If Standard (should we just call it limited really?) is so poorly selling when its less than half the cost, what would happen if you put MM17 up against Standard sets at parity?
The better format that SHOULD bet he flagship format would make them money? Make Modern (or idealy legacy/vintage but Reserve list bla bla bal) your flagship format then make new sets for exclusively limited/sealed and to add some new spice/flavors to modern.
...and watch Modern/Legacy lose everything you liked about it in the process.
Having a rotating format be your flagship format helps you avoid power creep which helps create some stability in those nonrotating formats. Yes, there's still some power creep that's happened, but it's not like every single set tops the previous one. The removal of older sets creates a natural incentive to get the newer cards. But if you don't rotate, then you have to come up with another way to get players to get those cards, so say hello to power creep and constant bannings! It's the thing everyone complains about in Yu-Gi-Oh: They power creep all the freaking time, and then also constantly ban cards (both as a result of times where power creep goes too far, and also sometimes to get rid of older competitive cards to force players to get the new stuff). If Modern becomes the flagship format, then it'll effectively become rotating like Standard by virtue of power creep (and bannings). Say goodbye to being able to play the same deck for more than a year, because it'll get outclassed by whatever new stuff gets printed.
Basically, if they tried to make Modern or Legacy into the flagship format, then the format would lose pretty much everything people like about it and basically become Standard... except without a bunch of the things that people do like about Standard. Without Standard being the flagship format, you can't have Modern and Legacy be the way they are. Legacy and Modern players should be very happy that Standard is the flagship format because it allows their preferred formats to be the way they are.
That's a really good question. Don't get me wrong, I like the fantasy lore and read some of the text that comes with it. It just isn't my thing. I love Magic because of the infinite intellectual challenge that is deckbuilding. I love the artwork too, and I am cool with it having a story. I just think that when Wizards thought they could wrap how they issue the sets around the story, they came up empty as far as story and the Vorthos thing directly increasing sales. It just didn't happen.
My own opinion is that wizards actually did something right with making the story of the game world easier to understand. The only problem was the story they had when they did this was awful. If this movement was done during the Brothers War, or maybe Urza's Saga times things probably would have been a bit different. Mercadian Masques had a pretty decent story as well. In any case, I feel the planeswalkers are the main issue and that the entire game world got hurt when walkers became too commonplace. It was much better when the players were implied to be the planeswalkers and the heroes of each world were the focus.
I agree with all of this and you know what really gets mep For all of Wizards's and MaRo's talk of making the game resonant to new and potential new players, it seems very odd to me that they would want to plaster planeswalkers, and the word "planeswalker", all over Magic. Why? Because that word means completely nothing to people who aren't already familiar with Magic.
Anyhow, I find that Magic currently puts far too little focus on these worlds which are supposed to be the main draw of having a multiverse, and puts far too much focus on planeswalkers. And the real kicker is that the planeswalker characters they've created aren't complex or interesting enough to viable focuses for a story.
WOTC:"Hey guys here's Jace. He's a telepath with amnesia and he's our mascot."
Me: "Okay is his search for his memories a driving force in his personal story?"
WOTC: "Not at all."
Me: "Um, alright. How about his responsibilities as The Living Guildpact?"
WOTC: "Desk work. Past that? Pfft."
Me: "How about his reason for being a member of the Gatewatch. Why does Jace want to save these various planes?"
WOTC: "He wants to do good things because... He's the protagonist? *shrug?*"
So rather than "Hey our interesting heroes are going to really explore this vast new world" we get "Here's the same people you saw last set but one of 'em is wearing a new hat".
Seriously, Nissa's attempts to change her personal outlook on the world around her is the only good character development we've had out of modern planeswalkers other than Elspeth and Ajani.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
You can't have a non rotating format as the "flagship"- power creep would be too much, the new cards would have to be powerful to have substantial impact and -ooops- one slip it is Eldrazi winter again, followed by pseudo-rotation by banning. There would be no place for, say Humility, or random old card you want to play with, because the new Humility costs 3, and then 2. You can have limited as the flagship, of course, and it does have a prominent role, but that does not drive dealer sales of cards, and so WOTC's "partners" would be very unhappy if constructed Mtg was put into the shade.
That said they could do more to make Standard closer to Modern and Legacy. This obsession with "unfun" experiences hated by new players has driven them down a very blind alley, it leads to a format where people cannot react to a powerful critter/planeswalker strategy or two card combo because they have not put the hate in the environment that allows people to reverse engineer a deck to beat any dominant deck. An absence of quality discard, landhate, taxes and counterspells, and asymmetric hate cards like Null Rod or Rest in Peace means that once you have the best two or three critter shell with Planeswalkers that is your Standard solved.
What they have to do is to understand that yes, it is true that Jimmy Newbie hates having stuff in hand removed before he gets to play with it, and he hates having it in hand and not being able to cast it as someone cast Stone Rain or Armageddon. He may even leave the game after a month or six months if they print the hate because, yes the game is frustrating and doubly so when Jimmy's hand is full of fat critters he can't play. But if he stays in the game regardless of what they print he will soon be leaving and playing commander anyway because that is where the guys like Jimmy, who in the end just wants to cast what is in hand and play big monsters, end up. Jimmy plays Mtg, but your standard scene/draft scene won't benefit by Jimmy Newbie's interest either way. Now imagine Jimmy's cousin Jane Newbie plays the game for the first time and likes it. She gets Hymned or Geddon'ed or COPd. She is not put off, unlike Jimmy, and quite enjoys jamming those cards herself- if you can't beat em, and all that. She plays Standard, and eventually when she gets rich and old she plays the other formats too. Set for ten to twenty years in Mtg, at least until a Mortgage comes begging and she needs a deposit. She contributes to constructed and constructed grows, feeding off itself. The problems have come from trying to please Jimmy over the past few years, who ultimately buggers off anyway at the fifth time of being spanked by Emrakul or just because he lost again. Thing is Jane probably buggers off then as well, because nobody is playing Standard in her LGS. Nobody wins. Eventually all tournament Mtg comes down to stopping people doing their thing, or/and doing yours faster, trying to make a format where that is not the case gives rise to bans after bans, unless you rotate it so quickly that it can't settle. Wizards have said that answers were too weak, but they became weak because they went after Jimmy. It may have worked if commander had not provided an Mtg alternative.
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People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
Well, if the article about deck lists is any indication from Wizards of the Coast, this game is in dire need of a Coup-de-tat on whoever is in charge over there. They honestly think the problem is us players "solving the meta too fast", when the problem is neither the fact the meta gets solved or the players solving it. The problem is they printed and pushed extremely broken crap the last three sets and now they want to blame everyone else except themselves, and I'm really getting sick of this. Do they want people to buy their game or just hate them like Games Workshop?
They break their own standard format, print overpriced pre-constructed products with minimal collectable value, over price the few good things they make because "secondary market" prices seemingly should matter on sealed rng packs...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Issues I have with today's magic. Please note that this is just my personal taste and opinion and it's partly because I got into mtg at certain time so of course I prefer the older ways because who likes changes huh...:)
Note 2 - Despite all the issues, I am still involved in MTG heavily, I just simply switched from tournament to casual and guess what's the best solution if you like old cards more than new?.....yes, I have binders and decks full of the old stuff.
1. Too much of new content.
When I got into the game back in 2007, there were three new sets printed in one year + core set in every second year I think...you could buy boosters, fat pack or one of the PCD. There were some promo cards of course and so on. I felt there is enough time between each set to get to know all the cards, obtain them, play with them and so on. Then around Lorwyn they added first Duel Deck, then after some time first FTV I think, then came another DD, another FTV, then Premium sliver deck, planechase, archenemy, commander, modern masters, conspiracy etc etc etc....now I feel it's so much that makes me loose interest.
2. Functional reprints
I know they make sense in terms of flavor/story, but it bugs me that you can play 12 Llanowar Elves in one deck or 3 in one commander deck. And some feel un-necessary, at least in my eyes. Why print another Coastal tower ...
3. Art and frame
Art feels a bit generic, computer made (there are exceptions). The latest frame is also something I don't like, especially the thick black bottom line of the front side. I have no problem with all the older styles, even future shifted and so on.
4. Masterpiece series
This I actually think it's a good idea, but I would prefer if they made the series smaller, 54 cards is too much imo, this way they will quickly run out of cards to print as masterpieces. Second thing is the design or frame or how to name it...there already exists several different frames, then you have black border/white border, different foil process (FTV) and so on and if you build a deck using all these different card designs, it starts to look odd.
I agree that they are over saturating the market. It seems like every other week there is some new product on the market. I believe slow and steady would be better. It would give players more time to gather resource to buy more of each product. I'm at the point of not buy anything but a few singles, I feel overwhelmed with so much product coming at me.
I don't like the Masterpiece series as it has been implemented, there are to many in each set. I would rather they only do one lottery card per set.
They are over pricing tons of products on the market right now. Both anthologies were priced too high, the masters sets are too high and should be more like 150 a box at most, especially with that pack count, duel decks have basically zero value and are only expensive due to packaging, etc. It's not just saturation of product.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
When I got into the game back in 2007, there were three new sets printed in one year + core set in every second year I think...you could buy boosters, fat pack or one of the PCD. There were some promo cards of course and so on. I felt there is enough time between each set to get to know all the cards, obtain them, play with them and so on. Then around Lorwyn they added first Duel Deck, then after some time first FTV I think, then came another DD, another FTV, then Premium sliver deck, planechase, archenemy, commander, modern masters, conspiracy etc etc etc....now I feel it's so much that makes me loose interest.
2. Functional reprints
I know they make sense in terms of flavor/story, but it bugs me that you can play 12 Llanowar Elves in one deck or 3 in one commander deck. And some feel un-necessary, at least in my eyes. Why print another Coastal tower ...
3. Art and frame
Art feels a bit generic, computer made (there are exceptions). The latest frame is also something I don't like, especially the thick black bottom line of the front side. I have no problem with all the older styles, even future shifted and so on.
4. Masterpiece series
This I actually think it's a good idea, but I would prefer if they made the series smaller, 54 cards is too much imo, this way they will quickly run out of cards to print as masterpieces. Second thing is the design or frame or how to name it...there already exists several different frames, then you have black border/white border, different foil process (FTV) and so on and if you build a deck using all these different card designs, it starts to look odd.
Just want to say first, you made a lot of solid points with each. But the first one resonates really strong with me.
I just look at the staggering amount of releases and think "I'm better off buying singles". As its just too much stuff, got me feeling swamped. Can't just sit around drafting unless I pull some crazy expensive cards out of the draft. Got to worry about affording this supplement, that supplement, the next expansion set in three months, the supplements for that expansion. We had the occasional supplements like Beatdown or Deckmasters, but nothing too crazy and it wasn't regular.
When I got into the game back in 2007, there were three new sets printed in one year + core set in every second year I think...you could buy boosters, fat pack or one of the PCD. There were some promo cards of course and so on. I felt there is enough time between each set to get to know all the cards, obtain them, play with them and so on. Then around Lorwyn they added first Duel Deck, then after some time first FTV I think, then came another DD, another FTV, then Premium sliver deck, planechase, archenemy, commander, modern masters, conspiracy etc etc etc....now I feel it's so much that makes me loose interest.
2. Functional reprints
I know they make sense in terms of flavor/story, but it bugs me that you can play 12 Llanowar Elves in one deck or 3 in one commander deck. And some feel un-necessary, at least in my eyes. Why print another Coastal tower ...
3. Art and frame
Art feels a bit generic, computer made (there are exceptions). The latest frame is also something I don't like, especially the thick black bottom line of the front side. I have no problem with all the older styles, even future shifted and so on.
4. Masterpiece series
This I actually think it's a good idea, but I would prefer if they made the series smaller, 54 cards is too much imo, this way they will quickly run out of cards to print as masterpieces. Second thing is the design or frame or how to name it...there already exists several different frames, then you have black border/white border, different foil process (FTV) and so on and if you build a deck using all these different card designs, it starts to look odd.
Just want to say first, you made a lot of solid points with each. But the first one resonates really strong with me.
I just look at the staggering amount of releases and think "I'm better off buying singles". As its just too much stuff, got me feeling swamped. Can't just sit around drafting unless I pull some crazy expensive cards out of the draft. Got to worry about affording this supplement, that supplement, the next expansion set in three months, the supplements for that expansion. We had the occasional supplements like Beatdown or Deckmasters, but nothing too crazy and it wasn't regular.
I've literally not bought any sealed products outside of commander and probably the origins duel decks because the sets they have been releasing are so horrible value wise that it's just not worth it. From my own perspective, it's like they decided to stick all the good cards into masters sets and have put just 90% junk / crap / garbage everywhere else. Why buy anything at all that is sealed if it's just going to lead to a ton of cards only fit for a paper shredder?
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
When I got into the game back in 2007, there were three new sets printed in one year + core set in every second year I think...you could buy boosters, fat pack or one of the PCD. There were some promo cards of course and so on. I felt there is enough time between each set to get to know all the cards, obtain them, play with them and so on. Then around Lorwyn they added first Duel Deck, then after some time first FTV I think, then came another DD, another FTV, then Premium sliver deck, planechase, archenemy, commander, modern masters, conspiracy etc etc etc....now I feel it's so much that makes me loose interest.
2. Functional reprints
I know they make sense in terms of flavor/story, but it bugs me that you can play 12 Llanowar Elves in one deck or 3 in one commander deck. And some feel un-necessary, at least in my eyes. Why print another Coastal tower ...
3. Art and frame
Art feels a bit generic, computer made (there are exceptions). The latest frame is also something I don't like, especially the thick black bottom line of the front side. I have no problem with all the older styles, even future shifted and so on.
4. Masterpiece series
This I actually think it's a good idea, but I would prefer if they made the series smaller, 54 cards is too much imo, this way they will quickly run out of cards to print as masterpieces. Second thing is the design or frame or how to name it...there already exists several different frames, then you have black border/white border, different foil process (FTV) and so on and if you build a deck using all these different card designs, it starts to look odd.
Just want to say first, you made a lot of solid points with each. But the first one resonates really strong with me.
I just look at the staggering amount of releases and think "I'm better off buying singles". As its just too much stuff, got me feeling swamped. Can't just sit around drafting unless I pull some crazy expensive cards out of the draft. Got to worry about affording this supplement, that supplement, the next expansion set in three months, the supplements for that expansion. We had the occasional supplements like Beatdown or Deckmasters, but nothing too crazy and it wasn't regular.
I've literally not bought any sealed products outside of commander and probably the origins duel decks because the sets they have been releasing are so horrible value wise that it's just not worth it. From my own perspective, it's like they decided to stick all the good cards into masters sets and have put just 90% junk / crap / garbage everywhere else. Why buy anything at all that is sealed if it's just going to lead to a ton of cards only fit for a paper shredder?
The last time I bought a sealed product was the 2011 Commander product. Every other time I just bought the singles I wanted like Burgeoning when it finally climbed downhill in price in the 2016 versions, the new artwork also helped influence my purchase.
I filled it out, but the one thing to keep in mind is they are probably going to interpret the survey in the light of standard. Seriously, though, they need more modern quality reprints in the standard sets to get people buying them. This entire deal of printing almost all noteworthy reprints in a separate overpriced set is ludicrous.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I filled it out. I imagine they look it over 'oh Modern player' and bin it.
Given that Maro said we'd see better answers in the future and what probably 90% of the MtG population expected vs what we got, we can probably replace the word "modern" with "any format other than standard" and probably still be correct.
Ultimately, the problem with magic is that Wizards has turned the game from a TCG into a disposable card game and have relegated the TCG elements to the masters sets. A card game isn't a "Trading card game" when the majority of the cards are not worth anything to trade. Not even commander or pauper is going to help them because they are printing paper shredder worthy fodder like Open Fire, because Lightning Strike wasn't a bad enough Lightning Bolt yet for them. (Why do I get the feeling the progress of making a worse lightning bolt basically shows the slow, inexorable suicide of the R&D department?)
Seriously, I don't even know what the heck I'm looking at on TCG player prices for HOU right now. Champion of Wits is actually really good, but I don't think it matches Torrential Gearhulk + Glimmer of Genius, and with The Scarab God in the format giving everything eternalize in a control shell it seriously hurts the value prospect on anything with eternalize 7 even if it does give a dig 4 deep effect with a 4/4 body.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
A lot of cards "could" have been just uncommons, but today they often ramp these good uncommons up to RARE which somewhat fixes Limited, but it makes for some dull rares.
The mythic slot is made for cards that are supposed to matter in constructed and especially cards that are additionally pushed for "story" reason, cards end up being good, if WotC wants them to be good (looking at cards like Avacyn for example).
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For functional reprints that are identical except the name, i think its lame too.
But the way WotC makes sets now, it changes planes often and specific cards like Llanowar do not exist everywhere, so a new name is appropriate.
Formats like Highlander simply do not work with that in mind, but its generic anyway.
In the past you simply had WAY more reprints so you did not have multiple cards with just different names, that was boring too, so its just a lose-lose situation no matter what, no perfect way to do it.
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For product i must say i really like to have new product around that does NOT contain reprints.
I want new cards as many as i can get, the more the better, as it means more room to play around with.
The massive amount of sets that contain ONLY reprints bothers me, they are completely empty for me, they contain nothing i do not own already and nothing of them is new at all.
If i can just buy a set of ~5 decks that are pre-build i do so and i am done, its like buying singles.
A set like modern masters and the like do absolutely nothing for me, they just flood the market with reprints, i rather have more Commander precons that contain reprints, as these packs are the absolute best go-to product for any casual player WotC has to offer (and entire deck to play of a lot of rares and reasonable useful cards, no other product delivers on that).
That's the thing, though. They can't keep printing new cards all the time like this. They are having to make junk or ever elaborate mouse traps just to keep doing it and it's resulting in cards that no one wants to keep. They are, one way or another, turning their card game into a disposable through fair and it has to stop. It's not even the design of the cards, either. The stock used for the cards is thinner and less durable than stock used in prior sets. I've literally just handled an original capsize and compared it to a modern masters 3 marsh flats, and actually bought a common from MM3 just to try and see how resistant they are to tearing. The newer cards are much easier to wear down and tear than the older cards. They are either cutting costs, or attempting to create obsolescence.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
That's the thing, though. They can't keep printing new cards all the time like this. They are having to make junk or ever elaborate mouse traps just to keep doing it and it's resulting in cards that no one wants to keep. They are, one way or another, turning their card game into a disposable through fair and it has to stop. It's not even the design of the cards, either. The stock used for the cards is thinner and less durable than stock used in prior sets. I've literally just handled an original capsize and compared it to a modern masters 3 marsh flats, and actually bought a common from MM3 just to try and see how resistant they are to tearing. The newer cards are much easier to wear down and tear than the older cards. They are either cutting costs, or attempting to create obsolescence.
Yeah, they do feel a little different. They flex a little easier when you tweak them.
If they are using thinner stock, they're Muntzing. In a product that's endearing to so many people, that's depressing. For a single card, they probably saved about 1/100th a cent on the paper, but compound those savings over 150 million or more cards and the bean counters get dazzled.
I wonder if one of the driving forces is the use of sleeves, especially inners, among the player base. I have a Mishra's Workshop that's seen better days and the perfect fit is probably the only thing holding the fibers together. If the cards last long enough to be sleeved, then all is right with WotC... or at least long enough until that set rotates out anyways.
I'm sure they're counting on players not noticing or caring. They hide behind players wanting to "save the environment" on cards (such as Japan), then they turn around and give us perforated cards.
I double sleeve any card worth keeping, they are going to last forever.
Oh yeah, don't remind me how much I hate the fact that KMC outers have dropped in quality and my entire collection of MTG cards are double sleeved in KMC perfects + outers.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I double sleeve any card worth keeping, they are going to last forever.
Oh yeah, don't remind me how much I hate the fact that KMC outers have dropped in quality and my entire collection of MTG cards are double sleeved in KMC perfects + outers.
All good, I got a Chandra in Foil, and its time even exposed to air was in seconds.
Some product is clearly different and they are produced in the US it seems, paper feels completely different and if you are used to EU cards, its like they are fake cards.
Some product is clearly different and they are produced in the US it seems, paper feels completely different and if you are used to EU cards, its like they are fake cards.
That's what I was thinking when WotC announced the cards for Japan would have different paper. WotC still keeps pretending the world market is like it was in pre-2000. The tubes have essentially abolished regions and the ease of buying cards from different regions equates to a credit card number and a mouse click.
Some product is clearly different and they are produced in the US it seems, paper feels completely different and if you are used to EU cards, its like they are fake cards.
I'm hoping I can find a way to get EU cards then in the US. I'm actually kind of concerned about the paper quality as the imported proxy original dual lands I got for commander are printed on far better stock than the wizard cards. I mean they are glossy on the back so it's easy to tell they are fake, but these things are built like a tank compared to the official cards.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
It's against the rules to promote the sale of fake cards and although alternate artwork proxies are a sort of gray area, it's best not to bring it up. I'm just commenting on the build quality and am surprised that they actually cut costs to the point of effecting the actual feel of the cards. I mean, this is very noticeable. Now I'm fishing around to see if I can notice any difference between my Mirrodin era cards and the current ones. The last ones I was comparing were Urza's saga vs HOU. I really wish I had an EU card since someone mentioned the EU cards are on better stock.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So with the changes to FNM promos (only going to be double-sided token cards now), is there any hope of saving Standard? I mean, when was the last time there was even an FNM promo worth keeping in the first place?
A small anecdote. I was out over the weekend and at the local Toys R' Us. I bought a puzzle for my daughter and I noticed as I was walking out that the shelf where they keep the duel decks and box sets of MTG products was packed to the gills. No one was buying...
In the past, those used to get cleaned out, there were good cards in those decks.
Technically, standard is doing better now and we are seeing more deck variety. The only issue is that it looks like wizards is now changing prize support to push standard even more.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Having a rotating format be your flagship format helps you avoid power creep which helps create some stability in those nonrotating formats. Yes, there's still some power creep that's happened, but it's not like every single set tops the previous one. The removal of older sets creates a natural incentive to get the newer cards. But if you don't rotate, then you have to come up with another way to get players to get those cards, so say hello to power creep and constant bannings! It's the thing everyone complains about in Yu-Gi-Oh: They power creep all the freaking time, and then also constantly ban cards (both as a result of times where power creep goes too far, and also sometimes to get rid of older competitive cards to force players to get the new stuff). If Modern becomes the flagship format, then it'll effectively become rotating like Standard by virtue of power creep (and bannings). Say goodbye to being able to play the same deck for more than a year, because it'll get outclassed by whatever new stuff gets printed.
Basically, if they tried to make Modern or Legacy into the flagship format, then the format would lose pretty much everything people like about it and basically become Standard... except without a bunch of the things that people do like about Standard. Without Standard being the flagship format, you can't have Modern and Legacy be the way they are. Legacy and Modern players should be very happy that Standard is the flagship format because it allows their preferred formats to be the way they are.
Anyhow, I find that Magic currently puts far too little focus on these worlds which are supposed to be the main draw of having a multiverse, and puts far too much focus on planeswalkers. And the real kicker is that the planeswalker characters they've created aren't complex or interesting enough to viable focuses for a story.
WOTC:"Hey guys here's Jace. He's a telepath with amnesia and he's our mascot."
Me: "Okay is his search for his memories a driving force in his personal story?"
WOTC: "Not at all."
Me: "Um, alright. How about his responsibilities as The Living Guildpact?"
WOTC: "Desk work. Past that? Pfft."
Me: "How about his reason for being a member of the Gatewatch. Why does Jace want to save these various planes?"
WOTC: "He wants to do good things because... He's the protagonist? *shrug?*"
So rather than "Hey our interesting heroes are going to really explore this vast new world" we get "Here's the same people you saw last set but one of 'em is wearing a new hat".
Seriously, Nissa's attempts to change her personal outlook on the world around her is the only good character development we've had out of modern planeswalkers other than Elspeth and Ajani.
-Chandra Nalaar
That said they could do more to make Standard closer to Modern and Legacy. This obsession with "unfun" experiences hated by new players has driven them down a very blind alley, it leads to a format where people cannot react to a powerful critter/planeswalker strategy or two card combo because they have not put the hate in the environment that allows people to reverse engineer a deck to beat any dominant deck. An absence of quality discard, landhate, taxes and counterspells, and asymmetric hate cards like Null Rod or Rest in Peace means that once you have the best two or three critter shell with Planeswalkers that is your Standard solved.
What they have to do is to understand that yes, it is true that Jimmy Newbie hates having stuff in hand removed before he gets to play with it, and he hates having it in hand and not being able to cast it as someone cast Stone Rain or Armageddon. He may even leave the game after a month or six months if they print the hate because, yes the game is frustrating and doubly so when Jimmy's hand is full of fat critters he can't play. But if he stays in the game regardless of what they print he will soon be leaving and playing commander anyway because that is where the guys like Jimmy, who in the end just wants to cast what is in hand and play big monsters, end up. Jimmy plays Mtg, but your standard scene/draft scene won't benefit by Jimmy Newbie's interest either way. Now imagine Jimmy's cousin Jane Newbie plays the game for the first time and likes it. She gets Hymned or Geddon'ed or COPd. She is not put off, unlike Jimmy, and quite enjoys jamming those cards herself- if you can't beat em, and all that. She plays Standard, and eventually when she gets rich and old she plays the other formats too. Set for ten to twenty years in Mtg, at least until a Mortgage comes begging and she needs a deposit. She contributes to constructed and constructed grows, feeding off itself. The problems have come from trying to please Jimmy over the past few years, who ultimately buggers off anyway at the fifth time of being spanked by Emrakul or just because he lost again. Thing is Jane probably buggers off then as well, because nobody is playing Standard in her LGS. Nobody wins. Eventually all tournament Mtg comes down to stopping people doing their thing, or/and doing yours faster, trying to make a format where that is not the case gives rise to bans after bans, unless you rotate it so quickly that it can't settle. Wizards have said that answers were too weak, but they became weak because they went after Jimmy. It may have worked if commander had not provided an Mtg alternative.
They break their own standard format, print overpriced pre-constructed products with minimal collectable value, over price the few good things they make because "secondary market" prices seemingly should matter on sealed rng packs...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I don't like the Masterpiece series as it has been implemented, there are to many in each set. I would rather they only do one lottery card per set.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I just look at the staggering amount of releases and think "I'm better off buying singles". As its just too much stuff, got me feeling swamped. Can't just sit around drafting unless I pull some crazy expensive cards out of the draft. Got to worry about affording this supplement, that supplement, the next expansion set in three months, the supplements for that expansion. We had the occasional supplements like Beatdown or Deckmasters, but nothing too crazy and it wasn't regular.
I've literally not bought any sealed products outside of commander and probably the origins duel decks because the sets they have been releasing are so horrible value wise that it's just not worth it. From my own perspective, it's like they decided to stick all the good cards into masters sets and have put just 90% junk / crap / garbage everywhere else. Why buy anything at all that is sealed if it's just going to lead to a ton of cards only fit for a paper shredder?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Spirits
Given that Maro said we'd see better answers in the future and what probably 90% of the MtG population expected vs what we got, we can probably replace the word "modern" with "any format other than standard" and probably still be correct.
Ultimately, the problem with magic is that Wizards has turned the game from a TCG into a disposable card game and have relegated the TCG elements to the masters sets. A card game isn't a "Trading card game" when the majority of the cards are not worth anything to trade. Not even commander or pauper is going to help them because they are printing paper shredder worthy fodder like Open Fire, because Lightning Strike wasn't a bad enough Lightning Bolt yet for them. (Why do I get the feeling the progress of making a worse lightning bolt basically shows the slow, inexorable suicide of the R&D department?)
Seriously, I don't even know what the heck I'm looking at on TCG player prices for HOU right now. Champion of Wits is actually really good, but I don't think it matches Torrential Gearhulk + Glimmer of Genius, and with The Scarab God in the format giving everything eternalize in a control shell it seriously hurts the value prospect on anything with eternalize 7 even if it does give a dig 4 deep effect with a 4/4 body.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The mythic slot is made for cards that are supposed to matter in constructed and especially cards that are additionally pushed for "story" reason, cards end up being good, if WotC wants them to be good (looking at cards like Avacyn for example).
----
For functional reprints that are identical except the name, i think its lame too.
But the way WotC makes sets now, it changes planes often and specific cards like Llanowar do not exist everywhere, so a new name is appropriate.
Formats like Highlander simply do not work with that in mind, but its generic anyway.
In the past you simply had WAY more reprints so you did not have multiple cards with just different names, that was boring too, so its just a lose-lose situation no matter what, no perfect way to do it.
----
For product i must say i really like to have new product around that does NOT contain reprints.
I want new cards as many as i can get, the more the better, as it means more room to play around with.
The massive amount of sets that contain ONLY reprints bothers me, they are completely empty for me, they contain nothing i do not own already and nothing of them is new at all.
If i can just buy a set of ~5 decks that are pre-build i do so and i am done, its like buying singles.
A set like modern masters and the like do absolutely nothing for me, they just flood the market with reprints, i rather have more Commander precons that contain reprints, as these packs are the absolute best go-to product for any casual player WotC has to offer (and entire deck to play of a lot of rares and reasonable useful cards, no other product delivers on that).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Spirits
Yeah, they do feel a little different. They flex a little easier when you tweak them.
If they are using thinner stock, they're Muntzing. In a product that's endearing to so many people, that's depressing. For a single card, they probably saved about 1/100th a cent on the paper, but compound those savings over 150 million or more cards and the bean counters get dazzled.
I wonder if one of the driving forces is the use of sleeves, especially inners, among the player base. I have a Mishra's Workshop that's seen better days and the perfect fit is probably the only thing holding the fibers together. If the cards last long enough to be sleeved, then all is right with WotC... or at least long enough until that set rotates out anyways.
I'm sure they're counting on players not noticing or caring. They hide behind players wanting to "save the environment" on cards (such as Japan), then they turn around and give us perforated cards.
Oh yeah, don't remind me how much I hate the fact that KMC outers have dropped in quality and my entire collection of MTG cards are double sleeved in KMC perfects + outers.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
All good, I got a Chandra in Foil, and its time even exposed to air was in seconds.
Spirits
Some product is clearly different and they are produced in the US it seems, paper feels completely different and if you are used to EU cards, its like they are fake cards.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
That's what I was thinking when WotC announced the cards for Japan would have different paper. WotC still keeps pretending the world market is like it was in pre-2000. The tubes have essentially abolished regions and the ease of buying cards from different regions equates to a credit card number and a mouse click.
I'm hoping I can find a way to get EU cards then in the US. I'm actually kind of concerned about the paper quality as the imported proxy original dual lands I got for commander are printed on far better stock than the wizard cards. I mean they are glossy on the back so it's easy to tell they are fake, but these things are built like a tank compared to the official cards.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
It's against the rules to promote the sale of fake cards and although alternate artwork proxies are a sort of gray area, it's best not to bring it up. I'm just commenting on the build quality and am surprised that they actually cut costs to the point of effecting the actual feel of the cards. I mean, this is very noticeable. Now I'm fishing around to see if I can notice any difference between my Mirrodin era cards and the current ones. The last ones I was comparing were Urza's saga vs HOU. I really wish I had an EU card since someone mentioned the EU cards are on better stock.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
A small anecdote. I was out over the weekend and at the local Toys R' Us. I bought a puzzle for my daughter and I noticed as I was walking out that the shelf where they keep the duel decks and box sets of MTG products was packed to the gills. No one was buying...
In the past, those used to get cleaned out, there were good cards in those decks.
Magic is in a bad place.
My Kamigawa cube.
My Mirage Cube
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!