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[Wulfric]

So umm... there are no women on any of the Pro Tour teams. Yeah.

Those are some bad optics to say the least. It's kind of a given, considering there haven't been any women making a splash on the PT for a while now. I can count on both hands the number of women I've seen play at the FNM level. As soon as you hit the PPTQ/SCG Open scene, they virtually disappear. Any idea why there's such a stark drop in participation?

 

[kirblar]

Just got two Leovolds for a combined total of $64 off Ebay w/ a Flash Coupon- https://pages.ebay.com/promo/2017/0...01.m1256&_trkparms=&clkid=2147676131660311744

Flash Sale!
Save $15 on Purchases
of $75 or More.

Ends today at 8PM PT.

Use Coupon code CJANUARY15OFF

So umm... there are no women on any of the Pro Tour teams. Yeah.

Those are some bad optics to say the least. It's kind of a given, considering there haven't been any women making a splash on the PT for a while now. I can count on both hands the number of women I've seen play at the FNM level. As soon as you hit the PPTQ/SCG Open scene, they virtually disappear. Any idea why there's such a stark drop in participation?

Oh come on, not this. For a woman to get on a team, they need to get to gold/platinum. The last two with a chance of doing that consistently got hired on at WOTC.

The big issue w/ gender ratios with competitive games (not just magic) is that competitive play seems to be like crack to men in a way it's not for women (relative to other forms of play)- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0100318

 

["God's Beard!"]

So umm... there are no women on any of the Pro Tour teams. Yeah.

Those are some bad optics to say the least. It's kind of a given, considering there haven't been any women making a splash on the PT for a while now. I can count on both hands the number of women I've seen play at the FNM level. As soon as you hit the PPTQ/SCG Open scene, they virtually disappear. Any idea why there's such a stark drop in participation?

they all get hired by wotc

 

[Angry Grimace]

So umm... there are no women on any of the Pro Tour teams. Yeah.

Those are some bad optics to say the least. It's kind of a given, considering there haven't been any women making a splash on the PT for a while now. I can count on both hands the number of women I've seen play at the FNM level. As soon as you hit the PPTQ/SCG Open scene, they virtually disappear. Any idea why there's such a stark drop in participation?

You have to qualify for the Pro Tour to begin with and you have to be Gold/Platinum to get on a team

 

[Wulfric]

Oh come on, not this. For a woman to get on a team, they need to get to gold/platinum. The last two with a chance of doing that consistently got hired on at WOTC.

The big issue w/ gender ratios with competitive games (not just magic) is that competitive play seems to be like crack to men in a way it's not for women (relative to other forms of play)- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0100318

I was honestly curious. The only one who came to mind was De la Tora, who can't play DCI events right now. I'm trying to find the other player who was doing well professionally, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on their name. It's definitely not Gaby.

 

[kirblar]

I was honestly curious. The only one who came to mind was De la Tora, who can't play professionally right now. I'm trying to find the other player who was doing well professionally, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on their name. It's definitely not Gaby.

Jackie Lee was the other player who got hired on.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I was honestly curious. The only one who came to mind was De la Tora, who can't play DCI events right now. I'm trying to find the other player who was doing well professionally, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on their name. It's definitely not Gaby.

I don't think I've seen anyone other than Melissa DeTora on the Pro Tour. I think there's a couple of women who play the SCG circuit. The only one I know of is Jadine Klomparens, who occasionally does articles for some site that gets posted on the MTG reddit every once in a while.

 

[Wulfric]

Jackie Lee was the other player who got hired on.

Oh, no wonder I didn't recognize the name; she started interning at WotC the year I started playing (2014).

Interestingly enough, she's on the Amonkhet design team.

 

[OnPoint]

Just got two Leovolds for a combined total of $64 off Ebay w/ a Flash Coupon- https://pages.ebay.com/promo/2017/0...01.m1256&_trkparms=&clkid=2147676131660311744

Good looks, I just did the same thing actually haha

Guess it's a fitting time to be a ... copy cat.

I'll see myself out.

 

[charlequin]

Any idea why there's such a stark drop in participation?

Preference bias to begin with (like kirblar mentioned) plus negative externalities of the community (whatever percentage of women are interested in playing Magic competitively to begin with, meeting other players will quickly reduce that number) plus lifestyle factors (being a Magic pro involves living like a bum.)

 

[kirblar]

Preference bias to begin with (like kirblar mentioned) plus negative externalities of the community (whatever percentage of women are interested in playing Magic competitively to begin with, meeting other players will quickly reduce that number) plus lifestyle factors (being a Magic pro involves living like a bum.)

In one of the (actual good) convos on this on twitter, mixed-gender travel was brought up as something that causes a lot of additional hassle.

 

[Ashodin]

Playing around with lifegain.

4 Concealed Courtyard
8 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
8 Swamp
3 Aerial Responder
3 Aethergeode Miner
4 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Blessed Alliance
4 Drana's Emissary
3 Felidar Sovereign
3 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Serene Steward
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
4 Stasis Snare

Sideboard:

3 Decommission
4 Flaying Tendrils
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Linvala, the Preserver
4 Shamble Back

 

[Angry Grimace]

Being a magic pro probably involves some objectively poor life decisions.

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

I know I'm late to the party on this card spiking, but honestly, Battle Screech is a $3 card? Thanks, Pauper? Ugh. Wish it had been in Eternal Masters, but I suppose the card is very good in limited and should be respected when creating a draft-specific set.

As a PS: The non-foil Judgement version on MTGO is way up over the past month compared to the VMA version. Kinda interesting.

 

[Santiako]

Damn, a food stall at GP Prague went up in flames. All friday events cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpN9uUnxmvQ

The main event will still fire at the planned time.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I know that playing mana dorks in a format with shock isn't great, but man if I don't love casting Ulvenwald Hydra getting Mirrorpool.

 

[Santiako]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";229205256]I know that playing mana dorks in a format with shock isn't great, but man if I don't love casting Ulvenwald Hydra getting Mirrorpool.[/QUOTE]

Well, there is the 1/3 mana dork if you need a shock resistant one, but I think regardless of shock, Servant will still be a staple of the format.

 

[aidan]

Damn, a food stall at GP Prague went up in flames. All friday events cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpN9uUnxmvQ

The main event will still fire at the planned time.

10/10.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Well, there is the 1/3 mana dork if you need a shock resistant one, but I think regardless of shock, Servant will still be a staple of the format.

I considered it as my 5th-8th dork, but the werewolf one's activated ability is so good in a ramp deck.

Early play with lategame relevance that functions as a mana sink is a great midrange card.

It's not the format for it, but still.

 

[Ashodin]

I dunno. Should I run Shock over Incendiary Flow?

 

[Angry Grimace]

I dunno. Should I run Shock over Incendiary Flow?

Yes. Incendiary Flow is in a bad place unless you are actively playing Burn, and even then you probably want some number of Shock.

Assuming this is still the list you have:

4 Inspiring Vantage
6 Mountain
2 Needle Spires
10 Plains

4 Always Watching
3 Captain's Claws
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Heart of Kiran
3 Hope of Ghirapur
3 Incendiary Flow
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
3 Stitcher's Graft
3 Stone Haven Outfitter
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist

Sideboard:

4 Authority of the Consuls
2 Collective Defiance
3 Fragmentize
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I would probably add 4 Spire of Industry, you have about a billion artifacts and its an aggressive deck that's unlikely to care about spending a life here or there. Flow is just worse than Shock because of Saheeli, but its also worse than Harnessed Lightning in most cases, imo (in which case I would also go for 4 copies of Aether Hub since Needle Spires can't actually carry equipment - you'd be dead before you had the mana to do it.)

 

[Ashodin]

Mmm that's the kind of critique I've been looking for. Yeah I've been mulling over Spire of Industry lately.

So I'll do -4 Plains +4 Spire of Industry (I have a foil one!)

-3 Incendiary Flow +3 Shock

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'm still working out how best to somehow incorporate Key to the City in my improvise builds. If you're casting enough Improvise spells, its just straight up card advantage. There's also the fact that using its ability on a Bastion Inventor and then using Tezzeret's minus lets you potentially pump the inventor to finish off an opponent.

 

[Ashodin]

Does it have Slip Through Space? Because unblockable cantrip seems like a wincon.

You could run the infinite Wandering Fumarole combo too, you just need ONE red mana.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Does it have Slip Through Space? Because unblockable cantrip seems like a wincon.

You could run the infinite Wandering Fumarole combo too, you just need ONE red mana.

Well, I mean, Key to the City's discard effect is unblockable, but I don't like that combo because Crackdown Construct is just so below rate it dies to everything, even shock.

Most games I've been playing I usually win by either an unanswered Herald of Anguish or using Bastion Inventor and random servos to block Tezzeret into his ultimate.

 

[Wulfric]

Deck advice please? I have 3 Walking Ballista I can include, not sure what to take out. There's a lot of double black in the deck, so the mana is kinda awkward.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sneks-on-a-planeswalker/

 

[Angry Grimace]

Deck advice please? I have 3 Walking Ballista I can include, not sure what to take out. There's a lot of double black in the deck, so the mana is kinda awkward.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sneks-on-a-planeswalker/

Take out Rishkar's Expertise and add more land. Also remove Kalitas, you're not running that much removal, really.

 

[OnPoint]

So I don't know if I'm onto something or this is just a printing error, but here goes... lol

I was looking at this Amonkhet ad card and something caught my eye.

What's that in the bottom right?
Here's a closer look.

Wtf is that? It definitely looks like some sort of pattern.
So I got the idea to look at all of the other ad cards I had in my packs.
I found a similar pattern on only one of the other ads.

Hm. It looks similar but the pattern is slightly different.
But it's there nonetheless.
And...

It's consistent.
Because it's exactly the same on both of these.
I didn't have another Amonkhet to check if it also matches with itself.
Here's the zoomed in version.

Now, I don't presume that these mean anything.
But I do know that sometimes they hide weird messages on their ad cards.
I don't know morse. I'm not really good at cyphers or patterns like this.
If this catches anyone's eye, let me know if it could mean something.

I do realize, it's probably just a printing error of some kind.
And/or it might already be on Reddit.
To be fair, I didn't look as I don't ever go to that community.
BUT JUST IN CASE, I wanted to bring it to you guys.

/crazypersonposting

 

[SigmasonicX]

Given that Wizards has had hidden messages like this before, I don't think you're being crazy.

 

[charlequin]

What's that in the bottom right?
Here's a closer look.

12213112314

What's the pattern on the other one?

EDIT: I can confirm this is consistent on the Amonkhet preview cards BTW.

 

[OnPoint]

12213112314

What's the pattern on the other one?

EDIT: I can confirm this is consistent on the Amonkhet preview cards BTW.

Looks to me like:

412121111314

 

[Ashodin]

.... morse code?

Are they words that are sliced up into dots?

Amonkhet card is most definitely

4 1 3 2 1 1 3 1 2 2 1

 

[OnPoint]

Not sure but I only got a fat pack. Can you guys check your ad cards and see if there are any I possibly didn't get that might have this?

 

[Ashodin]

Not sure but I only got a fat pack. Can you guys check your ad cards and see if there are any I possibly didn't get that might have this?

I have every other ad card except the Kari's Expertise one you have.

Oh this is interesting. The dots on the Kari card you posted align with the card horizontally, while the amonkhet ones are vertical.

What I can see on the Kari ones:

4 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 4

 

[OnPoint]

12213112314

What's the pattern on the other one?

EDIT: I can confirm this is consistent on the Amonkhet preview cards BTW.

Yup, it's consistent on this Twitter account too.

https://twitter.com/Digimaster_Soul/status/822513459975704576

 

[Angry Grimace]

2-2 with Improvise. Format is really fun if you don't play the boogeyman decks.

I think I should just play Ornithopter and Tezzeret's Touch. I often felt like I needed more pressure on opponents.

 

[OnPoint]

Interestingly, going to the Amonkhet URL on the preview card does not work.

Magic.Wizards.com/Amonkhet​

I tried to punch the numbers in, both forwards and backwards, blindly at first, then in the zip code search at the bottom AND the search bar, and came up with nothing interesting.

However the other one did something a little weird? Maybe it's nothing.

Magic.Wizards.com/Duels​

The search bar did nothing at the top. Putting the code in blindly did nothing. But putting the code in the zip code brought me here, while it didn't on the 404 page the Amonkhet link took me to.

http://locator.wizards.com/#p=412121111314&brand=magic&a=search​

Looks normal to me I suppose. Still, I tried the Amonkhet code here, too.

http://locator.wizards.com/#brand=magic&a=search&p=12213112314&massmarket=no​

No dice!

I did discover the Amonkhet page at this url

http://magic.wizards.com/en/products/amonkhet/products​

Same thing entering the Amonkhet number though, either on the site itself, or in either of the search boxes.

Wild goose chase? Anyone else have ideas/thoughts on these dots?

 

[Wulfric]

Take out Rishkar's Expertise and add more land. Also remove Kalitas, you're not running that much removal, really.

Yeah, I ended up taking out Rishkar's Expertise; it was kind of lame most of the night. I actually like Kalitas in this deck. Is he bad, or is removal that important in this format? Combined with counters from Rishakar, he was frequently a 4/5 or 5/6. Anyways I updated the link.

Removed:
Rishkar's Expertise
3x Kalitas
Liliana, the Last Hope

Added:
Grasp of Darkness
Fatal Push
2x Transgress the Mind
1x Swamp

I tried to punch the numbers in, both forwards and backwards, blindly at first, then in the zip code search at the bottom AND the search bar, and came up with nothing interesting.

Wild goose chase? Anyone else have ideas/thoughts on these dots?

Maybe you'll get more clues in Modern Masters? That's just me with my conspiracy cap on.

/spooky

 

[Ashodin]

I went 2-1 with my deck as-is, but I think it could be better.

Working with this list now:

4 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Stone Haven Outfitter
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
2 Needle Spires
4 Captain's Claws
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Heart of Kiran
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Spire of Industry
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Aethergeode Miner
4 Aether Hub
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Inventor's Goggles


SB: 2 Authority of the Consuls
SB: 2 Collective Defiance
SB: 3 Fragmentize
SB: 3 Hope of Ghirapur
SB: 3 Skywhaler's Shot
SB: 2 Fumigate

 

[OnPoint]

My last bit of detective work for the night.

Morse translations according to this site.

12213112314 = EIIESEEISEH

412121111314 = HEIEIEEEESEH

Which means nothing lol

Perhaps Wulfric is right and we need more info from the MM3 cards. Or maybe I just can't see the answer. I may have to take it to Reddit tomorrow to see if they can crack it too. But as for now it looks like meaningless dots.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I went 2-1 with my deck as-is, but I think it could be better.

Working with this list now:

4 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Stone Haven Outfitter
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
2 Needle Spires
4 Captain's Claws
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Heart of Kiran
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Spire of Industry
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Aethergeode Miner
4 Aether Hub
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Inventor's Goggles


SB: 2 Authority of the Consuls
SB: 2 Collective Defiance
SB: 3 Fragmentize
SB: 3 Hope of Ghirapur
SB: 3 Skywhaler's Shot
SB: 2 Fumigate

I feel like equipment and vehicles aren't a great mix.

 

[Ashodin]

My last bit of detective work for the night.

Morse translations according to this site.

12213112314 = EIIESEEISEH

412121111314 = HEIEIEEEESEH

Which means nothing lol

Perhaps Wulfric is right and we need more info from the MM3 cards. Or maybe I just can't see the answer. I may have to take it to Reddit tomorrow to see if they can crack it too. But as for now it looks like meaningless dots.

I already posted it on reddit, we'll see if we can get some answers.

I feel like equipment and vehicles aren't a great mix.

It's actually more aggro with Heart of Kiran as the main aggressor in the air, but the deck is VERY resilient after board wipes, since the Equipment and Vehicles just fall off, so to speak.

 

[Wulfric]

My last bit of detective work for the night.

Perhaps Wulfric is right and we need more info from the MM3 cards. Or maybe I just can't see the answer. I may have to take it to Reddit tomorrow to see if they can crack it too. But as for now it looks like meaningless dots.

It's worth a shot. I can't imagine the printing process for tokens being as precise or strict as actual cards. It seems like a printing error personally.

 

[keeblerdrow]

If I do well with this Marduk vehicles list tomorrow, I'll post it. 18 vehicles, 14 dwarves. Best Depala deck in standard. Let's see if it's "good good", though.

 

[Wulfric]

Some sleuthing from Reddit (ty to Ashodin for posting there). Looks like there's not enough to go off with only two cards.

Unfortunately, you can't see at least one letter in the Kari's Expertise image because of the clouds. In the Amonkhet art, if we convert the dots to a sequence of letters/numbers we get (assuming top to bottom):

ABBACAABCAD

Interestingly, the spaces are slightly wider at two intervals: ABBA CAAB CAD

Following this, the sequence in Kari's Expertise looks like:

???A BAAAA CAD.

The CAD in both corresponds, for whatever that's worth. Since there does not seem to be a consistent spacing between a given number of letters, we can possibly assume that the dots do not combine to create a higher base number (e.g. two base-4 numbers combine to create a base-16 number), so the solution is not immediately obvious. (I also assume that wizards hasn't gone way down the rabbit hole and is thus not treating a half-space as a 5th character or something wacky. There are other combinatorial/cryptographic possibilities, but a straight conversion to characters seems most likely). It's also possible, though somewhat unlikely that there are more than 4 characters, but the probability of seeing only 4 out of 5 characters after 20 letters is about 1.1%, and this goes down to .03% if there are 6 characters (assuming equal probability of each characters, which is admittedly dubious as letters/words tend to follow at least a pseudo-Zipfian probability distribution).

Basically we need more data to say anything.

Another guy:

I thought that about the space at first, except some gaps are slightly wider than others, but not twice as long, there are no sequences of three consecutive gaps, and it would be impossible to distinguish sequences that begin with one from those that begin with zero if gaps were zero (I suppose all sequences could start with an empty '1' to signal the start though).

It might be serial number related though. Weird that eyeballing it yields two different space sizes at irregular intervals between the two images. If it were a bar code equivalent you might (though not necessarily I suppose) expect them in consistent places. My eyes could be out though, I didn't actually count pixels...

It makes sense as a low-visual impact serial number system-- this system is a kind-of base-4 system that only really requires a single unique character to encode information.

 

[Ashodin]

doublepost

 

[Ashodin]

Here's the thing, it's likely just a print error where the letters for the Illustrator got shrunk into dots.

Did 2-1 again with my new list. Felt like I never saw the Aethergeode Miners. Wondering if I should switch em, but I think I'll keep them as is for now.

 

[Santiako]

Yeah, I just checked my tokens and stuff and you just got misprints. Mine just say the name of the illustrator.

The Amonkhet one says: "Ilus. Aleksi Briclot"
The Kari Zev Expertise one says: "Ilus. Jason Rainville"

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

RE: SCG tourney (and the last)... I can't help but root for CopyCat.

 

[duxstar]

So new standard is bg vs combo ..... am I just approaching the point of being a cranky old magic player and saying standard sucks as a format.

When was the last format that was seen as fun ?

Our FNM hasnt seen good turnouts since abzan was a deck, not the 4 color fetch land version.