I thought maybe the fact that they didn't give Wastes its own basic land type was so that they could print more thematic colorless producing basics in new sets.
Yugioh from a financial stand point isn't about getting cards, it is about getting them now. You pay a premium for getting the best brand new cards and then in a few months they are in a tin or a deck and then the prices drop. Magic doesn't do this much. Often they will reprint cards that have a high secondary value but not until they are at least getting ready to leave Standard like when they put Elspeth in a Duel Deck a few month ago. Or they will reprint Modern/Legacy staples to drive the price down but the difference there is that there are no actively printed packs to get those cards from still.
It is about how the game is driven. Konami knows that they only have one format that is consistently played which is called Advanced. They only have two formats and they are both eternal. Advanced is their version of Legacy (it has a banned list) but the power creep is so high in the new sets that new cards still drive sales. Konami wants to cash in on these players buying single new cards because the diversity that Magic enjoys isn't there. I have seen players buy 3 copies of full pre-con decks just for a single card from each.
Wizards has cultivated a situation where so many people play Magic is so many different ways. They made a game that is fun to play sealed with from any booster pack and invented formats for tons of different points of view. Even player driven formats like Commander and Pauper have tons of people playing them. Wizards capitalizes on this by making a variety of products that range from new boosters to Commander decks and even to special draft formats like Conspiracy or the MODO Cube which makes it unnecessary to estrange collectors and speculators the same way they aren't doing that to people who like to play other formats.
I always enforce the rules, including mulligans. I give them one take back and I let them know that that was their one take back, you can't argue about it if I told you in advance that you got your one take back. This often leads the player to be more careful which is a good skill to have.
Calling the judge in these situations is rarely a bad thing. The tournament official should be there to help the player with any issues, not get them in trouble. In the case of the player with the wrong cards in their deck you won't find them penalized for this at Regular REL (which FNM has to be run at). You'll just have someone help you settle the issue that is impartial to the situation. After the match they can also help go over the player's deck to fix any further issues and get them ready for future events. When I worked for a shop I would always check the decks of new players to see if they were legal. Often new players are the sibling/cousins/children of older players who found their old cards and want to play and those decks probably aren't legal for Standard or Modern.
I totally feel you on the functional reprint rage.
Back in INN/RTR, we had Searing Spear. The Theros came along with ... Lightning Strike? Why? What's more ancient Greek than a spear?
I totally see why one doesn't reprint cards that reference specific Planes or characters ( e.g. Atarka's Command or Setessan Tactics ), but if you can make some existing card fit the theme ( e.g. Despise or Negate fit anywhere ).
Assuming MTG is still around, I imagine singleton formats are going to get a lot more regular: just run playsets of functional reprints!
It could be for the same reason that they printed Lightning Strike. Maybe Giant Spider was in the set (G and H are next to each other in the alphabet so depending on the other cards the name change could work) but they decided to go with a 1/4 instead. Ribcage Spider is obviously too far of a move as there are plenty of Green cards with letters starting after G but before R. So they just made a new card.
You have to bear in mind that the colors that can deal with Blood Moon gain an advantage because they can SB options to turn their other cards back on. One of the reasons Blood Moon can be so game breaking is that Red is weak to enchantments.
If you are raising entry fees I would say that giving prizes to lower finishers might be better than giving more to first. It would offset some of the people who won't spend the $150 with those who will now because they have a better chance at profiting.
Quick question, where is Gideon actually from? His art says Theros but Boros... Personally i think Chandra will be cool followed by Gideon. The rest im not as fussed about.
I believe he's from Akros in Theros. The boros coloured city.
Fair enough, seems like a stupid question now haha. If that's the case, and slightly off topic, how and why did he end up on Zendikar?
After what happens with Gideon after he meets Chandra and they have their adventure from The Purifying Fire. If I remember correctly he leaves the service of the Order of Heliud because they want to toss Chandra into the Purifying Fire. After some soul searching he goes to find Chandra on Zendikar (they met while she was stealing the "Scroll of Ugin" and I guess he read it too) but finds that she is gone already but the Eldrazi are wrecking the place. Being a Champion of Justice he gets into the fray.
EDIT: Remembering the name Order of Heliud and that Gideon is from Theros has caused me to ask Doug Beyer on Twitter if there is a relation to Heliod.
So tonight one of my FLGS is having Mini Masters as their late night event. You get one pack of Modern Masters 2015 and shuffle in 3 of each basic (Cryptic Command based nightmares ensue).
Then instead of getting another MM pack upon winning you have to choose a pack off the wall that has an average price tag (Conspiracy isn't allowed). The store has the entire Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash Block, the entire Theros Block and the entire Khan/Dragons of Tarkir (including Dragons in Korean) block plus Magic 2015 and Japanese Magic 2014. You think have to do this for a second time for your third pack (you get to build a 40 card min deck for round 3) and then you get another pack of Modern Masters 2015 for going 3-0.
My thought process is to go for a pack that gives a guaranteed dual land like Dragon's Maze or Fate Reforged. I then thought about going into the Theros block to try to get stuff that is easier to cast. I could just go full lotto and go for Khans for fetches since it might not matter as much as I'm thinking.
I think the OP seems to only be a player of Standard-legal expansion sets and their related core sets. He is stubbornly refusing to admit that there are a myriad of ways to play Magic. He is pretty much ignoring that people like to draft, which is why Wizards made sets tailored to drafting, such as Conspiracy and Modern Masters. He refuses to admit that Modern is a very popular format that will continue to get needed reprint support from Wizards. He must hate casual fun formats, so he just believes that Commander doesn't exist. Magic is fun because it can be played in many different formats, there is more than just freaking Standard out there.
Actually I consider vintage, or whatever it's called, to be the purest form of the game. Any cards can be played with, simple as that. Draft is fun too because of the sealed aspect of it, but the game rules are the same, it's the same game. Things like Commander are indeed not actually the Magic card game, but a different game played with the same game pieces.
By this Logic Alpha Rules should actually be the "purest" format because that was the way the rules worked back in 1993 when the game began.
Either way you are entitled to your opinion. As MaRo would say the great thing about Magic is that everyone sees it their own way. I went into my FLGS today and I was so uninspired by any packs on the wall because I really wanted to buy some more Modern Masters 2015. I came home and drafted it on Magic Online (which I'd love to hear your opinions on come to think of it) to quench my thirst. How I see Magic is different from how you see Magic which is different from how anyone else sees Magic. Not worth arguing about really.
It is about how the game is driven. Konami knows that they only have one format that is consistently played which is called Advanced. They only have two formats and they are both eternal. Advanced is their version of Legacy (it has a banned list) but the power creep is so high in the new sets that new cards still drive sales. Konami wants to cash in on these players buying single new cards because the diversity that Magic enjoys isn't there. I have seen players buy 3 copies of full pre-con decks just for a single card from each.
Wizards has cultivated a situation where so many people play Magic is so many different ways. They made a game that is fun to play sealed with from any booster pack and invented formats for tons of different points of view. Even player driven formats like Commander and Pauper have tons of people playing them. Wizards capitalizes on this by making a variety of products that range from new boosters to Commander decks and even to special draft formats like Conspiracy or the MODO Cube which makes it unnecessary to estrange collectors and speculators the same way they aren't doing that to people who like to play other formats.
Calling the judge in these situations is rarely a bad thing. The tournament official should be there to help the player with any issues, not get them in trouble. In the case of the player with the wrong cards in their deck you won't find them penalized for this at Regular REL (which FNM has to be run at). You'll just have someone help you settle the issue that is impartial to the situation. After the match they can also help go over the player's deck to fix any further issues and get them ready for future events. When I worked for a shop I would always check the decks of new players to see if they were legal. Often new players are the sibling/cousins/children of older players who found their old cards and want to play and those decks probably aren't legal for Standard or Modern.
It could be for the same reason that they printed Lightning Strike. Maybe Giant Spider was in the set (G and H are next to each other in the alphabet so depending on the other cards the name change could work) but they decided to go with a 1/4 instead. Ribcage Spider is obviously too far of a move as there are plenty of Green cards with letters starting after G but before R. So they just made a new card.
In Theros they had Lightning Bolt and wanted to add a mana but couldn't change the name to Searing Spear so Lightning Strike was born.
After what happens with Gideon after he meets Chandra and they have their adventure from The Purifying Fire. If I remember correctly he leaves the service of the Order of Heliud because they want to toss Chandra into the Purifying Fire. After some soul searching he goes to find Chandra on Zendikar (they met while she was stealing the "Scroll of Ugin" and I guess he read it too) but finds that she is gone already but the Eldrazi are wrecking the place. Being a Champion of Justice he gets into the fray.
EDIT: Remembering the name Order of Heliud and that Gideon is from Theros has caused me to ask Doug Beyer on Twitter if there is a relation to Heliod.
Then instead of getting another MM pack upon winning you have to choose a pack off the wall that has an average price tag (Conspiracy isn't allowed). The store has the entire Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash Block, the entire Theros Block and the entire Khan/Dragons of Tarkir (including Dragons in Korean) block plus Magic 2015 and Japanese Magic 2014. You think have to do this for a second time for your third pack (you get to build a 40 card min deck for round 3) and then you get another pack of Modern Masters 2015 for going 3-0.
My thought process is to go for a pack that gives a guaranteed dual land like Dragon's Maze or Fate Reforged. I then thought about going into the Theros block to try to get stuff that is easier to cast. I could just go full lotto and go for Khans for fetches since it might not matter as much as I'm thinking.
What would you pick in my situation and why?
By this Logic Alpha Rules should actually be the "purest" format because that was the way the rules worked back in 1993 when the game began.
Either way you are entitled to your opinion. As MaRo would say the great thing about Magic is that everyone sees it their own way. I went into my FLGS today and I was so uninspired by any packs on the wall because I really wanted to buy some more Modern Masters 2015. I came home and drafted it on Magic Online (which I'd love to hear your opinions on come to think of it) to quench my thirst. How I see Magic is different from how you see Magic which is different from how anyone else sees Magic. Not worth arguing about really.