MTG Salvation

It may seem pedantic or nitpicky or other such words, but MTG has usually been good with demonstrating such small minuet details about fishing, agriculture, and hunting. Sometimes those themes are actually predominate on the world.

For example. Amonkhet you can say with certainy had functioning farms, fishing, even orchards despite the fact that it was just this one place on the plane. Innistrad, Theros, and also Tarkir have also demonstrated similar things.

The uncertainty on something as simple as fishing or hunting on Ikoria means that the worldbuilding has failed in certain ways. The worldbuilding as a whole hasn't failed, but now the counterpoint would exist of "don't think about it to deeply" as its an acknowledgement that world is more shallow than it actually appears. Even among the basic land arts, its less about the humans and more about how alien it looks.

This reminds me of the contention between Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Fallout 3 was criticized as "big yet unrealistic" for the easiest question of "where does their food or water come from" which had seem ignored by the teams. When Obsidian took their crack at it, they included farms with chain-link fences to show that the world felt more alive in addition to other things.

It may seem unimportant, yet to a person who is using the world as escapism such details help solidify their opinions of its quality. Innistrad while a horror plane still feels like a lived in world, Ikoria is like going to a theme park that is held with bubblegum.

On the MTGNexus forums, it was pointed out that Ikoria failed in its storytelling and worldbuilding because its a new plane with only a singular set. While Dominaria worked as a single set because Dominaria for the most part is a well-established plane with a rich history, so it can get away with not having to show you as much of the very same minutiae.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

This place has become a shill echo chamber. You can’t say anything against WotC without people and moderators REEEEEing! you for it.

Remember silly, It's do as I say not do as I do.

Ignore function works great to block out the children.

5 Fetches should have been $40 for all five and they would have sold 10 times the amount they will at 165 to 200 a pop. But WotC's greed seems to outstrip their stupidity on this "Ultimate" product. Hard Pass.

Yeah and some LGS owners have described this product as "a poisoned olive branch" or "an olive branch that is actually a cactus".

And I'm certain that was the point from Wizards. As it will make their normal Secret Lair products that are direct to purchase look good in comparison to this.

Quote from chefcurry200 »

EDH isnt really casual though. Most of the people who play it are hardcore magic players and the format is terrible for beginners. Its just most of the EDH players were bad at competitive play and want a space to where they can warp the rules that suite them. If EDH was a person, it would like Yugi from yugioh when he makes up his own rules to beat whoever he is playing against. Its mental and you have to be kinda mental to be into it.

Yeah. Gets worse when you realize its recommended for new players by more experienced players and by the company itself. Its like giving your kid their first bike, but without the training wheels, and its a bike meant for an adult-sized person.

Quote from Magiqmaster »

I just came across this post on Blogatog:

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rxphantom asked: High fives for Secret Lair! My local game store, like most, was frankly doing too well, making too much money, and needed to be knocked down a peg.

First off, you have a valid question “Why can’t you run Secret Lair through local game stores?” Framing it as a passive-aggressive snide response adds an unnecessary tone to the post and most of the time will keep people from answering your question. When seeking answers, be polite. Quite often, as you’ll see with this answer, there are reasons you might be unaware of.

So why don’t we run Secret Lair through local game stores? The short answer is we can’t logistically, at least not without drastically raising the price and taking significantly longer to get the product to you.

Secret Lair is what is known as a “short window print to order” product. It requires having a single uniform ordering point, otherwise there’s no way to monitor the time cut-off. Also, with print to order, you want a single uniform shipping point. In addition, we want the product to get to as many players as possible (and yes, we’re working on the global reach issues) and many players do not have easy access to a local game store.

Local game stores are very important to us and we’re making more products than ever sold through local game stores, but not every product works cleanly through them, Secret Lair being a good example. It’s just logistically and financially unviable.

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I don't get why shipping these Secret Lair cards to LGS costs more; they could be included with other releases like Ikoria, for example. It sounds a bit bogus to me, but it might be true. Who knows?

Because this lets the scoot around many of the things they dislike.

These things being the following. Certain specialty products sitting on the shelf at some LGS, gathering dust, as nobody wants it really after the initial hype. Then you got buyer's guides coming out telling you if it should be bought or not, as they talk about things like the quality of the card stock or if the foiling was bad. Then there is the extra payment on the overhead for storing these products in some warehouse because they made more than was needed.

Buyer's guides can't be truthfully made if the product is always on limited-time offer, as they can't tell you if the card stock got better or if the foiling process improved, they can only make assumptions. The company doesn't need to pay a fee for warehouses if they only met the demand within that limited window. Products won't sit on some shelf unless a LGS owner bought as much as they could.

These are offers done in the same way as mobile games would do, attached image for an example. As they put it as this special thing up for a limited amount of time. It targets your impulse buying, your feeling of missing out. And the artwork is deliberately done to appeal to as many different demographics as possible, including children with an easy potshot example being <explosion sounds> that looks like it was ripped from one of the Clash Royal / Clash of Clans games.

The product's marketing and accessibility is very manipulative. Just take the upcoming one for example. So far these have been based on holidays in some manner. So the next one out in a few days is Valentine's Day themed. And its specifically launching on that day no less. So now you got to make a decision if you do have a significant other, how much do you save for the secret lair and how much do you spend on them? Five lairs can be around $150-$200. The only people who don't have to make this decision are those not currently in a relationship.

Then there is the lie that Mark Rosewater states about having to raise the price and that it would take longer. The increased cost is just a multiplier for how much cash they can grab. They sold Planeswalker Decks which is packaging + 60 cards. These lairs are just packing + 3-8 cards. At most the packaging might cost them a bit more. Yet when done in large runs, like in the hundred thousands, its cheap. Its only expensive if they made a few.

If that all disgusts you, good, you should feel disgusted.

https://i.imgur.com/VetI5b9.png


Where is that Tiro of Meletis?



SAUCE: https://www.twitch.tv/theasianavenger

Quote from FlossedBeaver »

Purphoros crackled with thunderous delight as hot, viscous fluid - the fruit of his creative exertions - erupted all around him, and then showered back down in an impassioned drizzle. "Ahhh, that feels good" he ejaculated.

7/6 would Purphoros again.

Ah yes, the obligatory chaff-tribal rare. Getting Deja Vu over here from Pheres-Band Warchief.

Here is what separates the octopus/leviathan/sea-serpent/kraken tribal from these: It acknowledges it would be dumb to build off one tribe with low synergy. So you might as well consolidate them into one tribal group to maximize effectiveness. Quest for Ula's Temple, Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep, Whelming Wave, Serpent of Yawning Depths. Four cards for four tribes so far.

You know what would make this legendary be better? "Other Satyrs, Centaurs, and Minoatur creatures you control get +1/+1 and haste."
That way yo have a build around-me commander that provides a more interesting deckbuilding experience.

If you think she is good because of the loot ability, she is, but that is more a normal 60 card deck where you aren't constrained by 1-of nonsense which is where people's gripes seem to stem from more.

Turn 3: Underworld Dreams
Turn 4: Deathless Knight
Turn 5: GARY for an 18 point-life swing.

Kiora going to Ikoria with her new friend Iora from Fiora.

Quote from Whalaqee »

So when do we get "Secret Lairs: ABU Edition"?

Most likely never, unless you want all the laces and blessing reprinted as rares again.

Quote from Whalaqee »

So when do we get "Secret Lairs: ABU Edition"?

Gavin said they think they had found a place they can reprint Oubliette. So expect it, Dark Ritual & Scathe Zombies ,just those and nothing else, in a lair for $39.99 next year. So there’s your ABU specific lair.

Does this guy have a mantle of melted candles on his shoulders? I thought that was his hair at first...

Also, is that a novellamental he's reading from?

Quote from Onering »

Expropriate should typically be worse than Time Stretch. Blatant Thievery is a good card, but Time Warp is better, and I'd rather have 2 Time Warps than a Time Warp plus a Blatant Thievery most of the time, especially when the former comes at a lower cost. It's a great splashy card, but it only becomes a problem when someone other than the caster votes for time. That's a problem that you should head off before it resolves by explaining how stupid it is to vote for time. 3+ time walks is usually going to be insurmountable, but a timewalk plus a Blatant Thievery should not be (at least when Time Warp wouldn't win on its own).

I can't agree here.
Time Stretch provides you an additional extra turn, but doesn't steal permanents. I doubt that you can establish as much power in your additional turn on the board as if you steal the best permanents of your opponents. Also, Time Stretch is not a solution, it doesn't remove a threat on your opponents side, Time Stretch can also be a dead card if you don't draw gas after casting it. Expropriate is just so much more of a "I win" card because of the combination of things it does.
ALso, Expropriate is better than Blatant Thievery, because it doesn't target and can steal even the scariest stuff.

Regarding the "but Expropriate is exiled"-argument: 1) if you want extra turn loops, you do not play Time Stretch but one of the cmc5 variants. Also, I have never seen a game where you would even need to use another Expropriate, if it resolves, that it's game over in 99% of cases. It's the very definition of a game ending spell.

I bet that Biorhythm has a lower quote of winning games compared to Expropriate, it's a dead card in many more cases...