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Magic: the Gathering |OT13| Ixalan - Port to Sideboard

Takuhi

Member
I feel like we've sort of glossed over the fact that Gaea's Cradle is coming to Standard.

Come on, it's not Gaea's Cradle.

It's... a Gaea's Cradle that cantrips.

Okay, it's really not, but it is pretty nuts. I honestly think this would see play even without the ETB ability. It definitely has me taking another look at that UG mythic that costs a trillion mana and draws you a card for each creature you control.
 
Yeah, they can't come out and say it but I imagine they want this to slowly replace MTGO over the next few years.

You have to have serious blinkers on to believe anything else, I'd say. But they can't say that because they don't actually want to cut out the legs on stuff like modern/vintage/cube online and they don't want to crash what's left of MTGO years in advance of when Arena's a reasonable replacement. If Arena can take off and they can prove they can develop it and add cards to it quickly, the writing will be on the wall soon enough.

WotC proves yet again they do not understand technology.

This product is a complete 180 from their digital efforts to date, what about it exactly suggests a failure to understand something

Around 1000 cards added each year means they will just be keeping up with new releases and not back-filling old sets.

Because they're only going to commit upfront to keeping up with Standard. I think there's basically no chance that they don't start on some form of backfill eventually if the game's at all successful.

no trade right now

They'll add trading right after Hearthstone does, i.e. the Twelfth of Never.

It's really surprising to me how stubbornly head-in-the-sand MTGO proponents are about this. Saffron Olive tweeted multiple complaints while the stream was occurring, said complaints were then addressed on stream, and then he still refuses to believe anyone would play Arena over MTGO. Arena is very clearly being setup to eat MTGO from the inside out.

There's a lot of people who believe MTGO has some actual appeal outside of hardcore existing Magic players for some reason and don't get that this product is tuned to the exact interests the mass market has been shown to care about.
 

Firemind

Member
Come on, it's not Gaea's Cradle.

It's... a Gaea's Cradle that cantrips.

Okay, it's really not, but it is pretty nuts. I honestly think this would see play even without the ETB ability. It definitely has me taking another look at that UG mythic that costs a trillion mana and draws you a card for each creature you control.
It technically ramps too since it allows you to play another land that turn, albeit delayed ramp.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
You have to have serious blinkers on to believe anything else, I'd say. But they can't say that because they don't actually want to cut out the legs on stuff like modern/vintage/cube online and they don't want to crash what's left of MTGO years in advance of when Arena's a reasonable replacement. If Arena can take off and they can prove they can develop it and add cards to it quickly, the writing will be on the wall soon enough.



This product is a complete 180 from their digital efforts to date, what about it exactly suggests a failure to understand something



Because they're only going to commit upfront to keeping up with Standard. I think there's basically no chance that they don't start on some form of backfill eventually if the game's at all successful.



They'll add trading right after Hearthstone does, i.e. the Twelfth of Never.



There's a lot of people who believe MTGO has some actual appeal outside of hardcore existing Magic players for some reason and don't get that this product is tuned to the exact interests the mass market has been shown to care about.

That's what I was saying: it seems pretty clear this isn't aimed at MTGO players( who are already pretty invested in the current ecosystem).
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Seth (prrrrrroooooobbbbbably better known as SaffronOlive) just speculated that technology from Arena might be ported over to a new version of MTGO.

*sigh*

I like Arena, though the UI is basically Hearthstone... down to the card attacks even.

Everyone keeps pointing at Hearthstone (which set the precedent for digital CCGs), but Arena reminds me more of Eternal.
 
That's what I was saying: it seems pretty clear this isn't aimed at MTGO players( who are already pretty invested in the current ecosystem).

Right, the only reason MTGO is relevant is that it makes them less and less money as time goes on so the amount of time it's worth supporting is probably limited, so potentially replacing the key functionality eventually makes it easier to take when they eventually wind up shuttering it.
 

Santiako

Member
lFJ1Mio.png


I feel like most people glossed over this because of the stream and the cradle. This card looks insane to me.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
Everyone keeps pointing at Hearthstone (which set the precedent for digital CCGs), but Arena reminds me more of Eternal.

I mean, I feel like that's because Eternal uses the same rules as Magic, so of course it's going to have a more similar UI. Like, the multiblocking animation is the same, but it's really just the Hearthstone attack animation played out in sequence.

Although come to think of it I think I liked Eternal's blocker ordering interface more than Arena's. Been a while, but IIRC you just click the creatures on the board and it puts 1, 2, 3 on them (and you can change your mind/have to confirm when you're done)?
 

duxstar

Member
The most disappointing news was that this is PC only.... i need this on my phone, i already have mtgo for the computer.

They havent released a magic product for android since Magic duels 2015
 

Wamb0wneD

Member
lFJ1Mio.png


I feel like most people glossed over this because of the stream and the cradle. This card looks insane to me.

Yeah that card is insane. Not even pirates but just creature. Maybe going with blue green, that 4 mana 4/5 raptor with enrage draw a card in it as well. MIght be strong.

Ranging-Raptors-Ixalan-Spoiler.png
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Not gonna lie about my feelings bro. He is one of the worst kinds of YouTubers. It's all my opinion of course.

Seeing the inside of ships gives me Invasion vibes

I'm genuinely curious about why you dislike him. He's upbeat, creative, positive, energetic, and kind to his community. I honestly don't know what else you would want from a content creator.
 
I can't put my finger on it but he sometimes comes over as a bit disingenuous.
If I had to pinpoint it, it's that he's actually quite a sore loser.

Also he once commandeered a mana crypt in commander only to untap and strip mine that players only land.
 

Ashodin

Member
From my point of view, he seems arrogant, annoying, self-absorbed, incredibly resistant to changes re: digital magic, caters to the type of viewer who cares less about the game and more about memes, and creates decks that cause runs on cards because people follow this guy like a bandwagon.
 
I think Saffron Olive performs an important service to the MTG community, and that's showing that there are more decks than just the ones the pros play. Budget magic is a thing that matters and he's the greatest proponent of it. I don't watch his streams or anything. As a performer he might be lame. But he uses his platform for good.
 
From my point of view, he seems arrogant, annoying, self-absorbed, incredibly resistant to changes re: digital magic, caters to the type of viewer who cares less about the game and more about memes, and creates decks that cause runs on cards because people follow this guy like a bandwagon.

For clarification what youtuber are we talking about?
 

Ashodin

Member
Right, the negatives I point out aren't at all talking about his positives. I'm just saying for me personally they outweigh his positives.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
I think Saffron Olive performs an important service to the MTG community, and that's showing that there are more decks than just the ones the pros play. Budget magic is a thing that matters and he's the greatest proponent of it. I don't watch his streams or anything. As a performer he might be lame. But he uses his platform for good.
Why does this sound so familiar I feel like I read a post like this a long time ago.
 

Jhriad

Member
and creates decks that cause runs on cards because people follow this guy like a bandwagon.

Anything with an audience that size would create temporary demand spikes on cards they feature. You're basically complaining that GP/Pro Tour coverage creates too much demand on cards in the decks they feature except he usually only creates short-term demand spikes with prices that self correct relatively quickly afterward.

lFJ1Mio.png


I feel like most people glossed over this because of the stream and the cradle. This card looks insane to me.

It tempts me to toy around with Delver again.
 

Ashodin

Member
Anything with an audience that size would create temporary demand spikes on cards they feature. You're basically complaining that GP/Pro Tour coverage creates too much demand on cards in the decks they feature except he usually only creates short-term demand spikes with prices that self correct relatively quickly afterward.



It tempts me to toy around with Delver again.

Correct. However, because he builds decks that are not in the meta or have weird gimmicky uses, other cards become harder to purchase. And I will agree with you that anyone with an audience that size would do it, however it's the overall package that's a detractor.

I suspect WoTC feels the same and is why they haven't really tagged him for any live content.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
From my point of view, he seems arrogant, annoying, self-absorbed, incredibly resistant to changes re: digital magic, caters to the type of viewer who cares less about the game and more about memes, and creates decks that cause runs on cards because people follow this guy like a bandwagon.
He creates deck that cause runs on cards aka he is popular and people are excited to try his brews. Fucking ridiculous. Also his chat has never struck me a twitch meme stream. At most people spam punt too much. But I don't watch his stream that much so maybe that changed

Also you are one to talk about gimmicky decks
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Correct. However, because he builds decks that are not in the meta or have weird gimmicky uses, other cards become harder to purchase. And I will agree with you that anyone with an audience that size would do it, however it's the overall package that's a detractor.

I suspect WoTC feels the same and is why they haven't really tagged him for any live content.

Can you suggest a way that a popular streamer could explore the boundaries of casual MTG decks without causing a similar spike in card prices? Like, unless SO is specifically buying out certain cards, then streaming with them to intentionally cause a spike (which he's not) that he personally profits from, I don't understand how you can rag on someone for building creative, budget, non-meta decks that appeal to a lot of players who aren't interested in competitive MTG. (Personality clashes aside—I can see how his personality might not click with some people. I'm not a Paul Cheon fan for this reason.)
 

Ashodin

Member
He creates deck that cause runs on cards aka he is popular and people are excited to try his brews. Fucking ridiculous. Also his chat has never struck me a twitch meme stream. At most people spam punt too much. But I don't watch his stream that much so maybe that changed

Also you are one to talk about gimmicky decks

I wasn't talking about his twitch chat. I'm just talking his personality in general begets that type of audience.

Can you suggest a way that a popular streamer could explore the boundaries of casual MTG decks without causing a similar spike in card prices? Like, unless SO is specifically buying out certain cards, then streaming with them to intentionally cause a spike (which he's not) that he personally profits from, I don't understand how you can rag on someone for building creative, budget, non-meta decks that appeal to a lot of players who aren't interested in competitive MTG. (Personality clashes aside—I can see how his personality might not click with some people. I'm not a Paul Cheon fan for this reason.)

No, I can't. But his videos are tied explicitly to MTGGoldfish, a site that is quite often viewed, so inevitably he gains much more visibility for his brews and shenanigans.

I'm not ragging on him for making creative decks. I'm ragging on the network he's tied into that makes those decks visible enough that causes cards to spike. I'm not saying there's a better alternative, because I don't know of one. I'm just saying it's inconvenient.

You still mad about the red deck?

C'mon.

Huh? I have no idea what you're talking about.
 

Justin

Member
I enjoy SO. His decks are creative and fun and he is only ever positive and seems like a nice guy. With the internet being filled with which shitty people he seems like weird target. I never also got the impression that he was purpously pronouncing things to be "weird".

Can we change the subject to naming our favorite couple in Magic? Mine is Marshal Sutcliffe and Reid Duke!

While we are talking Magic personalities I just want to say that it's cool that so many of the big names seem to be good non shitty people. There is one or two bad eggs who keep popping up in my YouTube reqs but everyone else seems pretty cool.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Right, the only reason MTGO is relevant is that it makes them less and less money as time goes on so the amount of time it's worth supporting is probably limited, so potentially replacing the key functionality eventually makes it easier to take when they eventually wind up shuttering it.

There's like nothing that suggests they're making less and less money off of MTGO and I'm not even sure what you're talking about with "potentially replacing the key functionality eventually makes it easier to take when they eventually wind up shuttering it." What does that even mean? They'd have to program every single card that's in MTGO into Arena + enable trading and tickets for that to ever be a viable plan. And if that was a real plan, they would probably just say they were doing it to get people on board with Arena to begin with. The current playerbase of MTGO isn't moving to Arena. Probably ever.

I legitimately do not understand what position you are taking here and it's particularly confusing given you were apparently on the "Digital Next is the MTGO replacement and WOTC will delete/make obsolete all existing collections" train as recently as a couple of months ago. There isn't a single cogent reason I can think of to pretend this is a Duels replacement when it's secretly a MTGO replacement.
 
I never also got the impression that he was purpously pronouncing things to be "weird".

I would send anyone reading "succumb to temptation" as "scumble" to a neuro surgeon, he definitely intentionally mispronounces cards. He also sticks to the mispronunciations even when he realizes it. It probably started genuine a long time ago.

I enjoy his content though, his against the odds have been getting worse but his streams are quite entertaining. He's very prone towards negativity bias.
 
I wonder what scientific analysis there exists for these kind of things. Surely some mathematician with too much free time has sat down to tackle this thing, not to solve it, but at least to gain some insight into it.

card game balance is too broad of a topic (and asymmetry is a very difficult topic to tackle), but the deck construction can usually be reduced to what is essentially a handful of different tradeoffs

every resource-based card game (i.e. MTG/hearthstone, as opposed to gwent) is basically doomed to have balance problems. the key is what each game does to mitigate them

constructed mtg allows ~30% of your spells exist in sideboard for best of 3 matches
mtg sealed requires people to build their own decks instead of copy a list
mtg draft has a self-regulating property where stronger colors will have more competition (and draft pods have an extra layer of protection against imbalance)

this basically allows wizards to make some amount of mistakes without killing the game

blizzard basically ignored all of the above (and has much less counterplay in general), so any balance problem has a much larger impact
 

Justin

Member
I would send anyone reading "succumb to temptation" as "scumble" to a neuro surgeon, he definitely intentionally mispronounces cards. He also sticks to the mispronunciations even when he realizes it. It probably started genuine a long time ago.

I enjoy his content though, his against the odds have been getting worse but his streams are quite entertaining. He's very prone towards negativity bias.

I see. Well I mostly have the videos on at work in the background so I am not giving them 100% attention and never noticed. I have seen people say they hate him because of his voice but that seems like a shitty thing to say since he has limited control over that.
 
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