Magic: The Gathering

[zoobernut]

How many people that are allowed to participate is up to the tournament organizer. Draft is set to exactly 8 people per pod and if there are more people they will form more pods. Sealed I haven't seen any limit set. Regular sealed is 6 packs not 5. Also you are only building a 40 card deck so out of 6 packs you have more than enough cards to build a decent deck. Usually tournament organizers provide land for you at least my game store does. With regards to sleeves my comic shop requires sleeves for sealed events so you must bring your own sleeves to put your deck in after you are done building.

I think sealed is easier for a new player because you have more time to look at your cards and evaluate their strength in a sealed environment.

[Anakron]

Thanks for the response. I often see a x-y-z in terms of match results, and it seems to only appear as the 2nd best prize. At first I assumed it was a draw, but then I don't see why you can't be 1-1-1 or 0-2-1 here.

Prizes:
3-0: 5 Packs
2-0-1: 4 Packs <<<< this
2-1: 3 Packs
1-2: 1 Pack

Also, matches are best-of-three, and that's pretty universal, right?

[zoobernut]

Yeah usually for an 8 person pod in draft you would do 3 rounds of best 2 out of 3 games.

[Tomiko]

So, who thinks that Modern will be announced as an official format next month when Innistrad comes out? I'm thinking September, or December will be the announcement. On a related note, does anyone have any Sacred Foundry or Arid Mesa for trade/sale?

Modern was already announced as an official format. It might just be for MtGO for now, but likely will be official for paper as well.

would walmart/target etc have it? i know they have some stuff

Only dedicated card stores will have the From the Vault sets and allocation will be limited for each store.

[Linsivi]

PRICE SPIKE
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...y/feature/155a

The Constructed-format portion of Pro Tour Philadelphia, previously scheduled to be Extended, has been changed to Modern. The new format will be used for ten rounds of Swiss play and the Top 8.

The Modern format consists of all Magic sets printed since the introduction of the modern card frame, starting with Eighth Edition. This includes Eighth Edition, Ninth Edition, Tenth Edition, Magic 2010, Magic 2011, Magic 2012, the Coldsnap expansion set, and the following blocks: Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Time Spiral, Lorwyn, Shadowmoor, Shards of Alara, Zendikar, and Scars of Mirrodin.

Twenty-one cards are included on the banned list for Modern:

Ancestral Vision
Ancient Den
Bitterblossom
Chrome Mox
Dark Depths
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Great Furnace
Hypergenesis
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Seat of the Synod
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of the Meek
Tree of Tales
Umezawa's Jitte
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Vault of Whispers
For a full explanation of the format, the Pro Tour format change, and the Banned List, please read Tom LaPille's Latest Developments column.

Pro Tour Philadelphia will be held September 2-4, 2011 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The Standard-format Last-Chance Qualifier will be held Thursday, September 1 on site, with registration opening at 1 p.m.

So mad I didn't Q for this shit -_- Then again they banned the entire set of top tier decks...

Decks that got the axe:
Faeries
Hypergenesis
Valakut
Stoneforge CawBlade
Affinity
Dredge
Thopter/Depths
CounterTop
Blue decks (JTMS) [jk]
Combo Elves

Decks that seem viable at first glance:
12 Post
Zoo
Merfolk
Cedric Phillips Special
Swans
Jund
Some sort of Lark deck since Fae is banned
RDW
Dragonstorm
Mythic
Twin
Pickles
Martyr
Hive Mind

[Nama]

oh shit it just got real son. Surprised to see valakut in banned list.

[Linsivi]

Gifts Ungiven is not banned, at least blue mages get a little bit of fun...

[Diamicles]

PRICE SPIKE
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...y/feature/155a




So mad I didn't Q for this shit -_- Then again they banned the entire set of top tier decks...

Decks that got the axe:
Faeries
Hypergenesis
Valakut
Stoneforge CawBlade
Affinity
Dredge
Thopter/Depths
CounterTop
Blue decks (JTMS) [jk]
Combo Elves

Decks that seem viable at first glance:
12 Post
Zoo
Merfolk
Cedric Phillips Special
Swans
Jund
Some sort of Lark deck since Fae is banned
RDW
Dragonstorm
Mythic
Twin
Pickles
Martyr
Hive Mind

I wouldn't say ALL of those decks got the axe - Faeries will still be good and blue decks don't need Jace to be effective.

Also, I'd probably say that UB Teachings will be very strong in Modern to add to your list.

I will say that I'm glad I decided to build RDW, looks like it will be really strong, at least tier 1.5 at the start of the format.

[Olo401]

Oh fuck me.. a new tournament format where I'm missing all the cards between Fifth Dawn and Alara Reborn.

[Linsivi]

I wouldn't say ALL of those decks got the axe - Faeries will still be good and blue decks don't need Jace to be effective.

Also, I'd probably say that UB Teachings will be very strong in Modern to add to your list.

I will say that I'm glad I decided to build RDW, looks like it will be really strong, at least tier 1.5 at the start of the format.

Faeries is awful without bitterblossum, jace, or stoneforge. Maybe next level blue will be playable again, but the closest thing to it will be U/x control with spellstutter and vendillion clique. Teachings might also, I'm excited for this PT coming up.

[Diamicles]

Faeries is awful without bitterblossum, jace, or stoneforge. Maybe next level blue will be playable again, but the closest thing to it will be U/x control with spellstutter and vendillion clique. Teachings might also, I'm excited for this PT coming up.

um fae was really good before 2 of those 3 cards were even released (since basically the entire deck was from Lorwyn block), so I'm not sure what you're talking about. it will need a different tool to slow down aggro decks early game, and there are still many different tools for fighting aggro now.

if anything, the bannings list makes people think just a little harder when building decks, which is fantastic for someone like me to typically brews my own stuff then looks online for ideas that I might have missed initial consideration.

[Olo401]

The first comprehensive look at the story & world behind Innistrad is up: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin.../daily/stf/157

Just from reading the storylines I am seriously looking forward to this set, probably more than any set in a long time.

[miokomioko]

I like the style guide a lot so far, even though it feels very... colonial/industrial-revolution/Fable-III/etc. which is a style that I'm not usually into. It just has way more personality than Mirrodin or the too-much-variety of Alara.

I foresee dapper lycanthropes and I don't mind.

[Nama]

Innistrad spoilers from PAX theres gonna be more through out the night. Enemy color dual lands, tons of vampires and 2 new mechanics "Morbid" when a creature dies this turn do X and "Transform" when a condition is reached (varies per card) it changes. Also a new card subtype Curse.

Spoiler: show

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg734/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg640/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg620/sca...=640&ysize=640
http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg739/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg644/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg736/sca...=640&ysize=640
http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg610/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg806/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg806/sca...=640&ysize=640
http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg806/sca...=640&ysize=640http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg737/sca...=640&ysize=640

[Cantih]

Oh god, Diregraf Ghoul.


EDIT: There's a few more spoilers on Salvation.
From a top-down viewpoint, I LIKE those pieces of equipment.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Jesus christ some of those cards...wow

[Cantih]

HOLY FUCK THE NEW MECHANIC.

This is going to be tedious as fuck to manage with sleeveless decks. Thank god I switched to Online.

Also, Fight, lol


I like how Werewolves will mess with judo decks.


All the transform cards
http://media.wizards.com/images/magi...c1x3ges_en.jpg
Explains the 5 loyalty ability planeswalker. Two unique on each side, with the 5th being the transformer on both sides.

[miokomioko]

I'm confused. What are double-faced cards? >_>

[Nama]

Any card that "transforms" ie human into werewolf etc. Each card has two sides they are printed back to back so theres no back Magic the Gathering deckmaster. Card comes into play on its day side. When a certain condition is met the card can transform and is flipped over to the "night" side. Night side has no mana cost and the only way to reach them is to play the card with dayside face up then transform to it no matter how a card comes into play it always enters on its day side. As for where it gets really confusing, If you play unsleeved you can use a checklist card from a pack and mark which card it will take place of and use that for your hand/library then when it enters play you switch it for the real double sided card. This switch is automatic and doesn't trigger any abilities or affects the game in anyway. Additionally clone effects targeting a transformer card will be a copy of the current face up side they will gain the text to transform but since they lack the other side of the card they are not allowed to transform. Also when drafting your kinda boned you can hide it as best you can when going through the pack but if anyone sees the back its fair game. Also you will be allowed to use a basic land as your first card in the draft and place your drafted cards under it to hide transformers but thats mostly for higher level tournaments where they enforce the rule that drafted cards have to remain in the order drafted.

[miokomioko]

Why... didn't they just stick to the Kamigawa-style card flipping mechanic? Just to make cloning not work as well?