Great video! I am completely new to MTG. I totally missed it when I was younger and just recently started playing at 45 years old. Trying to not only learn the basics, but 20+ years of rules, strategy, lore, etc has been a daunting task to say the least. It's not an easy game for beginners. I picked up the Blessed vs. Cursed deck to teach my girlfriend and her son, hoping that they would enjoy it. To be honest, my girlfriend was a bit leery at first, thinking MTG was "for kids". She is a teacher and has confiscated Magic cards form her students in the past. So I had that stigma working against me. But the Duel Deck (especially this one) was a great ice breaker and we had a thoroughly enjoyable game where she was able to pick up some of the basic gameplay mechanics, without getting too confusing. Her son (15 years old) also had a lot of fun when we played.
+Joe S Yeah, mtg can be overwhelming for new players. Just two months ago my boyfriend and I just started learning the game and we found the best place to learn was at our local game store: The Next Level Games thenextlevelgames.crystalcommerce.com Many game store shop owners/workers are more than happy to teach new players the rules and strategies. You will even run into veteran players there that love the game so much that they can literally give you cards out of their own collection to help you get started. When two veteran players just started throwing cards at us I couldn't believe it! The people you meet at your local game store are usually always willing and ready to answer any question, play a match with you, and show you how to build your own deck.
+Salena Carrington Hey Salena. Yes I agree. I have since attended quite a few FNM events and met some very nice people. I just built my own Standard deck from scratch and I'm excited to test it out. I just wish I could convince my girlfriend to play with me more often. 😉
TheKillerManfred Haha, true. I did see an amazing Dismember alt orig01.deviantart.net/fb45/f/2011/227/8/b/dismembered_black_knight_by_blackwingstudio-d46py0r.jpg
+Yurikan It has problems. I think they SHOULD put good cards into product like this. Fluff just...well yeah. The problem is that you end up not being able to find the prepackaged product meant for newer players because older players want them. And not even to use! To take apart! One of the reasons these products end up being so bad is because Wizards is trying to be on the line without going over. Only for players to see they aren't anywhere NEAR the line. We all want Damnation to be reprinted. Make it in a supplementary product meant for reprints, or a non standard set. Not an introduction level product.
Gulyusml In the short term that's what would happen, but with time we'd see the situation eventually resolve like the commander deck with true name nemesis. It's just a matter of meeting demand, and WoTC selling a lot of product is a good thing.
Yurikan You're under the assumption Wizards thinks that way. Look at the fat pack fiasco - they don't seem to care at times about making enough of a print run to actually make money.
+Yurikan Of course they won't. They just want people to keep buying packs in the hopes they won't have to fork over $80 for a playset of one of their chosen chase cards.
frankly financial value shouldn't be as important as "are they fun to play" because I think that's the main selling point. Duel Decks with huge financial value get sucked up by second-hand sellers, leaving none for the casual magic user or duel deck collector to pick up. Also I'm happy that this set of decks is more balanced than the eldrazi duel decks. Man it sure is an Eldrazi world nowadays.
+THE BATLORD Amen to that. These products were meant to be played against each other, not just torn apart. As for the eldrazi duel decks...yeah, I'm not sure I've ever actually seen the Zendikar deck win. It completely lacks synergy.
To everyone saying this duel deck would have been marked up/hard to find for MSRP if Lili/Jace was in the deck, maybe we should not buy this from anyone marking up the product above MSRP and maybe wizards should print more of this duel deck to keep people from marking the product up. Very simple solution.
I love how he only refers to Geist getting minimal play in Modern when he gets a lot of play in Commander/EDH and Tiny Leaders. Plus, reprints of Liliana, Damnation and Jace. ARE YOU FUCKING HIGH?
+Tolarian Community College I feel like the biggest reason they don't agree is that you and your fan base are a smaller overall branch of the community in general. I personally think the more invested players should be considered first but...
+ModelOmega And after re-watching the video, I still don't understand why he needed to react... The Professor's review was fair and took every aspect of the product into account. A bit disappointed about Mark on this one... He just sounded butt-hurt... :$
+Billable He's being "attacked" because his recommendations are unreallistic, giving too many money cards to casual products like this, well, it already happened with jace vs vraska at its time, and now it's happening to zendikar vs eldrazi, people that don't want to play the decks, buy them to get the money cards and throw the rest in their bulk binders, that is not right, this product tries to teach new players how to play and it gives a taste of what is comming in the new set, not to be scrapped for value and leave the rest in the oblivion.
+will palach most all of the decks have been horribly one sided. Heroes versus monsters I'd venture to say was the most unfriendly "introduction" to new players. Of course they get scrapped for parts and it's hurting WOTC absolutely none to pick one of the thousands of cards that's being purposely or arbitrarily inflated and give that card to the masses.
I really appreciate that blurb at the end of most of the product review videos. I went to buy all the singles for a pauper deck for about $40 on TCG player, and realized my LGS had about $30 of the cards that I needed. I ended up buying the singles from my LGS, put the rest on wishlist, and then next week they had to remaining cards I needed. I got my cards, and the LGS got more business. (On topic of the duel deck though, I'm suuuper disappointed with the financial value, and I'd rather just play sealed with a friend than this.)
Played these decks today with my son. WotC did a great job balancing these decks and making them fun in general. I found the decks' synergys very intuitive and went back and read the deck description booklet after playing them and WotC described exactly the strategies I took with both decks. I'm in the "for fun" group here and this product was definitely worth getting for me personally.
Thank you for posting this video. I just built a B/W Angel-Vampire deck and was going to look into this to see if it was a good deal to pull some cards from for both that deck and others, but you answered all my questions in under 8 minutes. A+ ! Please keep posting videos! My boyfriend and I have only been playing MTG for about two months, but your channel has been the most helpful in getting started and leaning the "do's and don'ts". Thank you for everything!
+Luis Macias I'd much rather see Liliana printed in the next Modern Masters set, since it will have a higher print run, and would likely make more sense since she actually sees (saw) play in modern.
I just bought these yesterday and I have to say i've played and played against both and they are definitely fun to play against each other. Never buy dual decks unless you're going to play them against each other. I also have eldrazi Vs. Zendikar, and those are fun to play too but not as fun as Blessed Vs. Cursed. Another great vid Prof. :)
Wait, why are people arguing AGAINST getting good cards in sealed product? Strongly feel that Wizards had an ample opportunity to print a Quasi-Corrupted Elspeth and a Battered Ob Nixilis to follow on from the stories of Theros and Zendikar.
+Charlie Chitty Because this product is aimed at new players, not to get money cards. If any semi-good cards are added to this product is because wizards want the new players to feel they get something in return (in terms of money) after they past through the learning phase, and incite them to go to the LGS and trade the couple good cards that came in the product and start interacting with the mtg monetary system.
+will palach you are saying having a new player own cards that have value and are considered constructed playable will DISCOURAGE them from buying more cards? Are you sure you know how Magic works at all? People get a Nissa in a booster. Now they want three Nissas to finish their deck. They buy a box, then they buy a single or trade for it.
***** I'm saying that duel decks should have value cards, but not too valuable because new players don't know about what is valuable money wise and what is not, they just want to learn the game, then they see the prices and look for the value of their cards, if they find a couple of good priced cards that will encourage them to sell them and keep spending in the game. But if too many cards are valuable, since new players don't know but experienced players do, the duel decks will be bought not for it's play value but because of it's valuable cards, those will be taken, sold and the rest of the duel deck tossed into a binder to be ignored. Meanwhile, a new player went to target and didn't find the cool looking duel deck he wanted because some buyer/sellers bought all the decks to resell the good cards, making the game have less players.
I was also bummed to see this duel deck doesn't feature any walkers, as I was hoping to see something a little different. I didn't expect Liliana due to price being in the stratosphere (I expect a reprint for her in Eternal Masters or From the Vault), but Tamio vs Sorin would have been interesting.
Professor do you honestly think that this duel deck should contain liliana/jace/inquisition? These cards are like much much more powerful and more expensive than that shi**y cards duel deck usually contains.
+Kyrie Arroyo Why? The cards are only expensive because they're so hard to get. And why are they hard to get? Because they're expensive. This game shouldn't be pay to win. Wizards doesn't make money from the secondary market of eternal formats. Why not reprint those cards they don't suffer the loss. In fact they gain a profit. Wizards has nothing to gain from modern, vintage, and lagacy. Hell they barely care about standard. Right now they mostly care about draft. How do I know? Because if you open a booster if you get a single card that can be put in a constructed deck, then you've won the lottery. The idea of a bulk mythic is so stupid. That fact most cards printed at or below rare can never be used ever is stupid. Seriously this game only works because of the gameplay. The story writing is shit. You can't get immersed into the world, because we don't stay there long. They aren't any non planeswalker characters, only creatures on cardboard. Hell legendary doesn't even even mean legendary. It means" one off appearance in the terrible story". And wizards just because you think the average blue player is a misunderstood know-it-all doesn't justify jace.
+Kyrie Arroyo you have to remember wizards does not care about the price of cards they care if the product sells, thats how they make the money not through tcgplayer lol
+Kyrie Arroyo you have to remember wizards does not care about the price of cards they care if the product sells, thats how they make the money not through tcgplayer lol
So weird, I only just read that this Duel Deck was out and was wondering if a video had been done yet. Looked on here 30 minute ago and nothing, loaded up youtube and there this is. Sheesh. Good stuff.
Hey Professor I just wanted to stop and say thanks for making these videos I just can't wait to see what your videos are about ;) you always put a smile on my face.
Professor you are by far the person with the most refreshing views about card prices and availability I have heard online, I totally agree that the financial barrier of entry is incredibly high for constructed and the inherent standard rotation is a major deterrant for people like me that are returning to the game to play even a semi competitive deck. I am not a pro player hopeful but I enjoy having a fair chance in every game but 300 dls for a standard deck is a bit to much, specialy in my country where we are experiencing record devaluation of our currency vs the dollar. I agree with you that while these duel decks are a lot of casual fun for new players (Im thinking about buying one to teach my sister how to play) they are missed oportunities to get reprints on relevant cards. Im also really mad at the elimination of event decks, some of them where excellent points of entry into competitive standard. I want to thank you profesor for this amazing channel which I really enjoy and also you guesting on other channels podcasts, I like listening to them while Im working in my projects at my engineering faculty. Un gran saludo desde Celaya Gto en Mexico profesor y muchas gracias por su canal. P.S. If you could send a saludo to all your fans in mexico in your next Q and A that would be awesome.
Thank you for addressing the non-financial value of this product separate from the financial side. While fun is subjective, balance, feel, skill level, and other contributing factors for a fun experience is quantifiable.
I've bought this duel deck and played them both What I particularly like about these two decks is that it teaches new players examples of an early game deck and a late game deck(aggressive vs control) . if you live through the onslaught of zombies you get angels that fly in for the kill, if you don't then you get steam rolled by zombies it may not be of value now but I really enjoyed playing them
I look forward to getting this Duel Deck, as I do most of the time. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get the usual planeswalker decks that throw back to the previous block but I guess they couldn't justify a Sarkhan vs _ duel deck or Narset vs _....
Professor I love you to death but your expectations of this product are far to high. Duel Decks will always be a "fun" product. Wizards will never put chase cards like you mentioned in these but once every few years. We're lucky we got Remand but only because it was on theme.
Two notes here, professor. On the day this was fully spoiled, Gravecrawler was a $5-8 rare that many people wanted for casual and fringe modern, but didn't want to pay for. That price reflects its tanking value, not its true value. Very cool reprint. Second, you mention that this is one of the most flavorful, balanced duel decks and then suggest a bunch of cards that would have warped that and made it impossible for regular players (read : non-spikes) to get.
+EVeljko There is a good channel done by Willing Done, as well as Team Covenant and Metropole Grid who gives their impressions of new Data Packs, but largely I find there are more good Netrunner Podcasts and only a few interesting UA-cam Channels.
Running a UB Commander with Grimgrin, Corpse Born as my commander. I bought the duel deck to maybe improve it. I understand that it is a long shot, but I can almost insta-win with 4 cards out. A sac outlet, Rooftop Storm, Diregraf Caption, and Gravecrawler. I'm open to suggestions though.
As much as I agree that there are better options to choose from for foil mythics to feature, I feel like changing Geist to Jace, like you had suggested, would kind of lose the theme of "Blessed". Although he remains in colour, it almost discourages the white colour share. On top of this, Jace couldn't really be considered "Blessed" in the sense implied with the name, unless you consider it in the context of being blessed with his powers. Just my opinion.
+Waddle Doo 2 You I own 8 duel decks at the moment. This one is unbalanced, cursed deck wins about 25% of the time, and extremely depends on luck. The blessed one is a stable deck which doesn't bring you much surprises. The other very unbalanced one is Zendikar vs Eldrasi, where Eldrazi overwhelms and punishes.
+Nicholas de Paola Because Wizards gains nothing in having formats because extremely pricey to enter. They don't make money off older products anymore and all that money goes to the players. Reprinting cards that are bound to stay staples forever and reincrease after time has past is only beneficial for them as people will be more willing to but the product (look at Tarkir, it was a financial flop for the most part but I saw many people cracking boxes just to get fetchlands. Boxes which they would not had opened if they weren't in there.)
+Nicholas de Paola Well, it's not obvious so why don't you answer your own question for everyone? They're not worth any more or less, based on resale value, to wizards of the coast; they make nothing from people selling them to one another.
+Strato Incendus WotC has a fine line that they have to walk. Making consumers happy as well as the singles retailers. You should consider that shops lose money on reprints. FNM promos could be a good way to do it. Every few months release a staple card, and this way gives people a taste of whatever format they'd like to get into. Plus it would get more people to come to FNM. They have printed Path and Serum visions, but they are already kind of cheap.
Great video! Thanks a lot!! When you talked about zurgo and arcanis you mencioned that they never face in batlle because of the story line. Is there any place when i can read about the hole magic story line?? Thanks!! Regards
What kind of deck does Geist of Saint Traft go best in? It seems like its good against control when they have no bodies on the battlefield. Maybe the top end of an aggro deck?
you should have pointed out what has alt art, unless i missed anything there is only 2 pieces, momentary blink and dread return, while these are nice choices i dont like that they have recently started having less of these
I bought these decks and played them against each other quite a bit. Overall, I would say that the blessed deck is better than the cursed deck in a match up between the 2. This is mainly because of the strong flyers and life gain which the cursed deck just can't deal with
Great video professor. I think this is great, you summed it up perfectly, great for just casual play. For example, if you and your friends don't wants to build decks, attend FNM, (for some odd reason), you could just buy this and play. Also, could you possibly make new budget decks, seems like the old ones have skyrocketed in price.
+Isolanporzellator Wow, I really need to spellcheck my own comments. However, read, "grammarguide.copydesk.org/2014/08/07/each-has-its-place/". It actually states, that I'm right...
+The Raven You're right, I read the sentence as "Each deck has great synergy", so singular would be correct. However, since each is referring to a plural subject in the preceding sentence, have is the right choice. At 6:01, the correct construction is used (audio).
BFZ Fat Packs became a scarce commodity just because they had pretty lands in them. If Blessed vs. Cursed had Liliana of the Veil and nothing else of worth, that thing would literally sell out before it even got released. If it had Liliana AND Jace as you suggest (especially when you suggest putting Jace's flip side on the face of the box rather than the side he actually starts on), it would've sold out upon announcement. Magic players would actually develop TIME TRAVEL so they could travel into the past just to buy them up even MORE.
I bought these to play casually for fun with my siblings, so I feel that it was definitely worth it to purchase. I may get to negative comments towards this, but no amount of money should matter as long as you can afford it, especially if it is fun. What is better than bringing siblings closer with a good number of duels ?
I'm looking for cards for my Cube, and plenty of these cards look to be fun. Both foils, Diregraf Ghoul, Gravecrawler, Falkenrath Noble, Harvester of Souls, Appetite for Brains, Human Frailty, Tooth Collector, Compelling Deterrence, Champion of the Parish, Thraben Heretic, Elder Cathar, Captain of the Mists, Tandem Lookout, Slayer of the Wicked, Spectral Gateguards, Dearly Departed, Gather the Townsfolk, Increasing Devotion, Bonds of Faith, Sharpened Pitchfork, Butcher's Cleaver, Momentary Blink, Rebuke, Topplegeist and Eerie Interlude (yeah, it's a long list) are all cards that I'm excited to add to the Cube.
Hey. I just played mtg for the first time a couple days ago. I knocked it for years but i was surprised by how much fun i had in those few games even though i was only learning. I REALLY want to get into mtg but i have no idea where to start. My friend let me use his black deck that he said was his graveyard deck. It had mostly zombies and worked around the graveyard. I really liked it and i just wanted to know more about the color decks or if they even matter. What do each excel at and where do they lack in? I am a fresh faced beginner so if i offened anyone,my bad.
+lach10211 - Oh so Snapcaster Mage _isn't_ as Expensive as Serum Visions, Griselbrand, Inquisitin of Kozilek, Delver of Secrets and Damnation... Good to know. Here I thought he was more expensive as every single one of those, leaving Liliana as the _only_ card he mentioned to surpass his price. How wrong I was...
Thanks for this, I've been wanting to teach someone else to play and this sounds perfect. The I'll pull out miracles vr's elves and show how crazy the games can get.
Proffessor I don't believe that wizards would include jace and liliana into these decks (even though it would be AWESOME) and also if they were to do this would local game stores and card shops raise the price on these as they did with the BFZ fat packs? (I don't know if that's how that works though so...)
Prof: They will never include more than one mythic per Duel Deck, so asking for Liliana/Grislbrand/Entreat, especially if it isnt the focus foil card, is kinda pointless. However, I agree on Serum, Inquisition, and possibly thoughtseize.
Meaby they reprint Grove of the Burnwillows? It would help me to compleate my GR Tron. I started building it few months ago but recent spikes unabled my wallet to afford complechion and now I'm left deckless and crying.
I recently bought this deck and had a blast playing casually against my friend who is new to magic. The deck is fairly well balance, but I feel like tweaking the decks a little bit, for example putting in fetchlands and Battle for Zendikar battle lands. or maybe more such as tasigur, hangarback walker etc. however I'm afraid that I might cause the decks to become unbalanced.
they probably could have put 1 or 2 more semi-valuable cards in there but beyond that, the spike in value would make it damn near impossible to find for MSRP if you can find it at all. I do think the most important factor is playability/fun. it is just a duel deck after all.
+CanisCanemEdit No, you cannot mix both decks like in a clash pack. They have different sinergies so they dont play well together. A duel deck is made to be played against its other half without changing almost any card. Ihave this product and the decks are really fun to play one against eachother, but any improvements or changes in any of them could break the balance. Youre free to do the changes you want, but keep the list in order to rebuild the decks as they were at the beginning, you would like to do it if you change to many things and you dont have balanced matches anymore. I would recomend you this deck if you just want to play against your friends casualy. Is a really fun duel deck. About the clash pack, its a bit more oriented to play fnms of standard if you want. Anyway, I wouldnt buy the fate reforged clash pack, the Origins one looks quite better in my opinion
I thought I should mention liliana of the veil is a eternal card so they might be printing that in eternal masters (if they decide to reprint it) as well as griselbrand and other broken. as hell cards to go along with wasteland and force of will just saying
I am pretty sure that someone from WotC (I believe it was MaRo) said that they don't want the decks to be too valuable, since then the products would be taken off the shelves before newer players had a chance to buy them.
+Balrock So print more of them till the card drops to to the MSRP of the Duel Deck. That's when you know you have printed the right number of a too-expensive staple. NO CARD legal in Modern should be above $50.
it still baffles me that elite inquisitor was not in this duel deck but instead they put moorland inquisitor? Something just seems off on this deck it seems to be missing some really good cards, I mean it would not be unbalanced if they replaced Moorland Inquisitor with Elite Inquisitor. I thought this was going to be Innistrad's Greatest hits. He has Vigilance and First strike, and good prot. But some of the cards I felt it was just a mix and mash. So mush missed opportunity here. What do you think they should've added in?
I'm all for more reprints, but your suggestions were a little unrealistic, considering the prices most of these cards have already reached, unfortunately :( . If this had been a planeswalker duel deck, it would have been one referring to the block about to rotate out - so, following Jace vs. Vraska (RTR) and Elspeth vs. Kiora (Theros), it would have been two Khans-Block planeswalkers - one of them probably would have had to be Ugin. Planeswalker decks have never been used as "block preview decks" at the same time, so Liliana of the Veil wouldn't have fit here either :( .
id say wizards should have included 1 more mythic from the innistrad block in this duel deck. such as mikeaus(the human), and something else or more rares such as thalia and something else.
So maybe I've missed it...have you done a "is it worth it to buy a booster pack"? I play a commander league every week and that costs $2. to show more support for this local store I tend to pick up 1 pack every week bringing my fees to about $6. I know you run the "don't buy booster box, buy singles" philosophy, but how do you feel about individual packs?
At least they finally reprinted Geist, been meaning to get one for a while now for my commander deck but he's always been crazy expensive for how slightly-above-average he is.
personally I feel path, and damnation would have been perfect in these two decks, that said I'm happy to add another duel deck to my collection can't wait to mix these with some of the other ones in my collection! :D
This still worth it to buy, just for fun? I fell in love with Innistrad this past year, and if it feels like playing on the plane, I can think of worse things to have around. I've never purchased a duel deck, so I'm unsure if the appeal will grow stale after like a week or something.
I think duel decks should be "like this". I mean that the should have a lot of synergy and really fun, leaving the financial aspect out of the main priorities. With a duel deck, two friends can get a pretty decent deck for 10 dollars each, which compared to an intro pack... is quite good.
you know there's a lot of theory crafting to say that the eldrazi might end up on zendikar so the inquisition might not be as flavor breaking as one might assume.
The logistics of printing DFCs makes it nearly impossible to print Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound in a duel deck like this. Liliana would have been sweet though!
The biggest problem with reprinting cards like LotV is that stores would jack up the prices to insane levels, like they did with the Mindseize Commander deck, From the Vault: Angels, and even Khans of Tarkir booster packs (for the fetchlands.) To everyone reading this, I'm sure "My LGS(TM)" wouldn't do it, but just read all the horror stories on Reddit whenever a high-value card gets reprinted.
I mean, this is INNISTRAD you're talking about. One of the set with the best flavour in recent years, so yes. Blessed vs Cursed does have a very strong flavour and aesthetic feel to it.
I respect you a lot professor, but your suggestions for other reprints and cards they could ave added are a bit absurd. They would be worth hundreds of dollars in value for an average $25 dollar product. People would buy them out of Walmart/Target/etc quicker than you can say "Jace" and LGSes would have to raise their prices so average casual players would not be able to play with the product at all.
+Emrakul, The Aeons Bored This is true but I fear it would still raise the price quite a bit and decrease availability. But I guess it wouldn't be as bad as I initially imagined
+SharpCookies What is absurd is that those cards got to those price points in the first place, and were repeatedly ignored by WotC in supplemental products they would have easily worked in as the price continued to increase. This is a problem of WotC's making and secondary market price should not be an excuse not to print cards. Otherwise, everything expensive might as well be placed on the Reserve List.
Great video! I am completely new to MTG. I totally missed it when I was younger and just recently started playing at 45 years old. Trying to not only learn the basics, but 20+ years of rules, strategy, lore, etc has been a daunting task to say the least. It's not an easy game for beginners. I picked up the Blessed vs. Cursed deck to teach my girlfriend and her son, hoping that they would enjoy it. To be honest, my girlfriend was a bit leery at first, thinking MTG was "for kids". She is a teacher and has confiscated Magic cards form her students in the past. So I had that stigma working against me. But the Duel Deck (especially this one) was a great ice breaker and we had a thoroughly enjoyable game where she was able to pick up some of the basic gameplay mechanics, without getting too confusing. Her son (15 years old) also had a lot of fun when we played.
+Joe S Yeah, mtg can be overwhelming for new players. Just two months ago my boyfriend and I just started learning the game and we found the best place to learn was at our local game store: The Next Level Games thenextlevelgames.crystalcommerce.com
Many game store shop owners/workers are more than happy to teach new players the rules and strategies. You will even run into veteran players there that love the game so much that they can literally give you cards out of their own collection to help you get started. When two veteran players just started throwing cards at us I couldn't believe it! The people you meet at your local game store are usually always willing and ready to answer any question, play a match with you, and show you how to build your own deck.
+Salena Carrington Hey Salena. Yes I agree. I have since attended quite a few FNM events and met some very nice people. I just built my own Standard deck from scratch and I'm excited to test it out. I just wish I could convince my girlfriend to play with me more often. 😉
Greetings, can you tell me are you still playing this duel deck and was it good and fun to play?
Nobody expects the spanish inquisition.
+Niko Harju I really hope there's an alt-art card of a Spanish Inquisition of Kozilek with "Spanish Inquisition" as the title.
TheKillerManfred Haha, true. I did see an amazing Dismember alt orig01.deviantart.net/fb45/f/2011/227/8/b/dismembered_black_knight_by_blackwingstudio-d46py0r.jpg
Niko Harju Come on, yer pansy!
I feel like I found nirvana. Someone else who believes they should reprint a good set of planeswalkers and put generally good cards in duel decks.
+Yurikan It is apparently a very controversial concept!
+Yurikan
It has problems. I think they SHOULD put good cards into product like this. Fluff just...well yeah.
The problem is that you end up not being able to find the prepackaged product meant for newer players because older players want them. And not even to use! To take apart! One of the reasons these products end up being so bad is because Wizards is trying to be on the line without going over. Only for players to see they aren't anywhere NEAR the line.
We all want Damnation to be reprinted. Make it in a supplementary product meant for reprints, or a non standard set. Not an introduction level product.
Gulyusml In the short term that's what would happen, but with time we'd see the situation eventually resolve like the commander deck with true name nemesis. It's just a matter of meeting demand, and WoTC selling a lot of product is a good thing.
Yurikan You're under the assumption Wizards thinks that way. Look at the fat pack fiasco - they don't seem to care at times about making enough of a print run to actually make money.
+Yurikan Of course they won't. They just want people to keep buying packs in the hopes they won't have to fork over $80 for a playset of one of their chosen chase cards.
frankly financial value shouldn't be as important as "are they fun to play" because I think that's the main selling point. Duel Decks with huge financial value get sucked up by second-hand sellers, leaving none for the casual magic user or duel deck collector to pick up.
Also I'm happy that this set of decks is more balanced than the eldrazi duel decks. Man it sure is an Eldrazi world nowadays.
+THE BATLORD Amen to that. These products were meant to be played against each other, not just torn apart.
As for the eldrazi duel decks...yeah, I'm not sure I've ever actually seen the Zendikar deck win. It completely lacks synergy.
To everyone saying this duel deck would have been marked up/hard to find for MSRP if Lili/Jace was in the deck, maybe we should not buy this from anyone marking up the product above MSRP and maybe wizards should print more of this duel deck to keep people from marking the product up. Very simple solution.
These have large print runs anyway.
Emrakul, The Aeons Bored well still up them anyway to discourage markups.
I love how he only refers to Geist getting minimal play in Modern when he gets a lot of play in Commander/EDH and Tiny Leaders. Plus, reprints of Liliana, Damnation and Jace. ARE YOU FUCKING HIGH?
The professor is trying to imagine a world where wizards isnt intentionally releasing shitty products.
Tiny Leaders isn't very popular do to the 1v1 nature of it.
Still though, the fact that he doesn't mention them is a bit confusing.
+GhostOfVegeta because those formats don't drive the price up enough on their own? Regardless it is still only one card.
+GhostOfVegeta Lets not even pretend that Tiny Leaders is a financially relevant format anymore.
When is Wizards gonna contact you as an adviser to build their Duel Decks professor?
+nyarlotep Probably never. I don't think they agree with my criticisms.
+Tolarian Community College I feel like the biggest reason they don't agree is that you and your fan base are a smaller overall branch of the community in general. I personally think the more invested players should be considered first but...
+Tolarian Community College Considering Mark's reply, I don't think they agree at all.
+ModelOmega
And after re-watching the video, I still don't understand why he needed to react...
The Professor's review was fair and took every aspect of the product into account.
A bit disappointed about Mark on this one... He just sounded butt-hurt... :$
+arenkai What did Mark say?
Professor I don't know why you're being attacked here; I understood you're point. Keep doing what you do best.
+Billable He's being "attacked" because his recommendations are unreallistic, giving too many money cards to casual products like this, well, it already happened with jace vs vraska at its time, and now it's happening to zendikar vs eldrazi, people that don't want to play the decks, buy them to get the money cards and throw the rest in their bulk binders, that is not right, this product tries to teach new players how to play and it gives a taste of what is comming in the new set, not to be scrapped for value and leave the rest in the oblivion.
+will palach most all of the decks have been horribly one sided. Heroes versus monsters I'd venture to say was the most unfriendly "introduction" to new players. Of course they get scrapped for parts and it's hurting WOTC absolutely none to pick one of the thousands of cards that's being purposely or arbitrarily inflated and give that card to the masses.
I really appreciate that blurb at the end of most of the product review videos. I went to buy all the singles for a pauper deck for about $40 on TCG player, and realized my LGS had about $30 of the cards that I needed. I ended up buying the singles from my LGS, put the rest on wishlist, and then next week they had to remaining cards I needed. I got my cards, and the LGS got more business.
(On topic of the duel deck though, I'm suuuper disappointed with the financial value, and I'd rather just play sealed with a friend than this.)
Played these decks today with my son. WotC did a great job balancing these decks and making them fun in general. I found the decks' synergys very intuitive and went back and read the deck description booklet after playing them and WotC described exactly the strategies I took with both decks. I'm in the "for fun" group here and this product was definitely worth getting for me personally.
Thank you for posting this video. I just built a B/W Angel-Vampire deck and was going to look into this to see if it was a good deal to pull some cards from for both that deck and others, but you answered all my questions in under 8 minutes. A+ ! Please keep posting videos! My boyfriend and I have only been playing MTG for about two months, but your channel has been the most helpful in getting started and leaning the "do's and don'ts". Thank you for everything!
Lili and Jace as the promos? You're looking at $200ish just on the covers.
+OceanTidal92 Yah, a great way to make sure nobody would be able to find these for retail.
liliana cost this much just because they didn't reprint her before and waited too long . that would have been a good duel deck .
+OceanTidal92 shhh but we have to save those reprints for eternal masters.
+fazzitron No, they'd reprint the heck out of these and they wouldn't be $200 for long.
+Luis Macias I'd much rather see Liliana printed in the next Modern Masters set, since it will have a higher print run, and would likely make more sense since she actually sees (saw) play in modern.
I just bought these yesterday and I have to say i've played and played against both and they are definitely fun to play against each other. Never buy dual decks unless you're going to play them against each other. I also have eldrazi Vs. Zendikar, and those are fun to play too but not as fun as Blessed Vs. Cursed. Another great vid Prof. :)
Perfect analysis, professor!!! I hope WOC watches this video and learns something for future duel decks.
jesus christ. The amount of info and thought he packs into these videos is freaking amazing.
+spiritconsumer Thanks! :)
+Tolarian Community College no sir, thank you for a great channel!
Doing a great job of reviewing what it isn't and not what it is, professor.
Wait, why are people arguing AGAINST getting good cards in sealed product?
Strongly feel that Wizards had an ample opportunity to print a Quasi-Corrupted Elspeth and a Battered Ob Nixilis to follow on from the stories of Theros and Zendikar.
+Charlie Chitty People are idiots.
+Charlie Chitty Because this product is aimed at new players, not to get money cards. If any semi-good cards are added to this product is because wizards want the new players to feel they get something in return (in terms of money) after they past through the learning phase, and incite them to go to the LGS and trade the couple good cards that came in the product and start interacting with the mtg monetary system.
+will palach you are saying having a new player own cards that have value and are considered constructed playable will DISCOURAGE them from buying more cards? Are you sure you know how Magic works at all? People get a Nissa in a booster. Now they want three Nissas to finish their deck. They buy a box, then they buy a single or trade for it.
***** I'm saying that duel decks should have value cards, but not too valuable because new players don't know about what is valuable money wise and what is not, they just want to learn the game, then they see the prices and look for the value of their cards, if they find a couple of good priced cards that will encourage them to sell them and keep spending in the game.
But if too many cards are valuable, since new players don't know but experienced players do, the duel decks will be bought not for it's play value but because of it's valuable cards, those will be taken, sold and the rest of the duel deck tossed into a binder to be ignored. Meanwhile, a new player went to target and didn't find the cool looking duel deck he wanted because some buyer/sellers bought all the decks to resell the good cards, making the game have less players.
I was also bummed to see this duel deck doesn't feature any walkers, as I was hoping to see something a little different. I didn't expect Liliana due to price being in the stratosphere (I expect a reprint for her in Eternal Masters or From the Vault), but Tamio vs Sorin would have been interesting.
Professor do you honestly think that this duel deck should contain liliana/jace/inquisition? These cards are like much much more powerful and more expensive than that shi**y cards duel deck usually contains.
+Jan Novák I'm usually of the opinion that we should strive for products to be less shitty.
+Tolarian Community College While i agree that products should be less shitty, putting $200+ in value into the duel decks to MSPR at $20 is insane.
+Kyrie Arroyo Why? The cards are only expensive because they're so hard to get. And why are they hard to get? Because they're expensive. This game shouldn't be pay to win. Wizards doesn't make money from the secondary market of eternal formats. Why not reprint those cards they don't suffer the loss. In fact they gain a profit. Wizards has nothing to gain from modern, vintage, and lagacy. Hell they barely care about standard. Right now they mostly care about draft. How do I know? Because if you open a booster if you get a single card that can be put in a constructed deck, then you've won the lottery. The idea of a bulk mythic is so stupid. That fact most cards printed at or below rare can never be used ever is stupid. Seriously this game only works because of the gameplay. The story writing is shit. You can't get immersed into the world, because we don't stay there long. They aren't any non planeswalker characters, only creatures on cardboard. Hell legendary doesn't even even mean legendary. It means" one off appearance in the terrible story". And wizards just because you think the average blue player is a misunderstood know-it-all doesn't justify jace.
+Kyrie Arroyo you have to remember wizards does not care about the price of cards they care if the product sells, thats how they make the money not through tcgplayer lol
+Kyrie Arroyo you have to remember wizards does not care about the price of cards they care if the product sells, thats how they make the money not through tcgplayer lol
So weird, I only just read that this Duel Deck was out and was wondering if a video had been done yet. Looked on here 30 minute ago and nothing, loaded up youtube and there this is. Sheesh.
Good stuff.
Do you have a video where you show your personal collection? I'd love to see what you have stored away in binders and boxes
Hey Professor I just wanted to stop and say thanks for making these videos I just can't wait to see what your videos are about ;) you always put a smile on my face.
Professor you are by far the person with the most refreshing views about card prices and availability I have heard online, I totally agree that the financial barrier of entry is incredibly high for constructed and the inherent standard rotation is a major deterrant for people like me that are returning to the game to play even a semi competitive deck. I am not a pro player hopeful but I enjoy having a fair chance in every game but 300 dls for a standard deck is a bit to much, specialy in my country where we are experiencing record devaluation of our currency vs the dollar. I agree with you that while these duel decks are a lot of casual fun for new players (Im thinking about buying one to teach my sister how to play) they are missed oportunities to get reprints on relevant cards. Im also really mad at the elimination of event decks, some of them where excellent points of entry into competitive standard.
I want to thank you profesor for this amazing channel which I really enjoy and also you guesting on other channels podcasts, I like listening to them while Im working in my projects at my engineering faculty. Un gran saludo desde Celaya Gto en Mexico profesor y muchas gracias por su canal.
P.S. If you could send a saludo to all your fans in mexico in your next Q and A that would be awesome.
liliana vs jace..yeah that's happening. Toss in a playset of snapcasters too while you 're at it! Lol!
get a playset of liliana of jace for $80. which is less than 1 liliana
+Xandalf The Great and jace
Thank you for addressing the non-financial value of this product separate from the financial side. While fun is subjective, balance, feel, skill level, and other contributing factors for a fun experience is quantifiable.
Well that Gravecrawler statement certainly didn't age well.
I've bought this duel deck and played them both
What I particularly like about these two decks is that it teaches new players examples of an early game deck and a late game deck(aggressive vs control) .
if you live through the onslaught of zombies you get angels that fly in for the kill, if you don't then you get steam rolled by zombies
it may not be of value now but I really enjoyed playing them
I look forward to getting this Duel Deck, as I do most of the time. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get the usual planeswalker decks that throw back to the previous block but I guess they couldn't justify a Sarkhan vs _ duel deck or Narset vs _....
WOO! Love the crickets joke. Keep it up Prof!
Professor I love you to death but your expectations of this product are far to high. Duel Decks will always be a "fun" product. Wizards will never put chase cards like you mentioned in these but once every few years. We're lucky we got Remand but only because it was on theme.
thank you porf. I love duel deck! and I always watch this kind of videos to make sure it is worth it!
have a nice day.
Two notes here, professor. On the day this was fully spoiled, Gravecrawler was a $5-8 rare that many people wanted for casual and fringe modern, but didn't want to pay for. That price reflects its tanking value, not its true value. Very cool reprint.
Second, you mention that this is one of the most flavorful, balanced duel decks and then suggest a bunch of cards that would have warped that and made it impossible for regular players (read : non-spikes) to get.
Even if i won't buy these products. I like watching the opening.
+JoshS you like this violent brutality? disgusting man.
+Flugmorph what do you mean
Kozilek
how he opens the box lol
+Flugmorph oh I thought you were one of those holy guys saying mtg is demonic...
Kozilek
lolno. i love me some satanic shit. how he rips open that package still makes me die inside lol.
Wasn't gravecrawler almost 10 dollars before it announced in this duel deck?
Hey, sorry for the stupid question, but i gotta ask: is there a channel similar to this, but for netrunner?
+EVeljko Not that I know of, but I am learning NetRunner and so you might see a few videos on it from me in the future.
+Tolarian Community College Nice. Thank you. Looking forward to those
+Tolarian Community College thats great i just wish more people in my area played
+EVeljko PeachHack is one
+EVeljko There is a good channel done by Willing Done, as well as Team Covenant and Metropole Grid who gives their impressions of new Data Packs, but largely I find there are more good Netrunner Podcasts and only a few interesting UA-cam Channels.
Running a UB Commander with Grimgrin, Corpse Born as my commander. I bought the duel deck to maybe improve it. I understand that it is a long shot, but I can almost insta-win with 4 cards out. A sac outlet, Rooftop Storm, Diregraf Caption, and Gravecrawler. I'm open to suggestions though.
As much as I agree that there are better options to choose from for foil mythics to feature, I feel like changing Geist to Jace, like you had suggested, would kind of lose the theme of "Blessed". Although he remains in colour, it almost discourages the white colour share. On top of this, Jace couldn't really be considered "Blessed" in the sense implied with the name, unless you consider it in the context of being blessed with his powers. Just my opinion.
Thoughts on new pack smell?
is this good for a beginner couple?
+Waddle Doo 2 You I would say so, yes.
+Waddle Doo 2 You - Yup, dual decks are a good way to start. As long as the decks fair well against eachother.
+ModernMinded *fare :)
SerLaama tru
+Waddle Doo 2 You I own 8 duel decks at the moment. This one is unbalanced, cursed deck wins about 25% of the time, and extremely depends on luck. The blessed one is a stable deck which doesn't bring you much surprises. The other very unbalanced one is Zendikar vs Eldrasi, where Eldrazi overwhelms and punishes.
Love the part about inquisition of kozilek, looking back at a time before eldrich moon
"why don't they reprint $200 worth of cross format staples in a $25 casual product"
+Nicholas de Paola Because Wizards gains nothing in having formats because extremely pricey to enter. They don't make money off older products anymore and all that money goes to the players. Reprinting cards that are bound to stay staples forever and reincrease after time has past is only beneficial for them as people will be more willing to but the product (look at Tarkir, it was a financial flop for the most part but I saw many people cracking boxes just to get fetchlands. Boxes which they would not had opened if they weren't in there.)
+Nicholas de Paola Well, it's not obvious so why don't you answer your own question for everyone? They're not worth any more or less, based on resale value, to wizards of the coast; they make nothing from people selling them to one another.
+Shion Kreth But Star City Games aka "Magic Wall Street" makes money from selling singles. THOSE are the guys Wizards are really catering to. ;)
+Strato Incendus WotC has a fine line that they have to walk. Making consumers happy as well as the singles retailers. You should consider that shops lose money on reprints.
FNM promos could be a good way to do it. Every few months release a staple card, and this way gives people a taste of whatever format they'd like to get into. Plus it would get more people to come to FNM.
They have printed Path and Serum visions, but they are already kind of cheap.
A couple months ago I won an FNM promo Orator of Ojutai. Seriously, Orator of Ojutai. Come on Wizards.
Would this be a good set to buy for someone looking to fill out a zombie themed collection/deck?
Great video! Thanks a lot!! When you talked about zurgo and arcanis you mencioned that they never face in batlle because of the story line. Is there any place when i can read about the hole magic story line?? Thanks!! Regards
What kind of deck does Geist of Saint Traft go best in? It seems like its good against control when they have no bodies on the battlefield. Maybe the top end of an aggro deck?
Proffessor, will you ever make another pauper video in the future? I'm making a deck library with pauper decks
you should have pointed out what has alt art, unless i missed anything there is only 2 pieces, momentary blink and dread return, while these are nice choices i dont like that they have recently started having less of these
I bought these decks and played them against each other quite a bit. Overall, I would say that the blessed deck is better than the cursed deck in a match up between the 2. This is mainly because of the strong flyers and life gain which the cursed deck just can't deal with
Great video professor. I think this is great, you summed it up perfectly, great for just casual play. For example, if you and your friends don't wants to build decks, attend FNM, (for some odd reason), you could just buy this and play. Also, could you possibly make new budget decks, seems like the old ones have skyrocketed in price.
awesome video Prof, as always !
Will you do some more Commander deck builds ? Wil there ever be a "Dies to Removal" n7 ? Those were great podcasts !
+scrimeboy Dies to removal was discontinued because the professor and wedge live in different time zones and co-ordinating is very difficult.
Great video, I was on the fence about buying this but now i don't think i will because of the lack of value. Thanks.
Professer! Grammer mistake at 6:21! Each HAS? I think it should say "each have"....
+The Raven "Each" as in "Each one" is singular, thus "has" is correct. Also: *Professor. *Grammar.
+Isolanporzellator Wow, I really need to spellcheck my own comments.
However, read, "grammarguide.copydesk.org/2014/08/07/each-has-its-place/". It actually states, that I'm right...
+The Raven You're right, I read the sentence as "Each deck has great synergy", so singular would be correct. However, since each is referring to a plural subject in the preceding sentence, have is the right choice. At 6:01, the correct construction is used (audio).
BFZ Fat Packs became a scarce commodity just because they had pretty lands in them. If Blessed vs. Cursed had Liliana of the Veil and nothing else of worth, that thing would literally sell out before it even got released. If it had Liliana AND Jace as you suggest (especially when you suggest putting Jace's flip side on the face of the box rather than the side he actually starts on), it would've sold out upon announcement. Magic players would actually develop TIME TRAVEL so they could travel into the past just to buy them up even MORE.
I bought these to play casually for fun with my siblings, so I feel that it was definitely worth it to purchase. I may get to negative comments towards this, but no amount of money should matter as long as you can afford it, especially if it is fun. What is better than bringing siblings closer with a good number of duels ?
I'm looking for cards for my Cube, and plenty of these cards look to be fun. Both foils, Diregraf Ghoul, Gravecrawler, Falkenrath Noble, Harvester of Souls, Appetite for Brains, Human Frailty, Tooth Collector, Compelling Deterrence, Champion of the Parish, Thraben Heretic, Elder Cathar, Captain of the Mists, Tandem Lookout, Slayer of the Wicked, Spectral Gateguards, Dearly Departed, Gather the Townsfolk, Increasing Devotion, Bonds of Faith, Sharpened Pitchfork, Butcher's Cleaver, Momentary Blink, Rebuke, Topplegeist and Eerie Interlude (yeah, it's a long list) are all cards that I'm excited to add to the Cube.
Hey. I just played mtg for the first time a couple days ago. I knocked it for years but i was surprised by how much fun i had in those few games even though i was only learning. I REALLY want to get into mtg but i have no idea where to start. My friend let me use his black deck that he said was his graveyard deck. It had mostly zombies and worked around the graveyard. I really liked it and i just wanted to know more about the color decks or if they even matter. What do each excel at and where do they lack in? I am a fresh faced beginner so if i offened anyone,my bad.
I liked the decks the cursed more so, playing a lot of casual at the moment and I wanted to start a zombie deck so its a nice starting point!
+vadameee Diregraf captain is one of the best cards you could get to play a casual deck like that :)
Thanks for this video man, I'm glad I haven't bought this at full price. Gonna wait till my store starts firing them off for like $10 - $15.
That Geist art is amazing.
Hey what about Snapcaster -.-
Snapcaster isnt that expensive. compared to the other cards he mentioned. taking rarity into account
+lach10211 Snap is almost 50 bucks by now, beating almost all cards he mentionned.
+Volvary Snapcaster Mage is $63.
GodDogofVice It might keep rising until Eternal Masters is spoiled. Then it will either sky rocket or plummet.
+lach10211 - Oh so Snapcaster Mage _isn't_ as Expensive as Serum Visions, Griselbrand, Inquisitin of Kozilek, Delver of Secrets and Damnation... Good to know. Here I thought he was more expensive as every single one of those, leaving Liliana as the _only_ card he mentioned to surpass his price.
How wrong I was...
this is the first magic product I bought.
my gf and I really loved it and had tons of fun with the deck.
Thanks for this, I've been wanting to teach someone else to play and this sounds perfect. The I'll pull out miracles vr's elves and show how crazy the games can get.
Hey, will there be a video of you posting those Patron cards in future?
Proffessor I don't believe that wizards would include jace and liliana into these decks (even though it would be AWESOME) and also if they were to do this would local game stores and card shops raise the price on these as they did with the BFZ fat packs? (I don't know if that's how that works though so...)
I really like your sport coats, and ties.
Prof: They will never include more than one mythic per Duel Deck, so asking for Liliana/Grislbrand/Entreat, especially if it isnt the focus foil card, is kinda pointless. However, I agree on Serum, Inquisition, and possibly thoughtseize.
rather than another Jace, since I'm sure we'll be seeing enough of him in the near future, I would have liked to have seen Tamiyo.
what can i do to upgrade these two decks, specifically the cursed deck??
Meaby they reprint Grove of the Burnwillows? It would help me to compleate my GR Tron. I started building it few months ago but recent spikes unabled my wallet to afford complechion and now I'm left deckless and crying.
I recently bought this deck and had a blast playing casually against my friend who is new to magic. The deck is fairly well balance, but I feel like tweaking the decks a little bit, for example putting in fetchlands and Battle for Zendikar battle lands. or maybe more such as tasigur, hangarback walker etc. however I'm afraid that I might cause the decks to become unbalanced.
they probably could have put 1 or 2 more semi-valuable cards in there but beyond that, the spike in value would make it damn near impossible to find for MSRP if you can find it at all. I do think the most important factor is playability/fun. it is just a duel deck after all.
Professor what happened to kick hyper matts I bought so two weeks ago and their already splitting
For a casual game with my friends, would you recommend this or the Fate Reforged Clash Pack?
+CanisCanemEdit Also, can the Blessed vs Cursed decks be merged into playing one semi-playable deck the way the power/profit deck can?
+CanisCanemEdit No, you cannot mix both decks like in a clash pack. They have different sinergies so they dont play well together. A duel deck is made to be played against its other half without changing almost any card. Ihave this product and the decks are really fun to play one against eachother, but any improvements or changes in any of them could break the balance. Youre free to do the changes you want, but keep the list in order to rebuild the decks as they were at the beginning, you would like to do it if you change to many things and you dont have balanced matches anymore.
I would recomend you this deck if you just want to play against your friends casualy. Is a really fun duel deck.
About the clash pack, its a bit more oriented to play fnms of standard if you want. Anyway, I wouldnt buy the fate reforged clash pack, the Origins one looks quite better in my opinion
which duel decks are good for a beginner couple?? i mean is this one balanced??
I thought I should mention liliana of the veil is a eternal card so they might be printing that in eternal masters (if they decide to reprint it) as well as griselbrand and other broken. as hell cards to go along with wasteland and force of will just saying
also I must say as a person who likes innistrad simply for instead I like the decks for nostalgia.
I am pretty sure that someone from WotC (I believe it was MaRo) said that they don't want the decks to be too valuable, since then the products would be taken off the shelves before newer players had a chance to buy them.
+Balrock So print more of them till the card drops to to the MSRP of the Duel Deck. That's when you know you have printed the right number of a too-expensive staple. NO CARD legal in Modern should be above $50.
I NEED a playset of Geist of Saint Traft
it still baffles me that elite inquisitor was not in this duel deck but instead they put moorland inquisitor? Something just seems off on this deck it seems to be missing some really good cards, I mean it would not be unbalanced if they replaced Moorland Inquisitor with Elite Inquisitor. I thought this was going to be Innistrad's Greatest hits. He has Vigilance and First strike, and good prot. But some of the cards I felt it was just a mix and mash. So mush missed opportunity here. What do you think they should've added in?
I'm all for more reprints, but your suggestions were a little unrealistic, considering the prices most of these cards have already reached, unfortunately :( . If this had been a planeswalker duel deck, it would have been one referring to the block about to rotate out - so, following Jace vs. Vraska (RTR) and Elspeth vs. Kiora (Theros), it would have been two Khans-Block planeswalkers - one of them probably would have had to be Ugin.
Planeswalker decks have never been used as "block preview decks" at the same time, so Liliana of the Veil wouldn't have fit here either :( .
+Strato Incendus Sorin vs Ugin might have been interesting to see.
Gravecrawlers price actually went up
id say wizards should have included 1 more mythic from the innistrad block in this duel deck. such as mikeaus(the human), and something else or more rares such as thalia and something else.
So maybe I've missed it...have you done a "is it worth it to buy a booster pack"? I play a commander league every week and that costs $2. to show more support for this local store I tend to pick up 1 pack every week bringing my fees to about $6. I know you run the "don't buy booster box, buy singles" philosophy, but how do you feel about individual packs?
At least they finally reprinted Geist, been meaning to get one for a while now for my commander deck but he's always been crazy expensive for how slightly-above-average he is.
personally I feel path, and damnation would have been perfect in these two decks, that said I'm happy to add another duel deck to my collection can't wait to mix these with some of the other ones in my collection! :D
im trying to build a fun and high powered cube based on legacy cube do you think this would be a good thing to buy?
Good Day Prof !
This still worth it to buy, just for fun? I fell in love with Innistrad this past year, and if it feels like playing on the plane, I can think of worse things to have around.
I've never purchased a duel deck, so I'm unsure if the appeal will grow stale after like a week or something.
yes, it always is. it is magic the gathering for fuck's sake.
Daningraf Captain is so good in a blue black zombie mill! Getting pretty much for cap. Angels and Gheist
great review professor
I think duel decks should be "like this". I mean that the should have a lot of synergy and really fun, leaving the financial aspect out of the main priorities. With a duel deck, two friends can get a pretty decent deck for 10 dollars each, which compared to an intro pack... is quite good.
Can you do the booster box game with eternal masters?
+Noah Golden If he can get a box. The print run is super low, but that would be fun to watch
Okay, I'm not going to lie, I said they needed a Liliana of the Veil at the same time the Professor did, I adore the card THAT much
cool playmat art, which is it?
you know there's a lot of theory crafting to say that the eldrazi might end up on zendikar so the inquisition might not be as flavor breaking as one might assume.
The logistics of printing DFCs makes it nearly impossible to print Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound in a duel deck like this. Liliana would have been sweet though!
Haha, loved the KSP hangar music. Free music ftw!
why didn't they reprint geralfs messenger?
Same answer as usual for every duel deck.
The biggest problem with reprinting cards like LotV is that stores would jack up the prices to insane levels, like they did with the Mindseize Commander deck, From the Vault: Angels, and even Khans of Tarkir booster packs (for the fetchlands.) To everyone reading this, I'm sure "My LGS(TM)" wouldn't do it, but just read all the horror stories on Reddit whenever a high-value card gets reprinted.
I mean, this is INNISTRAD you're talking about. One of the set with the best flavour in recent years, so yes. Blessed vs Cursed does have a very strong flavour and aesthetic feel to it.
I respect you a lot professor, but your suggestions for other reprints and cards they could ave added are a bit absurd. They would be worth hundreds of dollars in value for an average $25 dollar product. People would buy them out of Walmart/Target/etc quicker than you can say "Jace" and LGSes would have to raise their prices so average casual players would not be able to play with the product at all.
They have large print runs, and the prices of the cards would have massively dropped in such a set.
+Emrakul, The Aeons Bored This is true but I fear it would still raise the price quite a bit and decrease availability. But I guess it wouldn't be as bad as I initially imagined
even if they put a $1000 card, the price of the whole deck would be still $20.
+Asghaad our LGS did this during the battle for zendikar fat pack release what a douche move
+SharpCookies What is absurd is that those cards got to those price points in the first place, and were repeatedly ignored by WotC in supplemental products they would have easily worked in as the price continued to increase. This is a problem of WotC's making and secondary market price should not be an excuse not to print cards. Otherwise, everything expensive might as well be placed on the Reserve List.