...is the way our matches are done. Since you aren't strapped to a computer screen for four to five hours at a time in a league setting, you just log in when you're looking for a match or two, play it, and then move on to something else if you don't have the time. Though I understand a Swiss format would be a bit more...idk, I guess "proving" of the top decks and all...but well hell I just really enjoy the more casual atmosphere the league setting can provide.
Silver Black locking the Commanders rarity as well sounds interesting to me.
Though I seldom have time for magic lately.
Heirloom is likely more balanced overall but not as easy to pick up if you don't already play it. :(
You're right about Reap and Sow, that is pretty nice. As for Shunt, I don't think I've ever seen it played. And there were a ton of cards listed in this block. Shunt just didn't make the cut. Thanks for bringing it up tho.
The big question for a lot of players will boil down to "do I really want to buy a new computer just so I can play MTGO?" If, for some non-obvious reason, your computer just refuses to play nice with the program (or vice versa), you don't have a lot of options other than buying another computer.
When they made the last change, my old computer would not work with the program. I took it to some computer gurus and they could not make it work. I had to buy a new computer just to play MTGO. How many people out there will give up on MTGO this time because buying a new computer is their tipping point?
This is my point in a way. Since you can run it on yours without problems (really no crashes at all, ever?) does not mean I can on mine. For every machine that can run it fine there will be some that can't. This could be an age factor, or a software factor or some hybrid problem between age and settings.
Also I have had sessions where everything worked (if poorly in my opinion) and then some where the build was extremely unstable. I prefer v3 and will until I see some serious changes in the UI and stability.
Your worry is well-founded. Thousands were knocked off of MTGO when they forced v2 to shut down and v3 was the only choice. Until you could upgrade to a better computer it was done for.
This shows the company has very poor track record for caring about whether individual players can connect and whether their play experience is on par.
My personal experience has been that sometimes it works fine and then suddenly for no reason crashes. The crashes are random and not confined to only one aspect of its functionality. In other words it is crap waiting to explode.
It is difficult to understand shiny does not work on your W7 machine and works on my macbook parallels/W8 without a hitch. I also installed shiny on a much slower low grade laptop while my mac was getting repaired, and it worked fine there too. I find this very worrying, as it could mean players will randomly not be able to play in the future depending on unknown incompatibilities here and there.
I was wondering if you'd be interested if I recorded and sent you a video of shiny working properly (maybe a look at the collection, deck building, one match, a look at the store), so you could show in your column what shiny CAN look like. Let me know if you're interested.
I watched your "Shiny" video, and your experience confirms my experience with the Beta. The program is laggy, I've only used it 4 times, the first time it crashed while updating, the second time it crashed when I tried to upload my collection, and the other 2 times it worked fine but was still laggy. I do agree with you that trading is a mess and I would recommend anybody who is going to use Shiny to make trades on the old client. beforehand. The only thing that I like about Shiny is drafts, those were actually a pleasant experience (shocker!) My belief is that the Beta is not ready for widespread commercial use, and Wizards needs to recognize this and make sure that it 100% can support everyone on it.
As far as I could see, there was no info given about Momir Basic being fixed anywhere (group, forums, Twitter, MTGO page, Mothership)... but another user in a forum thread responded to my query about it, and said he'd played a Daily Event.
So I tried, and managed to play a Daily Event yesterday.
Glad it's fixed, but yet another example of poor comms by WotC!
After submitting this, I saw that Wizards has reworked the Modern Masters events. 64 player Drafts are unchangesd, but draft queues were cut to 25 TIX, or product plus 4 TIX. Phantom drafts will now begin on the 14th as well.
Sure. Sometimes. I mean, a lot of commons/uncommons are pretty pricey, especially being on Magic Online even (Pyroblast & Crypt Rats come to mind) though also cards like Daze, Gush, & Snap too.
The format is played in a league setting, where players get together with other players at a time that is convenient for both of them. This is best to accommodate other players' timezone differences, and to help capture a more comfortable, or casual-ish feeling to the matches. And, so far it has proved more liked than traditional Swiss too -- many players don't want to be strapped to a computer screen for four or so hours at a time, especially for an event with a top four payout of 6-4-3-2 -- just enough to try and add a new card or two to a deck, not enough to want to go full bore for. :)
...is the way our matches are done. Since you aren't strapped to a computer screen for four to five hours at a time in a league setting, you just log in when you're looking for a match or two, play it, and then move on to something else if you don't have the time. Though I understand a Swiss format would be a bit more...idk, I guess "proving" of the top decks and all...but well hell I just really enjoy the more casual atmosphere the league setting can provide.
I think part of the need for the shiny spotlight, is to see what issues are due to shiny, and what is caused by shiny not playing nice with V3.
Oh, didn't realize that I actually started a card description that I didn't finish. Thanks for picking up the slack!
Silver Black locking the Commanders rarity as well sounds interesting to me.
Though I seldom have time for magic lately.
Heirloom is likely more balanced overall but not as easy to pick up if you don't already play it. :(
Most skip Shunt for Wild Ricochet I believe.
Same as they tend to skip Fork and Reverberate.
Though Reiterate sees a fair bit of play.
You're right about Reap and Sow, that is pretty nice. As for Shunt, I don't think I've ever seen it played. And there were a ton of cards listed in this block. Shunt just didn't make the cut. Thanks for bringing it up tho.
The big question for a lot of players will boil down to "do I really want to buy a new computer just so I can play MTGO?" If, for some non-obvious reason, your computer just refuses to play nice with the program (or vice versa), you don't have a lot of options other than buying another computer.
When they made the last change, my old computer would not work with the program. I took it to some computer gurus and they could not make it work. I had to buy a new computer just to play MTGO. How many people out there will give up on MTGO this time because buying a new computer is their tipping point?
This is my point in a way. Since you can run it on yours without problems (really no crashes at all, ever?) does not mean I can on mine. For every machine that can run it fine there will be some that can't. This could be an age factor, or a software factor or some hybrid problem between age and settings.
Also I have had sessions where everything worked (if poorly in my opinion) and then some where the build was extremely unstable. I prefer v3 and will until I see some serious changes in the UI and stability.
I can run shiny (well Betarack version) on my Vista Machine without problems.
Your worry is well-founded. Thousands were knocked off of MTGO when they forced v2 to shut down and v3 was the only choice. Until you could upgrade to a better computer it was done for.
This shows the company has very poor track record for caring about whether individual players can connect and whether their play experience is on par.
My personal experience has been that sometimes it works fine and then suddenly for no reason crashes. The crashes are random and not confined to only one aspect of its functionality. In other words it is crap waiting to explode.
It is difficult to understand shiny does not work on your W7 machine and works on my macbook parallels/W8 without a hitch. I also installed shiny on a much slower low grade laptop while my mac was getting repaired, and it worked fine there too. I find this very worrying, as it could mean players will randomly not be able to play in the future depending on unknown incompatibilities here and there.
I was wondering if you'd be interested if I recorded and sent you a video of shiny working properly (maybe a look at the collection, deck building, one match, a look at the store), so you could show in your column what shiny CAN look like. Let me know if you're interested.
Solid artivle, as alwayss, buuuut:
Reap and Sow searches you any land, not just basics and what makes us forget Shunt?
I watched your "Shiny" video, and your experience confirms my experience with the Beta. The program is laggy, I've only used it 4 times, the first time it crashed while updating, the second time it crashed when I tried to upload my collection, and the other 2 times it worked fine but was still laggy. I do agree with you that trading is a mess and I would recommend anybody who is going to use Shiny to make trades on the old client. beforehand. The only thing that I like about Shiny is drafts, those were actually a pleasant experience (shocker!) My belief is that the Beta is not ready for widespread commercial use, and Wizards needs to recognize this and make sure that it 100% can support everyone on it.
The beta crashes when searching? Yeah, I'm not wasting my time.
Couple things.
Forgot to provide a link to the Ruhan list: http://puremtgo.com/articles/conqueror-commander-vol-xciii-ruhan-fomori
Also, a fun Slobad list by Doctor Anime http://puremtgo.com/articles/budget-commander-slobad-goblin-tinkerer
Things are getting busy for me recently, might have to take a week or two off. But I will be back!
As far as I could see, there was no info given about Momir Basic being fixed anywhere (group, forums, Twitter, MTGO page, Mothership)... but another user in a forum thread responded to my query about it, and said he'd played a Daily Event.
So I tried, and managed to play a Daily Event yesterday.
Glad it's fixed, but yet another example of poor comms by WotC!
Great article as usual.
After submitting this, I saw that Wizards has reworked the Modern Masters events. 64 player Drafts are unchangesd, but draft queues were cut to 25 TIX, or product plus 4 TIX. Phantom drafts will now begin on the 14th as well.
Sure. Sometimes. I mean, a lot of commons/uncommons are pretty pricey, especially being on Magic Online even (Pyroblast & Crypt Rats come to mind) though also cards like Daze, Gush, & Snap too.
Heh I imagine with SB commander thats more like dozens of new cards (if wanted).
The format is played in a league setting, where players get together with other players at a time that is convenient for both of them. This is best to accommodate other players' timezone differences, and to help capture a more comfortable, or casual-ish feeling to the matches. And, so far it has proved more liked than traditional Swiss too -- many players don't want to be strapped to a computer screen for four or so hours at a time, especially for an event with a top four payout of 6-4-3-2 -- just enough to try and add a new card or two to a deck, not enough to want to go full bore for. :)
I love what you're doing with Possibility Storm, but I hate hate hate Emrakul and all his derpy Eldrazi friends. :(
8-2 was the top deck and the next one was 6-1? That's a difference of 3 matches, how did that work?
What part of Senile + conflation didn't you get?
I believe it is at George R Brown on the weekend of the 15th.
Thank you for your comments. This Possibility Storm deck may not be much competitive, but it's indeed very fun and crazy to play with it.