The full NPH spoiler is out and yes Infect has the ability to win turn 2 but dont expect it to be common and sure as hell expect it to be even more rare with the new hate cards printed in that set as well...such a new free counter spell for 1cmc spells. A free extirpate. and a 3mana instant vindicate
You make good points, I agree with most. I don't believe WotC, even though they say so, doesn't care about the secondary market. I do agree they don't affect it after the cards are out, but they could allow a longer period of time for these older sets...3 weeks to pull 4 metalworkers is not feasible for most of us. As for whom the podcast was intended for, I didn't hear "classic investees only" anywhere in there. I understand capitalism and economics, but I appreciate you putting it out there for those who don't seem to.. but it's simple, the best answer to the question asked "what can wotc do to fire more classic?" would be to reprint these overly expensive staple cards. Based on your logic there is nothing WOTC can do, since they don't care about the aftermarket.
This argument over price is moot. This podcast is for those already invested in Classic. People who have already spent hundreds if not thousands over the years and are willing to keep doing that (although I've found I put very little cash into the game anymore now that I have all the staples, extras to sell, and win some from events -- when the events actually fire). And from what I know of the Classic player base, many of them have wives and children, so it is possible. But of course everything depends on one's financial situation.
But the other part of the argument is also invalid - Wizards can't change it. Not to the point where every card is under $1 (and let's face it, compared to paper we've got great prices, even for tourney-level cards). They "don't care about the secondary market," but they need some cards to be more expensive than others. This fuels pack ripping in paper and drafting online. This is the nature of a trading card game. Everyone's opinion of where the line between "expensive" and "too expensive" is will be different of course. But the market, not Wizards, has decided that the top tourney cards go for about $100, with many staples around $20. Wizards has done what they can to make cards accessible with reprinting duals in ME4 and offering nixtix classic drafts, but still the cards are priced this way. MTGO is a capitalist system and capitalism requires the uneven distribution of resources. Yes it sucks because people get priced out. Just like they get priced out of luxury cars and big houses. This is just the reality of the situation and not really worth arguing about.
(Now, if you wanted to come up with some Netflix-style card lending system to even things out, I'd be on board but I don't think it's possible in the current system. That's also a completely different discussion.)
I understand different situations with money, but I think you are greatly over estimating the number of these cards out there..it is hard to argue since WOTC give us zero numbers as far as players, production, etc. but just using MTGOtraders as a guide I don't believe for a second there are thousands of playsets of FoW, Wasteland or LED. If there are so many of these players with all these money cards, who are they, what are they waiting for, why aren't they selling and making money?
Gosh, that's chump change. I mean, most magic players are lawyers and doctor's right? What magic player is going to be able to justify spending that kind of money?
Look, there are sooooo many cards in classic some of which are very difficult to get. There is no reason for me to join a classic tournament, just to lose my money. There is no chance that I stand against these power decks. If I have a power deck, there is no reason that I wouldn't play with it, as that would be counter productive. So, classic is great for casual magic, but for tournament play, expect minimal participants because us 'non-professionals' don't stand a chance.
550 is a lot but that is the entire list
upgrading one deck would not cost 550 buck, anywhere from 25-200 for one upgrade.
look you have one situation with money, everyone else has their own situations. you say there to expensive because you dont want to pay it. other say hell i have the extra money ill buy them. the argument is fruitless.
we dont NEED more card in the system, we need the players who have those cards to start buying into classic.
wheter fow or wasteland are too expensive is irrelevant. there are hundreds if not thousands of playsets of each in players collections.
Classic decks do have the possibility for a turn 1 win, but this doesn't happen every game by any means. It is definitely not a boring format when you or your opponent could explode with action next turn after just playing lands for 4 turns.
The reason it seems boring and non-interactive from the outside is that more of the action in Classic happens in your hand or on the stack rather than on the board. You have to plan out moves a few turns in advance and anticipate your opponent's moves. Also, because of all the tutors available, your plan usually involves cards not in your hand so you have to know your deck backwards and forwards and how you can get what you need quickly. All of this happens in like 1 or 2 turns as opposed to 5 or 8 turns in a slower format. On top of all that, sometimes you have to change your plan mid-stream because of one card your opponent played. Knowing "who's the beatdown" is important, difficult, and can change multiple times in a turn.
It is definitely not solitaire. There are massive amounts of disruption on both sides of the table. For example - Just landing an Oath of Druids through counter magic is a feat. Then you've got to protect it through Nature's Claims for a turn. Then when your fattie comes out, you've got to protect that from Swords to Plowshares or Duplicant or Gilded Drake or whatever. Then if they have enough creatures to survive your attack you'd better have enough cards in hand after all that to hold them off for another turn. You had to plan for all of this before even casting the Oath. Or maybe you just cast the Oath to bait out your opponent's disruption and you have a completely different way to win next turn. You are constantly thinking about what your opponents will do.
You're entitled to your opinion, and Classic isn't the type of Magic for everyone. Boring is definitely subjective. But I've got to defend it as very interactive and skill intensive.
If $550 is not much of an investment to you. For those of us with kids/bills(not to mention a wife, wow i can hear that conversation), who don't get store credit or don't play 40 hours a week and aren't good enough to win tourney after tourney, it's a bit much. Before you feel sorry for "the poor guy" it really isn't a matter of money, just perspective of what to spend that money on...I enjoy many many more things than MTGO and if others don't that is fine, but I am simply pointing out that if WotC really wanted to make Classic more accessible they could, which would increase the enjoyment of all...except collectors who make use this GAME to make money.
Here is a list of all the legacy banned cards that are played in classic, and then a link -med4 cards) to mtgotraders sell price of the list. $553.00 for them all, -med4. so depending on what deck u wanna upgrade your looking at not that much of an investment into classic.
1 Balance
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic tutor
1 Fastbond
4 Gush
1 Imperial Seal
4 Library of Alexandria
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mana Drain
4 Memory Jar
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind's Desire
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Necropotence
4 Oath of Druids
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Time Vault
1 Tinker
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Windfall
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
"for the people that wont pay more then 10 dollars a card, well that sucks for you guys cause you cant play the format, but its not stopping you from playing classic, its stopping you from playing anything other then block or budget decks, not decks that you might wanna start eventing with to accure more tix. "
It doesn't just suck for us, it sucks for you as well...other wise what is the point of you asking "what can WOTC do to make more Classics fire off?" If you can't see that cost is a huge factor, then you are just blind,stupid or just a fan boy of the collector aspect...either one is fine with me, but don't try to discredit cost as a factor, especially when i already have a poster who agrees with me, I can go get my friends to all post the same as well, but I don't need the proof, I see and hear it daily. I agree about the standard Jace decks, but that is also why I play block only now, also Jace/Worldwake was far more available than ME1 or any of the "old" sets, the fact that he is so powerful in ALL formats is what drove his price sky high. I am not condemning people who can spend 150 or more to build a deck, but for those of us able to, we aren't going to enter these tournaments just to get rolled by these power decks. You can practically count on one hand how many times a "rouge" build took down a tournament filled with the "best decks", sure there are situations where someone metas at the right time and gets some good breaks, but look at your tourney reports...faeries, vamps, caw-blade, all took down just about every tournament when they were "the best decks" I also realize that Classic is "more open" since there are more cards, but certain interactions are just the more powerful and those are going to be what wins...and those cards are only owned by a small percentage of the player base.
I have a question. How do you find fun games to play? All of your game reports seem like a blast. I know you play a lot and that might have something to do with it, but...
I recently started playing again an it seems like all the games are the same. One opponent drops early, one opponent doesn't do much, and one opponent has a super-powerful deck that I've played 10 times before. I don't mind decks like that, but without help from the other players that player usually winds up dominating the game. And those players with the powerful decks take FOREVER. They play very conservatively where if they were more aggressive the game would be over a lot quicker.
I play pretty good decks, but not Primevil Titan to Cabal Coffers and Urburg to Tooth and Nail (happened in two out of the three games I played today with two different players).
Sorry about the rant, but it seems like Commander used to be a more fun format.
common missconseption of the format. it is not like that on average. yes it happens, but the interactive drag out fist fights are far from boring and more of how the format actually plays out.
when everyone can do broken things, the better players will have an edge in building and playing.
Classic values play skill and deck tuning more then any other format.
I will again reiterate that cost is not an issue. for the people that wont pay more then 10 dollars a card, well that sucks for you guys cause you cant play the format, but its not stopping you from playing classic, its stopping you from playing anything other then block or budget decks, not decks that you might wanna start eventing with to accure more tix.
Force of will is 125 right? not for budget, but there are litteraly thousands of magic players with access to fow if they so chose.
Standard jace decks are almost as expensive as classic force of will decks, the argument casuals cant afford has no merit, as they cant afford anything.
what we really need is the legacy crowd to start buying the 50 or so cards that are not used in legacy.
Land still or counterbalnce can be turned into Jacerator, snake city vaults, oath, or gush bond for around 100- 200 tix.
Bant can be turned into 4c fish for the price of a strip mine.
Tes, Adn, Doomsday, can be turned classic legal for under 100 tix.
Lands and legacy mud can be turned into shop decks for under 150 tix, 250 with workers.
Dredge upgrades for about 25-100 tix.
death and taxes upgrades to gw hate for the price of a strip mine.
those are just the most popular/ best decks. There are a lot of other corner cases, if you have painter stone for legacy, you could build a welder deck in classic like drain slaver for about 150 tix.
this is where we need our player base to grow from. forever and ever we can debate about what the cost of the format really is, but it wont solve anything other then to make someone mad. you say its too expensive, i say you dont have the same intrest in the game as i do, cause i think that they are worth it.
I agree with howlett..mostly. I think the other main reason classic tourneys dont get a lot of players is that classic tourney decks are BORING. They ALL run time vault/key, they have little to no interaction (unless you count fow as interaction), and most games are over very quickly. You might as well be playing solitaire.
Classic is a great format for casual and fun decks, but classic tourneys are imo the most boring format in magic.
You must be using the metric system for "ton" :) I can assure you that us casual players, who do not own many cards over $10 value far outnumber your "missing" players who are just sitting on thousands of dollars worth of cards(PS I have 13000+ cards in my collection, from all sets, but just don't have the money or luck it seems, to pull these uber value cards) and with the limited time sets are available, when dealing with Classic sets, it's not going to get any better. Destiny is a prime example, it was for sale for what, 3 weeks? Were there enough people drafting and playing PE's and release events to put enough Metalworkers, Replenish, etc in the market? If there were, those card sure as heck wouldn't be 30 and 11 tickets each. It's quite simply supply and demand, there is/was not enough supply so demand is high for the most desirable. Believe it or not this is a huge factor when talking about Classic(has been in paper for years and holds true for online, though it doesn't have to be, but WotC chooses to make it so)Legacy is nowhere near Standard or even Extended as far as popularity goes and there really is no reason for aside from the one I am stating. Popularity among players is voided by the fact that there are enough players that all formats could be quite active, except when only 5% of these players have the best stuff available, the rest of us 95% won't bother. I readily await the power 9 although I doubt I manage to acquire any/many since I refuse to waste money on these cards to only play in a dead or nearly dead format. Take out the collector aspect and make twice or three times as many copies of these cards and I guarantee Classic and Legacy will rocket to near Extended and Standard levels.
I take so many things over phyrexian rebirth it would absolutely blow your mind.
The sledge pick was painful . . . definitely sledge.
As for the guy telling you to take 0.33 cents and a worse card over 7 tickets and a card that is easier manipulated . . . he's cracked.
Some pick commentary:
Emissary over Vivisection
Pistus over Rhino
I used to always just take Steel Hellkite over anything (including when I'm in infect) but I've stopped doing that over other top cards recently (particularly if I can effectively answer Steel Hellkite). I went through a run last week where I opened 3 hellkites when I was in infect. The first two times I took the hellkite, the third time I took a skinrender and never looked back or regreted it. Clasp and Hellkite is close, but if I'm drafting at a pro tour, I take the clasp.
This really is just another example of infect auto-drafting itself (which it so often does).
You can find most of my decks there just by searching for the username "Tarasco". I'm not sure why it didn't upload the entire deck, but it looks like stuff from MED4 and MBS wasn't included. So Mana Vault, Venser's Journal, Blue Sun's Zenith, Consecrated Sphinx, planeswalker Venser, etc.
Howlett, i disagree with you a lot. The problem is not that classic decks are too expensive, there are tons of players out there, they just arnt playing with their 1000 dollar decks in events.
Legacy continues to grow despite 125 fow and 80 led.
sure cost has some application but if you have a legacy collection, for a very small price you can build a classic collection.
What we really need are power 9. we need a "matching" paper format like legacy has.
I count 30+ Black Red playables (not counting artifacts) - this pool almost assuredly should have been Black Red Aggro.
In the proposed Green build how come Priest of Titania isn't in that glaringly empty two hole?
Memory Jar is fonked in limited.
The title is most definitely misleading.
How is a 3/3 huge in this format with 3 drops like veiled serpent, simian grunts, opal champion, and a whole long list of other cards that trump 3/3s for 5 (I next to never play hollow dogs, granted the plague guy is better).
This is a well-written article that seems to be lacking the general knowledge of Urza block limited.
a great read, looking forward to coming back tonight to watch all the vids, can't get over this format, so much variety, the deckbuilder in me wants to build a new deck every day =P
The full NPH spoiler is out and yes Infect has the ability to win turn 2 but dont expect it to be common and sure as hell expect it to be even more rare with the new hate cards printed in that set as well...such a new free counter spell for 1cmc spells. A free extirpate. and a 3mana instant vindicate
Oh there might be a budget Classic Infect deck after New Phyrexia comes out. Maybe - can't guarantee it will be viable, but I'll be testng it.
You make good points, I agree with most. I don't believe WotC, even though they say so, doesn't care about the secondary market. I do agree they don't affect it after the cards are out, but they could allow a longer period of time for these older sets...3 weeks to pull 4 metalworkers is not feasible for most of us. As for whom the podcast was intended for, I didn't hear "classic investees only" anywhere in there. I understand capitalism and economics, but I appreciate you putting it out there for those who don't seem to.. but it's simple, the best answer to the question asked "what can wotc do to fire more classic?" would be to reprint these overly expensive staple cards. Based on your logic there is nothing WOTC can do, since they don't care about the aftermarket.
I like those Combo Decks, but it is so hard to win with them with the diverse Metagame we meet each week...
There are plenty of Classic players who have fully powered decks but only play in TP or in 2-mans because of time commitments to jobs and family.
This argument over price is moot. This podcast is for those already invested in Classic. People who have already spent hundreds if not thousands over the years and are willing to keep doing that (although I've found I put very little cash into the game anymore now that I have all the staples, extras to sell, and win some from events -- when the events actually fire). And from what I know of the Classic player base, many of them have wives and children, so it is possible. But of course everything depends on one's financial situation.
But the other part of the argument is also invalid - Wizards can't change it. Not to the point where every card is under $1 (and let's face it, compared to paper we've got great prices, even for tourney-level cards). They "don't care about the secondary market," but they need some cards to be more expensive than others. This fuels pack ripping in paper and drafting online. This is the nature of a trading card game. Everyone's opinion of where the line between "expensive" and "too expensive" is will be different of course. But the market, not Wizards, has decided that the top tourney cards go for about $100, with many staples around $20. Wizards has done what they can to make cards accessible with reprinting duals in ME4 and offering nixtix classic drafts, but still the cards are priced this way. MTGO is a capitalist system and capitalism requires the uneven distribution of resources. Yes it sucks because people get priced out. Just like they get priced out of luxury cars and big houses. This is just the reality of the situation and not really worth arguing about.
(Now, if you wanted to come up with some Netflix-style card lending system to even things out, I'd be on board but I don't think it's possible in the current system. That's also a completely different discussion.)
Copied from the auction room. Minutes ago.
3:38 PM [b]azortex[/b]: legacy is too expensive for me to get into
I understand different situations with money, but I think you are greatly over estimating the number of these cards out there..it is hard to argue since WOTC give us zero numbers as far as players, production, etc. but just using MTGOtraders as a guide I don't believe for a second there are thousands of playsets of FoW, Wasteland or LED. If there are so many of these players with all these money cards, who are they, what are they waiting for, why aren't they selling and making money?
Gosh, that's chump change. I mean, most magic players are lawyers and doctor's right? What magic player is going to be able to justify spending that kind of money?
Look, there are sooooo many cards in classic some of which are very difficult to get. There is no reason for me to join a classic tournament, just to lose my money. There is no chance that I stand against these power decks. If I have a power deck, there is no reason that I wouldn't play with it, as that would be counter productive. So, classic is great for casual magic, but for tournament play, expect minimal participants because us 'non-professionals' don't stand a chance.
I'm off my soapbox now...
550 is a lot but that is the entire list
upgrading one deck would not cost 550 buck, anywhere from 25-200 for one upgrade.
look you have one situation with money, everyone else has their own situations. you say there to expensive because you dont want to pay it. other say hell i have the extra money ill buy them. the argument is fruitless.
we dont NEED more card in the system, we need the players who have those cards to start buying into classic.
wheter fow or wasteland are too expensive is irrelevant. there are hundreds if not thousands of playsets of each in players collections.
Classic decks do have the possibility for a turn 1 win, but this doesn't happen every game by any means. It is definitely not a boring format when you or your opponent could explode with action next turn after just playing lands for 4 turns.
The reason it seems boring and non-interactive from the outside is that more of the action in Classic happens in your hand or on the stack rather than on the board. You have to plan out moves a few turns in advance and anticipate your opponent's moves. Also, because of all the tutors available, your plan usually involves cards not in your hand so you have to know your deck backwards and forwards and how you can get what you need quickly. All of this happens in like 1 or 2 turns as opposed to 5 or 8 turns in a slower format. On top of all that, sometimes you have to change your plan mid-stream because of one card your opponent played. Knowing "who's the beatdown" is important, difficult, and can change multiple times in a turn.
It is definitely not solitaire. There are massive amounts of disruption on both sides of the table. For example - Just landing an Oath of Druids through counter magic is a feat. Then you've got to protect it through Nature's Claims for a turn. Then when your fattie comes out, you've got to protect that from Swords to Plowshares or Duplicant or Gilded Drake or whatever. Then if they have enough creatures to survive your attack you'd better have enough cards in hand after all that to hold them off for another turn. You had to plan for all of this before even casting the Oath. Or maybe you just cast the Oath to bait out your opponent's disruption and you have a completely different way to win next turn. You are constantly thinking about what your opponents will do.
You're entitled to your opinion, and Classic isn't the type of Magic for everyone. Boring is definitely subjective. But I've got to defend it as very interactive and skill intensive.
If $550 is not much of an investment to you. For those of us with kids/bills(not to mention a wife, wow i can hear that conversation), who don't get store credit or don't play 40 hours a week and aren't good enough to win tourney after tourney, it's a bit much. Before you feel sorry for "the poor guy" it really isn't a matter of money, just perspective of what to spend that money on...I enjoy many many more things than MTGO and if others don't that is fine, but I am simply pointing out that if WotC really wanted to make Classic more accessible they could, which would increase the enjoyment of all...except collectors who make use this GAME to make money.
Here is a list of all the legacy banned cards that are played in classic, and then a link -med4 cards) to mtgotraders sell price of the list. $553.00 for them all, -med4. so depending on what deck u wanna upgrade your looking at not that much of an investment into classic.
1 Balance
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic tutor
1 Fastbond
4 Gush
1 Imperial Seal
4 Library of Alexandria
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mana Drain
4 Memory Jar
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind's Desire
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Necropotence
4 Oath of Druids
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Time Vault
1 Tinker
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Windfall
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
http://www.mtgotraders.com/cgi-bin/shop-bin/sc/order.cgi?rd=1&storeid=*2...
"for the people that wont pay more then 10 dollars a card, well that sucks for you guys cause you cant play the format, but its not stopping you from playing classic, its stopping you from playing anything other then block or budget decks, not decks that you might wanna start eventing with to accure more tix. "
It doesn't just suck for us, it sucks for you as well...other wise what is the point of you asking "what can WOTC do to make more Classics fire off?" If you can't see that cost is a huge factor, then you are just blind,stupid or just a fan boy of the collector aspect...either one is fine with me, but don't try to discredit cost as a factor, especially when i already have a poster who agrees with me, I can go get my friends to all post the same as well, but I don't need the proof, I see and hear it daily. I agree about the standard Jace decks, but that is also why I play block only now, also Jace/Worldwake was far more available than ME1 or any of the "old" sets, the fact that he is so powerful in ALL formats is what drove his price sky high. I am not condemning people who can spend 150 or more to build a deck, but for those of us able to, we aren't going to enter these tournaments just to get rolled by these power decks. You can practically count on one hand how many times a "rouge" build took down a tournament filled with the "best decks", sure there are situations where someone metas at the right time and gets some good breaks, but look at your tourney reports...faeries, vamps, caw-blade, all took down just about every tournament when they were "the best decks" I also realize that Classic is "more open" since there are more cards, but certain interactions are just the more powerful and those are going to be what wins...and those cards are only owned by a small percentage of the player base.
PLEASE STOP AND POST AS YOURSELF.
Not that I disagree but I don't think it's fair for people to talk to a "clan" and not a person
By the way, I do agree with CME :)
Hoff...
Great article as always.
I have a question. How do you find fun games to play? All of your game reports seem like a blast. I know you play a lot and that might have something to do with it, but...
I recently started playing again an it seems like all the games are the same. One opponent drops early, one opponent doesn't do much, and one opponent has a super-powerful deck that I've played 10 times before. I don't mind decks like that, but without help from the other players that player usually winds up dominating the game. And those players with the powerful decks take FOREVER. They play very conservatively where if they were more aggressive the game would be over a lot quicker.
I play pretty good decks, but not Primevil Titan to Cabal Coffers and Urburg to Tooth and Nail (happened in two out of the three games I played today with two different players).
Sorry about the rant, but it seems like Commander used to be a more fun format.
common missconseption of the format. it is not like that on average. yes it happens, but the interactive drag out fist fights are far from boring and more of how the format actually plays out.
when everyone can do broken things, the better players will have an edge in building and playing.
Classic values play skill and deck tuning more then any other format.
I will again reiterate that cost is not an issue. for the people that wont pay more then 10 dollars a card, well that sucks for you guys cause you cant play the format, but its not stopping you from playing classic, its stopping you from playing anything other then block or budget decks, not decks that you might wanna start eventing with to accure more tix.
Force of will is 125 right? not for budget, but there are litteraly thousands of magic players with access to fow if they so chose.
Standard jace decks are almost as expensive as classic force of will decks, the argument casuals cant afford has no merit, as they cant afford anything.
what we really need is the legacy crowd to start buying the 50 or so cards that are not used in legacy.
Land still or counterbalnce can be turned into Jacerator, snake city vaults, oath, or gush bond for around 100- 200 tix.
Bant can be turned into 4c fish for the price of a strip mine.
Tes, Adn, Doomsday, can be turned classic legal for under 100 tix.
Lands and legacy mud can be turned into shop decks for under 150 tix, 250 with workers.
Dredge upgrades for about 25-100 tix.
death and taxes upgrades to gw hate for the price of a strip mine.
those are just the most popular/ best decks. There are a lot of other corner cases, if you have painter stone for legacy, you could build a welder deck in classic like drain slaver for about 150 tix.
this is where we need our player base to grow from. forever and ever we can debate about what the cost of the format really is, but it wont solve anything other then to make someone mad. you say its too expensive, i say you dont have the same intrest in the game as i do, cause i think that they are worth it.
I agree with howlett..mostly. I think the other main reason classic tourneys dont get a lot of players is that classic tourney decks are BORING. They ALL run time vault/key, they have little to no interaction (unless you count fow as interaction), and most games are over very quickly. You might as well be playing solitaire.
Classic is a great format for casual and fun decks, but classic tourneys are imo the most boring format in magic.
You must be using the metric system for "ton" :) I can assure you that us casual players, who do not own many cards over $10 value far outnumber your "missing" players who are just sitting on thousands of dollars worth of cards(PS I have 13000+ cards in my collection, from all sets, but just don't have the money or luck it seems, to pull these uber value cards) and with the limited time sets are available, when dealing with Classic sets, it's not going to get any better. Destiny is a prime example, it was for sale for what, 3 weeks? Were there enough people drafting and playing PE's and release events to put enough Metalworkers, Replenish, etc in the market? If there were, those card sure as heck wouldn't be 30 and 11 tickets each. It's quite simply supply and demand, there is/was not enough supply so demand is high for the most desirable. Believe it or not this is a huge factor when talking about Classic(has been in paper for years and holds true for online, though it doesn't have to be, but WotC chooses to make it so)Legacy is nowhere near Standard or even Extended as far as popularity goes and there really is no reason for aside from the one I am stating. Popularity among players is voided by the fact that there are enough players that all formats could be quite active, except when only 5% of these players have the best stuff available, the rest of us 95% won't bother. I readily await the power 9 although I doubt I manage to acquire any/many since I refuse to waste money on these cards to only play in a dead or nearly dead format. Take out the collector aspect and make twice or three times as many copies of these cards and I guarantee Classic and Legacy will rocket to near Extended and Standard levels.
I take so many things over phyrexian rebirth it would absolutely blow your mind.
The sledge pick was painful . . . definitely sledge.
As for the guy telling you to take 0.33 cents and a worse card over 7 tickets and a card that is easier manipulated . . . he's cracked.
Some pick commentary:
Emissary over Vivisection
Pistus over Rhino
I used to always just take Steel Hellkite over anything (including when I'm in infect) but I've stopped doing that over other top cards recently (particularly if I can effectively answer Steel Hellkite). I went through a run last week where I opened 3 hellkites when I was in infect. The first two times I took the hellkite, the third time I took a skinrender and never looked back or regreted it. Clasp and Hellkite is close, but if I'm drafting at a pro tour, I take the clasp.
This really is just another example of infect auto-drafting itself (which it so often does).
Forgot to include the link so that you can download most of the deck:
http://www.mtgotraders.com/deck/viewdeck.php?ID=5582
You can find most of my decks there just by searching for the username "Tarasco". I'm not sure why it didn't upload the entire deck, but it looks like stuff from MED4 and MBS wasn't included. So Mana Vault, Venser's Journal, Blue Sun's Zenith, Consecrated Sphinx, planeswalker Venser, etc.
i just love EDH and subsequently, your articles interest me the most.
great stuff, as always.
Howlett, i disagree with you a lot. The problem is not that classic decks are too expensive, there are tons of players out there, they just arnt playing with their 1000 dollar decks in events.
Legacy continues to grow despite 125 fow and 80 led.
sure cost has some application but if you have a legacy collection, for a very small price you can build a classic collection.
What we really need are power 9. we need a "matching" paper format like legacy has.
A couple of things:
I count 30+ Black Red playables (not counting artifacts) - this pool almost assuredly should have been Black Red Aggro.
In the proposed Green build how come Priest of Titania isn't in that glaringly empty two hole?
Memory Jar is fonked in limited.
The title is most definitely misleading.
How is a 3/3 huge in this format with 3 drops like veiled serpent, simian grunts, opal champion, and a whole long list of other cards that trump 3/3s for 5 (I next to never play hollow dogs, granted the plague guy is better).
This is a well-written article that seems to be lacking the general knowledge of Urza block limited.
a great read, looking forward to coming back tonight to watch all the vids, can't get over this format, so much variety, the deckbuilder in me wants to build a new deck every day =P