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Magic: the Gathering |OT| Core Set 2019 - In the midnight hour, she yelled "Core! Core! Core!"
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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Talking to some people who play nearby it looks like one of my local stores mostly plays draft and then Brawl with the stuff they get from that.
This seems like the most casual way in for me without dropping a ton of money, even though I've heard support for Brawl is super spotty.
I might pick up one of the new preconstructed Commander decks when those come out next month. Though, I was a little tempted to grab the new anthology with that 25 off eBay coupon, but I don't know if I can justify dropping 150 right away... especially if I'd need more cards to flesh out those decks anyway. It looks like they're a huge value, but the fact is I'm not sure which of those cards actually see play in other decks I would be making so I'm not really sure if it'd be a wise first choice of a large purchase. I'm also not sure what the power level of commander decks are around here either.
This seems like the most casual way in for me without dropping a ton of money, even though I've heard support for Brawl is super spotty.
I might pick up one of the new preconstructed Commander decks when those come out next month. Though, I was a little tempted to grab the new anthology with that 25 off eBay coupon, but I don't know if I can justify dropping 150 right away... especially if I'd need more cards to flesh out those decks anyway. It looks like they're a huge value, but the fact is I'm not sure which of those cards actually see play in other decks I would be making so I'm not really sure if it'd be a wise first choice of a large purchase. I'm also not sure what the power level of commander decks are around here either.
OP
OP
Brawl is a brand new format, and Wizards said they'll be doing more to support it in the future, so it will get better, assuming the format doesn't die with the first rotation. Draft then Brawl seems like a pretty good deal.
About Commander, I wouldn't recommend investing that much without knowing what you want from a deck. Don't buy the Anthology, just get one deck that interests you.
Yeah, just any time I see a good deal like a 25 dollar off coupon on eBay I always get tempted to use it, haha. I think I'll be going to the store for FNM this week for draft, and I think they're doing a sealed league starting on Saturday too which I'll hopefully get some info on.
There's another local store that I think has a bigger group there, but I don't know anyone there and I'm worried they're a little more serious and less casual, but I'll probably scope them out at some point. They currently don't have an event schedule listed besides FNM as their website says they're working on restructuring when formats are played.
So I guess the good news is that I have a fairly healthy community within 10 minutes of my place.
There's another local store that I think has a bigger group there, but I don't know anyone there and I'm worried they're a little more serious and less casual, but I'll probably scope them out at some point. They currently don't have an event schedule listed besides FNM as their website says they're working on restructuring when formats are played.
So I guess the good news is that I have a fairly healthy community within 10 minutes of my place.
Talking about LGS's and communities, how often do you guys go to events by yourself? I started off doing this with Amonkhet when I was learning. Fortunately I found out a friend I knew also played. We had been going pretty regularly to mostly standard/drafts/pre-releases up until this week when something came up and now he's not going to be around for a bit. We had been talking a lot about standard and testing our brews more regularly at the LGS's but finding out he's not going to be available is kind of a bummer.
I'm gonna keep try and go regularly if the schedule allows and meet new people while he's gone. If I didn't prefer the paper version over MTGO/Arena I could easily see myself just playing that more often.
I'm gonna keep try and go regularly if the schedule allows and meet new people while he's gone. If I didn't prefer the paper version over MTGO/Arena I could easily see myself just playing that more often.
Well, as I said, there's one store that has a friend of a friend that goes there, so I'm planning on going there and feel like it will be much easier.
The other store has a large group it seems and since I'm rusty on the specifics of play, I'm a little hesitant to go, as it's got a big tournament scene and I'm not sure how well they'd take to a newer player. I think if I do go I'll just preface "hey I'm here to have fun and learn with draft so let me know if I screw anything up and I honestly don't care if I win or not as I'm not chasing prizes" and hopefully I won't have an issue where someone gets angry as I've read about happening.
It's a little nervewracking to think about though.
The other store has a large group it seems and since I'm rusty on the specifics of play, I'm a little hesitant to go, as it's got a big tournament scene and I'm not sure how well they'd take to a newer player. I think if I do go I'll just preface "hey I'm here to have fun and learn with draft so let me know if I screw anything up and I honestly don't care if I win or not as I'm not chasing prizes" and hopefully I won't have an issue where someone gets angry as I've read about happening.
It's a little nervewracking to think about though.
I go to almost all events "alone," as my one friend who plays MTG in town can't make it due to having family responsibilities. However, at this point, I've also come to know some of the LGS regulars, so it doesn't quite feel like I'm "alone" anymore.
OP
OP
Copying the story title on mobile gets the synopsis, so may as well include it.
Chronicles of Bolas: Blood and Fire
Kate Elliott
In a desperate attempt to assuage Atarka's anger, the hunting band plies her with the tale of an ancient war . . . between dragons.
* They leave the cave, leaving the scavenged dragon guts behind in a cold river, which will keep it from going bad for a long time.
* Naiva talks to Fec, an old orc who used to be part of Kolaghan's clan, but Naiva doesn't understand why Yasova let him into theirs.
* Atarka tracks down Yasova and the others, as revenge for the death of one of her broodlings. She kills an ainok with them.
* Yasova claims her dragon was killed by one of Ojutai's, and they have prepared the Ojutai dragon for her to eat. She follows them to it and starts eating.
* While eating, she spots Tae Jin and asks about him. Yasova explains he's a good warrior and wanted to join the Atarka clan, but Atarka is still suspicious. Yasova explains that Ojutai himself sent a dragon to hunt him because he didn't want his skills to go to Atarka.
* Atarka asks him to tell her a story, and if she isn't satisfied, she'll eat him.
* He starts off summarizing the story of Ugin and Bolas, but she's angered by his framing. He restarts, reframing Bolas as good and noble, the dragon hunting humans as evil.
* She isn't satisfied by the summary, desiring a story of battle.
* Tae Jin starts off telling the story of the fall of the clans, but instead finds himself telling a story he doesn't know.
* After Ugin's mysterious disappearance, Bolas ruled a human society for generations and generations. The borders remained peaceful, unintentionally guarded by Palladia-Mors, but one day, Vaevictis Asmadi is able is drive her off and some of his dragon followers attack Bolas's kingdom.
* Bolas has cultivated the dragon hunting skills of his kingdom, along with its magic, and uses them to kill most of the invading dragons. One escapes, and Bolas chases after him with his army.
* It's a long journey to Vaevictis Asmadi's base, and some soldiers complain of hunger. Bolas eats them.
* They encounter Vaevictis Asmadi himself, along with three dragon brothers. Vaevictis holds the body of the dragon that fled in his claws, and crushes an entire company of Bolas's army by tossing it on them. He tells Bolas to run away.
* Bolas fights back instead. Much of his army is slaughtered in the process, but he is able to kill two of the dragons. Even the methods used to kill the dragons end up killing many of the humans.
* The last brother, Lividus, is the size of Vaevictis and is more resistant to the army's attacks. Bolas had assumed his mind control didn't work on dragons, from how ineffective it was against the other elders, but it proves useful against Lividus.
* Lividus attacks Vaevictis, and Bolas uses this distraction to retreat. He kills everyone in his army so they can't spread word that there are stronger dragons than him.
* Instead of heading back to his kingdom, Bolas goes to the family of the three brothers and tells them of Vaevictis Asmadi's betrayal. They are convinced with surprising ease.
* Dragons from across the sea come in search for food, and end up escalating the conflict. This war between dragons grows to the point that Chromium Rhuell decides to go into hiding.
* Even Arcades Sabboth joins in, convinced by Bolas that his peaceful society will be attacked if he doesn't strike first.
* This war raged on for eons. Bolas keeps his word to Ugin that there would only be one law for all beings.
* Atarka is satisfied, identifying the one law as eat or be eaten. She lets Tae Jin live and flies off.
* Tae Jin is confused about where the story came from, and has a headache.
* Yasova considers this ominous, but whatever the source, they must get to Ugin's tomb. First, they take the time to honor the death of the ainok that Atarka killed. Then they move on.
Chronicles of Bolas: Blood and Fire
Kate Elliott
In a desperate attempt to assuage Atarka's anger, the hunting band plies her with the tale of an ancient war . . . between dragons.
* They leave the cave, leaving the scavenged dragon guts behind in a cold river, which will keep it from going bad for a long time.
* Naiva talks to Fec, an old orc who used to be part of Kolaghan's clan, but Naiva doesn't understand why Yasova let him into theirs.
* Atarka tracks down Yasova and the others, as revenge for the death of one of her broodlings. She kills an ainok with them.
* Yasova claims her dragon was killed by one of Ojutai's, and they have prepared the Ojutai dragon for her to eat. She follows them to it and starts eating.
* While eating, she spots Tae Jin and asks about him. Yasova explains he's a good warrior and wanted to join the Atarka clan, but Atarka is still suspicious. Yasova explains that Ojutai himself sent a dragon to hunt him because he didn't want his skills to go to Atarka.
* Atarka asks him to tell her a story, and if she isn't satisfied, she'll eat him.
* He starts off summarizing the story of Ugin and Bolas, but she's angered by his framing. He restarts, reframing Bolas as good and noble, the dragon hunting humans as evil.
* She isn't satisfied by the summary, desiring a story of battle.
* Tae Jin starts off telling the story of the fall of the clans, but instead finds himself telling a story he doesn't know.
* After Ugin's mysterious disappearance, Bolas ruled a human society for generations and generations. The borders remained peaceful, unintentionally guarded by Palladia-Mors, but one day, Vaevictis Asmadi is able is drive her off and some of his dragon followers attack Bolas's kingdom.
* Bolas has cultivated the dragon hunting skills of his kingdom, along with its magic, and uses them to kill most of the invading dragons. One escapes, and Bolas chases after him with his army.
* It's a long journey to Vaevictis Asmadi's base, and some soldiers complain of hunger. Bolas eats them.
* They encounter Vaevictis Asmadi himself, along with three dragon brothers. Vaevictis holds the body of the dragon that fled in his claws, and crushes an entire company of Bolas's army by tossing it on them. He tells Bolas to run away.
* Bolas fights back instead. Much of his army is slaughtered in the process, but he is able to kill two of the dragons. Even the methods used to kill the dragons end up killing many of the humans.
* The last brother, Lividus, is the size of Vaevictis and is more resistant to the army's attacks. Bolas had assumed his mind control didn't work on dragons, from how ineffective it was against the other elders, but it proves useful against Lividus.
* Lividus attacks Vaevictis, and Bolas uses this distraction to retreat. He kills everyone in his army so they can't spread word that there are stronger dragons than him.
* Instead of heading back to his kingdom, Bolas goes to the family of the three brothers and tells them of Vaevictis Asmadi's betrayal. They are convinced with surprising ease.
* Dragons from across the sea come in search for food, and end up escalating the conflict. This war between dragons grows to the point that Chromium Rhuell decides to go into hiding.
* Even Arcades Sabboth joins in, convinced by Bolas that his peaceful society will be attacked if he doesn't strike first.
* This war raged on for eons. Bolas keeps his word to Ugin that there would only be one law for all beings.
* Atarka is satisfied, identifying the one law as eat or be eaten. She lets Tae Jin live and flies off.
* Tae Jin is confused about where the story came from, and has a headache.
* Yasova considers this ominous, but whatever the source, they must get to Ugin's tomb. First, they take the time to honor the death of the ainok that Atarka killed. Then they move on.
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I was very down on the first chapter of this story block, but I've really come around on it. Having one author for the entire thing has really been utilized in a proper way that puts the modern storytelling efforts of magic to shame. It's continuous and compelling in a way that you're just not going to get with multiple authors.
MTGA isn't so bad when you file SO many bug reports about how the game crashes and forces you to lose a competitive draft because it wont let you rejoin, and then the game thinks you need a 60 card deck for a draft and auto-concedes you when you don't, that they refund you all your gems and then give extra ones for your trouble.
The client is still way too buggy (every so often I lose the ability to drag/reorder cards, making it impossible to, say, scry), but admittedly it's a nicer "looking" game than MTGO ever was.
I will miss things like Momir Basic though.
The client is still way too buggy (every so often I lose the ability to drag/reorder cards, making it impossible to, say, scry), but admittedly it's a nicer "looking" game than MTGO ever was.
I will miss things like Momir Basic though.
Alright, my buddy convinced me to keep playing Modern so I spent the past two days on Gatherer figuring out how to rebuild my Suicide Black deck. Found a bunch of cool stuff and ordered some playsets, only expensive cards are the Death's Shadow set. I would love to include Phyrexian Obliterators as symbolic replacements for my old Phyrexian Negators but looooool at paying $60+ for a playset. Nothing over 3 CMC YEAH BABY
Good thing Arena is around because I crashed an electric scooter and was knocked out for 5 minutes. My whole face is destroyed and I'm missing all my teeth. But hey I got Yawgmoth's Vile Offering!
Damn dude.
I have two dental implants thanks to smashing my face on a gym floor, but never anything that traumatic. Hope you come out of it good.
Did a draft tonight and split the final winnings. Did a G/W deck and my first pull from my first two packs were a Resplendent Angel and Vivien Reid. Then pulled a Scapeshift and Omniscience from my winnings.
So it looks like my local shop alternates between draft and brawl for FNM (at least according to their event board). I'm an idiot and bought a fat pack so I could have a bit of a basis to start a brawl deck that I guess I could build on with cards from draft.
I pulled Tezzeret in my first pack of Magic in 8 years, so that was cool. The rest was nothing of value, haha.
I pulled Tezzeret in my first pack of Magic in 8 years, so that was cool. The rest was nothing of value, haha.
OP
OP
M-Files: M19 Edition – Red, Green, Gold, and Artifacts
* Thud was included because new players get really excited when they discover they can sacrifice a creature they took with Act of Treason. Fling wasn't used because they didn't want the "sacrifice in response to a spell" thing to come up.
* Thud was literally called Flang for a while. It was only changed due to potential confusion.
* With Apex of Power, it seems like they did have story spotlight cards at some point. Not mentioned in the article, but they didn't label the spotlight cards this time because they wanted to use those only for things happening in "the present".
* Apex of Power went through many changes to prevent it from chaining into itself.
* They wanted to give Tormenting Voice a new name, because it's often an odd flavor fit, but then this became a Bolas set. We can probably expect a functional reprint soon.
* Tormenting Voice is considered the strongest filtering red should get, but it should still have it most of the time.
* Many people still aren't sold on Sparktongue Dragon as a common, but it was needed for the dragon subtheme.
* They were already using Dragon Egg, and it felt strange for the token produced by that to be a different size than Dragon Hatchling, which is why they didn't use that.
* Dryad Greenseeker was jokingly called Sindgood and Sindgreat.
* When asked if Pelakka Wurm was an A+ Limited card (the highest value for an uncommon) or a "Moti" (Mahamoti Djinn, the original Limited bomb), everyone instantly replied the latter. Thus, it became rare.
* Ethan Fleischer tells the story of a fan angry about the rarity shift who proceeds to get crushed by their piles of uncommon Pelakka Wurm cards.
* Nicol Bolas, the Ravager went through many changes to make it more appealing to transform him, until they realized making the back planeswalker good was enough.
* With artifacts that sacrifice to destroy a permanent, they usually lead to board stalls as the opponent won't cast their big creatures. Thus, Meteor Golem destroys when it enters the battlefield.
* Transmogrifying Wand started with an ox, went through many creature types, then went back to ox. It originally had the flavor text, "Into the pasture with you."
* Thud was included because new players get really excited when they discover they can sacrifice a creature they took with Act of Treason. Fling wasn't used because they didn't want the "sacrifice in response to a spell" thing to come up.
* Thud was literally called Flang for a while. It was only changed due to potential confusion.
* With Apex of Power, it seems like they did have story spotlight cards at some point. Not mentioned in the article, but they didn't label the spotlight cards this time because they wanted to use those only for things happening in "the present".
* Apex of Power went through many changes to prevent it from chaining into itself.
* They wanted to give Tormenting Voice a new name, because it's often an odd flavor fit, but then this became a Bolas set. We can probably expect a functional reprint soon.
* Tormenting Voice is considered the strongest filtering red should get, but it should still have it most of the time.
* Many people still aren't sold on Sparktongue Dragon as a common, but it was needed for the dragon subtheme.
* They were already using Dragon Egg, and it felt strange for the token produced by that to be a different size than Dragon Hatchling, which is why they didn't use that.
* Dryad Greenseeker was jokingly called Sindgood and Sindgreat.
* When asked if Pelakka Wurm was an A+ Limited card (the highest value for an uncommon) or a "Moti" (Mahamoti Djinn, the original Limited bomb), everyone instantly replied the latter. Thus, it became rare.
* Ethan Fleischer tells the story of a fan angry about the rarity shift who proceeds to get crushed by their piles of uncommon Pelakka Wurm cards.
* Nicol Bolas, the Ravager went through many changes to make it more appealing to transform him, until they realized making the back planeswalker good was enough.
* With artifacts that sacrifice to destroy a permanent, they usually lead to board stalls as the opponent won't cast their big creatures. Thus, Meteor Golem destroys when it enters the battlefield.
* Transmogrifying Wand started with an ox, went through many creature types, then went back to ox. It originally had the flavor text, "Into the pasture with you."
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That feeling when you can't lose
that feeling when you play turn 3 lich off fountain of renewal g1 r1 and your opponent plays reclamation sage
Wizards basically decided to take the gloves off with regards to 1v1 Modern- they nuked Partner, but they unbanned 25 cards
Arena stress test in 10 min, M19 quick draft at half price
It's not a great format but less annoying than AER for sure
It's not a great format but less annoying than AER for sure
FNM was pretty chill at the local store my friend told me to go to. About a dozen or so people. Apparently there's a pretty cut-throat store nearby that has a lot more people, but I don't have the card pool to stand a chance over there at all.
It was Brawl night (they switch between Brawl and Draft every other week) and someone leant me a deck to play. I played against some kids, which was good, because I was still learning everything again. Tons of people threw a bunch of in-color bulk rares at me once I had a bit of an idea for a deck and told me to come back with a list and they'd see what they could do in terms of trading/selling me what I needed.
Really good experience.
Also, as a newbie, Brawl is a pretty great format, as I only need to grab one of the cards I need and the disparity between not having a bunch of expensive staples isn't as big as it is for EDH.
It was Brawl night (they switch between Brawl and Draft every other week) and someone leant me a deck to play. I played against some kids, which was good, because I was still learning everything again. Tons of people threw a bunch of in-color bulk rares at me once I had a bit of an idea for a deck and told me to come back with a list and they'd see what they could do in terms of trading/selling me what I needed.
Really good experience.
Also, as a newbie, Brawl is a pretty great format, as I only need to grab one of the cards I need and the disparity between not having a bunch of expensive staples isn't as big as it is for EDH.
Played a few Arena quick drafts for a quiet night - it's my first time playing since drafts were implemented, actually. The UI and everything has improved a lot. Still not quite at 100%, but better. With some more polish I can definitely see it being something I do on a regular basis, and it's honestly really affordable, since I'm not really planning on making a constructed deck.
OP
OP
Mild shock, the Guilds of Ravnica prerelease will bring back guild packs.
That's because there's a different Prerelease Pack for each of the five guilds featured in Guilds of Ravnica—Boros, Selesnya, Izzet, Golgari, and Dimir—and we want to give players the best chance of getting their preferred guild. So every increment of twenty will have four copies of each guild's pack.
That's because there's a different Prerelease Pack for each of the five guilds featured in Guilds of Ravnica—Boros, Selesnya, Izzet, Golgari, and Dimir—and we want to give players the best chance of getting their preferred guild. So every increment of twenty will have four copies of each guild's pack.
Is this the "pick your theme to build your sealed pool around with some seeded cards" kinda thing? I don't think I was playing during any of the prereleases that did that.
OP
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In the past, themed prerelease packs had four normal booster packs and then one special pack that only has cards with that theme. If you chose a Boros prerelease pack, the special pack would only have Boros cards. Your promo card would also be tied to that theme.
And I assume everyone looks at the spoilers and all try to grab one specific one because it has the best cards?
OP
OP
That's generally how it goes, yes. Many stores just give out the prerelease packs at random to prevent this.
They have also shown that they have are willing to mess with the collation and card distribution so they could do something like a guild slot in the packs like they did with legendaries in Dominaria.
Uh, the biggest news in that, IMO, is that Wizards is ending it's direct distribution system- stores will need to get boxes from other distributors now, probably at a higher price than direct
It's a cost increase to stores with no MSRP increase
ACD and a lot of other distributors would match Wizards Direct pricing for prerelease in the past, though they may stop now that they don't have the competition. Diamond has always been terrible and I'm sure they will continue to be. It's never been confirmed, but it's pretty well-known that Diamond are the ones that lobbied to prevent distributors from being able to throw in extra prize support to stores for prerelease, since every distributor except for them would do it.
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