• State of the Program for April 29th 2016   9 years 7 weeks ago

    The thing about the Pro Tour is that, even though 99% of players will never get to get on the "gravy train" (do they still call it that these days?), aspiration is a strong force. The fact that there is a professional circuit, with people making their living out of it, is cool enough that people will get that extra push to attend stuff like GPs, PTQs, WMCQs, and even LGS tournaments every weekend. Even if most of them know deep down that they will probably not get anywhere as far as professional Magic is concerned, its existence adds a whole new level to the excitement of competition.

    Plus, Magic is a game of extreme variance, unlike most other e-Sports, which are more reliant on pure skill and dexterity, meaning they have to account for that when they decide on how to split prize money. The current PT champion might very well not crack the top 72 next tournament, because that's just how the game is.

    Bottom line: making the professional circuit as top-heavy as Wizards wanted, just for the sake of having a big cash prize in a single yearly tournament to put into the spotlight, is a great mistake that undermines the feasibility of actually living as a pro player - and, as a result, the aspiration of thousands of local tournament players everywhere.

  • State of the Program for April 29th 2016   9 years 7 weeks ago

    I think there is a slight disconnect in your argument. You acknowledge that this could be a senior management mandated change (which could include Hasbro, people who are probably not all that familiar within the specific inner workings of magic). Then you claim the "how could Wizards not foresee this?" I think it's entirely possible Wizards did, but their hand was forced anyway. At least I hope that's how it played out.

  • State of the Program for April 29th 2016   9 years 7 weeks ago

    WotC could easily double the payouts on Pro Tours and probably on Grand Prixs and still profit from M:TG. It's a matter of hitting their profit targets and what kind of expenses they want to tolerate.

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    So the ban list for Singleton isn't
    "NONE"
    For April 30, it is
    Arboria
    Circle of Solace
    Engineered Plague
    Extinction
    Moat
    Peer Pressure
    Stasis
    The Abyss
    Tsabo's Decree
    Umezawa's Jitte

    Got it. Thanks!

  • State of the Program for April 29th 2016   9 years 7 weeks ago

    DO NOT BUY a windows 10 pc machine. its f ducking terrible. crashes constantly even with all the windows 10 setting on auto update and share with "whoever" software. stick with a windows 7 OS if you need a new machine

  • Rick's Picks #61: Hot in the Shade   9 years 7 weeks ago

    I did! I am glad you wrote again, things felt a bit weird :D

  • Rick's Picks #61: Hot in the Shade   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy it! :)

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    You shouldn't be confused because Gatherling says those cards are banned, and we have a Golden Rule (section C-3) about Gatherling always being correct over any other statement.
    Then you applied section C-4 and asked the host, and the host confirmed Gatherling is correct. End of story.

  • Rick's Picks #61: Hot in the Shade   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Hey, welcome back! I was afraid you were done with draft videos (your last one was in 2014!)
    I will watch this one asap, as I also love Innistrad.

  • MTGO Theater #4: Shadows over Innistrad, Magic Origins Drafts   9 years 7 weeks ago

    For the resizing, I think if you use the image convertor (the first option) of Bens draft convertor you get images that look like the rest of the sites drafts.

    I kinda liked it, it's easier to see the cards and text while it is huge, but I do think that would necessitate the need for the hidden section, if that makes any sense.

    Keep up the good work!

  • MTGO Theater #4: Shadows over Innistrad, Magic Origins Drafts   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Looks like that works for me too, thank you! I previously had tried javascript and thought it got stripped out, but I must have made some mistake.

    As far as re-sizing the images, the size is actually defined as part of the included CSS style, so it would be easy to change. I might tweak them so they are a little smaller, but I like to leave them large enough to read the card text.

    Thanks again for the help here!

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Am I confused?

    Sat 30 Apr Tribal Apocalypse 6.17 is Legacy Tribal Wars: Singleton

    There is no ban list in Legacy Tribal Wars: Singleton

    So shouldn't they be unbanned now?

  • MTGO Theater #4: Shadows over Innistrad, Magic Origins Drafts   9 years 7 weeks ago

    I used a collapsible spoiler in this article (above the Daybreak Coronet pic). I also linked to the original forum post that showed me how to do it down in the comments. Between inspecting the html and that post, you should be able to figure it out. If there are other questions, hit me up in the Facebook group?

    http://puremtgo.com/articles/modern-perspective-5-mood-enchantment

    Hope that was helpful?

    - Gio

    edit: You might also want to try manually re-sizing the card pics in the individual image settings? A little tedious, but would make it more readable all the way around?

  • MTGO Theater #4: Shadows over Innistrad, Magic Origins Drafts   9 years 7 weeks ago

    @JXClaytor or any other authors on this site - is there any way to create expandable sections of an article? I'm thinking that the visual draft picks could be collapsed into a section by default to make it easier for folks who just want to watch the videos, look at the decklists, and read my notes. I've tried testing some CSS solutions that I've found online but haven't found anything that has worked on this site. Any thoughts on this?

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    I thought about that, but it would single-handedly counter the "no cards are banned in Singleton" rule. I liked that. And we're doing so few Singleton events per year, anyway.

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Wrong. Those cards are banned, period. After this week's event, I'll unban them. AFTER this week's event.

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Cool Zombie Dragon

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    So if I want to play those cards I "comment" them in since Gatherling rejects them. Correct?

  • The Modern Perspective: Thoroughly Unprofessional   9 years 7 weeks ago

    I'm gonna miss the Modern Pro Tour. It was the only format that made me stop doing whatever I was doing and stream the game play. I just can't get excited about Standard in the same way.

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Also most of the rest of the Banned list from TWL...

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Strongly recommend not unbanning Jitte. Singleton tribal is still creature based, and there are plenty of tutors.

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    That line refers to OUR ban lists. We didn't ban anything in Singleton. The cards you (and BoB) are talking about weren't banned by TribAp, but by DCI for the Legacy Tribal Wars format. We used not to be able to do anything about it, the same way as we can't unban Strip Mine or Sol Ring. Now that we're using the Legacy filter, we can, and we did it for the other formats, but the Singleton format has remained as it was (mainly because we didn't play any Singleton event in the meantime). I may unban the old Legacy Tribal Wars DCI stuff if you like. But I'd leave it as it is for this week's event, rather than change it at the last minute, keeping it the way Tribal Singleton has always been played so far.

  • The Modern Perspective: Thoroughly Unprofessional   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Hey, ComixWriter, thanks for the interest and the strong rating!

    Dropping Modern as a Pro Tour format isn't a reaction to the lawsuit, it's really just the combination of factors stated above that have shown that as a format, it's really not a great fit for the PT. Note that there are still four Pro Tours a year, they will just all consist of the same Standard/Draft formatting. I think this change will probably achieve Wizards' goals for both Modern and the Pro Tour better than before.

    I've seen conjecture that the attempted, and now redacted, reduction to Platinum Pro Level payouts (see the first article I linked above for details) was a preemptive move to ward off a similar lawsuit from Pro Players, but I honestly can't say if there is any substantial justification for those assumptions? I think it was just a business model that wasn't working out for them and they wanted to change it.

    I'm sure that Wizards does want to steer us towards the products/formats of their choosing whenever they can, but they do seem to understand that they have a lot of different demographics to work with to profit off of. I personally believe that if your goal is to get on the Pro Tour, then you really need to suck it up and play whichever formats it takes to get there. If that winds up being nothing but Standard and Draft, better get cracking. If you're lucky enough that your area has qualifiers in other formats, well, then bonus. Qualifying really isn't an easy thing to do and it's such a specific part of Magic, that people should realize it's bit outside the normal player experience. (There's a reason many old time players have moved on to other ways to enjoy the game.) If a player prefers Modern to other formats, but truly embraces the PT goal, then they will absolutely shift their focus. If enjoying Modern is the priority, then that player isn't going anywhere.

    - Gio

  • The Accidental Player 59: Shadows over Innistrad: The Tribal Evaluation   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Can we get a clarification on Umezawa's Jitte, Engineered Plague, Peer Pressure, Tsabo's Decree, and Circle of Solace?
    Totally understandable if they're banned in Tribal Singleton but in that case you should delete the giant bold font that says 'BAN LIST: NONE!'

  • Diaries of the Apocalypse: Tribal Week 276   9 years 7 weeks ago

    Can we get a clarification on Umezawa's Jitte, Engineered Plague, Peer Pressure, Tsabo's Decree, and Circle of Solace?
    Totally understandable if they're banned in Tribal Singleton but in that case you should delete the giant bold font that says 'BAN LIST: NONE!'