Theft has gotten way way waaaaaaaay out a hand over these past couple of weeks and twitter seems to be getting a lot of people talking in circles. This is never going to go away, magic cards cost way to much money, most standard decks are the equivalent to a car payment and legacy...actual cars. Imagine a room full of 20-30 year old males, over 90% of them are overweight and out of shape, they all carry books and boxes of card board estimating anywhere from 800-1500 dollars on average, when there is security they man the front door, the halls outside, and they armed with a walkie talkie and can't physically do anything. But it gets better, you don't have to walk down to the pawn shop or swindle people out of the back of your car, there are people in the building that pay cash for this cardboard without having to check id and no documentation. This is candy land for any thief.
I just want to make it clear that things have been taken into consideration, long before any of this the head judge does take time during announcements to address taking care of your belongings, something along the lines of "watch your shit, don't let your buddies watch your shit, they aren't going to treat it like it's their shit", I'm not sure if I'm actually quoting or paraphrasing but you get the idea. But what more do you want than that, it's not the judges job to act as security, they aren't your mother.
So what do we, the players do. There is the obvious, maintaining your belongings under you, putting your chair leg through your back pack strap. There's also the easiest, carry nothing other than your deck strategy, which works if you don't like trading or making money from the vendors.
What to consider:
1. Your bag itself, do all the zippers work? Are there any holes or tearing? This isn't your school books, these are your magic cards, it's money, if your bag isn't in great condition, buy another one.
2. Weight, are your belongings so heavy that you can't comfortably carry them around for 8-10 hours, your probably one of those people that trust your friends casually playing between rounds to watch your stuff, consider some, possibly all of it gone. That extra couple of decks for casual play maybe your clothes and hygiene products, leave it in the room, lighten the load.
3. Size, if it cant fit into a bathroom stall with you, you should of bought vendor space, you need to be able to properly watch your bag under your own power.
4. Deck boxes, the perfect thing to pocket, if you have several of these things your asking for it, keep it simple, what you need, everything else needs to be under lock and key and attached to you or not on the floor.
5. While trading, watch your books, if your belongs make you to stationary your going to have problems moving while your partners buddy shows up and it slowly moves further and further from you.
6. Restrooms, use the ones closest to the floor or the ones on the floor, many events are held at convention centers and I know the line can get long sometimes, but if your not capable of fending off several people maybe it's best you stay with the herd.
Simple stuff no one really takes into consideration, you may not be watching your stuff every second, they are.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Asphyxiating Blast
Over the weekend this received a lot of attention. And based on the rationality of this doesn't matched the already confirmed names of Avacyn Restored's pre-release and buy a box card, even though the release and game day cards easily fall under "promo", was quickly discarded as fake. But what if it's not. What if WotC understands that it has to properly address what's wrong with legacy. FoW isn't on the RL I do understand that, which is why the discussion of it being reprinted is very common as it obviously feels mythic, which is why the uncommon fetches a $50+ price tag. But FoW can't be reprinted, because it's just to good, dramatically unbalancing blue for the next 2 years is the only way to properly justify a reprint in a non promotional print. So ideally we would need a "fixed" version, an almost neutered version to help usher in the next generation of legacy players, if WotC does in fact want to preserve the format. Id go as far as to say that this would ultimately allow WotC to ban FoW, maintaining a necessary evil that must exist as there are way to many combo decks that would easily be a repeat of combo winter times one thousand.
The argument "WotC learned it's mistake from misstep" argument is heavily flawed. Now the source really didn't state how they came into contact with this information it could very well be a poor translation. Now what if it read like this:
Asphyxiating Blast
1UU
instant
You may pay 2 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay Asphyxiating Blast's mana cost. Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or less.
Now from a standard players view point this is a 2 for 1 for the first couple of turns of play and as the game progresses it becomes a narrow cancel. It's good, feels mythic, yet isn't overpowered. But it would still be quickly banned in modern, that list isn't long enough yet and is dictated by twitter.
The argument "WotC learned it's mistake from misstep" argument is heavily flawed. Now the source really didn't state how they came into contact with this information it could very well be a poor translation. Now what if it read like this:
Asphyxiating Blast
1UU
instant
You may pay 2 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay Asphyxiating Blast's mana cost. Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or less.
Now from a standard players view point this is a 2 for 1 for the first couple of turns of play and as the game progresses it becomes a narrow cancel. It's good, feels mythic, yet isn't overpowered. But it would still be quickly banned in modern, that list isn't long enough yet and is dictated by twitter.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
GPSD: Swept under the table.
So were all done talking about worlds right, right? No seriously I can't put this off much longer.
If you ever gone to any large event for limited, whether it be like a ptq or a gp, you have to fill out a listing for your pool. And not just your pool but someone else's pool, the process is much faster, and it's supposed to prevent cheating...SUPPOSED TO. The process for those of you who don't know goes as followed, seating goes up and 1000+ unshowered fat guys dry hump stickly looking men as the try to quickly tape paper to poorly supported banners of awful cards no one plays. The cows find their seats and are given the product, in this case 6 packs. The cattle is supervised by the head judge to ensure everything is recorded and accounted for, all the while the largest of cows, like Cedric Philips get to yammer on some muffled nonsense unscathed like the tournament floor is his local movie theater, because hey he's Cedric Philips he's fucking special right? After that's settled the mouth breathers exchange lists and start shouting at fanboy judges to get their "not opponents" in trouble for things that they are suppose to correct themselves, like their inability to keep everything in alphabetical order, marking 6-7 slots incorrectly, and the brain damage, well some things obviously can't be corrected. Sip up that coffee porky because counting is obviously hard and you need to know how to start at 20 and go backwards 3 or 4 times until you go home and do whatever it is you do when I don't have to look at you. Anyways...after it's checked for the SECOND time, players begin playing oh please let this be my deck as they are instructed to exchange pools multiple times like Catholics shaking hands on sunday mass, I'd rather touch the homeless people there over a mass majority of you *coughajcough*. Once you have your pool you yourself then check and report anything that might of been missed by bessy and his inbred cousin sitting across from him and deck construction begins.
Now that we got that outta the way, I have a question for the class. What happens when something is discovered incorrectly later on in the day? Well according to the poor girl sitting next to me round 3 it meant a game loss. What if it was something more severe though, like having a 7th pack in your pool. And lets say it went unnoticed until after round 7, and this individual was x-1, and not once considered "hey I seem to have a lot of rares". Let me tell you what happened...absolutely nothing, nothing was done. Sure the pool was "corrected", an equivalent to the contents of one booster was removed and then given back to the player to rebuild. 6 players that day lost their chance at day 2 because of this, zero punishment, 0, none, nada, it was deemed that he just didn't know. He got away with it because he was just to dumb to count, the DCI has apparently adopted no child left behind during a Grand Prix.
I'm sure the Judge's position can be argued but it still doesn't change the fact that 6 people who took time, money, and energy to compete were all cheated because all 4 people that directly handled this pool couldn't count. And what's to prevent someone for deliberately adding extra cards during registration, to cause these sort of problems, because it looks to me like I could get away with something like that if I really wanted to.
Sometimes I wonder where my tax money really goes.
If you ever gone to any large event for limited, whether it be like a ptq or a gp, you have to fill out a listing for your pool. And not just your pool but someone else's pool, the process is much faster, and it's supposed to prevent cheating...SUPPOSED TO. The process for those of you who don't know goes as followed, seating goes up and 1000+ unshowered fat guys dry hump stickly looking men as the try to quickly tape paper to poorly supported banners of awful cards no one plays. The cows find their seats and are given the product, in this case 6 packs. The cattle is supervised by the head judge to ensure everything is recorded and accounted for, all the while the largest of cows, like Cedric Philips get to yammer on some muffled nonsense unscathed like the tournament floor is his local movie theater, because hey he's Cedric Philips he's fucking special right? After that's settled the mouth breathers exchange lists and start shouting at fanboy judges to get their "not opponents" in trouble for things that they are suppose to correct themselves, like their inability to keep everything in alphabetical order, marking 6-7 slots incorrectly, and the brain damage, well some things obviously can't be corrected. Sip up that coffee porky because counting is obviously hard and you need to know how to start at 20 and go backwards 3 or 4 times until you go home and do whatever it is you do when I don't have to look at you. Anyways...after it's checked for the SECOND time, players begin playing oh please let this be my deck as they are instructed to exchange pools multiple times like Catholics shaking hands on sunday mass, I'd rather touch the homeless people there over a mass majority of you *coughajcough*. Once you have your pool you yourself then check and report anything that might of been missed by bessy and his inbred cousin sitting across from him and deck construction begins.
Now that we got that outta the way, I have a question for the class. What happens when something is discovered incorrectly later on in the day? Well according to the poor girl sitting next to me round 3 it meant a game loss. What if it was something more severe though, like having a 7th pack in your pool. And lets say it went unnoticed until after round 7, and this individual was x-1, and not once considered "hey I seem to have a lot of rares". Let me tell you what happened...absolutely nothing, nothing was done. Sure the pool was "corrected", an equivalent to the contents of one booster was removed and then given back to the player to rebuild. 6 players that day lost their chance at day 2 because of this, zero punishment, 0, none, nada, it was deemed that he just didn't know. He got away with it because he was just to dumb to count, the DCI has apparently adopted no child left behind during a Grand Prix.
I'm sure the Judge's position can be argued but it still doesn't change the fact that 6 people who took time, money, and energy to compete were all cheated because all 4 people that directly handled this pool couldn't count. And what's to prevent someone for deliberately adding extra cards during registration, to cause these sort of problems, because it looks to me like I could get away with something like that if I really wanted to.
Sometimes I wonder where my tax money really goes.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
M12 10/15 mythics confirmed
I assume that every magic writer is already working on a similar piece. Being that NPH reviews aren't as "new" as they are trying to be sold off as, and having to explain why competitive magic players scoop is only going to agitate the general populous of honorable self righteous casuals. Who generally believe it's better to not play Jace than win.
Back in March we got to take a look at the promo cards that were going to be bundled with the upcoming duels of the planeswalker game.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/678
With no other information, and rotation being so far away, it could easily of been argued that the Titans weren't going to be reprinted...
Anyways, GameSpot released this trailer today.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/magic-the-gathering---duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2012/video/6314180
If coming from Gideon's perspective wasn't enough, re watch 1:50 again. You'll notice the 5 planeswalkers rumored to be in M12, which is, and most importantly, also advertised along side the game. This would in fact confirm that the titans are most likely in m12. Why give promos that new players, duels of the planewalkers target audience, can't use once they decide to make the jump into the TCG?
Of course this still doesn't actually verify that we will see the ROE, or Sorin's ZEN version. Jace TMS, has already been confirmed, by Foresythe, that it is not in M12.
Without official confirmation we do get into speculation, and I'm sure that the community will have a huge spectrum of it as this week progresses. Many have argued that Gideon's design is to complex to be part of the core set. While this may be true, WotC could be breaking new grounds, trying to free the core set from being so basic. M10 and M11 had selling points that made them far more successful than their predecessors, but if 10 of the 15 mythics are reprints than whats going to be the new hype?
Here's hoping otherwise.
Back in March we got to take a look at the promo cards that were going to be bundled with the upcoming duels of the planeswalker game.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/678
With no other information, and rotation being so far away, it could easily of been argued that the Titans weren't going to be reprinted...
Anyways, GameSpot released this trailer today.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/magic-the-gathering---duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2012/video/6314180
If coming from Gideon's perspective wasn't enough, re watch 1:50 again. You'll notice the 5 planeswalkers rumored to be in M12, which is, and most importantly, also advertised along side the game. This would in fact confirm that the titans are most likely in m12. Why give promos that new players, duels of the planewalkers target audience, can't use once they decide to make the jump into the TCG?
Of course this still doesn't actually verify that we will see the ROE, or Sorin's ZEN version. Jace TMS, has already been confirmed, by Foresythe, that it is not in M12.
Without official confirmation we do get into speculation, and I'm sure that the community will have a huge spectrum of it as this week progresses. Many have argued that Gideon's design is to complex to be part of the core set. While this may be true, WotC could be breaking new grounds, trying to free the core set from being so basic. M10 and M11 had selling points that made them far more successful than their predecessors, but if 10 of the 15 mythics are reprints than whats going to be the new hype?
Here's hoping otherwise.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Another survival post.
Is it safe yet? The only person still wishing happy new years is my boss, and I imagine he will follow his awful habit to continue to do so all the way through the end of March. It's 2011, and we got past the first of "one's days" that have excited many of today's binary aroused generation. I was wrong about survival, suffering zero loss as I only have one to my name, still groan as more articles have been written trying to innovate a format that is no more than a regurgitated carbon copy of post ban mystic tutor era. There are a plethora of topics to cover, and I loathe the clipping many torture the community with as their editors demand a criteria of minimum word count. I'm not entirely sure if it's grammatically correct to quote yourself in any fashion but I still find this to hold merit.
"The philosophy that banned sotf is one that can be used against any legacy card. Can't wait for dual lands to be banned."
I don't necessarily believe that come March everyone's underground seas are going to be worthless but lets look closer into this.
Strait from the mothership:
"In recent months, Survival of the Fittest decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.
Survival is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Survival of the Fittest on the battlefield, a drawn Qasali Pridemage can be replaced with any other creature in the deck for one mana."
This isn't that far fetched:
In recent years, Underground sea decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.
Underground Sea is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Underground Sea on the battlefield, a drawn fetchland can cost you the game vs stifle, and on the same note, lacking multiple hand fodder will put you in a poor position versus thoughtseize.
A few dozen legacy staples can fit this premise.
From mystical to now survival, the card I would next foresee to be targeted by the ever whining community would be enlighten tutor, assuming that countertop gains some head weigh in the coming months. Although twitter suggests a resurgence of reanimator, an underground sea deck...just saying.
And speaking of whining, which is the real basis behind this heavily customer dictated r&d, the kind of attention this had gained was but a mere fraction of what planeswalker control, Jund, or faeries had ever received. Standard is the format that new players are first introduced to before the pursue the eternal formats, and a majority of what the casual crowd supports due to their lack of spending, so going over legacy with a fine tooth comb trying to fine tune it and completely ignoring standard is...for lack of a better word...ass backwards.
"The philosophy that banned sotf is one that can be used against any legacy card. Can't wait for dual lands to be banned."
I don't necessarily believe that come March everyone's underground seas are going to be worthless but lets look closer into this.
Strait from the mothership:
"In recent months, Survival of the Fittest decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.
Survival is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Survival of the Fittest on the battlefield, a drawn Qasali Pridemage can be replaced with any other creature in the deck for one mana."
This isn't that far fetched:
In recent years, Underground sea decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.
Underground Sea is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Underground Sea on the battlefield, a drawn fetchland can cost you the game vs stifle, and on the same note, lacking multiple hand fodder will put you in a poor position versus thoughtseize.
A few dozen legacy staples can fit this premise.
From mystical to now survival, the card I would next foresee to be targeted by the ever whining community would be enlighten tutor, assuming that countertop gains some head weigh in the coming months. Although twitter suggests a resurgence of reanimator, an underground sea deck...just saying.
And speaking of whining, which is the real basis behind this heavily customer dictated r&d, the kind of attention this had gained was but a mere fraction of what planeswalker control, Jund, or faeries had ever received. Standard is the format that new players are first introduced to before the pursue the eternal formats, and a majority of what the casual crowd supports due to their lack of spending, so going over legacy with a fine tooth comb trying to fine tune it and completely ignoring standard is...for lack of a better word...ass backwards.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Banned and Restricted early announcements
I need this to go on the record so I can safely say "I told you so".
The banned and restricted announcement for December approaches. And while I do believe this is the time to speculate and examine constructed I believe the community has been overly biased. I like to apologize for your financial problems, inability to trade, or to be able to grow from 2007.
Jace will not be banned. WotC publicly denies any association with secondary market prices. We currently have no legitimate agro deck in this rock paper scissor world of standard, this is a power creep issue from transitioning into the new standard (something I would like to address in a later entry).
Survival will not be banned. Legacy was tossed on it's head less than 6 months ago, and while I do appreciate kicking something when it's down, the likely hood of it happening again is next to impossible. Cards in legacy receive banning when they end games in absurd ways, 1G + G and G to activate with a good draw? There are staples that cost 0.
Vengevine will not be banned. If a card were to actually receive banning from the deck it would be rootwalla, as the deck would still function without bringing forth an uncanny herd of vengevine, but that won't be banned either. The deck is balanced in terms of a format that has been dominated by blue cards since it's incarnation.
There are plenty of cards that should be on the chopping block long before any of these, sensei's diving top, lion's eye diamond, force of will, etc. None of these are going to be banned, not yet at least.
Nothing is going to be banned. The next week will be full of people complaining about how no one is really listening to them, and how WotC is an evil corporate empire, and WAAH WAAH WAAH!
The banned and restricted announcement for December approaches. And while I do believe this is the time to speculate and examine constructed I believe the community has been overly biased. I like to apologize for your financial problems, inability to trade, or to be able to grow from 2007.
Jace will not be banned. WotC publicly denies any association with secondary market prices. We currently have no legitimate agro deck in this rock paper scissor world of standard, this is a power creep issue from transitioning into the new standard (something I would like to address in a later entry).
Survival will not be banned. Legacy was tossed on it's head less than 6 months ago, and while I do appreciate kicking something when it's down, the likely hood of it happening again is next to impossible. Cards in legacy receive banning when they end games in absurd ways, 1G + G and G to activate with a good draw? There are staples that cost 0.
Vengevine will not be banned. If a card were to actually receive banning from the deck it would be rootwalla, as the deck would still function without bringing forth an uncanny herd of vengevine, but that won't be banned either. The deck is balanced in terms of a format that has been dominated by blue cards since it's incarnation.
There are plenty of cards that should be on the chopping block long before any of these, sensei's diving top, lion's eye diamond, force of will, etc. None of these are going to be banned, not yet at least.
Nothing is going to be banned. The next week will be full of people complaining about how no one is really listening to them, and how WotC is an evil corporate empire, and WAAH WAAH WAAH!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Magic Player Rewards Program Discontinued, a blessing in disguise for dummies.
Obligatory "if you haven't heard yet" blah blah blah This
Quick grab some tissues and put on your angry face.
I'm sure there's a lot of people moaning, sobbing, delicious tears. While I do enjoy the collective misery that this has and will ensue I have a few constructive thoughts as to why this is a good thing even for those who are still mourning their WotC welfare.
Chaos theorist type people, this has almost no relation to the recent WPN changes, I'm sorry your upset and it's easy to point at big ole Hasbro, but that doesn't make any sense. Yes cards are involved, and yes people are angry, but I could use the same argument for...well anything, the governme...WOTC isn't out to get you. You have to remember they are a business, they want your money.
I get it, most of you are probably still in the denial phase and just easing into anger. You might not care because your free cards, that your not actually entitled to, causes you to break into a fit, I can't reason with you. Can't say I didn't try.
What PRP was suppose to do.
WotC has had a history of promotions that rewarded players for participating in tournaments and in some cases teach the game itself. These ended with much fret. And like arena and the guru program, PRP had a goal. A goal with a projection that obviously was met.
Magic is in a very heavily place right now. The increase in tournament attendance through years of "magic is dying" speaks for itself. Programs are put into motion to create this state.
But why remove them?
It hurt LGS's, which in turn hurts WotC. Do you remember Day of Judgment pricing at $6.00? That promo is pretty awesome, wanna buy some m11? No? Why's that? Pack EV has became to low. What's that? Google it, learn something. TL;DR with more desirable promos in circulation there becomes less of a need to buy packs. Again, WotC is a business, they want your money. I think the old expression "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free" applies here.
It can also be argued that tournaments have grown to big, many LGS's struggle to maintain the capacity to support their player base. Magic is hitting puberty late, but it's happening whether you like it or not. The community is growing at an alarming rate that it can seem awkward at times. It's grown to fast, so fast that a simple hobby store can't support this kind of growth, not yet at least. Think of this as the next step in maturity, comic stores became games store, and now game stores feel as if they are cribs. The game is no longer in diapers, it's tall and lanky, covered in acne, horribly misunderstood, and has no desire to be coddled. We should take a page out of a parenting guide and realize that this is natural and remain supportive.
They grow up so fast.
Quick grab some tissues and put on your angry face.
I'm sure there's a lot of people moaning, sobbing, delicious tears. While I do enjoy the collective misery that this has and will ensue I have a few constructive thoughts as to why this is a good thing even for those who are still mourning their WotC welfare.
Chaos theorist type people, this has almost no relation to the recent WPN changes, I'm sorry your upset and it's easy to point at big ole Hasbro, but that doesn't make any sense. Yes cards are involved, and yes people are angry, but I could use the same argument for...well anything, the governme...WOTC isn't out to get you. You have to remember they are a business, they want your money.
I get it, most of you are probably still in the denial phase and just easing into anger. You might not care because your free cards, that your not actually entitled to, causes you to break into a fit, I can't reason with you. Can't say I didn't try.
What PRP was suppose to do.
WotC has had a history of promotions that rewarded players for participating in tournaments and in some cases teach the game itself. These ended with much fret. And like arena and the guru program, PRP had a goal. A goal with a projection that obviously was met.
Magic is in a very heavily place right now. The increase in tournament attendance through years of "magic is dying" speaks for itself. Programs are put into motion to create this state.
But why remove them?
It hurt LGS's, which in turn hurts WotC. Do you remember Day of Judgment pricing at $6.00? That promo is pretty awesome, wanna buy some m11? No? Why's that? Pack EV has became to low. What's that? Google it, learn something. TL;DR with more desirable promos in circulation there becomes less of a need to buy packs. Again, WotC is a business, they want your money. I think the old expression "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free" applies here.
It can also be argued that tournaments have grown to big, many LGS's struggle to maintain the capacity to support their player base. Magic is hitting puberty late, but it's happening whether you like it or not. The community is growing at an alarming rate that it can seem awkward at times. It's grown to fast, so fast that a simple hobby store can't support this kind of growth, not yet at least. Think of this as the next step in maturity, comic stores became games store, and now game stores feel as if they are cribs. The game is no longer in diapers, it's tall and lanky, covered in acne, horribly misunderstood, and has no desire to be coddled. We should take a page out of a parenting guide and realize that this is natural and remain supportive.
They grow up so fast.
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