Round 2 has gone out to the stores, this one better than the last. Local Target had boxes with 2013 Commander decks (one each of Power Hungry, Evasive Maneuvers and Eternal Bargain). They do include shrink-wrapped cards that I assume are from the deck-builder's toolkits as they contain no rares and have cards from a bunch of different sets (mine was fronted with a M13 Arbor Elf).
They've had these for the past few weeks at our Target, and the first batch was absolute junk, but I checked again today (because why not), and one of them had the Ob Nixis Commander 2014 deck (the rest were all Magic 2014 precon junk). A second one, though, that I ended up grabbing, had:
- the Daretti Commander 2014 deck
- the Jeskai/Cunning portion of the Speed and Cunning Duel Deck (minus the Arcanis foil)
- the blue half of the 2015 Clash pack (including the foil Prophet of Kruphex, Prognostic Sphinx and Temple of Mystery)
- "Cruel Plots" Dragons of Tarkir precon (including the foil Necromaster Dragon)
- The Angelic Skirmisher and Genesis Hydra promo cards
The Daretti Commander deck was either poorly shrink-wrapped, or tampered with, which made my heart sink, figuring I just got screwed and bought a tampered deck, but the Wurmcoil Engine, Daretti, Dualcaster Mage and Feldon were all there, so awesome. So, I basically got three free decks with the purchase of a Commander deck, so they're not all bad.
That's a bit strange, dunno as I've ever seen an in-print deck in any of these boxes - let alone 3 in the same one! Nice find.
Just noticed yesterday that the 19.99 and 29.99 Extreme Value repacks are back at the big box stores (if the other thread(s) weren't over 2 years old I would necro them). Here's what I found in local stores ...
Walmart #1 - nothing
Walmart #2 - 2x 19.99 packs - 2 boosters (Khans and GTC ea), an intro deck and a promo (Genesis Hydra)
Target #1 - 4x 29.99 packs - All had 2 promos (Genesis Hydra and Angelic Skirmisher and either 4 Intro packs from RTR through M12 and M13, or had one of those replaced with a land pack
Target #2 - same as Target #1, except 8x 29.99 packs. Included were mostly the same stuff, though there was one that had the Tibalt half of Sorin v. Tibalt, another had the Sorin half (and had the Sorin as well - first time I'd ever seen that), and another had Monsters half of Heroes vs. Monsters.
In summary ...
No commander decks, no planechase decks and nothing really of note. Buncha junk here, good luck at your respective home store(s).
As mentioned, these packs show up every once in awhile in Target/Walmart. Generally, they get ~6 repacks in and keep that stock until they are gone and get them refreshed. Recently (last ~6 months or so) all I have seen in them are repacks of Intro packs and VvK duel decks. Others have reported Planechase pre-cons, but they've not made their way to my neck of the woods.
When they (these repacks) were first introduced, they included goodies like Divine v. Demonic decks, older precons from TSP-LRW days and commander pre-cons (easily identified even if they weren't the front pack due to their larger size). This supply is likely gone.
As such, we may need to wait until next summer/fall for the repacks to be worthwhile again, when the November Commander precons have been shipped back and repurposed into these repacks.
Other posters are correct, there is a very wide range of decks available. When these were first introduced a year ago, there were a lot of repacks that had Commander Pre-Cons and older intro packs (LRW-ZEN era) and some other interesting stuff like Duel Deck halves (e.g. the Demon half of Divine vs. Demonic). This made them a great value.
Then they went away for awhile, and with this second wave of repacks I've mostly seen SOM-ISD-M12 Intro packs with very few money packs and a lot of the land packs (usually 1/set). I have not picked up any this year, and I've been to 5 local Target & Wal-Marts looking.
These are back at my local Targets (MA). One had 5, the other 4, so I'm not sure if someone got to them first. All that had been left had only GTC, RTR, ISD, DKA and AVR intro decks only or land packs.
If you're trading with a person, you need to set up multiple trades using a card as currency (e.g. Underground Sea = 33 tix) to purchase cards over 75 tix. Fortunately, the trading limit will soon be increased to 400, meaning everything in-client at the moment (except perhaps Force foils) can be traded in one go.
I think its pretty easy to speculate that this is going to have a pretty big impact on both online and offline economies. It will slow the singles available one month after a set release and should be a boon to B&M stores with fewer mass redemptions going to ebay. The online economy may plummet for standard prices, though, to the extent that drafting (already a risky proposition to make money) may be seriously affected if the cards are not as liquid.
To wit:
RTR set price to buy from Supernova now = $115
Old redemption price = $120
New redemption price = $140, a 17% increase, that will likely have to be eaten by drafters. If the number of drafts (opened product) are affected by a similar number, is Wizards really going to make more money overall with this change?
I don't get the hype on Duskmantle Seer. The reason that Dark Confidant is a great card is that it provides card advantage, something that this Seer does not do. I would pretty much never play Seer unless I was in a build that wanted Howling Mine or something along those lines.
Forcing a draw on a control deck with an high average cmc while beating down with a 4/4 flyer seems like a very good plan.
First of all, kudos for coming up with fairly unique take on a way to mitigate collection devaluation via the "reprinting" process for MTGO. While a very large part of me disagrees with the "rich getting richer" part of the solution and I agree with the criticism produced in the thread thus far, I like that the idea can start a pretty valuable discussion in a manner that is not just collectors vs. players.
MTGO's attempt to balance collector's wants vs. players wants is delicate, to say the least. Suffice it to say that the old adage for bargaining rings true here as well - (paraphrased) if both sides are equally unhappy with a solution, then the solution is appropriate.
That's a bit strange, dunno as I've ever seen an in-print deck in any of these boxes - let alone 3 in the same one! Nice find.
Walmart #1 - nothing
Walmart #2 - 2x 19.99 packs - 2 boosters (Khans and GTC ea), an intro deck and a promo (Genesis Hydra)
Target #1 - 4x 29.99 packs - All had 2 promos (Genesis Hydra and Angelic Skirmisher and either 4 Intro packs from RTR through M12 and M13, or had one of those replaced with a land pack
Target #2 - same as Target #1, except 8x 29.99 packs. Included were mostly the same stuff, though there was one that had the Tibalt half of Sorin v. Tibalt, another had the Sorin half (and had the Sorin as well - first time I'd ever seen that), and another had Monsters half of Heroes vs. Monsters.
In summary ...
No commander decks, no planechase decks and nothing really of note. Buncha junk here, good luck at your respective home store(s).
When they (these repacks) were first introduced, they included goodies like Divine v. Demonic decks, older precons from TSP-LRW days and commander pre-cons (easily identified even if they weren't the front pack due to their larger size). This supply is likely gone.
As such, we may need to wait until next summer/fall for the repacks to be worthwhile again, when the November Commander precons have been shipped back and repurposed into these repacks.
Hah, that was my first thought too. All hail Discordia!
Then they went away for awhile, and with this second wave of repacks I've mostly seen SOM-ISD-M12 Intro packs with very few money packs and a lot of the land packs (usually 1/set). I have not picked up any this year, and I've been to 5 local Target & Wal-Marts looking.
They have to be, because everyone else now is as well.
Historically, prices will be at their lowest approximately one week into the release events.
I think its pretty easy to speculate that this is going to have a pretty big impact on both online and offline economies. It will slow the singles available one month after a set release and should be a boon to B&M stores with fewer mass redemptions going to ebay. The online economy may plummet for standard prices, though, to the extent that drafting (already a risky proposition to make money) may be seriously affected if the cards are not as liquid.
To wit:
RTR set price to buy from Supernova now = $115
Old redemption price = $120
New redemption price = $140, a 17% increase, that will likely have to be eaten by drafters. If the number of drafts (opened product) are affected by a similar number, is Wizards really going to make more money overall with this change?
Wow. $25 / set now.
Forcing a draw on a control deck with an high average cmc while beating down with a 4/4 flyer seems like a very good plan.
MTGO's attempt to balance collector's wants vs. players wants is delicate, to say the least. Suffice it to say that the old adage for bargaining rings true here as well - (paraphrased) if both sides are equally unhappy with a solution, then the solution is appropriate.