MTG Salvation

This could lead to seriously brutal drafts. You can count the cards to determine who would get it if its last pick. If it is you, you'll be screwed because it makes the next pack's first few picks god awful. Great design!

The best use for Dramatic Entrance.

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Quote from krimsonviper »

No, but I watched the amounts of Forces that were on TCG, watched practically all of the videos on YouTube for EMA, and talked with people from Sacramento to San Francisco about their drafts and box openings, as well as talking to a few Legacy streams. They all noted that Force was barely seen cracked compared to Jace, Mana Crypt, and Karakas.

Sure this is a "small" pool of references to learn from, but it is notable.

Cards are printed on sheets with equal numbers of each mythic. There is zero chance that Forces occur less than other mythics in this printing, unless a magical faerie (or incredibly stupid and clever employee) is stealing them.

Keep in mind that Wastes are 99.5% casual only. That means they won't likely see the attention that popular full-art color-producing basics have. While the casual market is strong, Wastes simply aren't useful in competitive formats.

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Quote from bakgat »

Ooh man you are putting yourself in for such a blow out when you sacrifice a land, five creatures and pay five mana just to get your flipped land bounced. I hope in earnest that card gets played against me. It will be such an easy win.

The normal strategy is to continue making dudes and playing other threats that you are forced to deal with. The Demon is a constant threat that you have to respect while dealing with the rest of the board. Its like Kiki-Pod in Modern - you almost never combo. You just force your opponent to play around it all game.

Geistblast
2R Instant
2 Damage target Creature or Player
2U Exile from your GY: Copy an instant/sorcery you control.

Geistblast is frikkin' insane. A free Fork from your graveyard? This will be an incredible card in Commander and possible in the wacko decks I build for Modern.

Wraith223, what if Sin Prodder said to reveal a random card from your deck, not the top card? Now your opponent isn't denying you the draw of an important card. You are just getting free damage or a free card every turn. Sure, you get whichever of those is less useful at the time, but it is still totally free.

If your deck is randomized (and you haven't been scrying recently) then revealing a random card is statistically identical to revealing from the top. The argument that you are being prevented from drawing a good card is totally incorrect - the card leaving your deck has nothing to do with your next draw. This is not like being locked out with Jace, the Mind Sculptor. This is just extra value.

Easy addition to my Power Conduit deck.

Looks like we're gonna need some additional pylons.

So Kaya has the ability to walk through doors...
...and kill already dead people.


I was hoping she could do something little more impressive. What is next? Climb over fences with a ladder?

Quote from Glamdring804 »

Quote from Tackman »

The reprint that no one expected!

No one EVER expects the Kozilek Inquisition!!!

Ay lmao

I'm happy with the reprint and yeah the rarity shift its pretty much wiz admitting kozi's inqu. its on the same power level than thoughtseize.

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Pretty sure it's "Hope", Aranthar. There is absolutely nothing else that would be translated from English as "Esperança" in Portuguese.

My apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum; I originally posted this as a response on another thread but thought it might warrant its own post.

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There's been a lot of complaining about about the rarity upshifts in Eternal Masters today. The most recent example is in re: the upshift of Heritage Druid from uncommon to rare.

Apparently everyone's already forgotten that Force of Will, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Mana Crypt, Karakas, and Wasteland (all anywhere from $70-$150) were spoiled on Monday and Tuesday. This goes without mentioning the dozen other rares/mythics with a value of anywhere between $10 and $30 (Dack Fayden, Vampiric Tutor and the like that have already been spoiled. Even shifted upwards, people seem to be forgetting that Heritage Druid is still an $8-$10 card--essentially the price of a typical (good) rare, and probably about enough to get you your money back if you crack one in a pack. There are also multiple high-value uncommons in this set such as Chain Lightning and Cabal Therapy that were $10+ a pop pre-announcement and are still ACTUALLY uncommon. This set has value at every level.

There seems to be a widely-held expectation that every card in this set is going to be a $10 bill, and that every pack is going to be the proverbial "winning lottery ticket." But that's entirely unrealistic, and this has NEVER been the case. There's been a lot of b*tching that cracking packs is a "gamble", but if you want to more or less ensure you get your money's worth the method remains the same as it has ALWAYS been--buy a box or buy the singles now that they're cheaper--but I digress...

Wizards is actually being taken to task for trying to keep the EV of a pack near its MSRP. Let's set the record straight here...

First of all, if everything in this set were a busted, $10 card, the MSRP of $10/pack wouldn't be $10/pack. Wizards has to keep the EV of product near MSRP, otherwise retailers are just going to jack the price (see: FTV products), which in this case they already have, because this product seems to have a ton of value as it is. Sure, they could put your wishlist of expensive cards in the set, but then you'd just be complaining about your LGS selling you $20 boosters instead of $10 boosters. Why? Because if this set had $20 worth of cards in a pack, somebody would be willing to pay your LGS $20 for a pack.

Second of all, Wizards--if you haven't noticed--is not a charity, but rather in the business of making money; it's like you guys expect them to just give the farm away and include all of the good cards in a single go-around. I still see people saying they're going to be "unhappy" if Berserk, Rishadan Port and Crucible of Worlds (all $70+ cards) aren't in this set--at RARE no less! Some people have suggested that Wizards might reprint Ravages of War and Imperial Recruiter; the disconnect from reality is, quite frankly, staggering.

Aside from the previously-identified issue with MSRP and EV, there's also the issue of incentivizing you to buy future products that include the cards that "missed the cut" in Eternal Masters. If some of you had your way, this set would I'm sure include Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Crucible of Worlds, the "filter lands" (i.e. Cascade Bluffs, the Zendikar "fetches" (i.e. Scalding Tarn, and so forth. This would be fine and dandy, except that then there wouldn't be any reason for you to buy Modern Masters 2017, etc., and that's no good for Wizards' bottom line. This ultimately isn't good for the health of the game (more on that in a minute.)

As I may have already mentioned, Wizards is a business, not a charity. They have these pesky little things called shareholders that they need to keep satisfied; they also have these things called "overhead costs" and "employees" that they need to pay. This means that imperative numero uno is to move product and maximize profit. By doing so, they can continue to receive outside investment, pay MaRo's salary, keep the presses running, and continue making the game that you apparently seem to enjoy notwithstanding all of the offensive rarity shifts that you've taken exception to.

On a related note, there's been a lot of complaining about Wizards kowtowing to "speculators" and "investors" who profit from the secondary market of cards. I don't necessarily believe this is entirely true, but to the extent that it is, it isn't without good reason. See, part of Wizards' strategy of making money involves selling a product that the people who buy it--and this goes beyond mere "investors": it includes regular players as well--expect to retain and (over time) actually gain value.

Some of the cards printed in this set are, as mentioned, already incredibly expensive. Many people have spent a lot of time and energy acquiring those cards. Many (myself included, and I'm hardly a "collector" or "speculator") have already seen their collections take a massive hit from this set being printed as is. That's fine as far as I'm concerned, because it gives other players a window to acquire these rare cards at a reduced price, and these prices will surely bounce back over time--probably relatively quickly, if the previous "Masters" sets are any indication. I'll somehow make do in the meantime, and I'm sure I'll take advantage of this window as well, because I've always wanted a Karakas and a full set of Force of Wills.

What would p*** me off, however, would be if Wizards were to print a large-scale print run of all of the best and most expensive cards in the game--as many seem to think they should be doing--and completely crash the secondary market, thus nuking the value of my collection, which I have spent many years and thousands of dollars acquiring. This would probably prompt me to ragequit; I'd imagine many would be in the same boat. Generally speaking, p***ing off a large segment of your client base isn't a sound business practice.

The bottom line is that this is a zero-sum game; Wizards will never be able to completely satisfy everybody with a product like this because anytime the secondary market prices change there are winners and there are losers. They've taken their best crack at expanding access in the secondary market to some very iconic and very expensive cards--thereby satisfying people who otherwise wouldn't have access to those cards--without completely crashing the secondary market for those cards and offending the rest of their player-client base.

The alternative is that there's no Eternal Masters at all; take your pick.

Finally, there's the limited issue. Many of you have said that this set "shouldn't be about limited." Frankly, that's just your opinion. Apparently Wizards disagrees with it, as do the many players who will no doubt be drafting this set. Accordingly, Wizards has rarity-shifted certain cards from uncommon to rare to avoid certain degenerate interactions in limited. This apparently includes "elf ball" type situations with Heritage Druid; I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Nettle Sentinel is probably in this set, even if it hasn't been spoiled yet. Frankly, I trust their judgment on this one, because they've gotten increasingly good at balancing sets for limited and, IMHO, this set already looks like an absolute blast to draft based on the third of it that's been spoiled.

These are my opinions, and feel free to disagree. If you don't like certain aspects of this set and it doesn't live up to your (fantastical) expectations, then by all means don't buy it. That just means more of it for the rest of us at a lower price.

Cheers.

A fair warning to people on pucatrade. With the spoilers for eternal masters coming up here very soon, the sort of situation that occurred with force of will and wasteland when they were initially spoiled (causing the cards to drop in price and people to dump them quickly to people on wants lists before their puca values dropped.) is likely to occur for a ton of other cards as they get spoiled in EMA. So be careful with your pucatrade wants lists if you are not wanting to end up overpaying vs. what the cards will likely be able to be gotten for post-spoilers/post-set-release. While I am not personally on pucatrade, and thusly don't know if there is something in place to avoid a situation where the cards will drop significantly in value due to a reprinting announcement like that, It might not be a terrible idea to look through the current want lists and be very careful what you pick and choose to be on there if you are concerned that some of them might get reprinted. Anyhow just something to keep in mind.