I've been playing prereleases from Kans of Tarkir (so Fate reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Origins and Battle for Zendikar) only in the 2-Headed giant verion and I assure to everyone that it's super funny, you have a larger pool of cards (12 packs!) and some cards are stronger in multiplayer (like Nettle drone), on top of that you're playng WITH a friend! What would you want more?
Normal 2H Giant should only be 8 packs unless your have the prerelease boxes. I would assume they will do the BFZ style boxes again, but just throwing that info out there just in case.
The BFZ Pro-tour winning deck contains 4 Gideon's ($40.50 TCGP low), 4 Windswept's ($13.50 low), 4 Flooded Strands ($22 low), 4 Wooded Foothills ($21), 4 Den Protector's ($13 low), and 3 Hangarbacks ($13 low). That alone puts you just under $500. Add in the other goodies and you're talking $600-$700. I've never been a big player of Standard, almost exclusively EDH, but even if I wanted to play more Standard, the buy-in is just too damn steep. My friends agree, which is why all but one of us have basically quit Standard. You can shell all that money out for a deck like that, only to have to deal with shifts in Meta (or simply get tired of playing that expensive deck) and then you're starting from scratch all over again. Having to buy 4-6 boxes of each expansion (or the rough equivalent in singles) is just too high a price to pay, and I make a very comfortable salary. And yes, of course there are exceptions and more budget friendly decks out there...
Of course buying in at peak demand and hype is going to be expensive. Gideon's could have been scooped up at $25-$30 for a couple weeks. Windswept was $10 or right below for a bit of time, and Strand was sub $14 for a bit. Both of those current prices aren't bad considering how much Legacy and Modern play they see. Foothills was under $10 for a bit, although not a huge fan of it's current price. Den Protector was dirt cheap for a bit. Not a fan of the price beyond Standard though. Hangarback lucky was in an event deck to stem the price there a bit.
Ya but my "jank" crushed the "competitive" decks you seem to be refering to. But thats okay, once a pro plays these cards you'll be back pretending you knew it was good all along instead of leaving snide comments to people who think for themselves.
Here is the thing though, they won't be playing them.
Honestly, this promo frame is terrible, especially considering it's the marketing gimmick for BFZ.
The white of the textbox is so strong that it might as well not be full-art, since we can barely see the art. In which case, putting the type-line back where it usually is, you could then have the textbox be lower, down to where that leftover textured rectangle at the bottom is, thus showing more art. The rune-texture is cool in concept, but too bright and flat.
They should have done this:
Of course, considering how rare the promo version is... they could have just left it textless. A new player only needs to learn two cards (any fetchland, any shockland) to know them all.
These would look so much better. They could have went one step further and reduced the height of the text box. That could have easily been done on the Shocks. Not sure on the wording of Fetches/New Lands off the top of my head, but I assume the size of the box was kept the same across all lands. OR! They are doing the other 5 new lands and 15 non-land cards next round!?
I'm looking at Marsh Flats and Windswept Heath, the two least expensive of their respective cycles. If either of them ends up more than 150, I'll be amazed, especially with how much of the set is going to be opened to find the more sought after fetches.
Prepare to be amazed!
We're looking at one full-art Marsh Flats (Windswept Heath/whatever) every ~100-120 boxes. The set isn't going to be opened for these, it's just a (very ill-conceived IMO) bonus.
And since they're effectively ultra-mythics and uber-pimp I doubt any would be reasonably priced.
they're more common than mythics, and are included in addition to normal foils, probably taking the token/advertisement slot in whatever pack they're found in. I'm going to place Flats at about 125, windswept at between 75-100. Both depending on artwork. If you wanted a really blinged out windswept, you'd buy the judge promo, which is $150, far less common than these will be, and also a few years old. Flats is a different story, but seeing how it's price went down after the announcement that there will not be a reprinting instead of up like the other four enemy fetches, I can't imagine it doing to well either.
Either way I already have a foil Windswept, and I expect Marsh Flats to drop further after these have been out for a bit, so even if these do end up outrageously expensive, I probably still win.
Was the additional foil part from the panel? Haven't seen that yet. That being said, I really have a hard time believing these drop under $100 with the exception of the lesser used Shocklands.
Yeah, nothing full art about them. I will also agree that the boarder texture is distracting. Too dark and too much black. The artwork is probably beautiful but they just mucked it up too much. Also a personal thing, but the boarder break between the sides and the bottom annoys the ***** out of me.
An important point is the somewhat incestual metagame of the Pro Tour. The red deck came about as a result of what they thought of as the meta of the PT and they were right but I think there will be more decks in the wilds of the GPs and Opens that will keep the red deck in check.
I already alluded to the "PT meta" but this went beyond. My reaction to mono red would have been GR Devo or Abzan Control with the 11-12 card sideboard. Not Siege and figuring out to draw in the mirror post sideboard. Again, you don't have a deck making up 10%+ of the field without some knowledge.
Someone asking about the Mardu Goggles was probably something like:
Wow, mull to 3. This was a pretty lame Top 8. Lots of one sided games.
I was also disappointed how much red was in the top 8 hopefully R&D pulls red back in Zendikar it has been pretty much the best color in magic this entire standard cycle or at least tied with green.
People really complained about mono-blue and mono-black last standard with RTR but this might be worse with almost mono-red winning the last pro tour and pure mono-red winning this pro tour.
Red for the most part is fine. Eidolon is an insanely powerful card and critical mass of burn has got red to this point. Those both should go away in Zen. Dang made a great meta game choice in the last PT. I have no words for how dumb the standard deck choices were for this one though. These decks don't have these high copy amounts and people not have a clue what is going on.
That last set was just sad to watch. I like powerful decks like the UR Thopters, but its nut draws might be to much for standard you just can't interact fast enough.
It's not a powerful deck. It is a massive glass cannon. The deck falls apart without Ensoul and/or Blast. Abzan players for whatever reason went away from Command, Cures, Clerics, and Drown. Blights seem like a stretch with Nissa though.
This PT's meta just makes no sense. They tend to be their own special environment, but this one was way out in the left field parking lot.
Pretty close to not playable in Modern. I won't say flat out unplayable because look at all those common bin cyclers that see play. That being said, a card like Slaughter Games which is a better card only saw fringe play when decks literally had no other means against certain decks. Look at creature oriented Standard and Stain the Mind sees no play. Those cards end of being way over hyped.
Normal 2H Giant should only be 8 packs unless your have the prerelease boxes. I would assume they will do the BFZ style boxes again, but just throwing that info out there just in case.
Of course buying in at peak demand and hype is going to be expensive. Gideon's could have been scooped up at $25-$30 for a couple weeks. Windswept was $10 or right below for a bit of time, and Strand was sub $14 for a bit. Both of those current prices aren't bad considering how much Legacy and Modern play they see. Foothills was under $10 for a bit, although not a huge fan of it's current price. Den Protector was dirt cheap for a bit. Not a fan of the price beyond Standard though. Hangarback lucky was in an event deck to stem the price there a bit.
Here is the thing though, they won't be playing them.
Except he's already been played in both…
These would look so much better. They could have went one step further and reduced the height of the text box. That could have easily been done on the Shocks. Not sure on the wording of Fetches/New Lands off the top of my head, but I assume the size of the box was kept the same across all lands. OR! They are doing the other 5 new lands and 15 non-land cards next round!?
Was the additional foil part from the panel? Haven't seen that yet. That being said, I really have a hard time believing these drop under $100 with the exception of the lesser used Shocklands.
I already alluded to the "PT meta" but this went beyond. My reaction to mono red would have been GR Devo or Abzan Control with the 11-12 card sideboard. Not Siege and figuring out to draw in the mirror post sideboard. Again, you don't have a deck making up 10%+ of the field without some knowledge.
Someone asking about the Mardu Goggles was probably something like:
5 Mountain
1 Swamp
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Nomad Outpost
4 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
3 Wild Slash
4 Pyromancer's Goggles
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Roast
4 Tormenting Voice
1 Molten Vortex
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Fated Conflagration
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Roast
Red for the most part is fine. Eidolon is an insanely powerful card and critical mass of burn has got red to this point. Those both should go away in Zen. Dang made a great meta game choice in the last PT. I have no words for how dumb the standard deck choices were for this one though. These decks don't have these high copy amounts and people not have a clue what is going on.
It's not a powerful deck. It is a massive glass cannon. The deck falls apart without Ensoul and/or Blast. Abzan players for whatever reason went away from Command, Cures, Clerics, and Drown. Blights seem like a stretch with Nissa though.
This PT's meta just makes no sense. They tend to be their own special environment, but this one was way out in the left field parking lot.
Nevermind. Game goes straight to clean up step.