the current trend of release dates is exactly in line with the past months/parts of those months going back for quite some time.
You misinterpreted the question. OP did not say that Kaladesh is more early then other fall sets, he pondered about why the fall set is only 2 months after the summer and 4 months before the next set instead of doing a clean 3/3 month split.
I noticed that OP's analysis of 2months/4months is not entirely correct and it is closer to 2.5 and 3.5 months.
I agree with previous posters that the "summer lull" effect core sets use to have on magic plays a part in this, and players can't handle 3 full months of waiting for a new fresh and exciting block, so wizards delivers the new goods earlier. they can also not produce a set end of december/early january because of the holiday season. so instead they choose end of january. It is possible that the new 2 block model and lack of core sets makes wizards rethink this release scheme and bring it close to an equal 3 month gap between each set.
Take any Eternal Masters token/advertisement and look at the borders on the advertisement side. You will see sentences in white letters on the black borders that are cut in half (meaning, you only see the upper or lower 50% of each letter). Each token I have has either 3 or 4 of these sentences. They are not complete sentences, meaning points and comma's are scattered everywhere. My 6 token cards have the following phrases on them. The order I wrote them down here is random:
Him on the pummel of his own sword
Commitment to His
Her defenders she claims to rule
and all the more
the crown and loyalty to your city (expansion symbol of conspiracy 2)
has been, with the
murderous daughter of a fallen
Marchesa would have you stand with
laws if she is not truly queen then
brought joy and relief
Marchesa, the black rose,
free citizens of Paliano (expansion symbol of conspiracy 2)
When you feel asleep last night,
treason will be
first of her name
of a usurper queen, marchesa the
the essence of his spirit. somehow,
the transfer of power
king's word, manifest in the world
a new monarchy in
When you head over to this page, you see a list of all upcoming sets with their expansion symbol except for the symbol of Eldritch Moon. However, all expansion symbols follow a very similar URL pattern. When I use that logic to and browse to this url : http://magic.wizards.com/sites/mtg/files/images/featured/EMN_SYMBOL.png I can see a symbol that looks like a moon but is definitely not an expansion symbol. Is this a joke, or a clue? In case this is already public info, you can lock this thread.
I'll post a screenshot just in case the url stops working:
Look at the bottom of a prerelease pack. There you will see a suspicious white blotch that covers about half the bottom of the pack.
If you are willing to disassemble your prerelease pack, try taking the prerelease pack apart and hold this white blotch up to a light.
(Remember that combining the dividers reveals an image of a lantern.)
That blotch was put there deliberately so people can write their names on their box, something which is hard to do on a blue surface because most ink/pencils is also blue. This info was revealed on blogatog
While I'm greatly dissatisfied with the current events, I still love Magic as a game, and I'm eager to explore new sets/themes and play limited. I don't think the future of the game is seriously jeopardized (although damages can be done). The entire hoarding/speculation/financial magic world was built on such a massively unstable footing, it's a miracle it hasn't toppled over sooner.
So, today I found out that the BFZ holiday gift box only contains 20 regular art basic lands, instead of all 25. I would really like to have one of each, but unfortunately nobody at my LGS bothers buying intro decks. Result: everybody has got loads of full art lands from booster(boxes) and fat packs, but the regular arts are very hard to collect unless you buy all the intro decks (no thanks). Do I really have to buy basic lands from an online shop?
I sort all my cards chronologically (edition) and by collector's number, except I keep commons, uncommons and rares apart. That means my shoesboxes has rows in them like this:
--plastic divider with the set name on it----
commons by collector number
-plastic divider-
uncommons by collector number
-plastic divider-
rares by collector number
-plastic divider-
basic lands (I like to keep some basic lands to theme certain decks)
This has exactly the problem you stated above. However, having vast knowledge of your cards can help in this. If you don't info about a card by heart, you can use the internet or card software. For example, if you're looking for the elvish visionary, just look at the reprint information on the upper right side of the screen.
If you're very serious about tracking your collection, you can use collection software/tools in which you inventorize your cards. I'm not a fan of this because the amount of bookkeeping necessary to track commons is more a burden than a boon.
I had very yellow cards in avacyn restored. It happened mostly in commons (phew!) and only white cards were "yellowish". It's very noticeable even without other cards.
Recently, I had problems with green cards from modern masters. They were weird faded green. I can't say they're very lighter or darker, they're just very faded, almost greyish green instead of vibrant green.
That said, this is my last attempt to point out this matter. If everybody thinks that the text is fine, great. There is nothing I can do to argue otherwise. I think we could uphold higher standards for writing, but if people think my standards are inappropriate or innacurate, then patience.
I have no problems with the original, "short and informal" conversation, but I also wouldn't mind your (haphazardly) written "improved" version. If I wouldn't know better, it almost looks like some people here are settling a personal vendetta with you, Ashiok, and are using any argument they can scramble together to bash you. We do not know the exact intent of the writer of the original passages, we can only guess on how to interpretate the "childish" dialogs. What I see in this topic is the clash of these different guesses/interpretations. That's a fine discussion to have, but I would personally like LORE discussion and less HOW IS THE LORE WRITTEN discussion. For example, I find the earlier mentioned questions about what beverages exist on ravnica far more interesting than on what the writer decides to call those beverages (coffee is fine as a metaphor for an energy instilling drink).
Wait, I'm confused. In the previous UR Gideon was exhausted and wounded and he ended up at Ravnica, but immediately fell unconscious. In this UR he's beefy and strong again and he knows exactly that Jace is having dinner at a restaurant somewhere in Ravnica. Aren't we missing a a part in between these two events?
my pile: 22 euro (magiccardmarket)
2x Blood Crypt (RTR)
1x Deathrite Shaman (RTR)
1x Avoid Fate (Timeshifted)
other pile: 22,5 euro (magiccardmarket)
1x Ugin, the spirit dragon (FRF)
It's ok valuewise by today's prices, but I don't know the trajectory of shocklands and deathrite shaman, whereas I do know standard cards are almost always priced to high. Is Ugin an exception and will he only rise in value due to his playability in modern tron?
Could it be in some boosters the basic land is replaced with the checklist card for the double faced planeswalkers? I didn't get a land in one booster but it did have a checklist. There was also a tip/token card in that booster.
Well, this sure became a much more vivid disucssion than I anticipated! The card in question was indeed Warren Instigator. I'm baffled by the spike because the card more than doubled in value in only a few days! This is not healthy. I don't think it's possible for anybody to "do their research" correctly with these kind of spikes occurring spontaneously. I'm ok with cards changing values over time but not this instantly.
With the upcoming goblin piledriver and the craze for goblin decks, I believe Instigator demand will only rise.
Anyway, I received the payment and shipped the card and that's that.
I agree in a sense that it is not that easy to find obscure collector/promo information on these forums, but maybe a forum isn't the best way to bundle this information. when you combine the Magic Librarities and The MTGsalvation wikipedia, you'll find most information. Sample deck decklists, why a certain card is special, differences between a spanish and an english version of the card etc.
I'm going to play the devil's advocate for a second here. Did he really cheat? He presented a 60 card legal deck to his opponent. He had a legal 15 card sideboard, except he likes to keep one of the cards under his ass. He did not touch the card he hid away. Of course I'm not denying this is shady and the only reason for such behaviour would be the intention to cheat, BUT he did not cheat during that game.
What should you do? You're been given some advice here already, and you've probably got your own ideas too. Think good about the consequences of whatever action you deem necessary. Will it affect your friendship? Will it damage his reputation? Will he get banned from the store?
This article was a difficult read for me, and I constantly lost my focus after a few sentences in each paragraph. It would have helped for me if you summarized a bit more and be a bit less poetic in your writing. I'm saying this because I care about this topic but after reading I was confused rather than enlightened. I just dind't get the point of many attempts of you making a point. It's ok if your writing style doesn't match my reading skill.
You misinterpreted the question. OP did not say that Kaladesh is more early then other fall sets, he pondered about why the fall set is only 2 months after the summer and 4 months before the next set instead of doing a clean 3/3 month split.
I noticed that OP's analysis of 2months/4months is not entirely correct and it is closer to 2.5 and 3.5 months.
I agree with previous posters that the "summer lull" effect core sets use to have on magic plays a part in this, and players can't handle 3 full months of waiting for a new fresh and exciting block, so wizards delivers the new goods earlier. they can also not produce a set end of december/early january because of the holiday season. so instead they choose end of january. It is possible that the new 2 block model and lack of core sets makes wizards rethink this release scheme and bring it close to an equal 3 month gap between each set.
Him on the pummel of his own sword
Commitment to His
Her defenders she claims to rule
and all the more
the crown and loyalty to your city (expansion symbol of conspiracy 2)
has been, with the
murderous daughter of a fallen
Marchesa would have you stand with
laws if she is not truly queen then
brought joy and relief
Marchesa, the black rose,
free citizens of Paliano (expansion symbol of conspiracy 2)
When you feel asleep last night,
treason will be
first of her name
of a usurper queen, marchesa the
the essence of his spirit. somehow,
the transfer of power
king's word, manifest in the world
a new monarchy in
I'll post a screenshot just in case the url stops working:
That blotch was put there deliberately so people can write their names on their box, something which is hard to do on a blue surface because most ink/pencils is also blue. This info was revealed on blogatog
Why does the gift box not contain all 25 lands?
What did you do to collect all 25 basics?
--plastic divider with the set name on it----
commons by collector number
-plastic divider-
uncommons by collector number
-plastic divider-
rares by collector number
-plastic divider-
basic lands (I like to keep some basic lands to theme certain decks)
This has exactly the problem you stated above. However, having vast knowledge of your cards can help in this. If you don't info about a card by heart, you can use the internet or card software. For example, if you're looking for the elvish visionary, just look at the reprint information on the upper right side of the screen.
If you're very serious about tracking your collection, you can use collection software/tools in which you inventorize your cards. I'm not a fan of this because the amount of bookkeeping necessary to track commons is more a burden than a boon.
Good luck!
Recently, I had problems with green cards from modern masters. They were weird faded green. I can't say they're very lighter or darker, they're just very faded, almost greyish green instead of vibrant green.
Most people don't care about this though.
I have no problems with the original, "short and informal" conversation, but I also wouldn't mind your (haphazardly) written "improved" version. If I wouldn't know better, it almost looks like some people here are settling a personal vendetta with you, Ashiok, and are using any argument they can scramble together to bash you. We do not know the exact intent of the writer of the original passages, we can only guess on how to interpretate the "childish" dialogs. What I see in this topic is the clash of these different guesses/interpretations. That's a fine discussion to have, but I would personally like LORE discussion and less HOW IS THE LORE WRITTEN discussion. For example, I find the earlier mentioned questions about what beverages exist on ravnica far more interesting than on what the writer decides to call those beverages (coffee is fine as a metaphor for an energy instilling drink).
2x Blood Crypt (RTR)
1x Deathrite Shaman (RTR)
1x Avoid Fate (Timeshifted)
other pile: 22,5 euro (magiccardmarket)
1x Ugin, the spirit dragon (FRF)
It's ok valuewise by today's prices, but I don't know the trajectory of shocklands and deathrite shaman, whereas I do know standard cards are almost always priced to high. Is Ugin an exception and will he only rise in value due to his playability in modern tron?
With the upcoming goblin piledriver and the craze for goblin decks, I believe Instigator demand will only rise.
Anyway, I received the payment and shipped the card and that's that.
What should you do? You're been given some advice here already, and you've probably got your own ideas too. Think good about the consequences of whatever action you deem necessary. Will it affect your friendship? Will it damage his reputation? Will he get banned from the store?