Happy to be back in the thick of things after a little break.
1) Armor of Thorns
Based on the art it looks like it can indeed enchant a black human. Not to worry, any confusion is cleared up by this simple Oracle text. Some of the VMA cards (Animate Dead comes to mind too) should have just had full-art versions since there’s no way to figure it out if you don’t already know what they do. Maybe they could have printed the set in the Phyrexian language like that promo Elesh Norn.
2) People Claiming They’ll Sell Their Collection Now that MTGO Version 3 is Retired.
It’s funny to hear anyone say their MTGO v3 experience was so great they just can’t live without it. And before you take to Twitter to rant, I understand people are saying v4 is EVEN WORSE! Well, I’ve spent the last month or two on the v4 Beta, and there’s no way it’s so much worse than v3 that someone should sell their collection. I actually think it’s better. It’s not the program we all want or deserve, but I’m grading on the specific curve of “I played v3, should I sell my collection or spend a week learning v4?” I eventually learned how to trade and play Constructed.
Look at it this way: you’ll have to learn how to trade one way or the other so you can trade away your collection or so you can put your tail between your legs and limp back into the 8-4 queues.
If you’re streaming or you have a low-end computer, V4 might suck. Those kinds of complaints are valid. If you are worried you won’t be able to figure out how to find the Limited Queues chat window so you can tell people about your weekend plans, you’re probably overreacting.
3) HAVING SAID THAT….
All right, I got through my mostly positive v4 piece, now it’s time to knock Worth and his Magisters back down a few pegs.
a) That Time v4 Told Me I Owned an Extra Ancestral Recall
I decided to open up my collection (assume everything I say happens in v4, I haven’t used v3 in 3-4 months) to see how many of each dual land I owned from Vintage Masters. Well, the first thing I saw in the VMA set tab was that I owned 2 copies of Ancestral Recall. Well, I had just opened one in a sealed deck that day or the prior day, could I have forgotten about getting the 1st one? I’ve accidentally missed my first pick in at least 4 packs of draft, could one of those have been the best goof-grab ever? Well, I don’t remember having it in deckbuilding, so that’d be some mistake. Was it just “Bank error in your favor, collect one Ancestral Recall?” Finally, did I just do a whole draft or sealed while drunk and forget about what I opened?
Alas, it was just some kind of bug in v4 that displayed an incorrect number of Recalls. When I logged in the next day it was gone. The good Worth giveth, and the good Worth taketh away.
Aside: The best part of VMA for me is the fact that I’ve opened somewhere around 1/3 or 1/2 of the VMA packs Paul Rietzl has, but he owns only a Mox Emerald and a Timetwister, and I own a Mox Emerald, a Timetwister, and an Ancestral Recall. He has gotten REALLY unlucky to have only those 2 pieces of power, and I’ve gotten really lucky in that my 3 pieces have him strictly dominated. It’s fun to discuss what’s the best Vintage deck you can build with just an Emerald and a Twister and then ask Paul whether we should add Ancestral to the deck when he gets one.
b) That Time I Incinerated 10 Tickets because I didn’t Read the Fine Print
I’m very fond of the 16-player VMA Sealed Deck Swiss queues. They cost 45 tickets or 6 packs + 4 tickets to enter, and if you can 3-1 most of the time and 4-0 a decent amount, you get a good prize back to do it again. I’ve done maybe 10-15 of these. The other day I logged in at 6:30 p.m. and saw that at 7 p.m. a VMA Sealed Swiss Daily Event was going to fire. Awesome, I thought, I haven’t tried one of these. So I open up the event page and see there are two options to enter, tickets or packs. It’s 35 tickets vs. 6 packs and 2 tickets. I could have noticed something was off there, but I didn’t. I just joined up using packs like I always do for the Swiss Queues, and I went on to build my deck at 7pm.
At some point I opened up the prize structure info page and noticed the payouts were far worse than the Swiss queues. How could that be? It was only 2 tickets cheaper to enter this thing. Well, it turns out entering using packs is an expected value tragedy on par with giving away 6-10 tickets. I’ve never seen an event where the packs you use to enter aren’t “converted” to their retail value when you opt to enter using tickets instead. Well, now I have seen it. They got me. They got me good.
c) Those 100 Times a Triggered Ability Window has Covered up the Intended Target
Why is this triggered abilities window so big? Why is it bigger than the ability you have to click? Why does it always seem to pop up right over what I want to target? I swear, they’re going to make it smaller and then when I cast Flametongue Kavu the window is going to pop up exactly covering their Su-Chi.
I won’t sell my collection of real and phantom Ancestral Recalls because I have to drag this window a couple times a day, but I am quite sick of it.
4) The Border on Mana Confluence
In Pro Tour Journey into Nyx I played a bad deck with the cards Mana Confluence and Battlewise Hoplite in it.
There’s no way a land and a spell should have borders that look this similar. I like to know how many lands are in my opening hand without studying it like a doctor holding an X-Ray up to the light to provide a diagnosis.
5) Theros Block Duplicate Effects
No block needs the sorcery AND enchantment versions of “draw two cards” and “return multiple creatures from your graveyard to your hand” in it.
The cards don’t even interact with each other in a way that scales well. “Sweet, I have 10 Raise Deads in my deck!” How about coming up with some new effects when the new set needs activated ability one-shot enchantments. Is that too much to ask?
6) Fat Packs
Just because most people who buy these at their local Walmart are overweight does not make it okay to mock them with product names like this. Shameful.
7) New Unsportsmanlike Conduct – Major Rules
Toby Elliot outlines the changes in the second half of this blog post, which also links to the IPG containing the rule (4.2).
Here is the IPG text:
“Definition
A player takes action towards one or more individuals that could reasonably be expected to create a feeling of being harassed, threatened, bullied, or stalked. This may include insults based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. Threats of physical violence should be treated as Unsporting Conduct – Aggressive Behavior.
It is possible for an offender to commit this infraction without intending malice or harm to the subject of the harassment.
Examples
A. A player uses a racial slur against his opponent.
B. A player takes inappropriate photos of another player without express permission.
C. A player asks a spectator for a date, is denied, and continues to press the issue.
D. A player purposefully obstructs another player with the intent of inducing physical contact.
E. A spectator uses social media to bully another player.”
I was mostly on board until I reached that Example E. “A spectator uses social media to bully another player.”
I am troubled by the lack of a definition of “bully” here in addition to the process concerns around who is going to monitor and verify the social media activity.
Sample Tweet 1: “Just saw the worst game of sealed deck ever played at table 1.” (timestamped of course to follow round 3 of the PTQ).
Sample Tweet 2: “Just saw the worst game of sealed deck ever played, thanks @[player’s twitter handle] for that display.” (And corollary to tweet 2: does it matter if the person mentioned is a stranger or a close friend, and who is checking?)
Sample Tweet 3. “Cedric Phillips is a big dumb idiot.” (He’s a friend of mine, the Tweet is a joke/ribbing, but the person who took the Tweet to the head judge doesn’t know that, and Cedric isn’t around to verify). The gray area is actually too large to fully illustrate with examples, but you get the idea.
What Matt Sperling thinks is bullying is certainly different from what Toby Elliot thinks is bullying, which is in turn different from what Level 2 Judge Cletus von Highhorse thinks is bullying. An investigation and deliberation from the DCI would strain its credibility trying to enforce this rule (and has done so under prior rules to some extent, in my view). A judge applying the rule as the tournament is happening is left with a ton of discretion and not a ton of guidance.
What do you think of Magic Online Version 4, the new Unsporting Conduct – Major, and whether I should be banned for that Fat Packs joke? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@mtg_law_etc)








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