I think Cathedral of War is a mediocore card. Its nowhere near bad, but its not that good either. Its drawbacks (ETB tapped & no color-fixing) seem to outcost its exalted value most of the time. Of course, when timed correctly, its a powerhouse with other Exalted cards.
My playgroup plays a variant of the Rare Re-Draft.
We record (mentally) the three rares we open in our packs. Then at the end of the day, we choose 1 among the 3 to keep for ourselves. The rest of the rares hit the redraft pool.
This way, over 90% of the time, everyone is happy. Sure, occasionally someone opens 2 mythics and has to pool out one, but that's not going to happen that often.
It sorts of dilutes the redraft pool greatly, but at least everyone is happy.
If people are speculating that the OG Niv-Mizzet is going to be a rare in this duel deck in order for Wizards not to devalue the sales of packs for Mythics in RTR, meaning that a complete reprint of Niv-Mizzet, then I'm saying it would be a ridiculously broken move for Niv to be reprinted into Standard. How much are all of you gonna LOVE that U/R Delver-Mizzet builds with Curiosity in it? Troll enough for you?
If this is a casually printed deck, meaning that a complete reprint of the Original N-M is included, then I'll be a bit upset because I have a huge collection of Niv-Mizzets that will lose their value. But, in all honesty, I could care less. MTG needs some good old casual brokeness for everyone who hasn't had the opportunity to enjoy the fun Izzet builds from back in the day.
This is all based on baseless speculation that the DD Niv-Mizzet is a reprint of Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind, yay for casual, nay for original price value declining (personal) and nay for Standard (obvious).
Precisely why they would reprint The Firemind in Izzet VS Golgari. This way, Niv-Mizzet can get in without having to enter standard. And they won't devalue Future-Niv-Mizzet, The Mythic Rare in RTR.
They will just bump The Firemind to Mythic in this deck and use him as the front card for the Deck. Its one of those "Mythic for the sake of being Mythic" cards.
Wait, do you mean losing as in not running them any more?
Because I'll be super-pissed if that's the case.
They changed the system so that all they'll do now is send the release promos to the TOs, and leave them to decide whether they want to organise a Release Party, or just distrivute them via another method (FNM, other tournaments) during the release weekend.
Most people weren't terribly upset, because the obvious decrease in people attending releases as compared to the prereleases the week before was probably an indicator.
If your TO isn't organising one, its probably because there's just too little people playing in Release Events at his location.
On second thought, maybe it was a good thing after all.
Imagined if we had something desirable (let's say full-art foils of something marginally playable)
This entire thread would be nothing but complaints about there being only 54 copies and not enough to go around instead, even though WotC already mentioned the player limit cap.
To all the people chiming in saying it's "free" and we should all dance the hokey pokey praising the mighty people at Wizards ..
it AIN'T free
YOU pay for this kind of nonsense by
1.other programs getting the shaft (no more MPR's, no more prize support to shops for GPT's, draft, ..)
2. Increase of booster prizes and/or other magic products
...
That they give random "goodies" whatever
but please, cut this kind of stupid hyping because the "average" magic player isn't a 5 year old you need to lure in with a lolly pop.
all we need to play in prereleases and the months after that is a solid product with a few cards that are worth your $$
All the shafts would have happened regardless of whatever they were coming up with. And MPR was free in the first place.
You second point makes no sense, why would more boosters have anything to do with this.
Avacyn Restored is a solid product with a few cards worth your dollars. You're already satisfied, why complain about a few extra oversized cards and tokens?
First off, the most casual players are generally not going to prereleases. They're playing at school or meeting up with some friends to play. Folks who have DCI numbers and go to tournaments are already taking a step outside of casual, even if they're not hyper-competitive.
Second, most competitive players ARE going to prereleases because they want that first shot at the cards. They're a significant part of the market, and while they don't expect $40 staple cards to be given away, they're expecting this hype to lead to something that isn't completely useless to them. The oversized cards are useless -- even most EDH players consider them to be so. Competitive players don't expect to be catered to, but they don't want to be left out.
And finally, there are plenty of ways that both sides could have been pleased. Casual players will be happy with any giveaway, so why not give them something that's decent? Give them a useful card, and maybe it helps motivate them to become a more serious player, increasing tournament attendance and getting more sales per player.
You just pointed the entire purpose of the Helvault.
Not enough casual players are attending prereleases. Hence the mass promotions. They weren't aimed at the regulars. If they wanted to aim at us, all they had to do is send information to the major MTG Websites (Salvation, SCG and so on...) and we will receive it, no doubt.
Competitive players already go to prereleases regardless of any extra gimmicks. There is no need for any more incentive when the concept of the prerelease (new cards a week before!) already is the magnet factor.
If you choose not to attend a prerelease because a gimmick doesn't yield anything for you, as a competitive player, you're still telling other competitive players "Here, have the first shot at the set, I'm not doing it", which is not what competitive players do.
Casual players are happy with anything, but are more so by things unique and flashy. And remember, casual players are usually casual by choice, giving them good cards doesn't motivate them to become competitive. It only gives the competitive players to eye the casuals like a hawk to get those cards.
When we accquire enough speculation nicknames, we need to make a song outta them all.
Epic Ramp Spell already seems like a song name, actually.
Might be a 2-of in some decks.
Do want to see its Buy-a-Box Art though...
We record (mentally) the three rares we open in our packs. Then at the end of the day, we choose 1 among the 3 to keep for ourselves. The rest of the rares hit the redraft pool.
This way, over 90% of the time, everyone is happy. Sure, occasionally someone opens 2 mythics and has to pool out one, but that's not going to happen that often.
It sorts of dilutes the redraft pool greatly, but at least everyone is happy.
Precisely why they would reprint The Firemind in Izzet VS Golgari. This way, Niv-Mizzet can get in without having to enter standard. And they won't devalue Future-Niv-Mizzet, The Mythic Rare in RTR.
They will just bump The Firemind to Mythic in this deck and use him as the front card for the Deck. Its one of those "Mythic for the sake of being Mythic" cards.
They changed the system so that all they'll do now is send the release promos to the TOs, and leave them to decide whether they want to organise a Release Party, or just distrivute them via another method (FNM, other tournaments) during the release weekend.
Most people weren't terribly upset, because the obvious decrease in people attending releases as compared to the prereleases the week before was probably an indicator.
If your TO isn't organising one, its probably because there's just too little people playing in Release Events at his location.
SotH is also better because flicker effects trigger him.
So basically, the only point when Sage has an edge is when a creature spell gets countered. So by and large, Sage is still obseleted.
Imagined if we had something desirable (let's say full-art foils of something marginally playable)
This entire thread would be nothing but complaints about there being only 54 copies and not enough to go around instead, even though WotC already mentioned the player limit cap.
It halves down in size (unless there's another opponent) after it hits though, so it wouldn't kill.
To date, there isn't a single full-art Mythic card... I think.
Its already been spoilt it was Avacyn, Griselbrand, Bruna, Gisela and Sigardia.
Actually, Priest of Urabrask was a Game Day promo (also full-art), not a MPR card.
Seen those full-art Lightning Bolt, Blightnings, Doom Blades? Those are the MPR ones.
Magic Player Rewards. A now defunct-system that awards you with promo full-art cards based on how many DCI-sanctioned tournaments you attend.
There's no denying it was the best award system yet, but apparently due to many reasons (mainly costs and greedy people) that got it closed.
All the shafts would have happened regardless of whatever they were coming up with. And MPR was free in the first place.
You second point makes no sense, why would more boosters have anything to do with this.
Avacyn Restored is a solid product with a few cards worth your dollars. You're already satisfied, why complain about a few extra oversized cards and tokens?
You just pointed the entire purpose of the Helvault.
Not enough casual players are attending prereleases. Hence the mass promotions. They weren't aimed at the regulars. If they wanted to aim at us, all they had to do is send information to the major MTG Websites (Salvation, SCG and so on...) and we will receive it, no doubt.
Competitive players already go to prereleases regardless of any extra gimmicks. There is no need for any more incentive when the concept of the prerelease (new cards a week before!) already is the magnet factor.
If you choose not to attend a prerelease because a gimmick doesn't yield anything for you, as a competitive player, you're still telling other competitive players "Here, have the first shot at the set, I'm not doing it", which is not what competitive players do.
Casual players are happy with anything, but are more so by things unique and flashy. And remember, casual players are usually casual by choice, giving them good cards doesn't motivate them to become competitive. It only gives the competitive players to eye the casuals like a hawk to get those cards.