MTG Salvation

Quote from Obazervazi »

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

Quote from Obazervazi »

You are allowed to dislike Wizards' business model, but "no bulk rares" isn't a solution. That would just mean vendors would charge even more for packs. Many good cards in this set would be disappointing if you opened them in a $30 pack. If you really hate the gambling aspect but don't want to buy singles, advocate for a living card game model. Just be aware that that means a lower budget for R&D, and a lower quality game.

You can CHARGE whatever you want for the product.

What matters is what people are actually willing to pay.

Making a tremendously great product sells, if you can charge super high prices for something thats actually worth it, fine.

Here we get a crap product and they STILL charge extra premium for it.

Just hope you open anything of value, otherwise its a money grave thats especially deep.

To my knowledge, the set has no MSRP. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the retailers decide the price of the product, not Wizards. All Wizards has done wrong is make too good of a product.

Wizards didn't make too good a product. MSRP is a protection for both the consumer and the retailer. When a company sets an MSRP, they take the guesswork out of "what should I really be paying for this?" for the consumer and "what should I price this at to be competitive with store y" for the retailer. Industry standard for games is a 100% markup between what the store pays and sells a game for. (before you complain, specialty clothing is upwards of 400%! your coca-cola is a 200% markup, conversely a playstation 3 had an MSRP of literally the wholesale cost). You remove MSRP and you create a lot of unnecessary work for businesses and consumers. Furthermore, it pushes the consumer to check online to determine where to shop - and often that leads to a path away from patronizing an LGS.

WoTC is going to sell these packs to the store(or distributor probably) for probably 10$ a pack. Stores have already accepted that to remain slightly competitive, that 100% markup is gone, they are operating on a 50% markup. Factor in the costs of doing business (ebay/paypal/shipping fees for online, rent/utilities/salaries/shrinkage for brick and mortar) and those packs are costing the seller 13$ each. $310 bucks a box is pretty nearly the break even point. Isn't it wonderful that WOTC removed MSRP - now the stores can sell those packs at a loss and the consumer still feels like he got ripped off.

Quote from Melkor »

Echoes is a solid reprint, but it would have been nice to have it at Rare. it feels like a card that would be actively fun and not overly busted to draft with

For the first 5 years of its life, mana echoes was a 10 cent rare. It existed in a time of mana burn and it wasn't until sliver queen as a commander came around that there was a reliable(and broken) way to utilize the card. If you were to draft this set - the only way to justify putting it in your 40 would be some myr/ramp deck and I still don't see the payoff. This is a niche card with an unfun payoff (even worse than other similar cards like Ashnod altar). As a mythic at least the price may stay above 2 dollars - as a rare it would be worse than runed halo - a card with a meteoric drop in price even with a potential application in modern/standard.

Quote from login »

So far this is my favorite showcase art for the swords.

Heh...I was just thinking this was fugly, and was like...welp now I _need_ the invention - I for one thing war and peace is just "on point"(see what I did there? :P)

Quote from Jiyor »

Nah bro! Explorers Map is way more iconic and talked about than Ballista....said no one ever.

to be fair, we have a kaladesh invention, a Secret Lair godzilla - what do you want this to be? you want to overshadow mox opal and it's variants?

Quote from Mystic_X »

Not particularly impressed, and I've always prefered the original Christopher Rush art.
Recent arts feel like gimmicky reinterpretations at best.
Honestly, the fact that WoTC has refused to reprint that original iconic art in so many years saddens me because it dishonors his memory and contributions to the game.
If you mention "Brainstorm" to most Legacy players, that's the art which first comes (and should come) to mind because that's the art which we first associated with the card. Now if you show it to most players (under 30 years old) who started playing after the first Commander set (which at least showcased the old Masques art), they act as if they've never even seen it before or as if it's the impostor misrepresenting the card which they came to know from the Masters 25 or Izzet (vs Golgari) arts.

I love my OG brainstorms, but I think there is some reason other than spite that we won't get that art. I think that especially when you go back, I don't know - anything before like OTJ or so, there is an issue with ownership/availability of the art. WoTC may have contracts for 1/100th a penny per printing or something with the artist, they may have given away/lost/destroyed the original art - or any of a number of other unfathomable reasons why we see so few original artwork reprints of vintage era cards.

Quote from Ryperior74 »

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/stoneforge-mystic-batterskull-back-together-in-double-masters/





stoneforge was leaked earlier but and it’s fantasic with the swords in draft


YEEEHAW! Another shot for batterskull for people


and way excluding the speculated there’s just two left For showcase

If that only leaves 2 showcase cards - is it safe to say we won't have the full sword of X and Y series? Either way is strange - some get full art treatment and others don't? And why wouldn't we have all 5 of the enemy ones - especially strange getting 2 red ones, and getting a popular and a garbage one.

I'm just calling it - the medallions all fit in the number crunch - they are way overpriced and cost very little reprint equity for WoTC. (jet, emerald, pearl, ruby, sapphire medalion)

What an elegant wording on Oubliette. Still - expect that to be a dollar or less and only a small price impact on AN version.

That would be an awesome snipe from Scott Fischer, assuming he had known about Nielsen's fate prior to having the art commissioned. It isn't that Wizards didn't have the right to no longer employ Terese's freelance services. Of course they do - freelance work is freelance work. But, the moment that they state that her endorsing a political view, and a marginally wacko website is the reason for the termination of the relationship - that is where I find fault. Celebrities of all walks of life - actors, singers, artists, athletes - use their fame to progress their agendas with impunity - imagine if the NBA canned Michael Jordan for saying that we should (insert random Trump agenda). That Terese did what she did (which as I understand it was "like" comments and perform the RL "like" by donating a piece of art), in a personal manner as opposed to as a representative for WoTC is a terrifying precedent. Dig deep enough in anyone's social profile and you'll find something that someone can find offense to. Wizards had 4 options to the probably 20 twitter voices representing 4 actual people who took offense to TN's social media crimes. 1) Ignore it altogether - probably the best choice 2) Support TN - say that political and social views that are not presented as representative of WOTC and are not derogatory or hateful have no impact on continued employment 3) Art direction is a completely subjective matter - even polls of players have little impact on what art an art director deems usable. Phase out her art quietly 4) Throw her under the bus to show how progressive and responsive they are.

Crop rotation is literally the first slam dunk box topper imo. I dislike the art on both previous rotations and love this one. Add in the high desirability for multiple decks (what do you do with 2 blingy atraxas?) And it just checks off all the boxes. The bling cards defy rarity and should solely be evaluated by the metrics that are relevant. How improved is the art? How long is that card on display (commander > permanent > sorcery/instant)? How many decks want that card?

They really help if you have clunky mana curves - think how nice it is to seamlessly go from casting a white knight to a lord of atlantis. I think the ur-dragon commander player in my group has about 5 or 6 of these because they open the potential to play a couple kamigawa dragons and random tarkan dragons that would have been so difficult to play

You kids these days are so lucky. When i was a kid my opponents used to destroy all my lands starting on turn 2. And you guys complain about being able to cast elks all game. Pssh...i would have been happy to be able to cast squirrels each turn but my lands were all getting 2 for 0'ed.

Truly sad this didn't get a re-imagining of the art. I hate the art on this - and of all places to have a card blinged out - the command zone is the place. Part of the reason I can't build a pirate deck - the art on admiral beckett brass is so terrible I can't look at it for more than a few minutes...

Great reprints - but why not add something niche here - it doesn't even have to be good. Color shift warden of evos isle downgrade it from flying to angels only - put unique art on the voice of provinces...so little needed to be done to make this pack offer angel tribal players something else than chasing rares.

This product could have been a home run. They could have put 7 normal themed art land and 1 full art foil per pack. They could have foiled a single card per pack like the planeswalker spellbooks. They could have given each theme a new card instead of ignoring some of them.

Like battlebond and conspiracy, they used a lot of reprint equity on this set to push sales, but like battlebond and conspiracy - 3 to 5 years down the line we won't remember this set for the reprints, but for the new cards - so why not make that the part that is highlighted?