Magic: The Gathering (TCG) Catch-all

I loved it, as I said, and I've been listening regularly ever since! It's the best Magic podcast I've found so far!

This weekend is the pre-release for Return to Ravnica! Who else is going?

I'm sure everyone in this thread is familiar with Gatherer, but just on the slim chance you aren't, it's a fun resource. I haven't played "real life" Magic since Alliances, but I still love to check out the "random card" link and see some of the crazy new cards they've designed.

Since limited ressources got some love here: You can watch drafts from Marshall on mtgoacademy.com. For me this is currently the best video site since for some strange reason channelfireball has insanely annoying ads before each video starts.

Also looking forward to the pre-release. There is a primer on the official site for the event that also links to the cards in the guild boosters.

Which guild will you guys choose? Having a tough time deciding between Golgari, Rakdos and Selesnya...

4dSwissCheese wrote:

If anyone found the Limited Resources podcast off-putting when I recommended it up-thread because the topic of the most recent episode at the time had to do with metagaming MTGO rather than playing magic itself, give it a go now they've been more directly game-focused recently. The two latest episodes are a M13 postmortem and a Return to Ravnica rules preview where they have a magic judge guest on to talk about new and notable card-interactions. And the next two shows will be the gigantic set-preview shows where they evaluate every card from the new set. And equivalent show for M13 very helpful when I did the pre-release.

Depending on the rank of the judge that's not that big of a deal. If it's 3 or higher then that's a bit more rarefied. A true treat is one of the folks who do the FAQs for each release. I know one of them. Eccentric out of the wazoo. Has 3 PHDs in physics and chemistry, yet he works at a Subway and has pretty much every single MTG card ever printed. He's able to recite pretty much every rule there is and keeps up on all the changes from the FAQs too. If he wasnt so crazy he'd be scary.

Edit: talking about him made me wonder what he's been doing. Apparently he's not doing much in the MTG area anymore and is a CS rep now.

I'm headed to the pre-release with Fedaykin98 this weekend. Loved Ravnica last time around (got me playing magic again for the first time since The Dark :-P), so I'm excited about Return to Ravnica.

Signed up for Izzet, with Golgari being my second choice. Listening to the Limited Resources podcast right now, and liking what I'm hearing about Azorius too.

Hoping that the set is balanced enough so that everyone has the opportunity to build a competitive deck. Some of the sets in the past could be won by one or two cards in a limited Swiss environment.

I'm signed up for Golgari, although I am totally of a thousand minds about what the best guild to play would be. Despite the brilliant uniqueness of this prerelease, I'd rather just have a regular one where the cards tell me what to play.

I mean, suppose I chose Izzet, but opened the Golgari Planeswalker? I either ignore that insane bomb or throw away an entire booster.

Captain Indecisive, at your service!

I'm going to pass on pre-release this time. Just not enough time to learn the cards this time around, and I wasn't wild about my M13 pre-release last time out.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm signed up for Golgari, although I am totally of a thousand minds about what the best guild to play would be. Despite the brilliant uniqueness of this prerelease, I'd rather just have a regular one where the cards tell me what to play.

I mean, suppose I chose Izzet, but opened the Golgari Planeswalker? I either ignore that insane bomb or throw away an entire booster.

Captain Indecisive, at your service!

Of course you'll get bombs in the opposite guilds, no matter what you choose. Also, the rares you crack in your guild will likely be rares that work nicely in 'standard'.

Having chosen Izzet, I have no doubt I'll crack a Counterflux or two.

My FLGS had me prioritize the 5 guilds for their prerelease signup. I put myself down for Golgari, Rakdos, Izzet, Selesnya, Azorius and my fiancé down for the opposite. I figure that'll give us a good chance at having a good spread of cards for our 2-headed giant pool.

Is 2HG fun? It seems like such a weird format. I'm constantly surprised that they still support it.

Lots of good strategy articles about the pre-release on puremtgo.com , which is ironic given the name of the site. There's also a series of card by card evaluations on the Forbes website of all places (credit to TheWalt).

I am so damn excited.

I'm going to a midnight pre-release. I'm lucky my LGS is having one because I am unable to make the one on saturday at a normal hour. I'm going Golgari. Selesnya would be my 2nd choice. I'm looking forward to my 2 boxes coming next week. Anyone wanna have some pack wars?

BassMadMadoo wrote:

Anyone wanna have some pack wars?

Depends what part of Cali you live in.

Anyone seen a good deal on boxes, btw? Seems like $115 online is the best I've seen, and that's before any taxes and shipping. My LGS is selling them for $125, and if you're one of the first ten purchasers, there is once again a free promo card that comes with the box.

If this set is like Zendikar, the box price will fall after a month or two, when initial demand has subsided. I figure I'll probably buy one now, and possibly another later on if I need more.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Is 2HG fun? It seems like such a weird format. I'm constantly surprised that they still support it.

The only time they still support two headed giant is at prereleases. I've never actually played in one before, but the event schedule makes that the most convenient for us. And I can spend the afternoon with my fiancé instead of just touching base between rounds.

Had a random thought today while listening to the conference call- does MTGO have a mode for the "fun" stuff from back in the day (thinking Unglued and Moxes/Black Lotus type stuff) or is it just current sets?

Fedaykin98 wrote:
BassMadMadoo wrote:

Anyone wanna have some pack wars?

Depends what part of Cali you live in.

Anyone seen a good deal on boxes, btw? Seems like $115 online is the best I've seen, and that's before any taxes and shipping. My LGS is selling them for $125, and if you're one of the first ten purchasers, there is once again a free promo card that comes with the box.

If this set is like Zendikar, the box price will fall after a month or two, when initial demand has subsided. I figure I'll probably buy one now, and possibly another later on if I need more.

I live near Santa Cruz. I'm still open to doing some games over skype. I scored at my LGS and pre-ordered 2 boxes at 90$ each. The promo card seems pretty good for getting a box. The non-foil non-alternate art is going for around $5. Might be worth it to pick a box up at your LGS for the promo.

soonerjudd wrote:

Had a random thought today while listening to the conference call- does MTGO have a mode for the "fun" stuff from back in the day (thinking Unglued and Moxes/Black Lotus type stuff) or is it just current sets?

They've released 4 "Masters Edition" sets that include old-school cards, mixing and matching from different sets to create a viable draft environment. Not sure if the oppressively powerful stuff made it in. The system supports playing a bunch of different formats, but they'll only sell you cards from the past couple years.

The "Un" sets aren't in Magic Online because they'd require a crapload of coding to get working. And how would the computer even tell if you're vulnerable to Denimwalk?

Vargen wrote:
soonerjudd wrote:

Had a random thought today while listening to the conference call- does MTGO have a mode for the "fun" stuff from back in the day (thinking Unglued and Moxes/Black Lotus type stuff) or is it just current sets?

They've released 4 "Masters Edition" sets that include old-school cards, mixing and matching from different sets to create a viable draft environment. Not sure if the oppressively powerful stuff made it in. The system supports playing a bunch of different formats, but they'll only sell you cards from the past couple years.

The "Un" sets aren't in Magic Online because they'd require a crapload of coding to get working. And how would the computer even tell if you're vulnerable to Denimwalk?

If you're looking to play with sanctioned old cards check out places offering 'vintage' (type 1) tournaments. This lets you use moxes and black lotuses.

Unglued was the silly stuff and will never be offered as part of any sanctioned tournament.
They still have the best set of land cards ever printed in my opinion. I still have 20 of each color from that set.

ranalin wrote:

They still have the best set of land cards ever printed in my opinion. I still have 20 of each color from that set.

You must have meant Unhinged - far and away the best lands.

Bass - Damn, does your LGS do Internet business, or even mail order? That price is unbelievable!

I'd have to think about how to play games over Skype. And buy a webcam.

In other news, I am absolutely beside myself with anticipation for the RtR prerelease. Last night, filled with a desire to just caress some cards, I started very preliminary work on a Commander/EDH deck. I think I was stealing cards from some super-old Tooth & Nail deck that featured a lot of Kiki-Jikis and was never played.

I'm planning on porting over an old dragon reanimator deck that I built way back in the day. The only challenge here is that deck was mainly U/B, and because of EDH's color restrictions I'm making this one Jund (B/G/R). Some of that blue helped get cards into the graveyard. And this way, I don't get to play Eternal Dragon, which is an awesome card. I guess that's for the next deck.

ranalin wrote:
Vargen wrote:
soonerjudd wrote:

Had a random thought today while listening to the conference call- does MTGO have a mode for the "fun" stuff from back in the day (thinking Unglued and Moxes/Black Lotus type stuff) or is it just current sets?

They've released 4 "Masters Edition" sets that include old-school cards, mixing and matching from different sets to create a viable draft environment. Not sure if the oppressively powerful stuff made it in. The system supports playing a bunch of different formats, but they'll only sell you cards from the past couple years.

The "Un" sets aren't in Magic Online because they'd require a crapload of coding to get working. And how would the computer even tell if you're vulnerable to Denimwalk?

If you're looking to play with sanctioned old cards check out places offering 'vintage' (type 1) tournaments. This lets you use moxes and black lotuses.

Unglued was the silly stuff and will never be offered as part of any sanctioned tournament.
They still have the best set of land cards ever printed in my opinion. I still have 20 of each color from that set.

Yeah, I wasn't really looking for sanctioned games, just for fun. I figure it would probably be a lot easier to track down the cards in digital format.

I'm reasonably certain none of the Power 9 are on MTGO. But "Power 9" and "fun" are not associated ideas in my mind.

Hot damn, today's the day!

Anyone seen any accounts of how the midnight tournaments went?

Yea- the new set is a blast. I didn't get home untill 5am. I was happy with green/black. I opened 2 Lotleth Trolls (one foil) and along with the promo card, the choice was pretty easy. I splashed red for Mizzium Morters and 2x the 2/2 first strike unleash guy. I slpashed white for the "give your dude +3/+3" enchantment. The mana fixing was easy with all the gates and the land that taps for any color. I wound up going 3-1 and lost to a green/white deck. Most players went Izzet and I saw a little overload. There was pleanty of unleash and scavenge, to me they feel like the strongest mechanics. I saw no detaine or populate.

Limited in this set seems really fun. I think this was the first time I've gone 4 colors and didn't get mana screwed in any game. Although I would have loved a third red source to overload my Mizzium Morters in particular a match against green/white.

The promo stuff you get is quite nice also.

Opinions on the net vary wildly about guild strength, which is a sign of balance. Mine launches in less than 1:30!

Got my cards!

I went 3 wins, no losses, 3 draws! Crazy. Tons of people going to time. The TO did 45 minute rounds for the tournament where no one's played with the cards. Still took forever.

Anyway, I think I ended up 12th place, which paid me 3 packs. It was mostly fun, except that I was taking the results super seriously, probably because the prizes can't be bought right now.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I went 3 wins, no losses, 3 draws! Crazy. Tons of people going to time. The TO did 45 minute rounds for the tournament where no one's played with the cards. Still took forever.

Anyway, I think I ended up 12th place, which paid me 3 packs. It was mostly fun, except that I was taking the results super seriously, probably because the prizes can't be bought right now.

next time talk nice to the judges.

I know when i was a judge i got paid in boxes for the pre release, and some would sell their boxes. Others also would do 2/1 drafts with their boxes too.

I don't really need more packs. I need an opportunity to play. Two kids, etc. My friends and I did meet a guy at the pre-release who has a group that holds private home drafts, which has been my dream for years. But apparently they start around 6pm, which makes them no better than the FNMs I never attend. I need something that starts after my kids' bedtime.

I managed to go 4-1 at our pre-release here in London.

I chose Izzet as my guild, but got pretty miserable cards, so ended up playing Azorious splashing for 3 red/gold cards. My strategy was very simple. Play fliers and hope to have just enough removal to win the race. Worked most of the time, but I did lose to a very fast Rakdos deck with three Augur spree. All in all a good time, although I don't really think the "choose a guild" setup is very good for sealed. Adds another layer of variance to the format that already has the most!