I'm one of the many "browncoats" or independent TO's without a store. Over the past year or two (since the time when Wizards announced the WPN program), me and a couple others have been running events on a regular basis at a local pizza shop. Our local card store is an example of a business that doesn't care about Magic players. For them, selling comic books and other products is more of a priority than selling Magic cards, and they often forget to sign up and report sanctioned events. In addition, the organizers rarely know anything about the game and kind of have a hostile feeling towards MTG players in general. Given all that crap, we've managed to create our own player network (we use Google groups to coordinate events) and still are respectful to the card store by planning our events on the days that the store is not running theirs. Once we moved our events to the pizza place, we went from having around 8 people a night to having 16-20, and my local players database now has over 100 unique people. The location we play it as much better than the card store in almost every respect because there's more space, better parking, and best of all there's food, drinks, and a bathroom (very key).
As an independent minded person, I loved how Wizards introduced the WPN program and felt like it helped a lot in building our player base while giving us the freedom to organize events how we want to. Now that this is ending and they want us to be tied to a card store in order to run premiere events and get promo foils, I can only feel that this will be an unnecessary detriment in growing the MTG player base. Oh well, guess we'll now have to open our card store in the area to put the other one out of business :evil:. Competition's a ***** right?
Worldwake is right around the corner and we're bringing back one of your favorite promotions - The Worldwake Buy-a-Box Promotion. Now is your chance to sign up to get your promotional kit, including the Twenty (20) Celestial Colonnade promo cards. Scheduling is open now!
I finally reached the Core WPN level, but it seems to be a bittersweet achievement. My main primary focus for obtaining this level was so I could run a pre-release, but when I was in the DCI site getting ready to sanction one for Worldwake it asked me which distributor I would be purchasing my product from.
Which brings me to my question: is it even possible to host a pre-release if you don't own a Magic store? I've been running all my WPN events at our local pizza parlor and it has worked out great. They have a huge party room that's free to reserve and has table space for 60 people. And they have great food, drink, and a bathroom to boot. But it seems like it will be somewhat impossible for me to host a pre-release there. What I gather is that I'll have to purchase a business license and resailers license in order to open an account with one of Wizard's distributors, and I'm not sure if this is even possible to do without a physical store.
Can anyone else out there with experience help me out?
For those who are complaining about the dumbing down of the complexity in combat, I think it's actually quite the opposite. Now instead of getting to have your cake and eat it to, you actually have to decide whether you want to block with your Mogg Fanatic and have it deal damage to the attacker, or block the attacker and do it's damage ability to another creature. This is a decision you never had to make before (post 6th edition). This also applies to sac outlets. No longer can you just block, deal damage, then sac the creature for an effect. You'll now have the decision whether or not to deal damage to the attacker, or just block the attacker and use the sac effect.
That's because you don't live in a tropical or sub-tropical region. Humidity makes foils bend almost immediately you take them from the pack. I consider my foils a menace and trade them away whenever I can.
I'll back up Lorelorn here. Last summer we had a big outdoor Magic tournmanet and unfortunately we were in the direct sun and had very little shade. While we were drafting, the cards started to really warm up to the point where they were hot to touch, and this caused the cards to warp very significantly (not just the foils). However, when the cards were put in the shade and allowed to cool, they began to straighten out again to the point where it was hardly noticable.
One deck I always try to bring back each time a new set comes out is type II zombies!! Shards and Conflux have been particularly exciting for me because they introduced a whole slew of new zombies. If you want to be greedy now, you can have 8x zombie lords in a standard deck thanks for Lord of the Undead and Death Baron.
One big downer for me was when I heard about Shadowmoor and Eventide. I had really high expectations initially for zombies because the sets were supposed to be really dark and spooky. But after the spoilers were revealed us zombie lovers were left to dry! (with the exception of Stillmoon Cavalier in Eventide).
Great show guys! I vote for a longer show. But the idea of themes for certain weeks of the month I also like (maybe just for a tiny segment in the show, because right now I like all the segments). Perhaps one week could be tribal week, one would could be spike week where Gavin talks about the meta in the current tourney format, then one week could be limited week, ect. I also miss the combo of the week :-P.
Here's a couple in case you need some for next show:
Ok, I'll have to admit that the foil Korean Rafiq definitely was tempting me so I went crazy with Magic Workstation and developed and tested three different Evil Presents decks, one for standard, one for extended, and one for legacy.
This standard deck was the first kind of deck I thought of. Basically it's a Michael Jackson deck (BW), and has the auto-win with Evil Presents with Phage and can go off on turn three with the help of a turn 2 Mind Stone. Lord of the Pit is the second best finisher taking 2 turns to kill after Evil Presents is cast. I also included Sedraxis Specter to force the player to discard (I wanted to use Hypnotic Specter but it specifically states "whenever it deals damage to an opponent" so attacking yourself wouldn't trigger it :p). Boldwyr Heavyweights is in there for some additional shenanigans like searching out your Hellkite Overlord and swinging for the fences, and then they get to swing at themselves with an 8/8 trample the following turn. One other card I felt was in theme was Sleeper Agent. Although it doesn't work with Evil Presents since you'd end up getting it back, it's fun to play by itself and then you can slap on a spirit link so that it can't hurt you and just sits there syphoning 2 life a turn. The Stillmoon Cavalier acts as a blocker for the Sleeper Agent without killing it, and can also act as a finisher.
This extended deck is a GB deck that can kill on turn 3 with a Wall of Roots accelerator and have Boseiju to protect your money spell from being countered. It includes some additional creature interactions with Evil Presents, such as Leveler which is the second best finisher after Phage and practically an auto-win. My personal favorites after Leveler is Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit, and Liege of the Pit which all hit hard if their upkeeps are not paid and can still attack. Rakdos the Defiler is a beast and forces the players to sac 3/4 of their permanents after they attack themselves. Other nasties include Sky Swallower which will give you all of their permanents and hit them for 8, Worldgorger Dragon will destroy all their permanents and hit for 7, Grid Monitor will prevent them from casting creature spells and hit for 4, Eater of Days will give you an additional 2 turns and then start hitting for 9, Vampiric Spirit and Lava Hounds will hit them for 4 immediately and then attack for 4, and Tempting Wurm will allow you to play your entire hand out for free and then hit them for 5 a turn. I also included Sheltering Ancient to give your opponents creature from Evil Presents additional +1/+1 counters to kill them faster. Some great utility cards include Dimir House Guard to search for Evil Presents or some creatures, Time of Need to search out Phage or Rakdos, and Wall of Roots for some protection and acceleration.
This legacy build is BU deck that has many of the interactions that the extended deck has, but can kill as fast as turn 1 thanks to Dark Rituals and Chrome Moxes. If you don't get the combo right off the bat, you can cycle Street Wraith for free or use a Mystical Tutor to search up the Evil Presents or Dark Rituals. I threw in some additional old favorites of mine that have some harsh drawbacks such as Juzam Djin, Demonic Hordes, Serendib Djinn, Minion of Leshrac, Kezzerdrix, Indentured Djin, Desolation Angel, Mungha Wurm, and Serra Avatar (which can kill them on their first turn).
Still some overlap issues after the 1 hour mark. Anyways, great show overall guys! (Bring tribal time with Tom back!)
My favorite shard is jund so far because I'm an old fashion beat down player. Nothing is better than smashing your opponents face with fatty creatures.
Grixis would be a close second for me because of the evilness of its creatures. Zombies, demons, vampires, so many awesome creature types. And the unearth mechanic seems pretty exciting, especially when used beneficially with Devour and other sac effects.
This would make sense because the Shadowmoor spoiler booster preview pack had the Demigod of Revenge which was the pre-release promo, so it would only make sense that the Eventide spoiler booster preview pack has the pre-release promo card.
Great show once again guys! I always enjoy when all three of you are on to cast. Before I realized that the podcast was skipping, I thought that you were trying to emphasis a point. But when it happenned again several more times, I then realized that it was just looping back like 5 or 10 seconds. Oh well. I guess it's good if you were listening and missed something (and are too lazy to rewind).
My most memorable pack was when I first started playing Magic in 7th grade and purchased a Revised starter deck. I can't remember two of my three rares, but I know that one them was the white bomb Personal Incarnation. Even though it was no Shivan Dragon (which my friend owned and was the most expensive card in the set at the time), I was happy that my Personal Incarnation could take out his dragon and could even come out of the battle alive if I had enough life to redirect the damage to myself. Therefore, I made a powerful white deck to battle against him and was happy to be able to hold my own.
Oh, and Tom may like this, but I later got into a tribal kick and ended up using my Personal Incarnation in a silly Avatar deck along with Hand of Justice, Ethereal Champion, Ebon Preator, Serra Avatar and some other highly costed creatures.
Regarding playing casual Magic drafts, here in SB we do a weekly casual draft on Tues nights, and then on Sun our local store has a sanctioned booster draft. We usually play in both, but due to scheduling conflicts some people can only do our casual drafts on Tues. Also, Santa Barbara is a small/medium sized city, so we only have one store that does Magic tournaments and they seem to be really out of touch with the game (I don't think any of the employees actually play Magic). Also, the owner is a big jerk and actually hates customers (it reminds me of Kevin Smith's Clerks, "This job would be great if it weren't for the f*$& customers."), so he tends to drive people away from the game. Whereas I try to get people into the game at work and we even hold casual tournaments during our lunch breaks with boxes of the newest card set and this really gets people excited about it and makes our work day more fun due to the friendly rivalries. Just my 2 cents.
As far as my best pre-release experiences go, I'd have to go with Lorwyn. I openned a bomby sealed pool with 2x Cloudgoat Rangers, Lilianna Vess, and Doran so I went white/black splashing green. Everyone I played was really nice and liked to chat during the match, the venue was nice (it was held at the Radisson Hotel down at LAX airport), and I ended up going 4-1 in the swiss to win a bunch of Lorwyn booster packs to bring back to share with my coworkers (as mentioned above). There was even a situation where I raced against a guy that had Guile out on the board and won! Ever since that experience, each time I've gone back down for a pre-releases I've seen a lot of the same friendly faces from before and I'll always keep looking forward to it in the future.
Sound quality was a bit suspect at the beginning, but around the 25 minutes mark it got much better (think it was Dom's fault... I like how it sounded like he blew up Tom around the 42 min mark). Still, getting 5 people to connect all together and podcast live is quite an achievement for episode 100.
Anyways, as far as the comment contest goes:
1. I got into Magic when I was in 7th grade, Fallen Empires was just out, and my friend got me into it by letting me use some of his cards from his Revised Starter deck. The mystery and intrigue of the cards really drew me into it from just looking at them and I really liked the fantasy feel of the cards. At that time, Shivan Dragon was the most expensive card in Revised and my friend had one so I really was jealous of him. My most powerful card at the time was Personal Incarnation from my Revised Starter deck, so at least I could take out his Shivan Dragon with it, but I had to be careful not to let it die! At that point I was addicted and have been playing off and on ever since. At first I really liked to create quirky and creative decks (such as a mono-black Halloween deck with Headless Horsemen, werewolves, vampires, zombies, ect.) and I was also a big tribal fan and my favorite tribes were my thrull deck and soldiers. When I got my first "real" job out of college several years ago, my coworkers really got me back into it because they hosted draft and sealed deck tournaments during our lunch breaks at work and this was my first experience at competitive limited Magic. Suddenly, the spike in me came out and I started playing in sanctioned drafts ever since. I still love the creative aspect of creating decks and I feel like that that's why limited really has kept my passion alive in Magic, and that jives well with the competitive side with me because I love to win!
2. I listen to this podcast for two reasons. One is for information, and I feel like you guys present it in an entertaining way and I like how you have different opinions and outlooks because some of you are competitive players (Gavin, Derrick) and some are casual (Tom, Dom). The second reason is that it's a great way of getting me through some of the boring times while I'm at work! It's great for background noise (for a lack of a better word) while you're doing something, such as walking around or programming at a computer. Keep up the good work guys!
I use the same box too for my decks Tom (mines about to fall apart though due to age and too much play)! It's a Rennaisance holiday gift box where it came with packs printed in all the different Magic languages at the time (think it was Italian, German, French, Japanese, and something else). It's got pictures from Mirage and Visions like King Chetah and Peace Talks right?
Anyways, just wanted to give you guys a congratz on your 98th episode. You're becoming quite the grown up podcast now, getting special Shadowmoor spoilers from Wizard's PR. Now THAT'S cool! Can't wait till next when spoiler week starts!
Obviously they're going to further flesh out the massive flavor and theme given by the original Scarecrow from the Dark. There's just so much depth!
Given characteristics from the original Scarecrow:
They hate fliers
There was more malice in its button eyes than should have been possible in something that had never known life.
Ok, maybe there isn't that much flavor in the original Scarecrow, but they did manage to make a whole race in Lorwyn out of the original Amrou Kithkin in Legends.
Other directions I was thinking about was that Scarecrows have similar abilities as a mannequin (ie, bringing something back, or copying some creature, but then dying easily).
As an independent minded person, I loved how Wizards introduced the WPN program and felt like it helped a lot in building our player base while giving us the freedom to organize events how we want to. Now that this is ending and they want us to be tied to a card store in order to run premiere events and get promo foils, I can only feel that this will be an unnecessary detriment in growing the MTG player base. Oh well, guess we'll now have to open our card store in the area to put the other one out of business :evil:. Competition's a ***** right?
Which brings me to my question: is it even possible to host a pre-release if you don't own a Magic store? I've been running all my WPN events at our local pizza parlor and it has worked out great. They have a huge party room that's free to reserve and has table space for 60 people. And they have great food, drink, and a bathroom to boot. But it seems like it will be somewhat impossible for me to host a pre-release there. What I gather is that I'll have to purchase a business license and resailers license in order to open an account with one of Wizard's distributors, and I'm not sure if this is even possible to do without a physical store.
Can anyone else out there with experience help me out?
I'll back up Lorelorn here. Last summer we had a big outdoor Magic tournmanet and unfortunately we were in the direct sun and had very little shade. While we were drafting, the cards started to really warm up to the point where they were hot to touch, and this caused the cards to warp very significantly (not just the foils). However, when the cards were put in the shade and allowed to cool, they began to straighten out again to the point where it was hardly noticable.
One big downer for me was when I heard about Shadowmoor and Eventide. I had really high expectations initially for zombies because the sets were supposed to be really dark and spooky. But after the spoilers were revealed us zombie lovers were left to dry! (with the exception of Stillmoon Cavalier in Eventide).
Here's a couple in case you need some for next show:
Dramatic Entrance + Progenitus (
All Conflux Combo:
Master Transmuter (
This standard deck was the first kind of deck I thought of. Basically it's a Michael Jackson deck (BW), and has the auto-win with Evil Presents with Phage and can go off on turn three with the help of a turn 2 Mind Stone. Lord of the Pit is the second best finisher taking 2 turns to kill after Evil Presents is cast. I also included Sedraxis Specter to force the player to discard (I wanted to use Hypnotic Specter but it specifically states "whenever it deals damage to an opponent" so attacking yourself wouldn't trigger it :p). Boldwyr Heavyweights is in there for some additional shenanigans like searching out your Hellkite Overlord and swinging for the fences, and then they get to swing at themselves with an 8/8 trample the following turn. One other card I felt was in theme was Sleeper Agent. Although it doesn't work with Evil Presents since you'd end up getting it back, it's fun to play by itself and then you can slap on a spirit link so that it can't hurt you and just sits there syphoning 2 life a turn. The Stillmoon Cavalier acts as a blocker for the Sleeper Agent without killing it, and can also act as a finisher.
4x Phage the Untouchable
4x Lord of the Pit
1x Sedraxis Specter
1x Hellkite Overlord
1x Boldwyr Heavyweights
4x Sleeper Agent
4x Stillmoon Cavalier
4x Evil Presents
2x Liliana Vess
4x Mind Stone
4x Spirit Link
3x Wrath of God
4x Fetid Heath
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Plains
12x Swamp
This extended deck is a GB deck that can kill on turn 3 with a Wall of Roots accelerator and have Boseiju to protect your money spell from being countered. It includes some additional creature interactions with Evil Presents, such as Leveler which is the second best finisher after Phage and practically an auto-win. My personal favorites after Leveler is Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit, and Liege of the Pit which all hit hard if their upkeeps are not paid and can still attack. Rakdos the Defiler is a beast and forces the players to sac 3/4 of their permanents after they attack themselves. Other nasties include Sky Swallower which will give you all of their permanents and hit them for 8, Worldgorger Dragon will destroy all their permanents and hit for 7, Grid Monitor will prevent them from casting creature spells and hit for 4, Eater of Days will give you an additional 2 turns and then start hitting for 9, Vampiric Spirit and Lava Hounds will hit them for 4 immediately and then attack for 4, and Tempting Wurm will allow you to play your entire hand out for free and then hit them for 5 a turn. I also included Sheltering Ancient to give your opponents creature from Evil Presents additional +1/+1 counters to kill them faster. Some great utility cards include Dimir House Guard to search for Evil Presents or some creatures, Time of Need to search out Phage or Rakdos, and Wall of Roots for some protection and acceleration.
1x Phage the Untouchable
1x Force of Nature
1x Lord of the Pit
1x Liege of the Pit
1x Rakdos the Defiler
1x Leveler
1x Sky Swallower
1x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Grid Monitor
1x Eater of Days
1x Vampiric Spirit
1x Lava Hounds
1x Tempting Wurm
2x Sheltering Ancient
4x Dimir House Guard
4x Eternal Witness
4x Wall of Roots
4x Evil Presents
4x Manamorphose
2x Time of Need
Lands(23)
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Gemstone Caverns
4x Swamp
4x Forrest
This legacy build is BU deck that has many of the interactions that the extended deck has, but can kill as fast as turn 1 thanks to Dark Rituals and Chrome Moxes. If you don't get the combo right off the bat, you can cycle Street Wraith for free or use a Mystical Tutor to search up the Evil Presents or Dark Rituals. I threw in some additional old favorites of mine that have some harsh drawbacks such as Juzam Djin, Demonic Hordes, Serendib Djinn, Minion of Leshrac, Kezzerdrix, Indentured Djin, Desolation Angel, Mungha Wurm, and Serra Avatar (which can kill them on their first turn).
1x Juzam Djin
1x Serra Avatar
1x Demonic Hordes
1x Desolation Angel
1x Serendib Djinn
1x Minion of Leshrac
1x Kezzerdrix
1x Indentured Djinn
1x Mungha Wurm
1x Phage the Untouchable
1x Force of Nature
1x Lord of the Pit
1x Liege of the Pit
1x Rakdos the Defiler
1x Leveler
1x Sky Swallower
1x Worldgorger Dragon
4x Street Wraith
4x Evil Presents
4x Dark Ritutal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Mystical Tutor
4x Mind Stone
Lands(19)
4x Underground Sea
4x Watery Grave
4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
3x Swamp
Other considerations not in the deck lists:
My favorite shard is jund so far because I'm an old fashion beat down player. Nothing is better than smashing your opponents face with fatty creatures.
Grixis would be a close second for me because of the evilness of its creatures. Zombies, demons, vampires, so many awesome creature types. And the unearth mechanic seems pretty exciting, especially when used beneficially with Devour and other sac effects.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/events/prereleases-na
This would make sense because the Shadowmoor spoiler booster preview pack had the Demigod of Revenge which was the pre-release promo, so it would only make sense that the Eventide spoiler booster preview pack has the pre-release promo card.
Mr. Figure of Desity should be the release promo.
My most memorable pack was when I first started playing Magic in 7th grade and purchased a Revised starter deck. I can't remember two of my three rares, but I know that one them was the white bomb Personal Incarnation. Even though it was no Shivan Dragon (which my friend owned and was the most expensive card in the set at the time), I was happy that my Personal Incarnation could take out his dragon and could even come out of the battle alive if I had enough life to redirect the damage to myself. Therefore, I made a powerful white deck to battle against him and was happy to be able to hold my own.
Oh, and Tom may like this, but I later got into a tribal kick and ended up using my Personal Incarnation in a silly Avatar deck along with Hand of Justice, Ethereal Champion, Ebon Preator, Serra Avatar and some other highly costed creatures.
As far as my best pre-release experiences go, I'd have to go with Lorwyn. I openned a bomby sealed pool with 2x Cloudgoat Rangers, Lilianna Vess, and Doran so I went white/black splashing green. Everyone I played was really nice and liked to chat during the match, the venue was nice (it was held at the Radisson Hotel down at LAX airport), and I ended up going 4-1 in the swiss to win a bunch of Lorwyn booster packs to bring back to share with my coworkers (as mentioned above). There was even a situation where I raced against a guy that had Guile out on the board and won! Ever since that experience, each time I've gone back down for a pre-releases I've seen a lot of the same friendly faces from before and I'll always keep looking forward to it in the future.
Anyways, as far as the comment contest goes:
1. I got into Magic when I was in 7th grade, Fallen Empires was just out, and my friend got me into it by letting me use some of his cards from his Revised Starter deck. The mystery and intrigue of the cards really drew me into it from just looking at them and I really liked the fantasy feel of the cards. At that time, Shivan Dragon was the most expensive card in Revised and my friend had one so I really was jealous of him. My most powerful card at the time was Personal Incarnation from my Revised Starter deck, so at least I could take out his Shivan Dragon with it, but I had to be careful not to let it die! At that point I was addicted and have been playing off and on ever since. At first I really liked to create quirky and creative decks (such as a mono-black Halloween deck with Headless Horsemen, werewolves, vampires, zombies, ect.) and I was also a big tribal fan and my favorite tribes were my thrull deck and soldiers. When I got my first "real" job out of college several years ago, my coworkers really got me back into it because they hosted draft and sealed deck tournaments during our lunch breaks at work and this was my first experience at competitive limited Magic. Suddenly, the spike in me came out and I started playing in sanctioned drafts ever since. I still love the creative aspect of creating decks and I feel like that that's why limited really has kept my passion alive in Magic, and that jives well with the competitive side with me because I love to win!
2. I listen to this podcast for two reasons. One is for information, and I feel like you guys present it in an entertaining way and I like how you have different opinions and outlooks because some of you are competitive players (Gavin, Derrick) and some are casual (Tom, Dom). The second reason is that it's a great way of getting me through some of the boring times while I'm at work! It's great for background noise (for a lack of a better word) while you're doing something, such as walking around or programming at a computer. Keep up the good work guys!
Anyways, just wanted to give you guys a congratz on your 98th episode. You're becoming quite the grown up podcast now, getting special Shadowmoor spoilers from Wizard's PR. Now THAT'S cool!
Given characteristics from the original Scarecrow:
- They hate fliers
- There was more malice in its button eyes than should have been possible in something that had never known life.
Ok, maybe there isn't that much flavor in the original Scarecrow, but they did manage to make a whole race in Lorwyn out of the original Amrou Kithkin in Legends.Other directions I was thinking about was that Scarecrows have similar abilities as a mannequin (ie, bringing something back, or copying some creature, but then dying easily).