The normal helvaults should have been better. They were built up enough that the players rightfully expected better.
That said, the people complaining that someone else got something better than they received are VERY small people. Hopefully it's just children who don't know better yet.
I have been playing magic since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Around the time of Mirage block, I decided to take all the sweet cards i had, and build a deck whose sole purpose was to have every legend ever printed in it, and called it "The Deck of Legendary Proportions", or just Big Deck (which it certainly was: 300+ cards). At the time, this was somewhat feasible, and I didn't get them all, but i did get most of them, and even included such terribad cards as Kasmir the Lone Wolf and Jasmine Boreal (Peace must prevail, even if the wicked must die). I also included 4 Birds of Paradise, because BoPs are sweet!
There were no restrictions on the SPELLS in big deck however, so I basically just included all the sweetest spells I could find. A full set of power (about half Alpha/Beta), Drains, Moat, etc. Big Papa of Big Deck was a Beta Black Lotus, which I had opened out of a pack myself in 1993. It was in pretty rough shape from the rubber bands we had used to hold our decks together, but it was unbelievably sweet to tell folks I personally had opened it out of a pack.
Then, in winter of 2000, Big Deck was stolen out of my car.
I was pretty crushed, and it took me awhile to even consider rebuilding, but eventually rebuild I did. When I did rebuild, I dropped the strict Legendary theme (Even I got tired of Ramirez Di Pietro's tall tales), but there are still a ton of legends in it. Today's Big Deck2.0 is probably still not quite as sweet as Old Big Deck, but it is still pretty sweet IMO:
Power (Pearl is on loan, the only loaner in the deck)
Duals
Closeup of the sweeter duals
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet. Bonus points to anyone who can name all the cards in all 5 Random Stuff photos (yay poor photography skills!)
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #2
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #3
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #4. I don't particularly dig
most artist's signatures, but Liz Danforth's is pretty sweet
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #5
Misprints
Stormbind & Guerrilla Tactics are miscuts (duh). Vampiric tutor & the foil Phantom Nishoba are double printed. The double printing is much more obvious in person, particularly for the Tutor. the card on the top is the Italian Mana Drain. It was chewed on a dog. Literally. Not my dog.
'Twas a sad day, that. Especially considering that it was probably just thrown in the trash after. That Lotus was so awesome. And to play with the entire deck unsleeved... super.
Ahh, JVS, you were pimp before being pimp was pimp.
PS, you should see Big Deck v2.0. It's all growed up now and too big for its britches... too many darned legends nowadays. Iffen I could figure out how to get lots of pictures here I'd post some humble pictures of the deck for the group.
Hey Matt!
It was a sad say indeed. If your big deck is 2.0, what does that make my rebuilt version? 3.0? Pretty sure yours will crush mine on pimp-ness this day, as you definitely had more resources to work with than I did/do, but here is big papa in big deck 3.0:
I hand modeled for this, and it was completely crushed before the alter. I don't think I am on the bandwagon for altering very expensive cards in nice condition, but I don't see a problem with altering anything beat. It looks even sicker in person.
I had a crimped beta underground Sea that looked identical to that one stolen out of my car in Dayton several years ago, along with a ton of other magic stuff, including a crushed beta lotus I had opened out of a pack myself.
Back before Wizards nerfed big preleases (and the prize structures), I used to attend almost every prerelease. They way they have them set up now, it is almost impossible for a group of people to win enough product to run drafts until the actual release, and I simply almost never attend any longer.
The new format was an abject failure for me personally. The turnout in Columbus on Saturday was, at a rough estimate, maybe a third of what pre-releases had been getting, and with the new neutered price structure, I simply cannot justify going back unless something is changed. I have no interest in playing in the local small pre-releases for a variety of reasons, so I am pretty much resigned to not attending any more pre-releases until something changes.
I have played probably 80% of pre-releases since Saga, so I definitely was a regular attender of these events.
I take Sudden Death as it is IMO simply the highest power card among those you mentioned. I have not drafted this format enough to form color preferences, which could impact what I take a week from now. For nwo, I'm just taking the best card, and IMO that is Sudden Death.
Whispers is SIX mana to draw a card and keep whispers. SIX mana. The only reason it saw play was because it was suplimented by OTHER good card drawing and incredibly broken counters like Counterspell, Forbid(with the buyback...), Dismiss.... Whispers is not a broken card.
Whispers is not a broken card. It's plenty good though, and will see play even without Forbid.
The only cards that see more than extremely fringe play that are not available online at all are the P9.
jvs
That said, the people complaining that someone else got something better than they received are VERY small people. Hopefully it's just children who don't know better yet.
jvs
I have been playing magic since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Around the time of Mirage block, I decided to take all the sweet cards i had, and build a deck whose sole purpose was to have every legend ever printed in it, and called it "The Deck of Legendary Proportions", or just Big Deck (which it certainly was: 300+ cards). At the time, this was somewhat feasible, and I didn't get them all, but i did get most of them, and even included such terribad cards as Kasmir the Lone Wolf and Jasmine Boreal (Peace must prevail, even if the wicked must die). I also included 4 Birds of Paradise, because BoPs are sweet!
There were no restrictions on the SPELLS in big deck however, so I basically just included all the sweetest spells I could find. A full set of power (about half Alpha/Beta), Drains, Moat, etc. Big Papa of Big Deck was a Beta Black Lotus, which I had opened out of a pack myself in 1993. It was in pretty rough shape from the rubber bands we had used to hold our decks together, but it was unbelievably sweet to tell folks I personally had opened it out of a pack.
Then, in winter of 2000, Big Deck was stolen out of my car.
I was pretty crushed, and it took me awhile to even consider rebuilding, but eventually rebuild I did. When I did rebuild, I dropped the strict Legendary theme (Even I got tired of Ramirez Di Pietro's tall tales), but there are still a ton of legends in it. Today's Big Deck2.0 is probably still not quite as sweet as Old Big Deck, but it is still pretty sweet IMO:
Power (Pearl is on loan, the only loaner in the deck)
Duals
Closeup of the sweeter duals
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet. Bonus points to anyone who can name all the cards in all 5 Random Stuff photos (yay poor photography skills!)
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #2
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #3
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #4. I don't particularly dig
most artist's signatures, but Liz Danforth's is pretty sweet
Random stuff I think is particularly sweet #5
Misprints
Stormbind & Guerrilla Tactics are miscuts (duh). Vampiric tutor & the foil Phantom Nishoba are double printed. The double printing is much more obvious in person, particularly for the Tutor. the card on the top is the Italian Mana Drain. It was chewed on a dog. Literally. Not my dog.
The entirety of Big Deck.
Cat added for scale
Hey Matt!
It was a sad say indeed. If your big deck is 2.0, what does that make my rebuilt version? 3.0? Pretty sure yours will crush mine on pimp-ness this day, as you definitely had more resources to work with than I did/do, but here is big papa in big deck 3.0:
I hand modeled for this, and it was completely crushed before the alter. I don't think I am on the bandwagon for altering very expensive cards in nice condition, but I don't see a problem with altering anything beat. It looks even sicker in person.
jvs
I had a crimped beta underground Sea that looked identical to that one stolen out of my car in Dayton several years ago, along with a ton of other magic stuff, including a crushed beta lotus I had opened out of a pack myself.
jvs
jvs
jvs
jvs
jvs
I also still hate the new card frames.
I also hate the recent pre-release changes. So much in fact that I have gone from going to nearly every pre-release, to never going now.
jvs
I have played probably 80% of pre-releases since Saga, so I definitely was a regular attender of these events.
jvs
jvs
jvs
Whispers is not a broken card. It's plenty good though, and will see play even without Forbid.
jvs