MTG Salvation

I got another yesterday and got Urza's Rage from the PvC deck. Only good rare in the packs was a Spellskite.

Quote from Noukkers

Once again Chadmart, we're paying customers. We're allowed to have our perspective. You can be thankful all you want. I can be disappointed all I want.

I'll still have fun playing this cube. That does NOT mean that I'm overwhelmed with joy and excitement and that I'll be praising WotC for everything they do. It's like FTV legends. Sure, they could have just not printed it. But they did, and people were underwhelmed.

What happened? They said they'll try to make the next one better. Oh hey! Look at that! Complaints get them to try harder! What a curveball!

And they are going to do that with FTV: Realms?

I'm not saying that you can't have and voice your opinion. I'm saying that there are better ways to frame it. On one hand you can ask for the things that you would like to see. On the other you can demand that they do what you want.

"Hey WotC, I know you didn't have to make a cube, so thank you. The fact that you listen to the community and try to give us things that we ask for is great. Just a couple of things though, it would be nice if there were signets in the cube. Also, I would like to draft my own cube online, would that be a possibility for a future update?"

or

"Screw you WotC! You could have made this perfect! It is so lame that you didn't put signets in the cube! And why can't I draft my own cube? This is going to suck. Once again you failed!"

Which one do you think is going to get a better response? Which do you think they are going to consider in those future updates?

The reality is that they will get those arguments and every range in-between, and they will weigh the items that have been asked for/demanded of them and make a decision. Once they have made that decision they will implement it and once again be mobbed by the complaints of those that they did not please.

As for their margins, well in one case you get 3 packs of cards plus potential for prizes for 14 tickets. In the other you get 0 packs of cards plus potential for prizes for 2 tickets. In all cases, the packs of cards plus the potential for prizes costs WotC NOTHING! In this case, all development is considered equal. They had already created ghost drafting, maybe as a test-bed for cube drafting. They had already created all of the digital cards. Aside from the cost of keeping the whole thing running, there is no cost difference on WotC's side for running a DII draft, or running a Cube draft. The secondary market on cards does not concern them. They don't make any profit on that. All they care about is the tix you play to pay. So in one scenario they get 14 tix, and in the other they get 2. Which is more appealing to them?

[RANT]Why are so many people so entitled that they think everything has to match to their specifications and nobody else's? You should be happy that they are adding Cube at all, even if it isn't the exact number of cards or exact card choices that you would have made. It is still cube drafting on MTGO. Be happy for what you have. A lot of hard work went into creating it, and while they of course are going to profit on it, I'm sure the margins on something like this are far less than regular drafts and such. What I'm trying to get at is that they are listening, and more than that they are adding things that we want even if it isn't as profitable as other things. Be happy for what they have added, and if there are things you don't like about it, then let them know what things might need improvement. But if it is just something as insignificant as a personal choice about including signets or planeswalkers, or a lack of a specific card that you wanted to see, then suck it up. The cube wasn't made for YOU. It was made for US an as such no one person is going to be completely satisfied with every choice made. The mere fact that they added cube means that they could be working on personal cubes for future inclusion. You don't know.[/RANT]

As for your own cube, there is nothing stopping you from cube drafting on MTGO. The way to do it is fairly complex, but it works. I've drafted the Limited Resources cube. You draft on TappedOut.net and then go to MTGO and the owner of the cube trades all the cards from the draft to the individual players. Games are played in the casual room, and at the end you give all the cards back. If you want to try it, just find Marshall_LR on MTGO and ask to join the Limited Resources clan, then follow @LRCube on Twitter for announcements of when the cube drafts are going to take place. These also appear in the clan chat.

Perhaps the TOs at these large events should charge an admission fee? Even a small $5 or $10 fee would deter at least some of the criminals. Additionally, they could have someone posted at the exits at all times, but a lot of the time once the snatch is made, the person most likely walks casually out the front door. Or maybe they could implement a check-in system for your stuff. When you walk in they attach some kind of identifier to your bag and you have a matching piece. It could be one of those clothing tags so that only they could remove it, then when you leave you have to give them the matching piece and they have to remove the piece from the bag... that's a lot of extra work that would have to be done, but if this trends more then it might become necessary.

I don't know that the OP could have taken any additional steps. If they were watching and waiting for the right time, then they would have seen the stuff go into the trunk rather than the back seat, and these days most every car has a trunk release next to the driver seat somewhere.

Some criminals are pretty stupid. I once had my truck broken into. They tried to use the crowbar that they got from behind my seat to try and jimmy the ignition, but all they ended up doing was destroying it. They left the face plate on my radio, they left the CD changer that was behind the seat, along with the 10 CDs in it, and they left the binder of 200+ CDs that was sitting right next to it. All they wanted was the truck itself, which baffles me because it was a POS.

I got one of these the other day and my "promo" was a foil Amoeboid Changeling from the Slivers PDS deck. My packs were M12, MBS, and NPH. My NPH pack had a Sword of War and Peace, so I would say it was worth it. I also noted that the back of the package, these things were distributed by WotC... not some 3rd party. I made a point to look at it because I wanted to give someone a piece of my mind that just because a card is a foil and from a premium deck does NOT make it an "exclusive promo card". It is in NO WAY exclusive, nor was it a promo card.

IT was definitely rude for the other guy to heckle the OP into playing faster... but I can see the frustration.

We have in our playgroup the SLOWEST Magic player in the world! He would take forever every turn playing Jund if he had been playing at the time of Jund. He decided to take Caw-Blade to a big tournament and guess what? Unless the opponent DESTROYED him early, every single match went to time and he lost them all (except one I think).

So, while I concede that the OP should take the time he needs to play the game, I can definitely see where the opponent's frustration comes from, as I face it every game night... and Commander with 4 players makes it even worse!

Quote from tempesteye

OP was wrong.
It's the responsibility of both parties to know the value of cards they are trading, regardless of how "out of the current scene" any one person is.
Just because the OP thought it was an unfair trade, that doesn't give him the right to interfere in a transaction of which he is not a part.

This is flat out taking advantage of someone's lack of knowledge. What we don't know is if the Jitte guy was lying about the values of the cards, or just trying to make the trade without involving "value". It seems to me that most of the time the first thing people ask is "what do you value this at?" and if the guy says that the Jitte is $300 or that the Moat is $15, then either one is lying. There is no way that anyone values a Moat at $15 or a Jitte at $300.

The last time I played FNM there was a guy who wanted to trade his Grave Titan for anyone's Balefire Dragon. He was asked several times and always answered that he didn't care about the value of the cards, just that he had like 6 titans and no dragons and he wanted a dragon. I had my dragon out and ready to go but he was in the middle of a trade with someone else and he got his dragon, so I was too late.

As for the OP, good on you for stopping someone obviously taking advantage.

As a pro, even if someone is rude to you, you should not be rude back to them. A simple "no" would have been a better response and wouldn't have garnered this response from the OP.

As for pros not needing to trade... that's definitely true in some cases, but I've seen pros asking for cards on twitter before, so they don't have unlimited supply of every card available to them, particularly in the older/eternal formats. That said, if they are not carrying a binder or a backpack (where they could easily have a binder) then it is probably not right to ask them for trades.

I opened a box of DKA;

Mythics were:

Vorapede
Huntmaster of the Fells
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Drogskol Reaver
Beguiler of Wills

I am only missing 6 of the rares as well.

My friend opened a box as well and got the following mythics:

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Very last pack in the box
Elbrus, the Binding Blade
Helvault
Moonveil Dragon
Falkenrath Aristocrat

I was able to trade him to obtain the dragon and the Helvault, so I am only missing 4 of the mythics now.

The cool part is that Sorin is the only card that I didn't get that I really wanted for the current Commander deck that I'm working on.

In all, not a bad 2 boxes. Both boxes had a Grafdigger's Cage, but no Sorin emblems though. Seems odd that they are so sparse.

I decided not to go to prereleases any more because I get 6 packs (in the case of DKA, 3 packs of DKA and 3 packs of INN) for $30 but if I go buy packs at my usual place the following week, I can get anywhere from 10-12 packs for the same $30, and all DKA! Still, if I am quickly running in to a Wal-Mart or Target, there's usually an extra $4 on my checkout for a pack.

I know that trying to get particular singles it is easier and cheaper to buy singles, but I just enjoy opening packs.

I typically buy a box of the new set as well as a fat pack, but for DKA I think I'm going to have to wait until the MTGO redemption sets start hitting eBay and going that route. I really only play Commander anymore, so I don't need more than 1 of any given card... doesn't mean that I won't get a pack or two here and there until that time (and after!)

My wife bought me 2 packs of Innistrad. I pulled an Olivia Voldaren and Mayor of Avabruck out of one pack. The other pack had junk.

Then my mother-in-law won me 2 of the Gifts Given auctions and got me 2x Cabal Coffers and a Revised Tropical Island!!!

I was very surprised by that!

The main thing I would do in regards to MTG is I would buy back all of my favorite old cards that I had to sell at one point or another, particularly my favorite card of all time, Time Walk. I also had a ton of dual lands and such that I have sold and would like to get back... though I would probably go with a full playset of beta duals and a playset of beta Time Walk.

I might also try and get my hands on the Shichifukujin Dragon... I might have to buy the DCI Tournament Center in Tokyo to do so, but it's the only way to ever truly complete my collection of dragons!

I usually don't get to the deck building stage without the firm desire to complete it and play it. Usually I'll use a builder like deckbox.org or Decked Builder (iPhone/Android) to research and pull the list together, tweak it, goldfish it, tweak it some more, and then I go find/get the cards and put it together.

I've always got the skeleton of several decks, but the two that I have "almost" complete at the moment are:

Animar, Soul of Elements/Sliver themed deck. (Amazing!)
and
Zedruu the Greathearted which is an almost in-tact Political Puppets deck, but I have made roughly 6-8 changes to it. I need to go through and re-do it, but I find that I actually like the deck.

I want to start a Dragon themed deck, but I'm having trouble getting started. I don't know if I want mono-R, tri-color (Kaalia sounds like a great idea and go with Angels, Demons, and Dragons,) or something like Karrthus (though one of my usual opponents plays a Karrthus deck, so I probably won't go there.) Edit: I think I settled on building a Mono-R deck using Ryusei, the Falling Star as the general.

I also have at near completion the following:
Cromat - 5C Planeswalkers
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary - Tokens

and slightly less complete I have:
Ashling the Pilgrim - Mono R burn (soon to be dismantled to fuel the dragon deck)
Sharuum the Hegemon - Esper Artifact fun!

I should say that all of these decks are "complete" except for the fact that I had to use some of the cards in other decks. That is the only reason that they are incomplete.

Quote from mustachiobandit

I'm always amused by oldschool kitchen table players trying to use Icy Manipulator or Royal Assassin to 'counter' what you're trying to do, then giving you the evil eye when you try and explain how that doesn't work at all (as if you're trying to trick them).
"Tap Birds of Paradise for-"
"Kill it with Assassin," he proclaims triumphantly.
"OK, but I still get the black mana..."
"Nope, it's dead first!"
...Facepalm.

Like you said, this happens a lot with people that haven't played Magic in a while, and don't really understand the stack 100%. I have a friend who is like this. For the most part he gets it, but every once in a while he has one of these moments. I believe the most recent was in regards to trying to tap something with Icy Manipulator after I had tapped that object, and it works both ways... so, for example...

"At the end of your main phase I'll tap your BoP with Icy Manipulator."
"Ok, in response to that I will tap the BoP for a red."
"You can't, it's tapped."
"No, that effect went on the stack and while it is on the stack and I have priority I can use the mana ability."
"Ok, well what if I tap the birds in response to your tapping the birds?"
"That doesn't work either because I've already tapped it. The act of tapping it doesn't go on the stack, it is a cost. Once I tap the bird the 'add a single mana of any color' ability goes on the stack and you can react to that."
"So Icy is useless now!?!"
"Not if you use it right."

Back in the day (which is always a Wednesday) it was so crazy the kinds of things we would try to come up with. All we had to go on back then was that little paper pamphlet that came in the started packs, and we miss-interpreted rules left and right. Once we started playing in a store we were constantly getting smashed by people who knew the real rules and we were constantly saying "oh, that's how that works!"

I agree though, many instances as described here are people who just don't completely understand the rules or particular interactions. Usually when this happens (outside of a venue with a judge) we go over it together and if a decision can't be reached then we consult the Rulings forum.