TheJuiceLoosener
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There has to be a counter-balance to the relentlessness of Hasbro giving every card 7 tits and 3 dicks and making staples extinct. Unsummon, but w scry 1. Smelt, but alternatively, +2/+2. Naturalize, but it exiles and there's an optional kicker. The game is ever more explicitly just a method of parting you from your money.
Don't be a Waylon. Creating brackets based on total deck market price is the path forward. Pauper misses because there are lots of $5 commons that are very powerful, while there are also piles of 25-cent rares that you can't touch. Instead, make it a challenge. How good a deck can you make for $8? For $10? Play against other similarly priced decks and find out!
Running a playset of Swords weighs out at $12 and will bump you into a higher bracket, to play against other players who are making similar investments and deck-building decisions. But maybe you'd be fine using Ousts, for a total of 80 cents, saving >$10 in deck value and putting you into a lower bracket to compete with less expensive decks. Or maybe 2 of each, to shave $5 off your deck value.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
bobbo007
Someone didn't do well at FNM
andmysoundslaiddownbytheUnderGround
Arms race
gman003
This is why I play Cube. All the fun of draft without shelling out cash every time, and I'm the one setting the balance and power level.
Arcygenical
Yep. Entry should be based on the value of the decks and the hygiene of the players.
StarSumiaki
I just started playing Magic so I know fuck all but this just sounds like a bad idea. Should be a system for ranking cards and strats. 1/2
StarSumiaki
It doesn't need to be a precise system, just fine enough grain to get a decent trichotomy between casual, experienced, and hyper-competitive
UghItsThatGuy
Imagine having to compete at the top tier because you're running 39 damaged current commons and one original Black Lotus
TheJuiceLoosener
Yes, for the purpose of the deck value, assume near mint & cheapest available printing
autocorrectfailures
Warhammer has the same problem. Shelling out $ for newest stuff yields better results etc
JackalopeElope
No, this is fine!
Hexrowe
Honestly, for me a lot of the fun of it went out when we stopped using ante cards. Yes, I'm that many years old.
GrepenJapon
Balancing a pay to win structure game seems counter intuitive
TheMightyMoto
That's silly cause there are some seriously cheap op decks. I once bought a 30 dollar deck and cleaned house at a Friday night standard.
namelessone
Play Netrunner. Even when FFG had it, it was a lot more financially gentle, and now it's run by a non-profit that allows proxies all the way into the world championship, release their sets as free PDFs and have done a great job at keeping the game alive. The community is growing and it's more active than ever. When a new set comes out you can just get all of the cards, there's no gambling, secondary market, absurd prices and heaps of useless cards.
MarkSoupial
I always just printed my own "proxies" until I started using OCTGN
dogfromthehills
I'd say the problem here is the cards have no innate value unto themselves. The "dollar value" is determined by a volatile secondary market
thelonepunman
I really can’t believe people are still playing this game. I played in middle school & I just turned 40. It was fun, though
PTMdragon
better idea: allow full proxy decks and fuck WotC all the way to hell.
ispendtomuchtimehere
I would love to find proxy decks to play the old school game I played 30+ years ago but I do not know how to find them..I'd buy 20 decks
PTMdragon
you just print them out and put them in sleeves
MattScifiBandit
The secondary market is not Hasbro's fault.
Clockworkdancerobot
Though I will say I recall they do try to curtail it at tournaments saying only the current editions are legal to use.
MattScifiBandit
Standard rotations are so people have to buy more booster packs. They absolutely try to milk the primary market. But they ignore resale 100%
Clockworkdancerobot
Or maybe establish a points ceiling system that puts higher value cards as having more points than common cards.
TheJuiceLoosener
If we called the points "dollars", the system would already exist.
MattScifiBandit
It exists! Its called Canadian Highlander. https://www.canadianhighlander.ca/points-list/
Clockworkdancerobot
Sounds good eh?
eppykaze
A $2 deck can completely own a $200 deck. It all comes down to the deals and player experience levels.
TheJuiceLoosener
There are people who lived after falling out of a 5th story window. Still doesn't make me wanna try it.
MisterRichard
An empty fart of a statement. OP is talking about tournaments, where that level of skill disparity is weeded early.
eppykaze
I've seen it play out at tournaments.
MisterRichard
After round 2? How often, bud? There a lot of little Davids running up the tournament charts? No.
eppykaze
Often enough
MisterRichard
Cool story, bro. The average modern deck costs about $1000, but sure, I'm sure every tournament not tracked just has rafts of that.
clay12340
Seems like those brackets would constantly shift. Value is based on demand. As the meta $10 deck gets popular it’ll become a $20 deck etc.
TheJuiceLoosener
True. And that's ok. You can either sub out cards or accept being placed into a different bracket.
clay12340
IMO the only fun Magic the Gathering formats are sealed and draft. I play them on occasion and just give the cards to whoever looks youngest
clay12340
The collecting aspect just gets so toxic for me that I don’t take cards home anymore.
dunkum09
I think casual play with friends can also be fun, but it depends heavily on how seriously your friends take it.
clay12340
It never worked well with my friends. Usually it was a problem of some people not buying recent cards and/or vastly different spending.
clay12340
It is still fun of course, but every time we tried it we ended up just agreeing a different game would be more fun.
TheJuiceLoosener
Controlling for price will help balance groups w different budgets. I've got 20 decks under $10. They're fun.
dunkum09
the real issue is the singles market. if all your friends are getting their cards in packs or trades then probability helps keep things fair
J3lek
Maybe not dollar value, but give cards a rating based on rarity/ability/combo potential at time of release. Something for comparison
TheJuiceLoosener
Why not dollar value? Why invent a totally novel & arbitrary points / power system, that no one will agree on or salute?
TheJuiceLoosener
And that will only incidentally combat the problem, which is pay to win? Negate the issue directly by using total deck $.
J3lek
But how do you prove the total cost value? Keep a receipt for every card you buy? Assign a point value to each card with a "$" in front?
TheJuiceLoosener
Market price isn't that difficult to establish from a decklist. So long as it's a shared source, it's a mutual obstacle.
J3lek
Arbitrarily fluctuating average prices is no basis for a system of government.
TheJuiceLoosener
No one is trying to force you to sell your deck for the price cited. It's about sorting decks by $ to combat pay-to-win.
TheJuiceLoosener
The online marketplace is all of the things it needs to be here (shared, robust, stable, easily referenced, etc.)