Hi guys, I lurk on your board from time to time and thought I'd finally make an account. I play Classic on Magic Online and I'm trying to spread the word. I thought that maybe you guys don't know about it, or maybe have misconceptions about it. I'm a terrible salesperson, but I'm gonna try to pitch it. I don't know how much you guys know about mtgo, so sorry if you know some of the basics.
Classic is Magic Online's eternal format where nothing is banned. There's a 19-card restricted list. Right now the top decks are Workshop, Oath, Fish, and Dredge. Jacerator, Storm, Hermit Druid, Landstill, and Gush Bond also make appearances.
Magic Online still doesn't have all of the pre-Invasion cards. We are still missing Masques block and about 800 pre-Mirage and Portal cards. We have Misrha's Workshop, Tolarian Academy, Library of Alexandria (as a 4x), all the duals (still in print for the next 2 weeks), Time Vault, Mana Crypt, Imperial Seal, Bazaar of Baghdad, etc. At this point the only relevant cards we are missing from the early days are -- here it comes -- the Power 9.
Now, I asked about promoting Classic to you guys on Classic Quarter (our main website) and the response I got was "if it doesn't have Power 9, Vintage players aren't going to play." If that's the case, then that's that. But here's where I'm going to try to sell it. I want you to think of Classic not as the Vintage minor leagues, but as a different eternal format altogether. I'm sure many of you play Legacy and maybe are interested in Modern if that happens. Just as those are different eternal formats with different strategies and decks, so is Classic.
Classic has a restricted list, which mirrors that of Vintage except it is much smaller. We have 4x of Brainstorm, Burning Wish, Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, Library of Alexandria, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Memory Jar, Merchant Scroll, Mind's Desire, Mystical Tutor, Ponder, Regrowth, Windfall, and Yawgmoth's Bargain. We play turn 1 Oaths, we Tinker up robots, we Tezz up Time Vaults. Broken plays happen every turn - our Storm decks could take yours any day of the week.
There is so much room for innovation in Classic. Our scene is pretty small, maybe 50 regular players, and probably less than half of them innovate and create new decks. That's why people like me lurk on your boards sometimes - looking for new tech we can adapt to our metagame. There are tons of new decks to be created or improved upon. Even though we have 4 Brainstorms and Merchant Scrolls, nobody has figured out how to win with Gush Bond yet. Four Mind's Desires and nobody is playing them. People were trying out a Liliana's Caress deck with our four Memory Jars but couldn't make it work. We need more experienced eternal players online to up the level of play and push the meta forward.
We have an event every day. Here's when they are (times are Pacific): Sun 3:30pm, Mon 7:30pm, Tue 4:30am, Wed 3:30pm, Thu 7:30pm, Fri 4:30am, Sat 9:30am. These are 16 or more players, 4-round swiss events. For now it's a fixed schedule, but in the past it has rotated and we've had occasional Premier events. I'm sure the schedule and tournament structure will change in the future, but this is it for now.
Cards are super cheap online. Imperial Seal is $4. Bazaar is $8.50. Tabernacle is $3.75. The exceptions to this rule are Force of Will at $150 and Daze at $10. Force of Will is our current crisis, but Daze will come down when it's properly released whenever Masques block comes online.
Everyone seems to agree that Vintage will come online sooner or later. The current theory is that they are waiting to release version 4 of mtgo first. If you think you'd be interested in playing Vintage online someday, now is the time to buy in because the cards will shoot up when it does come online. When Legacy came online last year, all of the card prices went up so I'm sure it will happen with Vintage, too. Even if you don't think you are interested in Classic, just as a general tip, for the next two weeks they are having farewell events for Masters Edition 4. All of the pre-Mirage cards are going to be at rock bottom prices.
So Classic is super fun and we need more players! That's the basics of it. Here are some links:
Classic Quarter, home sweet home -
http://www.classicquarter.com Classic Quarter's tournament page with decklists -
http://www.classicquarter.com/tournaments/Yawgmoth's Soap Opera, weekly Classic podcast -
http://puremtgo.com/node/4200Penguin TV, deck tech and videos -
http://puremtgo.com/articles/penguin-tv-turbo-tezz
