Booster orbs advice

TheHunter

Hi folks, what should I do with my booster orbs now? I'd appreciate some strategic thoughts. I just collected the last Legacy Rare and have all the C,U,R cards in Legacy now. I have all of Origins.

Do I grift for orbs and get rare and mythic cards (200 still to get) from the current Standard sets at 1000 and 5000 orbs respectively, or do I carry on digging for Legacy Mythics at 3000 each (I have 150 still to collect) and pick up the Standard cards at a lower orb cost when they rotate?

I also have about 30 From the Vault cards to get, but I'm not too bothered about those as I was lucky and picked up the MPs from boosters. I'm ftp these days so saving for ages to get MPs isn't an option.
Thanks for any suggestions/maths!

ambrosio191

Back when Rising Tensions was running 5x a week I would have said get the legacy mythics.  Now that there isnt a steady stream of orbs I say go after standard rares.  That's what I mostly do now.  That way you can get a few mythics/MPs from the standard booster you get from reaching an interval of 10 while leveling up.  There are always some really good rares in each set.  You can always use standard cards in legacy events, but not the other way around.

I am ftp as well.  I use jewels to target any specific power Mythic/MP, so I always have the must have cards.  I do find that I accumulate more orbs than I can spend just getting rares, so ~1 set out of standard a year I can usually craft the mythics as well.

TheHunter

Thanks @ambrosio191 I think I'll just stockpile orbs for a while now and see how I feel when I have, say, 10000 saved up. You're right, it's much harder to get orbs now so I want to spend them wisely.

andrewvanmarle

Spend on rigins first and then on the newest set working your way backwards. That way you get to play the longest with those hard earned cards.

TheHunter

andrewvanmarle said:

Spend on rigins first and then on the newest set working your way backwards. That way you get to play the longest with those hard earned cards.

The first part of this was always plan A. I now have all of Origins except Skaab Goliath, I just can't bring myself to blow 3000 hard fought orbs on this dud when I have a chance at Combustible Gearhulk, Samut, Decimator, etc., etc.
I hear what you're saying about Standard!

ambrosio191

Xucachris said:

andrewvanmarle said:

Spend on rigins first and then on the newest set working your way backwards. That way you get to play the longest with those hard earned cards.

The first part of this was always plan A. I now have all of Origins except Skaab Goliath, I just can't bring myself to blow 3000 hard fought orbs on this dud when I have a chance at Combustible Gearhulk, Samut, Decimator, etc., etc.
I hear what you're saying about Standard!

By not crafting Skaab Goliath, your origins packs have a chance of having a new card in them, so there's that.  In addition to what I already said, I also tend to avoid the "core" sets (M19,20,21) when allocating my resources.  They are in standard the least amount of time.

Persil

ambrosio191 - very interesting point about Standard Rares! Numbers may be an issue here. Even though I played most of events over last 1,5 year, also getting individual Top Rank in most ranked events, still - I'd need nearly 100000 Runes to craft all Standard Rares, .

I've been saving Runes since Autumn, currently having 110000. So, to craft Standard Rares, you'd need around half a year (unless I've been unlucky with boosters?). And there'll be new rotation in Autumn, so it's do-it-again process. Also, you can't craft Kaldheim, so 10-level extra boosters may still give weak cards from this set (correct me if I'm wrong!)

Also (it may be just me), I never found Rares exciting. It's Mythic+ which are game changers, and as such, I focus on getting those, exceptions made only for a few Rares which are a must (e.g. Shadowspear). We get Rares from regular boosters, anyway.

Xucachris - I agree with ambrosio191 that it's probably best to focus on crafting sets which will be Standard longest (so ZNR). However, the older Standard has a few powerful cards which will be tricky to target once they go into Legacy (for me, these are Urza Lord High Artificer, Ruinous Ultimatum, Beanstalk Giant, Thassa Deep-Dwelling, Song of Creation).

Thus - many may disagree with me! - my suggestion would be to craft Mythics from these cards' sets, either to get those above directly, or to speed up getting them from Mythics+ packs. Once you have those which you want, spend Runes on new Standard sets (currently ZNR, later also KHM).

Just my opinion

ambrosio191

Persil said:

ambrosio191 - very interesting point about Standard Rares! Numbers may be an issue here. Even though I played most of events over last 1,5 year, also getting individual Top Rank in most ranked events, still - I'd need nearly 100000 Runes to craft all Standard Rares, .

I've been saving Runes since Autumn, currently having 110000. So, to craft Standard Rares, you'd need around half a year (unless I've been unlucky with boosters?). And there'll be new rotation in Autumn, so it's do-it-again process. Also, you can't craft Kaldheim, so 10-level extra boosters may still give weak cards from this set (correct me if I'm wrong!)

Also (it may be just me), I never found Rares exciting. It's Mythic+ which are game changers, and as such, I focus on getting those, exceptions made only for a few Rares which are a must (e.g. Shadowspear). We get Rares from regular boosters, anyway.

Xucachris - I agree with ambrosio191 that it's probably best to focus on crafting sets which will be Standard longest (so ZNR). However, the older Standard has a few powerful cards which will be tricky to target once they go into Legacy (for me, these are Urza Lord High Artificer, Ruinous Ultimatum, Beanstalk Giant, Thassa Deep-Dwelling, Song of Creation).

Thus - many may disagree with me! - my suggestion would be to craft Mythics from these cards' sets, either to get those above directly, or to speed up getting them from Mythics+ packs. Once you have those which you want, spend Runes on new Standard sets (currently ZNR, later also KHM).

Just my opinion

Playing catch up is always difficult.  Starting from scratch now, or even a year or so ago would be a daunting task, but you got to start somewhere.  I find rares to be powerful enough to be useful, but not as expensive as mythic+.

You are correct that we cant craft Kaldheim right now, but will be able to with the new set.  I save my standard booster until I can craft the rares and below, then open it.  I typically get about half of the rares of any given set before the next set is released.  That means I only need to spend 20-30k to get the rest.  I have also been playing for forever, so I have the benefit of being around when each set was released.  I'm not playing catch up anymore.

Like I said earlier, I find it easier to target a specific mythic through elite packs, not crafting.  There is also the option of full art cards.  A lot of the time those mythics are available through that, making them easier to obtain.  There are absolutely some mythics/masterpieces that are too good to pass up.  I wouldnt judge anyone for passing up a bunch of standard rares in order to craft song of creation.  I remember spending ~50k to craft Etali before she was nerfed.  It was absolutely worth it.

I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to this game, so I have the resources to get what I want without spending money.  I only got to that point by passing up on a lot of stuff in various sets.

TheHunter

Hi all, thanks for your advice and thoughts on this. I think it's all about logic v intuition, or better still head v heart.
I can see that if I spend 1000 orbs on Standard Rares, or even 5000 on Standard Mythics, I'll have those cards to use for longer in S-events. That's the head.
The heart says "look at all those amazing Mythics in Legacy" and at 60% of the orb cost (and therefore orb grinding time) to get. I play Magic for the love of the game and I enjoy messing around with deck ideas. I have some dumb but fun decks based on Mythics I pulled from Legacy (current fave is an Sram/Thopter deck with Karn, which wins far more often than it deserves :-D).
So - I'm going to aim for Legacy Mythics, it takes me 2-3 weeks to get 3000 orbs (against weekly with the old RT event!). This will give me a good balance of the satisfaction of collecting plus having cards that I can have fun with and use in some events.

ambrosio191

Xucachris said:

Hi all, thanks for your advice and thoughts on this. I think it's all about logic v intuition, or better still head v heart.
I can see that if I spend 1000 orbs on Standard Rares, or even 5000 on Standard Mythics, I'll have those cards to use for longer in S-events. That's the head.
The heart says "look at all those amazing Mythics in Legacy" and at 60% of the orb cost (and therefore orb grinding time) to get. I play Magic for the love of the game and I enjoy messing around with deck ideas. I have some dumb but fun decks based on Mythics I pulled from Legacy (current fave is an Sram/Thopter deck with Karn, which wins far more often than it deserves :-D).
So - I'm going to aim for Legacy Mythics, it takes me 2-3 weeks to get 3000 orbs (against weekly with the old RT event!). This will give me a good balance of the satisfaction of collecting plus having cards that I can have fun with and use in some events.

Ultimately, the best choice is what makes you happiest in this game, and it sounds like chasing legacy mythics is it. 

TheHunter

Truth my friends, truth. And discovered through this thread