So I just started sorting through a bunch of my sleeves and I have found some glaring issues. I have a tendency to buy a new pack of ultra pro matte or slightly glossy sleeves for every draft and sealed event I play in. Well going though them now I have realized that well over 40% of a 100 pack of sleeves has a weird indentation that sticks out of the back of the sleeve. I didn't really pay attention during drafts or sealed events at the local stores but at a larger event or trying to play constructed in any way I would have to replaced nearly half the sleeves of ALL the colors I have across both matte and glossy sleeves. This has also occurred with dragon shields as well. KMC has been the only sleeve I have ever bought that upon reflection, I could check every sleeve and find to difference in size or condition RIGHT FROM THE PACK. I even have a set of ultra pro's and 2 packs of extra dragons shields for my cube that I have not opened that with a closer glance I can see errors on the top sleeve showing in the pack that I didn't notice when I "just grabbed them" off the shelf.
So has anyone else noticed a Exceptionally large drop in video quality from this pro tour coverage. I am direct wired to my modem and have moved from medium to high to source and back and all forms lag on both live coverage and the replay while it's playing. I can't even begin to display my lack of faith in magic coverage if they cant even solve a issue like this. This has also been the first time I have seen magic coverage suffer so much. I should note I am watching on twitch.tv. I am also a bit silty that chat has been disabled and we now have to jump through serious loops to try and even find a service to live chat about coverage now that twitch is gone. For a game that seems to only want to promote more coverage and exposure, I feel they are shooting themselves in the food by having 1 to 5 second video to audio lag on source with a viewer having a 1g up/dn internet connect. To me it means I am not lagging but their backbone and connection related issues, as well as entire setup is causing this degradation of quality. I feel like I am watching a CAM of a new movie online instead of professional level video coverage. Basically I am worried that this disgrace of a level of video quality plus the lack of easy or even at-all access to chat has slapped magic coverage in the face and set it back significatnly.
It has been along time since i pick this deck up but I thought recently with the advent of dig through time and treasure cruise, has anyone thought of trying to tune to utilize those cards. I have seen no discussion at all around those cards and our ability to make a single blue here and there along with filling our graveyard for delve is pretty strait forward. I have not done any testing or moved cards around yet I just thought I would mention and ask about these 2 to open up the discussion.
Look into Hennings and Sartori cheddars from Wisconsin as well as Beechers from Seattle,Washington. Hennings has a huge line of cheddars and Sartori specializes in aged whites. Beechers flagship is on it's own level but they have a good variety as well. Also Cabot has a great line and is from Vermont. Tillimook is WIDELY available on the west coast and is extremely well known and loved. These are just some that come to mind and that I have tasted and sell everyday.
I stick with 1 deck in legacy mainly due to have 4 lion's eye diamond and 1 taiga and 1 bayou. This means that I play belcher in green red or I play spanish inquisition in green black. Both have huge weaknesses and since I prefer storm 10000% over anything else I can do in legacy I focus on that. Also it is a cross over of my much earlier days of playing grim long in vintage and I still own all the cards to play said deck minus the power. For me it is a combination of time money and effort into a format. I spend way to much time out of magic so when I do get to a event it is usually legacy and I will always play storm because I luv luv luv crushing pre five minute mark. It is just what I deem fun and the archetype I have the most practice with. I do not have a casual play group anymore and I dropped edh due to it's insane price hike over the years and general unfun-ness of the multiplayer dynamic. Now That being said I still have 1 edh deck built that I play and know like storm in legacy and vintage and it is my "go to" deck but I also branched out into building a 5 player event. This is based on the guilds of RTR and they are guild decks based and built with only guild watermarked cards and 1 of each non watermarked overlapping card. This allows me a fun semi casual time with 4 friends were we can play decks with decently ranging power levels and not feel blown out all the time or the need to gang up on 1 person each time like in a normal game of edh.
You just have to find what best suites you. For me it was falling head over heals in love with storm. Then playing it so much that "when it counts" it is the only deck I want to play and really the only one I will have fun with. Sure I can build other decks but the look I get and that giddy feeling inside when I know I can combo out uninterrupted just can NOT be beat. It is that endorphin rush that keeps me playing a bad deck but at least it is "MY" deck. For me it is that feeling of confidence that the deck I am most comfortable WILL win once I duress and don't see force daze or spell pierce. It is the turn zero on the play balls to the wall combo that keeps me coming back. No other archetype gives me that rush and that makes all the rest seem boring.
You also have to remember that during the WPN promo days people played massive amounts of events just to get more text less damnation's. I would fetch a guess that worldwide, there are more text less promo damnation's then planar chaos ones. I do think it will be in this set though but I can not stress enough how many people I knew or heard of going to every single event and shoveling cash just to get more events for the promo. Yeah it is good and in black but really if you want it then just shell the money out for it. I would rather they just drop terribad cards in here and reprint wasteland for peat's sake. WE all want more wastelands.
Your list of d0su's deck as of January is missing a card. Not sure what you left out but its only 99 with the commander. Please update for us still working on it. I am trying to update my pauper list since I have not played magic since rtr pre release.
Edit: Did you leave out gravedigger? Was it a card you replaced later in the primer?
@Masa88 I love your list. I have finally just finished putting this deck back together and will be playing more and I feel your list right now is the pact list we need to focus on. I have a giant move due to buying a house and closing at the end of the month but after that I will be getting back out to legacy events. I would love to bounce ideas back and forth with you as I don't plan on going into the burning wish plans or dropping away from the pacts. i had great success with this deck before i sold it off when survival was going crazy before it got banned. So I am used to the grind attrition plan but I have not been into magic recently and would like to work on any new idea's coming up. Your Current sideboard seems pretty hot against the HEAVY blue meta game I face here in Minnesota. Please keep us informed with your changes and ideas and I will help out as soon as I can.
Edit: I especially like that you have the tiaga still in the board. Quick question though is do you side it in for the dryad arbor when your going for the belcher/grindy plan or do you keep all 3 lands? Before when we had started bringing in the tiaga I dropped dryad arbor into the board for it so I only had tiaga and bayou post board for the grind plans and I always fetched the bayou first so that if I activate belcher and hit taiga I get the bonus on belcher. Do you do this as well?
I can and do agree with everyone here in some way shape or form. I personally LOVE to play combo in vintage and legacy and since many tournaments have edh side events for cash, I play 1 deck for those and other decks any other time. I play a Maralen of the Mornsong combo deck that pretty much wrecks tables unless everyone immediately from turn 0 goes for me. That deck just wins SCG side events for me all the time. Now when I play with friends I don't bother with it since it is a extremely linear strategy and is only good for grinding games with new people. This is the worst type of combo deck for edh casual as a format but it is hyper effective to gain monies. With friends I do not enjoy that type of play and usually go for tribal themes and hyper obscure wins with cards like Armageddon clock. I agree with op that seeing someone play azami or edric or scion just makes me want to scoup and go do ANYTHING better because they will most likely lock the whole table down some 6 to 8 turns into the game and it will be a struggle just to overcome them since I will likely be a target by someone who can't attack them and just wants to beat face. This whole mentality has been developed from playing with countless different groups and from the get go of edh as a format. I was responsible for bringing many of these people into the format and as it has developed I have come to the conclusion that it, while fun is no longer a fun format for me to sit down to outside of tournament side events.
Can't wait for people to deny my trade of cards because they don't have the holo foil stamp because the card got reprinted. They are actually screwing over the whole pre holo foil market with this change. Every card counterfeiter will target legacy or vintage cards I feel now but this may actually affect modern cards that get reprinted with the new frame a ton. People could just refuse non new frame cards due to not being sure they are real.
Welp being a Minnesota resident I can tell you that aside from WI and ND we had the coldest weather by a long shot. I have lived here for 5 years and this is the coldest it has been with the wind chill since I have lived here. We hit at least -65 monday morning with the wind and around -28 to -35 without. It makes today feel like summer out with it being 1 degree and slightly warmer with the wind. Most people here are used to it and either toss on ski clothes and goggles if they walk or ride bike like I do or take time to warm up their cars early before going anywhere. I mean come on if we don't get 10 feet of snow and at least -40 for more then a week then the winter was pretty week to us.
You kinda just get used to it living here. Oh yeah and most if not all places to live either cover your heating fully or subsidize it so its pretty much free. I had my apartment at 82 from mid sunday through today. We have it pretty easy and kinda laugh at weather here.
I to would like to recommend TCG. Their order optimizer is pretty awesome and I have had nothing but great interactions from them. The shipping from multiple sellers almost always manages to keep my orders cheaper then other sources and has been extremely prompt. I have had the opposite results then Mehtevas in that most of my older cards have come in better condition then what I ordered.
My dealings with SCG, CapeFearGames, ChannelFireball, Cardkingdom(especially in store) and CoolStuffInc have all been pleasant though and I would shop them all again depending on the price and cards I am looking for. TCG just ends up being cheaper most of the time if I am not picky on needing near mint cards.
I am actually getting rid of most of my collection today. I am not really into playing much anymore and the only things I am keeping are a few half built legacy decks. And my pauper edh deck.
I want to highlight though what I think is a major issue in selling collections. This is the severe devaluing everyone does to other peoples cards. Like my binder has 3 of the five commander precons plus multiple shock lands and tons of .50 to 9.00 modern/edh/ standard staples and the most people are willing to give me is 15 to 25% of the actual value.
I am selling to a local player but even then he was haggling pretty hard as if what buy lists for 300 is only worth 75 to him. I have found this to be a hugely common occurrence with all buyers store and non store alike. It seems the only real way to make any sort of real value back is to sell slowly via auction sites or listing yourself on tcg. This to me is the hardest part of selling out.
It is a major part of the reason why I am selling the cards. That and bills of course. Also to anyone that says I should just sell it singles or in parts that would have needed to happen weeks ago and I didn't expect the sudden expenses.
I don't think this has been brought up yet but it very well should enter this conversation. Almost no fast food or retail operation actually employs full time workers at minimum wage now.
Due to the changes in the healthcare laws pretty much every job is now a 30 hour a week with it being more in the 28 to 30 range so the employers don't get in trouble.
This leads us to the new norm being needing 2 jobs to be able to get above 40 hours a week now which makes it even harder to work and go to school or get a certification in a field.
We should be focusing on the 30hr a week number then 40 as most openings for full time will in fact pay above the minimum wage by at least a few dollars. Anyone taking a minimum wage job is likely being stuck with 28 to 30 hours compounding all of the problems.
You just have to find what best suites you. For me it was falling head over heals in love with storm. Then playing it so much that "when it counts" it is the only deck I want to play and really the only one I will have fun with. Sure I can build other decks but the look I get and that giddy feeling inside when I know I can combo out uninterrupted just can NOT be beat. It is that endorphin rush that keeps me playing a bad deck but at least it is "MY" deck. For me it is that feeling of confidence that the deck I am most comfortable WILL win once I duress and don't see force daze or spell pierce. It is the turn zero on the play balls to the wall combo that keeps me coming back. No other archetype gives me that rush and that makes all the rest seem boring.
Edit: Did you leave out gravedigger? Was it a card you replaced later in the primer?
Edit: I especially like that you have the tiaga still in the board. Quick question though is do you side it in for the dryad arbor when your going for the belcher/grindy plan or do you keep all 3 lands? Before when we had started bringing in the tiaga I dropped dryad arbor into the board for it so I only had tiaga and bayou post board for the grind plans and I always fetched the bayou first so that if I activate belcher and hit taiga I get the bonus on belcher. Do you do this as well?
You kinda just get used to it living here. Oh yeah and most if not all places to live either cover your heating fully or subsidize it so its pretty much free. I had my apartment at 82 from mid sunday through today. We have it pretty easy and kinda laugh at weather here.
My dealings with SCG, CapeFearGames, ChannelFireball, Cardkingdom(especially in store) and CoolStuffInc have all been pleasant though and I would shop them all again depending on the price and cards I am looking for. TCG just ends up being cheaper most of the time if I am not picky on needing near mint cards.
I want to highlight though what I think is a major issue in selling collections. This is the severe devaluing everyone does to other peoples cards. Like my binder has 3 of the five commander precons plus multiple shock lands and tons of .50 to 9.00 modern/edh/ standard staples and the most people are willing to give me is 15 to 25% of the actual value.
I am selling to a local player but even then he was haggling pretty hard as if what buy lists for 300 is only worth 75 to him. I have found this to be a hugely common occurrence with all buyers store and non store alike. It seems the only real way to make any sort of real value back is to sell slowly via auction sites or listing yourself on tcg. This to me is the hardest part of selling out.
It is a major part of the reason why I am selling the cards. That and bills of course. Also to anyone that says I should just sell it singles or in parts that would have needed to happen weeks ago and I didn't expect the sudden expenses.
Due to the changes in the healthcare laws pretty much every job is now a 30 hour a week with it being more in the 28 to 30 range so the employers don't get in trouble.
This leads us to the new norm being needing 2 jobs to be able to get above 40 hours a week now which makes it even harder to work and go to school or get a certification in a field.
We should be focusing on the 30hr a week number then 40 as most openings for full time will in fact pay above the minimum wage by at least a few dollars. Anyone taking a minimum wage job is likely being stuck with 28 to 30 hours compounding all of the problems.