Magic has always been planeswalkers battling each other. Players are planeswalkers.
Correction my friend, before Lorwyn was designed Magic had always been about Wizards battling each other now it's Planeswalkers. If you don't remember you can always Google for it I suppose.
The idea that Players who are Planeswalkers controlling Planeswalkers just seems like a very bad idealogical gimmick that WoTC is doing nowadays, but most players don't really care that much about that aspect so yeah.
I suppose Planeswalkers gives Magic more of a World of Warcraft TCG feel to it but it's nothing special. I don't really care that much about running Planeswalkers in general at least it's not a requirement like Jace, the Mind Sculptor was in Standard.
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"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
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Nah, but I am curious if they are going back a bit on the "we're only going to have about 10-12 central PW characters we're going to keep using.
I'm happy if they don't give us more than 5 a block, and it's nice to have things freshened up in M12 a bit... but I agree that it feels a little weird. I would have rather then give us Nissa, Chandra 2, and Mind Sculptor in M12 instead of the new guys.
Hrmm, my thoughts on the 10-12 central planeswalker characters that they are going to keep using... Thus far we have Ajani, Jace, Liliana (as of INN), Chandra, Garruk, Sorin (as of Dark Ascension), Elspeth, Tezzeret, Sarkhan each that have or will be seeing more than one different version. As far as main characters go, I would point to the original 5, Sorin, Elspeth, Tezzeret, and Nicol Bolas. The rest I wouldnt exactly call primary planeswalker characters.
As for them reusing Nissa instead of a new garruk, given storylines and such, I think that would have been poor, especially with how restrictive Nissa was in what sorts of decks it could be used in. The second version of Chandra just wasnt that great in the grand sceme of things, the new chandra is miles better. And Jace the Mind Sculptor? Really? Honestly Im glad they were smart enough to recognize in advance that that would have been a bad idea, especially since they banned Jace TMS. Talk about the ultimate epic fail, printing a card in a core set following having to ban the card in standard, I can just imagine how poorly that would have gone over.
Correction my friend, before Lorwyn was designed Magic had always been about Wizards battling each other now it's Planeswalkers. If you don't remember you can always Google for it I suppose.
The idea that Players who are Planeswalkers controlling Planeswalkers just seems like a very bad idealogical gimmick that WoTC is doing nowadays, but most players don't really care that much about that aspect so yeah.
I suppose Planeswalkers gives Magic more of a World of Warcraft TCG feel to it but it's nothing special. I don't really care that much about running Planeswalkers in general at least it's not a requirement like Jace, the Mind Sculptor was in Standard.
actually... you'd be the one mistaken. there are articles by richard garfield, the rule books from the starter decks, all kinds of learn to play guides, that all say you're a planeswalker from as far back as revised. so this isn't a new concept at all.
also... you're not supposed to be a planeswalker controlling another planeswalker, you're a planeswalker who ally'd themself with another. hence the loyalty counters. yes. you control their abilities, but the cards can't really choose to use themselves now can they?
The funny thing about the people saying we have too many planeswalkers is hilarious. 10-12 out of how many individual cards? So you are saying you would want more planeswalkers like JTMS because the number of them are far less like 1-2...that would be no fun...every single deck would be running those 1-2 planeswalkers...have fun playing two color magic.....seriously people. 10-12 planeswalkers is a good amount as it gives you options to building decks.
Correction my friend, before Lorwyn was designed Magic had always been about Wizards battling each other now it's Planeswalkers. If you don't remember you can always Google for it I suppose.
One thing I hate about planeswalkers is that it can be really easy to generate a slippery slope effect with them... the longer they stay out, the harder it is to get to them and the more card advantage/board presence they generate. I hate slippery slope effects in games in general, and I believe they should be avoided or at least mitigated when possible.
Aaron Forsythe once wrote an entire article about the dangers of repetitive effects and highlighted Umezawa's Jitte (back when it was considered ridiculous) as being a culprit of repetitive effects being too powerful. As Jace TMS has shown, repetitive effects when pushed hard enough are just too strong for the game, and planeswalkers represent the greatest risk. This is also a big reason why I am not a fan of the design in planeswalkers like Garruk 2.0 and Elspeth 1.0; they generate card advantage + board presence while building loyalty AND protecting themselves at the same time.
To tie this back to what you said Shade, I would likely say no. The bigger issue is making sure enough feasible answers exist at all times for planeswalkers. It's good Wizards learned the hard way of what happens when cards like Oblivion Ring and Pithing Needle aren't around.
It is very hard to build a planeswalker that's balanced flavorful and useful without being grossly overpowered. Jace, the Mindsculptor was definitely "wrong" in terms of what they did (and Elspeth, Knight Errant was borderline overpowered). Planeswalkers like Garruk Wildspeaker, Koth, of the Hammer, and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas have all been excellent additions to the game. With threats like Beast Within, Hex Parasite, and Phyrexian Revoker, planeswalkers have cards to keep them in check.
However, when you try to print too many, you're left with a ton of useless planeswalkers which is why I think people feel overwhelmed with them. If you had 5-6 planeswalkers (forgetting their alternate versions), i think it would be far less overwhelming. We would also avoid horrors like Sorrin Markov, Chandra 2.0, and Sarkhan, the Mad.
Cutting planeswalkers down a bit and making the ones you want in the set more competitive and flavorful would be a step in the right direction.
I think your eyes are too blinded by "relevance in competitive formats".
Without those so called "horrors" new and interesting things don't get tried. Sarkhan, the Mad might not see lots of tournament play, but he broke ground and let Wizards see what can be done with Planeswalkers and where they can be pushed. Better underpowered/underused that obviously overpowered and over-utilized.
Sarkhan the Mad probably is happily sitting in some casual dragon decks right not. Heck, I'm guessing some guy playing a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund centered deck is running him and Vol, just cause he likes the dragons.
Sorin is nowhere near as horrible as you suggest- it's a strong card with strong abilities... that just happens to be overcosted for what standard wants. I'm certain he'll be well loved in casual decks... and I already know he's feared in Commander. I've played him out and became automatic target until they were positive one of them wasn't getting their life reset down to ten.
Chandra Ablaze is not a horrible card... she's just too costly to make any sort of dent into the competitive formats without a whole bunch of help.
I'd be willing to bet that if you dropped the CMC of each of those Planeswalkers by 2, people would be gushing about how awesome and or broken they are.
Far better that they be there, be interesting, but be just on the edge of viablity than they be one of the sole factors that distorts the health of the game around them.
Magic has always been planeswalkers battling each other. Players are planeswalkers.
Come on, you know what I mean.
It's because of the
1. Set up for playing PW
2. Protect your PW
3. Kill your opponent with your PWs repetetive spells
I know what I am supposed to be due to flavor reasons, but I can chose to ignore that. I can not chose to ignore the "Planeswalker - XYZ" permanent in play, since it will kill me.
Recently? I don't know what format you've been playing, because not many of the competitive standard decks are playing planeswalkers. Using the top decks form the SCG Seattle Standard open:
I'm talking about decks like superfriends etc., which were quite popular. Even then, having one PW on the one side of the table and another one on the other side already triggers that assumption of mine, that's why I said "but that's probably just me".
That being said... It's become better. I know recent topdecks don't use PWs as much as Titans (another story, but also one that makes me sad), and I quite like the fact that they don't. Printing O-Ring was a step into the right direction, too.
Imho, Mythics, even non-PWs, should be big, splashy and fun to play on the kitchen table, but not show up in Standard. I mean, sure, you can give them huge bodies (Emrakul) and big effects (Lorthos), you can even make them your friends (PWs), but that should be balanced by casting cost.
Keep the srs busness at rare-level... and everything's fine. Wizards could even start to print 5 PWs every (core)set. Don't mind. Plus, playing the game would be cheaper...
I'm actually quite glad that seems to be the direction they will be taki... oh hello Titans. Well, noone and nothing's perfect. But overall, they do.
I think WoTC is overdoing it with sorceries and creatures, but planeswalkers is definitely not being overdone. Actually, they're doing it a little too slowly and subtly for my taste. I want an all-planeswalker set. Now that I think about it, I may have to develop a petition to force WoTC to make an all-planeswalker set.
The top 8s of the 3 biggest standard tournaments this past weekend (AUS, FRA nats, and SCG) had a total of 35 planeswalkers between them (maindeck only), coming out to 1.45 PWs per deck. Hardly overboard.
There are answers to the planeswalkers that exist, and none of them are REALLY overpowered.
...Imho, Mythics, even non-PWs, should be big, splashy and fun to play on the kitchen table, but not show up in Standard. I mean, sure, you can give them huge bodies (Emrakul) and big effects (Lorthos), you can even make them your friends (PWs), but that should be balanced by casting cost.
Keep the srs busness at rare-level... and everything's fine. Wizards could even start to print 5 PWs every (core)set. Don't mind. Plus, playing the game would be cheaper...
...
You nailed it right here. If anything there are not enough planeswalkers available so any deck with them looks like the next deck with them (standard) but if the mythics were splashy EDH and kitchen table cards not standard must haves then we would see what I think is an improvement in deck design and game play.
They dropped the ball with JTMS, that we all know, but all in all the Planewalker card type has been successful I think.
They average out to about 1.5 walkers per deck looking a tournament results as others have stated so they hardly dominate the scene, but definitely hold a presence. This is basically what we should all want to see, not everyone has a walker buddy or host of buddies in their decks, but on average the buddies are being played.
On the slippery slope topic, I think this is particularly relevant and why the most balanced walkers have one or no (+) abilities with the rest being (-). This makes the slope less slippery. The problems have been walkers that deviated from the model, mainly JTMS and Elspeth 1.0. While not every walker should follow the same pattern, it is important that deviations are treated very carefully in testing and development.
Elspeth 1.0 was perfectly fine, though. Both of its + abilities lent to tightly focused strategies anyhow - it made for a powerful, but not overwhelming, and not excessively flexible, win conditions.
Jace demanded a presence in every blue deck ever, regardless of what you were planning to do with it. You simply would not succeed without him - not when you're facing him down instead. That's exactly why Jace was a blunder.
As it is? My complaint is how they affect Limited. You see a Planeswalker in your opening pack, and you HAVE to go that color. They go beyond being bombs - often, they'll outright trump bombs. Even Jace 3.0 is hard to deal with - he might never see play in Constructed, but he'll wreck your deck in Draft and Sealed.
I'm talking about decks like superfriends etc., which were quite popular. Even then, having one PW on the one side of the table and another one on the other side already triggers that assumption of mine, that's why I said "but that's probably just me".
That being said... It's become better. I know recent topdecks don't use PWs as much as Titans (another story, but also one that makes me sad), and I quite like the fact that they don't. Printing O-Ring was a step into the right direction, too.
Yeah, planeswalkers have been kind of bad up until Jace was banned.
But titans seem to have been balanced out too. I'm not sure what stopped the reign of Valakut, but Primeval Titan is the only one that sees any play now. Caw Blade kind of uses Sun Titan every once in a while.
Imho, Mythics, even non-PWs, should be big, splashy and fun to play on the kitchen table, but not show up in Standard. I mean, sure, you can give them huge bodies (Emrakul) and big effects (Lorthos), you can even make them your friends (PWs), but that should be balanced by casting cost.
Keep the srs busness at rare-level... and everything's fine. Wizards could even start to print 5 PWs every (core)set. Don't mind. Plus, playing the game would be cheaper...
I'm actually quite glad that seems to be the direction they will be taki... oh hello Titans. Well, noone and nothing's perfect. But overall, they do.
But people hate when mythics are bad. Look at all the rage over Time Reversal.
And if only rares and below were tournament viable, then wizards would never make any money because there'd be an abundance of $5 staples everywhere and every deck would cost $40. It's bad when competitive magic is too expensive because nobody can play it, but it's bad when it's too cheap because Wizards doesn't make money off it.
But titans seem to have been balanced out too. I'm not sure what stopped the reign of Valakut, but Primeval Titan is the only one that sees any play now. Caw Blade kind of uses Sun Titan every once in a while.
Yeah, except for the Grave Titans from the UB decks at Japan nationals, the Inferno Titans in the RUG decks and Valakut decks, and the frost titans in RUG decks.
Yeah, except for the Grave Titans from the UB decks at Japan nationals, the Inferno Titans in the RUG decks and Valakut decks, and the frost titans in RUG decks.
They all see play
Well that's my fault for not checking more than the SCG Seattle Open. Stupid other countries. Or checking any valakut decklists because I thought they only ran primeval.
And if only rares and below were tournament viable, then wizards would never make any money because there'd be an abundance of $5 staples everywhere and every deck would cost $40. It's bad when competitive magic is too expensive because nobody can play it, but it's bad when it's too cheap because Wizards doesn't make money off it.
actually, your statement here interests me...
i mean, Wizards obviously doesn't make any money off the second hand market..... so do these singles prices actually make a difference?
if they are too expensive, arguably so!
but cheap? i don't think so. if cards are desirable, they become more expensive, no matter what rarity they are. just look at some of the "power uncommons" from the last few blocks. not to mention the rares. bloodghast is pretty narrowly used but still commands a good price. other more versatile cards are very expensive at 'rare' rarity.
i honestly don't think wizards would lose out or benefit considerably from lowering the rarity of certain standard-viable cards.
don't take me wrong though, i'm perfectly happy with playable cards being across all rarities. it gives the game some value. opening a mythic is exciting, just as it should be! there's some attached value if the card is "good" which you don't get when you open a janky unplayable rare, which adds to the excitement.
overall i think they've got it about right. not to mention keeping limited balanced.
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I don't think planeswalkers are more annoying than any good creature (grave titan or baneslayer in their prime). What is annoying is how people get all excited/mad at them. All of the m12 guys are wayyyy overpriced. 3 25 dollar cards that aren't in a deck. for a while now.
The idea that Players who are Planeswalkers controlling Planeswalkers just seems like a very bad idealogical gimmick that WoTC is doing nowadays, but most players don't really care that much about that aspect so yeah.
you're not supposed to be a planeswalker controlling another planeswalker, you're a planeswalker who ally'd themself with another. hence the loyalty counters. yes. you control their abilities, but the cards can't really choose to use themselves now can they?
In addition to the loyalty counters, see Perhaps You've Met My Cohort. The flavor text on the scheme is perfect: "I'm calling in a favor from an old friend. Once you're all dead, I'll consider the matter settled."
And if only rares and below were tournament viable, then wizards would never make any money because there'd be an abundance of $5 staples everywhere and every deck would cost $40. It's bad when competitive magic is too expensive because nobody can play it, but it's bad when it's too cheap because Wizards doesn't make money off it.
Wizards makes no money off the secondary market, which is where the singles are sold. Wizards makes money off packs/boxes, precon decks, and peripherals. So, cheap singles means little to Wizards. (Considering it's already cheaper to buy a chase rare as a single than to buy the number of packs required for a 50% chance at opening that same card.)
Also, if mythics weren't tournament playable, it would be the non-mythic chase rares shooting up to silly prices on the secondary market. Just like before mythics existed. Prices on cards are determined by availability and desirability. Mythics are less common than rares, true, adding to price due to availability, but if no mythics were tournament playable, their desirability would drop dramatically, reducing their price. Assuming that rares in the same set were tournament playable, the mythics would fall below the rares in price.
If Wizards didn't care about the secondary market, there would be a lot more reprints from the earlier eras, you realize, simply because it'd be an easy, easy way to sell a lot of packs at once. The fact is, The_Muffin_Man has it right - a dynamic secondary market has a direct effect on the primary market.
I hate the addition of a new card type, and think it was very unhealthy for the game.
But even more than that, I agree that they really warp limited. You can pull a third pack planeswalker off color, and guess what, you are in that color, because that PW single handedly wins you the game.
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Correction my friend, before Lorwyn was designed Magic had always been about Wizards battling each other now it's Planeswalkers. If you don't remember you can always Google for it I suppose.
The idea that Players who are Planeswalkers controlling Planeswalkers just seems like a very bad idealogical gimmick that WoTC is doing nowadays, but most players don't really care that much about that aspect so yeah.
I suppose Planeswalkers gives Magic more of a World of Warcraft TCG feel to it but it's nothing special. I don't really care that much about running Planeswalkers in general at least it's not a requirement like Jace, the Mind Sculptor was in Standard.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Hrmm, my thoughts on the 10-12 central planeswalker characters that they are going to keep using... Thus far we have Ajani, Jace, Liliana (as of INN), Chandra, Garruk, Sorin (as of Dark Ascension), Elspeth, Tezzeret, Sarkhan each that have or will be seeing more than one different version. As far as main characters go, I would point to the original 5, Sorin, Elspeth, Tezzeret, and Nicol Bolas. The rest I wouldnt exactly call primary planeswalker characters.
As for them reusing Nissa instead of a new garruk, given storylines and such, I think that would have been poor, especially with how restrictive Nissa was in what sorts of decks it could be used in. The second version of Chandra just wasnt that great in the grand sceme of things, the new chandra is miles better. And Jace the Mind Sculptor? Really? Honestly Im glad they were smart enough to recognize in advance that that would have been a bad idea, especially since they banned Jace TMS. Talk about the ultimate epic fail, printing a card in a core set following having to ban the card in standard, I can just imagine how poorly that would have gone over.
actually... you'd be the one mistaken. there are articles by richard garfield, the rule books from the starter decks, all kinds of learn to play guides, that all say you're a planeswalker from as far back as revised. so this isn't a new concept at all.
also... you're not supposed to be a planeswalker controlling another planeswalker, you're a planeswalker who ally'd themself with another. hence the loyalty counters. yes. you control their abilities, but the cards can't really choose to use themselves now can they?
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Aaron Forsythe once wrote an entire article about the dangers of repetitive effects and highlighted Umezawa's Jitte (back when it was considered ridiculous) as being a culprit of repetitive effects being too powerful. As Jace TMS has shown, repetitive effects when pushed hard enough are just too strong for the game, and planeswalkers represent the greatest risk. This is also a big reason why I am not a fan of the design in planeswalkers like Garruk 2.0 and Elspeth 1.0; they generate card advantage + board presence while building loyalty AND protecting themselves at the same time.
To tie this back to what you said Shade, I would likely say no. The bigger issue is making sure enough feasible answers exist at all times for planeswalkers. It's good Wizards learned the hard way of what happens when cards like Oblivion Ring and Pithing Needle aren't around.
I think your eyes are too blinded by "relevance in competitive formats".
Without those so called "horrors" new and interesting things don't get tried. Sarkhan, the Mad might not see lots of tournament play, but he broke ground and let Wizards see what can be done with Planeswalkers and where they can be pushed. Better underpowered/underused that obviously overpowered and over-utilized.
Sarkhan the Mad probably is happily sitting in some casual dragon decks right not. Heck, I'm guessing some guy playing a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund centered deck is running him and Vol, just cause he likes the dragons.
Sorin is nowhere near as horrible as you suggest- it's a strong card with strong abilities... that just happens to be overcosted for what standard wants. I'm certain he'll be well loved in casual decks... and I already know he's feared in Commander. I've played him out and became automatic target until they were positive one of them wasn't getting their life reset down to ten.
Chandra Ablaze is not a horrible card... she's just too costly to make any sort of dent into the competitive formats without a whole bunch of help.
I'd be willing to bet that if you dropped the CMC of each of those Planeswalkers by 2, people would be gushing about how awesome and or broken they are.
Far better that they be there, be interesting, but be just on the edge of viablity than they be one of the sole factors that distorts the health of the game around them.
Come on, you know what I mean.
It's because of the
1. Set up for playing PW
2. Protect your PW
3. Kill your opponent with your PWs repetetive spells
I know what I am supposed to be due to flavor reasons, but I can chose to ignore that. I can not chose to ignore the "Planeswalker - XYZ" permanent in play, since it will kill me.
I'm talking about decks like superfriends etc., which were quite popular. Even then, having one PW on the one side of the table and another one on the other side already triggers that assumption of mine, that's why I said "but that's probably just me".
That being said... It's become better. I know recent topdecks don't use PWs as much as Titans (another story, but also one that makes me sad), and I quite like the fact that they don't. Printing O-Ring was a step into the right direction, too.
Imho, Mythics, even non-PWs, should be big, splashy and fun to play on the kitchen table, but not show up in Standard. I mean, sure, you can give them huge bodies (Emrakul) and big effects (Lorthos), you can even make them your friends (PWs), but that should be balanced by casting cost.
Keep the srs busness at rare-level... and everything's fine. Wizards could even start to print 5 PWs every (core)set. Don't mind. Plus, playing the game would be cheaper...
I'm actually quite glad that seems to be the direction they will be taki... oh hello Titans. Well, noone and nothing's perfect. But overall, they do.
The top 8s of the 3 biggest standard tournaments this past weekend (AUS, FRA nats, and SCG) had a total of 35 planeswalkers between them (maindeck only), coming out to 1.45 PWs per deck. Hardly overboard.
There are answers to the planeswalkers that exist, and none of them are REALLY overpowered.
You nailed it right here. If anything there are not enough planeswalkers available so any deck with them looks like the next deck with them (standard) but if the mythics were splashy EDH and kitchen table cards not standard must haves then we would see what I think is an improvement in deck design and game play.
They average out to about 1.5 walkers per deck looking a tournament results as others have stated so they hardly dominate the scene, but definitely hold a presence. This is basically what we should all want to see, not everyone has a walker buddy or host of buddies in their decks, but on average the buddies are being played.
On the slippery slope topic, I think this is particularly relevant and why the most balanced walkers have one or no (+) abilities with the rest being (-). This makes the slope less slippery. The problems have been walkers that deviated from the model, mainly JTMS and Elspeth 1.0. While not every walker should follow the same pattern, it is important that deviations are treated very carefully in testing and development.
Jace demanded a presence in every blue deck ever, regardless of what you were planning to do with it. You simply would not succeed without him - not when you're facing him down instead. That's exactly why Jace was a blunder.
As it is? My complaint is how they affect Limited. You see a Planeswalker in your opening pack, and you HAVE to go that color. They go beyond being bombs - often, they'll outright trump bombs. Even Jace 3.0 is hard to deal with - he might never see play in Constructed, but he'll wreck your deck in Draft and Sealed.
Yeah, planeswalkers have been kind of bad up until Jace was banned.
But titans seem to have been balanced out too. I'm not sure what stopped the reign of Valakut, but Primeval Titan is the only one that sees any play now. Caw Blade kind of uses Sun Titan every once in a while.
But people hate when mythics are bad. Look at all the rage over Time Reversal.
And if only rares and below were tournament viable, then wizards would never make any money because there'd be an abundance of $5 staples everywhere and every deck would cost $40. It's bad when competitive magic is too expensive because nobody can play it, but it's bad when it's too cheap because Wizards doesn't make money off it.
There's a balance and I think we're really close to it now. We've got a good mix of rarities with important cards. Puresteel Paladin, Splinter Twin, Spellskite, Blade Splicer, Grim Lavamancer, and Solemn Simulacrum are all very important in Standard right now and they're all rares. They have a little mythic backup with planeswalkers and a couple titans (and Sword of Feast and Famine), but mostly it's just them.
Commander:
R Daretti, Scrap Savant
BR Olivia Voldaren
BRG Shattergang Brothers
GUR Riku of Two Reflections
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Yeah, except for the Grave Titans from the UB decks at Japan nationals, the Inferno Titans in the RUG decks and Valakut decks, and the frost titans in RUG decks.
They all see play
Well that's my fault for not checking more than the SCG Seattle Open. Stupid other countries. Or checking any valakut decklists because I thought they only ran primeval.
Commander:
R Daretti, Scrap Savant
BR Olivia Voldaren
BRG Shattergang Brothers
GUR Riku of Two Reflections
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
actually, your statement here interests me...
i mean, Wizards obviously doesn't make any money off the second hand market..... so do these singles prices actually make a difference?
if they are too expensive, arguably so!
but cheap? i don't think so. if cards are desirable, they become more expensive, no matter what rarity they are. just look at some of the "power uncommons" from the last few blocks. not to mention the rares. bloodghast is pretty narrowly used but still commands a good price. other more versatile cards are very expensive at 'rare' rarity.
i honestly don't think wizards would lose out or benefit considerably from lowering the rarity of certain standard-viable cards.
don't take me wrong though, i'm perfectly happy with playable cards being across all rarities. it gives the game some value. opening a mythic is exciting, just as it should be! there's some attached value if the card is "good" which you don't get when you open a janky unplayable rare, which adds to the excitement.
overall i think they've got it about right. not to mention keeping limited balanced.
In a way they do.
A higher secondary market means more demand for packs so that people can attempt to crack these chase singles.
See: Zendikar.
Quotes in blog.
In addition to the loyalty counters, see Perhaps You've Met My Cohort. The flavor text on the scheme is perfect: "I'm calling in a favor from an old friend. Once you're all dead, I'll consider the matter settled."
Wizards makes no money off the secondary market, which is where the singles are sold. Wizards makes money off packs/boxes, precon decks, and peripherals. So, cheap singles means little to Wizards. (Considering it's already cheaper to buy a chase rare as a single than to buy the number of packs required for a 50% chance at opening that same card.)
Also, if mythics weren't tournament playable, it would be the non-mythic chase rares shooting up to silly prices on the secondary market. Just like before mythics existed. Prices on cards are determined by availability and desirability. Mythics are less common than rares, true, adding to price due to availability, but if no mythics were tournament playable, their desirability would drop dramatically, reducing their price. Assuming that rares in the same set were tournament playable, the mythics would fall below the rares in price.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
well.... a more active secondary market does exactly as you say..... but a generally more expensive or cheaper market doesn't make any difference.
But even more than that, I agree that they really warp limited. You can pull a third pack planeswalker off color, and guess what, you are in that color, because that PW single handedly wins you the game.