Hour of Devastation [HOU]

[Darkenslight]

DOOMSDAY INVOCATION.

That is all.

[bruizar]

Sweet art, but they're really running out of iconic cards to reprint.

I do wonder how much more it costs to do Masterpiece art compared to normal art. They obviously put way more effort into Masterpiece art looking really good.

ixalan will not have masterpieces for this reason

[(nameless one)]

DOOMSDAY INVOCATION.

That is all.

I wish they would use that art in a normal frame card.

[Ronald Deuce]

Blood Moon. It depicts a sun. Not a moon. But it's called Blood Moon.

Perfect.

EDIT: Bruizar, I find myself wondering whether they're not going to have any because they whiffed so hard on the ones for Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation.

If they put them in, I bet they'd all be Legendary Pirates, only instead of a special foiling process, they'd all be stained with spilled Colt 45 from R&D's meetings.

[Barook]

Blood Moon. It depicts a sun. Not a moon. But it's called Blood Moon.

Perfect.

Alot of the invocation arts in this sets don't make alot of sense when you compare the art to the card name they're depicting.

[Aggro_zombies]

They already confirmed there aren't Masterpieces in Ixalan.

To be honest, the Masterpiece idea is cute, but grossly unsustainable. Even if you had access to Reserved List cards, most of them aren't valuable enough or played often enough to make them attractive as collector's items (which is what the Masterpieces are). The various Masters sets have mined out a lot of the valuable, scarce cards in Modern, and Masters 25 or whatever it's called will probably hit a lot of the outstanding valuable, non-RL cards in Legacy (like Port). The fact that the Masterpieces in AHK and HOU are so all over the map is a sign that it's hard to choose cards that fit a theme but are also valuable as collectibles.

[Barook]

Could you have guessed the card based on the art alone?

But I do like the Terminator/Necron look of Bolas' zombie army. Considering he also got the Planar Bridge technology stolen from Kaladesh, he's probably waging war on the Multiverse now with his brand new army.

[bruizar]

They already confirmed there aren't Masterpieces in Ixalan.

To be honest, the Masterpiece idea is cute, but grossly unsustainable. Even if you had access to Reserved List cards, most of them aren't valuable enough or played often enough to make them attractive as collector's items (which is what the Masterpieces are). The various Masters sets have mined out a lot of the valuable, scarce cards in Modern, and Masters 25 or whatever it's called will probably hit a lot of the outstanding valuable, non-RL cards in Legacy (like Port). The fact that the Masterpieces in AHK and HOU are so all over the map is a sign that it's hard to choose cards that fit a theme but are also valuable as collectibles.

We dont even care about the valuable cards as masterpieces because we already own the original foils. What they should have done is give a shooting star foiling / old layout on cards like Fatal Push, Gitaxian Probe, Small Pox, Gurmag Angler, Young Pyromancer, Toxic Deluge, Forked Bolt, Ponder, Abrupt Decay, Kolaghan's Command, etcetera etcetera. That would have made them much more collectible for eternal players, who so happen to have all the moneyz

[Ronald Deuce]

We dont even care about the valuable cards as masterpieces because we already own the original foils. What they should have done is give a shooting star foiling / old layout on cards like Fatal Push, Gitaxian Probe, Small Pox, Gurmag Angler, Young Pyromancer, Toxic Deluge, Forked Bolt, Ponder, Abrupt Decay, Kolaghan's Command, etcetera etcetera. That would have made them much more collectible for eternal players, who so happen to have all the moneyz

This. I'm crusty, sift through crusty tomes when I have the (rare) chance, and what got me into Magic in the first place was that the cards looked like something out of a crusty tome. I'm not everybody, and I don't claim to represent everybody, but Magic: the Comicbooking is not what I want to see more. Give me back my Sarpadian Empires.

I don't even have much money (paid for my duals in cards). But nothing about Masterpieces interests me except the potential to get more duals.

[Aggro_zombies]

We dont even care about the valuable cards as masterpieces because we already own the original foils. What they should have done is give a shooting star foiling / old layout on cards like Fatal Push, Gitaxian Probe, Small Pox, Gurmag Angler, Young Pyromancer, Toxic Deluge, Forked Bolt, Ponder, Abrupt Decay, Kolaghan's Command, etcetera etcetera. That would have made them much more collectible for eternal players, who so happen to have all the moneyz

You might not, but plenty of people do - and not just the typical Magic day traders, either. There are plenty of players who will open a Masterpiece in a pack and that will be their first copy of that card because they only play Standard, or they only draft, or they only play sometimes and only show up to play in Prereleases, or they're kids, or whatever.

For these players, opening a card that "everyone knows" is valuable, only to find out that it kind of isn't because the wider market isn't pushing a lot of demand for Masterpiece Divert or whatever, is kind of a shitty experience. It's especially shitty when someone else in your prerelease opens an actually valuable one and the delta in prices is huge. A lot of the Masterpieces for the last two sets only have value at all because of scarcity.

Eternal players might have a ton of money, but they don't spend it. The formats are so static and the expensive cards have been out of print so long that your money basically doesn't matter because you throw it around so infrequently. Standard players, EDH players, casual players...these are the players where the real money is. Making Masterpieces these guys will like is going to provide the best return on investment for Wizards.

[Koby]

Making good rares with decent artwork has better returns than printing Ms paint doodles on foil cardstock, and WotC knows it. They're simply too frugal to pay for good development of those cards because that would mean full time employees. That's a cost the company isn't willing to bear.

[ESG]

Eternal players might have a ton of money, but they don't spend it. The formats are so static and the expensive cards have been out of print so long that your money basically doesn't matter because you throw it around so infrequently.

This is false. Please visit the Pimp Legacy Decks thread or look up any Vintage or Old-School events. Money is absolutely being spent. By the truckload.

[bruizar]

You might not, but plenty of people do - and not just the typical Magic day traders, either. There are plenty of players who will open a Masterpiece in a pack and that will be their first copy of that card because they only play Standard, or they only draft, or they only play sometimes and only show up to play in Prereleases, or they're kids, or whatever.

For these players, opening a card that "everyone knows" is valuable, only to find out that it kind of isn't because the wider market isn't pushing a lot of demand for Masterpiece Divert or whatever, is kind of a shitty experience. It's especially shitty when someone else in your prerelease opens an actually valuable one and the delta in prices is huge. A lot of the Masterpieces for the last two sets only have value at all because of scarcity.

Eternal players might have a ton of money, but they don't spend it. The formats are so static and the expensive cards have been out of print so long that your money basically doesn't matter because you throw it around so infrequently. Standard players, EDH players, casual players...these are the players where the real money is. Making Masterpieces these guys will like is going to provide the best return on investment for Wizards.

Pimping is mostly reserved for eternal players and commander players. If you're going to make desirable cards, they have to cater to that crowd. I don't believe the casual crowd is the crowd you can sell 500 euro force of wills to. Sure, they might get excited by opening one, but that's not going to turn them into eternal players (because they need 3 more of them, plus a ton of other expensive cards) nor is that wizards' goal.

The eternal pimp's mantra is "Give me consistency and I will give you my money". This is in direct opposition with wizards' goals, since once a player is 'done' finishing his collection, he or she will no longer spend a lot of money. There are so many examples of WOTC not finishing cycles properly, and I suspect them doing so purposely. One example is the original Swords of X and Y. Another example is basic lands:


The other 3 are missing..

ARENA foil Ice Age basics exist, but ARENA foil Ice Age Snow-Covered basics are missing... The list goes on..


The reason why Masterpieces were received so poorly is simply because they deviated from the layout of Zendikar expeditions. Your deck just becomes an inconsistent pile if you're running invocations alongside inventions and expeditions. I've got several thousand euros in expeditions and some masterpieces, so I've got skin in the game. They pushed the limits with the invention border. I tried to like them, but they killed it with the amonkhet frame.

All cards from all master series are to be interpreted as one set. It's worth noting that there is no other set that has cards with two types of layouts except Future Sight, and there is no set that has three different types of layouts in it, let alone one that violates rules like having no black or white border around the card. (Split card/transform-variations don't count as they serve a game mechanic).

If they want to make premium versions for a specialized high revenue audience, I really don't mind the power of the card, rather the exclusivity and playability of it. Judge reward Elesh-Norn is a great example of this. The phyrexian language adds to the flavor of the card. They tried to do the same with Amonkhet, but failed at doing so because the text needed to stay readable as they commissioned new artwork. But like I said, even a Forked Bolt could get me excited if properly pimped. It's a minor card with a modern frame that does not have a high cost printing yet, it has great utility and is often reserved for specific decks or sideboards. MTG cards can't all be Snapcaster Mages, Fetchlands or Liliana of the Veils, but that doesn't mean you can't make them highly sought after.

[tescrin]

I do wonder if there are good ways to abuse this since a well-placed pump can nuke an entire hand.

Story-wise, Eternalized creatures are Bolas' Magical Terminator Zombie army.

I didn't read every post, but I mean.. equips? He has evasion which is good for equips anyway, but turning SoFaI into a 5-for-0 in a swing is.. pretty good!

[Noctalor]

They already confirmed there aren't Masterpieces in Ixalan.

To be honest, the Masterpiece idea is cute, but grossly unsustainable. Even if you had access to Reserved List cards, most of them aren't valuable enough or played often enough to make them attractive as collector's items (which is what the Masterpieces are). The various Masters sets have mined out a lot of the valuable, scarce cards in Modern, and Masters 25 or whatever it's called will probably hit a lot of the outstanding valuable, non-RL cards in Legacy (like Port). The fact that the Masterpieces in AHK and HOU are so all over the map is a sign that it's hard to choose cards that fit a theme but are also valuable as collectibles.

Nah, they just had to print a smaller number of them per set

[mistercakes]

it looks like the masterpiece cards in this set are just designed for EDH players to crack packs. do they even do that? capsize? forbid? wtf is going on. it almost feels like a bulk rare.

[Hopo]

I didn't read every post, but I mean.. equips? He has evasion which is good for equips anyway, but turning SoFaI into a 5-for-0 in a swing is.. pretty good!

That would make great Needle Specter #5 or more.

[jandax]

You might not, but plenty of people do - and not just the typical Magic day traders, either. There are plenty of players who will open a Masterpiece in a pack and that will be their first copy of that card because they only play Standard, or they only draft, or they only play sometimes and only show up to play in Prereleases, or they're kids, or whatever.

For these players, opening a card that "everyone knows" is valuable, only to find out that it kind of isn't because the wider market isn't pushing a lot of demand for Masterpiece Divert or whatever, is kind of a shitty experience. It's especially shitty when someone else in your prerelease opens an actually valuable one and the delta in prices is huge. A lot of the Masterpieces for the last two sets only have value at all because of scarcity.

Eternal players might have a ton of money, but they don't spend it. The formats are so static and the expensive cards have been out of print so long that your money basically doesn't matter because you throw it around so infrequently. Standard players, EDH players, casual players...these are the players where the real money is. Making Masterpieces these guys will like is going to provide the best return on investment for Wizards.

There is the rub. In order for us ( the eternal players) to have a our game, we NEED all those standard and limited kids coming into the game. That keeps wotc in business. There's no real right for us to gripe that they don't throw us a bone often enough. Not saying you or anyone was complaining here and now, in a meta sense we're just making the best of the game we love, standard players and eternal players alike

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[Claymore]

Thoughtseize invocation is pretty good too.

[Cire]

I'm disappointed that eternalize wasn't indestructible embalm like people were guessing :/ - but yeah - it's boring.

That said - I'm loving the defeat cards - glad the Gatewatch has actually lost after winning everything.

And finally:

Dwane, "the Rock" Johnson the card:

The Scorpion God 3BR
Legendary Creature - God
Whenever a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, draw a card.
1BR: Put a -1/-1 counter on another target creature.
When The Scorpion God dies, return it to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.
6/5