MTG Salvation

Wow..solid reasoning on every single one of these. Fantastic, gents.

Alright, I'll stop trying to be fancy and just go for more all-purpose workhorse approach. Thanks for helping me free up some slots too..

I believe most LGS's just give these away. I would suggest you adopt that model and just donate them to whoever needs them and write it off as a good deed and making things a little easier for someone else just getting started in this game.

To your questions..

1) Why would there be? Do they stay in business by offering anything more than what the competition does? Do they stay in business by paying more, absorbing those costs and just charging more for basics than their competition? Again, seems unlikely.
2) Probably not, but here you go. (You might try running down the author on Facebook and ask him for some tips here. DJ also regularly writes for TCGPlayer, I believe.)
3) No idea but seems unlikely. Again...WHY would someone pay anything for them when, again, they can literally go to any LGS and just TAKE the basic lands they need? That said, is it really worth the potential risk of dealing with potentially very sketchy CraigsList people just to squeeze out $10?

If you figure out a way to spin straw into gold here, please let the rest of us know. We'd like to do it too!

you don't have the balls to reprint what's necessary. Because you're afraid of upsetting investors. IT'S A CARD GAME, NOT THE STOCK MARKET. GET YOUR HEADS ROUND THAT FACT.

Seems like everyone here *****ing LOUDLY about lack of 'value' of them are the same people who tried to outrace the very same (evil) secondary market by preordering stuff before they knew what was even in it. (To, you know...cash in on value.) They decided with incomplete information. In other words they gambled.

But now (like most gamblers who lose) they're mad they took a gamble and now they want to throw a tantrum about it having been a bad gamble. First, they are disappointed. Then, they get frustrated. Then they get angry. Rather than wisely taking stock of their own poor decision-making process, they would rather project this frustration and disappointment on to Wizards and predictably turn it into this righteous crusade against the 'greedy investors' of Magic. .....OK.

I see this basically every single set they release.

STOP. PREORDERING. How many people need to tell you this before you finally listen.

And now all of these angry people will come yell at ME now. Because I and my unsupportive pov are clearly part of the 'actual problem' here.

It's pretty simple. There is nothing inherently special about Core Set 19 or 'Magic's 25th Anniversary' or anything, Ok?

With that out of the way..

Are you a completely new player? Do you need to establish (or just beef up) your stock of 'basic' cards like Lightning Bolt, Llanowar Elves and stuff like that? If 'yes', then sure, I'd pick up some. At that point, you're not really cracking packs for value--you're just cracking for deckbuilding stock. And Core sets are *GREAT* for that purpose.

Or, rre you are an established player? If you are an established player, I don't care WHAT they print at Mythic or Rare. It just doesn't matter at all. You will never break even buying packs. Listen to me very carefully here: N.E.V.E.R. It always makes more sense to just buy the singles you need. Yes, even the stupid 'Buy-a-box' promo. You will spend way less. Believe me.

Buying packs is ALWAYS a good idea when you're starting out and NEVER an good idea once you have your basic staples covered.

That's about as simple (and honest) a breakdown as you'll see. I've been playing for 18 years and it's been true for me for well over a decade now. Take it to the bank.

Well, just a sec.

It's a card that will never be printed again and the effect has been shifted to another color entirely, so they probably won't just print a re-costed slightly different version of the original either.

Let's also not forget that the original version (in blue) will probably just be better 99% of the time you want to run it in a deck. In the format it will see the MOST play, i.e. Commander, this color issue becomes a lot more relevant.

It's pushing twenty years old. Compared to current print runs of Magic sets, there just weren't that many to begin with and far fewer nowadays. Like several orders of magnitude fewer.

Finally, it's just a unique, and certainly powerful (not to mention, completely open-ended) effect. I don't know if $18 is out of the question but (considering everything above) I think $4 was probably a LOT below what this card should've cost.

Like it or not, this card seems like a very reasonable buyout target. It always sucks to have to pay more for cards but this one actually makes some sense is all I'm saying. If anything, just be happy they found a workable reprint solution via the colorshift.

Gate to Phyrexia being limited to activating only in your upkeep is a huge drawback. Bombardment's value comes from the ability to activate it in response to removal or damage so that you can salvage some value off of a loss. Gate can't do this for you.

Price of Glory looks weak and narrow. I can't imagine needing or wanting this in my red cube decks. I mean, Defense Grid is just a far better version of this kind of effect, and it's not played at all.

Mirri's Guile is missing the one thing that makes Sylvan Library great, which is the card draw aspect. I wouldn't run it without that ability, even at a discount.

Battle Axe is decent, but the reason Bonesplitter is playable is because of the 1 equip cost. I could see running Axe, but it would be in addition to and not instead of Bonesplitter.

I wouldn't play Dynacharge or Mortars.

Cheers, and happy cubing!

Mirri's Guile is worth running if you value the effect, and I do. It lets you control card quality and works great with shuffle effects, all things Sylvan Library does but if it's your favorite card why not run a back up effect? I would recommend both.

Bloodforged Battle-Axe never worked out for me, I liked it in theory but that extra 1 for the equip was a pain.

Off the topof my head I would cut Markov Blademaster for Zo-Zu the Punisher, I just really like it alot and Markov Blademaster was bad in the early days of my cube.

Gate to Phyrexia is certainly a cool card. Traditionally, cubes would rather use a different source of artifact removal though, because red, white and green all have better access and can even generate card advantage along the way. Gate, on the other hand, has a lot of limitations: Upkeep only, one use per upkeep at that, and you have to sacrifice a creature to do it. Black might not mind sacrificing creatures - it might even like it - but I think unless you are BOTH a heavy artifact cube AND there is a tremendous sac theme going on in Black, it probably isn't worthwhile. More than likely, you can play more than one color (and probably even want to), and will have some way to deal with enemy artifacts. I think its novelty would wear off quickly unless you build a highly specific cube environment to favor it.

Price of Glory is another neat card, but all you're really doing is punishing instants, Flash, and a few abilities. There are a subset of decks it will obliterate. There is also a group of decks that won't particularly care. Some decks might care about losing 2 lands by using Mana Leak, but you're still giving them the option to cast it at a vital time. Cards like this, which don't absolutely prevent the opponent from behaving in their best interest, are too niche to expect them to regularly contribute to a fun cube IMO. And, on top of that, I think you'll find the aggressive red decks which (i think) would favor this card would prefer to spend the mana on something a little more aggressive, anyhow. As a final thought, I think I would sooner rather Pillage somebody's land immediately than maybe punishing them on a future turn, because I might keep them off mana for a Wrath of God, something with Price of Glory does nothing to stop and doesn't even punish.

Out of time for now, hope you find my thoughts a worthwhile read.

Quote from Leidnix »

Wasn't Worn Powerstone her heart which now powers the weatherlight?

Worn Powerstone is the powerstone that was used to collapse Serra's Realm, and is the one that powers the Weatherlight. Xantcha's Heartstone was used to power Karn...but unfortunately had the side effect of being a Phyrexian creation, causing Karn to leak glistening oil on Argentum, corrupting Memnarch, etc, etc.

Quote from Ritokure »

Quote from 5colors »

Please let this mean the deck has a man land theme.

I would love that, but the fact that the best Manland cards are in the exact colors that Windgrace isn't would tilt me so much.

You still have a fine selection of creaturelands to pick from:

• Blinkmoth Nexus
  
• Dread Statuary
  
• Ghitu Encampment
  
• Hissing Quagmire
  
• Hostile Desert
  
• Inkmoth Nexus (not likely in the precon, but listed for sake of thoroughness)
  
• Lavaclaw Reaches
  
• Mishra's Factory
  
• Mutavault
  
• Raging Ravine
  
• Spawning Pool
  
• Stalking Stones
  
• Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
  
• Treetop Village

Mostly your assessment is correct, but I wanted to call out this paragraph.

Quote from NierAutomata »

2. Card value is already too low. There are absolute minimums to which card prices can drop. A shockland can never be a penny. Why not? Because the price of the pack is $3.95 retail. It does not matter how many copies are out there, selling a shockland (the one rare in a pack) at a penny means someone somewhere somehow is taking a huge loss--player or game shop. Similarly reprinting mountains and islands does nothing to their price because they are more or less worthless.

That's not at all why a shockland will never be a penny. Shocklands are expensive because they're heavily played in Modern and EDH, and thus there's significant demand for them. There are definitely rares that are worth a fraction of the price of a booster pack. The store isn't losing money on selling those because they're selling other rares (typically, in a set that includes them, shocklands) for more than the price of a pack.

Quote from ilovesaprolings »

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

And while I love the art-appropriate and lovely concept of having Ixalan vampire themed Vampiric Tutor, I resent that the artwork is so hideous. So many Ixalan vampires, male and female, are very elegant, handsome/pretty in their art. But here, we've reverted back to depicting men, yet again, as old, gnarled, worn and unattractive. I love everything else in the art, from the candles, lanterns and feathered pens on a map etc. But contrast this to lovely Terese Nielsen depictions of Jace and Gideon, I question the high volume of disparity in MTG art with sexualized women relative to grunty gnarled brutes in depictions for men. Gives the game a distinctly hetero male exclusive vibe that I resent every time I see men depicted to be as unattractive or imposing as possible.

Honestly i would find the art ugly even with brad pitt/george clooney/johnny depp/jason momoa/ryan gosling/whoever you want.
As an hetero male i would hate the art even if there was naked emma stone instead. There are many problems with this art, the attractiveness of the main subject isn't even on top 10.
- he doesn't look like he's tutoring. Really random looking at maps isn't what tutors usually are, unless they are land tutors.
- he doesn't look scary. The idea is that you are paying for the tutoring with your blood. The idea isn't depicted by the art in any way. It's just a random studio with some maps. You can't even be sure that the guy is a vampire
- he is ridicolous. Not because he's ugly because he looks annoyed. Like a grampa who sees kids on his yard. Really his exprection isn't giving to me a "youu are gonna give me your blood" feeling, but a "can't you see i'm busy?" feeling.

The tutor art is obviously left-over artwork from Ixalan that never made it onto a card until now. And as you say it looks designed for a different card altogether, probably a Vampire Creature card that tutored for a land. Its called being cheap and hoping no one notices.

Original RAV shocks will go up in value, RTR block shocks will drop.

I'm not sure why they'd ban shocks from Brawl though

I find it weird when they reprint Promos that have already been done in the same program.

Vampiric Tutor has already been Judge promo'd (though ages ago). At least it's less egregious than when they did Judge Vindicates 6 years apart.
See also FNM Goblin Warchief, the only FNM promo to be repeated ever.