I’m sad that Twitch lumps in the Arena bullshit with the Modern/Cube players using the old MTGO client. Maybe someday they bring Modern/Cube to MTGA and I care, but for now fuck that shit.
Stopped by GP Portland to play a little and judge a little while drinking and gaming with friends. The judge staff seemed stretched thin - at one point I was covering maybe 300 players by what seemed like myself. That’s not good for a GP. I don’t think people noticed, but I rushed a few things I shouldn’t have rushed and messed up once when somebody had asked me a particularly dumb question. Lots of people asking dumb questions that you’d think people at a GP should have known. Lots of kids playing $500+ decks in a Modern tournament. O_o
The death of the PPTQ is going to be amazing. That’s most of what I’d do judging locally - just run PPTQs for various stores. Not sure what else you need judges for as you head to the era of MagicFest. Then again, judges at GP Portland thought that was the kind of the point of the current era - destroy the judge program and defang the legal troubles brought on by the judge lawsuit.
Who the fuck knows.
My Chaos Sealed pool was foil Elspeth, foil Smuggler’s Copter, “Skysovereign, Consul Flagship”, four ramp/fixing spells (including weirdly MVP Market Festival), and just random bullshit. It was clearly all skill that let me go 3-0. Also it turns out if you can activate Elspeth 20 times in one game as you draw mostly lands and any creatures eat their removal, you can pull out the game despite being at 3 life for 18 of those turns. Also double Elspeth emblems is tight.
The judge draft had a judge chaos draft: one pack was just a box of From the Vault: Legends, one was all judge promos, one was all planeswalkers, etc. XD Pretty sweet draft.
They kinda got boxed into a corner, though. Some judges got so caught up in their own hype that they decided to burn the place down rather than just enjoy massive amounts of free swag. WotC then decided to let judges handle spewing out free swag to judges so that they were removed from the equation, and judges still screwed it up with exclusionary bullshit (Exemplar).
CFB is still figuring stuff out. I didn’t make much for helping out for one day ($200, a box, a playmat, MtG coasters) but then again that’s about infinity more than the average helper earns in the FGC world. In the MtG judge world, you get to kick people out for pointlessly being assholes, people aren’t typically pointlessly an asshole because most people just want to play the damn game, nobody is going to stab you in the back, you don’t throw money away by running tournaments… generally a way healthier environment.
200 dollars, a box and a playmat is hella good for a day’s work.
Not sure if its better than the Judge promos that used to be handed out like candy. I remember when the exemplar program started and also thought that was a bigger pile of horse shit.
I’d rather stick tk WoTC’s fuck ups than compare scenes. Actually met somebody who thoughy all of the WoTC decisions were good. And be said it with a serious face. Got a catalogue of dumb shit 25 years long and the dude defend a bunch of it.
If MTG wasnt crack, WoTC wouldn’t be that ridiculous.
I used to remember when fighting game judges got nothing. Today, it’s just a free meal for fighting game judges if that, unless something changed that I don’t know about…
Yes right after I downloaded and put in the new code I instantly googled what other codes and got the free packs.
After a week my stance stays the same. Ive had FUN… and tons of it… I love the quests as it forces me to build new decks and try new ideas. As of right now it appears I got all decks they offer but when combined you can make multiple solid enough decks. There UG Merfolk deck is legit AF and while I haven’t used it, its the only deck I lose to consistently as Sleep is a fucking broken in a non-tiered deck format. Seriously Sleep is 70% of my loses.
Only knock I would give is building up coins to draft and having to choose from a playable vs a collection card. In MTGO you chose the freeroll but now its different since there is zero resale value. I do like the no time limit and drafting vs bots, while I would be fine the normal way, this is great for new players.
WOTC/Hasbro has made the correct future… Just put Legacy on it as a packages and id drop 1k to play any deck for life easy.
side note guys member at 3PM EST to buy your Mythic Editions war of the sparks. These feel like the easiest money making box in recent history. Shit will be 500 each by end of year easy.
I am going to open one and save one. I want that smexy Jace for my Legacy deck.
“Orders were almost impossible, with the site crashing and unable to process,” he said. “I tried for 4 minutes, was told I had been successful in my order and payment was being processed. That never happened. And here’s the kicker: traders seem to have them on eBay asking roughly $800!”
I am starting to think Warhammer 40K is more worth my time and money.
For even if pieces become obsolete rule wise, they still have Value and as you paint your own armies you have that personal touch.
Man this was one botched situation. Was able to get my 2 boxes for $520 and already sold them for $1549 netting a easy $872 expected profit for just clicking buy it now and 5 minutes of work.
Went and drafted War of the Spark today with the missus. Other than the planeswalkers in every pack stuff, I found out that I am extremely rusty in draft.
I was never good at limited. Or MTG in general. Lol. I played from original Mirrodin block until original Ravnica. So only a few years. The only reason I played MTG (I was waaaay more into Pokémon and Yu-Go-oh) was because my best friend played it and it was just another excuse to hang out with him more and keep an eye out for him. He was a few years younger than me and I was super protective of him.
When he died I just lost all passion for Magic and playing TCG’s in general for along time because that was how we met was through being paired up a shit ton at Yugioh tournaments. So every time I shuffled cardboard I’d pretty much break down and cry cause I missed him so much. I didn’t get back into TCG’s until I moved back into Seattle when I was around 25. He died when I was 18. Local comic book shop hosted Pokémon League and the Professors (their form of judges) that ran the league were my age. They convinced me to get back into the game.
Then we all jumped ship to Cardfight! Vanguard. When the comic book shop we all worked at closed I stopped playing that too because I didn’t want to be apart of any other stores community. I was super good at that game too. I was ranked in the top 30 nationally.
I still want to play tcg’s and board games but I just don’t have the outlets for them. The local hobby store here is fucking gremlin hole and doesn’t deserve anyone’s business and the people I hang out with aren’t really into board games. A few of them “play” MTG but they play by house rules. Which I find offensive since for 4 years a major part of my job was how to teach people card games and board games. MTG being the most common.
This ended up being a much longer and introspective post than I intended it to be. Lol
