I completely appreciate the existence of MTGOTraders. Without you Id be a lot poorer of cards and of information. I do bargain hunt when possible because I am still relatively poor in MODO but I do try and frequent your bots often.
What would really make me play more MTGO though would be if they found a way to make type 4 work. Being able to actually draft the stack would make it that much better but I would be fine with just randomized decks as well.
I guess that I would like to see WotC experiment a little more in this area because they own the "Kitchen Table" I don't think that it should have to take the effort and time that people put into Pauper to get WotC to try out some new things to see if there is interest.
I am certain you have heard that all the time you have used computers but it is still an important saying. Congrats on the $350. Color me envious and glad for you all in one.
Excellent ideas put forth in a well written article!
I do hope wizards would read and give thought to articles such as this.
As a player, I would totally play deep and fun formats like BYOS, BYOB and Block Party if they were supported.
The payout typo is fixed, but it makes this line make no sense:
"Once you've hit your third loss you can effectively stop playing as you're out of the prizes and have earned your points for the player reward program."
You're out of prizes after the second loss, not the third.
but ... that hat has to go. I appreciate the effort to update your photo (nudge Mr. Jahn - on both websites he writes for) that grin coupled with your pirate hat makes you look like some creepy 'old' guy who hangs out at the local middle school. Please either remove the hat or change photos. Pretty please?
I apologize if I misconstrued your quote. I think that when I was writing the article I found the word "completely" to be a little harsh. When used as a comment to an article it is fine, but I wasn't sure if I would get all kinds of comments saying that they don't ignore this and they don't ignore that, if I "completely" agreed with the quote as part of the article.
Yes, there is no doubt that a filter for a format makes things easier. I don't question that. When I played Pauper before it was sanctioned deck legality was always an issue because it had to be checked manually and there was no way to enforce it. Even with the best will in the world mistakes happen.
What I was trying to say, probably badly, is this. People played Pauper before it was sanctioned using just comments and good will and that is what made WotC look at it. From there it was a business decision of thiers if they wanted to sanction it or not.
We would ne be playing sanctioned Pauper today without all those good folks who put in a ton of effort supporting it with PREs and websites hadn't done all tha simply for the love of the format.
BYOS or BYOB or Block Wars might be fantastic ways to play Magic, I just don't know. What I'm trying to say is that, in my opinion, if they were that good there would be people playing them now despite the handicap of not being supported. If there are people out there playing it then I'm sorry, I just hadn't spotted you.
Part of the point of offering the format as an official option is that it would help one find games faster and get more people interested in the format, because there are a lot of people like yourself that will give things a shot and who knows there could be a lot of interest or there may not be.
The point is that WotC won't really know until they try.
Ya. I was hoping, I heard some bots were selling Mox Diamonds for 32 tix... with discount and with the time saving (time is money) i picked up my 4 this week. I then proceded to be an absolute noob in the first game and drop a mox without a LAND to discard... hmm expensive mistake. Humorous though. I thoroughly enjoyed lol at myself.
Great read as always - nice tech on the card prices as always
As Hammy already stated. Its your second option where all of the BYOS can play each other. Of course a metagame would develop. All deck builders have the same restrictions and as tournaments are offered and T8 decks are published a metagame would develop just like in every other format.
Sure these formats can be played already but it is much easier to play a format when you can select it from the option list instead of relying on the comment field. Under your scenario WotC could potentially only offer Freeform, get rid of every other format, and then let people just use the game description. I assume that you would understand how selecting a format from the list is much easier than the chaos this type of things would bring.
haha when I saw Pete's name come up in the drawing I laughed out loud because I was thinking exactly the same thing(everyone will now think the drawing is fixed). I would like to be able to take a video of me doing the drawing but the problem is it would show customer information in doing so.
Just for quick info on how I do it I put everyone's name in excel 1 time for every $50/60tix spent. I then go to random.org and use their number generator and tell them to generate a number between 1 and however many entries we have.
Either way it is funny I admit but if you look over past winners you will see there is no pattern to the winners.
I have removed the section that stated 2-2 players get boosters and points. If this is the wrong section hammy, let me know, I am about to go out of town
Bots being busy? I usually find this the opposite. MTGOTRADERS has so many bots, are you sure you are buddied with all of them. MTGOTradersBOT, MTGOTradersBOT2, CardCaddy, Cardwarehouse, even MTGOTradersFreeBOT, and of course if they are busy, just order off the website, the Customer Service team on MTGOTraders, are sometimes faster than going to a bot. Give these bots another chance.
Also, I've never seen a dip in price when quantities get low just to see it raise after quantities increase. I know MtgoTraders is big in the market, but it won't change prices everywhere overnight.
Keep up the good work Heath!
oh.. and on a side note and unrelated, nice article Hammy.
"I disagree with the part of his post that WotC completely ignores the formats that we enjoy playing, because I know that there are people who enjoy Standard and Extended and Classic."
I never meant to say that WotC completely ignores the formats we enjoy playing. Pauper is an obvious example of WotC responding to what players like playing. I meant that some of the actions WotC makes completely ignores user feedback such as naming formats "casual" or "competitive" or offering Tempest packs as prizes for 100 singleton tournaments and most likely using the firing rate of those tournaments to judge the popularity of the format.
At least in 2-man queues if the prize for winning is barely worth more than the entrance fee, not too many people are going to join those queues, even if they love the format.
I completely appreciate the existence of MTGOTraders. Without you Id be a lot poorer of cards and of information. I do bargain hunt when possible because I am still relatively poor in MODO but I do try and frequent your bots often.
What would really make me play more MTGO though would be if they found a way to make type 4 work. Being able to actually draft the stack would make it that much better but I would be fine with just randomized decks as well.
I see what you are saying now.
I guess that I would like to see WotC experiment a little more in this area because they own the "Kitchen Table" I don't think that it should have to take the effort and time that people put into Pauper to get WotC to try out some new things to see if there is interest.
I am certain you have heard that all the time you have used computers but it is still an important saying. Congrats on the $350. Color me envious and glad for you all in one.
Steve - It is obvious you are a favorite writer to many of us that frequent this site. Great job buddy. Keep up the good work.
Excellent ideas put forth in a well written article!
I do hope wizards would read and give thought to articles such as this.
As a player, I would totally play deep and fun formats like BYOS, BYOB and Block Party if they were supported.
The payout typo is fixed, but it makes this line make no sense:
"Once you've hit your third loss you can effectively stop playing as you're out of the prizes and have earned your points for the player reward program."
You're out of prizes after the second loss, not the third.
Thanks for pointing out the thread for the broken banned lists. Hopefully it is on somebody's radar.
Everything's back to 'normal'. Now to hop in my Camaro and cruise by the high school... where did I leave my mullet?
Nice article as always ...
but ... that hat has to go. I appreciate the effort to update your photo (nudge Mr. Jahn - on both websites he writes for) that grin coupled with your pirate hat makes you look like some creepy 'old' guy who hangs out at the local middle school. Please either remove the hat or change photos. Pretty please?
Yes, this I agree with.
I apologize if I misconstrued your quote. I think that when I was writing the article I found the word "completely" to be a little harsh. When used as a comment to an article it is fine, but I wasn't sure if I would get all kinds of comments saying that they don't ignore this and they don't ignore that, if I "completely" agreed with the quote as part of the article.
I hope that makes sense.
Yes, there is no doubt that a filter for a format makes things easier. I don't question that. When I played Pauper before it was sanctioned deck legality was always an issue because it had to be checked manually and there was no way to enforce it. Even with the best will in the world mistakes happen.
What I was trying to say, probably badly, is this. People played Pauper before it was sanctioned using just comments and good will and that is what made WotC look at it. From there it was a business decision of thiers if they wanted to sanction it or not.
We would ne be playing sanctioned Pauper today without all those good folks who put in a ton of effort supporting it with PREs and websites hadn't done all tha simply for the love of the format.
BYOS or BYOB or Block Wars might be fantastic ways to play Magic, I just don't know. What I'm trying to say is that, in my opinion, if they were that good there would be people playing them now despite the handicap of not being supported. If there are people out there playing it then I'm sorry, I just hadn't spotted you.
Part of the point of offering the format as an official option is that it would help one find games faster and get more people interested in the format, because there are a lot of people like yourself that will give things a shot and who knows there could be a lot of interest or there may not be.
The point is that WotC won't really know until they try.
Ya. I was hoping, I heard some bots were selling Mox Diamonds for 32 tix... with discount and with the time saving (time is money) i picked up my 4 this week. I then proceded to be an absolute noob in the first game and drop a mox without a LAND to discard... hmm expensive mistake. Humorous though. I thoroughly enjoyed lol at myself.
Great read as always - nice tech on the card prices as always
As Hammy already stated. Its your second option where all of the BYOS can play each other. Of course a metagame would develop. All deck builders have the same restrictions and as tournaments are offered and T8 decks are published a metagame would develop just like in every other format.
Sure these formats can be played already but it is much easier to play a format when you can select it from the option list instead of relying on the comment field. Under your scenario WotC could potentially only offer Freeform, get rid of every other format, and then let people just use the game description. I assume that you would understand how selecting a format from the list is much easier than the chaos this type of things would bring.
jordan bush likes poo
At least once apparently. That's one more time than I've ever won.
Oh, come on. How often does a PureMTGO writer win a site-sponsored prize?
i like how you went pretty old school with the references... glaciers into tide? trix? congrats on the 350
A writer on MTGOTraders' site wins the prize? The fix is in.
I like M10 for limited.
congrats on winning the gift card.
maybe one of these days when I'm not saving all my money for frivolous trips I can get back into the swing of things on MTGO.
I have removed the section that stated 2-2 players get boosters and points. If this is the wrong section hammy, let me know, I am about to go out of town
Bots being busy? I usually find this the opposite. MTGOTRADERS has so many bots, are you sure you are buddied with all of them. MTGOTradersBOT, MTGOTradersBOT2, CardCaddy, Cardwarehouse, even MTGOTradersFreeBOT, and of course if they are busy, just order off the website, the Customer Service team on MTGOTraders, are sometimes faster than going to a bot. Give these bots another chance.
Also, I've never seen a dip in price when quantities get low just to see it raise after quantities increase. I know MtgoTraders is big in the market, but it won't change prices everywhere overnight.
Keep up the good work Heath!
oh.. and on a side note and unrelated, nice article Hammy.
"I disagree with the part of his post that WotC completely ignores the formats that we enjoy playing, because I know that there are people who enjoy Standard and Extended and Classic."
I never meant to say that WotC completely ignores the formats we enjoy playing. Pauper is an obvious example of WotC responding to what players like playing. I meant that some of the actions WotC makes completely ignores user feedback such as naming formats "casual" or "competitive" or offering Tempest packs as prizes for 100 singleton tournaments and most likely using the firing rate of those tournaments to judge the popularity of the format.
At least in 2-man queues if the prize for winning is barely worth more than the entrance fee, not too many people are going to join those queues, even if they love the format.