[Legacy] Blue Red deck with mostly Mirage cards

I was able to ultimate Ral Zarek with an earlier version of this deck, but didn't have any card draw to benefit from three extra turns! Now I do.

[Legacy] White Black deck with mostly Mirage cards

This deck is somewhat weak, but the point is for me to experience as many of these cards as possible. Here is the first iteration.

Here is a game.

 

I took out the Armageddons and added Murder and planeswalkers.

Here is a game.

Some Commons from Mirage

Here is a selection from two packs I just opened.

Uncommons and Rares from Mirage

These are from two packs I just opened.

The New Standard

The big news today from Wizards is the change of the rotation cycle to eliminate the core set after M16 and to have two sets per block. Here is how it will play out until the second quarter of calendar year (CY) 2017.

I will miss the core set, but if all those cool reprints come out in what we now call expansions, that will work. The change will take a while to play out, and the first Standard without a core set will take place fourth quarter of calendar year 2016. M16 will be in Standard as long as M15. With this change EVERY set will be in Standard for 5 quarters, and that means that there should not be too much of a change for rotations.

Here are my questions:

1. What effect will this change have on the prices of the tournament staples if every set stays in Standard for 6 quarters instead of 8 quarters for the first set (e.g. Blood), and for 5 quarters instead of 7 quarters for the second set (e.g. Sweat)? Will players be willing to pay $10 for a card to play it for a little over a year, and then watch it go down to $1? Maybe this change will lower the bar for what a tournament staple will cost, but this is wishful thinking. This change will most likely make Standard more expensive to play, but probably not by a lot lot.

2. Standard will change more because instead of decks adapting to a new set during most rotations, the format will have to adapt to one or two sets leaving the format as the new set enters it. This is a big deal. It is heaven to people who thrive on the variability of and newness of limited, and it is also heaven to casual deck builders like yours truly. Will this faster cycle encourage Wizards to reprint more Modern/Legacy/Vintage staples in Standard? I don't have a prediction, just a wish that Liliana of the Veil and Griselbrand get a Standard reprint.

3. Tournament-level play will likely be more expensive and budget players may be less likely to attempt near-competitive builds. The question here is if this money churn will cause more budget players to drop out of Standard or to play it less. My prediction is that this change will not affect budget players too much.

There is no question, I think, that this change will make Standard more fun for deck building, and that is what I enjoy most. I am therefore happy about this change.

There is always the concern of a bubble, and Magic has been on the rise in popularity during the brief period (two years going on three) that I have been playing it. I don't see a bubble, and if the new rotation scheme creates too many Jace, the Mind Sculptors, we may see a bubble. Let's hope not!

[Standard] Blue Artifacts Post-rotation Prep

This deck only has cards from the four non-rotating sets (THS+M15). It is a permanent loser, of course, because even in "Just for fun" people play their 77 planeswalkers tournament deck, or they play with all of the current sets in Standard (I do that, too, of course!).

Here is an awesome combo: a 5/5 flyer by turn 2.

Here are some board states.

Here is one of those 77 planeswalker tournament decks. I was able to place one of the Vraskas in the graveyard, but there were a few dozen more in that deck (just kidding, I am sure there were only four).

Why the fetchlands can not be reprinted in a Standard set

This is baseless speculation, but hear me out:

1. If, for example, the Khans of Tarkir (KTK) block contained the fetchlands, those packs would sell out really quickly, and casual players would have to be in a scramble with the type of players who swallowed up every Modern Masters pack. Paying a premium for Standard packs sucks for new and casual players. I know I will very likely sit out or play very little of whatever block gets the fetchlands if it is a Standard block. I am basing this opinion on how I reacted to all that money grubbing that went on when Modern Masters was issued on paper. I did not buy a single lonely card of that set on paper, and concentrated solely on the digital version. I am sure to do the same if KTK or a future block contains the fetchlands.

2. Just as it happened with RTR, the rest of the block, if it contains fetchlands, might as well be composed of blank cards. The packs will sell all the same. I consider the RTR block to be of relatively low quality when compared to ISD (the previous block) and Theros (the subsequent block). In ISD-RTR Standard I found myself playing mostly with ISD cards, and now in RTR-THS Standard I find myself playing mostly with THS cards.

Where to reprint them then, as they HAVE to be reprinted as soon as possible? In a supplementary product that can be hoarded, such as a Modern Masters 2, a paper/digital Legacy Masters-assuming that set can be defined with the 'no reprint' constraint for some of the Legacy staples, or a product similar to Conspiracy. My best guess is for the latter given how successful Conspiracy was as a paper product, and as a companion to Vintage Masters.  Actually, it makes sense for Wizards to rinse and repeat by issuing a Legacy Masters with all the staples in digital format (example, City of Traitors), and add to it a Conspiracy-like product that can be used to print the fetchlands on paper as well.

September 6, 2014 update: and I was wrong.