Magic The Gathering

[Flexo]

So apparently there is one card in Streets where every foreign language gets a different art.

Am I the only one who happens to notice it seems like every other nation gets something sexier than what English is stuck with?

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

TWD secret lair is the only one that deserves regular condemnation, since the cards haven't been and aren't getting reprinted. I don't even necessarily care about getting functional in-setting prints, I just mean reprinted.

Everything else is just milking whales with stupid bling. I'm cool with that, because I don't really care if whales feel like burning their cash. Shit like the collector boosters tends to drive the prices of non-chase singles down, which benefits everyone who isn't either trying to play competitively or trying to pubstomp their LGS.

Am I the only one who happens to notice it seems like every other nation gets something sexier than what English is stuck with?

I don't know necessarily about sexy, but it looks like the other arts / languages draw from the different cultures' traditions of theater and performance. The english one... I dunno, it looks like a valet? The rocketeer-ass jumpsuits are weird and don't really strike me as this thing I'd expect at an extravagant cabaret.

 

[Retink]

The rest of those cats look like they are really meant for commander which sucks since I don't play commander and I never will.

lol at the electric tommygun. Yeah that's p gay

I really don't like Commander, and I used to play it a lot when it was new. It was fun when it was a fun and creative format with people running a bunch of old and obscure cards, but now that it's all new cards printed specifically for the format is just feels cheap.

The funny thing about guns in Magic is that MaRo has taken a stance that guns don't fit into Magic because of flavor, more likely he's just an anti-gun idiot and thinks they shouldn't be promoted in a children's card game, but Magic has had guns in the past. Portal Second Age, which had some really good but questionable art actually features a lot of guns:

The bigger problem is that the characters holding guns tend to be more rustic, making it a bit confusing of where guns fit in. If they did it more like other fantasy games where the race that had them was more advanced technologically but less magic oriented it would work better than full plate knights with guns or naked goblins in loin cloths with guns like most of the set featured. I think Alaborn Zealot above is a great piece of art outside of the weird head and face, as it shows about the proper amount of armor and gear you'd expect from a race that uses powder weapons. The bellow is art I think really fails for the previously mentioned reasons.

This art is good, but I think the period of it looks a bit off, small alterations probably could have saved it but by todays terms this would just be featured on a plane that's completely Western themed for some reason:

So apparently there is one card in Streets where every foreign language gets a different art.

Am I the only one who happens to notice it seems like every other nation gets something sexier than what English is stuck with?
View attachment 3171567

Not only are other language arts sexier, but the English one is the only one to feature a nog.

I'll also say I really don't like this move. Art is an important part of cards when it comes to identifying them, and having so many versions in one set will make it a pain going into the future if you're ever playing against someone with an obscure art.

 

[Cats]

Maro is just the worst. His card sucks almost as much as he does.

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

Picked up magic again, modern and commander, and what in the actual fuck are these prices?

I remember buying a Bayou, tundra and volcanic island for 30 bucks apiece. I feel bad for the newer players who don’t have access to the older stuff.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Picked up magic again, modern and commander, and what in the actual fuck are these prices?

I remember buying a Bayou, tundra and volcanic island for 30 bucks apiece. I feel bad for the newer players who don’t have access to the older stuff.

The Reserve list has..gone utterly faggot tier insane in the past 5 years.

I've had to proxy my playset of ABU duals just because I no longer feel safe taking them anywhere.

 

[I'mma real anime gurl]

So apparently there is one card in Streets where every foreign language gets a different art.

Am I the only one who happens to notice it seems like every other nation gets something sexier than what English is stuck with?
View attachment 3171567

I'll put a bounty on the foreign cards to get from my local game store.

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

The Reserve list has..gone utterly faggot tier insane in the past 5 years.

I've had to proxy my playset of ABU duals just because I no longer feel safe taking them anywhere.

I’ve decided I might grab one or two unlimited/revised packs, in the near future. I will let you all know what happens.

 

[Retink]

Picked up magic again, modern and commander, and what in the actual fuck are these prices?

I remember buying a Bayou, tundra and volcanic island for 30 bucks apiece. I feel bad for the newer players who don’t have access to the older stuff.

The Reserve list has..gone utterly faggot tier insane in the past 5 years.

I've had to proxy my playset of ABU duals just because I no longer feel safe taking them anywhere.

I like that Magic has an actual collectable aspect to it with the reserved list, but I also hate that it limits gameplay so much as so many critical pieces to legacy and vintage are locked behind it. In part I don't think reprints would even hurt iconic cards, as they do have a certain age and history to them, but at the same time I don't trust Wizards to do anything in a sensible manner so it's a bit of a standstill.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

I like that Magic has an actual collectable aspect to it with the reserved list,

Fuck that shit, the fact that what is usually the weakest part of the deck (Mana base) is consistently the most insanely expensive part of it is peak faggotry. When Kaldheim hit we instituted a Rule in my playgroup "The Snow Duals are ABU duals" and it improved mana bases a great deal.

Print Lands into the god damn dirt.

 

[Retink]

Fuck that shit, the fact that what is usually the weakest part of the deck (Mana base) is consistently the most insanely expensive part of it is peak faggotry. When Kaldheim hit we instituted a Rule in my playgroup "The Snow Duals are ABU duals" and it improved mana bases a great deal.

Print Lands into the god damn dirt.

Eh, the problem is the thing that's most played and fixes the biggest problem will always be the most expensive. That and a lot of game stores live off of the secondary market so things like lands being expensive are beneficial to them, while casual players have no issue proxying things such as your group has done, which makes it a bit more win-win.

I don't think printing things into oblivion would be a solution, as a large part of why the game survives is retention of value and a lot of the massive spikes a more recent thing that spiraled out of control after formats had a long established history. That being said I don't think Wizards handles its formats well in terms of bannings or innovation which contributes to the bullshit, as well as their mana system being a clunky part of the game at this point that maybe does more harm than good.

I've actually gotten into watching the history of Yu-Gi-Oh recently, a game I played very briefly in middle school as I liked the anime, and it's fascinating how things played out there. There would be these incredibly expensive cards that with marginally better, but strong enough to dominate, and things still functioned because people would just play inferior builds and weird side builds to some success. That's just rather interesting that you can have an ecosystem in other games where people can play an inferior deck and its cool, but in Magic it's either the best build or bust.

I don't think the best build is even the truly best build in Magic most of the time either. So what makes the community in one game so much more retarded than the community in a game featuring tomatoes and titty cats.

 

[MightyMorphin'Willbender]

Commander driving the prices of even jank cards makes me MATI.
Heck even my casual circle keeps obsessing over expensive-ass cards and builds.

"It's not fun to play if you won't let me play my <400$ combo."
Fuck you.

Competitive play can go fuck itself too.
Maybe if the high status/prizes competitions were only Limited/Draft events people could spend money on soap and deodorant.

 

[Cats]

Commander driving the prices of even jank cards makes me MATI.
Heck even my casual circle keeps obsessing over expensive-ass cards and builds.

"It's not fun to play if you won't let me play my <400$ combo."
Fuck you.

Competitive play can go fuck itself too.
Maybe if the high status/prizes competitions were only Limited/Draft events people could spend money on soap and deodorant.

Even though I am not the best player or deckbuilder I used to love competitive magic, I still do to some extent. But Tournament Practice and Leagues in mtgo is filled to the brim with people playing the exact same deck right now and it is really irritating because you either play the counterpick and win almost 100% of the time, or you play something else and lose 90% of the time. Maybe it's really not quite THAT bad but it feels that way. I know this has been a competitive magic issue in many blocks in the past but MH2 really fucked up modern.

As a protest to this, in league and TP I run legacy and modern Winota shells exclusively, with maybe the odd Junk build in lieu of my usual pick Jund, because 2022 Jund is just the black/green version of izzet delver now. Winota is actually FUN to play and can pull off explosive turn 3/4 wins (and would both easily and consistently do so if not for like 3 cards in the format that everyone netdecks with) My favorite version is half goblins because you can still win with just the gobbos sometimes...but the most effective is certainly the stoneblade variant. It just synergizes too well. The legacy version uses sol lands, trinisphere, and is a chalice deck so it can provide a few lame wins but is the only way to run such a deck in legacy. This has resulted in me actually enjoying the game for once.

That's another thing: if they aren't playing izzet delver in 2022 its usually some kind of stoneblade deck. if you run white in your deck it is almost become mandatory because it is such a cheap an alternate win condition at only a 4-6 card investment and synergizes well with almost anything. I'm not necessarily complaining, but the homogeny is slightly depressing.

 

[Bonesjones]

Make the pro world tour play pauper

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

as a large part of why the game survives is retention of value

No? Unless it is played in an Eternal format the value of a card tanks the moment it leaves standard. Magic the Gathering is a game, not Rudy's fucking retirement fund.

That and a lot of game stores live off of the secondary market so things like lands being expensive are beneficial to them

MUH LGS is kind of a stupid ass Meme, especially after the past decade of WOTC specifically telling LGS's to go fuck themselves. Shit I don't even have an LGS, my pod plays in a local pizza place that is very happy to have 4 customers come in and order 2 Pizzas every Saturday at Noon.

while casual players have no issue proxying things such as your group has done, which makes it a bit more win-win.

I am not sure we would be considered Casual given the actual power level of our decks, and it does create problems when you take those decks out of the playgroup, once the full Triome set has come out I am actually going to switch the Snow Duals I keep into Shocks and have the MODO Duals on paper in the sleeves for when I use the deck outside of the group I can just say they are shocks.

That being said I don't think Wizards handles its formats well in terms of bannings or innovation which contributes to the bullshit

That is because WOTC can't even get a professional scene handled correctly much less actually managing formats.

as well as their mana system being a clunky part of the game at this point that maybe does more harm than good.

The Mana system is the reason Magic is better than shit like Yugioh and Hearthstone.

That's just rather interesting that you can have an ecosystem in other games where people can play an inferior deck and its cool, but in Magic it's either the best build or bust.

You can play an inferior deck in Standard and be fine, I saw Twits with Lifegain decks all the time on Arena..and I had high Mythic with a Pet Dimir Build in Historic before they ruined the format by dumping a bunch of shit into it with the Strixhaven Archive cards, shit even in Modern you can play a pet deck and get a 5 - 0

No, I have no fucking clue how this deck went 5-0 either, holy shit 17 Lands and 2 of them are dead on turn 1

The only reason that Arena has become a really awful place to play "pet" decks is because of how expensive a deck is to make. (Because once again they fucking put good mana at high rarity for no reason except to Nickle and dime people, because even the good lands in standard won't see much eternal play so having them at rare is just to make people spend wildcards on Multicolored decks)

I don't think the best build is even the truly best build in Magic most of the time either.

Well, sideboards make things complicated and there are a few moving parts to Magic, people forget that certain decks exists because they are easy to hate out (Like Dredge) and don't see them so they remove the Hate Pieces from their sideboards...and then that deck shows up and kicks everyone in the ball sack.

Usually the "Best Deck" means "Has a good game against the other strongest deck in the format, while not being so hype focused on that match up that you can take on the 2 or 3 other decks in the format. This is why at the moment Mono White is the "most popular" deck in the format, but I think Esper Walkers is probably the strongest of the top 5 because it can boardwipe Mono White Aggro, while having Vanishing verse for all the Midrange Piles.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Commander driving the prices of even jank cards makes me MATI.
Heck even my casual circle keeps obsessing over expensive-ass cards and builds.

"It's not fun to play if you won't let me play my <400$ combo."
Fuck you.

Competitive play can go fuck itself too.
Maybe if the high status/prizes competitions were only Limited/Draft events people could spend money on soap and deodorant.

You have two options: either make the cheapest possible CEDH-level version of some extremely unfun faggot shit, like Orvar (which is still stupid expensive), or build a deck specifically built to slow down, delay, and counter faggy solitaire wallet combos. That urge to spend and spend and spend and spend and spend is born of "fun=winning," so build a deck full of hate cards specifically to keep them from winning. Lavinnia or Gaddock hatebeards with the correct counterplay cards (rest in peace, damping sphere) for your group.

Or, if you REALLY want to see some salt, build something mono-red and include these four cards: blood moon, magus of the moon, from the ashes, and especially ruination. Perhaps top it all off with Keldon Firebombers, but that may be a little overkill. Regardless of the route that you choose, games will not be particularly fun for any of them, and they'll whine and complain at you. But you'll be spending maybe $60 or something on a deck, and never really need to upgrade it. No matter how much money they pump into their fucking playable mortgages, all it takes is one ruination and you've got a one-sided land wipe to leave them crying and whining. It's so unfair that a $7 card can just wipe out my $300 land base!!!!!!!!

The more I think about it, I recommend the red idea. You can carry around swap-out cards to switch to in your deckbox. Playing the game with people who aren't assholes? Take out the hate cards and put in more synergistic cards. Mono-red has so many fun commanders you can build on the cheap, too. Torbran is arguably the best for this route, since there's a lot of red burn-punishment cards that fuck hard with infinite mana/untap combos as well as free spells. But realistically, those four cards turn any mono-r deck into a living nightmare for the wallet warriors, who will bitch and whine and cry incessantly without fail every time.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Or, if you REALLY want to see some salt, build something mono-red and include these four cards: blood moon,

If someone gets Salty over Blood Moon they need kicked in the ass.

If you are playing 3+ Colors and get got By Blood Moon that is just a price for being 3+ Colors, and I say that as someone who has a 5 color deck with 1 of each basic just in case. But Mathematically speaking even if there is a player at the table who does have it they have to draw it before I am set up.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

If someone gets Salty over Blood Moon they need kicked in the ass.

If you are playing 3+ Colors and get got By Blood Moon that is just a price for being 3+ Colors, and I say that as someone who has a 5 color deck with 1 of each basic just in case. But Mathematically speaking even if there is a player at the table who does have it they have to draw it before I am set up.

Wallet warriors don't believe that playing more colors should involve any drawback. It's why they all flocked to Golos, and all tried to pretend like that card wasn't a massive stupid fuckup for the format: you could just dump money into it, and it got better. Period. It's all necessary if your goal is to stomp people playing with precons at your LGS, after all. Because that's what they do - it's not you buy the goods to play at a high-powered group or a CEDH one; you buy the goods to stomp new players and turn the group into an arms race to see who has the worse spending control.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Wallet warriors don't believe that playing more colors should involve any drawback. It's why they all flocked to Golos, and all tried to pretend like that card wasn't a massive stupid fuckup for the format: you could just dump money into it, and it got better. Period. It's all necessary if your goal is to stomp people playing with precons at your LGS, after all. Because that's what they do - it's not you buy the goods to play at a high-powered group or a CEDH one; you buy the goods to stomp new players and turn the group into an arms race to see who has the worse spending control.

People put money into Golos decks? They didn't just do the obvious thing..buy a Vesuva and a Field of the dead and just Zombie people out with cheap Utility lands?

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

People put money into Golos decks? They didn't just do the obvious thing..buy a Vesuva and a Field of the dead and just Zombie people out with cheap Utility lands?

Well, yeah, sure, but how could you possibly play that without crypt, jeweled lotus, vault, ancient tomb, fierce guardianship, force of will, force of negation, vamp tutor, demonic tutor, ten fetches at the minimum? btw it's still only a 5/10, trust me