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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Feb 23 2018 1:00pm
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State of the Program for February 23rd 2018
 
In the News
New Wizards Fan Content Policy Statement: Wizards has a “Fan Content Policy” (FCP) document, which defines what fans can and cannot do with Wizards intellectual property such as cards, card names, art, symbols, etc. The mothership featured an article which “reminded” people that the document existed, but did not answer many questions about it. So when fans saw this sentence “Your Fan Content must be free for others (including Wizards) to view, access, share, and use without paying you anything, obtaining your approval, or giving you credit.” in the FCP, they had questions. For example, does this outlaw special content for Patreon supporters, or putting content behind pay walls, or monetizing Twitch or YouTube channels?  It’s not clear – even after reading the FAQ included in the FCP. The blow-back was bad enough that Wizards had to issue a clarification document on their Tumblr page.  Also, note that many things not explicitly allowed under the FCP are allowed if you have Wizards’ permission.   For example, having content behind the SCG paywall may not be specifically allowed under the FCP, but I would be willing to bet heavily that SCG got Wizards’ permission a long time ago. And if they have Wizards’ permission, it’s fine.
 
Dryad Arbor Kerfuffle:  Dryad Arbor has been printed in twice – the original Future Sight version and the From the Vault: Realms version.   The FTV version is often mistaken for a basic Forest – I found one dumped in the lands box at a GP once.  Last week, at GP Lyons, Hall of Famer and professional Magic player Gabriel Nassif failed to realize that the Dryad Arbor mixed in with his opponent’s lands could block, and it may well have cost him a match.   Marshall Sutcliffe posted a video about the debate here – the video lets you see the GP play and the cards involved. I will talk about the FTV version of Dryad Arbor, and the history of similar bans, in the opinion section below.
 
MTGO Championship Hype Video Posted: MTGO Champs is next week. The promo video is here.
 
Wizards Play Design Wins Team Super League: the team from Wizards Play Design group won this week’s Team Super League challenge. Since they were the group at least partly responsible for making sure that making Jace, the Mind Sculptor Modern legal, we are relying on them to show us how to have fun in the new Modern. Their answers were a blisteringly fast Infect deck that won every game in which it played first, and a green-black deck packed full of discard, removal and land destruction that mana screwed the fair decks their opponents put forth. Oh, and a Scapeshift deck.
 
Magic 25 Previews Coming: Magic 25 will be launched, in paper and on MTGO, next month. Previews will begin next week.
 
Magic Story Author Revealed: Wizards has revealed that the Dominaria storyline will be written by Martha Wells.   She led the Dominaria story team, and has published a number of well-received books. Having suffered through a number of bad storylines, I am generally hopeful that the story might be actually enjoyable.  Announcement here.
 
The Timeline
This is a list of things we have been promised, or we just want to see coming back.   Another good source for dates and times is the calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the bug blog which appears sporadically on MTGO.com. Not listed, but important: Wizards offers either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.
 

Upcoming Events
Dates
Scheduled Downtimes
March 14th
Constructed Leagues End
April 18, 2018
Sealed Leagues End
April 23, 2018
Core Set Magic  2019
July 13, 2018
25th Anniversary Edition Masters
March 16, 2018
Next B&R Announcement
April 16, 2018
SOI and EMN Redemption Ends
April 28, 2018
Ixalan Redemption Ends
May 23, 2018
Rivals of Ixalan Redemption Ends
May 23, 2018

 
WotC Covered Events
Wizards will be streaming a number of events next year, including all four Pro Tours, the Magic Championship and World Magic Cup, along with 35 Grand Prix. Since Wizards does not schedule premier events on prerelease weekends and certain holidays, that means they will be streaming an event nearly every weekend. Here’s the schedule we have so far.
·       Feb. 24–25: Grand Prix Memphis
·       March 2–4: Magic Online Championship in Renton, Washington
·       March 10–11: Grand Prix Madrid
·       April 6–8: Grand Prix Seattle (double-GP weekend)
·       April 14–15: Grand Prix Memphis
·       April 28–29: Grand Prix Bologna
·       May 5–6: Grand Prix Dallas
·       May 11–13: Grand Prix Birmingham (double-GP weekend)
·       May 26–27: Grand Prix Washington, DC
·       June 1–3: Pro Tour Dominaria in Richmond, Virginia
·       June 9–10: Grand Prix Copenhagen
·       June 15–17: Grand Prix Las Vegas (double-GP weekend)
·       June 23–24: Grand Prix Pittsburgh
·       July 7–8: Grand Prix São Paulo
·       July 21–22: Grand Prix Sacramento
·       July 28–29: Grand Prix Minneapolis
·       Aug. 3–5: Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota
·       Aug. 11–12: Grand Prix Brussels
·       Aug. 18–19: Grand Prix Los Angeles
·       Aug. 25–26: Grand Prix Prague
·       Aug. 31–Sept. 2: Grand Prix Richmond (double-GP weekend)
·       Sept. 8–9: Grand Prix Detroit
·       Sept. 15–16: Grand Prix Stockholm
·       Weekend of Sept. 23–24: 2018 Magic World Championship and Team Series Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada (exact event dates TBD)
·       Oct. 6–7: Grand Prix Montreal
·       Oct. 13–14: Grand Prix Denver
·       Oct. 27–28: Grand Prix Lille
·       Nov. 3–4: Grand Prix Atlanta
·       Nov. 9–11: Pro Tour "Spaghetti" in Atlanta
·       Nov. 17–18: Grand Prix Milwaukee
·       Dec. 8–9: Grand Prix Liverpool
·       Dec. 14–16: World Magic Cup in Barcelona, Spain
 
2018 Magic Online Championship Series and other events
Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is here.   In addition, Wizards will be offering these special formats:
·       February 21–28: Theros Phantom Flashback
·       February 28–March 16: Legacy Cube
·       March 16–April 4: Masters 25
·       April 4–20: Modern Cube
 
Magic Online Format Challenges
These are high stakes events that happen every weekend.   They cost 25 Tix / 250 play points, and last a number of rounds based on participation (assume 5-8), plus a single elimination Top 8. Details, including prize payouts, are here. Start times are:
 

Event Type
Start Time
Saturday, 8:00 am PT
Saturday, 10:00 am PT
Saturday, 12:00 pm PT
Sunday, 8:00 am PT
Sunday, 10:00 am PT

 
Opinion Section:  Dryad Arbor
Last weekend, at least one high-profile player got stung by not realizing that the “Forest” mixed in with an opponent’s lands was a Dryad Arbor. This is hardly a rare occurrence. Pretty much every judge that has worked a Modern or Legacy event has had judge calls involving a Dryad Arbor that was mistaken for a Forest. To see why, take a look:
 
 
The Future Sight Dryad Arbor is indeed both a Forest and a Creature. However, it was the only “Forest” in the “Future” frame. This meant that the card was immediately recognizable to anyone playing seriously in formats where Dryad Arbor was or is legal.  Players quickly learn to recognize the Future Sight Dryad Arbor – it was hard to mistake.  
 
The From the Vault: Realms version of Dryad Arbor is another story. That card looks like just another of the hundred plus version of foil Forests in print. Players mistake the card for a basic Forest all they time. Sometimes they are tricked when their opponents pull a blocker out of the lands pile. Sometimes players try to tap the land for G when the land has summoning sickness, or when Blood Moon is in play. Sometimes Dryad Arbor lives through Damnation or Pyroclasm when it should have died. And on and on.
 
Sometimes this happens because the players – either the Dryad Arbor’s owner, or the opponent, or both – genuinely mistook the card for a Forest. Sometimes stuff like this happens because someone is cheating. As a judge, I hate having to make that call. Way too often it is not clear if this was a legitimate mistake, but if I suspect that the player should have know, or that the mistake was not that reasonable, then I have no choice but to disqualify the player for cheating. Which sucks. I may end up writing, in the DQ report, that I was not sure, but the standard for a DQ is not “innocent unless proven guilty,” but what the preponderance of the evidence shows. So sometimes I issue a DQ and wonder, for a long time afterwards, if I was right. All judges do – and that’s why judges hate cards, like the FTV Arbor, that put us in that position.   
 
As a judge, I want to be able to watch games from a slight distance, and be able to see the board state clearly. I don’t want to have to loom, or disturb the players. I don’t want to have to get close enough to read the name on cards. It distracts players. 
 
As a player, I want to be able to spend all my mental resources thinking about the game state. I don’t want to have to waste resources checking that what look like basic lands are basic lands. I don’t want a judge distracting me or my opponent, or have a judge calling attention to any of my cards by taking a really close look. 
 
I have heard people argue that, if players play creatures in front of lands, that solves the problem. Yes, if Wizards clearly defines which area a creature/land belongs in, and how to treat creature lands and mana artifacts that can turn into creatures. If all judges get really picky about enforcing that rule. I can tell you that, based on years of experience, players hate having judges get really picky about having judges do that. As a player, I hate it. Judges should concentrate on things that actually matter.
 
In my opinion, Wizards should never have printed the FTV: Realms version of Dryad Arbor with that art and text box. I said that when FTV: Realms was spoiled, and I still say it.   Most judges agree with me.  But wishing something had not happened is pointless – the question is what, if anything, does Wizards do about it now.
 
We have precedents for this. The oldest has to be the misprinted Wald – a German language Forest that had the art of a Plains. (You can see a high-quality scan in this article.)   Back in those days, basic lands didn’t have the large mana symbol; they had a line of text that said “[tap symbol] to add [mana symbol] to your mana pool.” That line, including the mana symbol, was in small font, and it was really easy to mistake that misprinted Forest for a Plains. In the end, Wizards banned that particular version of Forest from competitive play. It is still banned.
 
A different, but similar, problem occurred when foils were first introduced, way back in Saga block. Foils were physically heavier than regular cards (unscrupulous card dealers were weighing sealed packs to find foils, back in the day.) Foils also tended to warp if the air was at all humid.  This warping meant that you could cut to a foil every time, even without trying to. And that’s a problem. (Sometimes still is.) As a judge, I have had to give out some serious penalties for Marked Cards, Major back then, and more recently. I never play foils in competitive events, if I can possibly avoid it. 
 
Finally, Wizards has banned cards before, not because they were necessarily broken but because they messed with tournaments too much. The most recent examples are probably the banning of Second Sunrise to kill the “Eggs” deck in Modern, and banning Sensei's Divining Top in Legacy.   In both cases, the primary cause of the banning was that the cards slowed play, causing rounds to go to time and tournaments to run too long. 
 
Wizards can ban the From the Vault: Realms version of Dryad Arbor from tournament play.  They would have to slightly rewrite the language on legal and illegal cards to include a ban on “misleading” cards. That language would probably list specific cards that were banned as a result – with FTV: Realms Dryad Arbor leading the list. For now, it and Wald might be the entire list. But such a banning is the least bad option. Strictly enforcing the “lands below creatures” rule, or having players continue to mistake Dryad Arbor for a basic land, are both worse options.
 
If Wizards wanted to be nice, they could set up an exchange program where players could send in a playset of FTV: Realms versions of Dryad Arbor and be sent a playset of new, tournament-legal Dryad Arbors. There is precedent for this, from back in Saga block. More importantly, Wizards should be proactive in ensuring that any tournament organizers that run events where Dryad Arbor is legal would have access to enough legal versions for the players at the event. They don’t have to be free, but they have to be available.   
 
Cutting Edge Tech
Standard: Another Modern GP, but we have seen a number of Standard PPTQs happening around the world. Here’s a decklist that has appeared in various places online and off.  It appears that Sram has found a home.
 
UW Auras
Tristan Lebon, Winner, Standard PPTQ Eindhoven - 75 Cards Total

Creature
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Adorned Pouncer
3 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Sacred Cat
12 cards

Instant
2 Sheltering Light

Enchantment
1 Trial of Solidarity
3 Baffling End
3 Legion's Landing
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 (Curious Obsession)
9 cards
Land
7 Plains
4 Island
2 Shefet Dunes
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
20 cards
 

Sideboard
2 Slash of Talons
2 Squire's Devotion
2 Dive Down
2 Fragmentize
2 Spell Pierce
4 Negate
1 Baffling End
15 cards

Modern
: GP Lyons was the dead version of the Modern format, so I’m going to ignore that. The MTGO Modern Challenge, however, featured Jace TMS and Bloodbriad Elf.  The Top 32 had 4 Burn decks (including 2 in the Finals), Grixis Death Shadow, Grixis control with Jace, Living End, taking Turns (with Jace), 2 BR Hollow Ones, 2 Dredge, 2 Humans and lots of other stuff.   Here are the decklists from the Modern Challenge, and I do have a burn deck.

Pauper
: Here’s a combo Pauper deck. The combo is attacking with Tireless Tribe, pumping it bunch, then flipping power and toughness with Inside Out. I have not had a ton of luck with this deck, but Billster47 took this to 5-0.
 
Tireless Rift
BILLSTER47, 5-0 Pauper Constructed League - 75 Cards Total
Creature
3 Augur of Bolas
4 Tireless Tribe
7 cards

Instant
4 Brainstorm
4 Circular Logic
1 Daze
3 Dispel
1 Gigadrowse
4 Gush
4 Inside Out
4 Shadow Rift
25 cards
Sorcery
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
10 cards
Land
3 Ash Barrens
3 Evolving Wilds
10 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
18 cards


Sideboard
1 Dispel
1 Gigadrowse
1 Apostle's Blessing
2 Gut Shot
4 Hydroblast
3 Piracy Charm
2 Standard Bearer
1 Vapor Snag
15 cards

Legacy
: Last weekend’s MTGO Legacy Challenge featured a fairly diverse Atop 8, with Dragon Stompy, UR Delver, two copies of Grixis Pyromancer, Death and Taxes, 4color control, and two copies of Storm.
 
 
Vintage: No large Vintage events, so I’m looking through the Vintage Challenge decklists once again.
 
 
Card Prices
Note: all my prices come from the fine folks at MTGOTraders.com. These are retail prices, and generally the price of the lowest priced, actively traded version. (Prices for some rare promo versions are not updated when not in stock, so I skip those.)   You can get these cards at MTGOTraders.com web store, or from their bots: MTGOTradersBot(#) (they have bots 1-10), CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or sell cards to MTGOTradersBuyBot(#) (they have buybots 1-4). I have bought cards from MTGOTraders for over a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.
 
Standard Staples: Standard prices are generally down this week. I trimmed a couple cards, and may trim more. Very few Standard cards have any value. 
 

Standard Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$3.77
$6.27
($2.50)
-40%
$11.23
$11.39
($0.16)
-1%
$28.37
$27.90
$0.47
2%
$4.78
$7.48
($2.70)
-36%
$6.39
$6.50
($0.11)
-2%
$18.60
$17.87
$0.73
4%
$4.13
$5.70
($1.57)
-28%
$30.59
$31.40
($0.81)
-3%
$6.65
$7.27
($0.62)
-9%
$5.24
$5.29
($0.05)
-1%
$35.61
$37.82
($2.21)
-6%
$15.20
$12.96
$2.24
17%
$10.74
$10.13
$0.61
6%
$11.10
$9.39
$1.71
18%

Modern staples:  Modern got a huge shake-up, but people appear to have decided that the format may survive.  Prices are generally up. 
 

Modern Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$27.12
$23.45
$3.67
16%
$26.52
$22.80
$3.72
16%
$25.40
$37.11
($11.71)
-32%
$24.99
$23.30
$1.69
7%
$27.66
$30.06
($2.40)
-8%
$23.69
$22.80
$0.89
4%
$30.05
$29.06
$0.99
3%
$27.65
$22.04
$5.61
25%
$21.41
$17.88
$3.53
20%
$32.91
$29.77
$3.14
11%
$43.01
$40.36
$2.65
7%
$29.17
$30.01
($0.84)
-3%
$71.35
$69.03
$2.32
3%
$71.81
$66.27
$5.54
8%
$42.49
$35.99
$6.50
18%
$46.31
$45.36
$0.95
2%
$24.02
$18.08
$5.94
33%
$28.41
$26.79
$1.62
6%
$15.92
$14.52
$1.40
10%
$33.14
$32.21
$0.93
3%
$47.66
$35.77
$11.89
33%

Legacy and Vintage: Legacy and Vintage both slipped this week. We need some more activity in this area
 

Legacy / Vintage Cards
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
$31.92
$31.91
$0.01
0%
$18.89
$21.33
($2.44)
-11%
$18.20
$16.91
$1.29
8%
$22.35
$22.55
($0.20)
-1%
$19.28
$19.69
($0.41)
-2%
$40.43
$44.13
($3.70)
-8%
$35.04
$37.02
($1.98)
-5%
$26.70
$25.95
$0.75
3%
$40.47
$40.47
$0.00
0%
$14.61
$15.92
($1.31)
-8%
$20.62
$21.67
($1.05)
-5%
$32.10
$30.81
$1.29
4%
$26.37
$25.63
$0.74
3%
$75.96
$75.49
$0.47
1%
$16.21
$15.10
$1.11
7%
$17.03
$15.85
$1.18
7%
$34.42
$35.70
($1.28)
-4%

Standard Legal Sets: This table tracks the cost of a single copy of every card in each Standard legal set, plus Treasure Chests and the current booster pack. I’ll keep tracking these because they are interesting (at least to me).   
 

Complete Set
Price
Last Week
Change
% Change
Aether Revolt
$70.16
$69.36
$0.80
1%
Amonkhet
$83.40
$81.24
$2.16
3%
Ixalan
$73.85
$72.86
$0.99
1%
Hour of Devastation
$74.04
$74.15
($0.11)
0%
Kaladesh
$102.27
$93.44
$8.83
9%
Rivals of Ixalan
$74.80
$79.57
($4.77)
-6%
Treasure Chest
$2.57
$2.54
$0.03
1%
Ixalan Booster
$4.03
$4.07
($0.04)
-1%
Rivals of Ixalan Booster
$2.85
$3.02
($0.17)
-6%

 
The Good Stuff
The following is a list of all the non-promo, non-foil cards on MTGO that retail for more than $25 per card. These are the big ticket items in the world of MTGO.  Jace, TMS has slipped to third place, behind the Black Lotus with the good art and True-Name Nemesis.
 

Name
Set
Rarity
 Price
Black Lotus
 1E
Rare
 $ 111.06
True-Name Nemesis
 PZ1
Mythic Rare
 $   77.01
True-Name Nemesis
 C13
Rare
 $   75.96
Liliana of the Veil
 MM3
Mythic Rare
 $   74.68
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
 EMA
Mythic Rare
 $   72.63
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
 WWK
Mythic Rare
 $   72.25
Liliana of the Veil
 ISD
Mythic Rare
 $   71.81
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
 VMA
Mythic Rare
 $   71.35
Mox Sapphire
 1E
Rare
 $   67.07
Force of Will
 MED
Rare
 $   65.24
Ancestral Recall
 1E
Rare
 $   61.15
Mox Ruby
 1E
Rare
 $   54.15
Mox Emerald
 1E
Rare
 $   52.45
Tarmogoyf
 FUT
Rare
 $   49.94
Mox Opal
 MS2
Bonus
 $   49.81
Mox Jet
 1E
Rare
 $   48.69
Wasteland
 TE
Uncommon
 $   48.05
Tarmogoyf
 MM3
Mythic Rare
 $   47.92
Tarmogoyf
 MM2
Mythic Rare
 $   47.91
Mox Opal
 MM2
Mythic Rare
 $   47.88
Mox Diamond
 TPR
Mythic Rare
 $   47.86
Tarmogoyf
 MMA
Mythic Rare
 $   47.66
Mox Opal
 SOM
Mythic Rare
 $   46.31
Karn Liberated
 NPH
Mythic Rare
 $   44.12
Mox Pearl
 1E
Rare
 $   43.79
Karn Liberated
 MM2
Mythic Rare
 $   43.01
Wasteland
 TPR
Rare
 $   42.87
Liliana, the Last Hope
 EMN
Mythic Rare
 $   42.49
Force of Will
 EMA
Mythic Rare
 $   42.22
Time Walk
 1E
Rare
 $   41.15
Misdirection
 MM
Rare
 $   40.47
Exploration
 UZ
Rare
 $   40.43
Wasteland
 EXP
Mythic Rare
 $   37.53
Force of Will
 MS3
Special
 $   37.17
The Scarab God
 MS3
Special
 $   36.16
Unmask
 V16
Mythic Rare
 $   35.88
The Scarab God
 HOU
Mythic Rare
 $   35.61
Force of Will
 VMA
Rare
 $   35.04
Wasteland
 EMA
Rare
 $   34.42
Ensnaring Bridge
 7E
Rare
 $   34.38
Horizon Canopy
 FUT
Rare
 $   34.08
Dark Depths
 V16
Mythic Rare
 $   33.93
Horizon Canopy
 EXP
Mythic Rare
 $   33.53
Surgical Extraction
 MM2
Rare
 $   33.21
Surgical Extraction
 NPH
Rare
 $   33.14
Underground Sea
 ME2
Rare
 $   33.07
Horizon Canopy
 IMA
Rare
 $   32.91
Rishadan Port
 MM
Rare
 $   32.10
Black Lotus
 VMA
Bonus
 $   31.92
Blood Moon
 MS3
Special
 $   31.70
Engineered Explosives
 5DN
Rare
 $   31.51
Engineered Explosives
 MMA
Rare
 $   31.50
Underground Sea
 ME4
Rare
 $   30.75
Rekindling Phoenix
 RIX
Mythic Rare
 $   30.59
Engineered Explosives
 MS2
Bonus
 $   30.05
Blood Moon
 8ED
Rare
 $   29.68
Scalding Tarn
 EXP
Mythic Rare
 $   29.30
Kolaghan's Command
 DTK
Rare
 $   29.17
Containment Priest
 PZ1
Rare
 $   29.06
Containment Priest
 C14
Rare
 $   28.93
Scalding Tarn
 MM3
Rare
 $   28.46
Scalding Tarn
 ZEN
Rare
 $   28.41
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
 KLD
Mythic Rare
 $   28.37
Ensnaring Bridge
 MS2
Bonus
 $   28.23
Ensnaring Bridge
 8ED
Rare
 $   27.71
Collective Brutality
 EMN
Rare
 $   27.66
Ensnaring Bridge
 ST
Rare
 $   27.65
Blood Moon
 9ED
Rare
 $   27.50
Blood Moon
 MM3
Rare
 $   27.27
Gorilla Shaman
 ALL
Common
 $   27.19
Blood Moon
 MMA
Rare
 $   27.12
Cavern of Souls
 AVR
Rare
 $   26.80
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
 PZ2
Mythic Rare
 $   26.70
Cavern of Souls
 MM3
Mythic Rare
 $   26.52
Show and Tell
 UZ
Rare
 $   26.37
Celestial Colonnade
 WWK
Rare
 $   25.40
Chalice of the Void
 MRD
Rare
 $   25.25
Chalice of the Void
 MS2
Bonus
 $   25.03

 
The big number is the retail price of a playset (4 copies) of every card available on MTGO. Assuming you bought the least expensive versions available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO is approximately $ 20,380. That’s up about $800 from last week. Nice!
 
Weekly Highlights
Lots of Olympics this weekend, so not much Magic. I didn’t watch the Modern GP – solely because of the bannings.   I love watching Modern, but not when the format is irrelevant. That’s as useless as watching the last Standard event before the fall rotation. 
 
PRJ
 
“One Million Words” on MTGO 
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.

7 Comments

Can Wizards make a rule where by CottonRhetoric at Fri, 02/23/2018 - 19:46
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Can Wizards make a rule where like, you can play with the FtV Arbor, but only if you put a big ol' post-it-note inside the sleeve with it to clearly set it apart? Or is that getting a little ridiculous.

The confusing part of that by Rerepete at Sat, 02/24/2018 - 18:18
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The confusing part of that card is the tree symbol. It would have been awesome as a full art card though.

maybe by one million words at Mon, 02/26/2018 - 11:35
one million words's picture

The main concern with putting things inside sleeves is that it changes the weight and feel of the card. That creates the potential for cheating, so I'm not sure that Wizards would be willing to mandate it. I would hate to have to determine whether an insert is "too heavy" or "too stiff." But it might be an option.

How about writing on the by Paul Leicht at Mon, 02/26/2018 - 18:28
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How about writing on the sleeve itself? "This is Dryad Arbor", etc

re by Hearts at Sun, 02/25/2018 - 21:08
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"...the standard for a DQ is not “innocent unless proven guilty,” but what the preponderance of the evidence shows. So sometimes I issue a DQ and wonder, for a long time afterwards, if I was right."

There is no inherent opposition between not having "innocent unless proven guilty" and any preponderance of evidence. Any judge who doesnt feel reasonably sure about his DQ's should rethink his choice of hobby.

...

Also: Can we see the source of the Standards for DQ's please ? Id like to read that.

FTV Dryad Arbor by stsung at Tue, 02/27/2018 - 05:19
stsung's picture

Honestly I would ban all the FTV cards from tournament play. I understand that this is rather extreme but I can always distinguish those cards and it drives me crazy. I don't play with them because I couldn't stand playing with a card I can immediately find them in any deck while not going through the cards. They are very heavy similarly to the Urza's Saga or Arena basic lands and when I approach some players about their choice of basics they are not really nice to me. It's very difficult to come to someone and try to explain that what they do is in fact cheating.

I've seen many shady things happen when Dryad Arbor was involved. Unfortunately players take advantage of that and try to hide the Arbor even though that the rules prohibit players doing that. I'd ban it so this does not continue happening.

Writing Dryad Arbor on a sleeve is not going to solve the problem either because there is also room for shady things.

Wizards Fan Content Policy by stsung at Tue, 02/27/2018 - 06:35
stsung's picture

When I wanted to 'publish' or rather share Magic: The Gathering Collected Stories I was trying to find some information about whether this is possible or not. I bothered several different ORCs about it and most told me 'I'm not a lawyer, I'm not going to help you' but 2 of them in the end linked me to the Fan Content Policy that in theory allows it, but it is not really that clear either. So I bugged them few more times getting the same information.

When I was talking about this to others they also gave me StarCityGames as an example and asked how it is possible they use Wizards trademarked stuff and illustrations etc on their website and there is content behind a paywall... There are actually three as far as I know policies or how to call that regarding the use of trademarked stuff and other things like images etc. and StarCityGames most probably is one under one of them.

Example, as a WPN store owner I was allowed to use more stuff than a normal person. This included the use of Magic: The Gathering logo to promote events. But for example it was not allowed to use that logo on t-shirts for example or in videos. For that a WPN store would have to 'request a permission to use'. You need to submit that through Wizards Customer Support and it can take up to 6 weeks to get an answer. If you don't get it...it means you didn't get the approval and if yes, you can use it for the one specific thing you requested.

EDIT: I also wish some cards would exist in non-foil version (the new legendary creature from Commander).