I'm just happy I got my ojutai's during pre order for like $6 a piece. If I could have predicted it would jump above $30, I would have gotten much more than one playset!
Last year, it was a giant box with six planeswalkers (Jace, Liliana, Chandra, Nissa, Ajani, Garruk) in the black foil special design. Box also had a giant foam Nerf Garruk axe. Price at the con was about $100, but ebay prices were going for $400-600, with individual cards spiking at or above $100 each.
Silumgar's Scorn shows why a 2 mana counterspell is too powerful and should not have a place in standard. UB/Esper Dragons will be the undisputed #1 deck until theros rotates, then black will lose a lot of its most powerful spells (bile blight, drown in sorrow, hero's downfall etc). Then midrange decks will come back and dominate again unless mono blue or UW becomes too powerful with the next block.
Aside from mono red, Den Protector+Deathmist Raptor decks are the only midrange decks that stand a chance vs UBx control tbh. (unless they side perilous vault or land Ugin)
And mono red is tier 2 unless it splashes green for Atarka's Command and Become Immense.
edit: I'm not complaining, I think the meta is relatively diverse right now. There is a top tier control deck, a top tier aggro deck and a top tier midrange deck. A ton of other tier 2 decks and gimmicky decks that don't really matter. But hey there's at least 3 decks that can win and 4-6 decks that can place top 8. That's enough diversity for me.
So then Esper is just what what Abzan was during KTK and FRF. It's probably the best deck, but rogues will pop up every week and something different could win at any time, since Esper main deck choices are highly meta dependent.
Now, I'm not the best player in the world, but Esper Dragons is definitely beatable. It's good. It's really good. But it's not invincible at all.
Additionally, has anyone allready tested Risen Executioner? This black "Vengevine" has really caught my attention and I do expect that it is very able to create a huge problem for Esper Dragons, UB Dragons or UB Control.
- Ugin and Perilous Vault are around to anwser this but apart from those cards I do think this can be a key creature card for any Control match up including the mirror.
He's pretty good. In fact, hes really good against any deck running removal or X/4 creatures. I have two in my side and they come in more often than not. Even if he does eat removal, that's one less spell for Dragonlord Ojutai and I can likely bringing Executioner back for 4-5 mana anyway.
Already got my four day pass. Can't wait to see what they have to offer this year!
I am also attending SDCC for 4 days. Teaming up with some friends to get this exclusive.
I was at Comic Con the past two years, but unfortunately only got back into Magic last Fall... Missed an opportunity for some sweet cards or some massive cash... Not going to make that mistake this year!
Midrange totally has a place. Let's just say that as an Esper Dragons player, I cannot stand Ojutai Bant midrange running Deathmist Raptors and Den Protectors.
People who complain about "cardboard" as an investment are ignoring the collectible market. People spend millions on paintings which are nothing more than color on canvas. Is that really any different from cards? People spend tens of thousands on baseball cards and comic books. Is that really any different from Magic cards? I'm not saying that you should mortgage your house to invest in magic cards, but it is fairly easy for someone who has played for many years to accumulate a collection worth tens of thousands of dollars (just add up the value of a power 9 set plus a play set of duals and a few play sets of the higher priced Modern cards and you have a large bit of value there) without having invested more than a few thousand dollars over the years.
As someone with a modest comics collection, these are very, very different things. As already pointed out, paintings are often one-of-a-kind and/or hundreds of years old. Not really the same as mass produced paper products sold for a couple dollars.
But the biggest difference is that magic is a game and baseball cards and comic books are not. The value of a comic is almost solely derived from its rarity. Even in contemporary stuff, there's a pretty uniform price range for alternate cover art of popular series. The stories inside are often irrelevant unless it is the first reference of a new character or some timeless, pivotal storyline.
In magic, price is much more heavily dependant on playability. Magic is a game and so good cards are in more demand than bad cards, regardless of if the quantity available is identical.
So we are having prices driven up for popular cards, thus making them harder and more expensive to buy. Alternatively, no such boom will cause comics to spike and fall (though there are sometimes small spikes around relevant movie releases).
The "investment" in magic is a losing battle for most people because of the dependence on play performance. They do not under any circumstances hold value like baseball cards or comics, because if a new copy is printed of a magic card, prices of all versions fall (maybe not uniformly, but does fall). But if a new copy of an old baseball card or comic is released, it will not do anything to the price of the original, nor will it come near the value of the original. For example, a 9.8 graded copy of X-Men #1 recently sold for about half a million dollars, whereas you can buy a "Marvel Masterworks" collection of issues #1-10 reprinted in a single volume for about $10.
Bant Heroic took down GR Dragons in the SCG Open just now. Only 2 Esper Dragons in the top 8, finishing in 4th and 7th. No mono red/atarka red in top 8 at all. So there's that.
Why would you play a Flooded Strand without any Plains to search for? Another Island doesn't deal you 1 damage. Having crawled back from a handful of games at 1 life, that's very relevant.
A potentially strong beater with no trample or evasion. It's a good card, but not worth the 200 bucks it sells for. Hell, I wouldn't buy a playset for 200.
For how much less than 200 would you sell it if you had one?
I pre ordered a box myself. If I open a goyf, I'll sell it for at least 20% under the lowest eBay listing. I hate green, have no intention of ever playing him, and would rather finance a playset of snapcasters.
I've got some major concerns about long-term storage in these packs.
Don't worry, it' a small price to pay for saving the earth.
Maybe they did it on purpose to encourage people to actually open the packs instead of holding them for future selling? Dunno. But everyone seems to benefit from packs being opened. Well, everyone else who doesn't buy sealed product to sit on and resell.
So then Esper is just what what Abzan was during KTK and FRF. It's probably the best deck, but rogues will pop up every week and something different could win at any time, since Esper main deck choices are highly meta dependent.
Now, I'm not the best player in the world, but Esper Dragons is definitely beatable. It's good. It's really good. But it's not invincible at all.
He's pretty good. In fact, hes really good against any deck running removal or X/4 creatures. I have two in my side and they come in more often than not. Even if he does eat removal, that's one less spell for Dragonlord Ojutai and I can likely bringing Executioner back for 4-5 mana anyway.
I was at Comic Con the past two years, but unfortunately only got back into Magic last Fall... Missed an opportunity for some sweet cards or some massive cash... Not going to make that mistake this year!
As someone with a modest comics collection, these are very, very different things. As already pointed out, paintings are often one-of-a-kind and/or hundreds of years old. Not really the same as mass produced paper products sold for a couple dollars.
But the biggest difference is that magic is a game and baseball cards and comic books are not. The value of a comic is almost solely derived from its rarity. Even in contemporary stuff, there's a pretty uniform price range for alternate cover art of popular series. The stories inside are often irrelevant unless it is the first reference of a new character or some timeless, pivotal storyline.
In magic, price is much more heavily dependant on playability. Magic is a game and so good cards are in more demand than bad cards, regardless of if the quantity available is identical.
So we are having prices driven up for popular cards, thus making them harder and more expensive to buy. Alternatively, no such boom will cause comics to spike and fall (though there are sometimes small spikes around relevant movie releases).
The "investment" in magic is a losing battle for most people because of the dependence on play performance. They do not under any circumstances hold value like baseball cards or comics, because if a new copy is printed of a magic card, prices of all versions fall (maybe not uniformly, but does fall). But if a new copy of an old baseball card or comic is released, it will not do anything to the price of the original, nor will it come near the value of the original. For example, a 9.8 graded copy of X-Men #1 recently sold for about half a million dollars, whereas you can buy a "Marvel Masterworks" collection of issues #1-10 reprinted in a single volume for about $10.
Why would you play a Flooded Strand without any Plains to search for? Another Island doesn't deal you 1 damage. Having crawled back from a handful of games at 1 life, that's very relevant.
Ugh tell me about it. I don't even play modern that competitively, I just want to splash him in my BW Tokens deck...
I pre ordered a box myself. If I open a goyf, I'll sell it for at least 20% under the lowest eBay listing. I hate green, have no intention of ever playing him, and would rather finance a playset of snapcasters.
Stoke the Flames, Hordeling Outburst, and Disdainful Stroke weren't exactly terrible!
Maybe they did it on purpose to encourage people to actually open the packs instead of holding them for future selling? Dunno. But everyone seems to benefit from packs being opened. Well, everyone else who doesn't buy sealed product to sit on and resell.
Between Dissolve and 10-12 scry lands, there's plenty of ways to peek at your top card.