Editorial Section:
What have we lost?
"A lot" would technically be correct, but let's break down some of the bigger items, just to be thorough.
Some things missing from V2.5
- Big Deck Mulligans (mentioned on the Archenemy rules as one allowed multiplayer 'free' mulligan)
- Ownership of a created game
- Assigning seating arrangements
- Easily viewable play area
And there are actually quite a few more things that are no longer available in the new client. And while we've gotten some good dedication to Commander, we're still a long way away from where we were.
What have we missed?
Planechase - from my dabbling in the Planechase world this chaotic version adds a lot of insanity and a LOT more randomness. Not only is the Plane random, but so are the "Chaos" effects and when they'll trigger. Much like the randomness of Momir, this type of format rewards quick thinking and punishes any attempt to play for a specific outcome. It's hard enough to build a deck for a planechase deck that I'd call it borderline 'moot'. Not that it's impossible or inadvisable, it's just that there's far too much randomness to really work towards any particular goal with your choices.
Archenemy - I've played about a dozen Archenemy games now with about half of those being the Archenemy and the other half trying to take them down. Without a doubt, this is the format that would draw me into MTGO Multiplayer if it was there and a few improvements were made to the client. I'll discuss more of those in a moment, but suffice it to say, that this new format has been very well received by casual players right now and is very much something that we're missing on MTGO right now. Unlike Planechase, you can and will, build decks around your archenemy scheme cards. They are focused enough that a deck can be built around them with relative ease. Also, some of the effects are weak enough that they can be removed and improved with other cards. For example, I have the G/W AE deck in my shop and modified the included deck into an EDH deck with Rhys the Redeemed as my general. The scheme cards focus on tokens and ramp, and my general assists and benefits from them. My schemes do things such as dumping five 1/1 saprolings, seven 0/1 or 3/3's into play and ramping up mana like crazy... it's a work in progress to be sure, but as of now, it's strong enough to hold its own for the most part.
What do we need?
Opt-in voice chat, for the teams. Many will say that voice chat services are currently available through Skype, Ventrillo, and many other products. And that's one hundred percent true. However, another sad and true fact is that the more hurdles there are, the less likely it is that a person will do something. And that increases more and more if that something is eating into time set aside for 'fun'. I really enjoy chatting with my fellow podcasters and other Commander players. However, the time it takes to launch those services, log into them, use them, etc eats the precious time I have access to to play. Also, every time I have to switch back and forth to log in/log out/update status or as I usually do, forget to sign out altogether and inadvertently 'ignore' my friends and peers... is just more and more headache. Also, not everyone I know uses the same technologies. Google chat, AIM, Skype, Ventrillo, et al all require different apps and different screens. If something is going to be used for everyone it must be built in with moderation tools right in the client.
Blocking/muting needs to be seamlessly integrated into whatever chat options appear and each person must choose to join the chat. Once that's in place, real team communication can begin. Trying to coordinate attacks, spells, plans, etc is extremely hard to do efficiently via text chatting and is open to misunderstandings. Also, the time it takes to coordinate anything via text is an extremely annoying delay to all involved.
X on Y configurations
Archenemy is pretty much the key reason for this change, but this could easily be used for other reasons, like 1 vs 2 for teaching new players or for teaching a clanmate the intricacies of a new deck. Essentially one player could bring a 60 card land deck and walk their partner through the entire process of the game and give them advice and play hints as they move forward.
Prizes!!!!!
In my store I run a free event every week where I sit down with my EDH deck, my Archenemy deck and take on three opponents. If I win, nothing happens. If I lose, they each get a pack. It's not much, but it's a fun casual-ish way to unwind and play some crazy Magic. Granted, I use my EDH deck but I'll happily take on three Standard legal tournament decks and give them a run for their money. There could be a myriad of pay x and win y things done on MTGO. Like an Archenemy queue where each player puts in two tickets, and if the Archenemy wins they get two packs, but if the challengers win, they each get a pack (essentially people win two ticket packs, except the arch, which wins one ticket packs). Things like that could work, given the proper basis of multiplayer support built into the client.
I know of complete clans dedicated to pushing the level of play higher in the Casual/Multiplayer room via providing higher and higher level decks for people to challenge. Unfortunately, they have to co-exist with people who just want to play 'crazy large deck' multiplayer games and have often created a large divide between the player types. Large enough that there have been repeated issues between the two sides. And I trust that it will continue to happen until some better outlet for competitive multiplayer exists in the client. Either that, or we'll just see an endless sea of "What is Casual Multiplayer" debates... either one is as likely as the others.
Discussion Items/News:
August MOPR/MOCS announced:
The August Promo cards have been announced and can be found in the above link. Some decent cards and some questionable ones as well. Kind of exciting, I guess.
CAW CAW CAW... no, really:
Looks like they're gearing up for another round of "Customer Appreciation Week" and will have a lot of superb draft options starting THIS WEEKEND! Also, rewards points are doubled!
Magic Online Banned and Restricted update:
Some minor changes to Commander based on, well, stupid Eldrazi broken-ness.
Card Price Discussion:
Forward Motion:
The old, in demand cards have started to creep back up now that the events that increased the supply of them have stopped. Cards like Wasteland, Aluren and Natural Order have all been recovering since their plummet the last few weeks. Other cards with forward momentum are the guys in the new Extended format. Fulminator, faeries, et al.
Backwards Motion:
Here come the pre-M11 discounts and sell-offs. Granted, we'll still have a few more months with these cards, but even with that buffer there are a lot of people that are looking to dump their cards now for as much as possible. M10 stuff like Ball Lightning has moved down along with former golden child: Dark Depths.
Card Price Tables:
Card Price Charts:
aluren chart
stifle chart
lodestone golem chart
gideon jura chart
grim monolith chart
phyrexian dreadnought chart
natural order chart
wasteland chart
glen elendra archmage chart
fulminator mage chart
lodestone golem chart
jet medallion chart
aluren chart
angelic chorus chart
stifle chart
fulminator mage chart
serrated arrows chart
rootbound crag chart
voice of all chart
horizon canopy chart
dark depths chart
entomb chart
orim's chant chart
vengevine chart
maelstrom pulse chart
earthquake chart
noble hierarch chart
bayou chart
savannah chart
thornling chart
great sable stag chart
earthquake chart
manabarbs chart
siege_gang commander chart
mind spring chart
pithing needle chart
lavaclaw reaches chart
thornling chart
ranger of eos chart
ball lightning chart
14 Comments
Hell's Thunder and Sovereigns of Lost Alara probably should be included in the dropping price section. Both are down ~30% from their $5.00 highs. The decline has been over 2-4 weeks though so maybe that doesn't trigger whatever you have mining the weekly price data. Still, they're pretty key cards in a couple of decks so its worth mentioning.
And I've got to say the August rewards cards BLOW. Hmm, let me spend lots o' cash on M11 product/sealed/drafts so I can get a foil curse of wizardy! That sounds awesome, I haven't 15th picked a play set yet.
I hate to be negative. No, let me rephrase that. I hate to be negative over here on puremtgo. It just comes naturally once I plod through the hurdles to get on the community boards.
But anyway, I got the Customer Appreciation Week email and the thing is, I don't even understand how I'm supposed to get excited about any of that. I did get a chuckle out of the August promos, so comedy is worth something I guess. But the CAW just makes me feel "wow, no thank you." And subsequently it's making me think that if this is supposed to be the peak of enjoyment, and I couldn't care less, then maybe I just don't like Magic.
... Maybe I don't. Which is no big deal really. I'm just struck by the irony of Customer Appreciation Week urging me to quit.
p.s. Chart links aren't working at the moment.
This doesn't happen that often but I totally agree.
I don't quite understand - what was so bad about the Customer Appreciation Week besides the goofy promos? Nix pax ME and Alara drafts make me a little bummed because I don't like seeing my pretty duals decline in price, but it's a healthy thing for the game for them to have as much nix tix/nix pax events as possible - it does a reasonable job of moderating secondary market prices.
Sure they could have done more, but we just had the MTGO anniversary month where they threw out a bunch of discounted events (putting a bullet in the ankle of the secondary prices of just about every classic block). What are we really expecting?
The same thing as I commented on then applies now. Half-assed appreciation seems not much better than none at all. Not saying they should do nothing but it seems rather perfunctory. Or perhaps it is just lacking in creative energy.
As far as nix ME packs go, well that's great for those with tickets to burn, I suppose. 12 tickets for a lottery? sure why not. But the move isn't about customer appreciation. It is purely secondary market fixing. They see a problem that could hurt their long term goals in Legacy and this is how they fix it. Not completely elegant as solutions go but it beats having to do something drastic like banning duals from Legacy which no one wants. Well that's my take on it. (This means if you are into Legacy and need duals go draft and hope you win some!)
As far as nix packs Shards go...I don't really get the appeal. I loved Shards of Alara block drafting but it was not hugely profitable. So many junk rares in the sets that the impact is not going to change much for any one.
It's not that CAW is in any way making the game worse. It's that they're trying to get us excited over something that is (to me at least) inherently unexciting. Thus my reaction is "So that's the best you've got, huh? I see. Good to know."
It's like promising your family a special surprise for dinner then serving them leftovers.
Paul said it well that that this just feels like a dearth of creativity.
Looking at the MTGO schedule, I knew they were awarding Mirrodin and holding the special draft events this weekend. I didn't know it was Customer Appreciation Week and I believe they came up with the idea at the last minute to try to satisfy those players that didn't post on the Community Cup forum and to fix some other problems. Aren't most other events announced weeks in advance like the 8th anniversary and july 4th drafts whereas CAW was announced the day before it started? Offering Urza's packs in the store is by no means an exciting prospect and I don't understand why they choose to take them out of the store in the first place when the drafts continue to fire but there had been many complaints about the Urza's drafts awarding UZ/UL/UL to the 2nd place in the draft and about the overall difficulty in finding UZ packs. 9 tix Alara drafts is just to squeeze the last few pennies out of the block before it rotates and these frequent MED events just help decrease the price of some staple Legacy cards.
Nix Pax Masters Edition drafts are welcome any time in my book. Don't worry, any price decline is only temporary.
An opening paragraph (or even just a conditional on the first header) framing this discussion as multiplayer would've been nice. e.g. "What have we lost *for multiplayer*?" My first thought was "why aren't leagues on this list?". The way it starts out almost makes me suspect the opening paragraph got eaten during editing.
P.S. - Why do they even bother with the first comment submission if they are just going to always flag my post as possible spam and make me fill out the captcha anyway?
a great caw event for me would be a completly free event where my customer would need nothing but an account to play and once you played in 1 event then your account name gets crossed off a list where a customer could only play in 1 event.and for those people who had more than 1 account well they had to be a customer at one point to abtain those extra accounts so they would probably apprieciate an event like that.
i agree with bubba0077, leagues seems to be a good fix in multiplayer, although i wish they would invent a sanctioned multiplayer event for the multiplayers to enjoy, my favorite paper multi event that i hold at my house is an ffa draft where you can bring any 3 packs you want, let me tell you it is fun as heck and if we had it on mtgo people could use spare packs of anything they had laying around. and don't get me started on a b.y.o.p. 2hg "bring your own packs", lol, i can see the all the fun you think you'd be having!
See? That is creative. Perhaps not perfect from WotC's pov but that could be ironed out. They have great thinkers over there, I know. Just all the brain juice gets sucked out by the 9-5 aspect I guess.
HI. This may be dumb, but I thought someone could help me. If my opponent has tracker, with+1/+1 so its a 3/3. And they trigger it targeting my 1/3 creature. Once the ability is on the stack there is no way to change the amount of damage dealt? even with an instant weakness. Or if the tracker gets bounced it always still deals 3 no matter what happens in between the triggering and the resolving? Because I thought that the ability would check once when triggered and then it would check tracker's power again when it actually resolves.
The power is checked at the time of stacking the ability. The game remembers its last known power so even if it is bounced it deals its damage.
I don't think Paul's quite correct here, Unixaaron. It's actually a good question because there are different situations.
Damage for a spell or ability like this, be it Tracker or Arena or Soul's Fire, is determined when the ability resolves. So you could Giant Growth your guy bigger or Disfigure his smaller. However ...
If the Tracker disappears (because it dies, gets exiled, or gets bounced), the rules will need some number to use for it's power. In this case the game uses "last known power", which would be 3 since that's what tracker was the last time it was around.
If the target disappears, the ability will be countered because it has no legal targets.