EPTMagic: The Gathering - Page 533
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mr_tolkien
France8631 Posts
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On April 21 2014 02:18 deth2munkies wrote: I think your actual problem with the set is that it's top down rather than bottom up. It's not built around the mechanics but around the flavor. Top down is hit or miss, I loved Innistrad and it was as top down as you can get, but Theros isn't quite as good. All the cards are "how can we make X mythological creature/event into a card", rather than "Using these mechanics, how do we develop a Greek myth theme?" I'm personally OK with that. I mean to use Innistrad as an example, there were tons of cards specifically made for that block and its flavor that, with a simple rename, could fit anywhere. Case and point: the Skaabs. Screeching Skaab and Armored Skaab are blue creatures that mill you. 2/1 and 1/4 are not uncommon P/T combos. The reason they're there, however, is flavorful: you're cobbling together cards from your library into monsters, and it's practical: they feed graveyard strategies from elsewhere in the block. They can both be functionally reprinted in a core set with a graveyard mechanic and no one would bat an eye, but there's no way you'll see that particular card elsewhere. Same with Curse of the Swine. They can functionally reprint a blue card that polymorphs creatures, but it'll never be 2/2 green pigs and it'll never be called Curse of the Swine, that's particular to the Greek Myth of Theros. The skaabs were also a unique take on an undead theme wherein instead of reanimation it was digging of graves. Skaabs were pieced together from pilfered dead bodies. The act of pilfering dead bodies is grave related, so it fills the graveyard. The filling of the graveyard allows for graveyard based decks to flourish--if they stuck with blue. Theres a reason there wasn't white skaabs, red skaabs, etc... And blue also had cards that ate the graveyard or cared about the graveyard. So not only were skaabs good top down designs, they were good designs for the block itself. Flip cards is another good example of what innistrad did well. Blue flip cards required you to fulfill requirements, black flip cards required you to to proactively flip them, while R/G flip cards required you to not cast spells and allow nature to overwhelm you. Heck, even white flip cards required creatures on your side dying. The point being that it isn't an either or situation. Whether the inspiration for a design is top or bottom--the execution should be as total as can be possible. Curse of Swine is good. I wish blue had more cards that transformed the enemy/allied creatures to expand that theme. Instead we have heroic fish and heroic black creatures and heroice white creatures etc.... We have octupi--which somehow feels disconnected from the merfolk. We have Minataurs, but what exactly is their place in Theros other than lol greek? | ||
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whoso
Germany523 Posts
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Judicator
United States7270 Posts
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Azuzu
United States340 Posts
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Judicator
United States7270 Posts
Edit: Um no? There's already precedent, Mindslaver. | ||
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whoso
Germany523 Posts
On April 23 2014 10:00 Judicator wrote: is there anything in BNG that would remotely rise in value speculatively? uhh, mayyybe brimaz now that white looks very good with JOU? On April 23 2014 10:25 Judicator wrote: Well its Mtgo, so I am sure they'll do a wonderful job of it. :D Edit: Um no? There's already precedent, Mindslaver. to be fair, while the mtgo interface is terrible and seems buggy, it appears the implementation of the actual magic gameplay is working pretty flawlessly? | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands21687 Posts
On April 23 2014 10:38 whoso wrote: uhh, mayyybe brimaz now that white looks very good with JOU? to be fair, while the mtgo interface is terrible and seems buggy, it appears the implementation of the actual magic gameplay is working pretty flawlessly? There are a good number of bugs with some effects. A Jace ultimate doesnt even actually work on it. | ||
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mr_tolkien
France8631 Posts
On April 23 2014 09:51 whoso wrote: can one expect BNG booster value to rise after the JOU release (and with it event payout switching to JOU Boosters)? cant be arsed selling them at the terrible price its at right now Yeah they'll go back to at least 3tix. Sold all of them yesterday to buy a few cards though  I'm at 12 tix now. Not allowed to lose anymore :p | ||
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Haasts
New Zealand4445 Posts
Felt a bit guilty re: drafting Rakdos/Selesnya beatdown in Shards block and ending games while opponents were durdling around with 5-colour Borderpost/Obelisk/Panorama shenanigans. | ||
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
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deth2munkies
United States4051 Posts
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On April 25 2014 10:09 deth2munkies wrote: Who on earth would EVER want to draft Homelands? Or non-blue in Tempest for that matter <_< No one in their right minds. I was talking more about flashing back lol. | ||
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deth2munkies
United States4051 Posts
On April 25 2014 10:38 Thieving Magpie wrote: No one in their right minds. I was talking more about flashing back lol. Well if it was about flashing back, it'd be Innistrad and Odyssey blocks. | ||
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On April 25 2014 10:52 deth2munkies wrote: Well if it was about flashing back, it'd be Innistrad and Odyssey blocks. I bow down to your Odyssey block reference lol | ||
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mr_tolkien
France8631 Posts
Man the grinding is tiresome >.< | ||
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calgar
United States1277 Posts
Any opinions on which would be the better present, fat pack or single card? | ||
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On May 01 2014 01:33 calgar wrote: This isn't related to online but I figured I'd ask here. I don't really play magic but it was my friend's birthday last week so I decided I would get some some new release nyx stuff. I was planning on shipping him a fat pack with 9 booster packs but I also saw the Ajani, mentor of heros guy who was pretty cool. He plays the 100 card single only format mostly. Any opinions on which would be the better present, fat pack or single card? That format is known as either EDH or Commander. He picks a commander/general which is a creature. His deck cannot have cards outside of the colors of that commander/general. So if I were you, I'd ask him what commander/general he uses. If the Commander he uses has Green and White as part of its colors, then Ajani is a better present. If not, I would suggest getting him a planeswalker whose colors do match. If you want the present to be specifically be cards from the new Block (nyx and what not) then get him one of the Gods that matches his colors. | ||
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Fishgle
United States2174 Posts
On May 01 2014 01:33 calgar wrote: This isn't related to online but I figured I'd ask here. I don't really play magic but it was my friend's birthday last week so I decided I would get some some new release nyx stuff. I was planning on shipping him a fat pack with 9 booster packs but I also saw the Ajani, mentor of heros guy who was pretty cool. He plays the 100 card single only format mostly. Any opinions on which would be the better present, fat pack or single card? This thread is for all things magic, not just online. a mod really needs to rename this thread :S well, ajani's a pretty good card in certain EDH (100 card) decks (Marath, Ghave, Rith, Enchantress, maybe some others). Do you know if he plays a Green/White deck? If he does, it's a pretty good choice. I'd also like to note that fat packs aren't really the best deal - you can buy 9 boosters for under $36 pretty easily, and fatpacks are usually $40+. it's not too terrible, but maybe think about buying loose booster packs instead. buying veteran players stuff is tough without knowing what they already have, tbh. | ||
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calgar
United States1277 Posts
On May 01 2014 01:53 Fishgle wrote: Yeah, I've played with some of his decks but I can't remember exactly which colors they all were since some of them were tri-color. He's got like 4 which is part of the problem, but I don't think he has a green/white one so then probably ajani isn't the best choice. This thread is for all things magic, not just online. a mod really needs to rename this thread :S well, ajani's a pretty good card in certain EDH (100 card) decks (Marath, Ghave, Rith, Enchantress, maybe some others). Do you know if he plays a Green/White deck? If he does, it's a pretty good choice. I'd also like to note that fat packs aren't really the best deal - you can buy 9 boosters for under $36 pretty easily, and fatpacks are usually $40+. it's not too terrible, but maybe think about buying loose booster packs instead. buying veteran players stuff is tough without knowing what they already have, tbh. The booster box would be $100 and $2.78/booster but that's a little too much to spend! The fat pack was $36 (w/ free amazon shipping) so its basically $4.00/booster. I could do 9 boosters for $3.55 each if they were loose. Maybe I'll do the boosters since I can't make a purchase specific to his collection very well. | ||
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