Hello, in my city we have a thriving magic community. However, it recently came down that only level 2 judges can judge PPTQ's. We only have 2 level 2 judges in the area. Since level 1's can no longer judge PPTQ's, the 2 lvl. 2 judges have colluded together and have decreed that they will not judge any PPTQ events unless they are paid 200 bucks in cash upfront. This as a result has greatly diminished the number of PPTQ's in the area (as many stores simply cannot afford to payout such a large amount to judges) and those that do, have a MINISCULE payout for players.
Furthermore, I have learned that these judges are purposefully suppressing aspiring level 1 judges from reaching level 2 so they can have a choke-hold on the market. So now, we have very few PPTQs and less qualified judges because of these few greedy level 2 judges. I'm told wizards wont care because judges are independent entity and not employees. But these judges are really hurting the magic community. What can I/we do?
I actually think combo is okay as long as it doesn't go off too quickly. Combos like protean hulk combo isn't fun, but combo decks like dragonstorm during the time spiral era were fun to play against. With that said, if combo exists, control should have a healthy presence in the format as well. The classic rock paper scissors goes combo/control/aggro except aggro should be supper aggro because midrange can't surive with the classic triad. Now wizards has essentially replaced combo with "midrange" making it a midrange/control/super aggro in the standard format.
I think someone made a very interesting point that Thoughtseize and the hypothetical card would go in different decks. I think Thoughtseize is good for aggro-control decks like MBD while Brain Squeeze would go better in control decks. If I were playing Esper Control in Standard, I think I'd rather play Brain Squeeze because the other cards in my hand should be able to deal with any threats they run out (creatures or planeswalkers). The interesting thing about an instant speed Brain Squeeze is that after they draw, you can essentailly cut them off of the play they want to make that turn (i.e. they're about to make their 3 drop, but then you cut them off, and they now have nothing to do on turn 3).
I also think an instant speed thoughtseize being more useful against control decks in general because you can cut them off from drawing into a revelation. Therefore making it a better late game card.
As a side note, the comparisons between Hymn and the instant speed thoughtseize card are interesting. Though I'm not entirely sure that one is clearly better than the other.
We all know that Thoughtseize is an incredibly powerful control card. But I'm curious to see how essential the card only costing B is. If it costed 1 more but was at instant speed, would people still rather play the original over the new version? For example, if this hypothetical card was printed, which would you rather play?
Thoughtseize
B
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or hand and discards a nonland card of your choice. Lose 2 life.
VS
Brain Squeeze
1B
Instant
Target player reveals his or hand and discards a nonland card of your choice.
As a followup qusetion: If you ardently believe that Thoughtseize is miles and miles better, what would a hypothetical card like Brain Squeeze have to do to make you want to play it at 1B?
My theory is that the next big end of the multiverse crisis (like time spiral) will involve a super baddie that can either kill planeswalkers or "steal" their spark and absorb it to make himself more powerful. Wizards are crazy about planeswalkers ad making them the face of the game. What better conflict can there be than one that threatens their very existance? They may make Bolas the super baddie or create a new one. But this seems like a compelling storyline for a block and for players..
Wizards have shown us that they are quite serious about pushing the modern by printing a lot of staple cards for the format. When they reprint Shock lands, tormogoyf, dark confident, mutavault, scavenging ooze, thoughtseize, and even Jace the mind sculptor....no card is safe.
What other expensive cards should we be expecting for reprint in the future?
Moved to MG since it's not a market value thing... -Galspanic
Horrible trade, voice will not see play out of standard (because of path to exile). May even drop more with the new Chain to the Rocks card coming out. I would trade for tarmogoyf anytime.
So I was fortunate enough to preorder 2 copies of FTV 20 1 week before jace was spoiled for 120 dollars a piece. When Jace was spoiled, I was so excited, but now I'm worried that the store from Ebay may try to scam me by canceling my order, especially if anything more valuable is spoiled. The seller has over 500 feedback reviews and no negative feedback.
I guess my question is: what is the chance of ebay stores screwing people out of this preorder? How often have stores canceled preorders when there has been much more value than anticipated?
"It dies to removal" is a perfectly legitimate argument against this card. If I'm paying 5 mana for a creature, it better either A.) Offer some immediate benefit (Wolfir Silverheart, Thundermaw Hellkite) B.) Have some form of protection (Blood Baron of Vizkoopa) or C.) Be extremely resilient (Thragtusk).
Does this card have any of those qualities? No? Then it's a bad card. Because if you tap out for this guy, and they just doom blade it, they have some guys out and they're spending mana doing other things, you're already that much far behind.
Because Modern Masters is one of the highest value sets ever, I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in seeing the values of the cards. It'd also be cool if there was a running tally for the foils in the set because of the high frequency of foils.
Do you think we're going to see any more futureshift cards? Or has future sight reached it's end? (I think the references to future cards ended in Scars of Mirrodin)
Pretty weak audition video...so we should vote for him just because he plays magic is all I got out of it. Just watch the other videos...The other auditioners have more nerdy interests and activities which make them inherently more interesting (as a nerd)
Return to Ravnica was fantastic as it offered solid game-play and loads of money rares and mythics. The guild mechanics were well designed and the guild boxes during prerelease were implemented well.
Gatecrash was less fantastic, but still an excellent set. I felt the card design was very good. I loved bloodrush, extort, battalion which made for some very intersting and distinct archtypes in draft. To me, draft Gatecrash was more intersting than RTR. However, sealed was poorly done, as Boros dominated everything. Also, it was harder to get excited about playing a set when you know the only card with value was Boros Reckoner.
Dragon's Maze is just flatout awful with hardly any redeeming qualities. It lacks the cohesive focus the previous sets had, and limited feels like its just a jumble of random cards thrown together with lots of mana fixing. You mana fix, but it's just because it's plentiful and it's not really for any great other cards. The rares and mythics are not great for any format, other than limited, and even then, it's not as exciting as the ones in RTR and Gatecrash. And finally, there's no money in the set (other than voice).
I also noticed in my Dragon's Maze prerelease a huge drop in attendance compared to the previous sets - at least 50%. I know people are always saying that X new set is the worst since homelands, but really, this set may be just that bad.
I can easily see shocks being 6-8 dollars when maze hits, but 5+ years down the road, could they jump back up to 15 dollars? (kind of like how zen fetchlands suddenly jumped overnight?) In other words, how much should we expect the price of shocks to rise over the long term?
Furthermore, I have learned that these judges are purposefully suppressing aspiring level 1 judges from reaching level 2 so they can have a choke-hold on the market. So now, we have very few PPTQs and less qualified judges because of these few greedy level 2 judges. I'm told wizards wont care because judges are independent entity and not employees. But these judges are really hurting the magic community. What can I/we do?
I also think an instant speed thoughtseize being more useful against control decks in general because you can cut them off from drawing into a revelation. Therefore making it a better late game card.
As a side note, the comparisons between Hymn and the instant speed thoughtseize card are interesting. Though I'm not entirely sure that one is clearly better than the other.
Thoughtseize
B
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or hand and discards a nonland card of your choice. Lose 2 life.
VS
Brain Squeeze
1B
Instant
Target player reveals his or hand and discards a nonland card of your choice.
As a followup qusetion: If you ardently believe that Thoughtseize is miles and miles better, what would a hypothetical card like Brain Squeeze have to do to make you want to play it at 1B?
What other expensive cards should we be expecting for reprint in the future?
Moved to MG since it's not a market value thing... -Galspanic
I guess my question is: what is the chance of ebay stores screwing people out of this preorder? How often have stores canceled preorders when there has been much more value than anticipated?
Does this card have any of those qualities? No? Then it's a bad card. Because if you tap out for this guy, and they just doom blade it, they have some guys out and they're spending mana doing other things, you're already that much far behind.
Gatecrash was less fantastic, but still an excellent set. I felt the card design was very good. I loved bloodrush, extort, battalion which made for some very intersting and distinct archtypes in draft. To me, draft Gatecrash was more intersting than RTR. However, sealed was poorly done, as Boros dominated everything. Also, it was harder to get excited about playing a set when you know the only card with value was Boros Reckoner.
Dragon's Maze is just flatout awful with hardly any redeeming qualities. It lacks the cohesive focus the previous sets had, and limited feels like its just a jumble of random cards thrown together with lots of mana fixing. You mana fix, but it's just because it's plentiful and it's not really for any great other cards. The rares and mythics are not great for any format, other than limited, and even then, it's not as exciting as the ones in RTR and Gatecrash. And finally, there's no money in the set (other than voice).
I also noticed in my Dragon's Maze prerelease a huge drop in attendance compared to the previous sets - at least 50%. I know people are always saying that X new set is the worst since homelands, but really, this set may be just that bad.