Sunday, August 30, 2015

Magic Monday

I went to Magic on Sunday with just a couple of hours of sleep from the night before. It was great to see some familiar faces back from their overseas trip but I was a bit of a spaced out hippie for most of the time I was there. I didn't stay for the second event even though it was cube draft with some pretty spicy additions. I would have loved to draft a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack deck, two new archetypes added since the last time we drafted what I call the legacy cube.
To make up for my absence I chipped in some of my Chinese fakes/proxies so that next time there will be a full set of Dual Lands in the mix. 

In the draft proper I again bombed out with 1-2 record. In a 7 person pod I drafted red white as did two other people. Eun Jae to the right of me was in blue green so my choice was semi correct but black was completely opened and my first pick was a Pries of the Blood Rite. Receiving a pack with Blightcaster, Nantuko Husk and two other cards in a pick and pass pack late in pack two came just after a pack where all 5 cards were black!
I received a last pick Vampire Knight to make me dream of what might have been.
Instead, despite some highlights like Chandra’s Ignition and Embermaw Hellion I had to scrape together enough playables. I should have gone up to an 18th land because multiple times in the day I didn’t get to 5 mana with Chandra’s Ignition in hand and the opportunity cost of losing say a veterans side arm is pretty low.
Bellows Lizard actually did some work for me and I have upgraded him in my rankings from unplayable to barely playable. In one turn Bellows got in for six damage which would have been funny if my opponent wasn’t so colour screwed I had to withhold my glee out of respect.
Stephan with green red and Eun Jae with Green Blue split the draft and got the last of the awesome Serum Visions promos. Septembers promo Orator of Ojutai is a massive disappointment and I think we will be back down to one pod instead of the regular two pods we had been enjoying of late.

There were lots of cards spoiled over the weekend none of which really grabbed me. I think the new Ulamog is an upgrade over the old one for cube because it does not have the shuffle effect built in and can be reanimated.
The most controversial spoilers were he full art super premium treasures. I love full art but know I will never own these. It sucks to be reminded you are poor or when Wizards make cool things that are unattainable but they don’t affect game play. I had a similar hollow feeling when a lot of FTV products came out that looked really awesome but I had no chance of buying them as they were all limited edition and too hard to find at a reasonable price.
I didn’t participate at all during Modern Masters 2 season so have got used to this feeling of not being one of the cool kids. None of this really effects my buying habits though as it is very likely my contribution to Wizards bottom line is the purchase of one fatpack on release and a draft set each week thereafter. That's been my pattern for some time with the exception of Khan's of Tarkir where I spent a bit more.

I woke up just in time to catch the start of game 5 of the world champs. It was a fantastic game and incredible tense. Seth Manfield brought it home for team #MTGDad and his tears afterwards were very endearing. Owen Turtenwald like a lot of Channel Fireball pros isn’t always the most likeable figure but it’s impossible not to respect his play skill and the way he handled himself afterwards.
Credit also to Rich Hagon for giving the players a moment to collect themselves afterwards.

This weekend is the Modern WMCQ, the event is shrouded in mystery and I still don’t know where it is. Work commitments means I am a 0.01% chance of playing in it. Still the lack of  communication is incredibly poor form from the TO, whoever it is.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

No more half art lands

Trick Jarrett from Wizards of the Coast announced that Battle for Zendikar fat packs will contain full art lands. As they fucking should was my reaction but it seemed a lot of the community were pleasantly surprised and expect and accept Wizards dolling these out as a special reward.

I strongly feel that full art and extended art cards just look much better but can understand there are some serious downsides to using those techniques on cards that are more complicated than basic lands. My full art Korean Languish from Game Day looks really sexy but I digress.
I have a full art EDH deck and like the new bordered (M15+) cards more just because the art box is a tiny fraction bigger.
While I might be in the fanatical minority on full art regular cards, I know I am not alone in loving full art lands. People love them and with good reason, they make the game look better. A lot of the time in Magic the Gathering there is just a bunch of land sitting on the table. It is in the games best interests for it to look as attractive as possible to casual onlookers walking past a real life game or someone tuning into Twich/YouTube.
Rather than use this tool to improve and grow the game, Wizards of the Coast instead plan to dole it out as a treat for established players to boost the sales of a couple of sets every few years.
Poor form and idiotic.

Half art is half-assed and shouldn't be tolerated. Rise up Magic players RISE UP!!

Make full art a permanent improvement to the game.

Edit:
Other people already on board this train:
http://blog.killgoldfish.com/2014/05/the-case-for-full-art-lands.html

Full Art! (Explicit Language Warning)

Trick Jarrett from Wizards of the Coast announced that Battle for Zendikar fat packs will contain full art lands. As they fucking should was my reaction but it seemed a lot of the community were pleasantly surprised and expect and accept Wizards dolling these out as a special reward.

I strongly feel that full art and extended art cards just look much better, but can understand there are some serious downsides to using those techniques on cards that are more complicated than basic lands. My full art Korean Languish from Game Day looks really sexy but I digress.
I have a full art EDH deck and like the new bordered (M15+) cards more just because the art box is a tiny fraction bigger.
While I might be in the fanatical minority on full art regular cards, I know I am not alone in loving full art lands. People love them and with good reason, they make the game look better. A lot of the time in Magic the Gathering there is just a bunch of land sitting on the table. It is in the games best interests for it to look as attractive as possible to casual onlookers walking past a real life game or someone tuning into Twich/YouTube.
Rather than use this tool to improve and grow the game, Wizards of the Coast instead plan to dole it out as a treat for established players to boost the sales of a couple of sets every few years.
Poor form and idiotic.

Half art is half-assed and shouldn't be tolerated. Rise up Magic players RISE UP!!

Make full art a permanent improvement to the game.

Edit:
Other people already on board this train:
http://blog.killgoldfish.com/2014/05/the-case-for-full-art-lands.html

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Testing

Concept - The Late Picks



Core Sets in Review.

Origins still has a few weeks left of drafting so it's not time to wrap it up just yet, but it is the last of the core sets and that era already feels like it's done and dusted.
So I think that serves me up enough of an invitation to bring to you the inaugural and final CORE SET AWARDS!
Get excited people.



Yeah, they really did reprint that;
The Winner - Necropotence. Yes they really did.

Most Unlikely Face of Magic;

The Winner - Hurloon Minotaur


Best open; For the card I actually got to take home and keep from the set.
The Winner - Slim pickings here, I think the most valuable was the Badlands I opened but I parted with it before the day was done. Traded it away for a Dragon Whelp.

Worst open; The card that elicits the greatest groan when you open it.

The Winner - There have been some stinkers over the years and my memory won't serve them justice. Honored Heirach seems to invoke a lot of anger from people and it's not even that bad in limited.

Most coveted reprint; For the card you were super hyped to come back.

The Winner - Shivan Dragon, they took nearly everything else out of Revised but at least left big Shivan intact for 4th edition. 

Cutest card; for the cutest card, duh.

The Winner - I am going with Forge Devil in M15. I loved that guy and his cute little come into play mini flame tongue ways.

Pretiest card; 

The Winner - Elvish Archers.

Ugliest card; 
The Winner - Starfield of Nyx from Magic Origins. Maybe it looks like something other than pastel vomit if you look at it closer. I am not prepared to do that though. I think there are at least 5 articles worth of material just looking at older Magic art. Earthbind comes to mind.

Favourite card to draft; A smile every time this non rare goes into your pile.
The Winner - I have pretty good memories of Howl of the Pack in M14. A near mono green deck throwing down 6 or 7 2/2's was a draft strategy I could manage when returning from the game and playing with Korean cards for he first time.

I can't believe you played that; For that card other people loved for reasons I will never know.

The Winner: 2 x Cruel Saddist, I went pretty deep with that draft. Too deep, a well deserved scrub out.

Most improved; For the card that didn't look like much, but got there in the end.
I am going to vote for Returned Centaur. It seems to have a lot more synergy with the cards around it in Origins than it ever did in Theros.


Don't forget to; The card that is easiest to misplay.

The Winner - Interrupts, mana sources and banding, the whole game was pretty much a mystery when I started playing. 

Most fun thing you could legally do; My vote is for Zur's Weirding, it certainly led to a different game when it was played that still felt like Magic. It was also hilarious when the person who plays Zur's Weirding finds out his opponent has a much better hand. 


Most fun thing you could illegally do; Black marker pen = no more white border.


Not as good as I remember

The Winner - Hypnotic Spectre was hugely hyped when it returned but was hardly played throughout it's time in standard. Goblin Pile Driver might be a late challenger but as it stands Hippie gets the nod.


Sunday, August 23, 2015

In a slump

Interestingly Limited Resources fielded a question about mid season limited slumps. They largely attribute it to the rest of the pack catching up from those that are good at card evaluation. That fits to an extent as I do believe card evaluation (in a vacuum) is one of my talents and I am no longer going to get late pick fiery impulses and separatist voidmages or even later pick prickle boars.
I think other factors are at play too though.

The last couple of weeks and I have bombed out 1-2.
I can't remember opening anything exciting for a while and seem to have opened a lot of pain lands which have ended up in someone else's collection. That's not really a problem and just karma as I had some pretty busted cards earlier in the format, Chandra's Parents, Molten Vortex, Chandra's Ignition and Priest of the Blood Rite come to mind.

What has hurt is over valuating some cards compared to my neighbours, I seem to like Eyeblights Assassin more than most and see Leaf Gilder's and Wild Extincts as signals. I still stick to my gins that Wild Instincts later than 6th is a signal, and that misunderstanding was my neighbours fault. He was in green white (and the player to his right was also in green white) and passing 6th pick wild instincts and 8th pick Leaf Gilder doesn't make sense to me. In that draft I ended up in black green elves and the deck was solid if unspectacular. I lost in 3 in round 2 and round 3 was miserable as I would have won if I didn't allow my opponent to use rogues passage on Gaea's Revenge. I realised a turn too late that was an illegal play. Sad times and the worst way to finish a draft.
My opponent was unapologetic about it too as he was in a mood at missing out on the promo.

The latest draft I had no one to blame but myself. I correctly picked up early that black was open but couldn't figure out what other colour I should be. The correct answer was blue and I would have had an interesting blue black deck. Instead I ended up with another mid range green black deck with shadows of the past for late game in lieu of opening anything with some real punch. I can't blame my neighbours for that one, I just have a hard time picking when blue is open. Only a few cards stand out to me as signal cards and if you don't see a 4th/5th pick Voidmage or Claustrophobia I feel you need to keep an eye on the amount of blue cards relative to others in a pack. While I feel card evaluation is one of my strengths remembering to account for things like that isn't. There is just too much going on for me to handle even in a core set. The draft had 10 players in it which doesn't help but at least meant generous prize support to the tune of my 1-2 earning 2 packs.

It's really late in the draft season to still be surprised by celestial flare in not just game one but game two as well. And that was the match I won!
I really wish to just wash that funk of and hope my seat isn't meant to be black green next week as I am sick of it. 

The problem with #MTGFinance

I stumbled into a tiny twitterstorm by lending support to Marcel of the Brainstorm Brewery Podcast. He seemed a bit worn out by being the lone man arguing from the players perspective while the other hosts are in favour of a free market. #MTGFinance folks get a little defensive at any criticism as they do get blamed for a lot of stuff and cop some vile abuse.

While I enjoy #MTGFinance podcasts and dabbling on Pucca Trade I do believe that there are some negative consequences for the game. People hoarding particular cards restricts liquidity and stops them getting into the hands of players. When a fun new deck gets camera time at a big event the new cards featured are often bought out from online retailers by speculators. People excited to put together that deck can't do it straight away and will have to wait until vendors restock (at a higher price). Being able to purchase the cards you want straight away rather than wait a week (and pay more) means there is a good chance the fire goes out from that player and the new deck isn't put together at all.
That's sad and leads to less diversity at events and people not playing the deck they really want to.

#MTGFinance does make the game more affordable for the participants but lets not pretend it isn't a largely zero sum game. It doesn't have to have a huge impact on the Magic player base but finance folk have to show some restraint. I believe tiny leaders was severely hurt by finance folk going too hard too soon and increasing the barrier to entry for a format that was still trying to establish itself and build a player base.

If you are the guy that has 10 Eidolon of Great Revels and don't want to sell until they are $20 then at least consider lending them out to your LGS regular looking for them to play in an upcoming tournament. That way your future earnings aren't hurt and the player base isn't negatively affected. A huge part of #MTGFinance is networking and giving back and being a positive participant is great for the games future. The future growth and health of the game is the underwriting force that maintains the value of our collections.
This is not a new concept, 10 years ago I remember Michael Buckler was the number one binder grinder in Brisbane and had a huge collection. He saw the deck I had put together for an upcoming extended PTQ and lent me 7 fetch lands (I had zero) to use without me even thinking to ask. They made my first extended tournament a much happier experience and I went on to become a pretty serious grinder for several years. 

Sunday, August 9, 2015

No news is good news

I haven't posted in a while due to a change in work schedule not leaving me spare time in front of a desktop computer. When I sit down in my office it's a flurry of typing and printing.
The lack of writing isn't a result of a lack of Magic news, plenty of things have happened and of the top of my head all of them are positive.

Attendance and atmosphere at the Suwon shop is humming  along nicely. By the end of July I had won 3 Path to Exile Promos as the funk I was in for the last two sets has disappeared and the aggressive tempo orientation of Origins is right up my ally.

I am also turning lands sideways on more than just Sundays thanks to the release of the latest and final Duels of the Planeswalkers. The repetition and regular play even if it's only digital and with pretty precon esque decks has been god for my Magic muscle memory. I'm starting to have visions of maybe putting my toes back into the water of more competitive Magic.

Game day weekend was fairly productive as I received a Languish and 8 boosters in the first event and a Languish and Playmat in the second. I also did well enough in our regular draft to win a Serum Visions.
3 sanctioned events for me in the one weekend is massive, but not something I will get the chance to repeat any time soon.

I have a lot more to write about, but lack the time unfortunately.