Editorial Section:
I have to admit... it's not often that I don't know what I want to write about for an article. Generally there's plenty of things happening to focus on, or more usually complain about. Last week I vented some frustrations about what we're missing in the new world of Multiplayer. I have unfinished projects up the wazoo and not nearly enough waking hours in a day... and yet I can't stop thinking about decks based on M11 cards. I don't think I even had this much inspiration fodder with M10. Cards for current decks, new decks, and everything in between are popping in my head like kernels in a microwave. Granted, I'm no deckbuilding prodigy or anything, but I have some thoughts about the deck that's near and dear to my heart: RDW. RDW is in a precarious position with the upcoming rotation and current 'hate' cards in the format. I think, looking into the unknown, we're about to see a resurgence of "med-red" decks that are designed less around turn three/four kills and more about board control and resource breakage. I've been turning my RDW into a med-red style deck post-board. It switches from Devastating Deck wins in game one into a more controlling deck games two and three with Cyclops Gladiator's, Chandra Nalaar's and so on. Making the deck migrate from super aggro into aggro/control midrange has so far, been a very solid move. I might even make the main deck become a control deck with sparkmages, cyclops, Inferno Titan's and Basilisk Collars, etc. Just wanted to get those changes off my chest!
Anyway! Onto the actual 'Editorial' section of the article... which as I mentioned, is a bit sparse in the MTGO world. And, amazingly, even pretty sparse in the MTGPants world too. Probably some of the biggest news is the full list of From the Vault: Relics, and how ridiculous it is turning out to be! I'll chime in on that for a bit, and I'll also dig into the new Extended format deck lists, since they are actually a bit surprising so far!
From the Vault: Relics has a deck list now, and I'll just jump right to it:
Of the cards in the list the only 'new' cards to MTGO now are Sol Ring and the new Sword. But Sol Ring alone will ship these off the digital shelves for the EDH/100 Card Singleton players. Pretty much every EDH deck I've seen in paper used a Sol Ring or could have used one better than another option in the deck. These From the Vault series seem to be getting progressively more and more powerful and amazing as each one is released. The first was fun and casual oriented dragons and brought some old school dragons to new players. The second unlocked a lot of really powerful cards for new players, and this third one follows the trend of bringing old cards to the newer players. I can state with certainty that these types of products are both well received and necessary in the paper realm. Card fluidity is better now, due to the internet and online auction sites. However, it's still slow, cumbersome and prone to miscommunication about card quality and cards disappearing in transit. Neither of these things are an issue with MTGO. Also, the cards that we do have are relatively recently available (in comparison) to the release dates of the paper counterparts. And our fluidity is insanely higher. Pretty much any card can be found, day or night, if you're willing to pay for it. In paper, you may have to wait days to weeks to get a card you want... if you ever get a chance to get it.
I know we'll get this set online in the not too distant future, and even though I'm sure to get it, it just doesn't feel nearly as impressive as it does in paper. I like the cards, for sure, but they're just not nearly as awe-inspiring to get them on MTGO as they are in paper. A lot of that is due at lease somewhat to the very different experience of 'collecting' on MTGO, as well as the ability to 'show off' collections on MTGO. When I break out my 40+ Sphinx-Bone Wand binder in paper it draws stares... online, it's just a picture and a number. Same thing for some of my mint old cards in paper. On MTGO they get a rousing "So what?". They're all mint and they came out in the past half decade... Not much awe there, alas. All in all, I still love the From the Vault series, both on MTGO and MTGP, despite the vast difference in the way they feel as a player and collector in both worlds.
Onto Extended! The Extended bogeyman was supposed to be Faeries and Jund, based on the first rounds of discussions. I mean, really... faeries would bring Cryptic Command and Jace, the Mind Sculptor into the same format, after all! Now that we're seeing some events firing with the new decks... what's happened?
Well, it turns out that Jace and Cryptic are pretty good after all... but not just in a Faeries shell... as shown in the winning deck of this tournament.
Granted, it runs some powerful faeries in the deck like Vendilion Clique and whatnot, but it's certainly *not* a faeries deck. Unless Kitchen Finks starts to pull a J. Edgar Hoover, I guess. The above deck has been posting good numbers in multiple events, in a few different incarnations but with the base of the above cards pulling the weight. Life gain, free spells, hate for other great decks and disruption. I like the deck for the current Extended format and look forward to what it does when the Time Spiral spells rotate out.
However, there are a few decks that have been doing well that have very few, if any, cards that will disappear during the rotation. Elves, from this event, for example, will have a very similar deck to this one:
All in all, I actually kind of like the look of this format. There's aggro, control, midrange, and combo (Ad Nauseam, for example).
Late breaking news!!!! Thursday Night Magic ONLINE!
A quick breakdown of the prizes involved is pretty much amazingly good for players. I really, really like this new endeavor for MTGO and think it's a great way to get new promos out. I really like the intent of these events. Casual-ish events are a great addition to the game so that new players can get their toes wet and the more experience players can get a little silly without worrying too much about their points and whatnot. Setting it up for the night before FNM instead of competing against FNM is a great thing. I'll certainly be working with my local paper players to expand their MTGO accounts to utilize this new program. I love, love, love this thing so far. I expect that the drafts will fill pretty fast, and the constructed will be the slower of the two queues.
Discussion Items:
TNMO (Teen-Mo) announced:
Discussion - Announcement - I mentioned this briefly above, but I really like this new program that was announced this week. It's a great blend of low risk-low reward introductory type tournament. This is something that MTGO has been missing for far too long.
Changes for the week:
A slew of bug-fixes and updates/changes/etc. It's always welcome to see these types of announcements since every step forward helps to keep MTGO that much more relevant to players.
M11 Developer Chat:
Some good nuggets of interest in the chat with Tom and Aaron. Like M11 being foreshadow-y for Scars of Mirrodin and so on. Good to know!
Card Price Discussion:
A lot of this week's prices are based around, surprise surprise... M11 impacts.
Moving up this week we have Turbo-land bad-boy Avenger of Zendikar on the back of Primeval Titan. Also we have Valakut jumping up thanks to the same big green meanie. In other news Fulminator Mage is budging upwards due to his usefulness in the new Extended Living End B/R control-y decks. Regal got his crown back thanks to Elves' showing in said format as well. Lastly, a bunch of Legacy/Classic cards decided to jump up, namely and it makes me think that G/R just got some serious breakage in the format.
Moving down this week we have some pretty normal culprits. Baneslayer is about to have a bunch of excess copies, due to M11. Jace is cooling off now that Standard PTQ's are over, Entomb is out of Legacy and has much lower demand from before, and Elspeth/Pulse are staring at their own mortality in Lich's Mirror.
Card Price Tables:
| ALA |
1.148938 |
4.280188 |
8.560376 |
| CON |
1.494 |
|
|
| ARB |
1.63725 |
|
|
| M10 |
1.492318 |
4.476953 |
8.953906 |
| ME3 |
2.328413 |
6.985238 |
13.97048 |
| ZEN |
2.568473 |
8.205988 |
16.91254 |
| WWK |
3.069042 |
|
|
| TE |
3.874846 |
11.0528 |
22.1056 |
| ST |
2.217727 |
|
|
| EX |
4.960227 |
|
|
| mi |
2.165916 |
9.860364 |
19.72073 |
| vi |
4.014788 |
|
|
| wl |
3.67966 |
|
|
| MED |
3.5095 |
8.722405 |
17.44481 |
Card Price Charts:
avenger of zendikar chart
survival of the fittest chart
aluren chart
fulminator mage chart
imperial recruiter chart
valakut, the molten pinnacle chart
serrated arrows chart
regal force chart
price of progress chart
intuition chart
valakut, the molten pinnacle chart
avenger of zendikar chart
serrated arrows chart
valakut, the molten pinnacle chart
stigma lasher chart
fulminator mage chart
imperial recruiter chart
aluren chart
goblin king chart
oracle of mul daya chart
entomb chart
underground sea chart
elspeth, knight_errant chart
baneslayer angel chart
force of will chart
tundra chart
badlands chart
jace, the mind sculptor chart
maelstrom pulse chart
taiga chart
sphinx ambassador chart
sunpetal grove chart
dauntless escort chart
flames of the blood hand chart
rootbound crag chart
nemesis of reason chart
emeria angel chart
sovereigns of lost alara chart
sigil of the empty throne chart
eldrazi temple chart
34 Comments
Masticore is "new" to MTGO too.
That draft is amazing, I think.
It is swiss and gives 4-2-1 AND a promo. Compare it to 4-3-2-2. And remember that you do not pay more than product (so winnings are +2 tix for swiss)!
If you win all you get the same - 4.
If you win 2 out of 3 it depends on the one you lose.
If you lose the first you get two in swiss and 0 in 4-3-2-2.
If you lose the second you get 2 in both.
If you lose the 3rd you get 3 in 4-3-2-2 and 2 in swiss.
Swiss average: 2 4-3-2-2 average: 5/3.
If you lose 2 out of 3 it depens on the one you win.
If you win the first you one in swiss and 2 in 4-3-2-2.
If you win the second or third you get 1 in swiss and 0 in 4-3-2-2.
Swiss average: 1 4-3-2-2 average: 2/3
If you lose all you get 0 packs in both.
If we assume that your winning % is independent (it proberly isn't, but...) of the round we see that Swiss>4-3-2-2, even if we look away from the 2 tix you didnt pay and the promo, because it is better in all case except if you win or lose all (in which case they are equal).
If you win 50% of the time, you get 13/8 which is >3/2 in swiss, a promo AND you paid 2 less to join. If you played 4-3-2-2 you get 11/8 which is <3/2.
If you win 75% of the time, you get 171/64>5/2 in swiss, a promo AND you paid 2 less to join. If you played 4-3-2-2 you get 159/64<5/2.
So you need to sell a promo and your draft deck for less than 2 tix (assuming a booster cost 4 tix) to go infinite in swiss if you are a 75% player, but you need above 4 tix (boosters are still assumed to cost 4) for your deck and do not have a promo if you play 4-3-2-2...
in aspect for the future of the game and M11 (which i actually love) there should be a serious discussion about the ridicul prices for tournament staples, autoincludes, 4-of supercards, whatever you call them.
WOTC said a year or so ago, that mythic rares are all about the flavor and when i look back at the ALA block when they first came it was quite like that. well... the planeswalkers were mythic also, and when we look at the usefulness of ajani vengeant and elspeth, i think it is safe to say that they are miles ahead in usefulness to the "vanilla"walkers from lorwyn. also, they had a (for that time) quite a steep price tag (if i remember right, it was around 15tix). only the figure of destiny (32tix), cryptic command, bitterblossom and maybe wrath of god where more than 10tix. all rares and staples for sure, as faeries was quite a winner. a deck was pretty expensive.
but now? it lasted one block to already destroy every statement about the mythic rares WOTC made before ALA. now we see tournament staples like mindsculptor (75-80tix, not seldom 3-4 times in a deck, HELL! if you could have 5 of them in a deck you would probably play 6!!), baneslayer(30+) vengevine (20+), cobra(20+), gideon(20+), m.pulse (rare, going down from 20+ due to rotating ro jund decline, whatever), elspeth (20+, going down, too), persecutor, all is dust, avenger,eldrazi monument and kargan (ca. 10 tix), and whatever there is. easily, a tourney deck is now 400+tix, and it isn't even including 50% of the bombs it could have. OF COURSE we will see the maybe best cards in M11 again with a orange symbol, like the titans (primeval will be 20+ for sure, grave titan won't be resonable priced either me thinks). compare that to the rares, the supposed to be staples (according to WOTC, mythics are not supposed to be staples) and i see a big time difference in card power... they are even overshadowing rares in mana/effect-wise.
well, i do not want to whine about that, but i see a severe problem here. i am willing to spend money for my hobby, no doubt about that, but the problem imo is, that the real top deck contenders (maybe RDW/Blightning is cheap in comparison... as usual every RDW is cheap) are as usual the most expensiv decks to play... but now at double+ the deck price of other decks in the past (looking at std solely, i know, force of will and real duals are way more stup.. expensive). i would even say, that a faeries deck most probably beats the super decks from today into the dirt ;)
my question, is this necessary to squeeze that much money out of people? why is the mythic rare power creeping that much? why isn't there a card which says explicitly "destroy target planeswalker"? why isn't there any discussion WITH wotc people about that? only thing you read from them are these stupid propaganda articles on their website (more selling advertisements than information)... "look at how great we made this ultra-rare super-duper mythic rare, but this 10/10 one mana critter without any drawback will be probably only a one-of in decks" (MaRo, 2012-20xx).
btw, i am really happy that mana leak comes back. at last a decent counter that will teach the "turn3/4/5: tap all my mana, play jace/baneslayer/titan/etc)-decks a lesson.
I couldn't go back to paper magic even if I wanted to – too expensive. On MODO I can pick up a game of a serious but casual format like Pauper or 100CS any time I want.
Right now Mythics are supposed to be in about 1 of every 8 packs. I’d love to see it at 1 in 5 or even 1 in 4.
I agree, i think they may have made them tooo mythic for my taste.
While I agree about the mythic rare power being totally misrepresented early-on, there is a card that says (synonymously) destroy target planeswalker - Vampire Hexmage. Pulse does the job efficiently too, and Obliv Ring is a reasonable non-black answer.
That being said, hopefully we'll see more walker-killers. If they had brought back Faith's Fetters in M11 even, that would have been huge.
People who can't afford them don't want cheap answers for Planeswalkers, they want cheaper Planeswalkers.
thats very true. I think wizards could have eased a lot of this debate by simply releasing the 'Big Five' aka original 'walkers as rares like they were in Lorwyn. I dont think it would have messed with anyone of the current setup when they could have just shifted around some other rarities like protean hydra and akroms sword to mythic to fill the slots.
And if they had players would complain how unfair it is that 5 planeswalkers aren't mythic and why aren't the rest not mythic? So to keep their word they have to screw someone.
i think it could be said these were printed rare and they are "beginner" planeswalkers? then at least everyone could conceivably have a better chance at acquiring them.
There is no argument that there is precedent. And sure it is nice to want everyone to have access to the cool cards. But that isn't how Wizards operates. Ever.
I dont know if you realize this. But when your local store sells a Jace for 80 bucks, wizards does not see any of that money. It goes directly to the store owner. So maybe you should ask yourself, "Self, why are people paying $80 for a card?" Because If you want to win, price is no object. Also this is Wizards or at least, Mark Rosewater's current stance on mythics
"The two main things that tend to determine rarity are complexity and specialness. The lower the rarity, the simpler we like the card to be. Specialness though is a much more subjective quality. The way I've learned to describe mythic rares is that I like them to have a potential for awesomeness. Mythic rares want to feel like cards that can just do something crazy given the right circumstance. In addition, mythic rares want to feel like things that wouldn't be commonplace in the world where you would find them. All planeswalkers by definition are mthic rare as are the majority of legendary creatures and items. The rest is really a feel. Note that there are many cards that fall in the grey area where they could work as rares or as mythic rares and R&D has to make a call on which side of the line it falls. Could a card like Vengevine be rare? Of course, it's on the line.
One final note—some people wanted to interpret my original article on mythic rares to say that there never would be powerful mythic rares. That isn't what I said. The actual quote was "They [mythic rares] will not just be a list of each set's most powerful tournament-level cards." Every rarity gets good cards. That means that some mythic rares will be tournament quality as will some commons, some uncommons and some rares. My promise wasn't that mythic rares wouldn't get good cards but that we wouldn't limit the good cards to only being mythic rare. The most played tournament card from Magic 2010, for instance, isn't Baneslayer Angel, a mythic rare, but Lightning Bolt, a common."
i realize this of course. what makes people pay these prices? the utter awesomeness of many mythics maybe? people relying only on the strentgh of the "netdecks"? i dunno.
the thing i say is wrong is the inclusion of the mythic rare itself. i cannot believe that prices would rise up to these many many expensive cards if they weren't all mythics.
on the stance of mark roseberg, the potential of being awesome and the complexity of the card make it a mythic, got that. but then i misunderstood the word potential, too. for me that means, a card "can" be very good but doesn't mean "impossible to be not a multiformat allstar".
and of course a mythic may be a powerful card, but a feeled 50% of them seem to be staples in every deck, while next level bant (stupid deck name by the way :)) is a peak of nastyness (not play-wise).
As disappointed as I was last week in the "CAW" stuff, that's how cool I think this Thursday Night Magic stuff is. I actually think they made it a little too good by offering a QP (which the target market "casual" player wouldn't care about), but that's not a terrible position to be in.
Holding my breath a little, but it sounds exciting.
" Casual-ish events are a great addition to the game so that new players can get their toes wet and the more experience players can get a little silly without worrying too much about their points and whatnot."
I like the idea of product only drafts with casual prizes... in constructed though, I don't see how you can keep the spikes from beating up the "new players getting their toes wet". In pants land on FNM you can bring a rogue deck or budget deck and its likely that you can have fun and do ok. In mtgo land, with a HUGE pool of players with nothing better to do, I don't see how these queues will be any different than the regular constructed queues.
Agreed.
Thursday Night Magic will be awesome. It is probably the best idea that WotC has implemented since the 2-man queues.
I also share the concern that the constructed queues will not be casual. I think adding the MOCS point to the queue will mean it's an even easier target for high level players. I'm also wondering why they are doing it with a 128 person maximum. How do you do a draft online without a multiple of 8? Or maybe they are just assuming the drafts will max out.
As for From the Vaults Relics, how much do you want to bet that Sol Ring will be conveniently banned in 100 singleton 2 weeks after the online release of the set? Sorry, still getting over the whole Demonic Tutor incident....
I get the same feeling on Sol Ring.
I am hopeful that Demonic was banned because it was essentially the best card you could draw for two mana, while a mid to late-game Sol Ring has no where near the power level. The problem is the same could be said for the Moxes and Lotus which would seemly be auto-banned.
Divining Top is basically played in every 100cs deck and is not banned.
I am hopeful. If we knew ahead of time, I would auto-buy this set.
I don't know about the sharks in Constructed theory. I was thinking about that on my walk home after the announcement (Thinking about BEING the shark that is) but the prospect of netting a maximum $6 profit for ~2+ hours of my time really just wasn't appealing... It may only be me thinking that way, but still.
As for the 4 pack sealed, LOVE IT!
well westane i think the shark come in on the qp
Oh yeah, that's the other problem I have with being the shark... I'm not very good XD
I'll be bold (read: a jerk-face-doody-head)
But any one who needs to nail the TNMO Constructed Queue for a QP isn't a 'shark'.
Sharks should be already qualified based on doing somewhat well in the "real" queues.
These queues will be so low level that anyone wrecking them for QP's can't seriously be considered a shark. Also, as mentioned, the value to time ratio is super, super low compared to pretty much anything else.
My personal thought on this is that if a Joe Shmoe earns a QP, he'll be far more likely to investigate the QP's and what they are all about. See the possibility of getting to that next level. Some will start down the trail of Mt. MTGO based solely on that one QP the get from a TNMO queue. Guaranteed.
You're a jerk-face-doody-head!!!!! /holdbreath
No you're completely right, and that more or less validates my first statement. I use the term "Shark" loosely here, basically referring to someone who knowingly believes they outclass the potential competition these queues are set to bring, intended to dominate for easy packs and QP's.
My initial statement and current belief, is simply that the prize payout and QP rewards are just not worth the time for "people like that".
This really depends on your definition of shark.
The top 1-3% of players are playing so often in so many events that QPs are not much of an incentive because they naturally accumulate all the points they can use. These players are probably making rent money off of Magic Online.
Then there are the top 4-10% of players who will usually qualify but it is more of a struggle. They need to pick and choose the events they play in and take advantage of easy QPs at times. These players are probably making some money off of Magic Online but not enough to really offset the time invested in the game other than the fact that it is a fun hobby.
Then there are players like me in the top 11-30% who have qualified a couple of times and can't afford the time and energy to do it every month. To us, these events look like great opportunities. These players are more or less breaking even or spending a little money at prereleases and playing a long time off of the winnings.
I'm not a shark, but I've certainly been called one online before. To a new player any one of these kinds of players is a shark.
Only the top 1-3% players would concider avoidin this tournament because of time vs. profit reasons, as everybody else is probably just going to ask themselves if this event is profitable at all.
Like Amar said below, this doesn't really appeal to the players who almost exclusively play in the casual room.
I agree, there will be competitive decks in these queues. I do not see that as a problem though. Even FNM in the real world inevidibly has local "sharks" even if your local "pros" can't be bothered to waste there time.
I think using the word casual is just tough because so many people have different perceptions of what that means. It is hard to think of any format with prizes as a "casual" format. Even the swiss draft queues are not really "casual." There are high rated players that play those events.
So I'm thinking about the TNM more, and how to create a "casual" event. and it occurs to me that I should probably send the MTGO staff a copy of Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.
In it, he describes behavioral economics experiments and what makes people commit. One such experiment is like this: A table is set up selling baked goods on sale - two types. One is a "gourmet" dessert, it sells for $1. The other is a "discount" dessert, it sells for $0.50. The sale runs a little to establish a baseline control.
Then they reduce the price of both, with signs noting the sale. The $1 item is marked down to $0.50. And the $0.50 item is marked down to $0.30. Then they compared which got a better pickup from the sale. Logically we might expect that the gourmet dessert would do better, since it's a bigger markdown and is better on a percentage basis. But the opposite is true - it's the smaller savings on the discount dessert that attracted people.
So Ariely (and others, it's been tried a number of ways) concluded that appealing to those who weren't interested is less a matter of the savings and more a matter of reducing the commitment. This echoes down to the ultimate incentive, a free item. More will take a free 5c cookie than a half-price $1 treat.
So applying this to MTGO's attempt at creating a "casual" event - that doesn't become overrun by sharks - I feel like this "look at the deal!" is nice, but the wrong approach. 13 pax from a nix tix draft is an awesome payout. 2 tix per constructed queue (half players walk away with value) is a small commitment. But if their goal is to lure people who are apprehensive about tournaments, I don't see this getting them over that hump.
What would work great at that is a free tournament with a token payout. Now that's difficult for Limited, so set that aside. But why not have a free constructed tournament which pays out in promos, with maybe a pack here or there. Sharks would absolutely not find this worth their time. It's not even good practice for them. Even non- (but would-be) sharks would rather try something more serious. But to someone who never ventured out of Cas/Cas because their best deck cost $10, it's a risk-free lure.
Now the short-sighted view on this is "what's in it for Wizards?" Which I fear is the pervasive view in Renton with their efforts to squeeze every penny. Sure, if you compare a free tournament with a "pay $2 to enter" one it looks like the latter is better business. But I'm not pitching a new business model. Just a once-a-week promotion, targeted at the bottom of the pyramid, to encourage them to move up. But I don't think they see that angle.
And so what we have is a fairly generous event that will cannibalize regular draft queues and not do much to lure new players. Eventually they'll reduce the payouts here and we'll just have more tournament noise. That won't be hurting anything. I just think they keep missing this opportunity to lure casual players the way they want to.
Hey, look at that. I found a way to be negative after all. :)
Addendum: Last year for the free CAW tournaments, people took off from jobs that pay $200+ a day to play a free CAW tournament and were devastated that they couldn't get in. I present this as further evidence of the lure of "free" to encourage predictably irrational behavior.
Great, great post Amar. Exactly what I've come to expect from you. :)
The only thing that I know for a fact is that a barrier to constructed is a devastating barrier to a 'free' constructed tournament. It's easy to forget that challenge once you have a decent collection, but 'free' constructed (or even super cheap constructed) carries a surprisingly large hurdle. Especially without... dare I say it... leagues.
Leagues really were crucial to the growth of new tournament player->constructed player. I'll skip the background for now, but I can say from personal experience that getting people lots of cards in a somewhat casual atmosphere is a very good way to get them interested in Standard.
I think that's possibly part of what these 'good value' sealed/draft queues are all about. Getting more and more cards into new players' hands and let the natural evolution of tournaments take over from there.
At least, I think that's the hope. :) We'll see!
I'm hardly a new player, but I can attest that the lack of leagues has drastically impacted my interest in even casual std constructed, let alone any kind of competitive event. Just an opportunity to play competitively with the new cards during release leagues was enough exposure to not only interest me in constructed, but give me experience in limited play I could translate into drafts.
Wow. I've been saying this for the years since leagues have gone away. It's nice to see someone with the same sentiment. Frankly, I've played 0 tournaments in the past year, because I've just lost interest in that being the ONLY thing worth doing on MTGO. Having played in many paper tournaments back in the beginnings of the game, I got burnout real easy, so I tend to avoid playing them in any format. But I do like to play them. Here's the thing, leagues were great for me, because they kept my interest by playing in a pseudo casual format, and kept my attention to the game as a whole. When I was playing leagues, I also played in some tournament every week. Since leagues have left, I just can't keep my interest anymore.
Asking for leagues Hammy? Way to pick the low-hanging fruit. :)
When I think of "casual" constructed, I think of an environment where players are comfortable despite lacking cards. Draft and Sealed have too much churn for some, and become expensive. So yes, leagues do fit that niche. But I think you can get there with low-stakes Constructed.
The PREs do.
Free tourneys would certainly get me playing them. Free fun? sure why not? Though as seen with the PRES which are all free, I won't bother if there is too low a chance to win. Not that I can't win at all but if I feel the odds are I am going to face someone with better cards/skill etc I am less likely to be interested no matter that it is free. (The time commitment is fairly large too.)
For example if I thought there was a 50% chance to go 2-1 in the weekly PREs Id go most of the time because even though Id prefer to sleep in, the PREs are fun things to do. But if I think it is 60% likely I am going to run into a tier 1 deck and not have fun I won't even be tempted.
I look forward to the Casual-ish constructed events it would be nice to know the format for the first week to give us a chance to do some deck building.
I might give it ago depending on how the times convert to my part of the world, I've not tried to work it out yet.
unless it "starts to pull a J. Edgar Hoover". LOL :-)
but none the less interesting point i certainly wouldnt waste time doin it not that i am a shark. unfortunatly human i would rather pay for a better possible payout but i guess that makes the thing not for me then huh? nice post i couldnt find a way to be negative:(