet Bloom for a new player without a "garage" of decks was a bad buy.
Twin was a good buy because of the effectiveness of the surrounding pieces to become Jeskai Nahiri, Grixis Control, Grixis Delver, Temur Tempo, and various other decks.
Affinity for a new player is a bad buy because of the lack of flexibility that the pieces have with other decks.
Typically there are decks that are good for entry level such as BW Tokens that can become Esper or Abzan later as "flex decks" that add upward mobility and flexibility in card buying purchases.
Ideally you want to build a deck that when you tear it apart to build another deck or two, you don't need to spend much money to build those other decks.
Which is why again I suggest having two separate decks in the start that can mix and match with other aspects of the collection to build other decks. Unless if you really have a love for that deck like Affinity or that combo deck like Amulet Bloom with the wisdom that the deck can go south if a card is banned out of that deck. Even then, you still want a good standby deck in another archetype to increase variety of replayability.
A. It's all about your land base. If you don't have a good land base you're never going to play Modern. In recent years, if you play Standard you will be getting SOME lands that are good in Modern.
B. Pick an archetype, not a specific deck. You can swap out some pieces for others.
C. Tier 2 is a good place to start, there are some cheap decks.
D. Get used to substitutions.
E. Play to your local metagame, not the Grand Prix.
F. Have two Modern decks. This is because the format has a popularity influx where certain decks vie for Tier 1 status. Equally, if you're that "one guy" who spent his milk money on building Amulet Vial combo deck and then have to quit after it got banned. It does happen, mainly combo decks.
G. Get used to looking at reprint cycles and speculation cycles:
-4th quarter around Christmas card prices tend to fall and then sharply rally during January and oscillate through summer during "Modern season"
-Modern Masters tends to place a downward pressure on prices through to the release and slightly after. Buy up specific reprints.
H. Make friends and borrow decks.
I. Buy Khans Fetch Lands now, starting with Windswept Heath->Blue->Black in that order.
J. Trade off or sell off Standard fodder at the high for Modern staples.
K. Quit Standard
That's how I got to play this lovely format owning a number of good decks. Only have 3 left I really want to build. Ironically, they're the most expensive ones :s.
There's a lot of stuff that's possible to be written from the old lore without even touching the Gatewatch.
I would look at the top tier one cards right now and reflect what you have in your collection and budge first. Then look at the larger historic decks. Jund, Affinity, and Burn are typically tier 1. I'd try out some of the tier 1 decks first, then decide on what fits your play style. Just because Burn is Tier 1, doesn't mean you will like the deck.
What are you goals? Is this FNM or larger events?
What is your budget?