Yes, the cool reprint sets that helped manage modern prices are being replaced with theme sets that will generally suck.
Pretty much. It wouldn't be so... concerning perhaps if the two flagship products introducing this paradigm weren't so terrible. I dislike draft and learning why Imperial Recruiter is Mythic only cements that dislike.
I am right there with you. They might turn things around (and I thought I recall them saying that they'd still do format-based Masters sets, just not as often), but starting the new series off with by far the two worst Masters sets they've come out with does not exactly give me confidence. Also? If they want to emphasize draft more, they shouldn't sell them for 10 @#$%&!! dollars a pack. I even asked my brother once if he'd ever be interested in drafting a Masters set, and he flat-out said that it would be pointless when we could draft a regular set for a third of the price.
Most interesting reprint in the Duel Deck, for me, is Darksteel Plate after that this is about what I expected. It was way too expensive for something that's still rather easy to remove.
Yeah, I agree. That's been in need of a reprint for ages. It has no reason to be over $10. Personally, I was hoping that Rhys the Redeemed would be the face of the elf deck (mainly because he is also desperately in need of a reprint), but...oh well.
Other than that, the new legendary frame looks neat, but I don't like the mana change, and I have mixed feelings about the burn spell change. While getting rid of the planeswalker redirection rule was good, "any target" sounds like Alpha wording to me, and some of them definitely don't make sense hitting planeswalkers (such as Blightning). Nerfing player hexproof isn't nice either.
I pretty much never find character deaths satisfying unless they're villains, but I do think that some of them are handled worse than others. As the original poster said, it tends to make me feel like I can never get invested in characters because they'll just die, and a lot of the time, it comes off as the author just killing them off for shock value or toying with the readers. The timing can affect it a lot, too (*looks accusingly at the Animorphs series*). A couple of deaths I can think of that were actually reasonable were Yahenni's (because they were doomed anyway, lived their life to the fullest, and died peacefully) and
Crow
in The Seventh Tower. Overall, though, they have a marked tendency to rub me the wrong way.
Honestly, I'd rather have more ways to get around opponents trying to kill my stuff. We could use Heroic Intervention in M19, or more things like Glyph Keeper. I'd like to see Defense Grid again, too.
too much respect for the secondary market, the health of the game and availability of cards should come far above worry about collectors and speculators taking a hit on you reprinting a card.
WotC has made FAR too many binding promises to collectors - people who don't even actively pay it forward to the community at large - they hoard their collectibles like Smaug in the Hobbit - no one else is allowed their bounty. How is that productive, or of financial benefit to Wizards?
I just hope "for draft" can stop being the catch-all excuse for intentionally poor sets. This product wants to be a reprint set and a draft set and simultaneously failed at both. Too expensive to draft, too cheap on value to bother with. Next time, make a solid set filled with value and people can draft a mess of powerful reprints if they want. People will draft anything. And guess what, they won't feel remorse afterward, either. Because guess what really screws up a draft? People having to take their rare because it's $50 and pass the rest. Or suffocate pulling 10 cent rares for ten dollars. So this set being "for draft" as the priority was never going to work. Stop trying to be so many different things and just deliver on reprints.
What's everyone's problem with Kaladesh block? I thought it was pretty great, maybe even great enough to outdo Return to Ravnica for me, and that's not something to take lightly.
I actually have a deck very similar to this, at least in terms of being a RW deck that uses copious small, cheap creatures to gain a lot of ETB triggers. Mine focuses less on the lifegain, though. (I have nothing against lifegain, but it wasn't really the point of that particular deck.) I don't have Norin or Purphoros (though I want to get both eventually) nor much in the way of good dual lands, but I do have Impact Tremors, Mentor of the Meek, Massive Raid, Cloudgoat Ranger, Outpost Siege, Cathars' Crusade, Hellrider, Anointed Procession, Twilight Drover, and I did include Burn at the Stake as well. I doubt it's competitive for Modern, but I only ever play casual anyway. Other cards I've considered for it or a similar deck include Auriok Champion, Call for Unity, Eerie Interlude, Elemental Mastery, Foundry Champion, In the Web of War, Jinxed Idol, Path of Bravery, Saltskitter, Springjack Shepherd, and Thraben Doomsayer.
I am right there with you. They might turn things around (and I thought I recall them saying that they'd still do format-based Masters sets, just not as often), but starting the new series off with by far the two worst Masters sets they've come out with does not exactly give me confidence. Also? If they want to emphasize draft more, they shouldn't sell them for 10 @#$%&!! dollars a pack. I even asked my brother once if he'd ever be interested in drafting a Masters set, and he flat-out said that it would be pointless when we could draft a regular set for a third of the price.
Yeah, I agree. That's been in need of a reprint for ages. It has no reason to be over $10. Personally, I was hoping that Rhys the Redeemed would be the face of the elf deck (mainly because he is also desperately in need of a reprint), but...oh well.
Other than that, the new legendary frame looks neat, but I don't like the mana change, and I have mixed feelings about the burn spell change. While getting rid of the planeswalker redirection rule was good, "any target" sounds like Alpha wording to me, and some of them definitely don't make sense hitting planeswalkers (such as Blightning). Nerfing player hexproof isn't nice either.
Say it again for the people in the back.
Right?! Talk about a master of no trades.