Perhaps those berating the writer should consider that the point of the article is still valid and discuss that since it's the real issue: MTGO is facing a loss of interest and that's bad for those invested in MTGO.
Personally I've refused to invest heavily into MTGO since the beginning, because all gaming software has a finite life span which depends on too many variables. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the sky is falling or that MTGO is going to die any time soon - but, if it keeps on the path it's been on since it's inception, then it's only going to decline over time.
Very true. It's not dying today or tomorrow, or even the day after that... but it's losing customers and the value of their digital products are going down.
My experience alone is that I invested heavily after the hurricane Katrina (no other place to play) but could not get over the buggy, resource craving UI they pushed out... I stopped playing. I picked up a few packs of Masters Ed 1 and collected Force of Wills and Mana Drains for myself, then stopped. I expected a crazy rate of return... FoW peaked, then dropped. Drains never did well. Bazaar and Workshops are $20. It's so easy to get into this format, but why aren't people?
Again, my experience comes from those around me: my roommate has drafted over 200 tickets worth of Theros... he has lost 90% of his games because the "shuffler" has given him 8+ lands in row EVERY GAME. I witnessed every time this happened. It's alarming and representative of a real world experience to playing the game. He plans to never play on MODO every again because he just wasted $200.
A lot of other players complain about the loss of a "live" opponent whom you can speak with during the game.
I'm really bugged that WotC has not designed the UI to let your "avatar" be a live video stream if you have one and to incorporate VOIP communications between players. The tone of your opponent can set the stage to how both player's feel and makes the game better. You bet a better feel and experience.
Also, where's the tablet version of MODO already? We have DoTP 2013. They should be pushing out a tablet version of MODO anyday now that truly supports video/audio feed. That's where I'd be putting my time, energy, and money if I were them. It's a new age, so let's feel like it!
I agree that his over-simplicaton is a bit much, however his point is pretty clear to those who are interested in reading: MODO is losing interest.
The MOCS crashing every year is a really ridiculous. As a guy who beta tested the V3 UI back in 2005, I can definitely say that WotC does not listen to anyone. Every bit of feedback posted from testers criticized the User Interface, wasted space, and terrible side-bar system... and that was just the UI. Heavy complaints about the actual game play were also offered stating that the newer version offered no increased efficiency in game play.
What did they do? "Well, we're so far along that we'll just stick with what we have. Thanks guys"
WTF??? Why even do a beta if you're just going to roll out the software anyways? Garbage in, garbage out.
That article is making it clear that MODO needs change. 10% loss in value is significant. Very significant.
To stay on topic: I don't like scry being the returning mechanic. To me, scry is down there with Cycling and Echo as far as least flavorful mechanics goes. I'd much rathre the returning mechanic be battle cry or convoke.
"Scry X" vs "draw X" is card quality vs card quantity. Of course, if you draw say 7 cards compared to getting just 1 card out of 7, there is a greater chance of getting more than 1 good card. This is compared to most cards that scry 1 or 2 vs drawing just 1 card. I'd rather take scry in the latter situation because you will greatly increase the power of that next drawn card being something you need/want vs purely at random.
I hope that the Nimbus Maze rumor is true because I actually picked up some copies of the original Nimbus Maze during a trade a little while back. I thought that NM and similar duals might be in Theros because that cycle would make sense with the shocks. I was just guessing, but the guy let me get a playset for 5 bucks in trades so that was pretty sweet.
Can we get a mod to update the OP to add verification of known/unknown facts related to this information. Especially since the land cycle has been confirmed as "Horizon-canopy-esque" and not Nimbus Maze.
Also, Thoughtsieze is 99% confirmed as well.
The legen... Eh, whatever. Completes info on the P9 saboteur ability, albeit cost for effecf unknown.
When I hear a tweaked mechanic, I always think of Threshold. MaRo for years has said he wished they had designed it as "Threshold X" instead of making it static 7 cards.
It also fits a "growth pattern" for "leveling up" based on your graveyard. They could mechanically have "newthresh 4" and "newthresh 9" on the same cards, corresponding to.different abilities.
I await the newly fixed thresh.
@Bushido - I can see this being reworked for sure. One of my favorite mechanics. Still have my playset of foil 2 drops that hated the graveyard.
He will do fine with new uniqueness/lefend rule, so you can use other Garruks for a few months to make tokens and protect, then lose the old one to cast the new one. I imagine he will be minus ability immediately more than plus ability.
Niv-Mizzet has a triggered ability that triggers on a specific game event - "Draw a card." If that draw is replaced by a different action entirely (exile a card), then the trigger event didn't actually occur. This is different from discarding because the core action has been replaced, as opposed to the end result of an action being replaced.
I quote this b/c Fauna Shaman specifies a specific game event - discarding. It seems you are saying one works while the other doesn't under the same terms. That cannot happen. You see "discard" on the card, look up what that means, and cannot perform the action, so the cost is not paid.
Also, Rule 614.6 about replacement effects tends to lend credit to what I am saying. Tje original event fails; never happens. So, you cannot pay a cost if the event in discarding has chanfed, therefore failing the event.
Also, based on your second quote, if correct, would that triggear an ability that looked for a card being exiled from your hand?
I am not being difficult. The rules seem to go against logic here, and maybe worthwhile to make a clearer ruling about paying costs.
It makes sense, but one could easily suggest that by the definition of the game term "discard", the card never went from hand to graveyard. Basically, you never actually met the conditions for the card to be considered "discarded" in the first place.
I happened across the gatherer ruling on Quagnoth that says its second ability will trigger and return Quagnoth to hand if discarded by opponents spell/ability, even if Leyline of the Void is in play.
The definition of a discard is the card going from hand to graveyard, specifically. Is this ruled in error?
If not, why does Uba Mask and Niv Mizzit (original), not work? Niv does not trigger to ping when you replace the draw with exiling.
I may be wrong to mix the two different events, but they seem extremely similar. More to the point, can you pay a cost from a card like Fauna Shaman if Rest in Peace is in pay? Wheel of Sun and Moon + specific discards don't work by rule (hidden zone going to hidden zone, but needs verification by characteristic, I.e. discard was a creature card).
The people I know who buy have bought some more than once basically figured out that you get what you pay for in many honest setups. You but $100 worth of repacks, you get $100 worth of playables, then hundreds of junk.
My only purchase of repacks were 6 fir $30 ten years ago. Got a $20 exalted angel and like three $3 std uncommons (back then), around Onslaught. Think obe was an Astral Slide.
Like others have said, they broke even. Good chance none of the packs were preconstructed. My metric goes is: total the value of chase cards they list, then multiply cost per pack by number of packs for sale. If total value much higher than return, don't geyt them. Also, if they do ten listings with 20 packs, but say they come from the same pool... Good luck. There is no chance to purchase them all without a pack sold from each right away, i.e. All ten power cards or best cards "already randomly shipped".
You can't lose money you never had, and the future is always uncertain. If your reason for them losing money is b/c values change, then life will be rough for you and good at the same time; everything you buy that goes up is great, but everything you sell you lose money on assuming it goes up in value. You can't have sellers remorse. At time of deal, you were happy. That's all that matters.
@repacks: If you are looking to cash in your collection, repacks let you mix top dollar cards + trash for around 90%-100% value of top dollar cards in repacks. Your repacks should be built that way. Your decent and mid value playables can be sold as sets or on eBay for 87% of total value with ease. At the end of the day, it lets a collector realize a closer to 90% return in cash for his collection rather bulk selling it for 50% - 60%. These are ligitimate repackers of course. Scammers will scam, but there are honest ones. A few guys I know have purged four or five private collections this way and sellers were very happy at the returns.
First off, there is an understood "market economics" principle at work here. I have been using that as the basis for all my statements.
Second, there are no monopoly issues. If so, SCG would put competitirs out of business. That's the power of a monopoly. Even oligopoly is a stretch for now.
The financial term you are looking for is "inefficient market". Under standard bell curve market-dictated pricing, SCG can operate outside the bell curve and thrive. That is a sign of an inefficient market. It simpky means buyers are uninformed of lower alternatives.
Yes, a lot of people will support their LGS. I do, but to an extent... Just the other day, was going to buy a Gaea's Cradle for $80. Online retailers and eBay were around $75. I had no issue here, but when I walked up to buy it, the clerk had it out putting the new $110 SCG price on it... I walked away. There is a point where I will not buy for a loss.
The reason SCG prices suck is b/c you lose money for buying there. Unless I fibd someone who will pay SCG prices (very, very, very rare) I end going with eBay b/c that is market rate for cash purchases 24/7. To get cash elsewhere is buylist prices, which are a fraction of a cards worth.
The LGS situation though becomes a non-issue when they don't have stock too. Makes it hard to buy something they don't have, so people go online. Despite having a binder for every magic set, our LGS is out of every playable card from those sets. The case is full of bad and unplayables, even if they are $5+ on SCG.
Idk everyone, but our LGS sells commons for $0.25, uncommons for $1.00, and rare/mythic for min of $2.00, and I won't buy chaff $.50 rates for $2.00, when I can buy a plauset for that price. Most stores sit at $1 for bad unused rares, and that's fine. But LGS don't pay their rent off single sales, b/c almost no one buys singles from our local store... Same inventory for years. They are still going b/c of 50+ FNM and 20+ drafts each week.
So, it's hard to say who controls the price. Locally, the price is set by sellers on eBay. SCG is not used unless during trading. People are fine valuing their cards from one, consistent source for trading, just not buying.
Very true. It's not dying today or tomorrow, or even the day after that... but it's losing customers and the value of their digital products are going down.
My experience alone is that I invested heavily after the hurricane Katrina (no other place to play) but could not get over the buggy, resource craving UI they pushed out... I stopped playing. I picked up a few packs of Masters Ed 1 and collected Force of Wills and Mana Drains for myself, then stopped. I expected a crazy rate of return... FoW peaked, then dropped. Drains never did well. Bazaar and Workshops are $20. It's so easy to get into this format, but why aren't people?
Again, my experience comes from those around me: my roommate has drafted over 200 tickets worth of Theros... he has lost 90% of his games because the "shuffler" has given him 8+ lands in row EVERY GAME. I witnessed every time this happened. It's alarming and representative of a real world experience to playing the game. He plans to never play on MODO every again because he just wasted $200.
A lot of other players complain about the loss of a "live" opponent whom you can speak with during the game.
I'm really bugged that WotC has not designed the UI to let your "avatar" be a live video stream if you have one and to incorporate VOIP communications between players. The tone of your opponent can set the stage to how both player's feel and makes the game better. You bet a better feel and experience.
Also, where's the tablet version of MODO already? We have DoTP 2013. They should be pushing out a tablet version of MODO anyday now that truly supports video/audio feed. That's where I'd be putting my time, energy, and money if I were them. It's a new age, so let's feel like it!
The MOCS crashing every year is a really ridiculous. As a guy who beta tested the V3 UI back in 2005, I can definitely say that WotC does not listen to anyone. Every bit of feedback posted from testers criticized the User Interface, wasted space, and terrible side-bar system... and that was just the UI. Heavy complaints about the actual game play were also offered stating that the newer version offered no increased efficiency in game play.
What did they do? "Well, we're so far along that we'll just stick with what we have. Thanks guys"
WTF??? Why even do a beta if you're just going to roll out the software anyways? Garbage in, garbage out.
That article is making it clear that MODO needs change. 10% loss in value is significant. Very significant.
Is Johnny Magic prepared to change the future or alter his past?
In the end, Scrygate must be stopped!
Can we get a mod to update the OP to add verification of known/unknown facts related to this information. Especially since the land cycle has been confirmed as "Horizon-canopy-esque" and not Nimbus Maze.
Also, Thoughtsieze is 99% confirmed as well.
The legen... Eh, whatever. Completes info on the P9 saboteur ability, albeit cost for effecf unknown.
It also fits a "growth pattern" for "leveling up" based on your graveyard. They could mechanically have "newthresh 4" and "newthresh 9" on the same cards, corresponding to.different abilities.
I await the newly fixed thresh.
@Bushido - I can see this being reworked for sure. One of my favorite mechanics. Still have my playset of foil 2 drops that hated the graveyard.
Also, Rule 614.6 about replacement effects tends to lend credit to what I am saying. Tje original event fails; never happens. So, you cannot pay a cost if the event in discarding has chanfed, therefore failing the event.
Also, based on your second quote, if correct, would that triggear an ability that looked for a card being exiled from your hand?
I am not being difficult. The rules seem to go against logic here, and maybe worthwhile to make a clearer ruling about paying costs.
The definition of a discard is the card going from hand to graveyard, specifically. Is this ruled in error?
If not, why does Uba Mask and Niv Mizzit (original), not work? Niv does not trigger to ping when you replace the draw with exiling.
I may be wrong to mix the two different events, but they seem extremely similar. More to the point, can you pay a cost from a card like Fauna Shaman if Rest in Peace is in pay? Wheel of Sun and Moon + specific discards don't work by rule (hidden zone going to hidden zone, but needs verification by characteristic, I.e. discard was a creature card).
Please use card tags in future posts. The Forum Guidelines explain how to do that. ~ Hendrik
My only purchase of repacks were 6 fir $30 ten years ago. Got a $20 exalted angel and like three $3 std uncommons (back then), around Onslaught. Think obe was an Astral Slide.
Like others have said, they broke even. Good chance none of the packs were preconstructed. My metric goes is: total the value of chase cards they list, then multiply cost per pack by number of packs for sale. If total value much higher than return, don't geyt them. Also, if they do ten listings with 20 packs, but say they come from the same pool... Good luck. There is no chance to purchase them all without a pack sold from each right away, i.e. All ten power cards or best cards "already randomly shipped".
@repacks: If you are looking to cash in your collection, repacks let you mix top dollar cards + trash for around 90%-100% value of top dollar cards in repacks. Your repacks should be built that way. Your decent and mid value playables can be sold as sets or on eBay for 87% of total value with ease. At the end of the day, it lets a collector realize a closer to 90% return in cash for his collection rather bulk selling it for 50% - 60%. These are ligitimate repackers of course. Scammers will scam, but there are honest ones. A few guys I know have purged four or five private collections this way and sellers were very happy at the returns.
Second, there are no monopoly issues. If so, SCG would put competitirs out of business. That's the power of a monopoly. Even oligopoly is a stretch for now.
The financial term you are looking for is "inefficient market". Under standard bell curve market-dictated pricing, SCG can operate outside the bell curve and thrive. That is a sign of an inefficient market. It simpky means buyers are uninformed of lower alternatives.
The reason SCG prices suck is b/c you lose money for buying there. Unless I fibd someone who will pay SCG prices (very, very, very rare) I end going with eBay b/c that is market rate for cash purchases 24/7. To get cash elsewhere is buylist prices, which are a fraction of a cards worth.
The LGS situation though becomes a non-issue when they don't have stock too. Makes it hard to buy something they don't have, so people go online. Despite having a binder for every magic set, our LGS is out of every playable card from those sets. The case is full of bad and unplayables, even if they are $5+ on SCG.
Idk everyone, but our LGS sells commons for $0.25, uncommons for $1.00, and rare/mythic for min of $2.00, and I won't buy chaff $.50 rates for $2.00, when I can buy a plauset for that price. Most stores sit at $1 for bad unused rares, and that's fine. But LGS don't pay their rent off single sales, b/c almost no one buys singles from our local store... Same inventory for years. They are still going b/c of 50+ FNM and 20+ drafts each week.
So, it's hard to say who controls the price. Locally, the price is set by sellers on eBay. SCG is not used unless during trading. People are fine valuing their cards from one, consistent source for trading, just not buying.