It would probably be easier to focus on decks that use the same colors, that way there will be a lot of crossover between the manabases in your Modern and Legacy decks.
My bet is that Ral, Domri, Dovin, Kaya and Jaya will all die, along with a handful of nameless Planeswalker Red Shirts. Most of these characters will have fulfilled their narrative usefulness at the end of the story, so you may as well use them to turn up the Planeswalker body count (otherwise the "war" will have like 1 casualty and will thus not be a "war" so much as an intramural scrimmage game). If they want to make it spicy, they could easily kill Samut and Arlinn, since we are not likely to go back to either Amonkhet or Innistrad any time soon and, when we do, the planes will be given a new status quo anyway.
what about an evolving draft format, where what subsets of cards are in print changes between print runs? So the set has (for example) 280 different cards, but any booster only holds a selection from a subset of 260. Probably wouldn’t be a good idea to change rares/mythics due to collectibilty issues, but for example shifting a top common in each colour (ambuscade in first print run swapped with Prey upon in the second, or the common red burn spell going from 3 to 2 damage could have a significant impact). Could also play around with the multicolour «build-around» uncommons, or the manafixing could change drastically with something like the memorials being swapped out for vivids.
Would keep the format fresh,
and «truths» about best/worst decks/colours/commons would need to be constantly evaluated.
for the love of all that is good, we do NOT need a new format just for drafting. In my opinion WoTC needs to figure out a way - and fast - to get new cards and reprints directly into eternal formats by skipping Standard entirely. Standard and draft are bound at the hip to eachother.
Making more products to cater to Standard and draft is the OPPOSITE of what this game needs right now. This game needs a lifeline for its eternal formats and if WoTC has been watching closely lately, they would see that the community is wanting some of these "Innovative Products" to start being innovative in how they address the subject of supply/demand and not some new cardtype, keyword or re-tooling of rarities
I know Gavin said it was a "maybe" for Straight-to-Modern cards in a future set but, I have a feeling that is exactly what WotC is going to do. Not many at first. Maybe like 10 or 15 cards. Nothing crazy, just cards that help nerf some powerful Modern decks and help bolster weaker decks. If the trial is a success, then they will add more new straight-to-modern cards next time. If it turns out to be a mistake, then they will apologize and never do it again.
Agreed. It is one of the lamest aspects of Pro Magic.
It's what you get when you want to force a more or less static "pro community" but also don't want to change your competitive events not to rely so much on variance. Something like a 60% game win rate is considered to be pro-level play in Magic, but if you propagate that over a large event... it's still not enough to ensure at least some of the usual faces are always at the top.
So they figure, hey, give up to three free wins to those players to "even" it out, while at the same time denying such opportunities to the average player (winning a GPT used to get you three byes but they cut it down to two because... I guess they just don't want to admit the system is horribly broken). Combine that slap in the face with the fact that costs are spiraling out of control, in addition to the declining quality of GP coverage, I'd say Wizards either needs to implement some kind of price control or just get rid of GPs entirely. Maybe do more PTs if they want to showcase the pros so much. But the main event of a GP will sure as **** never be worth it for most players as long as Wizards' priorities are so skewed.
I get the distinct impression that GPs are on the way out anyway and we are simply in the transition year between the old system and the new system.
Maybe the gimick is that the "old-school spark" is like a hot potato and a bunch of people us it for a short time? So we get super powerful Planeswalkers?
Hm, makes me think of the Monarch mechanic from Conspiracy2. Imagine the legendary creatures of the set have a "Planeswalker mode" - they become the 'sparkholder' and gain the ability to use that mode if they (fulfil some starting condition), or if they inflict loyalty loss on an existing sparkholder they take the spark...
Oh man, that would be a lot of fun! I wonder if a Sparkholder is dealt damage by a qualifying legendary creature if the Sparkholder flips from being a super Planeswalker back into a normal legendary creature?
Gavin has also talked about WAR doing something completely new and exciting.
My bet is that it will have Planeswalkers at uncommon or guaranteed one per pack.
I think MaRo indirectly nixed this idea when talking about the number of Planeswalkers per set in a recent article. Something about not wanting to unbalance Standard with Planeswalkers. They would have to have a lot of Planeswalkers in the set to make one per pack viable without ridiculous amounts of duplicates in a display.
I thought WAR would be PW-heavy too, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have more than normal, because I can't see them not including the Gatewatch and Bolas in the set.
Then what is so exciting and different about the set? Maybe all of the Planeswalkers will just be creatures (to represent them losing their sparks to Bolas who wants to combine all the new sparks into one old-school spark?).
Maybe the gimick is that the "old-school spark" is like a hot potato and a bunch of people us it for a short time? So we get super powerful Planeswalkers?
[quote from="The Decepticon »" url="/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/805106-gp-attendance?comment=6"]Besides, without going into it that much, those players earned that right
Thats arguable.....but more importantly it shouldnt be something thats on the table imo. If you wanna give out other monies/prizes, fine....but everyone should have to play the same number of matches in a given tournament
</blockquote>
Agreed. It is one of the lamest aspects of Pro Magic.
I bought a pre-release kit the other day. My foiled dated card was Rakdos the Showstopper! Then in one of the packs, I pulled ANOTHER Rakdos the Showstopper! I also pulled a Blood Crypt! All I could think after opening the packs was - wow - this kit was absolutely wasted by me just cracking the packs for no value!
Still, it has inspired me to make a Rakdos, the SHowstopepr Commander Deck.
A $30+ card probably won't be reprinted in a commander precon. If it is reprinted it will be in a "wacky draft" booster pack set, as others have speculated.
Not to mention releasing it in a Commander Pre-Con will not really bring its price down substantially, so al lyou would really be doing is harming Commander players who wanted the deck that Oubliette came in.
i haaaaaaaaaate this approach.
it keeps viable, needed, commander reprints from being printed where they belong. wotc controls the supply. they need to get their ***** together and put reprints like these back into the commander precons, and if those precons are selling too well to the noncommander players... increase supply.
i mean, those precons went from a medium to facilitate needed reprints, things that even commander players wanted to buy multiples of, to boring samey garbage largely because of this factor. where people might've bought 2 or 3 because of high value reprints, now they do for the legacy plant, and no other reason. meanwhile, staples that are easily reprinted, staples that every commander player wants... climb in price. while a product that can have any of them reprinted in it, deoesn't, because they're $30+ dollars and "including those would make the product sell to noncommander players"
I think the issue is when one deck becomes more popular then the others, because retailers have to order boxes, which come with the same number of each deck in them. So to facilitate demand for the popular deck, stores have to foot the bill for all the less popular decks.
Of course, WotC could put equally popular (or roughly so) cards in each deck, then this would not be as much of an issue... But that requires careful planning, planning that I think WotC is oftentimes pretty bad at - hence why they just don't put good cards in at all.
A $30+ card probably won't be reprinted in a commander precon. If it is reprinted it will be in a "wacky draft" booster pack set, as others have speculated.
Not to mention releasing it in a Commander Pre-Con will not really bring its price down substantially, so al lyou would really be doing is harming Commander players who wanted the deck that Oubliette came in.
If you switch Oubliette to Phasing, then it will gain an additional ability - 502.15i When a permanent phases out, any local enchantments or Equipment attached to that permanent phase out at the same time. This alternate way of phasing out is known as phasing out "indirectly." An enchantment or Equipment that phased out indirectly won't phase in by itself, but instead phases in along with the card it's attached to.
Equipment will Phase Out with the Creature, in addition to Enchantments.
6 does not feel like a "war".
I know Gavin said it was a "maybe" for Straight-to-Modern cards in a future set but, I have a feeling that is exactly what WotC is going to do. Not many at first. Maybe like 10 or 15 cards. Nothing crazy, just cards that help nerf some powerful Modern decks and help bolster weaker decks. If the trial is a success, then they will add more new straight-to-modern cards next time. If it turns out to be a mistake, then they will apologize and never do it again.
I get the distinct impression that GPs are on the way out anyway and we are simply in the transition year between the old system and the new system.
Oh man, that would be a lot of fun! I wonder if a Sparkholder is dealt damage by a qualifying legendary creature if the Sparkholder flips from being a super Planeswalker back into a normal legendary creature?
Then what is so exciting and different about the set? Maybe all of the Planeswalkers will just be creatures (to represent them losing their sparks to Bolas who wants to combine all the new sparks into one old-school spark?).
Maybe the gimick is that the "old-school spark" is like a hot potato and a bunch of people us it for a short time? So we get super powerful Planeswalkers?
I have a theory that some will will work like Sagas (set abilities each turn), and their third ability flips them into Creatures...
Agreed. It is one of the lamest aspects of Pro Magic.
My bet is that it will have Planeswalkers at uncommon or guaranteed one per pack.
Who formatted these dates? Why would you put the day first? This makes no sense. It should be ordered by Year->Month->Day
Still, it has inspired me to make a Rakdos, the SHowstopepr Commander Deck.
I think the issue is when one deck becomes more popular then the others, because retailers have to order boxes, which come with the same number of each deck in them. So to facilitate demand for the popular deck, stores have to foot the bill for all the less popular decks.
Of course, WotC could put equally popular (or roughly so) cards in each deck, then this would not be as much of an issue... But that requires careful planning, planning that I think WotC is oftentimes pretty bad at - hence why they just don't put good cards in at all.
Not to mention releasing it in a Commander Pre-Con will not really bring its price down substantially, so al lyou would really be doing is harming Commander players who wanted the deck that Oubliette came in.
Equipment will Phase Out with the Creature, in addition to Enchantments.