Leagues are definitely an unexploited method of propagating cards into the community. Not sure I am all for the other ideas though the 5-0 for the top 3 cards idea is funny.
I think the responses have been relatively polite considering how nasty the anons can get around these parts. But Will writes good articles and I think people usually agree with that and so perhaps are not quite as negative as they might otherwise be. On the other hand I expect some people look at statistical analysis of magic as something outré. I know it makes my head hurt when I think too much about the probabilities of this or that. And frankly most of the time such analysis doesn't matter but occasionally in situations like this it is an amusing exercise and also a chance to question our fundamental beliefs about how the game should be played. This can only be a good thing but it is not going to happen without controversy.
Nothing for nothing, I have no college credits at all. However I can conceive of being able to thoroughly research and write about the Spartan Wars in an entertaining and informative way. One thing really doesn't have anything to do with the other, except in public perception. People tend to think as you do that without a degree your knowledge/expertise in any field is worthless and that is because universities charge tons of money to maintain that way of thinking. It isn't really true, though I will say nothing substitutes for a good teacher except an amazing one.
I agree that the marketplace on Exodus singles is depressing. I've got more $20 Tundras (two) and $3 fetchlands (10+ ZEN, 2 ONS) than I do $3 Manabonds (zero). And I just bought a $26 Mox Diamond today! I'm hardcore at this marketplace stuff, and even I stopped trying to buy Exodus cards. They're a waste of my precious 255 characters. (I'm a human, not a store, and I only buy cards for myself, never to speculate. And I still considered opening a second account and two-boxing MTGO just to have two marketplace ads!)
The real problem is that WoTC burns unsold digital cards. I made this post concerning ME1, too. In paper, let's say you have a miserable set like Champions of Kamigawa. An unsold box of that might be $50-60 now. No one wants it, but the fact that it exists keeps those singles prices low. ME1 is in a similar boat. We only crack ME1 packs begrudgingly. But unlike Kamigawa, we don't have the option of drafting a block from two years ago on a budget.
Wizards has a major problem coming up with Masques and the solution to that problem is relevant today. In paper, Masques sold because we didn't know it had a low power level yet, it was Standard legal, and why not buy some of the new set am I right? And then sales quickly dropped off - but the cards made it into existence first. And now that we know better than to buy Masques, we won't. Therefore in response to our lack of demand, WotC will either "not print" or burn the cards, and here we are. Wizards wants to give us the singles. I bet they don't even care about the events firing so much as long as they get paid. They just want to make cards available online! That's why ME2 was 'free' to draft. I think that's why they make Master's Editions with things like Sorrow's Path in them. It's all about getting the cards out there.
Ideas I Like (none of these are mine):
- Set the MSRP to match the paper MSRP ($3, $3.20, or $3.50).
- Increase the payout of certain events to include complete sets. Imagine a 32-man constructed event that cost 6 tickets. Wizards got 192 tickets. Payouts are a set for 1st and boosters for whoever else. While the payout is in Exodus that's basically a clever way of saying "go 5-0 = Oath of Druids + Rec/Sur". That will totally fire!
- Introduce a block booster to iron out any TE or ST price issues. Wizards wants you to to crack them all, anyway.
- Bring back leagues and let the casual people start cracking packs again.
You can also tell quite a bit about your opponent depending on when they crack... ...I'm kidding! I won't bring that up. Although seeing a "Hello and good luck! :)" and thinking that your opponent has a higher chance to be playing a rogue deck, yeah, maybe. I won't bank on it.
Is that video supposed to have audio? I made extra sure it wasn't muted.
Apparently, Croatia _is_ on the country list. Whatever. That was a weird thread.
The Chalice of the Void chart is noteworthy. I'd sell it now and buy it back later if I had any.
spg's old "Focus on What's Important" article is similar to what you just said about OODA. That's one of my favorite articles of all time on this site. I think you're both talking about the same thing. Not that Steve was the first person to write about it, either. Just sayin'.
The current system for introducing old sets is frustrating and bad. There are two categories of ways to improve the system.
1) Change the ways in which classic packs are distributed and used.
2) Bribe us to play classic draft and sealed deck events with very favorable prizes.
At this point, I believe that WotC is more likely to choose an option from number 2 rather than number 1. Even though they are just going to run into the same problem again in Urza's block and once again in the Mercadian Block.
The problem is that newer sets are better designed for draft and sealed environments. The main reason people draft older sets is for Nostalgia. However if you are drawn to older sets because of Nostagia, it's unlikely that you'll want to keep drafting it over and over again. Unfortunetly, that's just what the current prizes encourage you to do.
Good comments as always. I am down with the roil/gomazoa plan and should have seen/considered it. Creating, effectively, a second Gomazoa (one of the only ways I have to deal with opposing attackers besides blocking) would have been the best use for that Roil.
Clearly not my greatest "board awareness" match of all time...
I had the brilliant sugestion once to have a queue for each pack of the block available in two player... but it hasn't been implemented.
My point is... we have been getting MED3 in Classic queues since um... September? We got TSE payout for 2 weeks and we are back to MED3 payout. The only source of new TSE packs is currently TSE nix pack queues as TSE is not sold in stores. The queues (both TSe and MED3) are rarely firing. However, if Classic DEs and PEs paid out in TSe I think that it would make the TSE queues fire a little bit more...
I'm just trying to think of ways for Wotc to get more TSE into the system. and with no queues paying out TSE I don't foresee a lot of exodus drafting/sealeds firing.
Yeah, I think the abomination is great here due to land fixing, letting me run less land which is important vs. goblins, shuffling for brainstorm, and lategame win con that can be picked up with grim harvest. Back in the summer I had a teachings version that splashed white for COPs that could be fetched with shred memory, but I feel it's not necessary.
One minor update with the deck is I went -4 prohibit -1 island +4 ravenous rats +1 swamp. Rats are a great 2for1 vs. goblins since it can actually trade, and you're not really giving up much vs. control since it still forces a discard.
Speks, you're right, I forgot to mention affinity entirely. Not sure how that slipped my mind.
Actually you can tell quite a bit about your opponent's demeanor if not their nature. If someone greets you and is friendly you can infer certain things about them. Likewise if they choose to avoid chat all together you can infer other things about them. That probably doesn't matter as much as it would in paper but it does still matter imho. Though it shouldn't distract you from your primary goal. That is the problem with looping. It is meant to keep you on track but it might instead (if you are easily distracted) end up costing you valuable time until it becomes second nature. I also disagree about Dancing. The purpose of dance is social as well as athletic. It teaches grace in motion and advanced coordination. Great dancers never miss a beat for instance. I am thinking that analogy here means the intuited part of looping. The better your magic 'dancing' is, the better you will be at hitting the marks. (IE: remembering to use Sensei's Divining Top before something causes you to draw, or before something does a global wipe of artifacts.)
Anyway great article about self improvement. We can all stand some. Life's lessons are never done and this is merely one more aspect of that. I wish you luck on your goal towards Magic Nirvana.
Maybe mention affinity under synergy.
I mean how bad would affinity cards be by themselves if it weren't for synergy? that deck is just the polar extreme of synergy turning bad cards into awesome cards.
I strongly dislike the whole Nix Tix/ Nix Packs queues. I understand the need for them, but they simply divide the small amount of players interested in drafting classic sets and make it that much harder and more frustrating to get them started.
It also feels like a very poor solution to a problem. There has to be something better that WotC can try.
Before you ask, I already asked WoTC if they could make a TSE Block pack to solve that problem (like the ARB block pack) but apparently such a suggestion would take a long time to implement. Just relating what I was told.
... MOCS QP Charts!
"I still considered opening a second account and two-boxing MTGO just to have two marketplace ads!"
FYI, if you run the exe called MTGO_NET in the root Magic Online III folder, you can have two accounts open on the same PC.
Leagues are definitely an unexploited method of propagating cards into the community. Not sure I am all for the other ideas though the 5-0 for the top 3 cards idea is funny.
I think the responses have been relatively polite considering how nasty the anons can get around these parts. But Will writes good articles and I think people usually agree with that and so perhaps are not quite as negative as they might otherwise be. On the other hand I expect some people look at statistical analysis of magic as something outré. I know it makes my head hurt when I think too much about the probabilities of this or that. And frankly most of the time such analysis doesn't matter but occasionally in situations like this it is an amusing exercise and also a chance to question our fundamental beliefs about how the game should be played. This can only be a good thing but it is not going to happen without controversy.
Nothing for nothing, I have no college credits at all. However I can conceive of being able to thoroughly research and write about the Spartan Wars in an entertaining and informative way. One thing really doesn't have anything to do with the other, except in public perception. People tend to think as you do that without a degree your knowledge/expertise in any field is worthless and that is because universities charge tons of money to maintain that way of thinking. It isn't really true, though I will say nothing substitutes for a good teacher except an amazing one.
I agree that the marketplace on Exodus singles is depressing. I've got more $20 Tundras (two) and $3 fetchlands (10+ ZEN, 2 ONS) than I do $3 Manabonds (zero). And I just bought a $26 Mox Diamond today! I'm hardcore at this marketplace stuff, and even I stopped trying to buy Exodus cards. They're a waste of my precious 255 characters. (I'm a human, not a store, and I only buy cards for myself, never to speculate. And I still considered opening a second account and two-boxing MTGO just to have two marketplace ads!)
The real problem is that WoTC burns unsold digital cards. I made this post concerning ME1, too. In paper, let's say you have a miserable set like Champions of Kamigawa. An unsold box of that might be $50-60 now. No one wants it, but the fact that it exists keeps those singles prices low. ME1 is in a similar boat. We only crack ME1 packs begrudgingly. But unlike Kamigawa, we don't have the option of drafting a block from two years ago on a budget.
Wizards has a major problem coming up with Masques and the solution to that problem is relevant today. In paper, Masques sold because we didn't know it had a low power level yet, it was Standard legal, and why not buy some of the new set am I right? And then sales quickly dropped off - but the cards made it into existence first. And now that we know better than to buy Masques, we won't. Therefore in response to our lack of demand, WotC will either "not print" or burn the cards, and here we are. Wizards wants to give us the singles. I bet they don't even care about the events firing so much as long as they get paid. They just want to make cards available online! That's why ME2 was 'free' to draft. I think that's why they make Master's Editions with things like Sorrow's Path in them. It's all about getting the cards out there.
Ideas I Like (none of these are mine):
- Set the MSRP to match the paper MSRP ($3, $3.20, or $3.50).
- Increase the payout of certain events to include complete sets. Imagine a 32-man constructed event that cost 6 tickets. Wizards got 192 tickets. Payouts are a set for 1st and boosters for whoever else. While the payout is in Exodus that's basically a clever way of saying "go 5-0 = Oath of Druids + Rec/Sur". That will totally fire!
- Introduce a block booster to iron out any TE or ST price issues. Wizards wants you to to crack them all, anyway.
- Bring back leagues and let the casual people start cracking packs again.
But you can't see me cracking...the fine lines are hidden from my cam by special filters. :D
You can also tell quite a bit about your opponent depending on when they crack... ...I'm kidding! I won't bring that up. Although seeing a "Hello and good luck! :)" and thinking that your opponent has a higher chance to be playing a rogue deck, yeah, maybe. I won't bank on it.
Is that video supposed to have audio? I made extra sure it wasn't muted.
Apparently, Croatia _is_ on the country list. Whatever. That was a weird thread.
The Chalice of the Void chart is noteworthy. I'd sell it now and buy it back later if I had any.
spg's old "Focus on What's Important" article is similar to what you just said about OODA. That's one of my favorite articles of all time on this site. I think you're both talking about the same thing. Not that Steve was the first person to write about it, either. Just sayin'.
Lol did you buy all of them? Maybe thats why he couldn't find any.
Which queues are paying out in ME3 now? The Classic DE today paid out TSE...
I don't think you are looking hard enough. The first 6 bots i tried all had 4 manabond in stock.
I have 4x that I will sell for 7 if you contact me online.
Bought today a set of Manabond. Costly but definitly not impossible. (Avg. price was 6.5 btw.)
The current system for introducing old sets is frustrating and bad. There are two categories of ways to improve the system.
1) Change the ways in which classic packs are distributed and used.
2) Bribe us to play classic draft and sealed deck events with very favorable prizes.
At this point, I believe that WotC is more likely to choose an option from number 2 rather than number 1. Even though they are just going to run into the same problem again in Urza's block and once again in the Mercadian Block.
The problem is that newer sets are better designed for draft and sealed environments. The main reason people draft older sets is for Nostalgia. However if you are drawn to older sets because of Nostagia, it's unlikely that you'll want to keep drafting it over and over again. Unfortunetly, that's just what the current prizes encourage you to do.
Because affinity pretty much folds to Goblins/WW in the current meta, making it a bad choice... pretty obvious why it slipped your mind :)
Its actually a lot harder/more time consuming to edit dead air on a live game than a replay.
Good comments as always. I am down with the roil/gomazoa plan and should have seen/considered it. Creating, effectively, a second Gomazoa (one of the only ways I have to deal with opposing attackers besides blocking) would have been the best use for that Roil.
Clearly not my greatest "board awareness" match of all time...
I have offered to buy for up to 7 a piece. No one is selling.
I went up to 25 for Survival - nothing. I can't afford to pay more than that.
I had the brilliant sugestion once to have a queue for each pack of the block available in two player... but it hasn't been implemented.
My point is... we have been getting MED3 in Classic queues since um... September? We got TSE payout for 2 weeks and we are back to MED3 payout. The only source of new TSE packs is currently TSE nix pack queues as TSE is not sold in stores. The queues (both TSe and MED3) are rarely firing. However, if Classic DEs and PEs paid out in TSe I think that it would make the TSE queues fire a little bit more...
I'm just trying to think of ways for Wotc to get more TSE into the system. and with no queues paying out TSE I don't foresee a lot of exodus drafting/sealeds firing.
Oh yeah, next week I'm gunna show when drafts go BAD, anyway didn't you get 3rd man? gj :D
Yeah, I think the abomination is great here due to land fixing, letting me run less land which is important vs. goblins, shuffling for brainstorm, and lategame win con that can be picked up with grim harvest. Back in the summer I had a teachings version that splashed white for COPs that could be fetched with shred memory, but I feel it's not necessary.
One minor update with the deck is I went -4 prohibit -1 island +4 ravenous rats +1 swamp. Rats are a great 2for1 vs. goblins since it can actually trade, and you're not really giving up much vs. control since it still forces a discard.
Speks, you're right, I forgot to mention affinity entirely. Not sure how that slipped my mind.
Actually you can tell quite a bit about your opponent's demeanor if not their nature. If someone greets you and is friendly you can infer certain things about them. Likewise if they choose to avoid chat all together you can infer other things about them. That probably doesn't matter as much as it would in paper but it does still matter imho. Though it shouldn't distract you from your primary goal. That is the problem with looping. It is meant to keep you on track but it might instead (if you are easily distracted) end up costing you valuable time until it becomes second nature. I also disagree about Dancing. The purpose of dance is social as well as athletic. It teaches grace in motion and advanced coordination. Great dancers never miss a beat for instance. I am thinking that analogy here means the intuited part of looping. The better your magic 'dancing' is, the better you will be at hitting the marks. (IE: remembering to use Sensei's Divining Top before something causes you to draw, or before something does a global wipe of artifacts.)
Anyway great article about self improvement. We can all stand some. Life's lessons are never done and this is merely one more aspect of that. I wish you luck on your goal towards Magic Nirvana.
Maybe mention affinity under synergy.
I mean how bad would affinity cards be by themselves if it weren't for synergy? that deck is just the polar extreme of synergy turning bad cards into awesome cards.
I strongly dislike the whole Nix Tix/ Nix Packs queues. I understand the need for them, but they simply divide the small amount of players interested in drafting classic sets and make it that much harder and more frustrating to get them started.
It also feels like a very poor solution to a problem. There has to be something better that WotC can try.
Thanks, I'm glad you asked.
Before you ask, I already asked WoTC if they could make a TSE Block pack to solve that problem (like the ARB block pack) but apparently such a suggestion would take a long time to implement. Just relating what I was told.