Curious how well is Burning-Tree Emissary selling?
I have not seen any discussion about this card which appears to be one of the most in demand uncommons since Path to Exile. Can an uncommon even climb to $5 a card when it's a new?
Already past $2 now and I wonder how long that's going to last.
Starcity games? This is the WORST place to check prices. WTF? How much volume do they sell.
If you want to know real prices, you check EBAY. Why would anyone not check EBAY? They clear the most product and prices are dynamic and updating live. SCG is way overpriced -- virtually everything is available for 20 to 30% less on EBAY almost all the time.
So please, if you're using SCG as some kind of proxy for demand, you are going to be way off from reality.
Been playing online at the reanimator deck with Angel of Serenity is essentially autowin when it resolves. And since it can hit turn four with Unburial Rites... I don't know any deck that's faster.
I get Jace is good. But how is Jace $40 and AoS, also a mythic, still selling for Buy it Now for under $15?
And meanwhile, Thragtusks are also around $15? I get it, but the Angel is still a mythic so maybe when ppl realize this deck is almost impossible to beat, and IS impossible with a perfect draw.
Deviant Glee is bad. I'm not going to go through the whole thing. But the Rogue's Passage is so good, it begs to put in a few bombs. Axebane Stag and Rubbleback Rhino IN, deviant glees out. Assassin Strike is automatically IN.
Think strategically. Lotleth Trolls can possibly chump block a long time... so you ARE going to have long games and Rogue's Passage will win if you can it for 5 or 6.
I would add the Aerial Predation -- this set is full of flying bombs. Izzet, Azorious, Rakdos guilds all have huge flying bombs you almost definitely will see. (sideboard out 2nd game if not) -- but maindeck it for sure.
It's definitely a weak pool. I faced Seleysna decks with two Trostani's, and all kinds of proliferate cards -- the lifegain was essentially auto-win. I think sealed RTR is incredibly unbalanced... never seen anything like it. Some people just got the nuts and there was no way to construct junk that could pull off a win. So the removal cards are a must. At least you could get really lucky and the other guy gets flooded two games.
$30 is a ripoff. booster packs are like $2.50 at most for dealers, probably less. That's $15 of value. Retail is $4/pack so $24 is fair price. So 6 dollars more for what? A 20 sided die and some fancy packaging?
The artificial demand for cards happens every year. With the exception of perhaps 2 or 3 cards that find permanent homes in multiple formats (think of Noble Hierarch), virtually all of these rares are going to sink in value.
I have sold cards from prereleases and never regretted it. Liliana of the Veil out at $30 -- ran up to $50/card briefly, now what: $20 easy. Thundermaw Hellkite sold for $20...
I am amazed at the economics of Magic. So many uninformed, overzealous buyers. I wish there was a way to really profit from it.
At my store a lot of kids under 12 play and the mostly lose in the major events when all the teens and adults show up. It's essentially automatic loss for nearly all of them.
WotC should definitely promote 12 and under events -- or allow store owners to run some kind of option like that. It's absurd to have children who love the game essentially feed the prize pool for adults.
Nearly every other kind of major tournament has categories, whether male/female, weight categories, age, etc. Yet store owners never offer a second tournament strictly for kids so they can compete at the same level.
I think this would be really helpful. In an extremely crowded room with no judges, no supervision, the ability to cheat and not get caught is close to zero. Everyone is squeezed in tight and it's easy to trade commons or sneak them in.
In a smaller venue, people would be constructing their decks without their friends right next to them.
But either way, I no longer plan to attend any prereleases at my store since the owner always plays, and never supervises. Whether people cheat is debatable but the ability to cheat undetected is virtually 100% at my store... so that just doesn't make it worth it.
Amazing that someone pulled two Trostanis as well at my prerelease. I have a feeling there was some different mechanism than usual --the sequence of rares is usually so patterned some people can figure out the sequences.
The double mythic pulls just sound way too frequent at this particular prerelease and it clearly made for unbalanced decks. I wish we could somehow survey a huge sample. I bet the 'incredible' pools were way off the charts judging by the discussion here. Which means, for every insane double-awesomeness, other people had to, by default, open up complete junk.
How many judges is typical? Like I said, I play in a small store. The owner always plays in every event. He is extremely good and places near the top nearly every event, often winning the top prize.
This last prerelease was crowded and there were a group of friends playing together. Now, if he's walking around, monitoring the action in the one room, the incentive to cheat goes down dramatically. There's virtually no way to hide. However, since he plays every tournament, there is no judging or observation. Anyone in the room is free to do anything, the chances of getting caught are absolutely zero.
I've played quite a few sealed events but I think this is my last. It's hard enough opening a pool of junk vs. the guy with two Trostanis. Did that guy cheat? I don't know. Did people trade cards? I don't know. But they could. Plus, the owner usually takes a top 3 place probably 75% of the time.
There's no way it will ever change so I think I'll just find another hobby. No big deal. It was fun but I don't like going into a tournament never knowing if other players are collaborating or possibly cheating, without anyone supervising.
There would be no way to ever know. The store owner where I play plays in every single event... and usually places in the top 8, if not top 2.
Anyone could cheat openly and easily, there is never anyone watching. Curious: Do most store owners play where anyone else plays?
Phyrre56:
The guy who picked up the deck had probably placed a certain card near the middle and was hoping you'd cut maybe half way -- to bring it to the top.
If you cut too deeply, he probably figured the 'bomb' was at the bottom half of the cut you made and therefore -- you just buried his best card. Therefore, he would want to shuffle it up again.
Did anyone else get TWO of the same Rare. Maybe 7 people out of 30 got double copies of different rares (I got two Azorious Elocutors, friend got two Slaughter Games) saw someone pull two Dreadbores, two Trostanis, two Grove of Guardians from another player.
Something weird is going on with the distribution. Anyone else pull doubles of something?
I don't get it. Other than the overpriced lands... the set was mostly a bust. With the exception of Niz-Mizzet. I looked at the rares from the set. Most are .50 garbage that nobody plays.
It's sad that the only thing exciting about a new set is the lands. M13 was one of the weakest core sets I've seen in years. Let me guess, there'll be two chase rares for $20 each and everything else (except the lands) will go right to bargain bin.
I don't think new players have a good sense of what cards are awesome and they probably don't realize how competitive the game can be. They just see $15 for a single card and that's enough to turn people off.
$5 for a single card is enough to turn any new player or casual player off.
I play EDH exclusively and probably 50% of my deck are proxies I print on my high-quality printer for around .25/each considering cost of ink.
People are free to spend thousands if they want. I don't care. I see a lot of kids at the local store burning through hundreds (of their parents money) and then selling back cards to the store owner for candy or new packs for 50% or less of the true value. The economics of this game are fascinating but tend to be highly exploitive to uninformed players.
It's my opinion WoTC should be constantly striving to bring down the value of staple cards by doing reprints. I'm a casual player but I love the game. That said, I will never play in standard or modern tournaments because I have no interest in spending the money to buy a competitive deck. And anyone who says "you don't have to spend a lot to build a competitive deck" is lying to themself.
I have not seen any discussion about this card which appears to be one of the most in demand uncommons since Path to Exile. Can an uncommon even climb to $5 a card when it's a new?
Already past $2 now and I wonder how long that's going to last.
If you want to know real prices, you check EBAY. Why would anyone not check EBAY? They clear the most product and prices are dynamic and updating live. SCG is way overpriced -- virtually everything is available for 20 to 30% less on EBAY almost all the time.
So please, if you're using SCG as some kind of proxy for demand, you are going to be way off from reality.
I get Jace is good. But how is Jace $40 and AoS, also a mythic, still selling for Buy it Now for under $15?
And meanwhile, Thragtusks are also around $15? I get it, but the Angel is still a mythic so maybe when ppl realize this deck is almost impossible to beat, and IS impossible with a perfect draw.
I had two of those in my sealed pool. I tried to build around them but found it completely hopeless.
Think strategically. Lotleth Trolls can possibly chump block a long time... so you ARE going to have long games and Rogue's Passage will win if you can it for 5 or 6.
I would add the Aerial Predation -- this set is full of flying bombs. Izzet, Azorious, Rakdos guilds all have huge flying bombs you almost definitely will see. (sideboard out 2nd game if not) -- but maindeck it for sure.
It's definitely a weak pool. I faced Seleysna decks with two Trostani's, and all kinds of proliferate cards -- the lifegain was essentially auto-win. I think sealed RTR is incredibly unbalanced... never seen anything like it. Some people just got the nuts and there was no way to construct junk that could pull off a win. So the removal cards are a must. At least you could get really lucky and the other guy gets flooded two games.
The artificial demand for cards happens every year. With the exception of perhaps 2 or 3 cards that find permanent homes in multiple formats (think of Noble Hierarch), virtually all of these rares are going to sink in value.
I have sold cards from prereleases and never regretted it. Liliana of the Veil out at $30 -- ran up to $50/card briefly, now what: $20 easy. Thundermaw Hellkite sold for $20...
I am amazed at the economics of Magic. So many uninformed, overzealous buyers. I wish there was a way to really profit from it.
WotC should definitely promote 12 and under events -- or allow store owners to run some kind of option like that. It's absurd to have children who love the game essentially feed the prize pool for adults.
Nearly every other kind of major tournament has categories, whether male/female, weight categories, age, etc. Yet store owners never offer a second tournament strictly for kids so they can compete at the same level.
I think this would be really helpful. In an extremely crowded room with no judges, no supervision, the ability to cheat and not get caught is close to zero. Everyone is squeezed in tight and it's easy to trade commons or sneak them in.
In a smaller venue, people would be constructing their decks without their friends right next to them.
But either way, I no longer plan to attend any prereleases at my store since the owner always plays, and never supervises. Whether people cheat is debatable but the ability to cheat undetected is virtually 100% at my store... so that just doesn't make it worth it.
The double mythic pulls just sound way too frequent at this particular prerelease and it clearly made for unbalanced decks. I wish we could somehow survey a huge sample. I bet the 'incredible' pools were way off the charts judging by the discussion here. Which means, for every insane double-awesomeness, other people had to, by default, open up complete junk.
This last prerelease was crowded and there were a group of friends playing together. Now, if he's walking around, monitoring the action in the one room, the incentive to cheat goes down dramatically. There's virtually no way to hide. However, since he plays every tournament, there is no judging or observation. Anyone in the room is free to do anything, the chances of getting caught are absolutely zero.
I've played quite a few sealed events but I think this is my last. It's hard enough opening a pool of junk vs. the guy with two Trostanis. Did that guy cheat? I don't know. Did people trade cards? I don't know. But they could. Plus, the owner usually takes a top 3 place probably 75% of the time.
There's no way it will ever change so I think I'll just find another hobby. No big deal. It was fun but I don't like going into a tournament never knowing if other players are collaborating or possibly cheating, without anyone supervising.
Anyone could cheat openly and easily, there is never anyone watching. Curious: Do most store owners play where anyone else plays?
Phyrre56:
The guy who picked up the deck had probably placed a certain card near the middle and was hoping you'd cut maybe half way -- to bring it to the top.
If you cut too deeply, he probably figured the 'bomb' was at the bottom half of the cut you made and therefore -- you just buried his best card. Therefore, he would want to shuffle it up again.
Just a possibility.
Something weird is going on with the distribution. Anyone else pull doubles of something?
It's sad that the only thing exciting about a new set is the lands. M13 was one of the weakest core sets I've seen in years. Let me guess, there'll be two chase rares for $20 each and everything else (except the lands) will go right to bargain bin.
$5 for a single card is enough to turn any new player or casual player off.
I play EDH exclusively and probably 50% of my deck are proxies I print on my high-quality printer for around .25/each considering cost of ink.
People are free to spend thousands if they want. I don't care. I see a lot of kids at the local store burning through hundreds (of their parents money) and then selling back cards to the store owner for candy or new packs for 50% or less of the true value. The economics of this game are fascinating but tend to be highly exploitive to uninformed players.
It's my opinion WoTC should be constantly striving to bring down the value of staple cards by doing reprints. I'm a casual player but I love the game. That said, I will never play in standard or modern tournaments because I have no interest in spending the money to buy a competitive deck. And anyone who says "you don't have to spend a lot to build a competitive deck" is lying to themself.