Search options

Just checked. Yes.

Awesome, thanks!  Any chance I can cross-post this issue (https://deckbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31692)?  I've changed the deck a little since the post, but the problem persists.  There's something wrong with the way it's calculating Ave. CMC.

I've used Gatherer Extractor.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I was unaware that there were other formats being played with similar goals.  At the outset, it confirms my suspicion that there is some enduring interest among the players in trying to develop a format that seeks to equalize and/or moderate price and power.

So, on that point, 2DH I'm sure is an improvement over what EDH tends to become, but that's still basically capping deck value at $200.  That's not my idea of a casual or budget hobby.  Penny Dreadful sounds more like it, but is that played in paper or only on MTGO?  Note that both of these formats appear to judge card legality within the format based on the individual card's market price, which may force you to potentially radically reconstruct your deck in response to price fluctuations.  I can see your point on how that can be a very brittle standard.  I think that what I'm proposing addresses that brittleness by largely dispensing with that card legality model, in favor of something that's more akin to deck legality.  This means that, broadly, individual cards aren't going to flit in and out of format legality. This frees up your options quite a bit as the player/deck-builder; you can cut price from anywhere in your deck that you like in response to market fluctuations, so long as you make weight at the final weigh-in.  You make a very interesting point re the banning of overpowered cards in other formats depressing market price, making them prime targets for abusing a format like what I'm proposing. Channel comes to mind.  I think importing wholesale a banned/restricted list from the appropriate set-based format would be the easiest approach to interacting with that issue.  If cards slip through the cracks there, they could be specifically restricted in response to format-warping usage, the same way this process works in other formats.

Of course, switching from card pricing to deck pricing doesn't automatically solve the larger problem I think you're presenting, which is tracking and applying pricing in a format defined by checking variable metagame factors like price.  I think sourcing the prices is a fairly solvable problem.  I googled both 2DH & Penny Dreadful, and it appears that players of both formats have come up with their own ways to do/track it.  The first hurdle is having a digital decklist, which I understand some players may resist, but is ultimately a minor inconvenience.  Once established, a shared decklist format could cite a shared price guide.  The point being, it's less important which source we're citing than that we're all using the same one.

Your concern about a deck starting a tournament legal and becoming illegal midway can be addressed by fixing a cutoff time for pricing for a tournament.  Basically, if your deck makes weight at time T, based on prices checked at time S, your deck is tournament legal and the matter is behind us.  In my mind, the sideboard ought not count against the deck's value unless and until a card swap is made.  However, those sideboard card values could be noted so that players would be aware of and be required to maintain deck legality in swaps.  Not as easy as formats that don't involve such considerations, of course, but the idea is that it's all in service of a loftier purpose.

Your concern about the immutable reality (as players) of card scarcity and its impact on the game is basically true of any MtG format.  As I noted earlier, we are inherently subject to the design decisions of the game publishers.  This problem is not unique to the format I'm proposing, so perfection can't be the standard.  And actually, this reality is a big part of what's inspiring me to pursue this issue.  I perceive an abiding player interest (at least among some players) in trying to insulate the game from the metagame reality that money can buy victories, which isn't something I feel enhances the experience of playing the game.  The bottom line is that if it is the case that some players feel that this is a concern for them, and have made several efforts in a variety of venues to create formats to address this concern, and that this is another effort at such, is it an improvement over those existing efforts?  I think it may be, but I'm definitely interested in hearing if others agree.

Again, I really appreciate your feedback.  Thanks!

1)  60 cards and an opponent.
2)  Learning which cards are better is the experience of the game.  You can read up or you can play.  There are differences in rarity.  This comes in two ways.  In each set or printing, cards have a mark about half-way down the right-hand side of the card, under the art.  The color of this mark can be black (common), silver (uncommon), gold (rare), orange-red (mythic rare).  In addition, some cards get printed in more than one set, so this results in more of them available in the market.
3)  I store my cards in card boxes.  Personally, I put sleeves on my cards that are worth more than a buck, but you're free to do as you like.  For cards in a deck, sleeving is advisable for the entire deck.
4)  Depends on the format you're playing.  If you're playing "standard," that means only certain recent sets can be played.  Which sets those are changes over time, as new sets rotate in, older ones rotate out.  If you're playing in a legacy format, or kitchen-table style, you can play whatever you have.
5)  The top right shows the casting cost of the card.  This is the amount of in-game "mana" you have to tap into in order to cast the card from your hand.  Typically, the casting cost consists of two components, colored and uncolored mana.  So the number in the circle is the uncolored mana, more specifically, this means that the mana used to meet this casting cost can be any color.  Any symbols other than the number indicate the number of colored mana needed.  So, each symbol corresponds to a color (see your basic lands to determine what you can generate) and you'll need to generate one of the specified color for each symbol that's present.
6)  Different images on lands are there for atmospherics.  They do not impact the function of the cards.