Magic The Gathering Thread XXIII: Modern is Dead, Long Live Modern

[enderlord99]

Is anyone familiar with a certain parody card that, while nowhere near printable for black-border, would almost work in silver-border, the biggest problem being that a card's name is not considered part of its text?

I believe it was called "Great Ttargeter."

[Douglas]

Just finished something I've been working on for two months. I analyzed shuffling in a million games.

[tonberrian]

Just finished something I've been working on for two months. I analyzed shuffling in a million games.

Wow, congrats! I'm looking at it now but wanted to say this looks really cool!

[Tvtyrant]

Just finished something I've been working on for two months. I analyzed shuffling in a million games.

Really impressive! It matches some of the assumptions pros online have had about land distribution changing by number in deck, it is 😎 to have confirmation.

[tgva8889]

It is nice to know from your study that it's not just me and I do seem to get mana screwed proportionally more when I keep 2-land hands in Limited than I probably should.

[Ninjaman]

Just finished something I've been working on for two months. I analyzed shuffling in a million games.

As people in the comments of the reddit post have already said, your research would have greatly benefited from a proper hypothesis.

[Svata]

Probably a bit too much harking for its own good. But not bad.

[Douglas]

While I think my results are strong enough to be considered significant already, I am seriously considering resetting the aggregation, starting it from the point just after I took all those screenshots, and trying to do a more formalized and strict followup analysis. I would state in advance a number of things I would look for in exacting detail, guided by the discrepancies and trends I found the first time, and then check how well the new data fits them. If you have any suggestions or requests regarding this, please post them.

[Ninjaman]

While I think my results are strong enough to be considered significant already, I am seriously considering resetting the aggregation, starting it from the point just after I took all those screenshots, and trying to do a more formalized and strict followup analysis. I would state in advance a number of things I would look for in exacting detail, guided by the discrepancies and trends I found the first time, and then check how well the new data fits them. If you have any suggestions or requests regarding this, please post them.

My only one would be to post the hypothesis and method on reddit, and possibly here, for critique/correction before you begin.

[9mm]

Trailer time!

[mythmonster2]

And we have confirmation on how planeswalkers work! Putting it in spoilers for now, in case people want to go in clean.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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All planeswalkers will have static/triggered abilities. Rare planeswalkers only have two loyalty abilities, and uncommon planeswalkers only have a minus ability.

[enderlord99]

Trailer time!

It looks like Liliana's condition just became terminal.

[Yaktan]

I am getting more excited for War of the Spark. I got back into the Magic story with dominaria, and I really liked the parts from Lilliana's perspective; it did a really good job portraying her as very much a black character, and also heroic, in her own selfish way.

Also I think I have a couple commander decks that want the new Lilliana.

[Douglas]

It looks like Liliana's condition just became terminal.

Spoiler

Show

To be fair, she wasn't serving Bolas willingly in the first place. This is more rebelling than backstabbing.

It seems unlikely that they'll actually kill off one of the 5 main planeswalkers permanently. I could see them going for a heroic sacrifice followed by some form of resurrection, though.

[enderlord99]

Spoiler

Show

This is more rebelling than backstabbing.

I don't see much distinction, but I'm not going to go into more details than that, because the Forum Rules say not to.

EDIT: I'm at least 80% certain Sarkhan is going to be Mythic Rare.

[Spore]

I love the fact that they reprinted Ajani's Pridemate. Again. Is this common to reprint cards every 6 months?

[Douglas]

I don't see much distinction, but I'm not going to go into more details than that, because the Forum Rules say not to.

EDIT: I'm at least 80% certain Sarkhan is going to be Mythic Rare.

Seems like a matter of definitions to me, ones that don't strike me as being controversial, at least in the sense of actions towards an individual. Rebelling is when you turn on someone that had been coercing you, backstabbing is when you turn on someone you were the willing ally of. If you were thinking of definitions relating to a government, then yes that might be too close to politics.

[Silverraptor]

Not entirely sure what happened in that trailer.

[tgva8889]

I think that if they don't kill any characters this story will be utterly meaningless. Some people are gonna have to die for me to feel like there have been any stakes in this fight, given how much setup there has been. They've been setting up pretty hard that either Liliana or Gideon is not going to make it out of this one alive (and possibly both might die). I think Liliana meeting her end trying to fight against Nicol Bolas is pretty fitting for her character and a reasonable way to end her story.

Spoiler: Trailer Summary

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It seems like Liliana saw that leading the army of Eternals caused the death of an innocent woman and her child/brother, which probably reminded her of her own past mistakes with her own brother who she just wanted to save but messed up made her feel that instead of fighting against Gideon she should instead send her army after Nicol Bolas, who in response activated some kind of magic which caused her to turn to ash, probably related to her demonic pact which makes her immortal. Nicol Bolas now owns that pact since, awkwardly, Liliana killed the last demon she had made a pact with so Nicol Bolas now owns her soul or something, so this seems like more or less the end of Liliana.

Oh also Dack Fayden died, I think? He sure got stabbed and then had his soul or something sucked out by that Eternal, which seems pretty bad.

Also worth noting that it seems the art from the stained glass Planeswalkers seems to just be stained glass versions of the actual art on the planeswalker cards in this set, so we have a nice preview of some awesome art to come.

[PraetorDragoon]

Surprising it took this long for static ability planeswalkers to pop up.

[Wraith]

I would like to ask the thread for advice, if I may - specifically, if anyone has much experience in the secondary market for old Magic cards?

I haven't played the game IRL in... probably about 4 years, and I've reached the point now where my two big shoe-boxes full of Magic cards are becoming a hindrance.... and I'm not sure what to do with them. I estimate that I have up to 5,000 of them from between Ravnica and Innistrad, with a handful of older ones (between M7 and Scourge mostly, I think) that I picked up as freebies from places like Manaleak and random lots on eBay, back when I still thought that was a good way to get good cards.

I've briefly glanced through them all and probably less than 500 are actually worth anything beyond pennies, and of those only 10% are likely to have any meaningful value - a couple of early Planeswalkers, some limited edition Eldrazi Legendaries, a handful of multicoloured/rare lands like Vesuva, a set of original Doubling Seasons, that sort of thing. Very little that was expensive even back when they were in the meta, and certainly not now, half a decade on.

Just enough, in other words, that I'm loathe to just throw the lot into the trash and forget about it, but also far too many to put on eBay as a job-lot. No one in their right mind would take my word for it that, at the bottom of this ~8kg box which you have just paid P&P for, there's a handful of stuff that you might like. My other option seems to be going through absolutely everything one at a time, copying it into a spreadsheet and spending the next 6 months selling singles until the collection has been picked clean before burning the rest, and I have neither the time nor the will to spend the hours needed to do that and then price-match them all, and then upload pictures of them.

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation? Do you have any ideas or recommendations as to a reasonable solution? The Troll Trader will buy large lots of unwanted miniatures if you're into 40k or similar, and Magpie.com will take CD's and DVD's off your hands in bulk, so I'm curious if anyone knows of a service that will do the same for Magic cards?

[Ninjaman]

And we have confirmation on how planeswalkers work! Putting it in spoilers for now, in case people want to go in clean.
Rare planeswalkers seem to be missing an ultimate

Spoiler

Show

New Jace disagrees with that statement.

It seems unlikely that they'll actually kill off one of the 5 main planeswalkers permanently. I could see them going for a heroic sacrifice followed by some form of resurrection, though.

I think they'll kill her, and I hope they will, not because I don't like Liliana, I do, but because it seems like the best ending to her story, and we are nearing the conclusion of the story, so it doesn't seem off the table at all. Definitely not considering what happened to Garruk.

[ImperiousLeader]

Not entirely sure what happened in that trailer.

How much do you know of the previous story? Liliana, years ago, made a pact with 4 Demon Lords (Kothophed, Griselbrand, Razaketh, and Belzenlok) for power and immortality. She then tried to kill them to free herself. In Dominaria, she succeeded, killing Belzenlok, the last of the Demon Lords. However, the fine print of her contract is that should all the demons die, control of the pact will fall to Nicol Bolas, as he had planned.

Anyway, in the Trailer, Liliana watches a girl and her brother die, then Dack Fayden, and decides she won't allow herself to be Bolas's puppet anymore and turns his Eternal army against him, saving Gideon. But, as Bolas now has control of Liliana through her Demonic Pact, he burns her. Whether or not this is the end for her is an unanswered question. The only thing that's odd is that the trailer starts in reverse time.

Surprising it took this long for static ability planeswalkers to pop up.

Maro stated that the original design for Nicol Bolas in Hour of Devastation had a static ability, but they wanted to hold back on that piece of technology for a bit longer. Planeswalkers have limited design space, and WotC is loathe to use it up too quickly.

[enderlord99]

Spoiler: I found an image of a card from the coming-eventually 4th un-set, Unfamiliar

Show

April Fools! It's not printable even in silver-border.

[Otomodachi]

It seems to me Mesmerizing Benthid could become a pretty cool card once Teo's Lightshield enters circulation. I'll get REALLY excited if there's something in a rare slot with the illusion subtype.

[S@tanicoaldo]

It seems Bolas will have to learn a lesson I learned the ahrd way as well.

Never leave crucial parts of your plan in the hands of third party people, they can screw things up or betray you when you least expect.

It was foolish of him to trust Liliana. It was foolish of him to leave such crucial part of his plan in the hands of soemone who he knows can't be trusted.

He was a fool and now he will pay for that. Like all fools he pictured himself as smater and superior than he actually is. Liliana solidarity and humanity prevailed her selfish desire for power.

[Tvtyrant]

I would like to ask the thread for advice, if I may - specifically, if anyone has much experience in the secondary market for old Magic cards?

I haven't played the game IRL in... probably about 4 years, and I've reached the point now where my two big shoe-boxes full of Magic cards are becoming a hindrance.... and I'm not sure what to do with them. I estimate that I have up to 5,000 of them from between Ravnica and Innistrad, with a handful of older ones (between M7 and Scourge mostly, I think) that I picked up as freebies from places like Manaleak and random lots on eBay, back when I still thought that was a good way to get good cards.

I've briefly glanced through them all and probably less than 500 are actually worth anything beyond pennies, and of those only 10% are likely to have any meaningful value - a couple of early Planeswalkers, some limited edition Eldrazi Legendaries, a handful of multicoloured/rare lands like Vesuva, a set of original Doubling Seasons, that sort of thing. Very little that was expensive even back when they were in the meta, and certainly not now, half a decade on.

Just enough, in other words, that I'm loathe to just throw the lot into the trash and forget about it, but also far too many to put on eBay as a job-lot. No one in their right mind would take my word for it that, at the bottom of this ~8kg box which you have just paid P&P for, there's a handful of stuff that you might like. My other option seems to be going through absolutely everything one at a time, copying it into a spreadsheet and spending the next 6 months selling singles until the collection has been picked clean before burning the rest, and I have neither the time nor the will to spend the hours needed to do that and then price-match them all, and then upload pictures of them.

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation? Do you have any ideas or recommendations as to a reasonable solution? The Troll Trader will buy large lots of unwanted miniatures if you're into 40k or similar, and Magpie.com will take CD's and DVD's off your hands in bulk, so I'm curious if anyone knows of a service that will do the same for Magic cards?

Some sites will bulk buy magic cards for .01c a card or so, if you want to just unload them. Frankly I would find an adult whose kids want to try it and give it to them, that is how I got into magic as a kid and since the group's cards will all be mostly bad it will be roughly balanced.

[LaZodiac]

It seems Bolas will have to learn a lesson I learned the ahrd way as well.

Never leave crucial parts of your plan in the hands of third party people, they can screw things up or betray you when you least expect.

It was foolish of him to trust Liliana. It was foolish of him to leave such crucial part of his plan in the hands of soemone who he knows can't be trusted.

He was a fool and now he will pay for that. Like all fools he pictured himself as smater and superior than he actually is. Liliana solidarity and humanity prevailed her selfish desire for power.

In his defense the contract is designed to kill her almost immediately as soon as he activates it. The instant she betrays he can snuff her out pretty easily.

Of course, then she called his bluff. And I like the theory that Bolas CAN'T actually control the Eternals without her help.

[tgva8889]

The more I see of this set, the more excited I am to try it out. I have no idea what this experience will be like, but I'm really excited to play Planeswalkers in limited and try to get value out of these uncommon ones that just minus to death. There's a lot of fun build-around cards in this set and I'm excited to try to make these cards come together into a cohesive whole.

[Fable Wright]

Spoiler

Show

To be fair, she wasn't serving Bolas willingly in the first place. This is more rebelling than backstabbing.

It seems unlikely that they'll actually kill off one of the 5 main planeswalkers permanently. I could see them going for a heroic sacrifice followed by some form of resurrection, though.

Spoiler

Show

I will direct you to the tragic tale of Garruk Wildspeaker, one of the first five flagship planeswalkers with great mono-green mechanics and a simple, clean character motivation. He was given an arc of aborted character development and is presently a non-character with all traces of personality lost and, insult to injury, was mostly written out of the story.

He has been replaced by (from when I read Zendikar original novels) an elf supremacist who screwed up beyond imagining and went on to be the flagship character after they rewrote her almost entirely to pick up all the elements that Garruk's personality lost.

They are 100% okay with killing off or writing out lead characters.

Please let it be Jace this time.