The price of Wasteland surprised me. Thank goodness I have mine. How'd it get so high? I mean, obviously, but still, wow!
Even if it were profitable to enter MVW and lose in the first round, no one will do it. There was a ME1-2-3 draft week not too long ago and I don't think it fired. I wasn't watching it constantly I was just looking for completed drafts. But it kind of makes sense that drafters are more motivated to play what they want rather than play what's free. They could 'pay' $8/draft for ZZW, $4/draft for MVW, or $0 to play some free-to-play MMO. They're just going to stick to the formats they find fun, period.
When TSE rolls around it might be profitable to enter, draft three boosters, and drop during deck building. Of course you wouldn't - you'd at least stick around to the first round. But with Wasteland at uncommon and the hotness that is Exodus I wouldn't be surprised if "gold farmers" basically did exactly that - rare draft and suck on purpose. And I'm not even talking about getting 8 friends together and rigging the queues. That's banned behavior. I mean just use these events as an excuse to crack packs.
Spiders have always gotten shortchanged. The rare spider that has power greater than toughness doesn't even cut the mustard. Spider decks typically require Doran to be competitive, which is a bummer, because he isn't even a spider.
One Dozen Eyes is awesome. Great name, great card.
I dont think that Hyena Umbra would ever make the cut in this deck. Also the white cards are situational and I actually prefer the black ones.Guard Duty just shots of an attack since neither of my creatures has evasion. If I considered the UG probably a case could be made but still only 3 of my creatures would have some kind of evasion which makes guard duty slightly worse. I still think its a matter of preference.
Some of the extended season cards are purchasable now. I'd say barring steam vents and stomping ground, the ravnica duals are at a relatively stable price point. I'd wait on some other cards like bitterblossom and jitte though; those will yet drop further.
With the extended season over, when is the best time to buy extended cards that arn't needed for other formats at the cheapest? Ravinica block dues for example.
Also, just wondering what everyone would consider a "good" limited player rating?
Hamtastic, how's the quest for an 1800 limited rating going? Love the articles, keep up the good work.
I would consider adding the price of packs to this article. I would be really interested in knowing how much the price of packs fluctuate with the Nix Tix events.
At the moment I think Alara Block is the best rare drafting format.
1)It has 2 valuable uncommons (Path to Exile and Bloodbraid Elf),
2)It has a number of expensive rares (not just Mythic rares like M10 and Zendikar)
3)It is always available and unlike Master Edition and Tempest blocks, it fires at a reasonable rate.
4)It is an interesting draft format with a lot of strategy
5)You don't have to trade around packs in order to get a complete draft set. This irritated me a lot when dealing with Tempest block. I would end up with lots of Tempest and Exodus packs and no Stronghold packs.
This is a very helpful article. If I were you, I'd add Hamtastic's chart re: draft set EV from his State of the Program article. It clearly shows which sets have the best EV for drafting (MVW, btw). I look forward to updates on this, hopefully on a monthly basis.
Also, as noted multiple times above, some of the rarities listed are incorrect. I'm sure this'll get cleaned up in future installments.
As an Entomologist Magic Player I enjoyed the article. I also work at a zoo where there is also a lack of insects. 3/4 of all species are beetles, but when they bring in another animal it tends to be another (yawn) monkey. Stupid charismatic mega-fauna. :P
Lots of fun. Back in my paper magic days (revised through fallen empires) I started collecting insect cards and cards with insects in the artwork. I kept them in one (small) binder. There are a lot more insects since then but there still needs to be more.
While I think classic will eventually become Vintage too, I don't think that is the only thing keeping prices of classic cards from plummeting. Essentially, Classic has as much price power as something like Prismatic *used* to have (back when it was actually quite popular), where cards that were good in prismatic only still held their own value.
I won't discount the fact that future Vintage possibilities hold some sway in pricing as well, in fact i totally agree that is the case (see Mana Drain, Null Rod), but to say it's *entirely* attributable to the expectation that someday Vintage will come along like a digital messiah and exalt Classic card's statuses does not strike me as reasonable.
All points previously made.
Crypt Rats is uncommon in 7E. There were no Mythics in Lorwyn, so the planeswalkers are Rare.
The price of Wasteland surprised me. Thank goodness I have mine. How'd it get so high? I mean, obviously, but still, wow!
Even if it were profitable to enter MVW and lose in the first round, no one will do it. There was a ME1-2-3 draft week not too long ago and I don't think it fired. I wasn't watching it constantly I was just looking for completed drafts. But it kind of makes sense that drafters are more motivated to play what they want rather than play what's free. They could 'pay' $8/draft for ZZW, $4/draft for MVW, or $0 to play some free-to-play MMO. They're just going to stick to the formats they find fun, period.
When TSE rolls around it might be profitable to enter, draft three boosters, and drop during deck building. Of course you wouldn't - you'd at least stick around to the first round. But with Wasteland at uncommon and the hotness that is Exodus I wouldn't be surprised if "gold farmers" basically did exactly that - rare draft and suck on purpose. And I'm not even talking about getting 8 friends together and rigging the queues. That's banned behavior. I mean just use these events as an excuse to crack packs.
fyi: great article though tolarian winds did see some play in the early versions of dredge...
Spiders have always gotten shortchanged. The rare spider that has power greater than toughness doesn't even cut the mustard. Spider decks typically require Doran to be competitive, which is a bummer, because he isn't even a spider.
One Dozen Eyes is awesome. Great name, great card.
Fun article!
Agreed. I'm hardly familiar with RoE cards and this layout helped me a bunch. Even if I were familiar with the format I'd still prefer it this way.
Always a nice feeling when you can find interesting uses for "crappy" cards. The Leveler deck looks hilarious! Good article.
I dont think that Hyena Umbra would ever make the cut in this deck. Also the white cards are situational and I actually prefer the black ones.Guard Duty just shots of an attack since neither of my creatures has evasion. If I considered the UG probably a case could be made but still only 3 of my creatures would have some kind of evasion which makes guard duty slightly worse. I still think its a matter of preference.
Some of the extended season cards are purchasable now. I'd say barring steam vents and stomping ground, the ravnica duals are at a relatively stable price point. I'd wait on some other cards like bitterblossom and jitte though; those will yet drop further.
Good article, very useful data. Ghost Quarter is an uncommon not rare.
LE
With the extended season over, when is the best time to buy extended cards that arn't needed for other formats at the cheapest? Ravinica block dues for example.
Also, just wondering what everyone would consider a "good" limited player rating?
Hamtastic, how's the quest for an 1800 limited rating going? Love the articles, keep up the good work.
Also note Tempesteye doesn't do pants, if the rumours are true that is.
It's worth pointing out that Tempesteye is one of our own too: He's got a solid portfolio of Commander articles in our archive.
Magma Jet is uncommon in 5th Dawn.
You're welcome.
I've taken down the current prices for packs and will add them into the next article with any changes.
Thanks for the pointers on the rarities they will be correct for the next article.
nice, sadly im not grumpy about the game, just life in general though i suppose that is what college does to you during final projects month
I always wonder about spider monkeys...like why arent they highly venomous with 8 arms?
I would consider adding the price of packs to this article. I would be really interested in knowing how much the price of packs fluctuate with the Nix Tix events.
At the moment I think Alara Block is the best rare drafting format.
1)It has 2 valuable uncommons (Path to Exile and Bloodbraid Elf),
2)It has a number of expensive rares (not just Mythic rares like M10 and Zendikar)
3)It is always available and unlike Master Edition and Tempest blocks, it fires at a reasonable rate.
4)It is an interesting draft format with a lot of strategy
5)You don't have to trade around packs in order to get a complete draft set. This irritated me a lot when dealing with Tempest block. I would end up with lots of Tempest and Exodus packs and no Stronghold packs.
This is how everyone who writes about sealed pools needs to show what they opened. Those graphics were very helpful, especially with a new, large set.
This is a very helpful article. If I were you, I'd add Hamtastic's chart re: draft set EV from his State of the Program article. It clearly shows which sets have the best EV for drafting (MVW, btw). I look forward to updates on this, hopefully on a monthly basis.
Also, as noted multiple times above, some of the rarities listed are incorrect. I'm sure this'll get cleaned up in future installments.
Thanks again.
As an Entomologist Magic Player I enjoyed the article. I also work at a zoo where there is also a lack of insects. 3/4 of all species are beetles, but when they bring in another animal it tends to be another (yawn) monkey. Stupid charismatic mega-fauna. :P
Lots of fun. Back in my paper magic days (revised through fallen empires) I started collecting insect cards and cards with insects in the artwork. I kept them in one (small) binder. There are a lot more insects since then but there still needs to be more.
I liked the article a lot. Very helpful in quickly knowing whether a card is worth the rare draft or not.
One thing to correct, the Planeswalkers were just regular Rare in Lorwyn.
They hit the grumpy guy demographic last year, when they chose me. Mixing it up a bit.
While I think classic will eventually become Vintage too, I don't think that is the only thing keeping prices of classic cards from plummeting. Essentially, Classic has as much price power as something like Prismatic *used* to have (back when it was actually quite popular), where cards that were good in prismatic only still held their own value.
I won't discount the fact that future Vintage possibilities hold some sway in pricing as well, in fact i totally agree that is the case (see Mana Drain, Null Rod), but to say it's *entirely* attributable to the expectation that someday Vintage will come along like a digital messiah and exalt Classic card's statuses does not strike me as reasonable.
People are still playing classic once a week.