All 10 Shocklands reprinted in Dragon's Maze ... again!

[Lemnear]

From the Mothership:

All Ten Guilds

When you walk in to a Dragon's Maze Prerelease, you'll get to select your favorite guild from among all of the ten guilds of Ravnica! That guild pack will have a secret allied guild, which will share one color with your chosen guild, and also always be from the opposite set as your chosen guild.

So let’s look at an example: You’re a Dimir player, so that’s the guild you pick. That guild pack might have Return to Ravnica's Azorius as its secret ally (although it could also be Izzet, Rakdos, or Golgari). That guild pack would have four Dragon's Maze booster packs, one Gatecrash Dimir guild Prerelease pack, and one Return to Ravnica Azorius guild Prerelease pack. The two guild packs will be the same as they were in their original Prerelease, but will not have that set's Prerelease promo for those guilds. The guild Prerelease packs will contain the Dragon’s Maze Prerelease promo but not a Spindown life counter, sticker, or guild welcome letter.


One Prerelease Card

Everyone who plays in a Dragon's Maze Prerelease will get the same alternate-art promo foil card, while supplies last. This card will not be playable in your Prerelease deck.

No Basic Land in Booster Packs

Wait... that sounds kind of negative. Let's rephrase it.

Dragon's Maze Booster Packs All Contain Nonbasic Lands

That's better! The fifteenth card in all Dragon's Maze packs isn't basic land; it's nonbasic land. All ten guildgates will be showing up (with the Dragon's Maze expansion symbol), as will all ten shocklands from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash (with their Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash symbols). You are about half as likely to open a shockland in Dragon's Maze as in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash and, since this is for all ten shocklands rather than five, that means you are about a quarter as likely to open a specific one. There's also a mythic rare land from Dragon's Maze that will show up there sometimes!

The Maze

There's also a maze! Players (that's you) will work collectively to advance their chosen guild through the Implicit Maze each round. There are prizes for each guild that gets all the way through the maze, and special prizes for the first guild that does it. And when the maze is completed, all participating players will receive a premium (foil) basic land promo card!

[xfxf]

New keyword: Shitloads?

[Dan Turner]

They are really pushing modern, even going as far as taking what were money cards and printing the crap out of them to make sure every one has the mana base they need. I could see this helping legacy as well since shocks may not be as good as duals but you can compete on an almost equal level with shocks as you can duals.

[Lemnear]

They are really pushing modern, even going as far as taking what were money cards and printing the crap out of them to make sure every one has the mana base they need. I could see this helping legacy as well since shocks may not be as good as duals but you can compete on an almost equal level with shocks as you can duals.

You can't Play Control or Combo with shocks in Legacy, first. Second, as long as duals are only 1% better than an "almost identical reprint", peeps will continue to cry for a reprint for the "superior" card

[JDK]

I didn't catch the intention of this thread.

[Lord Seth]

They are really pushing modern, even going as far as taking what were money cards and printing the crap out of them to make sure every one has the mana base they need.

I don't really think that's the main reason. I think the main reason is pretty simple: The shocks are really in demand. They put half of them in Return to Ravnica and half of them in Gatecrash. This makes those sets popular because you can get shocklands out of them. The shocklands might not be worth as much as some other cards, but what's great about them is there's five of them and they're regular old rares. Thundermaw Hellkite is (I believe) the most expensive card in Standard, but it doesn't increase the "value" of a M13 booster that much because it's a mythic rare so there's a much lower chance of getting it.

The shocklands are a big draw, and if Dragon's Maze doesn't have them, then people are going to be less interested in it because they can get Gatecrash or Return to Ravnica and have a shot at getting them. But if they put them in Dragon's Maze, then people are going to be attracted to Dragon's Maze boosters for the same reason, the shot at getting a shockland. If I was out for shocklands, or really just a good chance of a money rare (rare, not mythic rare, which as I stated contribute less "worth" to the pack due to their mythic status), I'd be going for Gatecrash for Return to Ravnica and not be as interested in Dragon's Maze. But if Dragon's Maze has the shocklands, then suddenly people will be equally attracted to it as Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash.

You can't Play Control or Combo with shocks in Legacy, first. Second, as long as duals are only 1% better than an "almost identical reprint", peeps will continue to cry for a reprint for the "superior" card

Why can't you play Control or Combo with shocklands in Legacy? I'm not really seeing the issue. Or rather, I'm not seeing why you "can't" play control or combo with shocklands any more than you "can't" play anything in Legacy with shocklands.

The thing about shocklands is that generally speaking, they won't make a difference in the winner of a game. Oh, they weaken your deck, certainly, you have to choose between 2 damage, tempo loss, or just getting a basic land instead (though considering Wasteland, picking the last option is decent a lot of time even when you do have regular dual lands). The thing is, I'd say that probably only will make you lose 5-10% of the games you would have won otherwise. So you really are competing at an "almost" equal level.

This does become a real problem in larger events, though. If you're going 6+ rounds, you're going to almost certainly be losing at least one match due to them that you wouldn't have otherwise, which is a real problem. Though if you're playing at 4-round local tournaments, it's much less of a problem.

I actually play with a shockland in my UR Stiflenought deck because I only have one Volcanic Island, though playing with just one dual land actually does really help out because it means you have a disadvantage-less (Wasteland aside) dual land to fetch out if you need one, with the Steam Vents being just a backup.

[Lemnear]

Try playing an Ad Nauseam.dec or Doomsday.dec and convince me it doesn't make the decks unplayable to Switch to shocks. Face UR/RUG/Burn with a shockland UWx Control deck and explain me how you won't loose a Turn earlier than with duals.

You can compensate 1-2 duals with shocks or even run with full shock-base in aggressive 2-colored-decks. You maybe can even manage to make a naya Zoo work with them in Legacy. You just can't play those in Decks that use Life as a resource or need it as a buffer to gain control.


@H3llsp4wn
This thread was created for pure information for the modern crowd. There was no Intention to discuss Legacy here from the Start :/

[csy]

Shocks will only be viable in legacy if every real dual land burned. Even then Id rather fetch a basic than take 2

[Phoenix Ignition]

Hey guys, this is the Modern Forum. Stop it.

No seriously, go away. Modern "Format Discussion" boards aren't about whiney Legacy players complaining about the format, it's about progression of the format itself.

[SpikeyMikey]

The Mythic land they're printing seems terrible. It's a worse version of Thawing Glaciers. Granted, Standard and Modern don't currently have Thawing Glaciers available, but I can't see a search land that only gets EtB tapped lands being useful for, well, any format outside of maybe block constructed.