The Lending feature would not fly for one simple reason: it discourages people from buying product.
A new set comes out. I buy none of it on MTGO. After a few weeks the initial metagame starts to emerge and I rent the decks for random tournaments and/or DEs (if/when they ever come back....). I win or place high enough that the prize pays for my rental and gives me a surplus.
Now this wouldn't be the most common occurrence of MTGO users, but assuming they skew towards the more competitive anyway, it might be enough of a % to have an effect on product sales -- my "EV" is now better off to rent & win than in playing limited or assembling a constructed deck of my own.
(Obviously there are economic effects that would counteract this somewhat, as the less-opened product causes the price for the cards to go up, as does the rental value of having the cards, which would raise the EV for sealed product again. But i'm guessing the equilibrium would be reached by the renters of decks/cards gaining more value at the expense of WotC's digital product)
But I do expect them to have control over things like cardstock. If you've purchased Korean, Russian, or a few other foreign cards recently, you'll notice that they use a different cardstock than English cards. This is probably because they didn't want to spend extra money shipping our cardstock to Korea. Either way, it's indicative that they value money over user experience.
WotC has something like 6 different major printers worldwide, and likely some on-demand contractors too. Each probably uses their own cardstock. Japanese cards have been this way forever. It's not a QC issue, it's just how things are.
Things like intro decks, event decks, duel decks, and promos often have a different "shine" to them as well - the sheen/gloss of the cards are different, and some appear to be "darker". Again, this is not a defect, it's just a reality of print logistics.
It's also not a new phenomenon. The reason that sleeves are mandatory for constructed play is because every set in the early days had a slightly different tone to the ink - they were all a different shade. Some players could even take a random pile of cards and rhyme off the set just from looking at the card backs.
You would think that, with all of the money Wizards was making, they would spend a little more on quality control. It's really quite disappointing to see all these crimped, missing, low-quality (foreign) cards.
this comment makes no sense. they print millions and millions of cards annually, and the logistics of print runs are very complicated. i would guess their quality control would be >99% accurate.
for every CMD precon missing a few cards, there are the "future sight" cards that slip into the current packs (i.e. the Rootborn Defences), or the FNM mailings that are accidentally full of judge promos... but no one ever complains about those!
in the first CMD series, my ghave precon (GWB) was missing 11(!) cards and most of them were the newer uncommons and a few of the rares (not the scavenging ooze though).
i never thought to contact wizards, i just ended up buying the ones i wanted as singles later (like syphon flesh, etc).
Considering Jace is the "face of the franchise" as it were, I would expect him to be in the core set every year as the blue walker.
1) Beleren is probably too strong to ever return to standard, considering how much they've tried to slow down the format.
2) JTMS STFU.
4) Architect of thought is strong without being dominant, but considering its being reprinted in the DD and is set to rotate next fall, I can't imagine they would push it another year in the core set.
That leaves us with Memory Adept (aka Emo Jace). I think this is the perfect Jace to print in perpetuity, as it is very 'wow' and splashy for new players ("Mill 10??!!?") while still being a solid role player for constructed (control MD or SB).
....
For white, any Ajani or Gideon is probably fine, though Jura does tend to warp things around him.
For black, Lili DR is fairly weak right now (though the rest of Theros' devotion/mono colour might change that) so I could see her being swapped out. Sorin isn't bad, either Markov or some new version.
For red, they finally made a good Chandra, so I would expect her to come back again.
For green, Garruk Caller is probably a bit too strong to keep around, although i really hope we get 2 years worth of him!
The Monstrous also becomes relevant against Sphinx's rev builds too. Quite a significant proportion of the relevant flyers in Modern are white so this guy forces damage through a lot of the time.
I'm struggling to think of one that is not white.
And Pestermite/Coralhelm don't really count.
In the late game, this can theoretically outrace an Aetherling. Depending on the damage they've taken (assuming some while they stabilize) and cards in hand (assuming they have some and none are any of the 3 playable counters) they could be dead in 2 swings.
4+7 = 11. So if the damage they've taken + the cards in their hand is >= 9, you win before they can 8+8+8 you....
And some combination of aggro/burn/ghor-clan will probably have given you the 6-7 damage needed when you monster-out.
I play UWR in modern with a singleton Thundermaw. This actually made me look twice. I'm now a little torn between the two.
I'll have to do some testing, but this guy seems pretty sweet to be honest.
Huh, is there a mythic cycle of creatures with an enemy protection?
There's a blue guy with pro red and red guy with pro white, so I could see a white guy with pro black, a black guy with pro green, and a green guy with pro blue.
If so, we might see the first set without any "bad" mythics (11 out of 15).
So far: 2x Walkers, 5x Gods, Stormbreath Dragon, Master of Waves, Polukranos, Cerberus...
Can we assume Medomai will be mythic too? 12 out of 15?!?
So is it safe to assume that there will also be basic lands in this set as the art would showcase the other 5 guilds? Also it seems as if we may know the names of the other guildmages as the ability land in old ravnica links itself to each guildmage (Skarrg, Rix Maadi, Prav, Vitu Ghazi, Nivix.)
ya the guildmage thing is covered in the [GTC] Name & Number crunch... they were also at PAX w/ lots of photos floating around
If you have graveyard recur, I see nothing wrong with Tibalt in EDH. Dig a few extra cards per turn, and get back what you lost later... it's EDH - all you care about is seeing moar things anyway.
Or play him as I do in a proliferate-heavy deck, and crank him to Insurrection-mode the same turn you cast him
CAN PROBABLY GO UNDER THUNDERMAW'S "MORE ART"
Have you guys looked through the various Ravnica Achievement art on the Planeswalker Points site?
Some of the 'homeless' ones might be upcoming cards in GTC or DGM - i.e. this one from Daniel Ljunggren is not currently assigned to any card (very large):
A new set comes out. I buy none of it on MTGO. After a few weeks the initial metagame starts to emerge and I rent the decks for random tournaments and/or DEs (if/when they ever come back....). I win or place high enough that the prize pays for my rental and gives me a surplus.
Now this wouldn't be the most common occurrence of MTGO users, but assuming they skew towards the more competitive anyway, it might be enough of a % to have an effect on product sales -- my "EV" is now better off to rent & win than in playing limited or assembling a constructed deck of my own.
(Obviously there are economic effects that would counteract this somewhat, as the less-opened product causes the price for the cards to go up, as does the rental value of having the cards, which would raise the EV for sealed product again. But i'm guessing the equilibrium would be reached by the renters of decks/cards gaining more value at the expense of WotC's digital product)
WotC has something like 6 different major printers worldwide, and likely some on-demand contractors too. Each probably uses their own cardstock. Japanese cards have been this way forever. It's not a QC issue, it's just how things are.
Things like intro decks, event decks, duel decks, and promos often have a different "shine" to them as well - the sheen/gloss of the cards are different, and some appear to be "darker". Again, this is not a defect, it's just a reality of print logistics.
It's also not a new phenomenon. The reason that sleeves are mandatory for constructed play is because every set in the early days had a slightly different tone to the ink - they were all a different shade. Some players could even take a random pile of cards and rhyme off the set just from looking at the card backs.
this comment makes no sense. they print millions and millions of cards annually, and the logistics of print runs are very complicated. i would guess their quality control would be >99% accurate.
for every CMD precon missing a few cards, there are the "future sight" cards that slip into the current packs (i.e. the Rootborn Defences), or the FNM mailings that are accidentally full of judge promos... but no one ever complains about those!
i never thought to contact wizards, i just ended up buying the ones i wanted as singles later (like syphon flesh, etc).
1) Beleren is probably too strong to ever return to standard, considering how much they've tried to slow down the format.
2) JTMS STFU.
4) Architect of thought is strong without being dominant, but considering its being reprinted in the DD and is set to rotate next fall, I can't imagine they would push it another year in the core set.
That leaves us with Memory Adept (aka Emo Jace). I think this is the perfect Jace to print in perpetuity, as it is very 'wow' and splashy for new players ("Mill 10??!!?") while still being a solid role player for constructed (control MD or SB).
....
For white, any Ajani or Gideon is probably fine, though Jura does tend to warp things around him.
For black, Lili DR is fairly weak right now (though the rest of Theros' devotion/mono colour might change that) so I could see her being swapped out. Sorin isn't bad, either Markov or some new version.
For red, they finally made a good Chandra, so I would expect her to come back again.
For green, Garruk Caller is probably a bit too strong to keep around, although i really hope we get 2 years worth of him!
/my two cents.
I'm struggling to think of one that is not white.
And Pestermite/Coralhelm don't really count.
4+7 = 11. So if the damage they've taken + the cards in their hand is >= 9, you win before they can 8+8+8 you....
And some combination of aggro/burn/ghor-clan will probably have given you the 6-7 damage needed when you monster-out.
In the mirror can also get around Colonnades!
ebay had some. i got in while the getting was good... now they are all $50-60 for a playset
If so, we might see the first set without any "bad" mythics (11 out of 15).
So far: 2x Walkers, 5x Gods, Stormbreath Dragon, Master of Waves, Polukranos, Cerberus...
Can we assume Medomai will be mythic too? 12 out of 15?!?
ya the guildmage thing is covered in the [GTC] Name & Number crunch... they were also at PAX w/ lots of photos floating around
Or play him as I do in a proliferate-heavy deck, and crank him to Insurrection-mode the same turn you cast him
Have you guys looked through the various Ravnica Achievement art on the Planeswalker Points site?
Some of the 'homeless' ones might be upcoming cards in GTC or DGM - i.e. this one from Daniel Ljunggren is not currently assigned to any card (very large):