Magic 2010, The Ball Was Dropped

[Demonbunny]

Mana Leak in something like Faeries wasn't fair when it was around. The issue about effectively giving blue too many effectively 'non situational' 2cmc counter, the blue based decks just become inherently unbalanced.
Remember Timespiral and Teachings Control. That format didn't have 20 2cmc but did prove that having 8 effectively 'dead' counters in the form of runesnag and mana leak was actually pretty close to enough for blue based control to dominate.
I honestly believe having 'situational' 2cmc counters in the core with the only truelly 'dead' counter being in the expansions allows for a much more balanced and enhanced format.

Regarding the 4 sets thing. We've effectively had 4 sets a year now for something like 5 or 6 years, so how can it be a new thing Wizards or the 'evil' Hasbro has introduced 'now' to milk us players? Magic over the last year or so has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of cards a player needs to possess compared to previous years.

Another thing, about the coreset being 50% new cards. I reckon that was pretty much a once off with many of the cards being simple renaming and 'fixers' of staples from the previous coresets. Its probably going to be more in the region of 25% to 30% new with the remaining cards forming the core 'reprints'.

[Rakavolver]

Themaninnavyblue, please don't start a post with "are you 12?" and Demonbunny, please don't start a post with "I'm gonna put this nicely....You are utterly clueless," because what each of you are doing is injecting emotion into what should be a logical discussion, and simply put: doing so will unlikely end well, for either of you. It's FINE to feel emotions about this stuff, just ... don't start out that way. Disagreement is inevitable. But please, you cause great discomfort amongst the readers and fellow posters when you begin with emotion, let alone make an enemy, unnecessarily, before you even get to your point! Thanks in advance, and remember ... "attitude is everything."

Back on topic: Hasbro isn't "evil" and I never said that. They're "profit-centered," as every company should be. My complaint is that they don't understand Magic as well as Wizards does. Wizards is their company, so we see who will eventually prevail. Magic ain't Monopoly, and in time I think (hope?) Hasbro will see the light. You don't run a CCG/TCG the same way you run a board game. More product doesn't necessarily translate into more sales, and in fact it can lose customers, i.e., lost sales. They lost me, for example. That was my point.

[Rakavolver]

Also, Demonbunny, it hasn't been 5-6 years since they instituted 4-sets-per-year, it's only been 3, since July 2006 when Coldsnap was released.

Sure seems like 5-6 years though, I'll give you that. That's another reason to like and love Magic: it sure seems to compress time. More years in your years, know what I mean?

[Demonbunny]

Actually Raka, if you're talking competive sets only, then yes, its 3 years, but as we know, Wizards like doing things subtly, testing the waters first, and well the 4th set thing started in 2004 with Unhinged when taking into account their subtle testing nature.

Its the same with Mythic Rarity. It wasn't actually only introduced during Alara Block but timespiral actually where Wizards testing the impact with the timeshifted and planeshifted cards from Timespiral and PlanarChaos, that all effectively had same rarity if being even more rare actually. Damnation's rarity is pretty much just as mythic as the mythics of today. The strange thing is how human nature impacts on things. As long as the cards weren't labelled as 'Mythic' rare their prices stayed in check, regardless of the fact that their rarity level were pretty much on par.

[Rakavolver]

Bringing up 2004's Unhinged is a bit unfair, as it was never Standard-legal. Anyway, it was "Unglued II" really, being a second stab at "Magic Comedy" cards after 1998's Unglued set, both being a product of Mark ""Roseanne" "It's all about ME!" Rosewater's self-love and perpetual desperate plea by said egomaniac that he deserves continued employment, a situation that we will all be sadly subjected to, apparently, until the day he turns 65 (20 years from now ... or less?) and is forced to retire, praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.

A better example would have been 1995's Chronicles Constructed-legal set, but that was all reprints (especially the mighty Ernham Djinn!), but as I said they were reprints so that doesn't count either.

Also, are you implying that Damnation was LESS rare than the other rares from Planar Chaos? Hmm. Interesting if so. Can you back that up with something other than rumour and/or innuendo? If so, we have to blow up the Old Bailey with Evey watching with us on the roof, as we conduct a symphony on the loudspeakers. Explosives ready. Your move.

[Demonbunny]

I don't quite understand the comment about Damnation being less rare than the other cards from planar chaos.
My comment was about how having Damnation and other such cards as Planeshifted or Timeshifted in the booster prints back then made their rarity the equivalent of Mythic.

Think about it.
We have 15 odd Mythic Rares a set. With an 1 in 8 or so chance to open any given Mythic.

With the Planeshifted cards specifically, there were only 3 slots in the booster allocated, with 2 being common and 1 being either uncommon or rare. The last slot was shared by all rares and uncommons with the uncommons being less rare than the rares. I'm not too sure about the timeshifted run but do remember it being 121 or so cards, and that you only got 1 of any one of those cards in your booster which was 16 cards for timespiral.

The impact was that the Planeshifted and timeshifted cards were MORE rare than the normal rares in those sets and were at a similiar rarity to the mythics of today.

[Rakavolver]

Well for starters, the "Timeshifted" cards were all reprints. "Pastshifted" or "Pastsighted" or would have been a better term.

Also, be careful about the 1 in 8 thing regarding Mythics. I hear what you said, just be careful with the actual semantics. You were right, but some people think (incorrectly) that the Mythics are 8 times as rare as regular rares, where they are actually only twice as rare, but the confusion is such that people get confused (not your fault) as to how rare they actually are.

But twice as rare is still too rare, IMO. Yu-Gi-Oh is on the run and you needn't copy them any more, Wizards. Go back to the old style. Do what worked for over a decade, rather than try to re-invent the wheel (cough*copycat), thanks.

But will they listen? No. Why should they? That would just be good feedback recognition.

[guyarney]

they lost me too.

[Nosferatu Zodd]

Too much reading to do....