The set is called 'Zendikar Rising'. Why do you think it's 'rising'? Look at some of the art they've revealed already also— the set will very clearly have a theme of being in the aftermath of the Eldrazi. There won't be any actual Eldrazi on plane or on cards, but their former presence will clearly be felt in art and lore.
Uhuh, no one is claiming that Zendikar isn't healing from the Eldrazi, but the idea that they have all been wiped out and WotC should ignore that they exist(ed) is just silly. Just because BFZ was terrible and Eldrazi got tiring doesn't mean you ignore an active and living world.
Again, I am not arguing for a set filled with them, but a few in the set isn't going to suddenly mean the eldrazi are coming back full force. You fumigating your house to get rid of ants doesn't mean all ants disappear forever.
The new design space I LOVED that OGW introduced was colorless mana now matters. MaRo has gone on record saying that to do more of that in future sets requires colorless mana resources set aside in the expansion design to make it work, but that’s always something I wish they explore more of, maybe in Zendikar Rising.
This is something I've been waiting for. They made colorless mana matters and we haven't seen any of it in near five years. It amazes me that there hasn't been one other card since then that requires colorless mana.
On Arena there's a new symbol- the gold filled circle with a black hollow circle in it. Its the symbol for multicolored cards to sort by in the collection filter / deckbuilder.
This would make a nice new mana symbol to go along with the "must be colorless" symbol that I agree is way underused.
This symbol would be "Must be colored mana, and if multiple symbols appear must be different colored mana than any other mana used for this symbol". Would be useful for multi-modal spells that pay attention to how many/what colors were spent on them, could be Omarth's signature theme, etc.
If they wanted too do this. I’d drop commons almost entirely from the pack sense bulk of chaff is tbere. 8 Cards
3 Commons
2 Uncommons
1 Uncommon/Rare Land (25% chance to upgrade).
1 Uncommon/Rare (10% chance to upgrade. 100% chance if Mythic)
1 Rare/Mythic (5% chance to be mythic. If Mythic one of rares/uncommon are garunteed Rares)
What would you charge a pack?
For what is listed I wouldn't pay over $4 like a Draft Booster for 8 cards and only one guaranteed rare. Needs to have at least 2 guaranteed rares.
Put 100 boxes up for sale on the website and take bids for them. Anyone who bid more than one standard deviation above the mean gets a box at price = mean plus one standard deviation.
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
I don’t... what does this even mean?
Looking at MTGTop8, I count about 140 commons/uncommons that appear in at least %1 of Modern decks.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
That.... actually sounds awesome. With no MSRP out, printing a NO-Chaff-All-Staples set would be great from a game accessibility standpoint as well as an economic experiment standpoint.
WotC would simply have to sell this direct from the website, using Amazon/Uber-style flexible pricing so that they get an appropriate slice of whatever the market thinks the set is worth.
And they'd simply have to call it "Expected Value Master's". There's just no other choice.
When Zendikar first came out, it had a lot going on. It had the first appearance of enemy fetchlands. It had 'priceless treasures' repacked as a for-bearer of the lottery cards we got years later. Landfall was one of the best mechanics designed in a long time, finally overcoming the shortcomings of drawing unneeded lands late-game. It was the first block ever to feature vampires as a proper tribe (this was around the time that the Twilight movies were popular, so an obvious move), but most of all it was toted as Magic's version of a plane most resembling Dungeons and Dragons (which lets not forget that WotC also owns).
While Magic has never had an official crossover with D&D yet, D&D has had a couple Magic planes (Ravnica and Theros) as source material for campaigns. Zendikar was a sort of love letter to those of us who really loved the classic D&D settings and tropes. Adventuring guilds, quests for all sorts of reasons, deadly traps, the list goes on. To say that Zendikar has no identity without Eldrazi is pretty weak in my opinion.
The fact that so many of you are saying "Zendikar has no identity out side of the Eldrazi is precisely the problem created by the Eldrazi. Moonliteknight gets it, as do others. Zendikar had more identity without the Eldrazi than many other sets/blocks. However once the Eldrazi arrived, they steamrollered all of that flavor and depth with their one loud note. Which is kinda exactly what happened in all limited games and most constructed games during those blocks. It doesnt matter what deck you were running, what strategy you were using, during the midgame an Eldrazi would show up for one side or the other (since they were colorless and everyone had them) and whoever got theirs first simply won. That's why many of you think that the Eldrazi is all there was, because they're pretty much all that mattered.
That's not prog rock that the masses don't understand. That's a top-40's hit from a band that only knows two chords and uses them in all of their songs.
People on both sides of the political spectrum go after people who don't think like them. Let's not get tribal in these forums and believe that "my side in innocent and your side is evil"
Therese shouldn't have been let go. Outside political views should have no bearing on your work, period.
Disagree if you want, it's an extreme and Fascist view to disagree with issues of free speech.
Liberalism FTW.
Lol at "Disagree if you want, but disagreeing with me makes you fascist."
This is a free speech issue on both sides, goofus. The artist has free speech, and freedom of her political views. The company has the freedom to decide if they want to amplify her free speech/views by associating with her and popularizing her. The company has used their freedom to decide that they don't. The company has not prevented the artist from associating with whom she likes, nor imprisoned her, and they're honoring existing agreements to continue to pay her for her work.
Unless you're advocating that the company shouldn't have the freedom to do that? That the law and the government can tell you who you must and who you cannot associate with? (That would be fascism, by the way) And while you're reading up on the actual definitions of the words you're using, Liberalism is the political movement that suggests people should be able to make choices instead of the government making the decisions for them.
<snip>
edit: Sorry I'm a little salty about this, I just had a 3 hour phone conversation with a police officer I used to know who has adopted similar views to the ones being discussed and now thinks that the executive effectively issuing a blanket writ of attainder against protesters is just fine under the law, so the slippery slope of exactly what is being discussed here is very real at the moment and I failed my saving roll versus soapbox just now.
And no it's not like card previews it's probably similar to how they started with throne of eldraine with only pictures and only giving minor info on the set
Probably also gonna reveal the next 4 sets (and who the walker choice for core 2022 is)
Cool. Will there be lots of marketing material identifying the cards just waiting for enough sales before the banhammer?
This doesn't really affect anything magic wise. Since we've opened back up at reduced hours (from 12-10 down to 2-8) and only seating about 1/3 - 1/2 the normal number of people, we still make the same average daily sales as we did pre-virus. The few times we did hold larger events, barely anyone showed up, but it didn't affect the bottom line. Everyone is still buying cards and other products even if they're only playing casually. The only thing that is truly suffering is D&D night. We used to have 60+ people show up every Tuesday night for that, but now we have angry parents telling us we're disappointing their kids by not letting them come and play.
As a parent, I have to wonder about the bolded part of your statement.
1) WTF? Parents are angry because your near-free childcare service is interrupted for the kid's safety??
2) unless I'm misinterpreting the "their" and " them" because the kids are disappointed because the parents aren't hanging around your store allowing the kids to be at home in peace? That I can understand.
i didnt think that the mechanic itself was busted, i think some of the cards that had the mechanic were busted. if lurus would have been a 6 mana card to begin with, we would have had much less talk about this mechanic
a guaranteed draw card should just not be overpowered, and i think this is a lesson they should have already known from commander.
No, sorry. A guaranteed 8th card in hand is just overpowered, full stop. It works in commander because everyone at the commander table has that guaranteed 8th card in hand. Companions make you play commander in standard when if people wanted to play commander they would just do that. This horse is glue.
And I see several of you asking for land destruction. I used to play land destruction back in the day. It wont ever happen again. First off, WotC doesnt like it because it creates noninteractive games. Permission and Prison decks are bad enough (from their perspective) where you try to do your thing, but the prison deck creates conditions where what you just did is irrelevant. Land destruction prevents you from doing your thing. WotC wont go for that.
And the person who said 3CC LD is too slow... that's the second thing. Land Destruction's goal is to trap you in the midgame and prevent you from developing to your endgame. Its just... there's no midgame anymore. Most decks have a few opening moves accomplished with 1 or 2 mana, and then they're able to do everything they want to do with 3 or 4. Land destruction wont stop the kinds of decks we see now, that fun 23 lands in the deck trying to have 4 on the board to win.
Best thing I can think of is:
{G/B}{R/G}{R/B}
Sorcery
Destroy target nonbasic land.
If {B} was spent, exile that land instead.
If {R} was spent, deal 2 damage to any target.
If {G} was spent, shuffle this back into your library.
or
{G/B}{R/G}{R/B}
Sorcery
Destroy target nonbasic land.
If {B} was spent, that land's controller loses two life.
If {R} was spent, you may destroy up to one target artifact.
If {G} was spent, search your library for up to one basic land and put it into your hand.
Someone's gotta be able to translate this so we can find out if it really says "two extra large: one sausage, one mushroom, MaRo will pick-up, order pre-paid by credit card" or something...
Hi. I'm the Internet. I'm about 35 years old. Have we met?
On Arena there's a new symbol- the gold filled circle with a black hollow circle in it. Its the symbol for multicolored cards to sort by in the collection filter / deckbuilder.
This would make a nice new mana symbol to go along with the "must be colorless" symbol that I agree is way underused.
This symbol would be "Must be colored mana, and if multiple symbols appear must be different colored mana than any other mana used for this symbol". Would be useful for multi-modal spells that pay attention to how many/what colors were spent on them, could be Omarth's signature theme, etc.
Put 100 boxes up for sale on the website and take bids for them. Anyone who bid more than one standard deviation above the mean gets a box at price = mean plus one standard deviation.
Rinse repeat the next day/week/whatever.
That.... actually sounds awesome. With no MSRP out, printing a NO-Chaff-All-Staples set would be great from a game accessibility standpoint as well as an economic experiment standpoint.
WotC would simply have to sell this direct from the website, using Amazon/Uber-style flexible pricing so that they get an appropriate slice of whatever the market thinks the set is worth.
And they'd simply have to call it "Expected Value Master's". There's just no other choice.
The fact that so many of you are saying "Zendikar has no identity out side of the Eldrazi is precisely the problem created by the Eldrazi. Moonliteknight gets it, as do others. Zendikar had more identity without the Eldrazi than many other sets/blocks. However once the Eldrazi arrived, they steamrollered all of that flavor and depth with their one loud note. Which is kinda exactly what happened in all limited games and most constructed games during those blocks. It doesnt matter what deck you were running, what strategy you were using, during the midgame an Eldrazi would show up for one side or the other (since they were colorless and everyone had them) and whoever got theirs first simply won. That's why many of you think that the Eldrazi is all there was, because they're pretty much all that mattered.
That's not prog rock that the masses don't understand. That's a top-40's hit from a band that only knows two chords and uses them in all of their songs.
Lol at "Disagree if you want, but disagreeing with me makes you fascist."
This is a free speech issue on both sides, goofus. The artist has free speech, and freedom of her political views. The company has the freedom to decide if they want to amplify her free speech/views by associating with her and popularizing her. The company has used their freedom to decide that they don't. The company has not prevented the artist from associating with whom she likes, nor imprisoned her, and they're honoring existing agreements to continue to pay her for her work.
Unless you're advocating that the company shouldn't have the freedom to do that? That the law and the government can tell you who you must and who you cannot associate with? (That would be fascism, by the way) And while you're reading up on the actual definitions of the words you're using, Liberalism is the political movement that suggests people should be able to make choices instead of the government making the decisions for them.
<snip>
edit: Sorry I'm a little salty about this, I just had a 3 hour phone conversation with a police officer I used to know who has adopted similar views to the ones being discussed and now thinks that the executive effectively issuing a blanket writ of attainder against protesters is just fine under the law, so the slippery slope of exactly what is being discussed here is very real at the moment and I failed my saving roll versus soapbox just now.
"no longer work with" =/= "go after".
Art =/= game design
Carry on.
Cool. Will there be lots of marketing material identifying the cards just waiting for enough sales before the banhammer?
I keed, I keed.
/Veto.
Prereleases are the only tournaments worth showing up to for many of us.
It would actually be better if they held the prerelease before spoiler season.
As a parent, I have to wonder about the bolded part of your statement.
1) WTF? Parents are angry because your near-free childcare service is interrupted for the kid's safety??
2) unless I'm misinterpreting the "their" and " them" because the kids are disappointed because the parents aren't hanging around your store allowing the kids to be at home in peace? That I can understand.
Blake snarkily says "we already told you this, many times, here's a link to a place where we very much did not tell you this...
No, sorry. A guaranteed 8th card in hand is just overpowered, full stop. It works in commander because everyone at the commander table has that guaranteed 8th card in hand. Companions make you play commander in standard when if people wanted to play commander they would just do that. This horse is glue.
And I see several of you asking for land destruction. I used to play land destruction back in the day. It wont ever happen again. First off, WotC doesnt like it because it creates noninteractive games. Permission and Prison decks are bad enough (from their perspective) where you try to do your thing, but the prison deck creates conditions where what you just did is irrelevant. Land destruction prevents you from doing your thing. WotC wont go for that.
And the person who said 3CC LD is too slow... that's the second thing. Land Destruction's goal is to trap you in the midgame and prevent you from developing to your endgame. Its just... there's no midgame anymore. Most decks have a few opening moves accomplished with 1 or 2 mana, and then they're able to do everything they want to do with 3 or 4. Land destruction wont stop the kinds of decks we see now, that fun 23 lands in the deck trying to have 4 on the board to win.
Best thing I can think of is:
{G/B}{R/G}{R/B}
Sorcery
Destroy target nonbasic land.
If {B} was spent, exile that land instead.
If {R} was spent, deal 2 damage to any target.
If {G} was spent, shuffle this back into your library.
or
{G/B}{R/G}{R/B}
Sorcery
Destroy target nonbasic land.
If {B} was spent, that land's controller loses two life.
If {R} was spent, you may destroy up to one target artifact.
If {G} was spent, search your library for up to one basic land and put it into your hand.
Brilliant price for what is supposed to be an entry-level product. Well done WotC Market research!
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/lore-jumpstart-cards-2020-06-22
There's this.
Someone's gotta be able to translate this so we can find out if it really says "two extra large: one sausage, one mushroom, MaRo will pick-up, order pre-paid by credit card" or something...