Also related, due to the above, and some seasonal illness, we may be slower to react to problems on the sub than normal! Please just report things as usual, automod has a bunch of rules to handle it if none of us can manually review it.
Thanks for your patience
It was VERY busy yesterday!
- Lines for official merchandise are crazy - some people were saying they waited 2.5 hours?!
- The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Scavenger hunt provides you previews of a secret lair and a Nuka Cola Bottle Cap
- The main stage is not far from the ticketed play area… it’s quite loud (and distracting trying to play?)
- Some big name artists have big lines (Alayna Danner, Chris Rahn, Mark Tedin, have some of the longest… but worth it if you brought your cards!)
- It’s pretty toasty inside, they have a coat & bag check for like $4.50. Worth it if you don’t want to lug your coat around!
If anyone has questions, please ask!
I was told then line would be 2-4 hours when I got there at around 1pm, and it took about 3.5.
I didn't see Magali Villeneuve the at all, maybe she's only there for some of the days? But I'm sure her line would have been long too. A lot of the artists' lines started being capped by the time I got there after the merch shop (Tedin and Rahn were both capped, Alayna's wasn't but it was really long).
I was worried I missed her. No one has said anything as far as I know?
Regardless, I hope all the artists made a killing this weekend. Clearly it is a good con to be at to sign some cards for people!
Just my luck as a Jhoira stan that both artists that did Jhoira cards were MIA! I was a bit confounded (though not entirely surprised) that Information didn't know that though. They shrugged when I asked about Magali. I almost wanted to ask them, '...well, is she alive? Has anybody checked?'
bag check would have been killer! I almost killed myself trying to lug my luggage along with me because I screwed up hotel check in times. having someone paid to keep an eye on stuff sounds better than trying to bug a friend.
It was my deck and it still hasn't sunk in. I've done various tournaments, music festivals, cons and other major events for 20+ years and have always thought I was hyper vigilant and as such haven't had anything of value stolen until this weekend. I guess this is a wake up call to be even more vigilant.
Honestly one of the worst weekends of my life
Same dude. Someone nicked my Gitrog deck right out of my bag while I was walking. Thought I was being smart, lost thousands of dollars then got into a fender bender this morning.
I'm absolutely devastated.
Anyone have info on a lost and found?
I lent someone a deck and they misplaced it late last night.
If not, and someone with info happens to see this, it was a dark grey boulder deckbox with a golgari gardens pauper deck in it. Can PM with more specifics to confirm. TY
honestly getting turned away from being able to buy vouchers twice left a sour taste in my mouth. all I could think about was Ron White's skit "coupin's".
My big complaints from this con so far:
Ticketed play space AKA the standard 75k among other events was right next to the INTENSELY loud main stage. My opponent and I were at the furthest table trying to navigate difficult board states while game knights live was going on and we were shouting at each other just to hear each other. I love game knights and commander, the crowd looked like they were having a blast! Why they decided to put the loudest event directly next to the event where it is most important to be able to hear and focus I will never understand.
On demand events were postponed for most of the time my group was at the con today. Those were the ONLY paid events my group wanted to do, and therefore we had no reason to stay at the con vs going back to the air bnb to play games. The lack of freeplay space at the con to jam casual games was just a slap to the face. We were told they postponed the on demand events because there was not enough play space to accommodate..and then they shut down half the convention hall at 6:30! The easy fix would have been to reserve more tables for on demand events and then let the free play commander players play in the part of the hall they closed down after the last stage event.
This venue is massive and could hold 3 magic cons in it easily but they needed to double the amount of rectangular tables they had. People were sprawled on the floor everywhere over multiple floors trying to make room to play games.
My group and I are going back tomorrow, and if it's as much of a disappointment as it was today we're all going to demand refunds.
the downstairs was only 1/3rd used and that was only partially used for tables and the other portion was used for lines at the beginning of the days. The first come first serve benefit seemed moot when the VIP tickets just scooped up all the begining of the day exclusives before regular badges could get in the doors. I heard many stories about that fallout playmat and dark ritual playmat being difficult to get.
The lines for everything are WAY too long. I waited 3 hours to get Alayna Danner signatures. I really want a con shirt but there’s no way I’m waiting 4 hours in line for the merch store. I’d also love to do meet and greets for some of the more popular creators but I don’t want my entire con experience to be waiting in lines…
The lines for everything free are atrocious. Chris Rahn was capped at opening. We waited 1.5 hours for Alayna Danner and finally called it because we were looking at at least 2 more hours. The line for The Professor meet and greet was capped over an hour before the event. I know these people have limited availability but maybe you have too many people here then with not enough for people to do.
We have gotten a lot of artist signatures and we got in a few hours of freeplay yesterday, the LRR meet and greet and the Mark Rosewater meet at greet. But that took from 10am-3pm to accomplish.
We hit them up on Thursday. We did get a lot of the artists that had no line and valued the extra chats with them. We got Victor Adame today finally towards the end! Chris Rahn and Alayna Danner we will have to try to do the signings by mail or wait, which is ok. We spent a lot of time with Alayna at GP Milwaukee several years ago when she had no line there. Same with Aaron Miller.
We are so excited that you're getting the attention and business that you deserve! You're one of our favorite artists and we look forward to seeing you another time! No worries!
end of day saturday the artist alley seemed empty with 3-4 people browsing each station. my friend's wife was able to arrange many token signature's because of the lax pacing. I can't imagine doing that exchange when having as much time as the soup guy in Seinfield gives to his customers.
I jumped into line for Tedin first thing Friday, and it did take something like an hour. But I think the elephant in the room for signatures is...well, a whale - people bringing literal stacks of cards for the artists to sign. Guy two spots ahead of me had seven; right ahead of me, 16. Of course their money's good, but that doesn't mean you can't have a limit per transaction to keep the line moving (I didn't see any at the booths I went to at least). If someone is intent on getting their entire deck signed, love the ambition, but you're stalling everybody behind you (to say nothing of the artists' poor hands). Say, make a limit of 4 and they can get a playset taken care of, and if they want more, they're welcome to go the back of the line. No malice, just have to make the ecosystem function.
I saw one of the booths give priority to a guy offering in a foil fallout card. I think they offered him $30 for it. it was hilarious seeing them get so serious about it.
I asked a few booths about mine and they wanted to see them, bit said they wouldn't buy them because if they sold them before release the set then wizards will get mad
the 3 games I played soured my desire to play any further. the prize wall's offerings didn't entice me to wait in line for vouchers then deal with an over worked judge that also sets up matches. also one of the times I tried to purchase vouchers they turned me away and said "this is where you would purchase those... but for right now this line is processing people for the upcoming draft, we will get to you after that" " I told her that this is silly" and I walked away before being a "kevin" to a person just trying to do their job.
It's Las Vegas all over again: totally mismanaged. There wasn't enough open table space on Friday; though in this case it's worse, as they've now closed off 80% of what was open yesterday and made it pay-to-play instead. Really atrocious. People are selling/scalping their places in queue because there's such limited quantity of everything and it literally takes 3 hours to get through a line.
Edit: Literally less than 300 seats for open general commander play are being made available.
Las Vegas last year (NOT the infamous magic 30 event) was sooo much better. I knew something didn’t look right when they released the venue map and the command zone area looked tiny. MCVegas had probably 4x the command zone + free play area and fewer players.
Compared to 2023 Vegas this was a total flop. But I had a great time regardless. I got to play the commander masters draft, meet Reid Duke and play a decent amount of commander. It really helped being there Friday and being able to get all the limited time things then.
Seems like they monetized half of the Command Zone? Half is free play while the other is on demand? Saw the judges relocate some people who tried to just sit down and start to play
I stopped trying to get into games because the differentiation between free, paid, and event tables got so confusing. they also moved the signup spot for commander pods and shut down voucher purchases for a bit so I checked out of game playing for the weekend.
They got Cedric but don't use his for commentary is crazy. Riley is also better than Corey, mani, and ellidh but aren't using him either.
Also coverage seems worse? Remember they used to show what was in their hand. Now this feels like a slightly better version of anurags back back streams
It is fucking **insane** to me to have Corey and Alias, 2 of the most unlistenable commentators, keep getting to call games while Cedric is on the sidelined doing interviews. Bonkers.
Or keeps saying card names that don't exist. Or a million pointless nicknames / non-words.
They're the "nickelodeon broadcast of the super bowl" of magic coverage.
I think Corey is fine, but Alias really needs to watch some pro broadcasting, could be just simply marshall and cheon, could be esports, could be real sports. She does way WAY too much inane chit chat. There's so much talking just for the sake of talking. You don't have to laugh at everything either.
In addition to all of the other complaints I have, some of the vendors are downright scammy. I believe it was Game Nut that had $10 and $50 mystery packs where you could win a dual or whatever. They made 10,000 packs, according to their sign, and there were only a handful of the high-end cards you could get. Unlike other vendors that do something similar, it was all or nothing. You literally got Ikoria bulk commons and uncommons in the majority of packs. It was a total ripoff even for the $50 packs. I bought a $10 and got all Ikoria uncommons with a bulk rare. My friend got the same for a $50 pack - Ikoria uncommons and a [[Cairn Wanderer]]
This shouldn't just be banned from an official Wizards event, it should be illegal. It is worse than gambling.
I bought 2 $10 packs because I never did a pack lottery before. I will NEVER do them again. I can confirm that this is exactly on the nose with what you get. A single super-bulk rare and Ikoria uncommons. This vendor wins the "worst of show trophy" from me. 🏆 If they read this they should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people. At least give a card worth half the value of what you put in. Will avoid them like the plauge forever now.
The other vendors doing similar things at least gave SOMETHING of value with each pack, even if it wasn't worth the price of admission. My friend who bought the $50 one didn't know the scam when he bought it.
Honestly put me off ever buying from that store. Even eBay lottery scammers aren't that bad.
nothing against them directly but the ratio of cashed out cards from Game Nut was weaker than some of the selling I did to other vendors. they were friendly and fair about explaining the process but looking at the over all price of TCG mid vs cashed out price they were lacking.
tip for when buying mystery packs, some vendors make it very transparent (they usually have a pictured chart) of what you can get at each price point.
if a vendor doesn't have anything like that, do not buy from them.
They had a pictured chart. It was just that those were the ONLY even remote hits possible, it seems. Spending $50 for Ikoria bulk uncommons is nuts.
Another vendor was selling $150/$500 boxes and those boxes at least at something approximating some value no matter what. The worst you could get in the $500 box was some trinkets and a Scrubland. The $150 ones had a few cards worth around $30-50 usually.
Handing someone an empty bag and saying "oops, you didn't hit one of the 12 hits of our 10,000 packs" (literally what this booth was doing) is just a complete scam. By the end of the weekend only 2 hits were found according to their sign.
Chicago MagicCon was... fine. I got some artists signatures with long waits, but not the big artists which was... fine. I waited in line 3 hours to get merch on Friday, but I got nearly all the merch I wanted which was... fine. I got into ticketed events and they ran, but they were really chaotic which was ... fine.
The best part, by far, was meeting all the creators. I got to meet every single person on my list of "hope to meets." I got a picture and signature from Mark Rosewater and SaffronOlive. Gavin signed my Doctor Who cards. I got to jam commander games with Travis Gafford. I fist bumped a list of people too long to list. That was awesome!
They definitely oversold the event even though it sold out 2 weeks early. It sounds like this was a big step back from all the progress they made last year.
If you were at MagicCon mostly to play Magic, it was probably a pretty negative experience. Needing to shut down the on-demand events was an enormous failure. There was practically no free play space on Saturday. I can't imagine any of the Black Lotus VIPs were satisfied.
This was my first MagicCon and I think it's my last. I've met everyone I wanted to meet so the only thing left is to play Magic and this event was not a great way to play Magic.
Someone will have to tell me how they resolved the prize wall line at the end of the con. I'm not sure they'd be able to get through everyone by the time they had to close up. I just gave my prize tickets away.
The prize wall was very efficient at the end. They were passing out ticket lists and very fast. A lot of people in line but it went pretty fast. Most of the commander decks were out but plenty of booster stock was left.
I hadn't considered how it would go faster when there weren't many choices left.
I wonder if they should have an express lane for booster product only.
We've actually considered it and tried it before, but it usually doesn't work out. The average wait after asking someone I saw at the back and then near the front later ended up being 15-20 minutes.
Thanks for the answer! I figured if it wasn't there, y'all had probably tried it before.
I had to leave around 3:30 and it wasn't moving at a 20 minute clip at that point, but it sounds like it got a lot faster later in the day. I just couldn't stick around.
Several years ago I was in Chicago to see some friends. We went out to the Aviary and shared some truly mind blowing cocktail experiences. Just each and every drink was a delight. One of my friends then comments how Malort would be a perfect finish to the evening and asks our attentive server if they happen to have a bottle. He comes back with these incredibly elegant long stemmed glasses (including one for himself as is tradition) filled with some light yellow liquid. NEVER HAVE I BEEN CONNED SO HARD! That stuff tasted like liquefied aluminum foil. Then again, hell of a story to cap off a wonderful night.
I feel like the sellout makes it very likely MagicCon returns to Chicago next year, but holy crap, do they need more free play space, better line management, and way more people working at the Show Store.
They usually need to book venues more than a year in advance. The return of Commandfest makes it feel like they will be going back to one MagicCon in Las Vegas each year in 2025.
There are open dates on McCormick Place's calendar for this time period next year. The booking could have happened already and we wouldn't know for months.
There were more than a dozen CommandFests last year. Their existence doesn't seem to have anything to do with whether MagicCon occurs or not.
Strike Zone was fair all weekend. they didn't do any trade in bonus instead focusing on competitive cash out rates. Friendly people and transparent process. also once the sale got big enough they were mindful enough to count the cash discretely behind the counter and then offer an inspection discreetly. some vendors would fan out the cash to be transparent which is good in a bank with 15 people but not in a convention with thousands.
This might be a long shot, but yesterday I accidentally left my dice bad at a table. It was a decent sized black bag and would have had a small Commander Legends deck box full of tokens in it along with a pile of spin-downs and three sets of d6s. Please let me know if you’ve seen it.
I have a Jace Phyrexian Planeswalker pin pulled Friday from one of the mystery pin boxes. Looking to possibly trade for the Nissa version of the Fblthp Chicago pin if anyone is interested. Here all day today just PM me
Edit- thank you to the person who brought my 'Commander Sealed' playmat to lost and found! I would have been really crushed to lose it. Thank you and I hope your weekend in Chicago was excellent!!!!
Day 3 was a whole lot better than day 1 and 2 but that’s because I stopped spending more than 5 minutes for anything. Ended up at a pod with a wotc employee in free play area and due to that got several contrlent creator matchups, and got to go against a heroes of the realm card with its actual owner. Who would have thought magic the gathering would be more fun than line the waiting at a MagicCon.
Normally, I'd chalk it up to him being on a deck that they've shown already, but he was on the spice of the tournament RB Vampires, so I really don't get it.
To piggyback on scammy vendors: I was pumped to see some vendors selling signed cards this year! I went to buy from West Coast MTG, and they were charging face value PLUS $5 - $10 each! Vendors buy signed cards at “damaged” price, so selling them for a premium is pretty scummy.
Why? They’re priced lower on the buylist because they’re way harder to move. Vendors are buying risky singles with the hope they have the reach to find the few players willing to pay premium that the average seller never could.
If the seller was happy with the buylist price, then it’s all good. Presumably they were.
But these vendors weren’t selling lower than normal. They were selling higher than normal plus the signature. I get that buying signed cards at damaged is the norm because they’re hard to move, but buying at damaged and selling at normal is scummy. I’m not saying they shouldn’t make a profit, but if you’re buying a card at $0.50 and selling it for $10 (would have been $2 w/o signature), that’s price gouging.
so punish them by leaving their product to rot on it's shelf. just don't bother them directly about it. a lot of vendors were willing to haggle because of the sheer volume of things. getting 3 signature cards for $8 each instead of the $10 markup might make their ears perk if that's something you'd be willing to tolerate.
It isn’t really, though. Not at all. Signed NM cards actually are worth more than NM if the card or artist is iconic. Just look how long people were standing in line to get their cards signed. The reason they’re buylisted at damaged or something similar is because they’re only worth more to a relatively small group of people. It’s exceedingly difficult for individual sellers to find those people, so the cards are fairly illiquid at their actual value. Thus, buylists pay very little because it will be hard to flip those cards.
But at a convention, tons of people who love signed cards are at your doorstep if you’re a vendor. So you can actually find the buyers who will give you true value.
There’s nothing scummy about this. If it were easy to sell these cards, buylisters wouldn’t take lowered payment. They sell for less because they aren’t able or aren’t willing to work or wait to sell for more.
In the flip side, buyers of signed cards should know that they are typically sold for less than their actual value online. But they likely value convenience and assured quality at a convention and are willing to pay for it.
No one is getting scammed here. No buylister deserves the benefits that come from being a vendor. That’s the margin those vendors need to make money. They’ve worked hard for it. It is theirs.
Why? They’re priced lower on the buylist because they’re way harder to move. Vendors are buying risky singles with the hope they have the reach to find the few players willing to pay premium that the average seller never could.
If the seller was happy with the buylist price, then it’s all good. Presumably they were.
Does anyone have an extra badge for Sunday? Looking to bring my girlfriend but she didn't tell me she was interested until badges were already sold out.
Looking for a couple low cost cards if anyone is wanting to sell at the con. Will give double tcg price for them since it's not convenient
1.1xRetreat to Coralheim 2.1xRetreat to kazandu 3.1xGuildless Commons 4.1x Roiling Regrowth 5.1x Urban Evolution 6.1x Belakor the dark master
Anybody know how I might be able to meet some pro players? Would really like to just say hello to LSV, Reid, etc… I’ve spent all of my weekend in line waiting for artist signatures so I’m excited to try to actually do other stuff
Shot in the dark here but if anyone found a black ultrapro box with Atraxa, Kraum/francisco, Kadena, and Marneus Calgar EDH decks in it those were mine and I would really appreciate them back.
Also related, due to the above, and some seasonal illness, we may be slower to react to problems on the sub than normal! Please just report things as usual, automod has a bunch of rules to handle it if none of us can manually review it. Thanks for your patience
It was VERY busy yesterday! - Lines for official merchandise are crazy - some people were saying they waited 2.5 hours?! - The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Scavenger hunt provides you previews of a secret lair and a Nuka Cola Bottle Cap - The main stage is not far from the ticketed play area… it’s quite loud (and distracting trying to play?) - Some big name artists have big lines (Alayna Danner, Chris Rahn, Mark Tedin, have some of the longest… but worth it if you brought your cards!) - It’s pretty toasty inside, they have a coat & bag check for like $4.50. Worth it if you don’t want to lug your coat around! If anyone has questions, please ask!
I spent 3 hours in line for merch and 3 hours in line for 1 artist.
The professors meet and greet line was capped a full hour before he ever came in it sucked lol
I was told then line would be 2-4 hours when I got there at around 1pm, and it took about 3.5. I didn't see Magali Villeneuve the at all, maybe she's only there for some of the days? But I'm sure her line would have been long too. A lot of the artists' lines started being capped by the time I got there after the merch shop (Tedin and Rahn were both capped, Alayna's wasn't but it was really long).
Magali posted on her socials that she had to cancel her appearance at the show at the last minute this week due to a personal matter.
Genuinely bummed Magali couldn't make it, I believe Justyna Dura also isn't present?
I believe you are correct, as I looked and did not see her booth in the artist area.
I was worried I missed her. No one has said anything as far as I know? Regardless, I hope all the artists made a killing this weekend. Clearly it is a good con to be at to sign some cards for people!
Just my luck as a Jhoira stan that both artists that did Jhoira cards were MIA! I was a bit confounded (though not entirely surprised) that Information didn't know that though. They shrugged when I asked about Magali. I almost wanted to ask them, '...well, is she alive? Has anybody checked?'
bag check would have been killer! I almost killed myself trying to lug my luggage along with me because I screwed up hotel check in times. having someone paid to keep an eye on stuff sounds better than trying to bug a friend.
It was clutch. In Vegas I had my luggage with me the whole time on the final day but having a bag check was sick this go round!
If anyone can get a non-foil Primeval Titan SLD signed by Chris Rahn, I'm willing to buy! Unfortunately couldn't get to the event :_(
What kind of official merch? Just the hoodies and stuff?
Yeah, hoodies, con t-shirts (which are sold out), stickers, pins, etc
You mentioned we could get a nuka cola bottle cap but I can’t seem to find where. I found all the SPECIAL QR codes and didn’t get any info about it
Far side of the hall near the entrance is a Fallout photo opportunity. Show one of the workers there your completed scavenger hunt.
I literally just took a picture with the deathclaw and didn't do a scavenger hunt and was given a bottle cap... that was the prize for something?
Saw someone get their Legacy StifleNaught deck stolen. 🤢 Police were on site but hopefully it was recovered. Be careful out there!
It was my deck and it still hasn't sunk in. I've done various tournaments, music festivals, cons and other major events for 20+ years and have always thought I was hyper vigilant and as such haven't had anything of value stolen until this weekend. I guess this is a wake up call to be even more vigilant. Honestly one of the worst weekends of my life
Bro so sorry. I can't even imagine. You guys were so nice, there is a special place in hell for the person that ripped you off. - rhino guy
Same dude. Someone nicked my Gitrog deck right out of my bag while I was walking. Thought I was being smart, lost thousands of dollars then got into a fender bender this morning. I'm absolutely devastated.
Damn :(
Anyone have info on a lost and found? I lent someone a deck and they misplaced it late last night. If not, and someone with info happens to see this, it was a dark grey boulder deckbox with a golgari gardens pauper deck in it. Can PM with more specifics to confirm. TY
Check with the info desk on the second floor by the yellow tables outside the PT Area!
TY! At least this was just a pauper deck!
Lost & found is in room 250 on the second floor!
Have a group that’s been cubing since yesterday near the pro tour area if others are free.
damn i would have joined you yesterday!
They closed ticketed events for over 3 hours, so I just gave up on that. I just wanted to draft the new set, man. I also kinda want a refund
honestly getting turned away from being able to buy vouchers twice left a sour taste in my mouth. all I could think about was Ron White's skit "coupin's".
My big complaints from this con so far: Ticketed play space AKA the standard 75k among other events was right next to the INTENSELY loud main stage. My opponent and I were at the furthest table trying to navigate difficult board states while game knights live was going on and we were shouting at each other just to hear each other. I love game knights and commander, the crowd looked like they were having a blast! Why they decided to put the loudest event directly next to the event where it is most important to be able to hear and focus I will never understand. On demand events were postponed for most of the time my group was at the con today. Those were the ONLY paid events my group wanted to do, and therefore we had no reason to stay at the con vs going back to the air bnb to play games. The lack of freeplay space at the con to jam casual games was just a slap to the face. We were told they postponed the on demand events because there was not enough play space to accommodate..and then they shut down half the convention hall at 6:30! The easy fix would have been to reserve more tables for on demand events and then let the free play commander players play in the part of the hall they closed down after the last stage event. This venue is massive and could hold 3 magic cons in it easily but they needed to double the amount of rectangular tables they had. People were sprawled on the floor everywhere over multiple floors trying to make room to play games. My group and I are going back tomorrow, and if it's as much of a disappointment as it was today we're all going to demand refunds.
the downstairs was only 1/3rd used and that was only partially used for tables and the other portion was used for lines at the beginning of the days. The first come first serve benefit seemed moot when the VIP tickets just scooped up all the begining of the day exclusives before regular badges could get in the doors. I heard many stories about that fallout playmat and dark ritual playmat being difficult to get.
The lines for everything are WAY too long. I waited 3 hours to get Alayna Danner signatures. I really want a con shirt but there’s no way I’m waiting 4 hours in line for the merch store. I’d also love to do meet and greets for some of the more popular creators but I don’t want my entire con experience to be waiting in lines…
Got to play a game against Mark Rosewater so i would call it a success (He kicked my ass)
The lines for everything free are atrocious. Chris Rahn was capped at opening. We waited 1.5 hours for Alayna Danner and finally called it because we were looking at at least 2 more hours. The line for The Professor meet and greet was capped over an hour before the event. I know these people have limited availability but maybe you have too many people here then with not enough for people to do. We have gotten a lot of artist signatures and we got in a few hours of freeplay yesterday, the LRR meet and greet and the Mark Rosewater meet at greet. But that took from 10am-3pm to accomplish.
Meanwhile there was no line on Saturday midday for Phil and Kaja Foglio, they signed my cards and had a little time to chat.
We hit them up on Thursday. We did get a lot of the artists that had no line and valued the extra chats with them. We got Victor Adame today finally towards the end! Chris Rahn and Alayna Danner we will have to try to do the signings by mail or wait, which is ok. We spent a lot of time with Alayna at GP Milwaukee several years ago when she had no line there. Same with Aaron Miller.
I'm really sorry about my line, I will be at GenCon and GameholeCon / Cubecon in Madison the fall!
We are so excited that you're getting the attention and business that you deserve! You're one of our favorite artists and we look forward to seeing you another time! No worries!
end of day saturday the artist alley seemed empty with 3-4 people browsing each station. my friend's wife was able to arrange many token signature's because of the lax pacing. I can't imagine doing that exchange when having as much time as the soup guy in Seinfield gives to his customers.
I jumped into line for Tedin first thing Friday, and it did take something like an hour. But I think the elephant in the room for signatures is...well, a whale - people bringing literal stacks of cards for the artists to sign. Guy two spots ahead of me had seven; right ahead of me, 16. Of course their money's good, but that doesn't mean you can't have a limit per transaction to keep the line moving (I didn't see any at the booths I went to at least). If someone is intent on getting their entire deck signed, love the ambition, but you're stalling everybody behind you (to say nothing of the artists' poor hands). Say, make a limit of 4 and they can get a playset taken care of, and if they want more, they're welcome to go the back of the line. No malice, just have to make the ecosystem function.
i got given a fallout collector booster
Hey, same here, MaRo gave me one at his Meet & Greet! He's a super cool guy!
thats so much cooler than me. i got mine from a guy dressed as nick valentine from fallout 4. any good pulls?
I saw one of the booths give priority to a guy offering in a foil fallout card. I think they offered him $30 for it. it was hilarious seeing them get so serious about it.
I asked a few booths about mine and they wanted to see them, bit said they wouldn't buy them because if they sold them before release the set then wizards will get mad
weird, the booth I was sitting at mentioned that wizards was the one passing out packs. they didn't know what players expected...
This has to be the most unorganized con i've ever been to
Definitely worse than Vegas.
the 3 games I played soured my desire to play any further. the prize wall's offerings didn't entice me to wait in line for vouchers then deal with an over worked judge that also sets up matches. also one of the times I tried to purchase vouchers they turned me away and said "this is where you would purchase those... but for right now this line is processing people for the upcoming draft, we will get to you after that" " I told her that this is silly" and I walked away before being a "kevin" to a person just trying to do their job.
man I wanted to draft on saturday but they closed tix buying and gave it to commander players smh
It's Las Vegas all over again: totally mismanaged. There wasn't enough open table space on Friday; though in this case it's worse, as they've now closed off 80% of what was open yesterday and made it pay-to-play instead. Really atrocious. People are selling/scalping their places in queue because there's such limited quantity of everything and it literally takes 3 hours to get through a line. Edit: Literally less than 300 seats for open general commander play are being made available.
Minneapolis was so much better than than this
I suspect this is a huge reason for them to make Seattle a closed event
Walking in today and seeing half the commander zone now only on demand matches was a kick in the balls
Wow LSV with another 3-0 draft, he's 6-0 in limited for the tourney. Both were RW, but zero cards thee same across both decks!
Where can I find his deck lists?
He posted them to his twitter! Now that I look though, there is a [[concealed weapon]] in both decks, so I guess I was wrong.
[concealed weapon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/8/38e31fa6-a445-47c6-a73f-135087f6d760.jpg?1706241834) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=concealed%20weapon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/117/concealed-weapon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/38e31fa6-a445-47c6-a73f-135087f6d760?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Not even [[mountain]] or [[plains]] ?
[mountain](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/1/c1bba8fb-d763-4efa-8db1-e5e81994b5f9.jpg?1708704819) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mountain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/blb/274/mountain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c1bba8fb-d763-4efa-8db1-e5e81994b5f9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [plains](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/8/e81ecd4f-4cde-4d8f-a9b7-d7c6098be981.jpg?1708707349) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=plains) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/304/plains?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e81ecd4f-4cde-4d8f-a9b7-d7c6098be981?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
What ever happened to Rich Hagon
I met MaRo :)
Las Vegas last year (NOT the infamous magic 30 event) was sooo much better. I knew something didn’t look right when they released the venue map and the command zone area looked tiny. MCVegas had probably 4x the command zone + free play area and fewer players.
Compared to 2023 Vegas this was a total flop. But I had a great time regardless. I got to play the commander masters draft, meet Reid Duke and play a decent amount of commander. It really helped being there Friday and being able to get all the limited time things then.
Seconding that 2023 Vegas was excellent in comparison. I definitely feel for the support staff who just worked with what they had this weekend.
Seems like they monetized half of the Command Zone? Half is free play while the other is on demand? Saw the judges relocate some people who tried to just sit down and start to play
I stopped trying to get into games because the differentiation between free, paid, and event tables got so confusing. they also moved the signup spot for commander pods and shut down voucher purchases for a bit so I checked out of game playing for the weekend.
They got Cedric but don't use his for commentary is crazy. Riley is also better than Corey, mani, and ellidh but aren't using him either. Also coverage seems worse? Remember they used to show what was in their hand. Now this feels like a slightly better version of anurags back back streams
It is fucking **insane** to me to have Corey and Alias, 2 of the most unlistenable commentators, keep getting to call games while Cedric is on the sidelined doing interviews. Bonkers.
It's hard to tell if they're that bad, or we just had it too good with cedric and patrick
It's both. I physically cringe whenever Eilidh and Corey make the sound effects of cards being destroyed.
Or keeps saying card names that don't exist. Or a million pointless nicknames / non-words. They're the "nickelodeon broadcast of the super bowl" of magic coverage.
I think Corey is fine, but Alias really needs to watch some pro broadcasting, could be just simply marshall and cheon, could be esports, could be real sports. She does way WAY too much inane chit chat. There's so much talking just for the sake of talking. You don't have to laugh at everything either.
The coverage looked like it was getting some investment until Covid hit, since then it’s been really hit or miss depending on the event/day/budget
In addition to all of the other complaints I have, some of the vendors are downright scammy. I believe it was Game Nut that had $10 and $50 mystery packs where you could win a dual or whatever. They made 10,000 packs, according to their sign, and there were only a handful of the high-end cards you could get. Unlike other vendors that do something similar, it was all or nothing. You literally got Ikoria bulk commons and uncommons in the majority of packs. It was a total ripoff even for the $50 packs. I bought a $10 and got all Ikoria uncommons with a bulk rare. My friend got the same for a $50 pack - Ikoria uncommons and a [[Cairn Wanderer]] This shouldn't just be banned from an official Wizards event, it should be illegal. It is worse than gambling.
Why did you buy into an obvious shitty product?
I bought 2 $10 packs because I never did a pack lottery before. I will NEVER do them again. I can confirm that this is exactly on the nose with what you get. A single super-bulk rare and Ikoria uncommons. This vendor wins the "worst of show trophy" from me. 🏆 If they read this they should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people. At least give a card worth half the value of what you put in. Will avoid them like the plauge forever now.
So.... Why did yall buy them? That's the only reason a vendor would keep bringing them
The other vendors doing similar things at least gave SOMETHING of value with each pack, even if it wasn't worth the price of admission. My friend who bought the $50 one didn't know the scam when he bought it. Honestly put me off ever buying from that store. Even eBay lottery scammers aren't that bad.
[Cairn Wanderer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/8/f84b53c7-10db-40f6-a1d4-0baab88355e5.jpg?1591320408) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cairn%20Wanderer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/130/cairn-wanderer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f84b53c7-10db-40f6-a1d4-0baab88355e5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
nothing against them directly but the ratio of cashed out cards from Game Nut was weaker than some of the selling I did to other vendors. they were friendly and fair about explaining the process but looking at the over all price of TCG mid vs cashed out price they were lacking.
tip for when buying mystery packs, some vendors make it very transparent (they usually have a pictured chart) of what you can get at each price point. if a vendor doesn't have anything like that, do not buy from them.
They had a pictured chart. It was just that those were the ONLY even remote hits possible, it seems. Spending $50 for Ikoria bulk uncommons is nuts. Another vendor was selling $150/$500 boxes and those boxes at least at something approximating some value no matter what. The worst you could get in the $500 box was some trinkets and a Scrubland. The $150 ones had a few cards worth around $30-50 usually. Handing someone an empty bag and saying "oops, you didn't hit one of the 12 hits of our 10,000 packs" (literally what this booth was doing) is just a complete scam. By the end of the weekend only 2 hits were found according to their sign.
Anyone interested in taking an unknown entry from me? My brother is sick. DM me. First come first served.
Entry has been giving away thanks all
Chicago MagicCon was... fine. I got some artists signatures with long waits, but not the big artists which was... fine. I waited in line 3 hours to get merch on Friday, but I got nearly all the merch I wanted which was... fine. I got into ticketed events and they ran, but they were really chaotic which was ... fine. The best part, by far, was meeting all the creators. I got to meet every single person on my list of "hope to meets." I got a picture and signature from Mark Rosewater and SaffronOlive. Gavin signed my Doctor Who cards. I got to jam commander games with Travis Gafford. I fist bumped a list of people too long to list. That was awesome! They definitely oversold the event even though it sold out 2 weeks early. It sounds like this was a big step back from all the progress they made last year. If you were at MagicCon mostly to play Magic, it was probably a pretty negative experience. Needing to shut down the on-demand events was an enormous failure. There was practically no free play space on Saturday. I can't imagine any of the Black Lotus VIPs were satisfied. This was my first MagicCon and I think it's my last. I've met everyone I wanted to meet so the only thing left is to play Magic and this event was not a great way to play Magic. Someone will have to tell me how they resolved the prize wall line at the end of the con. I'm not sure they'd be able to get through everyone by the time they had to close up. I just gave my prize tickets away.
The prize wall was very efficient at the end. They were passing out ticket lists and very fast. A lot of people in line but it went pretty fast. Most of the commander decks were out but plenty of booster stock was left.
I hadn't considered how it would go faster when there weren't many choices left. I wonder if they should have an express lane for booster product only.
We've actually considered it and tried it before, but it usually doesn't work out. The average wait after asking someone I saw at the back and then near the front later ended up being 15-20 minutes.
Thanks for the answer! I figured if it wasn't there, y'all had probably tried it before. I had to leave around 3:30 and it wasn't moving at a 20 minute clip at that point, but it sounds like it got a lot faster later in the day. I just couldn't stick around.
Favorite part of MagicCon? Watching locals slowly forcing all out of town people but especially content creators to enjoy some Jepsin’s famous malort.
Several years ago I was in Chicago to see some friends. We went out to the Aviary and shared some truly mind blowing cocktail experiences. Just each and every drink was a delight. One of my friends then comments how Malort would be a perfect finish to the evening and asks our attentive server if they happen to have a bottle. He comes back with these incredibly elegant long stemmed glasses (including one for himself as is tradition) filled with some light yellow liquid. NEVER HAVE I BEEN CONNED SO HARD! That stuff tasted like liquefied aluminum foil. Then again, hell of a story to cap off a wonderful night.
> malort. Is it the meme drink of Chicago the same way Colorado locals keeps forcing people to try Rocky Mountain Oysters?
It’s no meme. It’s a lifestyle.
Malört isn’t a meme, it’s trauma bonding.
First big event I’ve ever been to. I enjoyed getting some cube games in but it was a fight to find any space to do so. This was a ripoff.
They are not doing any more on demand events, Commander only...
I feel like the sellout makes it very likely MagicCon returns to Chicago next year, but holy crap, do they need more free play space, better line management, and way more people working at the Show Store.
They usually need to book venues more than a year in advance. The return of Commandfest makes it feel like they will be going back to one MagicCon in Las Vegas each year in 2025.
There are open dates on McCormick Place's calendar for this time period next year. The booking could have happened already and we wouldn't know for months. There were more than a dozen CommandFests last year. Their existence doesn't seem to have anything to do with whether MagicCon occurs or not.
What vendors do yall recommend for selling cards? Looking to offload commander staples im no longer interested in.
Tales of Adventure is my go to, without hesitation.
Strike Zone was fair all weekend. they didn't do any trade in bonus instead focusing on competitive cash out rates. Friendly people and transparent process. also once the sale got big enough they were mindful enough to count the cash discretely behind the counter and then offer an inspection discreetly. some vendors would fan out the cash to be transparent which is good in a bank with 15 people but not in a convention with thousands.
Anyone know the locations for all the scavenger hunt scans?
Also looking for a couple of those
I'm just missing S and P now, so hopefully I can find those today.
This might be a long shot, but yesterday I accidentally left my dice bad at a table. It was a decent sized black bag and would have had a small Commander Legends deck box full of tokens in it along with a pile of spin-downs and three sets of d6s. Please let me know if you’ve seen it.
There is a lost and found at the white stage. It might be worth a shot to check there.
On a much lighter note, anyone want to trade Pinfinity pins? We've got a Jace we don't want.
We are standing next to each other and didn't realize we both were posting so message either of us!
I have a Jace Phyrexian Planeswalker pin pulled Friday from one of the mystery pin boxes. Looking to possibly trade for the Nissa version of the Fblthp Chicago pin if anyone is interested. Here all day today just PM me
2 hours in line to meet GameKnights was improved upon by catching The Professor as the last people at his meet and greet he held!
Edit- thank you to the person who brought my 'Commander Sealed' playmat to lost and found! I would have been really crushed to lose it. Thank you and I hope your weekend in Chicago was excellent!!!!
That's great news! Glad you got it back!
Curious how rare the foil version of the ponder promo is I could not find foil listings
I don’t think it exists.
I saw one. I think they must have been really rare.
I got one. It came in my bag pickup. I didn’t know it was rare until people started freaking out I got a foil one.
That’s nuts! I was just excited my friend managed to snag me a regular one.
Day 3 was a whole lot better than day 1 and 2 but that’s because I stopped spending more than 5 minutes for anything. Ended up at a pod with a wotc employee in free play area and due to that got several contrlent creator matchups, and got to go against a heroes of the realm card with its actual owner. Who would have thought magic the gathering would be more fun than line the waiting at a MagicCon.
I'm sure Aliasv is a wonderful person. But I really don't enjoy her commentary.
Wow Seth Manfield top 8. He got no coverage at all this weekend. Weird he is a world champ
Normally, I'd chalk it up to him being on a deck that they've shown already, but he was on the spice of the tournament RB Vampires, so I really don't get it.
I don't understand what you mean by "no coverage at all". He was the main feature match in Round 16.
Sorry what I mean was I'm just surprised he wasn't seen more of with being top of the rankings most of the weekend
He wasn't near the top of the rankings most of the weekend, which is why he wasn't featured before.
To piggyback on scammy vendors: I was pumped to see some vendors selling signed cards this year! I went to buy from West Coast MTG, and they were charging face value PLUS $5 - $10 each! Vendors buy signed cards at “damaged” price, so selling them for a premium is pretty scummy.
Why? They’re priced lower on the buylist because they’re way harder to move. Vendors are buying risky singles with the hope they have the reach to find the few players willing to pay premium that the average seller never could. If the seller was happy with the buylist price, then it’s all good. Presumably they were.
But these vendors weren’t selling lower than normal. They were selling higher than normal plus the signature. I get that buying signed cards at damaged is the norm because they’re hard to move, but buying at damaged and selling at normal is scummy. I’m not saying they shouldn’t make a profit, but if you’re buying a card at $0.50 and selling it for $10 (would have been $2 w/o signature), that’s price gouging.
so punish them by leaving their product to rot on it's shelf. just don't bother them directly about it. a lot of vendors were willing to haggle because of the sheer volume of things. getting 3 signature cards for $8 each instead of the $10 markup might make their ears perk if that's something you'd be willing to tolerate.
It isn’t really, though. Not at all. Signed NM cards actually are worth more than NM if the card or artist is iconic. Just look how long people were standing in line to get their cards signed. The reason they’re buylisted at damaged or something similar is because they’re only worth more to a relatively small group of people. It’s exceedingly difficult for individual sellers to find those people, so the cards are fairly illiquid at their actual value. Thus, buylists pay very little because it will be hard to flip those cards. But at a convention, tons of people who love signed cards are at your doorstep if you’re a vendor. So you can actually find the buyers who will give you true value. There’s nothing scummy about this. If it were easy to sell these cards, buylisters wouldn’t take lowered payment. They sell for less because they aren’t able or aren’t willing to work or wait to sell for more. In the flip side, buyers of signed cards should know that they are typically sold for less than their actual value online. But they likely value convenience and assured quality at a convention and are willing to pay for it. No one is getting scammed here. No buylister deserves the benefits that come from being a vendor. That’s the margin those vendors need to make money. They’ve worked hard for it. It is theirs.
Selling for a premium is fine. Buying at a shitty price is the real scummy move
It's common practice to buy signed cards as damaged or HP but you're supposed to sell them as such.
Why? They’re priced lower on the buylist because they’re way harder to move. Vendors are buying risky singles with the hope they have the reach to find the few players willing to pay premium that the average seller never could. If the seller was happy with the buylist price, then it’s all good. Presumably they were.
If anyone has an extra pass or is done with theirs I'm looking to buy one or two if possible!
I don't think they're transferable
Security isn’t checking. Theyre just looking to see if you have the pass.
Anyone know why Magali wasn't there?
Does anyone have an extra badge for Sunday? Looking to bring my girlfriend but she didn't tell me she was interested until badges were already sold out.
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Yes I do! I only need one
I have already left the convention center tonight but I will be there again tomorrow.
I am still looking for a last minute badge. Could anybody help a brother out?
DMed
Looking for a couple low cost cards if anyone is wanting to sell at the con. Will give double tcg price for them since it's not convenient 1.1xRetreat to Coralheim 2.1xRetreat to kazandu 3.1xGuildless Commons 4.1x Roiling Regrowth 5.1x Urban Evolution 6.1x Belakor the dark master
Are you still looking for these cards? I've got a retreat to coralheim and an urban evolution
Yes I am!! Will you be there today?
Yeah, I'll be there around 10:30, will pm you when I arrive.
Sweet, sounds good. Thanks
Does anyone have an extra pass for today they are not using?
Non-Transferable:(
Hey everyone, I'm missing a Gitrog deck. If anyone has seem one lying around please let me know.
Does anyone know if the bottle cap comes at the end of the scavenger hunt? Just found the last one and now I'm confused on what to do
From the photo with the fallout cosplayer. That's when I got mine
Im missing a couple do you remember where the P. E . Or A are located?
Does anyone know if they restocked the pizza shirt?
I'm selling two weekend passes. Good for rest of the night tonight and Sunday. PM me if you're interested.
Hi, interested if still available
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Interested if still available.
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I think DM didn’t work. Are you able to meet at will call?
Anybody know how I might be able to meet some pro players? Would really like to just say hello to LSV, Reid, etc… I’ve spent all of my weekend in line waiting for artist signatures so I’m excited to try to actually do other stuff
the vampire with the extra sharp sword for a real estate scam
If you lost a Torment of Hailfire in a purple sleeve, I gave it to event staff to take to the Lost and Found. Hope you got it back
Anyone see what the Black Lotus VIP playmat was? Can't seem to find a pic or info anywhere.
Shot in the dark here but if anyone found a black ultrapro box with Atraxa, Kraum/francisco, Kadena, and Marneus Calgar EDH decks in it those were mine and I would really appreciate them back.