I just wanted to comment on the P1P1 exercise at the end of the article. I'm not a particularly strong Z/Z/Z drafter yet, but from what I can see the only first-pick-quality cards in the pack are:
Emeria Angel
Trusty Machete
I know the Lynx and Harrow can be amazing but they're not cards I'm exactly thrilled to take first overall.
The Machete makes virtually any deck in this format better, and can turn filler creatures into absolute threats on the board. The Angel has a more dramatic effect and can really take over a game for you.
So to me, what it actually comes down to if you want to take the stronger card and force white (keeping in mind of course that the Angel is not splashable and will be a wasted pick if you end up not playing white as a main color), or take the equipment that slides into any deck you draft?
This is more of a personality-check, "what kind of drafter are you?" situation, and I take the bomb every time. My perspective being that if I don't end up using the Angel, then yeah that sucks, but I will be drafting 44 other cards that better make up a strong deck on their own regardless. Otherwise I would have lost even if I had the Angel in my deck.
HOWEVER, if the pack was loaded with other white and had say, a Journey to Nowhere and a Kor Skyfisher, I wouldn't consider the Angel and let the others downstream fight for the white cards. But if I'm trying to force White, I'm not too concerned about shipping a single Lynx downstream.
Nice article! I have to say, having recently drafted a W/R deck that played out analagous to the B/R deck you played in round 2, I don't know if I like your decision to attack while you're on nine life there rather than potentially trading. It comes down to a question of how good you think your late game is vs. your opponent's, and while I can appreciate the argument that this clunker is going to win early or not-at-all, the truth is that at this stage of the game you're not going to outrace your opponent and you're so far behind that your only hope is to get to the late game with a life total close to the one you're at, and cross your fingers that you somehow draw better than Villain does. The biggest takeaway I got from my WR deck was that my opponents thought they were holding the ground with a guy, or sometimes even two guys, when in fact any non-creature spell was going to mean a blowout, whether it was Burst Lightning or Journey or Mark of Mutiny. Given that you're not even close to stabilized and that there's such a broad life gap, I just don't see how you can race successfully.
Oh, and I take Angel out of that pack in a heartbeat. Harrow is fine, Machete is amazing and may actually be the pick, but a cheap 3/3 flyer with a bonus in a world of 2/2s would trump for me.
lol, nothing is wrong with it persay. Because of the deck generator not recognizing Zendikar yet I had to manually move the Misty Rainforests into the land category and i think i inadvertently messed with the causing the odd formatting.
machete, although i like the lynx and angel, passing both seems to ensure to set up competition in white down the line, and machete is probably more of a bomb anyway.
Hey what's wrong with my fish list? It looks really strange!
After the tournament I had a game with AJ and that game thought me a lesson which was to play 4x Wasteland instead of that 1 random copy. So the mana base is now 4x Wasteland, 3x Misty Rainforest, 3x Scalding Tarn and 10x Island. The rest is the same.
You've brought up a counter argument and answered it in basically the same way I would have answered it.
Let me just add that Classic packs would not be openable, so the older sets would remain out-of-print, and dealers couldn't open tons of packs to flood the market with cards from a high demand set.
Even if this was widely successful, it wouldn't have that much of an impact on card supply and secondary prices. The major impact would be to reduce the time players spend in older draft queues.
Demand drives prices much more than supply. With more classic drafts I'd bet there would be higher demand in the formats that need classic cards, and/or payout in classic packs. (pauper, classic, and 100 singleton) This would mitagate the prices of most cards, except for some of the rarer pauper commons such as Armadillo Cloak and Exclude. Honestly I don't think that would be such a bad thing...
Actually Eldrazi Monument and Day of Judgment go together like Shields and Yarnell, like Mac and Cheese, like Siegfried and Roy. The monument makes your guys indestructible, so Day just wipes the other guy. Perfect! I'm thinking about slipping a monument into my mono-white Angels deck, it's already got a Day of Judgment. (Now I just need to crack or trade for a few more of those!)
Actually Eldrazi Monument and Day of Judgment go together like Shields and Yarnell, like Mac and Cheese, like Siegfried and Roy. The monument makes your guys indestructible, so Day just wipes the other guy. Perfect! I'm thinking about slipping a monument into my mono-white Angels deck, it's already got a Day of Judgment. (Now I just need to crack or trade for a few more of those!)
My sense is that Standard drives pricing more than any other format, especially for a heavily-opened set like Zendikar. Extended and beyond players need Misty Rainforest, but competitive Standard players don't, while the other fetches are needed by both players.
I play a decent amount of casual extended, and I recently filled out my playsets of filter lands and Reflecting Pool--42 lands total--for about 95 tickets. That's a telling sign of how being irrelevant to competitive Standard affects card prices...
The "Classic Pack" idea is genius. It’s also something only a MODO player would think of: a Schrödinger’s Pack whose contents can become whatever you need them to be. I would be ALL OVER THIS.
But there’s one big problem: the sets are Out-of-Print for a reason. Classic Packs would bring down the value of Out-of-Print cards. Wizards has been willing to “create” more IPA for tournaments because it was the old set in standard when MTGO came out and there’s very little of it going around – so little that it warps prices and even metagames. So there’s a precedent for reprinting out-of-print sets there. But it still goes against the basic Magic/MODO business plan, and could be seen as hurting the dealers.
However, I think that although older limited formats would be MUCH more popular with a Classic Pack system, I doubt enough packs will be cracked to bring down the value of older cards by all that much. We’re talking about queues that don’t fire that often for a few weeks a year versus the massive numbers of limited tournaments that fire for sets that are actually in print. And if the value of cards ever DOES become an issue, like if there’s too much Mirroden getting cracked, WotC can just stop running Mirroden events. Also, the ever-growing MODO player base will probably necessitate reprints of older cards someday anyway, and Classic Packs could do it.
Overall, it’s an awesome idea that Wizards should consider. I’d love to see an article or two exploring this idea further.
Any idea why misty rainforest is so much cheaper than the other fetches? I'd've though demand from eternal players would make it one of the most expensive ones..
RE: 1) - This scenario has happened to me. I helped my opponent out with Alt+U and he beat me because of it. Granted it was a swiss draft, but still, it happens.
I think communities form around the less crowded formats and that helps the social part of the game a bit.
I also think you are lucky to have an active clan that actually does useful things. I don't think that's the normal or typical case.
Wouldn't there be a problem with bullying, trash talking, and other things if you introduced voice to games.
I know right now it's pretty easy to enforce no swearing, or verbal abuse and that kind of thing, because there is a record of it and players can easily get screen shots of abuse and report particularly egregious behavior.
How would that work with voice?
Are you going to discipline someone because they let an F*bomb slip after losing in a surprising or disheartening way?
People can monitor what they type pretty easily and self-censor themselves for the most part. With vocal communication I'm not sure that is the case. I'm not even sure if the technology is available and cheap enough to monitor vocal communication for TOS violations.
I like the idea of vocal communication in games, but I think it opens up a can of worms that WotC may not want to open....
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
I find it interesting that you are making a Kor deck without Kor Skyfisher or Kor Aeronaut. Both of these seem better to me than Cliff Threader, and they are really inexpensive.
Also, Brave the Elements, Cliff Threader, and Devout Lightcaster seem more like sideboard cards than main deck cards. Although with all of the vampires running around, I can see the usefulness of presideboarding both the Lightcaster and Brave the Elements.
Katastrophe mentioned that in my article on social etiquette online and I have to say I disagree. Id say it is harder perhaps to multitask between mouse clicking and typing but the tasks are related and doable. I agree though that some people find this more daunting and prefer to not bother when given a choice. I still think of it as a cop out though. A voice interface of some kind would be nice. I wonder how much bandwidth that would eat up but as long as it wasn't ridiculous it shouldn't cause too much load. The other side of that is what do you say to someone who doesn't have a mic/headset?
I think one of the problems with socializing on MTGO is the fact that you can't chat while you play. You have to stop playing to type. If MTGO had an OPTIONAL, OPT-IN voice chat, then you could chat while you play, and it'd I think have an instantaneous effect of the sociability of all casual games, especially multiplayer.
Nice article, with regards to classic drafts I'd like there to be a random draft where you pay 14 tickets and get three random boosters packs from all the sets past and present that have been released on MTGO or you can enter with 3 boosters of your choice and the two tickets as per the norm.
Hello Godot!
I just wanted to comment on the P1P1 exercise at the end of the article. I'm not a particularly strong Z/Z/Z drafter yet, but from what I can see the only first-pick-quality cards in the pack are:
Emeria Angel
Trusty Machete
I know the Lynx and Harrow can be amazing but they're not cards I'm exactly thrilled to take first overall.
The Machete makes virtually any deck in this format better, and can turn filler creatures into absolute threats on the board. The Angel has a more dramatic effect and can really take over a game for you.
So to me, what it actually comes down to if you want to take the stronger card and force white (keeping in mind of course that the Angel is not splashable and will be a wasted pick if you end up not playing white as a main color), or take the equipment that slides into any deck you draft?
This is more of a personality-check, "what kind of drafter are you?" situation, and I take the bomb every time. My perspective being that if I don't end up using the Angel, then yeah that sucks, but I will be drafting 44 other cards that better make up a strong deck on their own regardless. Otherwise I would have lost even if I had the Angel in my deck.
HOWEVER, if the pack was loaded with other white and had say, a Journey to Nowhere and a Kor Skyfisher, I wouldn't consider the Angel and let the others downstream fight for the white cards. But if I'm trying to force White, I'm not too concerned about shipping a single Lynx downstream.
Nice article! I have to say, having recently drafted a W/R deck that played out analagous to the B/R deck you played in round 2, I don't know if I like your decision to attack while you're on nine life there rather than potentially trading. It comes down to a question of how good you think your late game is vs. your opponent's, and while I can appreciate the argument that this clunker is going to win early or not-at-all, the truth is that at this stage of the game you're not going to outrace your opponent and you're so far behind that your only hope is to get to the late game with a life total close to the one you're at, and cross your fingers that you somehow draw better than Villain does. The biggest takeaway I got from my WR deck was that my opponents thought they were holding the ground with a guy, or sometimes even two guys, when in fact any non-creature spell was going to mean a blowout, whether it was Burst Lightning or Journey or Mark of Mutiny. Given that you're not even close to stabilized and that there's such a broad life gap, I just don't see how you can race successfully.
Oh, and I take Angel out of that pack in a heartbeat. Harrow is fine, Machete is amazing and may actually be the pick, but a cheap 3/3 flyer with a bonus in a world of 2/2s would trump for me.
lol, nothing is wrong with it persay. Because of the deck generator not recognizing Zendikar yet I had to manually move the Misty Rainforests into the land category and i think i inadvertently messed with the causing the odd formatting.
machete, although i like the lynx and angel, passing both seems to ensure to set up competition in white down the line, and machete is probably more of a bomb anyway.
Lynxeseses?
Hey what's wrong with my fish list? It looks really strange!
After the tournament I had a game with AJ and that game thought me a lesson which was to play 4x Wasteland instead of that 1 random copy. So the mana base is now 4x Wasteland, 3x Misty Rainforest, 3x Scalding Tarn and 10x Island. The rest is the same.
LE
You've brought up a counter argument and answered it in basically the same way I would have answered it.
Let me just add that Classic packs would not be openable, so the older sets would remain out-of-print, and dealers couldn't open tons of packs to flood the market with cards from a high demand set.
Even if this was widely successful, it wouldn't have that much of an impact on card supply and secondary prices. The major impact would be to reduce the time players spend in older draft queues.
Demand drives prices much more than supply. With more classic drafts I'd bet there would be higher demand in the formats that need classic cards, and/or payout in classic packs. (pauper, classic, and 100 singleton) This would mitagate the prices of most cards, except for some of the rarer pauper commons such as Armadillo Cloak and Exclude. Honestly I don't think that would be such a bad thing...
I you wanted to have it so that Classic packs can't be cracked, then this could allow WotC to live up to the idea that the sets are "out of print"
Actually Eldrazi Monument and Day of Judgment go together like Shields and Yarnell, like Mac and Cheese, like Siegfried and Roy. The monument makes your guys indestructible, so Day just wipes the other guy. Perfect! I'm thinking about slipping a monument into my mono-white Angels deck, it's already got a Day of Judgment. (Now I just need to crack or trade for a few more of those!)
Actually Eldrazi Monument and Day of Judgment go together like Shields and Yarnell, like Mac and Cheese, like Siegfried and Roy. The monument makes your guys indestructible, so Day just wipes the other guy. Perfect! I'm thinking about slipping a monument into my mono-white Angels deck, it's already got a Day of Judgment. (Now I just need to crack or trade for a few more of those!)
My sense is that Standard drives pricing more than any other format, especially for a heavily-opened set like Zendikar. Extended and beyond players need Misty Rainforest, but competitive Standard players don't, while the other fetches are needed by both players.
I play a decent amount of casual extended, and I recently filled out my playsets of filter lands and Reflecting Pool--42 lands total--for about 95 tickets. That's a telling sign of how being irrelevant to competitive Standard affects card prices...
The "Classic Pack" idea is genius. It’s also something only a MODO player would think of: a Schrödinger’s Pack whose contents can become whatever you need them to be. I would be ALL OVER THIS.
But there’s one big problem: the sets are Out-of-Print for a reason. Classic Packs would bring down the value of Out-of-Print cards. Wizards has been willing to “create” more IPA for tournaments because it was the old set in standard when MTGO came out and there’s very little of it going around – so little that it warps prices and even metagames. So there’s a precedent for reprinting out-of-print sets there. But it still goes against the basic Magic/MODO business plan, and could be seen as hurting the dealers.
However, I think that although older limited formats would be MUCH more popular with a Classic Pack system, I doubt enough packs will be cracked to bring down the value of older cards by all that much. We’re talking about queues that don’t fire that often for a few weeks a year versus the massive numbers of limited tournaments that fire for sets that are actually in print. And if the value of cards ever DOES become an issue, like if there’s too much Mirroden getting cracked, WotC can just stop running Mirroden events. Also, the ever-growing MODO player base will probably necessitate reprints of older cards someday anyway, and Classic Packs could do it.
Overall, it’s an awesome idea that Wizards should consider. I’d love to see an article or two exploring this idea further.
Any idea why misty rainforest is so much cheaper than the other fetches? I'd've though demand from eternal players would make it one of the most expensive ones..
RE: 1) - This scenario has happened to me. I helped my opponent out with Alt+U and he beat me because of it. Granted it was a swiss draft, but still, it happens.
I think communities form around the less crowded formats and that helps the social part of the game a bit.
I also think you are lucky to have an active clan that actually does useful things. I don't think that's the normal or typical case.
Wouldn't there be a problem with bullying, trash talking, and other things if you introduced voice to games.
I know right now it's pretty easy to enforce no swearing, or verbal abuse and that kind of thing, because there is a record of it and players can easily get screen shots of abuse and report particularly egregious behavior.
How would that work with voice?
Are you going to discipline someone because they let an F*bomb slip after losing in a surprising or disheartening way?
People can monitor what they type pretty easily and self-censor themselves for the most part. With vocal communication I'm not sure that is the case. I'm not even sure if the technology is available and cheap enough to monitor vocal communication for TOS violations.
I like the idea of vocal communication in games, but I think it opens up a can of worms that WotC may not want to open....
Sorry for the triple post, stupid computer lag.
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
1. Would this scenario ever play out? If a new player is playing in a tournament I would of hoped they know the basic function of the game before they fork over cash to enter a tourney with serious prizes. Having said all that, I would help them out as I don't think some of the basic functions of the game would cause me to lose. If I have to spend valuable time teaching them all the functions such as priority and stuff, then yea I might get a little irritated as that isn't the time for them to be learning.
2. I have helped several new players, some receptive to my help, some not so nice about it lol.
3. Yes, I have donated many commons, uncommons and even some rares. Several times I have had my friends sign up and given them many cards. I had my cousin sign up and my clan actually helped me start his collection, one teammate even donated a mana crypt and necropotence which was super cool.
4. Most of the games I play in casual are enjoyable, I don't play there as much as I used to though.
5. Very seldom, usually it is because they concede due to poor draws or they don't like the cards I am playing.
6. Quite a few times, the classic community is a very cool group of people and it is always nice to talk to new people in your format or even talk with people you have never communicated with before.
7. Usually trash talk comes when I draw the card I put in my deck, aka "The Top Deck" Just like in poker, sometimes you get that suck out, it's part of the game, deal with it people. Disconnects haven't happened to me for awhile, probably because I mostly play classic or draft, that stuff tends to happen more in casual or occassionally in draft. Many of times people are quiet and don't communicate at all, which I am perfectly fine with. Small talk is overrated, I am here for the game, if I wanted to socialize I wouldn't be picking an online gaming community to fulfill that desire.
I think you miss the ball on the clan thing. Maybe it is just our clan, but Magic Eternal is very beneficial to me as a player. Yes we don't have team tournaments, but most of the people in the clan are focused on classic which helps when you are testing or working on card selection for tournaments.
Maybe you should try to find a clan that is focused on your needs/desires you seek from the game, then you will find the clan option a little more beneficial.
I play Call of Duty all the times, new game is sick btw. Here is the problem with COD, even when me and my friends get online to play together we often times find ourselves doing our own thing in the game.
Just my 2 cents. I will miss the articles with your analysis because I can't view Wizards website at work.
My Kor list looks like this:
22 Lands
3x Arid Mesa
3x Marsh Flats
1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
15x Plains
24 Creatures
4x Kor Aeronaut
4x Kor Skyfisher
4x Kor Hookmaster
4x Armament Master
4x Kor Duelist
4x Kor Outfitter
14 Other Spells
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Adventuring Gear
4x Trusty Machete
2x Brave the Elements
Nothing extraordinary but it works very well, at least in the casual room. Especially Kor Duelist can deal huge damage in no time if left unchecked.
LE
I find it interesting that you are making a Kor deck without Kor Skyfisher or Kor Aeronaut. Both of these seem better to me than Cliff Threader, and they are really inexpensive.
Also, Brave the Elements, Cliff Threader, and Devout Lightcaster seem more like sideboard cards than main deck cards. Although with all of the vampires running around, I can see the usefulness of presideboarding both the Lightcaster and Brave the Elements.
Katastrophe mentioned that in my article on social etiquette online and I have to say I disagree. Id say it is harder perhaps to multitask between mouse clicking and typing but the tasks are related and doable. I agree though that some people find this more daunting and prefer to not bother when given a choice. I still think of it as a cop out though. A voice interface of some kind would be nice. I wonder how much bandwidth that would eat up but as long as it wasn't ridiculous it shouldn't cause too much load. The other side of that is what do you say to someone who doesn't have a mic/headset?
I think one of the problems with socializing on MTGO is the fact that you can't chat while you play. You have to stop playing to type. If MTGO had an OPTIONAL, OPT-IN voice chat, then you could chat while you play, and it'd I think have an instantaneous effect of the sociability of all casual games, especially multiplayer.
While that is a nice idea, and I would probably try it out if it were available, it doesn't really address the main problem.
There are too many classic draft options and not enough demand for any of them to make them fire at a reasonable rate.
Nice article, with regards to classic drafts I'd like there to be a random draft where you pay 14 tickets and get three random boosters packs from all the sets past and present that have been released on MTGO or you can enter with 3 boosters of your choice and the two tickets as per the norm.
You should have called this Erik on Erik :) Nice interview, and I'm super jealous of you hanging out at wizards!