MTG Salvation

Quote from Manite »

I could see a Combo Masters product having cards like Splinter Twin, Bear Umbra, and Panharmonicon. But, rather than a set full of just reprints, what if they did a supplemental set dedicated to combos, much like Battlebond was dedicated to 2HG?

But I thought Hasbro regretted Urza's block?

EDIT:
Skimming back through those sets. I can't even joke - they were just so, so good.

Same thing I pray for with every reprint set:
Pauper-legal Ajani's Pridemate

You'd probably be okay with the big Eldrazi and even the bomb 6-drops, as long as you keep their enablers in check. Like Grave Titan isn't unfair if it comes out through natural land drops on turn 6-8, and is even probably fine if you burn some resources to play it Turn 4 off a Diabolic Servitude, Dark Ritual or Worn Powerstone, just be careful with effects that outright disregard normal Mana limits.

I won't speak for LayShade, but when I talk about tuning Mana curves, I'm not as worried about the mean as the skew - I want more spells that can be cast/cycled/suspended/evoked at 2 Mana than 3, more at 3 than 4, and more at 4 than 5, with as few as possible over that.

Then, the harder part is tweaking & making sure that same curve is present and appropriate within my archetypes.

The easiest way to test is just to do some drafts - actual or simulated - and see what cards your decks want, and what kinds of cards they flood out with.

Some examples I waste a lot of time with:
-4 drops: These slots are insanely competitive; it's easy to overload on any of them, but a lot of the time, a good card needs to be replaced with a worse one at a lower cost, or for a different style of deck
-Aggro high-drops: Most aggressive decks want one 5 Mana spell at most. No need to dedicate more than 1-2 EDIT:Aggro 5-drop slots/color. Cards over 5 Mana that want to be aggressive need to be handled deliberately
-"Cheat" targets: There's a balancing act to have enough uncastably expensive fatties to reward your ramp/reanimate/etc drafters, but not enough to weigh down other players' decks
-1 drops: Almost every one is a low-impact card that transfers badly to other archetypes. But without maintaining enough to keep aggro healthy, cube turns into a draw-based mid-range slugfest.

Edit: All these are super subjective, and vary a lot by your goal. If you want to play up tribal synergies, Millstone strategies, etc., you'll probably want more tribal-based aggro, and more expensive/less impactful ramp and reanimation targets

Edit2: ^Thanks for the callout! But as a quick disclaimer, I haven't gotten around to sorting my main 540 on cubetutor, so the analysis results are a little funky

If everyone else is playing budget decks with a lot of basics, Blood Moon could easily be a $200 playset of 3-mana Darksteel Relics

I like how TtB knows exactly what you're using it for.


Like Nahiri 2.0's Eldrazi-specific synergies

Comment Hidden

I would hesitate to add Mill, Infect or Storm cards that don't win the game on their own or contribute to a more general strategy.

Those are almost always terrible - both for the decks trying to build around them, and for the other players who would otherwise see more usable cards in draft

Edit: Likewise for cards with other parasitic mechanics like Lys Alana Huntmaster or Darksteel Forge that only do anything in one specific deck. Thief of Sanity, Imperious Perfect or Bosh, Iron Golem are examples of thematic cards that work in multiple decks while supporting a specific Mill / Tribal / Artifact plan - they have an archetypes where they do a lot, but they can also be jammed in other decks and do something. The less all-in a strategy is, the better it is for a draft environment

What I don't understand is why you think that's a bad thing. Manufacturers bend over backwards and spend tons of money to "compete with themselves." Hasbro wants more products taking up shelf space, and if the long-term consequence is printing and shipping fewer tons of commons, I'm sure they're not going to complain.

That point doesn't make sense here or in the other thread.

WotC isn't going to be put out if they get the same amount of money while printing/packaging/shipping fewer pieces of cardboard.

They're not losing anything "competing with their own product line"; they're trying something that would apply a hatchet to their operating cost.

I would skip the common, cycling and maybe tri-colored lands. What your cube looks like now - and what it sounds like with things like Sol Ring coming in - is a real power gap between cards.

That's normal to an extent - in a vacuum Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Wurmcoil Engine and Jackal Pup or Pestermite aren't even close to the same power levels - but they're normalized because those bad cards are part of combos or archetypes where they contribute something important to the game plan.

Right now, your list has a lot of cards that aren't good enough to make retail draft decks, and that don't really have decks for them. Supporting aggro at 360, I want a minimum 5 attacking 1-drops in aggressive colors and at least 10 attacking 2-drops per color. My highest priorities would be shifting the curve down to center around 1-3 mana slots, getting the downright bad cards out ASAP, and then evening out the guilds - I'd give 2 cards per color pair to start, and adjust by taste afterward.

Shocks and checklands are a solid mana base. With the exceptions of ONS/KTK/ZEN fetches and Alpha-Beta duals, you'll get declining benefits from land slots once you have those full cycles, so I probably wouldn't touch lands after that until your colors themselves are better balanced

Seeing people complain about this on Facebook is so annoying. Go play Yugioh. You'll get hammered into oblivion just trying and Konami will spit in your face for it. No one is obligated to buy this product. It's only a plus to have these cards available to those who can and will, rather than not. Because if we didn't have some promise of reprints, some addition to the card pool, then the secondary market will run wild with its prices. And at that point, who does everyone blame? Never the hoarders or scalpers, it'll be WOTC fault for not reprinting more. And if the reprints are too accessible? Their fault again for not honoring MTG as a collector's game. It's hilarious to me that the complaints are that these reprints may not lower the price of the secondary market cards - MAY NOT, neglecting the fact it's a valid possibility it may - and neglecting the fact those secondary market prices are the fault of the losers who establish them because MTG isn't a game, but an investment to them.

An investment.

Laughable.

Quote from Hertz »

Quote from RedGauntlet »

Quote from Hertz »

The only thing that is ridiculous regarding this set is the comments and attempts to justify intellectual property price based on costs. I will remind you that any personal copy of music you listen or game you play costs literally zero to be delivered to you; yet you pay for it.

If you think that $300 is too much - well, guess what, just don't buy it. Whining about that is like going to Lamborghini forum and spending a day complaining that you cannot afford one.

Good point. Time to print some proxies then. hell i heard the cinese counterfeits are looknig great these days. They will be quite cheap.

Sure, you are free to do this.
But don't be surprised if one day your favorite author stops to write books, your favorite artist stops to produce music, and Wizards stop to support Magic.
You know, WotC is not a non-profit charity, and game designers want to eat as well. At least until we teach AI to design new MTG sets and lore.

With these type of products it will be their fault for their own failure. Won't shed a tear since i wasn't able to aford their products anyways. Why should i care? I'm dirt poor from their perspective. if i not proxied i wouldn't get the product anyways. Made no diference other than the fact im still pplaying the game, keeping my interested until a point i would be able to buy one of their products. Hey thanks piracy.

Quote from Hertz »

Quote from RedGauntlet »

Quote from Hertz »

The only thing that is ridiculous regarding this set is the comments and attempts to justify intellectual property price based on costs. I will remind you that any personal copy of music you listen or game you play costs literally zero to be delivered to you; yet you pay for it.

If you think that $300 is too much - well, guess what, just don't buy it. Whining about that is like going to Lamborghini forum and spending a day complaining that you cannot afford one.

Good point. Time to print some proxies then. hell i heard the cinese counterfeits are looknig great these days. They will be quite cheap.

Sure, you are free to do this.
But don't be surprised if one day your favorite author stops to write books, your favorite artist stops to produce music, and Wizards stop to support Magic.
You know, WotC is not a non-profit charity, and game designers want to eat as well. At least until we teach AI to design new MTG sets and lore.

Wizards ceasing to support magic is preferable to what they are doing now.

Also daily reminder WotC does not care about the secondary market. /sarcasm

Quote from idSurge »

Quote from RedGauntlet »

Quote from Hertz »

The only thing that is ridiculous regarding this set is the comments and attempts to justify intellectual property price based on costs. I will remind you that any personal copy of music you listen or game you play costs literally zero to be delivered to you; yet you pay for it.

If you think that $300 is too much - well, guess what, just don't buy it. Whining about that is like going to Lamborghini forum and spending a day complaining that you cannot afford one.

Good point. Time to print some proxies then. hell i heard the cinese counterfeits are looknig great these days. They will be quite cheap.

That is certainly one perspective, and say's a lot about a person. :]

Pirate life for me.

The problem with Steel Hellkite is that not only does it fail the Vindicate test, but also the Manic Vandal test...

I used to ru this dragon in the early days of my Cube, but unfortunately it has felt outclassed by other high curve creatures.

Quote from DirkGently »

Quote from DudeFromDenmark »

I´m no expert in making artwork but the size of the humans head seems too big compared to the body. Something seems off

hooray I'm not alone.

Dude looks like a bobblehead of himself.

I also assume this means an end to All Art Must Look Like Photography, since this one looks watercolor?