PSA : check your company lifestyle spending account rules. My company allows physical games as “emotional wellbeing” support. I thought “well magic is a game and opening packs supports my emotional wellbeing” and they agreed.

Yes, you reading this, will not open a god pack.

If you open a pack, there is a 1/1000 chance you will open a god pack. If you open a box of 30 packs, there is a ~3% chance you will open a god pack. If you open ten boxes of 30 packs, there is still only a ~26% chance you will open a god pack.

For it to even be a 50/50, you would need to open exactly 693 packs, or 24 boxes. At MSRP, that's approaching $4000. You would need to draft every week for over four years to open this many packs.

Just something to keep in mind when you're tempted to splurge on packs come February. For all intents and purposes, you are never going to open a god pack.

https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial

Greetings to all. We are running a new competition, this time to give away 5 (FIVE) free bundles (with free shipping) to 5 lucky people who comment on this post.

https://johnavonart.com/limited-editions/magic-playmat-mystery-megapack

These amazing bundles all contain;

1 x randomly selected, limited edition, hand-signed MTG Playmat (minimum value £39.95)

4 x Tutu Zombie tokens (rare, limited edition, £12 value)

1 x randomly selected, hand-signed A4 MTG art print (21 × 29.7 cm or 8.3 x 11.7 inches, £10 value)

Free, tracked shipping worldwide (worth £12 - £20)

But that's not all because some people will get even more included...

Every 5th packet will contain a rare, limited edition t-shirt! Either our Unhinged Lands cycle (official and very rare MTG authorised print) OR one of our Journeys to Somewhere Else t-shirts.

AND

Every 10th packet will contain a set of 5 signed famous prints instead of just 1.

AND

Every 20th packet will contains something very special straight from John's personal stash, these items include;

Original MTG sketches

Original MTG development work

Rare, signed MTG Promotional posters  

If you strike it lucky you might get a bundle worth £500 or more!  

FREE GLOBAL SHIPPING INCLUDED!

This competition is open to everyone in the world, there will be no charge to the winners and if the winner has already made a purchase of a Mega Magic Playmat Bundle then they will receive a full refund!

https://johnavonart.com/limited-editions/magic-playmat-mystery-megapack

Competition runs until Thursday 31 July 23:00 BST, Winners announced Monday 3rd August.

Thanks everyone and good luck!

John Avon Art

List of some of the playmats included in the bundle;

City of Ass

Lotus Vale

Armageddon

Invasion Forest

Scorched Ruins

Lotus Field

Unhinged Lands

Unstable Lands

U.T.O.Y.

And many more!

Genuinely can they not afford to pay a human being to make these? Universes Beyond not making enough money for them I guess?

Update: I got the AI parts on video — https://bsky.app/profile/knigt.bsky.social/post/3mmpcu22vbc22

I think we should be able to call a judge on our stinky opponents in tournament settings.

2 or so days ago, I shared a post where I had a negative experience at an unfamiliar LGS.

The owner caught wind of the thread and reached out. Turns out they witnessed the entire tirade.

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/s/aKbngumhXw

Recap: Player 1 ([[Captain N'ghathrod]]) and Player 3 ([[Narset, Enlightened Master]]) had creatures, Player 2 and myself didn't. Player 1 kept attacking me and I removed his creatures when they did. When Player 3 eventually won, Player 1 asked why I kept removing their creatures when I was just trying to protect myself. I felt like the whole interaction was abnormal, so I packed up and left.

I downplayed and omitted details in my initial post as I thought Player 1's *tone* would become the focus of the topic, rather than his action. If I was to be more descriptive, it would be like this:

After the game, *the visibily riled up* Player 1 ~~asked me~~ *demanded to know* why I removed his creatures when they attacked me. He then began to string together several inappropriate comments that would certainly earn a permaban from this subreddit of violating rule 1 if I was to post it word for word.

His comments aside, I was baffled at why I would need to explain that I was playing to stay in the game. While I can't control how others react, but I can control how *I* react. I didn't feel that there was going to be a real discussion so I rather than explaining, I responded with an "okay" and packed up.

Fast forward to ealier today, the owner reached out and informed me that Player 1 is now banned. Apparently he's had prior meltdowns, and there were speculations that he doesn't return cards he takes with his commander's ability. Coincidentally, my arcane signet and one Hare Apparent (both were on his field that evening) were missing.

The owner offered me store credit to replace the missing cards and a bit extra for the incident. This sounds a bit petty, but I'm probably going to foil my [[Path to Exile]].

Hope it gives closure to those who've followed along earlier. Also wanted to say that some of the comments gave me a chuckle when I needed it. Thank you.

Peace.

Source: https://kotaku.com/magic-the-gathering-arena-developers-unionize-layoff-remote-work-genai-protections-2000690932

We have received the filing and are reviewing it carefully. Our employees are the lifeblood of what makes us great, and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every person feels heard, valued, and supported. We believe we have a strong connection with everyone at Wizards of the Coast and that direct relationship with our employees is essential to how we work together to capture the imagination of our fans and players, inspiring a lifetime love of our games. We appreciate hearing about the needs and interests of our employees through this filing, and will respond through the appropriate process.

This is the sort of statement you get when you pay an anti-union law firm to draft it for you.

A full new pod of players agreed to join in, but the 2345 card [[Whtz]] deck has returned to the shop. No changes today in the deck, but the owner told me that he has played it at one more shop in Rochester and is currently building a second deck box with a built in card shuffler so it can be shuffled while it’s playing.

Boldo’s has a great group of players and they accepted the challenge again.

My friend and his wife received this as an inheritance, and this is their first introduction to MTG. I’m so jealous! They’ve been combing over everything for almost a month and trying to price it all out.

They are good people and I’m so happy for them!

[[gut shot]] [[Tarmogoyf]]

https://bsky.app/profile/uwotc-official.bsky.social/post/3moyd5joevs2c

Haven't been able to find the official NLRB votecount, but whether by one vote or 50, they've won their union election!

For those who don't know what happens next in the process:

• workers on the MTG Arena team instantly have Weingarten Rights, which means your right to have a coworker or union representative present when being interrogated by your manager.
• Wizards is now legally obligated to begin bargaining with the workers in good faith toward a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

This isn't the end of the process, but officially, there is a recognized labor union at Wizards!

EDIT: the victory was 79-16, thanks for finding it u/joelluber !

There was a steep learning curve for both of us, but I'm so glad we were able to pull this off. Definitely had to abbreviate A LOT. Braille having its own contractions definitely helped, but we still had to trim the fat on a few cards. Some cards didn't even get their full effects put on. The most important part is now he can play without his hand always being public knowledge. Time to go test it out!

One day I came across the Fiendslayer Paladin and from that moment forward I knew I was building a humans deck, the art is so cool!

tldr, Giancola describes unfair pay and working conditions for artists, and urges players not to buy The Hobbit set in protest.

Hi all, I know this is a strange post to make, but I'm unsure where else to share this.

During a visit to a local Barnes & Noble store (Minneapolis, MN, US), I spotted a piece of artwork of a cyclops on the back cover of a stylized homage to Homer's epic titled "Homer's Iliad & Odyssey" that unmistakably belongs to longtime MTG artist Chase Stone, from the card "Polis Crusher" from Theros. I noticed right away that the details, right down to the deformed toe, are uncannily similar, and as no credit was given in the book, I suspect this was either stolen or traced without the artist's knowledge.

I sent Chase Stone an email via his website to let him know, and to confirm whether this use was permitted or not. The book is still for sale in-store and on the B&N website. Since the book is part of B&N's own "Leatherbound Classics" collection, I assume they did not work with a third-party publisher who just made a mistake somewhere.

The illustration is embossed in a glossy material which is why the reflection looks the way it does. Do you all think the illustrations match too well? Thanks for your input.

Totally not a political statement.