It's not a real mechanic if it's not keyworded...Originally Posted by (nameless one)
Pfft, reanimating the old Eldrazi is easy anyway...
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
Well sure, but it isn't a keyword! It has to be like....
Espin, Seeker of Ain-Gav
Legendary Creature - Wurm Soldier
Vigilance, Haste
Espin, Seeker of Ain-Gav can't be blocked.
Balanced (If Espin would enter the battlefield, if it wasn't cast, exile it instead.)
12/12
Wasn't Phage the Untouchable the original "Play fair, damnit!" card?
@TsumiBand: Don't you mean Megabalanced?
The rate at my LGS was approximately one per 20 players. That works out to being roughly one Expedition per four booster boxes (really, one per 3.33 boxes), so you're looking at almost two Expeditions per case on average.
There's going to be more of these out there than people initially thought, it seems. If you open one and don't want it, get rid of it stat.
Megabalanced (You may not use mana produced from islands to cast this card)Wasn't Phage the Untouchable the original "Play fair, damnit!" card?
@TsumiBand: Don't you mean Megabalanced?
This sounds like a Jeff Hoogland mechanic.
Well people always complain about low power-level sets, but you might say you really hit rock bottom when apart from a few niche sideboard cards there are basically 3 cards from Battle for Zendikar that see competitive play in a standard PT and SCG Open (Battle lands, Gideon and Dragonmaster Outcast).
I wonder if the shittiness of the set is actually going to impact sales despite the expedition stunt they have pulled.
While Wizards definitely dun goofed, I'm not sure I'm willing to place all the blame at the feet of BFZ's power level. It's following on the heels of a multi-color block and we all know how much WotC loves to push the power level over the curve for Gold spells. The logic is generally sound; casting Gold spells is harder so they are deservedly more powerful. But when you make manabases as solid as they are now in current Standard...well, that all goes out the window. What sort of cards can they print in what is ostensibly a mono-color block that can match up with cards like:
Anafenza, the Foremost
Crackling Doom
Abzan Charm
Jeskai Charm
Siege Rhino
Mantis Rider
Savage Knuckleblade
Rakshasa Deathdealer
Kolaghan's Command (and the rest of the cycle)
Utter End
Sure, there are powerful mono-color cards, but they're in the minority and there's little reason to not go into 3-4 colors to take advantage of the best cards in the format, many of them Khans-block goodies in Gold. The lack of strong, synergy-based (linear) decks is probably an artifact of BFZ pushing out an entire block's worth of cards with the rotation and furthers the "just play the best goodstuff" strategy.
I wonder if this set is a victim of the new Standard rotation policy or a lack of forethought about it. Normally they tend to "balance out" a multicolor block with some mechanics to encourage monocolor in the next (e.g. "strong" non-basic hate in Zendikar*, Devotion in Theros), but maybe the shakeup impeded this. Then again, Wizards really isn't all that great at balancing Standard no matter what, so I dunno.
*Yeah, not to us Legacy grognards, but TecEdge and Goblin Ruinblaster did some work in Standard.
I can guarantee that this same question was asked and answered by hasbro long ago. Whether they were correct or not is a different story, but they asked it for sure. I wonder if the lands were included as an after thought because someone in management said "ya know, this set really sucks ass," or if they thought from the beginning, "we need a set that sux because cards have been too powerful lately." Either way, it is apparently hard to get every set right.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
I have no doubt BFZ will be the best selling set ever by the time it's done and until the next large set.
All I can say is that the last time R&D deliberately ratcheted down the power level of Standard, we got the Valakut/Caw-Blade year, and assurances that Despise and Hex Parasite would "fix it".
This set has sold like hotcakes locally. People are stoked about Expeditions and big stompy monsters.
So loto tickets are the reason the set is selling? It's like going to the newsagent only your heading to the LGS.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
Never underestimate the allure or reach of the MTG financials crowd. Most people who show up to an LGS on a regular or semi-regular business are going to have some level of awareness of the financial value of cards, the EV of a booster pack or box, and the best ways to make money off of cards for various levels of their own work. Most players looking to buy singles will have had a run-in with the dreaded, "That card is worth how much?!" even if they're not up to speed with the wider world of Magic pricing. Players preordered cases from my LGS explicitly to open and then flip expeditions. They knew they likely wouldn't profit off the expeditions alone but the assumption was they could come out ahead by selling that Standard playables and bulking/buylisting the rest. Players bought fat packs from us at above MSRP because they wanted the lands and the boosters. We almost sold out of our allocation of Event Decks before the set even released because people wanted Hangarback Walker. There's been a lot of hype for the set but also a lot of people looking to get rid of the valuable rares and mythics ASAP.
So yes, it's lotto tickets. People don't buy packs because they're coldly calculating the odds of making their money back; their odds are shit. They're buying packs because, on some level, to a greater or lesser degree, they want to gamble on opening a pack.
While the set may be weak for constructed, limited is really fun. I was very critical when the set was originally spoiled, but after doing a bunch of drafts my mind has changed.
There were a lot of knee-jerk reactions to preorder boxes/cases (expecially cases, with the assumed odds of "one per case"). I don't have statistics or know where to get them, but this is probably one of the most preordered sets of all time. After the prerelease and Expeditions turned out to be more common than expected, I'm sure it turned away some people who were waiting to buy a box at release, but the damage was done. But then you also have the fact that after the prerelease, Expeditions ended up being about 2-3 per case, and people who were holding out see that their chances are better and they look to buy more packs for that reason. Not to mention stores likely opening more product than usual to increase the chance of cracking Expeditions to sell on release weekend.
As for me, I got the hint to stay far, far away from packs for this reason. I don't have enough money to negate the huge variance ($400 Scalding Tarn vs. no Expedition/Gideon), so buying a box or two was dumb and I knew it. The only sealed product I bought that wasn't a Limited pack or prize was a fat pack at MSRP from Wal-Mart, only because of the extra lands.
I still don't get the appeal of Expeditions.
Yes, they're rare, but that's about it - the frame is ugly as sin and the art on many cards is pants-on-head retarded.
Chase rares and chaff. Corporate is probably happy.
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