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Magic: the Gathering |OT8| Eldritch Moon - It's only a paper (and digital) moon

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OnPoint

Member
Interesting wording

c6lfcsT.png


I have this alternate theory its in Modern Masters 3 because $10 packs

That is interestingly worded.

Also you're probably right about MM3. They need to get a Grove reprint in somewhere too. Does Grove fit into a potential reprint in Conspiracy, lore-wise?
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
They just won't reprint Grove unless its a one-off somewhere like when it was in FTV.

They mostly like to make dual lands a Standard reprint - e.g. you will absolutely see the Zendikar fetchlands in some Standard set in the next couple years because they're expensive and sell packs. The problem is that Grove is an overpowered card to make a cycle of; it's drawback is basically irrelevant in most cases so you don't really want to make more of them.
 

OnPoint

Member
They just won't reprint Grove unless its a one-off somewhere like when it was in FTV.

They mostly like to make dual lands a Standard reprint - e.g. you will absolutely see the Zendikar fetchlands in some Standard set in the next couple years because they're expensive and sell packs. The problem is that Grove is an overpowered card to make a cycle of; it's drawback is basically irrelevant in most cases so you don't really want to make more of them.

I figure this is exactly why it fits into Conspiracy -- as a random one-off in a set that doesn't require a full cycle of symmetrical color fixing. I mean, I just bought my set, so I hope they don't do it.
 

red13th

Member
ooh new templating for tokens. Nice!
Yet more aesthetic changes to my cube (I try to keep the wordings as current as I can).
 
I can see why they're changing the token production wording:
* "Put _ on the battlefield" may imply to a new player that they need to already have tokens for the card to work. Especially with there being separate token cards, I could see someone thinking a token spell won't work unless they have those, or even thinking that token cards need to go in the deck.
* "Create a _ creature token" is shorter than "Put a _ creature token onto the battlefield".

EDIT:
MaRo warming up to the idea of a "Post Modern" format
Confirmation that "create" is replacing "put token on battlefield"
yagi-h asked: Can you envision creating a new, nonrotating constructed format in the future, a "Post-Modern", if you will?

I believe as Standard and Modern get farther apart, there’s a good chance we will look at an intermediate format.

==

trappedinasnowcone asked: Can you talk about the changed wording ("Create a token...") on the recently revealed FNM promo?

“Create” is a new vocabulary word. It’s used when a card or effect puts a token onto the battlefield. I believe it is officially starting as of Kaladesh.

The promo showed today comes out after Kaladesh is released which is why it uses the new terminology.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Wouldn't the "intermediate" format just be Extended?

I always like the idea of Extended but I probably wouldn't want to play a format with Collected Company in it any longer :lol
 

bigkrev

Member
I'd be down for an older style extended (6-8 years of sets with rotation every 3 years), but they should probably wait till Modern has 15 years of sets into it before rolling it out.
 
Any reason why Soldevi Excavations is rising, or is it just the usual Reserved List junk?

So fucking annoying. I only have 3, last one was on my list of things to casually pick up before BS happens. Just a solid reminder to just bite the bullet and buy the remaining RL shit I haven't yet.

I honestly hate the reserved list. I get no pleasure from seeing cards that I bought go up in value. I bought 4 Academy Rectors at $15 or so a while ago and now that they've gone up, I don't feel "happy". I actually wish the value would drop so that more people could / would play the cards they want to.

/whining
 

Yeef

Member
Looks like someone on Reddit cot the Conspiracy 2 release kit a bit early. From the kit:

"Many cards cause you to become the monarch of the game. Being the monarch grants you these abilities: at the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, that creature's controlled becomes the monarch. No player is the monarch as the game starts, and there is never more than one. You can claim the title by dealing combat damage to the monarch, or with any spell or ability that says "you become the monarch." Some booster packs contain a card called "the Monarch" instead of a token. The card is used to indicate who is the monarch."

venture-bros-monarch.jpg
 
Interesting.

Also, today's Daily Update mentions that on August 20, seven stores around the world will draft with Conspiracy 2 before everyone else and will get preview cards exclusive to each store. I'm not sure how that works. Will they get special booster packs with only certain cards?
 

Ashodin

Member
Interesting.

Also, today's Daily Update mentions that on August 20, seven stores around the world will draft with Conspiracy 2 before everyone else and will get preview cards exclusive to each store. I'm not sure how that works. Will they get special booster packs with only certain cards?

Probably. Seeded packs where the unique card is given in each pack to each store.

This will only prove that Wizards can seed packs lmao furthering the conspiracy that you can't always get what you want.
 
I don't see why not outside of WotC knowing they can sell more packs by including it in a future Master set instead.

I don't think it's quite that simple. The sales of any Masters set are essentially capped at the print run, while Standard sets can sell infinitely. As such once you hit a certain minimum value, anything you add to a Masters set doesn't increase sales at all. Adding that one-off $50-ish card to an unlimited-print-run set probably drives more actual sales purely by virtue of that card. (But you need desirable stuff in order to hit that minimum value in each MM, which includes stuff like Grove.)

Has token equipment been done before? Like sculpting clay?

Chill Nahiri makes one.

Looks like someone on Reddit cot the Conspiracy 2 release kit a bit early. From the kit:

"Many cards cause you to become the monarch of the game. Being the monarch grants you these abilities: at the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, that creature's controlled becomes the monarch. No player is the monarch as the game starts, and there is never more than one. You can claim the title by dealing combat damage to the monarch, or with any spell or ability that says "you become the monarch." Some booster packs contain a card called "the Monarch" instead of a token. The card is used to indicate who is the monarch."

venture-bros-monarch.jpg

This seems cool to me. Like dethrone in the first Conspiracy, this mechanic gives some clarity to multiplayer games by giving you clear targets and clear reasons to change your focus during play.

(And yes, I will definitely need a Venture Bros. alter of the Monarch token card.)
 
Anyone know where I can get a listing of, or can narrow an advanced search of, sets of cards sorting by converted mana cost? I used to use starcity, but they changed their search so that you can now only search by price, name, or rarity. Gatherer has an option to sort searches by CMC, but it doesn't.

I need this because I'm sorting my cards for Eldritch Moon and I go by color, then converted mana cost, then alphabetically. I mostly need the lists to ensure I'm leaving a slot for all cards. If I'm missing one or two and don't know about them, it severely fucks up my system.
 

Son1x

Member
Anyone know where I can get a listing of, or can narrow an advanced search of, sets of cards sorting by converted mana cost? I used to use starcity, but they changed their search so that you can now only search by price, name, or rarity. Gatherer has an option to sort searches by CMC, but it doesn't.

I need this because I'm sorting my cards for Eldritch Moon and I go by color, then converted mana cost, then alphabetically. I mostly need the lists to ensure I'm leaving a slot for all cards. If I'm missing one or two and don't know about them, it severely fucks up my system.
I use cardkingdom. Pretty solid search
 

Yeef

Member
Anyone know where I can get a listing of, or can narrow an advanced search of, sets of cards sorting by converted mana cost? I used to use starcity, but they changed their search so that you can now only search by price, name, or rarity. Gatherer has an option to sort searches by CMC, but it doesn't.

I need this because I'm sorting my cards for Eldritch Moon and I go by color, then converted mana cost, then alphabetically. I mostly need the lists to ensure I'm leaving a slot for all cards. If I'm missing one or two and don't know about them, it severely fucks up my system.
I actually sort the same way, but I sort by rarity first.

In any case, you can magiccards.info is my go-to, but they haven't added EMN or EMA yet, so in the meantime you can use magidex.com. It even uses the same search syntax as magiccards.info
 

Haines

Banned
I have zero interest in conspiracy 2.

Maybe that's a mistake but just doesn't appeal to me. Especially learning a set just to play it probably once.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding it.
 

Ashodin

Member
I have zero interest in conspiracy 2.

Maybe that's a mistake but just doesn't appeal to me. Especially learning a set just to play it probably once.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding it.

COMMANDER INTENSIFIES
 

ironmang

Member
I have zero interest in conspiracy 2.

Maybe that's a mistake but just doesn't appeal to me. Especially learning a set just to play it probably once.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding it.

I drafted the first conspiracy once and that was all I needed to know it's not for me. I hope it has some reprints and is a hit with the EDH crowd again so they open the packs and drive down the prices.
 

Yeef

Member
I have zero interest in conspiracy 2.

Maybe that's a mistake but just doesn't appeal to me. Especially learning a set just to play it probably once.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding it.
I drafted the last Conspiracy alone probably about a dozen times and maybe another dozen times as part of chaos/wacky drafts. Some of the draft-matters cards, like Lore Seeker and Agent of Acquisitions are also awesome for cube.

I'm not normally a fan of multiplayer Magic, but Conspiracy draft makes it palatable for me.
 

y2dvd

Member
I don't think it's quite that simple. The sales of any Masters set are essentially capped at the print run, while Standard sets can sell infinitely. As such once you hit a certain minimum value, anything you add to a Masters set doesn't increase sales at all. Adding that one-off $50-ish card to an unlimited-print-run set probably drives more actual sales purely by virtue of that card. (But you need desirable stuff in order to hit that minimum value in each MM, which includes stuff like Grove.)

It begs the question then why they aren't more aggressive with reprints. SOI didn't see any significant reprints. I wonder what sales figures were compared to Khans which had the fetches reprinted.
 

Yeef

Member
It begs the question then why they aren't more aggressive with reprints. SOI didn't see any significant reprints. I wonder what sales figures were compared to Khans which had the fetches reprinted.
Every block-opening set for the last like 5 years has been the best selling set. Magic is just super-popular and bringing in new players all the time (who don't necessarily care about reprints).
 
It begs the question then why they aren't more aggressive with reprints. SOI didn't see any significant reprints. I wonder what sales figures were compared to Khans which had the fetches reprinted.

They haven't mentioned sales information for SOI, but Battle for Zendikar is the best selling set thus far, despite having no significant reprints.

As for why they aren't doing Modern-significant reprints as frequently, this Star City Games article links MaRo posts where he talks about why they stopped and offers its own analysis.

In short, Thoughtseize and Mutavault talking over Standard made Wizards skittish about major reprints in Standard sets, plus $$$ from Modern/Eternal Masters sets.

And here are a couple of MaRo posts, only one of which is linked in the above article:
One, two, three, four
kirblar024 asked: The absence of desired high-profile Modern-legal cards would seem like it'd cause a negative reaction to the more casual-oriented reprints present in the set. ("They got their fun, why can't I have mine?")

Here’s the problem with high-powered reprints in normal expansions. A set only gets so much power. Think of it as power points. If we put a lot of our power points in old, returning things, then we can’t put it into our new things.

And players really want the new things to be powerful. That means we can occasionally do an exciting high powered reprint but there’s a limit to how many we can do.

==

mana-ramp-matoran asked: Reprints Question: B!!! So much more Bs. MTG Desperately needs reprints to keep the eternal formats viable for new and more casual players. Plus it keeps things simple for enfranchised players. if you reprint a card that we already know its simple to understand if the card makes sense in the set and is a staple card, then new players can get a hold of it, then more easily transition into various formats because the new set that they collected a lot of happens to have some format staple cards.

Here’s the problem. The vast majority of cards that matter in Modern, that are powerful enough to be relevant in a format with that many cards, will horribly warp Standard. We experimented in Theros with Thoughtseize and it went quite badly.

==

lgosvse asked: If you're concerned about Modern-relevant reprints warping Standard, why not reprint them in supplemental sets, duel decks, etc.?

We try to do that where we can but then we have things like unbalanced Commander decks where certain ones sell out and stores are stuck with inventory of the remaining ones. It’s a problem we want to solve but it’s very complex. It’s not as simple as “just print more”.

==

mewr11 asked: Do you have any responses to Saffron Olive's recent article regarding your statements on modern reprints?

I think I was a little more hyperbolic than I intended. There are many problems with reprinting cards in Standard legal sets, the impact on Standard being probably the biggest factor. We don’t want to use a reprint if we feel it will have a negative impact on Standard.

In addition, we have the problem of preferring that Standard is focused on new cards that players have to figure out rather than a returning card that everyone already understands the power level of. In addition, it’s important that cards make sense in the set that they appear on, so printing reprints that are safe only because they are completely off theme is not something we’re fond of doing.

Finally, creative continuity is very important, so we don’t to reprint something that is flavorfully out of place. For instance, Saffron talked about Eye of Ugin being on Theros. The Eye of Ugin is a specific location on Zendikar. It doesn’t make any sense existing on another plane. I know some players don’t care about that, but we very much do.

This isn’t to say that we never want to do sought after reprints in Standard-legal sets. It’s just important to understand that we have a lot of priorities to juggle and it’s harder than many players might realize. It is an issue we are aware of and we’re working to find solutions.

EDIT: Oh, it looks like we're back in Community.
 

Ashodin

Member
In standard legal sets, the only reprints you'll ever see are uncommons and commons.

Which means Pauper is the true format.
 
Well shit. I screwed up. 480 slots in this binder. 297 cards in SOI, 205 in EMN. I figured 20 lands subtracted from SOI, probably 10-20 from EMN. Nope. EMN packs just reuse SOI. So I have 477 to slot. And I thought I'd have a bit more give room, so I was putting a blank spot between colors as push room for potential mistakes.


I think I have to redo the whole thing. Unless drop some bad artifacts from EMN? Any reprints that are awful that could just mysteriously not make it in?
 

bigkrev

Member
Time hop is reminding me that today is the 2 year anniversary where the decided that the couldnt call Junk decks Junk anymore, but we were still weeks away from Abzan, so the started calling the deck "Whiterock" on the coverage stream.
 

ironmang

Member
Just realizing that Bant Company has pretty much killed my desire to play standard at all before rotation. GW was great but it could be built against. Bant Company really doesn't have any weaknesses.

Time hop is reminding me that today is the 2 year anniversary where the decided that the couldnt call Junk decks Junk anymore, but we were still weeks away from Abzan, so the started calling the deck "Whiterock" on the coverage stream.

Abzan and Junk is kind of a tossup for me but man, changing "RUG Delver" to "Temur Delver" is still not a change I'm willing to make. Same with BUG and Sultai. Also Mardu is such a horrible sounding name. Jeskai is the only winner as far as I'm concerned.
 

OnPoint

Member
Abzan and Junk is kind of a tossup for me but man, changing "RUG Delver" to "Temur Delver" is still not a change I'm willing to make. Same with BUG and Sultai. Also Mardu is such a horrible sounding name. Jeskai is the only winner as far as I'm concerned.
I got used to them. Don't love them but they're serviceable I guess.
 
Magic Story - The Promised End - Really long one this time.
* Tamiyo arrives and Liliana is annoyed that there's another useless mind mage.
* Liliana looks at Emrakul and compares it to the feelings of wrongness she had when her brother died, when she met Bolas, and when she first used the Chain Veil.
* Raven Man pops up in her head and tells her it's insanity to stay there. Liliana's zombies start talking and tell her to flee, and then start chanting Emrakul's name. It's unclear if this is a hallucination or not.
* Jace is hallucinating about his sanctum on Ravnica, which now has a spiral staircase leading down. Emrakul is destroying the place from the top down, and the staircase is beckoning with warm light. Having no other choice, Jace goes down the stairs.
* From Liliana's perspective, everyone except her is caught in a blue glow from Jace, but they're all writing in agony but him. Liliana uses the Chain Veil and is able to push back against Emrakul's madness.
* Jace finds himself witnessing Gideon's hallucination, which is the moment where he fought Erebos and let his companions get killed, except his companions are substituted with the Gatewatch. Erebos is killing them one by one until Gideon tells him what he most desires. The vision ends before Gideon says it.
* Jace then sees Tamiyo's hallucination. He sees her surrounded by books and scrolls, and feels nostalgic for when he had time to do that. Tamiyo is getting Eldrazified as she reads. He can't do anything to help, and he goes further down the stairs.
* With the power of the Chain Veil, Liliana is actually pushing Emrakul back a bit.
* Back to Jace, he's seeing Chandra's hallucination, which has her as a child back on Kaladesh, confronted by the men that killed her parents. She starts setting everything on fire.
* He goes to the next one, expecting Liliana, and is disappointed to find Nissa.
* Nissa's hallucination places her still on Innistrad. She's being Eldrazified. She speaks gibberish. Jace finds himself being caught up on details of how she's speaking and such, and has to pull himself back. He tries to talk with her, communications break down.
* Jace is disappointed that Liliana isn't there.
* Liliana is still blasting Emrakul, but her body gives out and Emrakul immediately surges back. All she can do now is stand her ground. Raven Man is still telling her how foolish she is and such.

* Jace reaches a door. It leads into a formless and colorless room, which turns into a white room with an angel in it. The angel approaches and is much larger than perspective implied. As it gets closer, its true appearance becomes apparent. And that angel's name... EINSTEIN HITLER EMRAKUL!
* Jace starts laughing, but then his mind snaps back and he thinks about the Emeria statues on Zendikar. He addresses the angel with that name.
* The angel responds with a normal voice and asks if she can sit down. They sit at a table. The angel has an iron-bound scroll like the one Tamiyo has. She asks if she can work while they talk. Jace allows it, and she starts writing in the scroll.
* Jace asks questions. The angel feels incomplete and inchoate (not fully developed), and says that the soil doesn't feel right. Things should be blooming. It isn't her time to be there, not yet.
* Jace demands some straight answers. The angel offers to play chess with him, and will leave if he wins.
* The angel sucks at chess and Jace is winning easily. She says communication is difficult, since she's not even sure Jace actually exists, but his brain is adaptable. Jace hesitates because he's getting potentially useful information.
* Jace asks Emeria if she's real, and she responds that she was personified a long time ago. She says a force can't be reasoned with, but if he takes shortcuts to grapple with what he can't perceive, who is she to argue?
* Jace realizes this isn't something Emrakul is doing, but his own mind trying to make sense of it.
* Jace checkmates the angel, but the angel turns all of his pieces into her own, and they start attacking Jace's king, who now looks like Jace. The room breaks apart and Emrakul proper returns. Jace flees out another door.

* Liliana is still fighting back against Emrakul, drawing energy out of her zombies just to stay alive. One good thing is that there are no more voices from Raven Man or the Chain Veil. She sees that the only one of the Gatewatch still conscious is Jace, but he's just standing there with a blue glow. She yells at him to do something useful.
* Jace runs into himself. The doppelganger asks him a riddle to make sure he's him. Jace acknowledges that he's annoying to interact with.
* "No bigger than a pebble but my closing covers the entire world, what am I?" The answer is
eyes, because when you close them, the whole world goes away
. The true purpose of the riddle was to see how Jace would respond to an easy riddle, and the doppelganger confirms he's the real Jace.
* After talking, Jace realizes where he is. He reflexively cast a spell to protect his mind from immediate dissolution, and also used it to protect his friends.
* When Jace arrived on Innistrad, he knew something weird was going on, so he split up his mind, keeping one part sheltered from the outside, to figure things out while the other part took the brunt of the madness. That's the Jace he was talking to.
* Doppelganger Jace tells him that he needs to talk with Tamiyo. Jace doesn't find this helpful, but the doppelganger also has the solution for how they can get out of the immediate situation. He also knows that Liliana is close to death. The two Jaces merge.
* Jace returns to the real world. Liliana is unconscious, but the others are waking up. There are much fewer zombies left to defend them. Gideon charges into the fray to back up the zombies. Chandra's confidence quickly returns, to Jace's surprise, and she wants to burn Emrakul. Nissa is healing Liliana.
* Tamiyo tells Jace that they must seal Emrakul in the moon.
* She pulls out a scroll and starts casting a spell. Jace helps bind the spell to Emrakul. Nissa provides mana.
* It isn't enough mana, so Tamiyo brings out a second scroll, one of the iron-bound ones. It seems to provide them with mana. Emrakul is successfully Imprisoned in the Moon.

* After using the second scroll, Tamiyo starts vomiting.
* Liliana is happy she's still alive. She thinks that perhaps working in a team isn't so bad. Friends are like zombies but better, and thinks about how useful they could be to her. They're all children compared to her, and will be easy to manipulate.
* As Gideon talks to Tamiyo about joining the Gatewatch, Liliana remarks that she has zombies that are smarter than him. Tamiyo turns Gideon down.
* Jace talks to Gideon, and he looks upset, but he approaches Liliana anyway. Liliana joins the Gatewatch.
* Jace talks with Tamiyo. When Tamiyo used that second scroll, that wasn't actually her in control. Moreover, the contents of the scroll were different from what they were supposed to be.
* Jace thinks back to his conversation with Emeria, where she was writing in an iron-bound scroll. Emrakul was in control of Tamiyo's body, and used it to cast a spell to seal itself in the moon. He remembers the angel saying that it wasn't her time yet.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I read that story and felt bad you would have to summarize it.
 
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