They're maximizing profit - that's what corporations do. In fact, since they have shareholders, they would be negligent to NOT maximize profit.
That's beside the fact that printing costs likely aren't the largest source of overhead, anyway . . . guys, of course Sinkhole is a rare. It's priced as one on the secondary market, it's a chase card, etc.
Sinkhole at rare sucks, period. It's not a surprise it's in the set because one of their obvious goals is to get online and paper Legacy with the same card pools. I think if it were a paper product, I could almost accept them printing it at rare because they need to see a return on the printing of the product. JPGs, on the other hand, have substantially less overhead, so at that point it's no longer about recouping expenses as much as maximizing gouging. "Hey, we know the kiddies will love this, let's put it at rare!" [/cynicism]
I'm excited about the CQ spoiled Library of Alexandria! =D
As a budget player I have to say the Exiler deck at least is a fantastic value. I tried to put the parts together with my paltry collection and mtgotradersbot#4 (a welcome addition btw) and it came to close to 60 tix. About half of that is the currently $7 stoneforge mystics. Heck the 3 mystics were almost worth the 30 bucks just last week. I'll want to play some more with it before I bet 2 bucks on it in a queue, but it certainly has piqued my interest in Legacy.
A little bummed it's not an uncommon, but exciting to see nonetheless.
The gold and silver queues are really a great idea. I just had a conversation the other day with a friend about how MTGO needs to have some higher risk/reward events, and this certainly seems like a step in the right direction.
I enjoyed this article much, much more than a 234902th snoozefest draft by Some_Dude. To the editors: creative content like this, that actually matters to players is appreciated.
If I had to take a guess at WotC intentions with the Gold and Silver queues, I would guess that they are meant as a way to separate the competitiveness of the 2-man queues. The top tier pro tour players would want to play higher stakes games while the newer players and players just trying to get experience with a new deck would choose the standard 2-man queues.
It's an interesting idea. I'm still on the fence on whether or not it will be successful. I personally don't want to risk that many tickets on a single constructed match. But then again, I usually avoid standard in favor of the less heavily explored constructed formats.
WotC customer service has always been very helpful. The problem is finding it.
It would be nice if WotC put the customer service requests into the game the same way they put the store into the game when it used to be handled on a website.
Thanks for the kind words.
I really enjoyed writing this article, and if it goes well I may try more articles.
I too would like to see more articles from new people. Anyone can do it, just start penning downs some thoughts and let it flow. It's easy, heck I'm not a writer trust me, spell checker is my co-pilot! :-)
There are plenty of changes that can make this deck greater for sure, and I'll go over a couple in the final article. There is a purpose to leaving in the Kor Santifiers, I wanted to deal with having to splash a color into the mana base to show how to deal with that when it's very necessary to do so. Don't get me wrong I'm no expert on this subject by any means, but I felt it was good for the story as a whole.
I always like seeing good articles for "newer" players. Especially ones written by "newer" players.
The net is full of serious articles by more experienced players. That's good too, but I think there's a need for more articles like this one.
Articles written by newer players seem to ooze with love for the game. As a "Magic enthusiast" snice Revised, I enjoy sensing the love for the game. I don't get that feeling from many serious writers (with some obvious exceptions such as Flores and Chapin.)
I love these packages. I had completely forgotten about Riptide Shapeshifter too! Incidentally, I don't think the Artizan works as you think it does. In order to get it's effect you actually have to cast it rather than put in into play. Rather you could try Karmic Guide or Phyrexian Delver instead. Two other cool cards to tutor up are Akroma, Angel of Wrath (who doesn't like 6 hastey, flying, trampling, protection from R/B critters!) or for a real laugh try It That Betrays (tutor that up, put lightning greaves on it and watch your opponent cry! - good times).
Another package I like, if you have one, is the Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman package and Squee, Goblin Na-Bob plus tutorable critters - try any combination of Flametongue Kava, Shriekmaw, Skinrender, Harmonic Sliver, Murderous Redcap, and Solemn Simulacrum. If I'm in blue I also include Venser, shaper Savant and Sower of Temptation.
the Website is really a farce. And the eMails I got were the same. If you can only response by typing your answer in that narrow space that is not highlighted, it's uncommon to everybody using eMails....
The thing about MtgO and bug-compensation is that it takes so much vigilance/research/tracking and (mtgo)experience to spot the bugs that by the time you actually get the hang of it (which is defo possible if you play much) you are already "agitated" by all those times you prolly should have filed and requested.
LoL - my paper-play-grp has ppl in it who have qualified for and been to ProTour and even then says "o'rly?" when we talk about mtgo, bugs and compensation-form.
One thing must be said again though: I feel I could have written "DONALD DUCK QUACK QUACK" in my first compensation requests and still have received Tix-Shop-Codes, thats how nice MtgO-customer service initially is and for the most part of my first 12 months on MtgO. In my 13th month now...
So now "Profit" = "Gouging"?
They're maximizing profit - that's what corporations do. In fact, since they have shareholders, they would be negligent to NOT maximize profit.
That's beside the fact that printing costs likely aren't the largest source of overhead, anyway . . . guys, of course Sinkhole is a rare. It's priced as one on the secondary market, it's a chase card, etc.
Sinkhole at rare sucks, period. It's not a surprise it's in the set because one of their obvious goals is to get online and paper Legacy with the same card pools. I think if it were a paper product, I could almost accept them printing it at rare because they need to see a return on the printing of the product. JPGs, on the other hand, have substantially less overhead, so at that point it's no longer about recouping expenses as much as maximizing gouging. "Hey, we know the kiddies will love this, let's put it at rare!" [/cynicism]
I'm excited about the CQ spoiled Library of Alexandria! =D
Stoneforge Mystic is already starting to lower its price... veeeery nice eheheh.
As a budget player I have to say the Exiler deck at least is a fantastic value. I tried to put the parts together with my paltry collection and mtgotradersbot#4 (a welcome addition btw) and it came to close to 60 tix. About half of that is the currently $7 stoneforge mystics. Heck the 3 mystics were almost worth the 30 bucks just last week. I'll want to play some more with it before I bet 2 bucks on it in a queue, but it certainly has piqued my interest in Legacy.
Sinkhole!
A little bummed it's not an uncommon, but exciting to see nonetheless.
The gold and silver queues are really a great idea. I just had a conversation the other day with a friend about how MTGO needs to have some higher risk/reward events, and this certainly seems like a step in the right direction.
I enjoyed this article much, much more than a 234902th snoozefest draft by Some_Dude. To the editors: creative content like this, that actually matters to players is appreciated.
Hi,
Library of Alexandria and Mana Vault are previewed here:
http://www.classicquarter.com/articles/055_101111.asp
Actually, I'm pretty happy to see Sinkhole! Evagreen here I come!
If I had to take a guess at WotC intentions with the Gold and Silver queues, I would guess that they are meant as a way to separate the competitiveness of the 2-man queues. The top tier pro tour players would want to play higher stakes games while the newer players and players just trying to get experience with a new deck would choose the standard 2-man queues.
It's an interesting idea. I'm still on the fence on whether or not it will be successful. I personally don't want to risk that many tickets on a single constructed match. But then again, I usually avoid standard in favor of the less heavily explored constructed formats.
I really liked the Dune movies.
WotC customer service has always been very helpful. The problem is finding it.
It would be nice if WotC put the customer service requests into the game the same way they put the store into the game when it used to be handled on a website.
Thanks for the kind words.
I really enjoyed writing this article, and if it goes well I may try more articles.
I too would like to see more articles from new people. Anyone can do it, just start penning downs some thoughts and let it flow. It's easy, heck I'm not a writer trust me, spell checker is my co-pilot! :-)
Dan
Thanks!
Dan
There are plenty of changes that can make this deck greater for sure, and I'll go over a couple in the final article. There is a purpose to leaving in the Kor Santifiers, I wanted to deal with having to splash a color into the mana base to show how to deal with that when it's very necessary to do so. Don't get me wrong I'm no expert on this subject by any means, but I felt it was good for the story as a whole.
Thanks, Dan
Good point on the AoK!
This deck came in just under that at 22. With MTGO's great random card shuffler, I'd be tempted to add another 60 or 70 just to be safe. LOL.
Glad you liked it! Hope it does give you some inspiration to give it a try yourself.
Dan
I always like seeing good articles for "newer" players. Especially ones written by "newer" players.
The net is full of serious articles by more experienced players. That's good too, but I think there's a need for more articles like this one.
Articles written by newer players seem to ooze with love for the game. As a "Magic enthusiast" snice Revised, I enjoy sensing the love for the game. I don't get that feeling from many serious writers (with some obvious exceptions such as Flores and Chapin.)
Keep up the good work, and the fun :)
if you're playing white anyway, don't forget Revoke Existance.
Solid article and nice written.
I love these packages. I had completely forgotten about Riptide Shapeshifter too! Incidentally, I don't think the Artizan works as you think it does. In order to get it's effect you actually have to cast it rather than put in into play. Rather you could try Karmic Guide or Phyrexian Delver instead. Two other cool cards to tutor up are Akroma, Angel of Wrath (who doesn't like 6 hastey, flying, trampling, protection from R/B critters!) or for a real laugh try It That Betrays (tutor that up, put lightning greaves on it and watch your opponent cry! - good times).
Another package I like, if you have one, is the Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman package and Squee, Goblin Na-Bob plus tutorable critters - try any combination of Flametongue Kava, Shriekmaw, Skinrender, Harmonic Sliver, Murderous Redcap, and Solemn Simulacrum. If I'm in blue I also include Venser, shaper Savant and Sower of Temptation.
teehee.
...very funny article! I like references for rock bands and album names too: Man-o-War, Rolling Stones...
I had a buddy that tried to play with a madness deck (he failed badly) and we always sung that song for him:
http://www.lastfm.de/music/Iron+Maiden/_/Can+I+Play+With+Madness
@screen shot: For Windows 7 I only have to press "Print" and paste into paint, word etc.
..its confusing that the website and the whole process is really difficult to handle, but if you go through it, refunds are given out quickly...
Saving the Game/Event Number and the time of the bug showing up was always helpful for me.
Naga
Hello Gangstar,
the Website is really a farce. And the eMails I got were the same. If you can only response by typing your answer in that narrow space that is not highlighted, it's uncommon to everybody using eMails....
Thanks for sharing your experience
Naga
The thing about MtgO and bug-compensation is that it takes so much vigilance/research/tracking and (mtgo)experience to spot the bugs that by the time you actually get the hang of it (which is defo possible if you play much) you are already "agitated" by all those times you prolly should have filed and requested.
LoL - my paper-play-grp has ppl in it who have qualified for and been to ProTour and even then says "o'rly?" when we talk about mtgo, bugs and compensation-form.
One thing must be said again though: I feel I could have written "DONALD DUCK QUACK QUACK" in my first compensation requests and still have received Tix-Shop-Codes, thats how nice MtgO-customer service initially is and for the most part of my first 12 months on MtgO. In my 13th month now...