Is it covert if you know it’s happening and have agreed to it?

Why is this a news article? Why is this posted to this community? It’s a well written article, but it carries no new news, and is just an article by the author of a book that’s about to go on sale.

For deck building purposes, I always have Scryfall up, and if I’m doing EDH, EDHRec is something I like to reference to see if I’m missing something obvious.

I want to build a deck largely out of cards I have, and I want it to be my deck, not just what people consider to be the best shell for my commander. But, I can always use a very powerful search tool, and sometimes my knowledge of cards is pretty limited, so seeing what other people are doing can help inspire me to look for similar lines or concepts in my own deckbuilding.

I probably won’t end up playing this, as I’m bad at this kind of game, but man does it have styleeeeee.

I wish I liked this art treatment more, but man it sucked to play against in paper.

Compare [[Drivnod]]'s and [[Phyrexian Obliterator]]'s inkblot arts. Just not easily distinguishable across a table, unfortunately.

I think the things look cool as art prints, but aren’t clear enough when shrunk to half of a playing card to appreciate.

As a quick question, is this the single largest B&R announcement in Magic history? Bans/restrictions in 4 of the 5 major formats (Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage), each hitting serious meta decks? I’m a relatively newer player, so I don’t know if they’ve ever shaken up so many formats at once.

I know about the Great Designer Challenge question, and I agree that while such a creature would technically fit into those 2 colors, it’s not doing a thing that those 2 colors specifically want to do together.

The value of a flyer is to get in around something, and the value of vigilance is to be able to attack and still safely block. Golgari’s approach to those goals is usually good removal in black and big creatures (with trample) in green.

Beyond that, you’d have to consider the rate of the creature. 2 mana 2/2 w/ flying and vigilance? Banger in Azorius, but doesn’t do jack squat for Golgari. If you go over rate (because green and black both have a number of creatures that are over rate) and get a 2 mana 3/3 w/ flying and vigilance, is that just broken? Even if it’s great, does it see play?

Pioneer player here. Thank GOD Sorin and Amalia are gone.

Definitely agree that banning Sorin is a better move than removing Vein Ripper. Sorin existing basically means that they can’t print any powerful/high cost vampires ever, and so removing him gives more creative freedom for the future.

And removing Amalia is great because of how the counterplay to the combo was sometimes just pushing for a draw. Not fun for anyone, and the draws just end up pushing the match into turns every dang time.

I feel like I would have been fine with them banning Treasure Cruise and Fable, but I guess they didn’t want to just shatter the format, just shake it up gently.

For anyone not into PokemonTCG, this looks like PokemonTCG but will play with different cards and different rules. Energy is different (it looks like you have energy in an Energy Zone instead of attaching to individual mons), the battlefield is different (3 bench spots instead of 5), and so far the cards look to be simplified from actual existing cards.

I believe last time they showed it off it was something like 2 free packs a day, and trading is included (unlike the current digital platform, Pokemon TCG Live).

So overall, it’s probably a fairly different game that’s looking to simplify the gameplay and introduce the entire “collect and play” thing to people for free. Hook them in with this, and maybe get some people invested in playing “real” PTCG.

Honestly, Pokemon is one of the games with fewer money issues than other TCGs. A tier 1 deck in Pokemon costs $30-$120 for Standard format, which is what most people play, apparently. JustinBasil has good posts detailing the decks and key cards, as well as strategies and example gameplay videos.

I say this coming from MtG, where that price point is only really something you can do in Pauper (commons only format), and a Standard deck will cost $50-230, a Pioneer deck will cost $120-380, and a Modern deck will cost $270-700. In Magic, the most powerful cards (for competitive 60 card play) is the credit card.

Pretty sure YuGiOh and One Piece and Lorcana and Flesh&Blood and Digimon also have more expensive decks than Pokemon. Obviously, Pokemon can get expensive once you try to bring out your deck with special art and special foil versions, but for just obtaining usable competitive game pieces, it’s basically the cheapest thing around.

Maybe I’m crazy entitled, but I feel like if I’m spending a few hundred dollars on this piece of hardware, I shouldn’t have to pay an additional fee to get some of its basic built-in features to work well.

I mean, Prerelease is a great way for new players to dip their feet into any form of structured play. No one is walking in with a fine-tuned constructed deck; everyone is left to the whim of their card pool. Sure, it’s tough to build a cohesive deck, but the included leaflet mentions 17 lands and a modest mana curve, and I think it talks about sticking to 2 colors if possible?

I’ll probably try and use this release as an attempt to get my cousins (who have been dabbling in Commander and at-home prereleases) into LGS events.

I’m newer to Magic, and I’ve had to basically dig through the Discords of each shop near me to figure out what formats are played in paper there. Obviously there’s plenty of Commander everywhere, but some shops lean more heavily into Modern, or Draft, Pioneer, Vintage, or even Standard. I’ve only had 1 opportunity to play Pauper (and it was a blast).

Still, it’s the lowest price barrier for a constructed 60-card format, and it’s honestly a fairly powerful and interactive format. I won a small tournament using a Gruul beatdown deck I slapped together from commons I had on hand at the time, and recently bought the pieces of a Golgari Gardens deck that cost me like $90. There’s room for infinite combos, aggro decks, affinity, control, midrange, tempo, whatever you can think of (besides Planeswalker things).

I don’t personally use proxies, but the quality of various printing sites has gone way up. Cards can look and feel very real, and in my opinion the best way to go about those is to use completely non-MTG art so no one ever thinks you’re trying to fool someone with them. A lot of people are cool with proxies, except for sanctioned tournaments/events. As I got some of my DnD friends into Magic, it helped that they could order proxies of powerful cards for cheap, so they could learn how interesting and deep Magic can be, and now they’re willing to spend their own money to start buying the game pieces they actually like.

If it’s been a while, coming back to Magic may feel weird (power levels have skyrocketed over the last 5 years, apparently), but I think it’s a great game that hits different sweet spots. Commander for the social aspect and self-expression. 60-card constructed for rewarding smart play and awareness of the meta. Draft for building on the fly and winning through miniscule advantages. Sealed for the degenerate gambling.

I agree completely. Some games and genres really need enough players to ensure queue times aren’t awful, and that there are lobbies/games/matches where players of all levels can enjoy themselves.

Battle Royales need big playerbases. Team-based games (like many shooters and MOBAs) benefit from larger playerbases. Fighting games want large playerbases, because it’s very frustrating to get a game 6 months after release only to find that it’s a Discord fighter, or that the only people playing are absolute killers who destroy you without leaving you any room or time to learn how to improve.

They don’t want to put these into special guest slots in Play Boosters for 2 reasons. Induce demand for collector boosters, and also help preserve the limited environment at least a little bit. I think it’s also why they went from The List to Special Guests in general.

I feel like this thing is a bit silly and lacking in reusable pieces that I’d want to include in my everyday Magic kit… But I got it anyways. Got delivered an hour ago.

I think Heavensward was a moment where you really got to feel like the Warrior of Light. ARR was a little short on that (focused largely on the Scions and Alphi), and that’s actually an issue some people had with SB. ShB and EW really lean in hard with the character power fantasy.

It also had characters that players actually cared about, and so the consequences felt more “real.” I thought it was a step above ARR’s story, especially since I played ARR before they redid the quests to cut out a chunk of the busywork and optional dungeons.

Stormblood is where I first “fell off” of FFXIV and it took me a 3 month break before coming back to complete it.

I don’t think the story is bad, it just doesn’t have the same high of Heavensward. I think it tries to tell 2 stories, kind of as companion pieces to one another, in a very disjointed manner. But I enjoyed the added locations and a lot of what the expansion added to the game.

If you can get past the level 64 quests and still feel motivated, then you’ll find that the rest of it goes by easily. If you’re struggling to enjoy it, feel free to take a break and do some of the side content that you may have skipped, like lower relic weapons and normal raids.

Among 2D fighters, SF6 and MK1 are pretty dang big.

I would recommend GBFV:R and GG Strive. Granblue is very grounded, and if you play Street Fighter you’ll be able to wrap your head around the systems. Strive is a bit more anime, but without being too much (in the way that Xrd Rev 2 and Melty Blood are too much for me to comprehend what’s happening).

I don’t know if you’re into tag-style games, but learning one might help you get ready for when 2XKO comes out. I’m not a Riot fan, but Riot has such a following that whenever it launches, it’ll receive a large playerbase immediately.

Also, regarding the 30th Anniversary collection, I personally think it’s super cool. Awesome for local play and for nostalgia. It even has netplay for Hyper Fighting, Super Turbo, Alpha 3, and Third Strike, though most PC people are probably just playing on Fightcade instead.

I heard the Giant Bomb crew mention this on the podcast, but couldn’t find it. Sounds like a wide blend of a lot of different things! I like it when Capcom is willing to be weird and try something new.