Coldsnap

[Raging Turtle]

Well I certainly didn't see this coming.  Ought to make all you 'omg magic was so much better BEFORE' people happy though 

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/291

9th, Ravnica, Mirage (online), Guildpact, whatever the last Ravnica set is, and Coldnsap.  That's a lot of expansions in a one year timeframe.  Good or bad for the game, I'm not sure.

Off to go look through the Ice Age cards in MTGO, get a feel for it...

[Margalis]

Personally I don't like it. I wasn't playing Magic during that period so it has no nostalgia value or curiosity factor. Just randomly throwing another set into the standard environment seems very odd to me, but I don't play standard so it doesn't effect me. I do feel bad for the people that do though, sets come out pretty quickly already.

[Jain Zar]

Doesn't seem to be too bad of an idea.  A mostly ready to go set that just needs a little tweaking.  Its nearly free money for WOTC, and they know it.

[Johny Cee]

Personally I don't like it. I wasn't playing Magic during that period so it has no nostalgia value or curiosity factor. Just randomly throwing another set into the standard environment seems very odd to me, but I don't play standard so it doesn't effect me. I do feel bad for the people that do though, sets come out pretty quickly already.

I think, overall, another set may have a beneficial effect on Constructed.  An increased pool of good cards (chase rares and uncommons in the new set) should be enough fuel to power more than the past couple years one or two dominant decks.

The money question isn't really too bad.  Preorder a box of boosters,  that gives you most commons and uncommons at a reasonable price,  then do some trading with colors you don't normally play.  It should only hit the folks that run around with a play set of every card, who'll definitely feel the squeeze.

The tough thing with CCGs is the overall industry.  You never know when the next huge fad will come sweeping through.  When I started playing again during Onslaught block,  Magic was the number 4 or 5 game.  Pokemon and Yugiho (however you spell it) were both the hot sellers,  and I think one or two of the Superhero CCGs. 

Now, Pokemon is as good as dead.  Yugiho on the decline,  except with the young kids.  Magic is the only CCG that has really shown any staying power,  even if it occassionally goes a bit stagnant.

[Fabricated]

I would still play magic if there were people around to play with. The online version never really drew me since I couldn't transfer my 4 boxes of real cards to the game so I could build a deck and play without having to shell out for individual cards and boosters.

Well, that, and I started collecting at a shitty time (Fallen Empires). I have some good cards from Revised and a good range of stuff from like 3rd edition/Ice Age all the way up to the end of the Urza block, but most of this new shit is pretty overpowered. I played against some guys I worked with a little while back, and after seeing Affinity decks I figured WotC finally lost all sense of balance and decided not to buy any more cards.

[Johny Cee]

I would still play magic if there were people around to play with. The online version never really drew me since I couldn't transfer my 4 boxes of real cards to the game so I could build a deck and play without having to shell out for individual cards and boosters.

Well, that, and I started collecting at a shitty time (Fallen Empires). I have some good cards from Revised and a good range of stuff from like 3rd edition/Ice Age all the way up to the end of the Urza block, but most of this new shit is pretty overpowered. I played against some guys I worked with a little while back, and after seeing Affinity decks I figured WotC finally lost all sense of balance and decided not to buy any more cards.

Affinity was bad.  Wizards finally broke it's back by banning the artifact lands and ravager,  as well as disciple.

Mirrodin was a suck fest, mostly.

The environment is pretty good in standard constructed now.  Alot of decks running around that do alright,  and a real "rock, paper, scissors" thing going down.  Kami Block and Ravinica are meshing well.

Been playing around with a couple constructed decks and no one deck is dominant.  White weenie splasing red might have a slight edge but there are good aggro, control, and combo decks out there.

The Revised era cards are generally more powerful than anything you see today.  And no where nearly as broken as the Urza set or Necroptence was.  That being said.... 

Fallen Empires was shit in cardboard form.  There's 3 decent cards from it, and the rest was garbage.

[schild]

The 2nd Mirage block set should be out June-ish of next year if they keep in line with schedules as well (for online only obviously). Also, before 2007 the first part of Snap/Crackle/Pop comes out.

[Fabricated]

Fallen Empires was shit in cardboard form.  There's 3 decent cards from it, and the rest was garbage.

Wait, I think I can remember at least two of them.

Hand of Justice, and Rainbow Vale. I can't remember the third decent card from the set.

[Johny Cee]

Fallen Empires was shit in cardboard form.  There's 3 decent cards from it, and the rest was garbage.

Wait, I think I can remember at least two of them.

Hand of Justice, and Rainbow Vale. I can't remember the third decent card from the set.

Nope.

Hymn to Tourach (BB, target player discards two cards at random), the greatest discard spell ever.
Order of Leitbur (WW; 2/1, Protection Black; pay W, gains first strike; pay WW, gains +1/0)
Order of the Ebon Hand (the black version of the above)

Hand of Justice wasn't bad, in that period, because it was White targeted removal.

[Fabricated]

Fallen Empires was shit in cardboard form.  There's 3 decent cards from it, and the rest was garbage.

Wait, I think I can remember at least two of them.

Hand of Justice, and Rainbow Vale. I can't remember the third decent card from the set.

Nope.

Hymn to Tourach (BB, target player discards two cards at random), the greatest discard spell ever.
Order of Leitbur (WW; 2/1, Protection Black; pay W, gains first strike; pay WW, gains +1/0)
Order of the Ebon Hand (the black version of the above)

Hand of Justice wasn't bad, in that period, because it was White targeted removal.

Damn, I can't believe I forgot the Hymn. My friends hated that card almost as much as they hated the bolt.

Speaking of the bolt, it needs reprinted, badly.

[Margalis]

Wasn't Maze of Ith also from Fallen Empires? (OR was that The Dark, I forget)

Anyway yeah Fallen Empires was also. Too bad because the Dark before it was pretty cool.

[schild]

Maze of Ith was The Dark.

Fallen Empires wasn't bad. Against itself, it was a fun, new (and balanced!) way to play Magic. Compared to everything else from that time period it was just wholly underpowered and didn't do much in the form of invention.

Mirrodin Block is the worst the magic world has ever seen.

[Strazos]

Kamigawa isn't far behind. I'll be very happy when it rotates out, and I don't even play constructed anymore.

[Johny Cee]

Kamigawa isn't far behind. I'll be very happy when it rotates out, and I don't even play constructed anymore.

Kami block is really coming into it's own now,  with Mirrodin rotated out.  It's not a bad little block.  Great synergy with Ravinica.  Nothing broken or metagame-warping.  Most Kami cards are coming up in price, as people find uses for them.

Mirrodin was such a piece of shit that it made both Onslaught and Kami blocks smell funny just due to general proximity.  I say that as someone who loved Onslaught and Odyssey blocks constructed.

Edit: 

Kami block is just.... sort of a vanilla block.  It's not fun to draft.  The block constructed was alright. 

There are tons of basic utility cards and support cards in Kami.  Lots of decent beaters.  Just nothing that grabs the imagination.

Ravinica has excitement in spades.

[Strazos]

I played in 1 or two Kami leagues, and quite simply didn't know what to do, because the cards were all over the place, and generally not great.

Granted, there Are some great cards in there, and some interesting mechanics. I just dislike the block as a whole.

Especially Jitte. Fuck You, Jitte. It's pretty bad that whenever you make a deck, you always have to plan for or against that one card. And it's almost game if someone can get it on the board and equipped. That is what annoys me.

[Margalis]

The thing I like about Rav is there are a lot of active abilities. In some games I played recently in the finals of a draft it went 3 games and each one was so busy. At one point I used my own Trophy Hunter to shoot down my BOP in the middle of combat so I could kill the guy blocking him, he used Gather Courage, I sacced my Hunter using Rotwurm, etc. The play is very busy. I also had a Shambling Shell I could have sacced to keep the Hunter alive, but I opted to let the shell do 3 damage then cast Keening Banshee to finish the blocker that had Gathered Courage.

My problem with Kami was that it was very passive. Bushido is a purely passive ability, as is soulshift. You can plan around them but once you start playing they are so straightforward. Most of the soulshift creatures were just boring vanilla creatures with soulshift attached.

I'm really liking Rav draft. I feel very confident when I draft a Selesnya or Golgari deck. My rating has gone from 1570 to 1650 so I must be doing something right. I think the main thing is that the play is more complex which makes me pay more attention and make fewer mistakes. I used to make at least a couple of bonehead plays a game.