I think your going to have a hard time convincing me of that. The secondary market impacting reprint value has a huge relevancy to Wizards prolonged health.
It's pretty basic economics. The lower the cost of a product, the bigger your potential overall profit is. Walmart makes billions an an extreme version of that model.
Think about how many people are priced out of Modern, even with a relatively inexpensive deck like Burn. Not only that, but Wizards sees zero profit from a constructed Modern deck. I can give you a real world example of such an effect; try and find a Commander 2017 precon anywhere. Wizards has made a ton of money from supporting that format and selling decks for $40, even though a DIY copy of, for example, the Ur-Dragon deck will set you back more than $100.
Nah I would expect something like the BW Tokens deck. Cards like Shocks, Check Lands, the nuts and bolts of Path and IoK...maybe a Filter Land, a Fetch (single) and stuff like that.
Pre-Con with MULTIPLE $50 dollar cards? That would be them shooting themselves in the foot.
WotC doesn't care about the secondary market value of cards, though, because they don't benefit from it. A good $40, 75-card precon would make them a ton of money.
Not necessarily. There are degenerate combos, ramping, and library manipulation throughout the history of Magic. Yeah, you'd like Ancestral Recall, but would you really complain about using Brainstorm instead?
An Open format also creates design space for the RnD team and, I think, would be every bit as diverse as Modern.
As an aside, condensing two formats leaves the slate open to adopt Commander as an official format.
So, this is an admittedly crazy idea, but why not axe Vintage and Legacy (which are fundamentally dead formats) and replace it with an Open format? Bring the most degenerate deck you can. No restricted or banned list would be a feature of the format.
I just don't understand how people can hate Tron so much and clamor for Control. Like I keep saying, Tron is my primary deck. I kinda feel that it is very close to what people are looking for in a Modern control deck. it tries to stall, both try to win off of powerful lands, and both try to win off of just a few backbreaking threats. Every deck tries to make it hard to interact in a way that could stop their game plan. if you aren't doing that, it's not a good deck, period. What is the justification for being eager for a Draw-Go deck that may very well win with just manlands and hating a deck that uses strong lands in another way?
My big thing is that I can't relate to so many ban maniacs because I really only look at speed. I dislike Storm because it is too fast. I disliked Bloom because....well, fast and the Pact win just felt really cheap. I loved life during full power Jund. it was strong as hell, but it wasn't hugely FAST. idk, that's just me.
I'm probably the biggest Draw-Go advocate on this board and I don't feel that Tron needs any sort of ban. I feel like Magic as a game is at its best when one player can get everything together to make their deck work at the expense of the other player. This only becomes a problem when a deck is too good at doing it against the field. Tron doesn't meet that criteria by a long shot.
Ironically, after discussing his great distaste in modern, Brennan DiCandio is currently in the semifinals of the Open today.
He admitted in his post game interview that his distaste for modern came entirely from his lack of success. That entire article was disingenuous in the extreme.
Omg, I just read the DeCandio article, and it's just embarrassing. It comes off like a toddler whining and stomping their feet about everything being unfair.
I've said a few times already, but as I'm grinding out games online, that RUG deck just flat out murdered me. Even the beating you can get from Traverse 4C DS isnt as bad.
BBE, AV, Jace + Scooze + Goyf + Bolt + Tracker, just buried me, and its not like I didnt interact (I was on UWR w/Jace), I just didnt have enough to get the job done, even when I got my own Jace online, I didnt have the pressure needed to make any kind of comeback.
Thats the scary deck to me.
Yeah, the Temur deck is basically built to crush control and other midrange decks. They have a really hard time against combo and big mana, though. I'm not sure the deck is even viable because of how bad those matchups are, even with Jace.
As for the unbans so far, I haven't been playing much Magic recently but I've been watching a ton on streams since the unbans. Here's my hot take: BBE is going to be more impactful than Jace. It's the complete opposite of what I would have thought before the unban. I thought BBE would be played in Jund, and maybe create a Temur deck, but I didn't think it would do much beyond that. Jace I thought would be very good. BBE has been totally nuts in the different shells I've seen people testing it in, while Jace has been really good in some shells at times, but mediocre to bad at other times. It's also reminded me that the shells BBE goes into were just better decks already than the shells Jace goes into. I think there will be a tier 1 Jace deck when the dust settles, but the lower power of the rest of the blue control suite will keep it from being the broken monster people are afraid of Jace creating.
Honestly, most of the existing control shells are bad for Jace because people aren't going in on blue enough. My deck splashes white for Hindering Light and Supreme Verdict and red for Mindswipe. That's it. I don't even run Cryptic, it's too mana greedy for what it does.
I feel like tapout control is the wrong style of deck for Jace. You either want him to tutor up a backbreaker or something cheap and instant that gains advantage in some way.
No, her card is used as a placeholder in Chandra's planeswalker deck display pack. Same as Jace is the placeholder card in Tezzeret's display deck, and Vraska is the placeholder in Teferi's deck.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that Huatli makes any appearance in the set, particularly given that we know she went to Kaladesh.
Have you looked at the booster packaging for Dominaria? Huatli is quite clearly one of the characters.
Wanna bet?
Sure. I have a foil As Foretold I can put up.
I actually need that for my charity cube!
I can offer an Onslaught fetch land in sleightly played condition.
So Huatli is in Dominaria as well and rocking new threads. Makes me wonder if that "Wind Mage" is in fact Narset.
No, her card is used as a placeholder in Chandra's planeswalker deck display pack. Same as Jace is the placeholder card in Tezzeret's display deck, and Vraska is the placeholder in Teferi's deck.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that Huatli makes any appearance in the set, particularly given that we know she went to Kaladesh.
Have you looked at the booster packaging for Dominaria? Huatli is quite clearly one of the characters.
So Huatli is in Dominaria as well and rocking new threads. Makes me wonder if that "Wind Mage" is in fact Narset.
No, her card is used as a placeholder in Chandra's planeswalker deck display pack. Same as Jace is the placeholder card in Tezzeret's display deck, and Vraska is the placeholder in Teferi's deck.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that Huatli makes any appearance in the set, particularly given that we know she went to Kaladesh.
Have you looked at the booster packaging for Dominaria? Huatli is quite clearly one of the characters.
I don't think Wizards agrees with the assertion that Modern is filled with interactive decks. There are so many people claiming that Jace doesn't matter because Modern is so fast.
If that's the case, then Wizards clearly feels that Modern needs to slow down. The only way to slow down a format is to empower blue permission. Reprinting Brainstorm or unbanning Ponder is out, for obvious reasons. The only way Wizards has right now to accomplish that mission is to unban Jace. I personally don't believe that's going to be enough, which is why I believe Daze and Counterspell will see print in Dominaria.
As a long time control player, although of the Draw-Go variety, I have to say congratulations. The salt in Twitch from the Aggro players was so, so sweet. That was a fun match to watch.
Reprint Daze and Grip of Amnesia in a Standard legal set
Physical Misstep
U
Counter target spell with CMC 1
Mana Vortex
X U W/R
Counter target spell with CMC equal to X, then choose one:
-Draw cards equal to X
-Gain life equal to X
-Deal X damage to Target opponent
It's pretty basic economics. The lower the cost of a product, the bigger your potential overall profit is. Walmart makes billions an an extreme version of that model.
Think about how many people are priced out of Modern, even with a relatively inexpensive deck like Burn. Not only that, but Wizards sees zero profit from a constructed Modern deck. I can give you a real world example of such an effect; try and find a Commander 2017 precon anywhere. Wizards has made a ton of money from supporting that format and selling decks for $40, even though a DIY copy of, for example, the Ur-Dragon deck will set you back more than $100.
WotC doesn't care about the secondary market value of cards, though, because they don't benefit from it. A good $40, 75-card precon would make them a ton of money.
An Open format also creates design space for the RnD team and, I think, would be every bit as diverse as Modern.
As an aside, condensing two formats leaves the slate open to adopt Commander as an official format.
It's great to have an opinion and all, but we're playing for stakes now. Care to throw in?
I'm probably the biggest Draw-Go advocate on this board and I don't feel that Tron needs any sort of ban. I feel like Magic as a game is at its best when one player can get everything together to make their deck work at the expense of the other player. This only becomes a problem when a deck is too good at doing it against the field. Tron doesn't meet that criteria by a long shot.
He admitted in his post game interview that his distaste for modern came entirely from his lack of success. That entire article was disingenuous in the extreme.
Honestly, most of the existing control shells are bad for Jace because people aren't going in on blue enough. My deck splashes white for Hindering Light and Supreme Verdict and red for Mindswipe. That's it. I don't even run Cryptic, it's too mana greedy for what it does.
I feel like tapout control is the wrong style of deck for Jace. You either want him to tutor up a backbreaker or something cheap and instant that gains advantage in some way.
Seems fair. You're on.
Sure. I have a foil As Foretold I can put up.
Have you looked at the booster packaging for Dominaria? Huatli is quite clearly one of the characters.
If that's the case, then Wizards clearly feels that Modern needs to slow down. The only way to slow down a format is to empower blue permission. Reprinting Brainstorm or unbanning Ponder is out, for obvious reasons. The only way Wizards has right now to accomplish that mission is to unban Jace. I personally don't believe that's going to be enough, which is why I believe Daze and Counterspell will see print in Dominaria.
Physical Misstep
U
Counter target spell with CMC 1
Mana Vortex
X U W/R
Counter target spell with CMC equal to X, then choose one:
-Draw cards equal to X
-Gain life equal to X
-Deal X damage to Target opponent