(This week I have mostly been watching “V for Vendetta.” Well, not mostly, but Tama and Giles are watching it while I write this, and from the sounds of it, I feel I need to devote some time to actually watching it again some time. After the movie finished, I then listened to a few Morbid Angel albums.)
Sup Internets, how’s things? I’m certainly feeling better; thank goodness for modern medicine. I guess antibiotics aren’t that modern, but at least more modern than leeches. I hate leeches; they stick in my teeth and leave stains in my socks.
Prerelease Weekend is this weekend… good times ahead! This time last year, I would have been scouring the rumor mills and forums to help me assemble a Prerelease Survival Guide, a column filled to the brim with spoilers, but as I try to avoid such things these days, I wouldn’t be much help in that department.
However, I’m not as good as I was six months ago at avoiding the spoilerness. The forum I post on quite… prolifically (cough seventeen thousand posts cough), usually has a spoiler discussion thread on the go, and I participated in it a little this time, I admit. I didn’t really absorb many of the cards, though; it was more for the trolling, which is something I do a great deal of over there anyway.
One thing I did notice was talk of some additional “purple reprint” cards or something. The general idea seems to be that they are reprinting old cards with old borders and putting one of them in each pack, or something. Nobody seems to know if they are going to be Standard legal, or at least that’s the last thing I read; somebody might know by now, I dunno.
Disclaimeror:
(I spell badly on purpose sometimes, because I can’t write actual humor. I assume it’s something like the written version of prop-comedy)
Yes, I have in the past hanged out with such people as who are responsible for the design of Magic the Gatherining
(Great people, good times. Hope to hang out with them again, and not just for the fun drafts)
But I swear to you right now that they are very will-behaved, and do not and have not told me squat about this set.
(They did says things like “What? Who the hell let this go to print like this?? Oh, I did? My bad” … but no spoilers were leaked.)
Do not think that anything I say here is actually a thinly veiled lead; it is half-baked, baseless, second-hand speculation at best
Speaking of second-hand information, Tama and Giles are now discussing “Snakes on a Plane.” As neither of them have seen it and are going on second-hand information in regards to the quality of said movie (I have seen it), I am having a great deal of trouble convincing them that it’s actually just a sh** movie.
“Nah, it’s meant to be a sh** movie.”
“No, it’s really just a sh** movie.”
“It’s a parody of a parody man, it’s apparently that bad it’s really funny.”
“No, it’s not that bad, it really is just a sh** movie.”
“But I’ve heard that it’s funny.”
“No, it’s not trying to be funny, and it’s not trying to be sh**. It’s not funny, it’s just a sh** movie.”
Anyway, what has that got to do with Magic Online? The rumors, not Snakes on a Plane, other than the fact that a bunch of people call the Simic Snake Aggro deck “Snakes on a Plane”, which is a truly terrible idea in itself, unless you want the deck to actually just be a sh** deck. Well, it’s rumored that some of these reprints will be very, very high value Magic Online Extended cards. You know, the ones that are just too plain expensive for anyone short of the Sultan of Brunei. Something like Call of the Herd, Shadowmage Infiltrator, and possibly even cards like Pernicious Deed and Vindicate. Sounds fanciful, I know, but I guess we’ll find out for sure soon enough.
While this may have no impact on Standard whatsoever, or I guess it might if they’re Standard legal, it’s already having an impact on the Magic Online Secondary market. Regardless of how true it may be or not, some of these cards are now plummeting in value. I don’t usually pay much attention to those slices of Extended decadence, but I have heard whisper of Vindicate dropping from around 60 tickets to a mere 45. Considering how high these cards have been sailing on the message boards, they could be in for quite the crash.
For some time, people have been clamoring for Wizards of the Coast to “fix” the fact that there is a huge financial barrier blocking many people from competing competitively in the Magic Online Extended format… could this be the answer they have been looking for? On the other hand, the Ferrett once (quite some time ago I think) wrote about what would happen if Wizards of the Coast reprinted the Power Nine cards, and what would have to happen before they would finally consider doing just that. I think his reasoning was that it would be a last ditch effort to generate revenue if Magic happened to be showing signs of weakness… if it appeared that Magic was actually for once, actually dying.
(Every year, man… every year somebody boldly stands up and proclaims the last rites for Magic, and every year it gets stronger and stronger. It gets a lol out of me, that’s for sure.)
Now obviously these cards are only the “Power” cards of Magic Online, and don’t hold nearly the same value as their Real Life counterparts. But it could be that these are being offered up as a peace offering to help sooth the wounds left on some of the more casual gamers over at the mtgnews.com rumor mill after their guiding force Rancored_Elf was thrown under the Wizards legal spotlight. I’m sure they would like to believe that, but I’m also certain that’s just late night conspiracy theory shenanigans and nothing more.
Enough blister-banter; it’s probably not good to expose yourself to too much of that I suspect. Let’s push on with the Magic Online Standard Top 8 replay recap.
13 (12) Solar Flare (Blue/Black/White Control)
9 (10) Counterbalance Control (Blue/Black/White Control, sometimes without the Black apparently)
8 (8) Satanic Sligh (Rakdos Burn)
8 (1) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
7 (6) Sea Stompy (Green/Red/Blue Aggro Control)
4 (3) Azorius Enduring Ideal Control
4 (2) Selesnya Aggro Control (Green/White Aggro Control)
3 (4) Hand in Hand (Black/White Aggro Control)
3 (3) Magnivore (Blue/Red Land Destruction Control)
3 (2) Gruul Beats (Green/Red Aggro)
3 (1) Ghost Dad (Black/White Tallowisp Aggro)
3 (0) Hierarch Aggro Control (Green/Black/White Aggro Control with Loxodon Hierarch)
2 (5) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
2 (4) Simic Snake Aggro Control (Green/Blue)
2 (2) White/Red/Black Aggro Control (Pallys, Bobs and Rakdos Guildmage)
2 (1) Simic Erayo Ninja (The mBracht special)
2 (0) Unknown (Biggest-oots being one of them, for shame!)
1 (2) Green/Black/Red Aggro Control (Golgari/Rakdos/Gruul Aggro Control)
1 (1) Golgari Aggro Control
1 (1) Heartbeat (Heartbeat of Spring/Early Harvest Combo)
1 (1) Four Color Control (Green/White/Black/Blue Control)
1 (0) Rakdos Aggro Control (Black/Red Snow-based Aggro Control)
1 (0) Mono Red Aggro (What, that name doesn’t tell you enough?)
1 (0) Orzhov Proclamation of Rebirth Combo Control (With Kami of False Hope and Martyr of Sands)
1 (0) AzoriusTron (Blue/White UrzaTron)
1 (0) Blue/Black/White Transmute Control (Silver Bullet styles)
0 (4) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro)
0 (1) Zoo (Green/White/Red Aggro)
0 (1) Blue/Red/White Control (Including Giant Solifuge, but they don’t count as Green)
0 (1) Izzet Ninja Aggro (Red/Blue Ninja Aggro, it shows up now and again)
0 (1) Azorius Aggro (White Weenie with more than just a splash of Blue)
0 (1) Ghost Husk (Orzhov Aggro with Nantuko Husk and Promise of Bunrei)
0 (1) Blue Snow Control (Also with Ironfoot and Sheets)
One replay was so fantastic I just have to retell it for you. topdeck_cn was playing the Satanic Sligh deck verses Simic Ninja. At the end of his opponent’s third turn, he Chars to the face dropping to 18. He untaps and plays a Dark Confidant off a Sulfurous Springs, going to 17. The Confidant is Remanded, so topdeck_cn plays a Blood Crypt untapped and replays the Confidant, now on 15 life. On his fifth turn, topdeck_cn reveals a Hit/Run with his Dark Confidant.
The Dark Confidant then asks “what’s the converted mana cost on that card, pal… you’re losing some life.” The answer is both three and five, because that’s what happens when the game looks for an answer on a split card, it gets both. topdeck_cn then loses eight life, dropping to seven… and during his next upkeep, he proceeds to reveal another Hit/Run, which promptly drops him to negative one. Great username for such a replay, terrific use of irony. I give it an eight out of ten!
Right, continuing on… we now have the prices, as usual. This whole “purple reprint” thing has got me wishing I had kept a better eye on those Money Extended cards, but they tended to be so far out of most people’s reach that I feel I would have been alienating many of you guys. At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself for now.
The numbers shown, for instance, as 2-4, are the price people are buying the card for, followed by the price people are selling the card for. The prices shown in parenthesis – like this (2-4) – are the prices from last week. If a card and its prices have been bolded, it’s because there has been a change in price from the week before to help you differentiate those cards from the others that are a little more… static in their movements. Card prices are in Tickets, because that’s what most people buy and sell with on Magic Online. Also note that prices can fluctuate based on the time of day as well, depending on just how many people are online selling at the time. Due to my uniquely antipodean location down here in the Pacific, and my tendency to hold down a regular nine-to-five job, the prices below end up being more of a general indication of what’s going on than an exact science.
Pithing Needle 14-16 (14-16)
Umezawa’s Jitte 6-8 (7-8)
Cranial Extraction 3-4 (3-5)
Dark Confidant 4-5 (3-5)
Meloku the Clouded Mirror 3-4 (3-5)
Keiga, the Tide Star 3-4 (3-4)
Simic Sky Swallower 3-5 (3-5)
Voidslime 3-4 (3-4)
Giant Solifuge 3-4 (3-4)
Loxodon Hierarch 3-4 (3-4)
Burning-Tree Shaman 2-3 (1-3)
Ghost Council of Orzhova 1-3 (1-3)
I’m removing Simic Sky Swallower and Voidslime from the list after this week. People aren’t really using them much any more, and they seem to be slowly and slightly on the decline.
Ohran Viper 8-9 (7-9)
Birds of Paradise 4-5 (4-6)
Demonfire 4-5 (4-5)
Wildfire 2-4 (3-4)
Magnivore 2-4 (3-4)
Wrath of God 10-12 (10-12)
Paladin En-Vec 5-7 (6-7)
Adarkar Valkyrie 2-4 (2-4)
Yosei, the Morning Star 2-4 (3-4)
Scrying Sheets 7-8 (7-8)
Breeding Pool 13-15 (14-15)
Hallowed Fountain 10-12 (10-12)
Blood Crypt 8-10 (8-9)
Godless Shrine 7-9 (7-9)
Shivan Reef 7-8 (7-9)
Steam Vents 7-8 (7-9)
Stomping Ground 7-8 (7-8)
Yavimaya Coast 6-7 (6-8)
Watery Grave 5-6 (5-7)
Caves of Koilos 5-6 (5-6)
Temple Garden 5-6 (5-6)
Overgrown Tomb 5-6 (5-6)
Sacred Foundry 5-6 (5-6)
Karplusan Forest 3-5 (4-5)
Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] 3-5 (4-5)
Underground River 3-5 (3-5)
Adarkar Wastes 3-5 (3-5)
Llanowar Wastes 3-5 (3-5)
Sulfurous Springs 3-5 (3-4)
Brushland 3-4 (3-4)
So there you have it! More nonsense from me, and even a little about Magic Online. Actually, quite a lot about Magic Online if those purple reprints turn out to be real… that could be something huge on the horizon… oh God, it’s coming straight for us! Run, run while you still can! No, don’t worry about your lunch, just go before it… oh my God, we’re too late!
(waits…)
(yus, free lunch)
{e}