Rebel At Start

Well, not exactly a smashing success compared to set releases during a bull market, but nonetheless, not too bad considering global circumstances.

Wouldn't it be nice if these kinds of events always coincided with ATHs on the markets?

I was in the running for a "Dawnbringer" Title - but not for long. I suspect I will be out of the top 100 by the end of the presale. Not that it matters. The Titles (for me) are pretty meaningless, though they bring boosts to Land - which is why mine are meaningless, as my Land is crap.

Presale also comes with two cards on offer, which will only be available with presale packs and won't be found in the general release packs. The artwork and framing design has changed a bit, giving a bit more space to the image.

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GRIMBARDUN SMITH is going to be "pretty common" as it is a rare card and will be given in every ten packs purchased with a 4% chance of a gold foil, but a guaranteed gold foil for every 250 packs. It is quite an interesting card, as even though it has no attack, it has armor, void armor and can repair itself. It also can take a bit of a beating and can't be poisoned. As a neutral and with Almo soon to be taken out of Modern, it is likely to be an interesting card.

MANTAROTH on the other hand is going to be much rarer, as there is a 1% chance of receiving one on the purchased packs, so about 5000, with about 200 of them gold. And then one guaranteed for every 100 packs, one gold for every 2500. Again, with shield and shield repair, it is going to be interesting. However, it also has the new "armored strike" ability, which gives it +1 melee based on the shield score. I guess this means it dynamically changes throughout the fight, kind of like an "enrage". With blast too, depending on what it goes up against, it could be devastating.

I have no idea what the Rebellion set is going to be like, but I am pretty much only able to play in Modern anyway. The value of my deck has been decimated due to Untamed and Dice being retired to Wild soon, and without Land released, there is nothing soaking up the market. With 96 cards in the Rebellion set, I am sure there are going to be a fair amount of duds.

However, the staking mechanism for packs and cards in order to get future airdrop cards is an interesting mechanism. Because, not only will it take cards off the rental market to make those that are there a little more pricey, it will also be a place to park the crappier cards. This means that they don't need to be dumped on the market, or rented for next to nothing, and can instead be put to work earning something, without having to be on Land - where they have so little PP anyway.

The new summoners are set to be gamechangers however, because with their enhanced tactics, they bring a whole new layer to the game and especially in the top tiers, there might not be as many of them floating about at max.

Hopefully though, this new pack gives enough of a an injection into the game to cover some of the maintenance and development, as well as reduce the DEC supply to a point that people will start burning some SPS. Though, that is a long way a way by the looks.

The Presale has been live for two hours now and is scheduled to run for 30 days, or until the first 500K packs sell through.

While they have gone "relatively" quickly at the start, I suspect it will slow down a lot from here and may not sell all the way through. This means that whatever is left over at the end of the thirty days, will be burned. However, since the price of the packs is the same in Presale as the Open sale, it could be that people do end up taking advantage of getting a few extra bonus cards now, rather than waiting until after, as there is no reason to wait if going to buy anyway.

Unfortunately, 2300 packs is nowhere near enough to get a max set of Rebellion (I hear it is around 3500 packs), so it is going to be a very slow climb to get them up to Championship levels. However, at least I might be able to play some of them in Gold Brawls, even though I play on the Wild side there at the moment.

Once the cards are released, I think this set is going to have an immediate impact on gameplay and completely shift the strategies. It could be even that depending on the power creep, it might be possible that some of them are suitable in Wild also, and could compete with the older cards. It will be interesting at least.

Did you are will you buy?

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]