There's no real reason to do Sealed leagues on MTGO though. I only did them because as far as I know its a better value to burn your MTGO FUN MONEY on them since you get the extra rare.
I'm calling it, we're getting RGW Ajani vs Nicol Bolas next block.
As for Kamigawa, I think there's some genuine value in revisiting the plane. It came out ages ago and there's been major influxes of new players since then. My playgroup really only knows it as the home of Kiki-Jiki, Sensei's Diving Top, and Umezawa's Jitte. I think the lore has been largely forgotten.
I'd love Naya Ajani, but until Creative can make another GW Walker he's probably stuck in that role. MaRo has mentioned that R&D prefers him in GW.
I mean, Kamigawa was 1000+? Years ago in Universe, there's no reason why a return to it can't be a functional reboot. Keep the flavor, keep the lore, keep some of the mechanics, rework the rest. Especially since Legendary is no longer the pile of crap it was back in the day and they've figured out how to make cards that are two.
I said it already, Dominaria Masters! A Time Spiral keyword mess in a supplemental, draft-minded set with cool reprints and a few new cards. Do it WotC!
Dominaria has been post 3 times apocalypse at least.
The brothers war happened there, it merged with Rath, got invaded by phyrexians, literally had a continent "phased out", condensed all magic into Karona and last we knew had time go loco. That's just off the top of my head and partly from hearsay there ought to have happened much more.
Dominaria has been post 3 times apocalypse at least.
The brothers war happened there, it merged with Rath, got invaded by phyrexians, literally had a continent "phased out", condensed all magic into Karona and last we knew had time go loco. That's just off the top of my head and partly from hearsay there ought to have happened much more.
Yeah but the way they design planes now, each plane has a "thing".
Ravnica is a big city with guilds
Theros is greek land with gods that occupy the sky
Tarkir is Dragon Mongolia
Mirrodin (it's still Mirrodin to me dammit) has metal reflecting nature
Kamigawa has spirits that inhabit almost everything, samurai, ninja and shit
I could go on and on
Dominaria has... uhhh
Krosan Forest that continues to expand and go wild, run by an order of druids called the Kamahlites
A sentient race of lizard people that work in forges (Viashino)
A shadowy Cabal that wants to run all sorts of gambling contests
New Benalia run by descendants of humans
Urborg, an artificer's paradise in a swamp
These are really specific things and not easy to say like "ok ravnica the whole world is one big city"
Yeah but the way they design planes now, each plane has a "thing".
Ravnica is a big city with guilds
Theros is greek land with gods that occupy the sky
Tarkir is Dragon Mongolia
Mirrodin (it's still Mirrodin to me dammit) has metal reflecting nature
Kamigawa has spirits that inhabit almost everything, samurai, ninja and shit
I could go on and on
Dominaria has... uhhh
Krosan Forest that continues to expand and go wild, run by an order of druids called the Kamahlites
A sentient race of lizard people that work in forges (Viashino)
A shadowy Cabal that wants to run all sorts of gambling contests
New Benalia run by descendants of humans
Urborg, an artificer's paradise in a swamp
These are really specific things and not easy to say like "ok ravnica the whole world is one big city"
If they ever go back to dominaria it won't have the whole plane as a focus they'd pick a region and stick to that. Not sure if they actually said that or if it's just random conjecture.
You also forgot the desert, the Zephalids, the order, kheldon, llanowar,... Dominaria is like 5 times as vast as any plane we've since visited.
The Nature of Theros is fundamentally one of those "Holy crap that's awesome" thing for me, because Theros works in a very similar fashion to the Homeric Tradition. Elspeth killed Polkranus about 6 months before she died, but Theros had already turned that fight into a huge part of the Theriad, and it echoes certain bits in the Illiad/Odyssey where even though Achilles knows of Hercules and Nestor's generation was part of that, the characters still treat him as this far off figure of myth.
The one theory I like why Phyrexia would ever come near Theros is to give Yawgmoth a new body. Considering the nature of Theros allowing for ascensions to occur, just get enough people there to believe in him and you'd have a new god.
I don't think you can do the Phyrexian invasion in Theros, it just doesn't really fit flavor-wise. Tbh I don't really know how you can do the whole Phyrexian thing without it feeling like Zendikar/Eldrazi again. They finally gave the Phyrexians some identiy and character beyond "evil horde", it would a shame to waste that on yet another boring invasion plot
now, what I could imagine is Theros merging into the new Egyptian plane at some point, gods against gods (btw, I think they might be doing 3 color gods for the new setting)
I would love to re-visit Lorwyn because I missed it the first time and I really love that world. Also, they should take a break with the Gatevengers, I much prefered the stand-alone stories
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";219220811]Messing with Kaladesh in Legacy
[/QUOTE]
I don't get it. You just give them an emrakul or griselbrand? What if you only hit one of them, Griselbrand can draw you into show and tell + emrakul to win from there but wouldn't vapor snag or something similar be better
Oh homeward path, don't you need stifle for wasteland?
Return to Dominaria will likely be a 2018 block to celebrate 25 years of Magic. Well, assuming the anniversary isn't as much of an afterthought as the 20th.
I expect that the gods of Amonkhet will be enemy colored, to make up for Dragons of Tarkir being ally colored.
Return to Dominaria will likely be a 2018 block to celebrate 25 years of Magic. Well, assuming the anniversary isn't as much of an afterthought as the 20th.
As a player that started in revised this would be awesome, but all we got for the 20th was a from the vault. If I recall that was because the focus groups said making a big deal about a 20 year history of the game was a barrier for entry to new players, I doubt they will do anything different for 25, I think the Scryb Sprites and Grizzly Bears are gone and not coming back.
Group Hug turns Magic into some bizarre horrible parody of the game where resource consideration and management stop mattering and everyone just disgorges whatever ridiculous combos they draw. It's basically reverse Stax, but I even prefer playing against Stax. If I win with a Group Hug deck in play, I don't feel accomplishment, I feel like I just facerolled my way to that outcome.
Group Hug players also often don't even bother trying to win, instead putting all their energy into "helping" everyone in a way that ends up only really benefiting the lucky Green/Blue player to their left.
And then there's how fucking long turns take when there's a Group Hug player ensuring people can play fifty spells a turn.
Dominaria has been destroyed every time we went there and the time rifts were fixed that was the whole mending thingy Time Spiral was about. It also supposedly repaired Dominaria.
This article Ari Lax wrote a while ago about Modern as a format is generally available on SCG now. Did we talk about this at all? I feel like this makes a pretty good case for what Modern provides as a format.
Me and my brother both received our Kaladesh Bundles today and wanted to build a sealed deck with the included booster packs for fun and practice for the upcoming event. My brothers Kaladesh Bundle only came with 9 instead of the promised 10 booster packs, so that was quite a negative surprise.
I think this stuff is pretty flexible to the needs of the block or set, though. They made a Bant Tamiyo and a Temur Sarkhan after all (and that last one is a hella dumb idea.)
It's just not worth it to them to go into a set design having all these pre-existing restrictions when most everything memorable about the source block is memorable in the bad way. If they do a different world they don't have to get into anything about why Moonfolk and Snake People don't exist or etc. etc. etc.
Return to Dominaria will likely be a 2018 block to celebrate 25 years of Magic. Well, assuming the anniversary isn't as much of an afterthought as the 20th.
I feel like 5Glint-Sleeve Artisans are too many, but I also got Engineered Might and visions of blowouts are dancing in my head.
Engineered Might isn't a card I'd play but I got a fucking lot of Fabricate up in here. Also, I'm sad because I was pretty sure I drafted a Visionary Augmenter and somehow "undrafted" it when my wife walked in because its not in my pool.
Group Hug turns Magic into some bizarre horrible parody of the game where resource consideration and management stop mattering and everyone just disgorges whatever ridiculous combos they draw. It's basically reverse Stax, but I even prefer playing against Stax. If I win with a Group Hug deck in play, I don't feel accomplishment, I feel like I just facerolled my way to that outcome.
Group Hug players also often don't even bother trying to win, instead putting all their energy into "helping" everyone in a way that ends up only really benefiting the lucky Green/Blue player to their left.
And then there's how fucking long turns take when there's a Group Hug player ensuring people can play fifty spells a turn.
Engineered Might is a great card, but I find that I use the +5/+5 ,mode more often because both players generally have servos and stuff so the anthem doesn't get a ton of damage through..
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";219234716]Engineered Might is a great card, but I find that I use the +5/+5 ,mode more often because both players generally have servos and stuff so the anthem doesn't get a ton of damage through..[/QUOTE]
This article Ari Lax wrote a while ago about Modern as a format is generally available on SCG now. Did we talk about this at all? I feel like this makes a pretty good case for what Modern provides as a format.
I can agree with most of what he's saying, but my big complaint stems from how Lax Wizards is in moderating the Format. Like, I know they can't micromanage it, but "the rules" of Modern are so loosely enforced by Wizards. They say that they don't want Fast Mana in the format(But leave SSG and Mox Opal in). They say they don't want Modern decks to be too consistent in how they function, but Kamikazoo is effectively a 48 card deck because 12 cards cycle for 0 mana. Wizards says "Modern is a Turn 4 Format" but never help to keep that in check. Technically, Twin was keeping the Format focused on Turn 4, even if that was by virtue of a Two card "Oops, I win" combo.
R&D can look at Phyrexian Mana/Delve and go "Well, we're going to never do that again/We're going to have to really keep it in check if we do" because it's out of their golden format, but Modern has to deal with these mechanics regularly, and all it takes for R&D to end up changing Modern is somebody deciding to change/push one thing. Sometimes it's a good change(The Escalate cards have actually been seeing some Modern play, due to their multiple options, same with DtK Commands), sometimes it's a bad change(Eldrazi Winter, Delve, etc)
I love Modern as a format, but Wizards either needs to try and curate it better so it's less of a crapshoot at times. I know that my Tron Matchup as GW Hatebears is absolutely terrible and I've come to mostly accept that, but the fact that decks like Grishoalbrand are basically watching your opponent's solitaire for 5-10 minutes is frustrating.
Modern also is the one format where Blue and White are arguably the weakest singular colours, which as an Azorius Bro hurts me hard.
I think this stuff is pretty flexible to the needs of the block or set, though. They made a Bant Tamiyo and a Temur Sarkhan after all (and that last one is a hella dumb idea.)
That's true, but MaRo was asked this just a few days ago and said Ajani's basically in GW as they have no other "defining" walker in that 2 colour pair. Sarkhan as Temur was super weird though, I'll give you that.
It's just not worth it to them to go into a set design having all these pre-existing restrictions when most everything memorable about the source block is memorable in the bad way. If they do a different world they don't have to get into anything about why Moonfolk and Snake People don't exist or etc. etc. etc.
I was envisioning just a mechanical reboot, not a complete reboot. I mean, Kaseto's card hints that to the current period the past is this great period of Legend. Have the block focus on this legacy aspect, which could work really well with a Legends matters theme(Now that the Legendary rule isn't the mess it was). Imagine a set that cared not about specific legends, but just Legends.
Imagine something like this per say(TOTALLY FAKE CARD):
Moonfolk Scholar 1UU
Creature-Moonfolk Advisor
U, TAP: Draw a card, then discard a card.
Heritage- If there is a Blue legendary creature in your graveyard, you may activate ~'s ability without paying U.
1/2
I don't know, the idea of having a plane similar to Tarkir's Clans emulating the past but with their legends vs. Dragons seems like it would be an interesting twist, and considering Kamigawa is the oldest Plane in Modern-Era that hasn't had a revisit, it would be a nice base for such a set.
Engineered might is awesome if you set it up right and should end the game fairly quickly after you cast it. The best part is most of your good green cards have trample already and if you have a bunch of fabricate guys you just make the servos if you have might in hand. Plus you can get it late in the draft after you know ii you have the deck to take advantage of it. The other multicolor cards get picked earlier because they are powerful creatures
Group Hug turns Magic into some bizarre horrible parody of the game where resource consideration and management stop mattering and everyone just disgorges whatever ridiculous combos they draw. It's basically reverse Stax, but I even prefer playing against Stax. If I win with a Group Hug deck in play, I don't feel accomplishment, I feel like I just facerolled my way to that outcome.
Group Hug players also often don't even bother trying to win, instead putting all their energy into "helping" everyone in a way that ends up only really benefiting the lucky Green/Blue player to their left.
And then there's how fucking long turns take when there's a Group Hug player ensuring people can play fifty spells a turn.
There's no real reason to do Sealed leagues on MTGO though. I only did them because as far as I know its a better value to burn your MTGO FUN MONEY on them since you get the extra rare.
In terms of packs-to-entry cost, you are right, but in terms of playtime-to-entry cost; the ratio is best for the friendly sealed leagues (9 rounds, eight packs). Draft is close (3 rounds, three packs), and competitive sealed is the worst (5 rounds, six packs).
Edit: crunched some numbers. Looks like draft has best payouts (relative to entry costs), so if you subtract average payout from initial cost, then draft is well ahead on packs-to-entry cost ratio, and is also tops on playtime-to-entry cost ratio by a little bit.
I wonder if i can build a group hug deck that doesn't use things like Mana Flare and card draw to piss people off and instead focuses on things like this to make things fun:
Yeah, I know. That's part of the point! If you're going to play a deck built around ruining the game then you should take it the extra step and do something that will either make the hate you'll be getting truly earned or amuse the table enough that they'll forgive you for playing Group Hug as "a joke".
Yeah, I know. That's part of the point! If you're going to play a deck built around ruining the game then you should take it the extra step and do something that will either make the hate you'll be getting truly earned or amuse the table enough that they'll forgive you for playing Group Hug as "a joke".
Turning things on their head every once in a while is what makes Magic, and things like Commander great. I just need to find the right formula to make it fun and wacky but not insane and game extending.
Turning things on their head every once in a while is what makes Magic, and things like Commander great. I just need to find the right formula to make it fun and wacky but not insane and game extending.
Well, part of that depends on the group and what kind of "fun and wacky" they appreciate. I'm also not sure you can make something that would be "Group Hug" that does that. I'd almost wonder if something like weird global effects would be more what you want (Revelation/Zur's Weirding, Chaosphere, Teferi's Realm, etc. Yes, I just went and got ideas from the list of World Enchantments).
Turning things on their head every once in a while is what makes Magic, and things like Commander great. I just need to find the right formula to make it fun and wacky but not insane and game extending.
Yep, just lost a game I was winning handily to LOL I HAVE A BOMB because none of the bombs are beatable in any real way. I already hate this fucking format.
Yep, just lost a game I was winning handily to LOL I HAVE A BOMB because none of the bombs are beatable in any real way. I already hate this fucking format.
Seth better known as Saffron Olive yesterday opened 5 mythics and played 4 of them (Sovereign McSovereignface, Dovin Baan, Nissa, Rashmi) in 1 game he played Rashmi and the next turn cascaded Nissa into Dovin
Yep, just lost a game I was winning handily to LOL I HAVE A BOMB because none of the bombs are beatable in any real way. I already hate this fucking format.
I think its more likely they are willing to throw out narrative bones because people keep gushing about Kamigawa on Blogatog but they are too afraid of the sales/survey data from 10+ years ago that showed it bombed for them to actually try to do another Kamigawa card set. A shame too since its obvious they now have to chops to do a Kamigawa block (or even supplementary set) well but it would still be a hard sell to the "people upstairs".
What I should have done is quit the game years ago since I have almost no tolerance for the kind of lame as fuck variance this game thrives on and which becomes more and more obnoxious when playing for any kind of prize.
