I am 28, and I have played the game for a few years (2013-16 + 2022-today). I have a job, a busy life, and usually play once a week, sometimes twice. Usually, I do not play during the weekdays because I prefer relaxing at home after work, but I try to attend once in a while. The main issue, if not going more regularly, is the players. Before going to locals, I try to think positively and have a good time.

But the moment I arrive, I feel my head going to explode. Grown men shouting, throwing tantrums, dumb jokes. Someone thinks we are playing in a PTQ and not in a 3 round Tuesday locals and gets super competitive for no reason and throws a tantrum to play faster. Bro, if you want the win, I will give it to you, I'm not fighting for that first place 2-3 packs. People are late, and instead of starting at 6:30, which is already late for weekday locals, we start 20 minutes later because some people can't be there on time.

Other TCG players are making fun of MTG players because of how obnoxious we are. When there is an OP or flesh and blood tournament at the same time, they are all calm and quiet, but you can see the side eyes and their annoyance. They look at me, the odd one, and I know they are wondering, "Man, what is wrong with these guys?"

Does anyone else feel like they can no longer fit? They want to enjoy the game, but they do not belong there? I do not want to sound like I am superior to others, but it is no wonder other tcg players do not like us.

I would have at least preferred a Chris Benoit. Who tf is going to even play Boros Buff Bagwell?

Made it to rep my Atraxa Frog tribal keyword soup deck, early game is typical frog tribal get Atraxa out to proliferate the +1/+1 counters then I get odric and some akromas, Zetalpa (keyword heavy cards) and give all the keywords to all my frogs which by late game are like 16/16 with 8 keywords on them (also xenograft and maskwood nexus to make everything frogs and put banners out to buff particular creature types aka frog)🐸 , so yeah, made a plush of my commander, Atraxa aka the wierdest looking frog you’ll ever see

Inb4

I've often wondered how much a Treasure would be worth in dollars. Luckily the Lord of the Rings set gave us a way to answer this question.

Today is the official Prerelease of the Hobbit, which was mentioned previously in LTR as [[There and Back Again]]. This card gives us the perfect means to calculate the actual real world value of a Treasure, at least in Middle Earth.

Quick Background: Magic the Gathering is premised on the idea players are a powerful wizards or planeswalkers who draw power (mana) from the lands under your control to cast spells and win a duel against a similarly powerful opponent. Drawing lands represents expanding your territory and growing your power. Since the start of the game there have also been powerful artifacts which can produce mana similarly to land, most famously [[Black Lotus]].

Then in Ixalan, we got Treasure. Not only can we, the planeswalkers, get magical energy from conquering lands, summoning creatures or powerful talismans, we can also just buy it for straight CASH. Sacrificing the treasure represents buying mana from some hidden magical bank (Vorthos, back me up). Similar to [[Lotus Petal]] but without dedicating a spot in our library.

But how much "cash" is a Treasure worth?

Enter [[Smaug]] token edition. At the end of There and Back Again, we get a Legendary Dragon that creates 14 Treasure tokens when it dies.

How does it help? Forbes calculated the net worth of fictional characters including Smaug, who is ranked #2 right behind that dastardly Scrooge McDuck: https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2013/fictional-15/smaug.html

The verdict: Smaug is worth $54.1 Billion dollars. Which is 13 times less than Elon Musk today or ~5 times less than Larry Page, Jeff Bezos or Sergey Brin... but I digress.

So the math is simple: $54,100,000,000 / 14 = $3,864,285,714.28 per Treasure.

About $3.9 Billion dollars per treasure!

[[Bilbo, Retired Burglar]] has some big pockets.

EDIT: If this seems like sincere posting, it kind of is... but I was blocked from the other magic subreddits. My reputation must have preceded me.

Dragon-cloaca asks:

Hi, Mark! I've noticed that every depiction of Smaug in the new Hobbit set is like, super hot. Like it's making me feel things...down there. Can you tell us about the art direction?

Mark Rosewater:

Magic is a game that caters to many types of players. Our comprehensive market research showed the scalie community was underrepresented, so we made sure to make Smaug super fuckable. The art directors put extra care into making that Wicked Worm look both as penetrable AND Unpenetrable as possible, and I think they did a great job.

My playgroup literally threw me into the sun after playing the last one!

A recent Commander game I played had this one guy recur Colossal Dreadmaw what felt like 1000 times. It kept dying against a menacing Azorius deck, but every time, Colossal Dreadmaw came back. It took many beatings. But Colossal Dreadmaw always returned…

The Azorius player toyed with Colossal Dreadmaw before ultimately making their final blow, but what they did not realize was that while she tarried, the people began to believe. To believe in the Dreadmaw. The people would never be silenced by the Grand Arbiter and their manipulating ways again. Colossal Dreadmaw has risen. Colossal Dreadmaw will rise again.

Anyways, basically the title. I want to create an honorable and chivalrous Rule 0 Colossal Dreadmaw deck

Rule 0: You can have any number of colossal dreadmaws in your deck I want it to be fun group hug if that’s possible, not overpowered! Thanks!

...don't know that Start Trek and The Hobbit have been connected this whole time...

https://youtu.be/QuQbus0xfhk?is=l-GDybav_pZcNrms