Thanks for the info Blippy. I surprised that URW Delver isn't doing as well as RUG Delver as adding White does also give you access to some powerful spells like Path to Exile etc.
The URW(b) Delver sounds interesting. I haven't come across too many of those lists but I'll keep an eye out. Sounds pretty cool.
I think (have no evidence to back this up) that while redeemers make up a small minority of players, because Mythics are the bottleneck to redeem a set (one card of each required), Redemption drives up the price of mythics drastically, to where the cost of the mythics in digital can approach the upper limit, which is the cost of the entire set in paper.
Because a non-redeemable set won't have the mythics exiting the digital supply, it will keep their cost from being hyperinflated, which will keep the profits from the packs down.
Thanks, I did mean that each activation was for 1 mana each time (I was thinking about the text on Pestilence and similar cards, rather than X). I should probably have just used Thrashing Wumpus for my example.
Yes, this clears it up, kind of. I asked because when Activation 1-3 was put on the stack, CR did not have Infect. When Activation 1-3 resolves, CR is in the graveyard and "loses memory" about whatever was cast on it before and doesn't have infect, so why does Activations #1-3 deal poison damage? Last Known Information is kind of confusing. I'm not sure why Activations #1-3 ever saw the Infect ability.
I don't think Searing Blaze is actually countered if the target creature is removed in response. A spell will only be countered if ALL its targets become illegal.
I managed to draft a 4-Axebane Guardian, 4-Doorkeeper, 4-color monstrosity last night. I think walls is a hard archetype to get going, but when it's good, it's really nuts.
Always look forward to these. Other than the UG self mill deck that Ill have Tormod's Crypts in the board for next time I think Im happy with my Burning Vengeance list, though I haven't actually had to play vs the 2 more resilient aggro decks(yours and monogreen) yet so if it cant hold up there it may need further adjustment.
Nice! Tarmogoyf (plus Breeding Pool to support it) makes an excellent addition. RUG delver has handed it to me on a platter several times. URW Delver (plain) has been doing rather meh!, but URW(b) w/Gifts-Reanimator sideboard has been tearing up the Delver archetype. (As far as I can tell with the new WotC results posting policy)
For a lot of players (myself included), having actual digital cards are way more of a priority than getting to redeem them. I have never redeemed a set - why would I, when MTGO is my primary playing platform? - and don't ever intend to.
I don't have hard data to back this up, but it seems pretty obvious that redeemers make a very small minority of overall MTGO users.
With MTGMM on mtgo I really see a massive problem with any modern cards holding their value. There is no redemption on MTGMM. How can you charge 6.99 a pack for purely digital cards. I see MM being somewhat worth it in paper but only if they print enough product. Early reports of 2 boxes per top end stores have me thinking this is a complete failure on getting cards into the players hands at a reasonable cost.
The first and most pressing reason was price. In the context of that date, I had recently sold off my entire collection and was rebuilding from the ground up, off of a couple of months' worth of article credit and event winnings. Linvala was out of my price range for that. Second, 4/4 for 4 with evasion will win the game on its own in five turns, as opposed to seven for a 3/4, and those fewer top decks can be crucial. It's a great body for the cost and sometimes that's enough, although on the whole I like either more utility or more fat. This week's demon deck is a good example: No less than 11 6/6 with flying for 4, four of which also act as potential removal, three of which as cost reducers, with the other creatures having undying for twice the board presence or being Griselbrand, which speaks for itself.
I think the confusion was not about LKI, which is pretty standard, but rather about your specific example, which seems to be wrong:
"For example, if the player is not very confident, the question is “I control Mogg Flunkies with Rancor. If I Fling it at your Phyrexian Hulk, does the Hulk live?” The answer is yes"
The answer is yes? So a 5/3 Mogg Flunkies doesn't kill a Phyrexian Hulk when flung at it?
Seems like this should be corrected to "the answer is no." But maybe I'm missing some other nuance?
Hey AJ, I was curious in my video this week why you had taken out the Linvala from the earlier version of your Angel deck and replaced her with those Indomitable Archangels in the version that made 1st place which I featured. I speculated that they were just good power/toughness for their cmc, but Linvala seems to have so many more applications that it was odd she got cut.
The big question is whether the final activation is for 2 or more damage. If so, the Rats die, and the Tainted Strike is countered on resolution because its target is gone. Let's assume that the fifth activation is for one point, so the Rats are still there for Tainted Strike.
Top down:
Crypt Rats activation #5 resolves - all creatures and players take 1 normal damage. (Tainted Strike has not yet resolved.)
Tainted Strike resolves - the Crypt Rats are now a 4/2 with Infect.
Crypt Rats activation #4 resolves - Crypt Rats deals infect damage - poison counters to players and -1/-1 counters to creatures.
Crypt Rats die - they are 3/1 with one damage, so SBE kills them.
Crypt Rats activation #3 resolves, dealing poison damage.
Crypt Rats activation #2 resolves, dealing poison damage.
Crypt Rats activation #1 resolves, dealing poison damage.
One possibility - if the average value of the boosters is significantly lower than the $7 cost, then drafts at $23 or so each won't be very profitable. At that point, it will depend on how much fun it is to draft it. No way to know at this point.
Last Known Information
Information about an object that’s no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in, or information about a player that’s no longer in the game. This information captures that object’s last existence in that zone or that player’s last existence in the game. See rules 112.7a, 608.2b, 608.2g, and 800.4g.
from the Comp. Rules, page 177
no obfuscation intended. LKI is a pretty standard concept, and we had to name it something. Calling it Fred was too confusing.
Don't beat yourself up over the Zenith. There is no way that I can see, given cards in hand, graveyard and play, for you to have pulled out a win from there, Phantom Centaur or no. I had lethal on the board and was about to attack, with a chainers edict in the yard to get rid of the Persecutor if necessary. The mistake which gets me is my own of not edicting my Ashmouth sooner, hitting you with a 6/5 rather than plinking with a 2/1
Can you point me to any lists, or an event that might have the lists? I own Geists and Resto Angels, and am looking for something I can use them in. I just don't want to blow wads of cash on new Jaces and Thragtusks, since I doubt either of them is legacy-playable and I try not to spend double-digit tix on cards I won't use in legacy or modern.
So... It looks like you might be able to make a profit on Sorin after all! It's up around 24 tickets right now. It's now appearing in winning decks consistently on MTGO, and the W/B guild hasn't even been released yet... If I were you - I'd keep my eye on it, and keep holding him until that price drops, then sell...
---
As far as the pauper cards. I expected this drop on some levels. The recent drafts of older sets scares people a bit (prices normally go down across the board when old sets are drafted). Plus with RtR drafts being such a hit - everyone is focusing more on Standard and Limited; thus selling off their pauper cards (which applies to other formats as well).
But this collapse is pretty extreme. Tons of fringe cards (cards that are normally in the $.50-$1 price range) are suddenly bulk ($.15 or under). Cards like Nettle Sentinel have gone from $2 to almost bulk (.32) in a few days. Yet, Stompy is still doing great in the DEs.
As a person who follows pauper cards.... This is off my charts.... But i am a buyer right now. A big big buyer. And anyone who's ever thought about getting into pauper - now's the time to buy. A few months ago - a playset of all the staples needed to play all the top tier decks was about $500. You should be able to get them all for half that right now.
---
Last, i think Modern MAster's will have a much bigger impact on online prices than it will on paper. Especially in the short term. I don't have the time to explain it all, but paper will be limited run - online it will not be (although the price tag may keep casual drafters away... So I could be totally wrong here).
Can anybody tell me why Geist of Saint Traft is spiking like crazy? I don't even know what deck it goes in these days.
The rest of the price movements in Standard tell me that players are abandoning Zombies (sad, because it's a really fun aggro deck, the most fun I've had with aggro since Boros landfall); they seem to moving all in on Bant decks with Jaces, Resto Angel, and 'Tusks all seeing price increases as well. (But again, AFAIK, GoST isn't in those Bant control decks, so where the heck is he fitting in?) The Jund deck makes me curious whether Olivia has seen an increase, maybe she could be added to the weekly charts? And strangely the green planeswalkers aren't making the cut in these Type II Jund lists, though GR usually did in block.
I assume Fling uses the power of the creature at the time it's sacrificed, including any enhancements present on it at the time, otherwise that goofy old Turn About / Fling / Tireless Tribe deck wouldn't have worked. But I wouldn't have known to call it "last known information". As an attorney, I can tell when people (Magic judges I'm talking about you now) are trying to obfuscate things with technical jargon. Some judge starts talking like that and everybody else just assumes he knows what he's doing because of the language.
Thanks for the info Blippy. I surprised that URW Delver isn't doing as well as RUG Delver as adding White does also give you access to some powerful spells like Path to Exile etc.
The URW(b) Delver sounds interesting. I haven't come across too many of those lists but I'll keep an eye out. Sounds pretty cool.
I think (have no evidence to back this up) that while redeemers make up a small minority of players, because Mythics are the bottleneck to redeem a set (one card of each required), Redemption drives up the price of mythics drastically, to where the cost of the mythics in digital can approach the upper limit, which is the cost of the entire set in paper.
Because a non-redeemable set won't have the mythics exiting the digital supply, it will keep their cost from being hyperinflated, which will keep the profits from the packs down.
Thanks, I did mean that each activation was for 1 mana each time (I was thinking about the text on Pestilence and similar cards, rather than X). I should probably have just used Thrashing Wumpus for my example.
Yes, this clears it up, kind of. I asked because when Activation 1-3 was put on the stack, CR did not have Infect. When Activation 1-3 resolves, CR is in the graveyard and "loses memory" about whatever was cast on it before and doesn't have infect, so why does Activations #1-3 deal poison damage? Last Known Information is kind of confusing. I'm not sure why Activations #1-3 ever saw the Infect ability.
I don't think Searing Blaze is actually countered if the target creature is removed in response. A spell will only be countered if ALL its targets become illegal.
I managed to draft a 4-Axebane Guardian, 4-Doorkeeper, 4-color monstrosity last night. I think walls is a hard archetype to get going, but when it's good, it's really nuts.
Always look forward to these. Other than the UG self mill deck that Ill have Tormod's Crypts in the board for next time I think Im happy with my Burning Vengeance list, though I haven't actually had to play vs the 2 more resilient aggro decks(yours and monogreen) yet so if it cant hold up there it may need further adjustment.
Nice! Tarmogoyf (plus Breeding Pool to support it) makes an excellent addition. RUG delver has handed it to me on a platter several times. URW Delver (plain) has been doing rather meh!, but URW(b) w/Gifts-Reanimator sideboard has been tearing up the Delver archetype. (As far as I can tell with the new WotC results posting policy)
For a lot of players (myself included), having actual digital cards are way more of a priority than getting to redeem them. I have never redeemed a set - why would I, when MTGO is my primary playing platform? - and don't ever intend to.
I don't have hard data to back this up, but it seems pretty obvious that redeemers make a very small minority of overall MTGO users.
Next article I'll have the draft posted up with draft recorder (like in my first rtr draft article) alongside the videos so you can see all the cards.
With MTGMM on mtgo I really see a massive problem with any modern cards holding their value. There is no redemption on MTGMM. How can you charge 6.99 a pack for purely digital cards. I see MM being somewhat worth it in paper but only if they print enough product. Early reports of 2 boxes per top end stores have me thinking this is a complete failure on getting cards into the players hands at a reasonable cost.
What I said...
The first and most pressing reason was price. In the context of that date, I had recently sold off my entire collection and was rebuilding from the ground up, off of a couple of months' worth of article credit and event winnings. Linvala was out of my price range for that. Second, 4/4 for 4 with evasion will win the game on its own in five turns, as opposed to seven for a 3/4, and those fewer top decks can be crucial. It's a great body for the cost and sometimes that's enough, although on the whole I like either more utility or more fat. This week's demon deck is a good example: No less than 11 6/6 with flying for 4, four of which also act as potential removal, three of which as cost reducers, with the other creatures having undying for twice the board presence or being Griselbrand, which speaks for itself.
I think the confusion was not about LKI, which is pretty standard, but rather about your specific example, which seems to be wrong:
"For example, if the player is not very confident, the question is “I control Mogg Flunkies with Rancor. If I Fling it at your Phyrexian Hulk, does the Hulk live?” The answer is yes"
The answer is yes? So a 5/3 Mogg Flunkies doesn't kill a Phyrexian Hulk when flung at it?
Seems like this should be corrected to "the answer is no." But maybe I'm missing some other nuance?
Hey AJ, I was curious in my video this week why you had taken out the Linvala from the earlier version of your Angel deck and replaced her with those Indomitable Archangels in the version that made 1st place which I featured. I speculated that they were just good power/toughness for their cmc, but Linvala seems to have so many more applications that it was odd she got cut.
what Keya said about the mana matters - Crypt Rats activates to do X damage, where X is what you spent on the activation.
Here's the Stack - top (last) to bottom
Crypt Rats activation #5
Tainted Strike
Crypt Rats activation #4
Crypt Rats activation #3
Crypt Rats activation #2
Crypt Rats activation #1
The big question is whether the final activation is for 2 or more damage. If so, the Rats die, and the Tainted Strike is countered on resolution because its target is gone. Let's assume that the fifth activation is for one point, so the Rats are still there for Tainted Strike.
Top down:
Crypt Rats activation #5 resolves - all creatures and players take 1 normal damage. (Tainted Strike has not yet resolved.)
Tainted Strike resolves - the Crypt Rats are now a 4/2 with Infect.
Crypt Rats activation #4 resolves - Crypt Rats deals infect damage - poison counters to players and -1/-1 counters to creatures.
Crypt Rats die - they are 3/1 with one damage, so SBE kills them.
Crypt Rats activation #3 resolves, dealing poison damage.
Crypt Rats activation #2 resolves, dealing poison damage.
Crypt Rats activation #1 resolves, dealing poison damage.
Okay?
One possibility - if the average value of the boosters is significantly lower than the $7 cost, then drafts at $23 or so each won't be very profitable. At that point, it will depend on how much fun it is to draft it. No way to know at this point.
Last Known Information is the technical term.
Last Known Information
Information about an object that’s no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in, or information about a player that’s no longer in the game. This information captures that object’s last existence in that zone or that player’s last existence in the game. See rules 112.7a, 608.2b, 608.2g, and 800.4g.
from the Comp. Rules, page 177
no obfuscation intended. LKI is a pretty standard concept, and we had to name it something. Calling it Fred was too confusing.
Don't beat yourself up over the Zenith. There is no way that I can see, given cards in hand, graveyard and play, for you to have pulled out a win from there, Phantom Centaur or no. I had lethal on the board and was about to attack, with a chainers edict in the yard to get rid of the Persecutor if necessary. The mistake which gets me is my own of not edicting my Ashmouth sooner, hitting you with a 6/5 rather than plinking with a 2/1
Yeah and oops meant to type Hulk where I typed flunkies dies. lol @ myself.
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_uwr_midrange_with...
Can you point me to any lists, or an event that might have the lists? I own Geists and Resto Angels, and am looking for something I can use them in. I just don't want to blow wads of cash on new Jaces and Thragtusks, since I doubt either of them is legacy-playable and I try not to spend double-digit tix on cards I won't use in legacy or modern.
There's a pretty good uw tempo deck going around that beats up on all the midrangey green decks. It sometimes splashes red too.
So... It looks like you might be able to make a profit on Sorin after all! It's up around 24 tickets right now. It's now appearing in winning decks consistently on MTGO, and the W/B guild hasn't even been released yet... If I were you - I'd keep my eye on it, and keep holding him until that price drops, then sell...
---
As far as the pauper cards. I expected this drop on some levels. The recent drafts of older sets scares people a bit (prices normally go down across the board when old sets are drafted). Plus with RtR drafts being such a hit - everyone is focusing more on Standard and Limited; thus selling off their pauper cards (which applies to other formats as well).
But this collapse is pretty extreme. Tons of fringe cards (cards that are normally in the $.50-$1 price range) are suddenly bulk ($.15 or under). Cards like Nettle Sentinel have gone from $2 to almost bulk (.32) in a few days. Yet, Stompy is still doing great in the DEs.
As a person who follows pauper cards.... This is off my charts.... But i am a buyer right now. A big big buyer. And anyone who's ever thought about getting into pauper - now's the time to buy. A few months ago - a playset of all the staples needed to play all the top tier decks was about $500. You should be able to get them all for half that right now.
---
Last, i think Modern MAster's will have a much bigger impact on online prices than it will on paper. Especially in the short term. I don't have the time to explain it all, but paper will be limited run - online it will not be (although the price tag may keep casual drafters away... So I could be totally wrong here).
Can anybody tell me why Geist of Saint Traft is spiking like crazy? I don't even know what deck it goes in these days.
The rest of the price movements in Standard tell me that players are abandoning Zombies (sad, because it's a really fun aggro deck, the most fun I've had with aggro since Boros landfall); they seem to moving all in on Bant decks with Jaces, Resto Angel, and 'Tusks all seeing price increases as well. (But again, AFAIK, GoST isn't in those Bant control decks, so where the heck is he fitting in?) The Jund deck makes me curious whether Olivia has seen an increase, maybe she could be added to the weekly charts? And strangely the green planeswalkers aren't making the cut in these Type II Jund lists, though GR usually did in block.
I assume Fling uses the power of the creature at the time it's sacrificed, including any enhancements present on it at the time, otherwise that goofy old Turn About / Fling / Tireless Tribe deck wouldn't have worked. But I wouldn't have known to call it "last known information". As an attorney, I can tell when people (Magic judges I'm talking about you now) are trying to obfuscate things with technical jargon. Some judge starts talking like that and everybody else just assumes he knows what he's doing because of the language.