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Don't remove this format please!

It's just the right amount of time and variance and is a cost effective way to build a collection.

I play dozens of these each month and I won't play a single phantom event.

Keeping the cards is half the fun!

A lot of players I have talked with are shocked and dissappointed at this move. 

I agree completely.  The only format on Magic online I curently play is 4 pack sealed.  That's because it's a way I can build my collection without spending a fortune, in the the hopes of soon being able to play in the constructed events with the cards I've opened.  These phantom sealeds you are instituting are quite clearly a terrible value and don't help anyone build a collection.  I seriously hope you reconsider taking away the 4 pack sealeds, because as it stands I won't be logging into Magic Online anymore.  

The majority of my sealed play is 4-pack sealed.  It's the only reasonable option for building a collection somewhat inexpensively and gives opportunity to see many cards that otherwise wouldn't see play in action.

Who cares if Curse of the Bloody Tome is an absolute powerhouse in an online format?  4-pack sealed is fun. Phantom events are NOT.

Don't make this change!

"I won't be logging inin Magic Online anymore."

Let's not resort to hyperbole... But the reality is, I won't play in a limited event where I don't keep the cards, and I don't have time to play more than 3-rounds in one sitting (unless I want to be totally useless at work the next morning.)

In other words, I won't be playing sealed anything on MTGO anymore. I'll shift the focus of my limited play to swiss draft almost exclusively.

Please dont remove this. I feel like I complain a lot on here but most of my complaining comes from you constantly trimming away or flat our removing anything that can give the players any type of good value.

I suggested this in another thread, so I'll add it here as well...

If you are going to take away 4-pack sealed and replace it with a phantom 6-pack sealed, please also bring back non-phantom 6-pack sealed to the on-demand limited queues.

3-round swiss drafts are 14 tix or 3 packs plus 2 tix to enter, with 1 pack per match win for prize support.... Just double it, and do a 3-round 6-pack sealed swiss for 28 tix or 6 packs plus 4 tix to enter, with 2 packs per match win as prize support.

4 rounds is too long for many people, and the scheduled events are hit or miss for timing.

6 pack phantom sealed event may have its lovers.  But why can't it co-exist with the 4-pack sealed?  If you think that 4-pack sealed is causing programming issues, you should replace it with 6-pack sealed with a proper incentive to players.  If your reason for abandoning the format being unbalanced, I would say that we should let the players vote with their wallet.

I cannot speak for others.  But removing the 4-pack sealed will make me switch to drafts, but at a much lesser quantity.  Non-phantom sealed or drafts offer a CHANCE (though slim for me due to my lack of skill and luckl) to win the card lottery.  Phantom one may cost less but I would rather have a chance to get excited on opening money cards.

Dec 18, 2012 -- 11:29AM, 300_Pound_Punch wrote:

6 pack phantom sealed event may have its lovers.  But why can't it co-exist with the 4-pack sealed?  If you think that 4-pack sealed is causing programming issues, you should replace it with 6-pack sealed with a proper incentive to players.  If your reason for abandoning the format being unbalanced, I would say that we should let the players vote with their wallet.

I cannot speak for others.  But removing the 4-pack sealed will make me switch to drafts, but at a much lesser quantity.  Non-phantom sealed or drafts offer a CHANCE (though slim for me due to my lack of skill and luckl) to win the card lottery.  Phantom one may cost less but I would rather have a chance to get excited on opening money cards.

I think this is a large part of the fun of sealed. So when they are suddenly phantom, it just isn't the same. Considering no mention of this particularly strong difference in the article, it seems as though WotC is forgetting or ignoring that portion of sealed.

Dec 18, 2012 -- 11:29AM, 300_Pound_Punch wrote:

Non-phantom sealed or drafts offer a CHANCE (though slim for me due to my lack of skill and luckl) to win the card lottery.  Phantom one may cost less but I would rather have a chance to get excited on opening money cards.

I will always remember the release sealed where I opened both a foil Trostani and an Armada Wurm. I was winning the finals when power failed in our area, but hey, I got to keep the cards, and the boosters for two wins. Now if this was Phantom, I'd still be mad about it instead of happy.

Please keep the four-booster sealed.

I only recently started playing magic online. I have really enjoyed it so far.  I have been playing 4 pack sealed almost exclusively for many of the reasons listed above.  It helps build my collection and I can generally start one whenever I want instead of having to wait for one of the scheduled 6 pack events.  I'm not great at playing yet so I tend to go 1-2, which nets me a pack at the end.  So basically my packs are 25% off which is easier for me to justify on digital cards that I can't use with my friends in paper magic.

With a phantom event, I don't keep the cards.  If I maintain my same record, I pay 8 event tickets for 1 pack, so I'm basically paying double for the pack.  It just doesn't make sense and I probably won't do it.  I'd be happy to play in a sealed 6 pack queue if balance is really the issue that is driving the decision as the article says.  In any case, Wizards asked for feedback and mine is I probably won't play the phantom sealed queues.  Instead I'll try to do one of the scheduled 6 pack sealed tourneys, but so far in my roughly 1 month of playing, I haven't been able to make one yet.  The 4 rounds is a bit long to start at night, and awkward at best to schedule during the day.  :-(

I really like 4pss. Its all I play other than Release Events and Classic limited events.

I think the real reason they are going away is that they don't make enough money for Wizards. Part of the problem is that it canablizes other (more profitable) events. And, there are people who want to buy packs from the store and crack them for the cards. Some might say that these people aren't very smart. They more clever ones will open these packs in a 4pss and get to play with them some and possibly get an effective store discount because of the packs they can win in the process.

I think they underestimated the popularity of this format. I'll bet if they could go back in time and do them all over again, they would cost a ticket or two.

Wow, this is a huge loss.  I personally hate the entire concept of phantom events and won't play em.  Will be spending a lot less money as the ongoing nerfing of prizes and events continues.  (and i'm sure it will, as the game has by all accounts 'never been more popular')  The money i don't spend here will NOT go to drafting or other more profitable events, either; i've had enough to curtail my limited play significantly already recently and it's only going to get less.  By itself this change isn't necessarily the end of the world, but combined with the constant tinkering that limits the ability of players to build their collection or keep playing at a reasonable (but still huge!) cost - this sort of thing will cost you in the long-term, wizards.  

The explanation wizards gives for eliminating 4 pack sealed is ridiculous.

4 pack sealed can have a lot of variance, more than a lot of other events, but it also is a very streamlined, very fast way of playing limited that just doesn't exist in other formats. And it's fun. More fun, in fact, than regular 6 pack sealed IMO. Most of all, it's  the best value out there to play limited while simultaneously building a collection to use in constructed on MTGO, period, which is why they're removing it. Money, money, money. Don't release two articles back to back in one week on how MTGO is changing and striving to make players happy and then take away an incredibly popular format. If I want to practice my 6 pack sealed without keeping the cards I crack, I can do it for free elsewhere online, and everybody else can too, and we all know this. THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO PLAY THESE PHANTOM SEALEDS WHATSOEVER. I just started playing 4 pack sealeds in the last couple months or so, and as a result, my time logged into the program has shot up. However, my time on MTGO will be severely limited after Dec. 26th. 

Please use the existing thread for discussion on this issue.

Locked. 

What existing thread? The one commenting on the article that discusses all the changes? I couldn't find any other threads for just this topic. Does this mean that we can't have any new threads  that talk about individual topics from the huge article?

Why is this a duplicate thread? This is about specifically the 4 booster sealed, the other thread is about the article, which covers several topics...

Dec 18, 2012 -- 3:03PM, xger wrote:

Why is this a duplicate thread? This is about specifically the 4 booster sealed, the other thread is about the article, which covers several topics...

Of the 96 posts in that thread, 85-90 of them are related to four-booster sealed.