The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 01 Jan 2014, 06:33

That isn't comforting because that means it will be difficult to fix.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 04 Jan 2014, 14:52

Just went to one of the most poorly set up sealed events I've been to. There were nine of us. We did three rounds. But instead of a full match, they had us play 2 games, with one person going first each game. If you tied, oh well. They then counted up the points you won at the end and used those to decide the winner.

So yea, that's not a good system. It's 100x worse when there's a bye. That means the person gets 2 points without doing anything. I ended up in the top 4, having lost two games to mana-screw (it was RTR sealed and I literally got NO fixing in my three colors). Guess what. All three of the other top 4 had gotten byes. :/ The deck I'd gotten was really solid, and the only issue I had was being mana-screwed.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby ElFuzzy » 04 Jan 2014, 15:00

That sounds janky as fuck
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 04 Jan 2014, 15:15

Like, it's not losing that annoys me. I didn't get that much less than 1st/2ed. But doing it that way honestly kind of ruined the whole thing for me. Part of the reason it's 2 out of 3 is because peoples' decks sometimes just won't work. Those times I lost weren't because my deck wasn't good. It was because I had bad draws. But that didn't matter with that way of doing things. The way the byes were handles just made it worse. Not to mention the fact that it made pairings seem cheap. The whole thing just kind of killed what was supposed to be good fun.

Ranks were another issue. 2 people with 5 points and 2 people with 4 points were the top 4. I had 4 points. The person I'd just played against had 4 points. The guy told us to play again for third. That makes a ton of sense. And if we tied again? "Well, that's up to [us] to figure out." The guy was being a dick about it too, since neither of us were happy about it. We ended up just splitting the prizes for first/second and third/fourth. Given the guy's excuse for doing it this way was to 'save time,' it seemed like a poor plan to have us do another whole round.

I dunno. I honestly regret going, if only for the sour mood it put me in. But playing was fun, and I had a good deck.
Last edited by Kapol on 04 Jan 2014, 15:35, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby korvys » 04 Jan 2014, 15:32

If that event was sanctioned, you should let Wizards know, cause it wasn't run correctly, and that guy should probably not be a TO. If not, well, I'd just stop going to his events.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 04 Jan 2014, 15:35

I'm confident it wasn't sanctioned. And honestly, I likely will stop going to said events. The weird thing is that the guy who seems to handle most of the tournaments says they always do it that way. But I'd been there not too long ago for a draft, and we did it like normal.

Eh, this was more of a Magic vent than anything. Sorry folks.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 04 Jan 2014, 16:03

It doesn't have to be of great use, but Kapol, you just inspired me to make a specific Magic venting thread for circumstances where you just want to get the annoyance off your chest. :)
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 04 Jan 2014, 17:32

I had actually made a Magic Venting thread before, but deleted it cause nobody used it.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby ElFuzzy » 04 Jan 2014, 18:04

Anyone know if/where I could get custom oversized cards? I kinda want an oversized Reaper King if it's not too expensive.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby tamaness » 05 Jan 2014, 01:03

You'll probably have to take a high-rez scan to a print shop and have them do it up for you.
note: there are HQ (300+DPI) scans out there. TCGHQ has a torrent of all of their scans available.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 05 Jan 2014, 19:37

Pack 3 on Magic Online and you open a bomb rare that isn't in your colours. Take it for the tickets, take a semi-powerful card in your colours, or switch colours/splash for it?

ETA: In hindsight perhaps this should have gone in the Limited Thread.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby korvys » 05 Jan 2014, 20:09

Depends on a lot of things. Depends the tickets. There are some cards that a worth more than you stand to win, especially in a swiss, likw Stormbreath Dragon or Elspeth.

On the other hand, something like Hythonia when you're not in black? Depends on your current deck. It's easier to splash if you're in green, with Nylea's Presence, or if you already have a couple of fixers.

Splashing late game stuff is easier than earlier stuff.

Is it going to fill a role you're missing already, or are you going to be cutting good stuff for it (compared to the other option in the pack)? Did you pick up some other stuff for that colour earlier (that maybe you'd given up on)? Double colour stuff is harder as well.

It's the sort of question I don't think there are general answers for. It'll be different for every bomb, and for every current deck.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 05 Jan 2014, 20:12

U/G deck, see an Elspeth in pack 3. I don't even know what else was in the pack (saw a Voyage's End, that's all I remember) because all I could see was Elspeth taunting me. I took it and them agonized over the next couple of picks about what I should do - do I start picking white to switch colours? Mana fixing to splash? Just keep on with my original plan?
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby korvys » 05 Jan 2014, 21:43

Ok, well that solves the take it or not problem, cause it's worth more than you likely paid to enter. How to play with it (or not) is a little harder.

If you've already got some fixing, it might be possible to splash it, but double colours are hard. You've already got a less than 1/3 chance to draw it on time (turn 6 or 7), and then you have to make the mana for it. With 5 white sources you have about a 50% chance to draw enough white in that time. But together, that's less than 1/6 that you'll have it and be able to cast it (thought I imagine you'll win if you do). The other 5/6 times, you've made your deck less consistent for nothing.

Is it worth it? Maybe. If your white sources can help you in other ways (Nylea's Presence, Sylvan Caryatid, Traveller's Amulet) then you probably haven't given up much for it. But if it's just Plains, then you're probably going to have other mana issues.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 06 Jan 2014, 12:28

So... the new card frames are a thing that's happening. For those who haven't seen/heard about it yet.

I'm still more concerned about the fact that Waste Not seems pretty nutty for it's cost. It's like a black version of Primeval Bounty. The fact that we're getting it so soon, while Thoughtsieze is still in standard no less, makes it seem much more powerful.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 06 Jan 2014, 12:37

It's of great benefit to mono-black while there's such strong discard effects in Standard, but before we get too excited or mourn too much, we should wait to see what else we see. Not that I think it will ever be unplayable, but we should wait and see what goes along with it.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 06 Jan 2014, 12:40

One person pointed out thinking that Lilianna of the Veil would be reprinted with it. If that happens, then I think mono-black is going to become incredibly powerful with M14, unless we seem a lot of heavy pushing in other colors with other sets. But it's the fact that M15 and Theros will always be in standard at the same time that makes it seem like it'll still be pretty powerful anyways.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 06 Jan 2014, 12:44

Oh, there's interactions that will definitely exist alongside one another that will keep it powerful. The question really is how much can other colours keep up with or overpower that strategy.

At this stage (extremely preliminary, I know, but bear with me) I can't help but wonder if this might need to be answered with straight up all-out aggro, for example.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 06 Jan 2014, 12:58

The problem with aggro against it is that discarding one creature will basically put you in a bad position. A 2/2 against full-out aggro can at least trade with a lot of stuff.

It's not the perfect card, and I think it'll need more help than just Thoughtsieze to be a major threat. But if discard Lili comes back (which I doubt), it'll be a pretty big threat. The only other big discard card that will help it that I can think of is Rakdos' Return. And that requires a second color, and cycles out the set after M15.

But yea, given this is three sets away, it's hard to say anything with confidence.


As for the border itself, I'm torn. I like it, but at the same time I don't care for it. I feel that they just took the Planeswalker border and put it on other cards. The way it swoops in at the bottom makes the card look like the rule-text is out of place. It looks nice on black cards from Waste Not. But the high contrast of red makes it stand out too much. And the fact the black on the bottom seems much bigger makes it draw the eye too much for my tastes.

The little holographic on the bottom of rares/mythics looks like something taken from another TCG. But it'll help make fake rares harder at least. I do like the expanded rules text and art though. And I do think the more 'modern' look does stand out nicely. But that change too makes the card look like something out of another TCG. There's just a lot I don't care for from my initial impressions. I think that it'll take getting used to more than anything.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby ZePancakes » 06 Jan 2014, 18:24

Is it just me or the red boarder on the Wall of Fire seem uneven?

I think Kapol is right to think that they slapped on the Planeswalker border on standard cards, but I guess it facilitates more card info for collection and legitimacy for the foil stamp.

It's odd, but I'm sure we'll all get used to it.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby korvys » 06 Jan 2014, 18:30

As a programmer type person, the machine readable collector information has got my brain working...

Also, if this is anything like the 8th Edition frame change, it will be widely decried and then completely ignored. People will get used to it.

EDIT: Also, here's some direct comparison gifs:
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Juliamon » 06 Jan 2014, 22:59

I'm personally really fond of the black bottom, I have a hell of a time reading the text over the texture in certain lighting. I also appreciate the addition of rarity letters and sets because I'm still relatively new to the game and don't have every set's symbol memorized, and the difference between gold and orange can be hard to tell on some of the symbols if you don't have one of each to compare (plus it's just a nice thing for players who may have color blindness).

The foil stamp appeals greatly to the magpie in me, I love little shiny bits on things. Plus it has a legitimate purpose so it's hard to complain about.

The only thing I'm really on the fence about is the new font. It feels less readable to me, particularly in the "Fi" of "Fire." Also they fucking named it Beleren, it's a kick in the face after all the "we don't focus on Jace all the time you guys, stop whining, he's hardly the face of Magic" responses to people like me who hate Jace.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Volafortis » 07 Jan 2014, 01:26

The only thing I hate is the flavor text on Waste Not, the frame changes I'm ultimately fine with.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby slashx24 » 07 Jan 2014, 05:11

ZePancakes wrote:Is it just me or the red boarder on the Wall of Fire seem uneven?


It looked uneven to me at first too. It's not, but because of the placement of the P/T box it does look like it is.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Utilitarian » 07 Jan 2014, 09:27

Man, heard there was a new frame change but that's a pretty miniscule change compared to previous changes. I'm sure we'll barely notice it once it's out.
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