The licensed stuff costs more because the companies they're licensing from want a cut as well.
Considering the base prices have only gone up a little bit in the past 30 years and we're several years into a global paper shortage, I'm amazed prices aren't worse.
I wouldn't say 30 years - prices have doubled over the history of Magic. You could get Revised boxes for $60. Now draft boxes are right about $120 (for standard sets).
I can hear my son outside telling his friends about Jumpstart. It really is a great product. If new players find it as accessible as they're supposed to, then it's truly casting a wide net. We've also pulled a bunch of rares that have value and/or playability that we're very happy with. All the green packs seem to have Explore, too, which is a very Commander-playable card that was in somewhat short supply many years back.
I don't think I mentioned that I pulled both Rise of the Dark Realms and Terror of the Peaks, cards that I've wanted. The latter I've been trying and trying to find for trade in my local community to add to my 5-color dragon deck. I had become resigned to just buying one over the internet. Not knowing that it was in Jumpstart, I was quite tickled when I opened it.
You're probably right about the box prices. I wasn't buying in quantity back then, and individual pack prices haven't gone up all that much. Or maybe I was paying a markup and didn't realize it. *shrug*
I'm a big fan of Jump Start. Somewhere around here I have a set I made myself ~5 years ago. Shout out to the stand-alone card game Smash Up for giving me the idea.
Oh wait, this is the Arena thread. The online Jump Start events are frustrating as hell. For some reason I greatly prefer the paper instructions' pick-two-of-four over Arena's pick one of three, then pick another one from another set of three. The paper method seems to lead to more cohesive decks.
I gotta say, this MOM looks really sexy.
I haven’t looked at it much yet. Planning to start checking out some set reviews and such closer to launch on Arena.
It'll be interesting to see how accurate the set reviews end up being this time. There's a whole new card type coming and that can be hard to evaluate before anyone has played them.
I've been listening to the Limited Resources set review; haven't listened to them in a loooooooong time. I haven't been a regular drafter in many years, although I adored drafting Commander Legends Baldur's Gate the two times I got to.
Drafting either Commander Legends set has been absolutely fantastic. With them doing Commander Masters this year in the same 20 card pack, two picks at a time format, I'm wondering if they're going to try to release a Commander draft product every year from now on. I'd be all for it.
Regular Commander is a little weird for me. It's the only constructed format I play these days*, but I'm not that crazy about the multiplayer aspect. I kind of think Magic is best when dueling. However, as I said, I utterly adored my Baldur's Gate drafts.
*I did recently cajole my son into us making Oathbreaker decks, but I think his heart wasn't in it, and my Minsc and Boo deck trounced him.
Minsc and Boo is quite possibly the strongest Planeswalker in the game. It isn't a shoe-in, but it's definitely neck-in-neck with all-stars like Oko, Thief of Crowns or Jace, The Mind Sculptor. If you have it in the command zone you're going to trounce just about anybody.
I don't draft online anywhere near as much as I used to, but I still make it out to almost every prerelease. I like Magic because I can focus on it completely. These days I usually have to be dividing my attention between whatever I'm doing and what my 2-year-old daughter is doing, and that kind of defeats the point of playing Magic so I tend to do other stuff.
I wish my local friends liked Commander Legends more. I have a full box of the first set and most of a box of Baldur's Gate that I'd love to open. The first one was a neat draft format, but I didn't end up caring for the games I played. Baldur's Gate seems to have fixed whatever was wrong with CL though; those games were really fun.
I think part of the problem is my regular group is 5 people, which *really* drags when you do a free-for-all game. I think we need to take a page from our cube drafting and play Star, where you're just trying to kill the two people across the table from you, with commander too.
I've heard Star is quite good with Commander, but I haven't tried it. Hopefully someday!
I’ve got nowhere else to share my luck today so…
Opened a set booster of Kamigawa Neon Dynasty and got The Wandering Emperor and then I opened a bundle of Dominaria United and got Sheoldred in one of the packs.
I’ve got nowhere else to share my luck today so…
Opened a set booster of Kamigawa Neon Dynasty and got The Wandering Emperor and then I opened a bundle of Dominaria United and got Sheoldred in one of the packs.
Nice pulls!
My son opened a pack of ONE this week and got a foil Elesh Norn concept praetor (which I didn't know existed) and a Lukka (showcase art). That's a $75 pack.
We played a sealed deck of MOM against each other last night. Good stuff so far. So far I really like Backup and I'm not yet sure about Battles. I played 2x Kamigawa battle, which I think is fine as it removes a blocker for two turns, and the alternate side is a 2/3 flier who can draw you cards. I didn't play the rare Strixhaven battle - bit of a bummer that it's a rare that may be unplayable anywhere - and one other.
I also got the Chandra, which is OP. You can play it and then +2 to cast a 2 mana instant and copy it, or - 5 it to deal 5 damage each to two targets, among other possibilities.
That’s an awesome ONE pack!
I only just started looking at MoM today. It does seem like fun and a decent change from ONE for limited. It doesn’t seem like it will be as fast paced and could allow for some slower decks.
That’s an awesome ONE pack!
I only just started looking at MoM today. It does seem like fun and a decent change from ONE for limited. It doesn’t seem like it will be as fast paced and could allow for some slower decks.
I think it's definitely slower. ONE was different with its focus on oil counters.
If nothing else, Battles should slow the game down. The format is built around getting you to cast spells that effectively have "target opponent gains 4-6 life" stapled onto them.
And that's not counting the fact that BRO and ONE were both pretty fast so we're due for something slower.
I don't know if the format is built around them, though - in the two sealed pools I've played, people have been putting 0-2 Battles in their decks. The ones that get played the most have removal or stun effects, and would be playable in Limited as sorceries with no back side.
It might not be successfully built around them, but they sure as hell tried or else they wouldn't have bothered making a new card type.
It's possible that Battles mostly go in decks with the explicit support cards, which could make them not show up in sealed. It's also possible that people just don't know how to use them yet.
I didn't manage to make a prerelease for this one so I'm just going off preview info still. My wife and I spent the weekend trying to figure out if and how we can attend a con now that we're parents.
Yeah, I do wonder how battles will work out. At least this siege type. Not only do you have to attack it to get the back side, also, I believe, unlike a saga, the back side goes on the stack and can be countered? Seems like a lot of risk. The payoff needs to be really good and/or the ETB for the front side needs to be somewhat worth it alone.
If we're talking limited, this format is pretty light on counter magic. There's the "counter unless they pay 2" which they'll probably be able to do since the back side of a Battle is free. There's a 6-mana counter that has Convoke and some card draw stapled to it. The best counter in the format is probably Negate, which can get the Battle but won't hit creature back sides.
Good point. I’ve still only begun to look at the set and what’s available.
I'm not going to be good at this right away if I take 2 sets off.
I'm not going to be good at this right away if I take 2 sets off.
I'm not going to be good at this right away if I take 2 sets off...
Arena sure is quick and convenient and is great when you're in the zone, but when you suck it is SO much more fun to suck in person.
I feel this doing Midweek Magic last night. I ended up with kind of an awkward Jump In deck and it took me a while to get two wins for the ICRs.
The Lord of the Rings MtG set comes out mid-June, and previews have begun in earnest.
Their take on Aragorn is pissing off all the people you would expect it to:
Yeah seriously that should cost 8 mana, not 6.
I'm surprised it doesn't cost 4!
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