I’m digging the Lowlands a ton, but I actually didn’t spend too much time in Grothmar. I’ve done the cycle of meta events there maybe 2-3 times total. They’re fun and interesting, but when they’re not active, I feel 0 compulsion to do anything on that map.
I wish I liked this art treatment more, but man it sucked to play against in paper.
Compare [[Drivnod]]'s and [[Phyrexian Obliterator]]'s inkblot arts. Just not easily distinguishable across a table, unfortunately.
I think the things look cool as art prints, but aren’t clear enough when shrunk to half of a playing card to appreciate.
As a quick question, is this the single largest B&R announcement in Magic history? Bans/restrictions in 4 of the 5 major formats (Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage), each hitting serious meta decks? I’m a relatively newer player, so I don’t know if they’ve ever shaken up so many formats at once.
I know about the Great Designer Challenge question, and I agree that while such a creature would technically fit into those 2 colors, it’s not doing a thing that those 2 colors specifically want to do together.
The value of a flyer is to get in around something, and the value of vigilance is to be able to attack and still safely block. Golgari’s approach to those goals is usually good removal in black and big creatures (with trample) in green.
Beyond that, you’d have to consider the rate of the creature. 2 mana 2/2 w/ flying and vigilance? Banger in Azorius, but doesn’t do jack squat for Golgari. If you go over rate (because green and black both have a number of creatures that are over rate) and get a 2 mana 3/3 w/ flying and vigilance, is that just broken? Even if it’s great, does it see play?
Pioneer player here. Thank GOD Sorin and Amalia are gone.
Definitely agree that banning Sorin is a better move than removing Vein Ripper. Sorin existing basically means that they can’t print any powerful/high cost vampires ever, and so removing him gives more creative freedom for the future.
And removing Amalia is great because of how the counterplay to the combo was sometimes just pushing for a draw. Not fun for anyone, and the draws just end up pushing the match into turns every dang time.
I feel like I would have been fine with them banning Treasure Cruise and Fable, but I guess they didn’t want to just shatter the format, just shake it up gently.
Maybe I’m crazy entitled, but I feel like if I’m spending a few hundred dollars on this piece of hardware, I shouldn’t have to pay an additional fee to get some of its basic built-in features to work well.
Cool! I already have a decent PC, but I entered anyways. I’m excited for the new expansion!
Raiding/Fractals/Strikes might be tough to start as a group of 2-3, but you can look for learning groups until you feel confident enough to just join randoms.
I learned to do fractals from following guild members back in the day, and now that I’m coming back after a 6 year hiatus, I’m just doing tier 2 or tier 3 dailies and enjoying them again. Strikes and raids require a bit more work, but they’re quite doable as long as you have a good teacher and can manage your mechanics on top of your role.
I mean, Prerelease is a great way for new players to dip their feet into any form of structured play. No one is walking in with a fine-tuned constructed deck; everyone is left to the whim of their card pool. Sure, it’s tough to build a cohesive deck, but the included leaflet mentions 17 lands and a modest mana curve, and I think it talks about sticking to 2 colors if possible?
I’ll probably try and use this release as an attempt to get my cousins (who have been dabbling in Commander and at-home prereleases) into LGS events.
I’m newer to Magic, and I’ve had to basically dig through the Discords of each shop near me to figure out what formats are played in paper there. Obviously there’s plenty of Commander everywhere, but some shops lean more heavily into Modern, or Draft, Pioneer, Vintage, or even Standard. I’ve only had 1 opportunity to play Pauper (and it was a blast).
Still, it’s the lowest price barrier for a constructed 60-card format, and it’s honestly a fairly powerful and interactive format. I won a small tournament using a Gruul beatdown deck I slapped together from commons I had on hand at the time, and recently bought the pieces of a Golgari Gardens deck that cost me like $90. There’s room for infinite combos, aggro decks, affinity, control, midrange, tempo, whatever you can think of (besides Planeswalker things).
I don’t personally use proxies, but the quality of various printing sites has gone way up. Cards can look and feel very real, and in my opinion the best way to go about those is to use completely non-MTG art so no one ever thinks you’re trying to fool someone with them. A lot of people are cool with proxies, except for sanctioned tournaments/events. As I got some of my DnD friends into Magic, it helped that they could order proxies of powerful cards for cheap, so they could learn how interesting and deep Magic can be, and now they’re willing to spend their own money to start buying the game pieces they actually like.
If it’s been a while, coming back to Magic may feel weird (power levels have skyrocketed over the last 5 years, apparently), but I think it’s a great game that hits different sweet spots. Commander for the social aspect and self-expression. 60-card constructed for rewarding smart play and awareness of the meta. Draft for building on the fly and winning through miniscule advantages. Sealed for the degenerate gambling.
They don’t want to put these into special guest slots in Play Boosters for 2 reasons. Induce demand for collector boosters, and also help preserve the limited environment at least a little bit. I think it’s also why they went from The List to Special Guests in general.
I feel like this thing is a bit silly and lacking in reusable pieces that I’d want to include in my everyday Magic kit… But I got it anyways. Got delivered an hour ago.
Awesome! I have the Warclaw since I used to be a WvW player before taking a long break, so it’ll be nice for them to feel more useful.
How are people feeling about the WvW updates? It looks like they’re trying to encourage actual fights, rather than puppies chasing tails.
I’m a Dodger fan, but I really wasn’t expecting Teoscar to hang with some of the bigger sluggers. Super proud for him, though!
Damn good show this year. Not sure if the format changes were good this year or not, but it was a dramatic semifinal and final round, at least.
I know for a while we had Core Set + 2-set blocks, but I wasn’t playing then and don’t know if they filled the gap with something else.
Going down to 3 Standard-legal sets will be weird, unless they plan to push UB into Standard.
If these hit $3, I don’t see anyone going for them.
The Chromecast with Google TV^™