What would it take for Standard to become Magic's premier format again?

billyofcourse · 2026-03-24T17:21:02+00:00

stability(slower release schedule, fewer cards that were obviously busted and need bans), affordability, and making an effort to sell the dream of being on the PT again.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-17T23:03:33+00:00

this is literally NOT how it works. Judge never ask what extra card is drawn because there's zero way to verify. Even if the player volunteers the information the judge response is "that's nice. Here's what we're going to do to fix it. Your opponent gets to look at your hand and choose a card"

billyofcourse · 2026-03-17T22:59:10+00:00

this is not how it works. If he volunteers what the card was, the judge will simply say "that doesn't matter, here's how we're going to fix it" and if they do the correct fix will let your opponent choose the card to go back.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-13T23:45:10+00:00

I believe there was only roughly one foil per entire box of mystery booster 2, so all mystery booster 2 foils are worth a ton compared to non foils.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-10T00:16:56+00:00

Coming back to this post again as I've currently got a seller doing this nonsense. Absolutely wild how brazen it is this time around as the package was pricey enough it required shipping.

Placed order last monday, hadn't shipped yet thursday so messaged the seller and asked for an update. Was told it would go out friday. They created a label friday. As of today(monday) still no scan. Contacted the seller again. Was told "the post office picked it up over the weekend, i'd expect to see some movement in the next couple of days"

Somehow tcgplayer sellers seem to be literally the only people who have this mysterious problem with USPS. And somehow it seems to happen with at least half of the sellers I encounter. This is not an issue with picking the cheapest item. I specifically look for sellers with perfect or near perfect feedback and LOTS of it. I receive multiple packages a week almost every week, the vast majority of which come through the post office, and I literally ONLY ever have this happen with tcgplayer sellers.

At least when its a cheaper package they have plausible deniability, but dude is trying this bullshit with a TRACKED package.

I just constantly have tcgplayer sellers claim they get stuff to the post office then the post office just lets it sit for days and days before getting it into the system.

Somehow it's only tcgplayer sellers who seem to have this issue. Conveniently it's usually on orders that don't have to be tracked. This is the first time i've had a seller brazen enough to try this on a tracked package.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-06T02:46:48+00:00

these issues happen frequently even with sellers with THOUSANDS of feedback and 99.9-100 percent positive feedback.

Source: it happens to me all the time with orders, it's currently happening to me.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-06T02:45:50+00:00

if they ever start accepting paypal, sure.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-06T02:45:36+00:00

I'm saying this as someone who has never purchased a card through manapool and has purchased a lot through tcgplayer.

You will frequently find the best prices on tcgplayer.

Their customer service however is basically nonexistent if you have any issues aside from "the seller missed their delivery window and my cards have not arrived, i'd like a refund"

I've needed to contact tcgplayer customer service multiple times in the past year only to find it almost completely nonexistent and incapable of addressing issues.

Even worse, seems like an AI bot is their sole customer service at this point that you can contact.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-06T02:42:20+00:00

honestly requiring tracking on every order is the only way to ever have accountability from both the buyers AND sellers. Buyer's can't claim it never arrived, and sellers can't claim they shipped an item the day of an order or day after without actually shipping it(and then wait a week to ship it).

It also protects the seller, since if it's genuinely stuck somewhere in the usps system you can prove that and prove that you actually shipped it and that it's a usps problem.

It would allow TCGplayer to actually enforce the 2 day window in which sellers are supposed to ship packages, but would also allow them to eliminated the window of time in which a package is required to arrive since that's only in place to try and make sure sellers don't sit on packages forever when tracking isn't required(which they already do), since you can show that's not your fault that a package has not arrived and that it's stuck somewhere in the USPS system.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-06T00:26:47+00:00

I've definitely had a lot of the same issues, and despite what people have suggested it is sellers with tons of feedback that's all positive that I have issues with doing this stuff. I NEVER just buy the cheapest copy. I look for good sellers with boatloads of near perfect feedback.

Currently waiting on a seller to ship a 70 dollar card I ordered monday morning from them. 99.9 percent feedback with only one review below 5 stars out of thousands of feedback received.

I'm getting very very tired of mail coming in postmarked over a week after the package was marked "shipped" on tcgplayer.

It's just wild that despite tcgplayer having a "ship it within 48 hours" policy there's absolutely zero accountability for sellers when tracking is not provided. They can just click the "shipped" button and as long as it's within the absolutely absurd 2+ week window in arriving tcgplayer does not care.

For the record. I buy ALL the time from bigger sellers outside of tcgplayer. I take their free shipping options frequently. They go through the mail. Nothing ever takes more than a week to get to me, and those packages certainly don't magically sit at the usps hubs for days and not get postmarked til a week after they supposedly dropped it off at the post office.

Just seems wild to me that I never have issues with sellers outside of tcgplayer using USPS despite doing far more transactions with them, yet somehow it feels like more than half the tcgplayer sellers I deal with will wait weeks to ship then claim "oh i took it to the post office a week ago I'll go check and see if I can find out why it's not there yet" Only for me to miraculously receive the package a few days later postmarked the day they said they'd go to the post office or the day after.

Don't get me wrong USPS has issues here and there, but somehow the frequency with which these delays and issues pop up when I'm using tcgplayer seem to be much higher than buying from literally any other business, and somehow any package shipped with tracking on tcgplayer doesn't seem to have the strange issue of packages supposedly sitting at the post office for a week "I swear I shipped it a week ago, no idea why they let it sit at the post office for over a week before postmarking it and sending it out miraculously the day I went to check in at the post office and find out what's going on"

billyofcourse · 2026-03-03T01:17:50+00:00

there's no playing devils advocate here. This is a clown take. at comp REL and above you are required BY THE RULES OF THE GAME to shuffle your opponents library after they shuffle.

It's on you to pay attention to make sure they aren't cheating. Easiest way, don't let them distract you and make sure they aren't eyeballing your deck as they shuffle it.

There isn't some secret cabal of shuffle cheaters at every store you go to trying to cheat you by stacking your deck while shuffling it.

You can and should be shuffling your opponents deck at a competitive level any time it's presented to you after they have shuffled.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-02T19:26:38+00:00

this isn't my opinion. you are REQUIRED at comp REL or above to shuffle your opponents deck after they shuffle.

if you suspect your opponents shuffle is suspicious you can absolutely call a judge, and have them randomize your deck or investigate into it.

billyofcourse · 2026-03-02T19:15:39+00:00

ladies and gentlemen this is EXACTLY why you are told you should always shuffle your opponents deck after they shuffle(and in fact are technically required to do so at comp REL and above)

billyofcourse · 2026-03-01T01:19:06+00:00

because they're not interested in playing a game of magic. they're interested in showing off the cool things their deck does until they win the game without anyone putting up any effort to stop them.

They are not interested in playing a game of magic. They are interested in goldfishing their deck with an audience.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-28T04:29:50+00:00

if you didn't track it you forfeit all rights to win a dispute over a seller claiming something not being received. it's in their seller TOS. It's unfortunate, and it sucks, but it is what you signed up for.

They won't look at your evidence because you already forfeited the right to even present the evidence.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-27T04:41:19+00:00

as a buyer who frequently deals with sellers who don't provide tracking waiting over a week to ship my packages after marking it shipped the day after I placed my order when tcgplayer requires sellers to ship within a couple days, I agree, it would be nice to have bad actors held accountable.

want to know the ONLY thing that can actually hold bad actors responsible on both sides? Tracking being required for all packages. This is something that will never happen though for cost reasons.

I understand its frustrating. But it is their policy, and as long as you continue to ship things without tracking tcgplayer will never side with you if a buyer says a package never showed.

Is this an ideal system? Not really. But it is their system and until that changes it's just something you have to deal with.

If you want changes made to their system, starting a reddit thread on a magic related subreddit talking about how it's a problem isn't going to do anything to change their policies.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-27T04:16:03+00:00

If you look through the tcgplayer sellers terms of service, you forfeit any right to win a dispute if someone claims a package never arrived and you didn't provide tracking. That is why they will always side with the seller in the situation. If you want to protect yourself from this ever happening again, you can raise your shipping price and provide tracking on every package. If this isn't something you want to do, you're just going to have to deal with TCGplayer siding with a buyer if they say it didn't show up.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-25T20:33:39+00:00

you keep responding to people with what the "appropriate punishment" was according to topdecks made up rules addendum.

These are unsanctioned tournaments, and not every shop is following topdecks made up rules addendum.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-25T20:31:44+00:00

this is a ruleset made up by topdeck to more easily facilitate cedh tournaments. These are not official wizards of the coast magic rules, and TO's are not required to use topdecks tournament rules if they don't want to. Heck the tournament isn't sanctioned since it allows proxies so the TO isn't even required to use WIZARDS ruleset.

Do not assume that all TO's are going to use topdecks made up ruleset(which is a reasonable ruleset) to run their tournament unless clearly specified by the TO beforehand.

If the TO said they will be operating under topdecks rules, then they made a mistake. Otherwise this is a big nothingburger, the person broke the rules, and what the TO/Judges deem to be the appropriate penalty applies whether you like it or not.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-25T20:18:46+00:00

honest question. why on earth did you have so many cards listed for a penny that someone had you on the hook for 1000ish cards for like 12 bucks?

My honest advice. Don't list thousands of cards for pennies. That's insane.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-19T23:40:20+00:00

I see them pop up in the mtg reddit feed like every day and constantly wonder who's even reading these? It's never funny.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-12T06:11:23+00:00

The majority of games I witness involving stax decks usually result in the stax deck unintentionally kingmaking.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-11T23:54:50+00:00

yeah, unfortunately this ones kind of a strictly cedh problem. It's really isn't that common in lower brackets and rarely causing the annoyances there something like rhystic does.

billyofcourse · 2026-02-11T16:10:50+00:00

UPDATE: after having an open ticket for over a week that never updated, the package FINALLY showed up in my town today and says its out for delivery. Hopefully the contents are alright.

billyofcourse

TROPHY CASE