Seems I'm late to the party, but I've often wondered about a scenario similar to this. The one you guys are talking about, the "god pack" with two Tarmogoyfs or other highly valued cards, I suppose will be quite uncommon, even in MM drafting.
Here's a question: what if you're drafting at a place which enforces "rare drafting", such that at the end of the draft, everyone turns in their rares, and the rares are redistributed to the winners?
(As a quick aside.....
I've never liked this system, since it results in the good cards going to the better players, who are likely to already have many good cards, while the bad cards go to the worse / newer players, who are likely to not have many good cards in the first place, so the haves get more and the have-nots get even less. Still, there are convincing counter-arguments, such as the fact that collecting the rares at the end encourages good drafting decisions, the fact that it is a form of competition after all and the winners should end up better than the losers, and the argument that drafting is not supposed to be a way to build a card collection in the first place.)
In this scenario, you open just one Tarmogoyf or other significant value card. Under the rules, at the end of the draft you have to turn in Tarmogoyf, and you can only get him back if you place high enough in the draft and no one above you takes him first. In this scenario, what's the worst that could happen if you leave the store right when you see Tarmogoyf? You would forfeit your matches, obviously, and the store owner might go so far as to ban you from the store, but what about the DCI? Could they ban you from future sanctioned events or punish you in any way?
For enemy tri-colors, I think "Dega" for WBR is the only one that is even close to popular. The others are American (or pretty much one of a dozen other nations, I suppose), RUG, BUG, and Junk.
The main reason I don't think the card/deck rental idea will fly:
Card Depreciation Much?
A good point someone brought up is that for renting cards, the card condition doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to the person renting the cards, since they are not owning it, and it does not matter to the store owner / renter unless he is planning to sell those cards. So let's say you're a store owner thinking about renting out cards. You also have a large inventory of moderately played cards. Just rent those cards out, and as long as there's no egregious damage like water stains or rips / tears, no big deal. Maybe the card comes back in heavily played condition, but the next guy in line to rent it won't care. Sure, you lose the flexibility of having the option to sell them later on down the line, but the revenue you will accrue from rentals will probably exceed the card's sell value in the long run.
As a devout protestant, id say that the Selesnya reminds me more about the pagan tradition in the Gaelic and Germanic tribes before Christianity, than anything in my tradition. Traditionally Protestantism has had a strong focus on the individually relationship with God, while the Selesnya has a much more of a collective perspective.
Am I the only one annoyed that the adjective "indestructible" is the keyword instead of one of its noun forms - "indestructibility" and "indestructibleness"? I mean, sure, not all keywords are nouns ("trample" is a verb, for example), but "Creature X has indestructible" sounds kind of weird compared to "Creature X has indestructibility".
With 8 sources of red mana, why wouldn't he run some burn spells like Brimstone Volley instead of kill spells? Even if his build was meta-dependent, I would have thought he would still have some in the sideboard at least. I thought that BR aggro always likes burn spells, but I know very little about deckbuilding and I've only gotten back into MTG recently, so I hope someone could share some insight on this.
As others have posted, Orzhov really reminds me of the Catholic Church before the Protestant Reformation. Meanwhile, Rakdos is as hedonistic cult and Selesnya would be more similar to Protestant fundamentalism / evangelicalism. Not sure if Golgari has any religious overtones.
I guess you could say that the unknowns decided to "trade" their binders and bags for that young player's binder. Seems like the only "good" outcome to me, other than having the situation never happen in the first place. What are the alternatives here? Distribute the items evenly to everyone who was there? They didn't lose anything.
I suppose the "correct" thing to do would be for the store owner to hold on to the stuff and return it when possible, but I doubt those unknowns would ever show up again anyways.
Think about it this way.... if a store would make more money by opening the box and selling the singles than they would by selling the boxes.... why would they sell the boxes?
I guess one could argue that stores should price their boxes in a manner best suited to the interests of the community. But then, if they did do this, they might just get all of their stock bought out by other stores even if they established purchase limits, and those other stores would just resell them at higher prices.
I try and make it my policy to deal with places like Channel Fireball or Star City LAST.
I try and always do all my MTG related shopping with my LGS, and if prices are sometimes a buck or two higher there, then I consider it money well spent considering the countless hours of enjoyment I get from hanging out in the store, getting games both casual and FNM, not to mention the dozens of friendships I've developed through their storefront. That's what my extra dollar is getting me, and I try and remind my friends and fellow customers the same.
If my LGS doesn't have what I need, then I next try other brick & mortar stores in my city. I'd rather the money go to them instead of Channel Fireball. I make not frequent them, but they still provide a service for the MTG community, as well as employ people of my community, and I'd rather my cash go to them.
If I still can't find what I need, then I turn to reliable and trusted sellers on eBay. When i buy things on eBay, I steer clear of the mega stores and direct my sales to what appear to be brick and mortar stores in other states or countries. Whenever I get top mint cards instead of scuffed crap that was labeled NM, I make a note of it and search their store first in the future.
If none of that works, then, yes, I will reluctantly buy something off CHannel Fireball. I believe these big chains are bad for MTG overall, certainly bad for my LGS. They artificially inflate prices, screwing player and independent store alike. They use their massive chain to then undersell or sell things at cost, also screwing over mom and pop card stores. To hell with them.
And I won't shop at Target and Walmart. Period. I can't believe card stores aren't in open revolt over Magic product being sent to Targets and Walmarts.
I don't understand many of your points. I mean, I can get behind the "support local stores" initiative, but I don't see Channel Fireball or SCG being "bad" for MTG. I don't even see how they qualify as "chains", just because they offer to ship their product and happen to carry a lot of it. Yes, their prices for chase cards and others that are heavily played in competitive formats can be quite high, but that's supply and demand for you. Meanwhile, for casual deck builders like myself, they are way better than many brick-and-mortar stores that still go by the woefully overpriced model of 25 cents a common, 50 cents an uncommon, dollar for a rare.
Not only is it often cheaper for me overall to buy from CFB than your average brick-and-mortar, but it's much more convenient as well. They have a very large selection of product from just about every set, and more important, they have it meticulously organised and catalogued. I can't tell you how sick I am of having to swim through box after box of cards haphazardly thrown together at the average LGS, only to reach the end and not find what I want. That never happens with CFB.
And finally, CFB just happens to be my LGS, as I live in the area. And at their store, I too can find many friends to be had and hours to be enjoyed. CFB provides a wonderful place for MTG players in the area to gather and play, and they also provide a valuable service to all MTG players in the amount of articles and other content they have on their website.
So, my point is that if you are saying that you prefer your local store over CFB because you want to support local businesses, more power to you. But if your point is that you prefer your local store because somehow it is superior to CFB, or you are trying to portray CFB as some sort of faceless corporation, then I must say that you have the wrong idea.
Full art cards are really nice and all, but does anyone else think having it for lands is kind of awkward? In my opinion, illustrations of land should have wider aspect ratios (hence the term "landscape"), but having full art on lands results in a much narrower view, which is fine for something like mountains or maybe even forests (since trees are tall), but when you're trying to do it for plains, you end up with either too much sky or slanted / fish-eyed viewing angles.
To be fair, I can understand why you'd automatically get a bad impression from someone who's obese, with a lazy eye, and has a speech impediment, but please don't let that bias you. Of course, if what you say is true about his attitude, though, that's terrible, and he gives the rest of us..... overweight people a bad name. Really, I think I might have called a judge over after winning. Proxying a common? That's hilariously phail, considering he could have just got some from the store for maybe 25 cents.
to clarify, no, "treasures" or more accurately Vintage Cards do not count towards a draft pool, thus they cannot be included in the prize pool unless this FNM Tournament Organizer is incredibly unscrupulous, in which case I would report him to the DCI as he is breaking the following rule:
But it's okay for him to have us put the regular Zendikar rares (say, DoJ) in the prize pool? My opinions aside, I just wanted to know. I've got nothing against the guy, in fact, I'm kind of curious as to how it works and am willing to give his draft a try.
I just started going to a store in the area recently, one that I've never been to before. It's not really big, but has a loyal following. The last time I went, I asked about how drafts work.
Basically, the store owner told me about how he hates players who just take any rare they see instead of actually trying to build competitive decks, or players who open up a Elspeth, Knight-Errant and just leave. To remedy this, he has a system where all rares and foils opened are contributed to the prize pool, along with the usual packs and FNM card. According to him, this encourages people to build good decks, or in some cases, actually play instead of just dropping out.
Personally, I think the intention is good but the idea itself..... not so much. I don't know the particulars, such as whether or not you can still use rares you opened or whether they're put into the prize pool right away, but it seems kind of lame to me. Nothing sucks more than opening a great card only to have to turn it over. Also, seems to me that this system really favours the competitive players, who will surely pick up all the good cards when it comes time to get prizes, leaving nothing but junk rares and foil commons for the rest of us average joes. Again, I've never drafted at the store before so maybe it doesn't work this way, but that's what it would seem like.
What I want to know is whether or not this is allowed by the DCI or whoever organises the tournament organisers. I don't know how these things work, but it sounds comparable to a third party server for a computer game having official stats tracking while trying to have mods on, like no gravity.....
If it isn't allowed, what should I do? Could I report him? Should I report him? That seems kind of too extreme...
If it is allowed, oh well, I guess. But just wondering....
SPOILER WARNING - ZENDIKAR INFO
So like I read about the treasure thing. IF this "rare draft" format thing is officially allowed at FNM, would this apply to the "treasures"? As in, if someone opens up a Power 9 card, would he still be forced to give it up to the prize pool?
If so, what if I'm participating at this store's FNM draft and I open up like an Ancestral Recall? Would it be terribly wrong to just grab it and run out of the store and never look back? Would you do that? Getting banned from the store I think is the most obvious consequence, but could further action be taken against me by the DCI since this is FNM?
Here's a question: what if you're drafting at a place which enforces "rare drafting", such that at the end of the draft, everyone turns in their rares, and the rares are redistributed to the winners?
(As a quick aside.....
In this scenario, you open just one Tarmogoyf or other significant value card. Under the rules, at the end of the draft you have to turn in Tarmogoyf, and you can only get him back if you place high enough in the draft and no one above you takes him first. In this scenario, what's the worst that could happen if you leave the store right when you see Tarmogoyf? You would forfeit your matches, obviously, and the store owner might go so far as to ban you from the store, but what about the DCI? Could they ban you from future sanctioned events or punish you in any way?
Awesome website!!
A good point someone brought up is that for renting cards, the card condition doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to the person renting the cards, since they are not owning it, and it does not matter to the store owner / renter unless he is planning to sell those cards. So let's say you're a store owner thinking about renting out cards. You also have a large inventory of moderately played cards. Just rent those cards out, and as long as there's no egregious damage like water stains or rips / tears, no big deal. Maybe the card comes back in heavily played condition, but the next guy in line to rent it won't care. Sure, you lose the flexibility of having the option to sell them later on down the line, but the revenue you will accrue from rentals will probably exceed the card's sell value in the long run.
Good point!
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/events.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/theros13ptq/0511hyogo
He runs 4 Blood Crypt and 4 Dragonskull Summit alongside 4 Cavern of Souls, but the only card he runs in main deck and sideboard that requires red is Falkenrath Aristocrat. Meanwhile, he's running 8 kill spells, Victim of Night and Tragic Slip.
With 8 sources of red mana, why wouldn't he run some burn spells like Brimstone Volley instead of kill spells? Even if his build was meta-dependent, I would have thought he would still have some in the sideboard at least. I thought that BR aggro always likes burn spells, but I know very little about deckbuilding and I've only gotten back into MTG recently, so I hope someone could share some insight on this.
I suppose the "correct" thing to do would be for the store owner to hold on to the stuff and return it when possible, but I doubt those unknowns would ever show up again anyways.
I guess one could argue that stores should price their boxes in a manner best suited to the interests of the community. But then, if they did do this, they might just get all of their stock bought out by other stores even if they established purchase limits, and those other stores would just resell them at higher prices.
I don't understand many of your points. I mean, I can get behind the "support local stores" initiative, but I don't see Channel Fireball or SCG being "bad" for MTG. I don't even see how they qualify as "chains", just because they offer to ship their product and happen to carry a lot of it. Yes, their prices for chase cards and others that are heavily played in competitive formats can be quite high, but that's supply and demand for you. Meanwhile, for casual deck builders like myself, they are way better than many brick-and-mortar stores that still go by the woefully overpriced model of 25 cents a common, 50 cents an uncommon, dollar for a rare.
Not only is it often cheaper for me overall to buy from CFB than your average brick-and-mortar, but it's much more convenient as well. They have a very large selection of product from just about every set, and more important, they have it meticulously organised and catalogued. I can't tell you how sick I am of having to swim through box after box of cards haphazardly thrown together at the average LGS, only to reach the end and not find what I want. That never happens with CFB.
And finally, CFB just happens to be my LGS, as I live in the area. And at their store, I too can find many friends to be had and hours to be enjoyed. CFB provides a wonderful place for MTG players in the area to gather and play, and they also provide a valuable service to all MTG players in the amount of articles and other content they have on their website.
So, my point is that if you are saying that you prefer your local store over CFB because you want to support local businesses, more power to you. But if your point is that you prefer your local store because somehow it is superior to CFB, or you are trying to portray CFB as some sort of faceless corporation, then I must say that you have the wrong idea.
But it's okay for him to have us put the regular Zendikar rares (say, DoJ) in the prize pool? My opinions aside, I just wanted to know. I've got nothing against the guy, in fact, I'm kind of curious as to how it works and am willing to give his draft a try.
Basically, the store owner told me about how he hates players who just take any rare they see instead of actually trying to build competitive decks, or players who open up a Elspeth, Knight-Errant and just leave. To remedy this, he has a system where all rares and foils opened are contributed to the prize pool, along with the usual packs and FNM card. According to him, this encourages people to build good decks, or in some cases, actually play instead of just dropping out.
Personally, I think the intention is good but the idea itself..... not so much. I don't know the particulars, such as whether or not you can still use rares you opened or whether they're put into the prize pool right away, but it seems kind of lame to me. Nothing sucks more than opening a great card only to have to turn it over. Also, seems to me that this system really favours the competitive players, who will surely pick up all the good cards when it comes time to get prizes, leaving nothing but junk rares and foil commons for the rest of us average joes. Again, I've never drafted at the store before so maybe it doesn't work this way, but that's what it would seem like.
What I want to know is whether or not this is allowed by the DCI or whoever organises the tournament organisers. I don't know how these things work, but it sounds comparable to a third party server for a computer game having official stats tracking while trying to have mods on, like no gravity.....
If it isn't allowed, what should I do? Could I report him? Should I report him? That seems kind of too extreme...
If it is allowed, oh well, I guess. But just wondering....
SPOILER WARNING - ZENDIKAR INFO
So like I read about the treasure thing. IF this "rare draft" format thing is officially allowed at FNM, would this apply to the "treasures"? As in, if someone opens up a Power 9 card, would he still be forced to give it up to the prize pool?
If so, what if I'm participating at this store's FNM draft and I open up like an Ancestral Recall? Would it be terribly wrong to just grab it and run out of the store and never look back? Would you do that? Getting banned from the store I think is the most obvious consequence, but could further action be taken against me by the DCI since this is FNM?