I have been a decent tournament player at FNMs where I would generally top 4 consistently for the past several years. Now that I actually have my own law firm where I bill $200+ per hour as a lawyer, it just doesn't seem economical to play 4-5 hours to hopefully win $50 store credit top prize ($5 buy in), when I can just work 1 hour and make that.
Suddenly, I no longer feel the rush of chasing that top prize and building a collection from store credits from my wins back when I was a poor student. Heck, if I want a card, I can now just buy it without blinking (duals included).
I can occasionally play a few games, but now the appeal of standard and playing tournaments is lost, I would rather enjoy a game of Commander then grind at a tournament for whatever cash prize.
So the question I have is does having a regular job get in your way of playing tournament magic on a regular basis when obviously the cash incentive is no longer a factor?
Where is this magical store offering $50 to top prize? best I have seen is $20 credit.
Since I don't currently work, my answer to your question is, no.
But the schedules I had in the past prevented me from playing FNM, when FNM promos were great. Aside from that, I never reall yplayed magic events for the prizes. It was never the main goal I had when walking into the store.
It seems your interest to play is to earn prizes. Why not enjoy the ever changing format of Standard for what it is? You have the means, you could play a new top tier or janky brew every week, would that not be fun? I would certainly have more fun doing that over playing against the same handful of commander decks for no prizes at all.
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Wanted -Zombie Foils and older expensive Zombie stuff. High Priority- Beta Z Master/ Int. Collector's Edition.
Most people who play MTG tourniments are not doing it to chase a prize. They do it because they enjoy the game, As mentioned above $50 in store credit is a REALLY good day, I have gotten 1st place in pre releases (bigger crowd bigger prize pool) and only won 10 booster packs (Price of $33) that was a BIG prize pool for us. You need to consider the price icing on the cake and the enjoyment from a few hours of MTG to be the real prize. (also I agree EDH is an awsome format as is legacy and much more "fun" then standard). Its a hobby you don't expect to make money from it, most of us view it as a money sink.
Now that I actually have my own law firm where I bill $200+ per hour as a lawyer, it just doesn't seem economical to play 4-5 hours to hopefully win $50 store credit top prize ($5 buy in), when I can just work 1 hour and make that.
The difference is that Magic is fun, and work isn't. None of pros who make a living off Magic would choose this path in life if they didn't enjoy playing the game.
We have several people at my LGS that are older and established in careers. The acquisition is no longer a draw for any of us, but we still show up for it every week.
Some of us like the thrill of winning. A reward for proper thought and stat analysis of the board state and meta decklists we've read. Some of us collect rarer things, misprints and oddities that make our collection unique. Some of us enjoy the travel and mini vacations that come with playing competitively. Others just enjoy the game - which is incredibly well built and managed despite what the forums say. A chance to see friends and catch up 1-2 times a week.
Acquisition and payment are no longer as important to me as they once were. You just have to find what attracted yo to the game in the first place and it sounds like you have with commander. Honestly I'd just order a 4x playset of each standard set going forward to continue to fill out your collection and tuck them away if you don't plan on using them if money isn't an issue. This way you have the freedom to play what you want when you want how you want. If you want to get back into the competitive spectrum try chasing silver plus status and or making it to a pro tour. Grind out some gps and play at the highest level. If you're smart enough for your career and money isn't an issue, put reps in to climb the ladder maybe? Time management becomes the new restraint.
Many of my hobbies over the years have tapered off and magic definitely is cyclical for me personally. I love the art, the game and the friends. I just can't get that stuff anywhere else like I can with mtg. I always come back.
You can try to play in pptq where the prize for first place cannot be bought.
The comment that I was going to make proves this somewhat false.
In the 2nd PPTQ of the 2nd PPTQ season I ever played with, I offered my opponent in the finals the whole store credit prize, which was $450 for the win and invitation to the RPTQ. He gave it to me because the store credit was more worth it to him than the RPTQ, which he wasn't even sure if he could go to. Basically, I "paid" $225 approximately for the win at the PPTQ since playing in another RPTQ was more important to me than the store credit prizes.
And I think this kind of answers the original poster. I play for the fun and to win. Winning product is really just a byproduct of that. In the past, it was a huge stimulus to play, but nowadays when it's tough for winnings to cover fees, cards, and everything Magic related, it's just not too important to me.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
If you're playing to make money, you're doing it wrong. Only a tiny fration makes money from the game, those that regularly make top spots in pro tours.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
200$ an hour is obviously something you should feel ashamed off ;P , but thats how lawyer jobs work, cant blame you personally.
If you just play for the prize you arent competitive, you are just chase an illusion to get rich in the game, its pointless.
Even as a full on Pro you wont earn enough to compensate that with a high payed job, even if you win everything left and right for some random reason.
If you cannot enjoy the game just playing with friends you will run into problems.
A little bit competitiveness is good, i like to play if "something" is on the line.
If a lot is on the line, it becomes annoying to lose, as its never 100% in your control, you will lose games that are worth like 5000$ just because you have a random bad draw / mana screw and what not, thats how the game rolls, its good on the long run, but an individual game has enough randomness that it cannot really reflect skill by itself (depending on your life you might be badly tired during the tournament, or think of others things too, thats just realistic).
That said, if you cannot enjoy the game for what it is, you are playing for the entirely wrong reasons.
If you want to play for big cash, just make a big cash tournament, you might find a bunch of people that might be interested in tournaments that have like 1000$ Buy-In and cash out like a Million Dollar for 1st place, who knows.
But you can bet this isnt the "normal" player, which can just barely buy the deck at all, and 100$ of cards might be more than they can spend each month ; magic is EXPENSIVE for lots of people.
If you really want huge cash prizes, you have to find enough people that do the same and just start these kind of high cash tournaments.
To echo what others have said, I never play MTG because it is a good investment of time vs money. I play it because I like to play games. I don't treat time spent at tournaments of any nature as a profit-making enterprise, I consider them entertainment expenses.
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Decks:
Modern: Jund
Legacy: Pox
EDH: Chainer Reanimation and The Dragon Show, with Zirilan of the Claw
I do enjoying playing the game, but now the "thrill" and satisfaction of slowly building up your collections from store credits (it felt good finally getting a volcanic island with $280 store credit) to build that legacy deck you were proxying as a poor student is now gone, or the fun trading cards and slowly playing the market (predicting cards that may gain) for better cards is now also gone. The trading and acquisition part of magic was funnest part and taught me supply/demand and stock market principles. Playing was just gravy. Now it does seems all the trading and acquisition is pointless v. 1 hour of billing.
Been slowly trying to move to just playing fun decks and not caring about winning prizes as much, but that rush is now gone. $50 is no longer enticing for me to truly bring my "A" game. Halfway through a game I may just be thinking of some legal file that's been bothering me lately or whatever life's problem.
For those more established in their careers, do you generally find yourself jumping in and out?
I've always played Magic for pure entertainment.It's never been about money or prizes for me. Earning a good living allows you to build whatever deck you'd like to play. It gives you the freedom to experiment and try new things without having to wait. It also gives you spare resources to mentor/teach/support your local Magic community.
I have been a decent tournament player at FNMs where I would generally top 4 consistently for the past several years. Now that I actually have my own law firm where I bill $200+ per hour as a lawyer, it just doesn't seem economical to play 4-5 hours to hopefully win $50 store credit top prize ($5 buy in), when I can just work 1 hour and make that.
Suddenly, I no longer feel the rush of chasing that top prize and building a collection from store credits from my wins back when I was a poor student. Heck, if I want a card, I can now just buy it without blinking (duals included).
I can occasionally play a few games, but now the appeal of standard and playing tournaments is lost, I would rather enjoy a game of Commander then grind at a tournament for whatever cash prize.
So the question I have is does having a regular job get in your way of playing tournament magic on a regular basis when obviously the cash incentive is no longer a factor?
It lost the financial appeal to me a while ago. The minimum to prepare for a tournament is 2 hours. That's to dig through your collection for cards, find the cards, and build a list (and put your old cards back where they go), if you're using a new list. Then you're looking at travel time, for a local FNM that could mean 30 min each way, or 1 hour total. So now you're at 3 hours invested. Even a 4 rounder will go 3 hours at 45 min/round, so now you're at another 3. That brings you to 6 hours just to play in an FNM. If the prize pool is say $2/person a 4 rounder will have $30 in prize support. Even if you get 100% of that for first place, which you won't, you're only making $5 per hour.
The time/payoff investment in Magic is really bad. This holds true for a lot of lower value cards too, they're literally not worth the time it takes to maintain them in your collection.
What i do is making playing magic a clear cut in the week.
At Friday after work, i go play FNM and meet friends and new people. After that we are in the city and go eat something and have time to enjoy ourselves, it weekend after all.
This helps to make a clear cut from the week, its the weekly meeting for nerds.
I never play magic during the week, i avoid the cards during the week (still read a bunch of articles, forum and the like, thats all on the computer anyway).
Just make sure you dont get a Magic "overkill" that drains you (which is an enjoyable time for the time being, but after a year or two, you lose a lot of interest in the game, as you took too much of it).
In term so money investment you can go bigger.
Some collectors aim to collect much more expensive cards, like a full set of Summer Magic Edition, which is crazy expensive.
Power 9, full set of Alpha etc.
For constructed tournaments buying cards to get them quickly is somewhat mandatory, but for more casual decks i follow a rule of only trading for them in person, no money involved here, i never buy cards for these decks, i tell friends i need these cards and this keeps the trading spirit alive (as i enjoy looking for cards, and i like to know the person i got all the cards from i have, or they are foils from a particular FNM draft, i remember these moments and i keep these cards, so a deck full of cards with little stories is way more nostalgic and has much more value to you, than a deck you simply bought online). I mean i have cards i got from drafts almost 20 years ago and they allow me to remember these events, they carry much more history (trading them away would be a crime).
----
To remove some of the Real Life thinking from your magic play time, its a good idea to write these thoughts down on paper or your phone, so you actually can attend to them later. Just doing this can help, as your mind can be assured you wont forget about it and now is not the time to think about it any more (if you do not write it down, it will haunt you the entire day, if your mind thinks you will forget about it otherwise).
To not be interrupted its good that family and friends actually know about your magic times, so nobody actually has to question "Where are you?" , its Friday Night, so i am playing magic, you all know about it.
drakeavril, did you ever consider playing in major events? like trying to earn your way into a pro tour ? that is a huge money sink, somewhat of a time for practice and travel to events... but you have the monetary means to do it, so i think you'd get a kick out o fit.
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Wanted -Zombie Foils and older expensive Zombie stuff. High Priority- Beta Z Master/ Int. Collector's Edition.
The primary issue I have with FNM is the time commitment not matching up with my way of living at the moment. Regardless, the game is a financial drain no matter how someone plays, it's just up to the person how much of a money sink the game turns into. Building and playing modern or Legacy is a pretty steep commitment, and depending on who you play commander with that format can be just as bad.
Not that this is the players fault that the game is as financially burdensome as it has turned out to be, mind you. The big problem is that these games and the markets they built are not really able to handle investors along with speculators as it's far too easy to gain control of a "market". It's the same problem the miniatures market has along with a few other old collectible industries right now. Don't think I've ever actually talked about this here yet, now that I think on it.
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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 think a lot of the issue is you're playing with standard kiddies at FNM level.
I generally only play competitive magic anymore at Legacy league or Modern RPTQs/MWCQs because beating people who actually live to play the game gives you a sense of victory no random budget mill deck made by dude weed lmao guy can.
Problem is these kinds of events happen once a season while I can go play weekly SFV tournaments with some of the top players every friday instead. The money is ***** as well but the time and game-components investment is much smaller and the community is way more hype and fun.
Magic is choking itself trying to be an esport, a high end unregistered asset and a casual game all at the same time.
I think a lot of the issue is you're playing with standard kiddies at FNM level.
I generally only play competitive magic anymore at Legacy league or Modern RPTQs/MWCQs because beating people who actually live to play the game gives you a sense of victory no random budget mill deck made by dude weed lmao guy can.
Problem is these kinds of events happen once a season while I can go play weekly SFV tournaments with some of the top players every friday instead. The money is ***** as well but the time and game-components investment is much smaller and the community is way more hype and fun.
Magic is choking itself trying to be an esport, a high end unregistered asset and a casual game all at the same time.
Kind of agreeing with this. The only hope the game has in the absolute long term is if any of the digital products can finally take off, be it an MMORPG or some other game, then tie the card game in the same way gwent is to the witcher series. That and combining digital code redemption in card packs to boost pack value is going to be necessary in the future, as WoTC is basically just buying time with masterpieces.
The way I'm seeing it, the only reason WoTC hasn't gotten rid of the RL is because if it can get a digital platform going and most players go digital, it will reduce the impact of it significantly.
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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!
If anything, I've found that working and earning money has got in the way of MTG only in so far as I now question whether or not that expensive piece of cardboard is worth buying when I spent however long working to earn the money to buy it. That $100 I was going to spend on a Force of Will could pay for a nice meal out with my girlfriend, a day out, a new piece of furniture, some Christmas gifts etc.
Coming back specifically to the financial incentive of MTG - there is no financial incentive. If you want that $50 don't buy the deck in the first place (and likely save yourself a few hundred bucks in the process). If you want something that really excites you in MTG, maybe look at collecting or building decks with particularly rare cards? Nowadays I focus on picking up rarities such as misprints, artist proofs, P9 (gold bordered, admittedly), hard to find promos etc and get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I had never enjoyed playing Serra Angel until I picked up my Serra Elemental.
I've got the opposite view. My income literally went up by more than a factor of 10 in a low cost of living area. From 10k to over 100k. My living expenses are under 25k/year, and that's for some pretty lavish living. I don't obsess over the cost of a Force of Will because I make enough money to buy a playset of them (and I did) before lunch time on Monday morning. I don't want to pay for ultra fancy versions of the cards, because to me they exist to be played with, not sit in a collection, but the cost of cards and decks quickly did a 180 for me when my income changed earlier this year. I went from needing to play on a budget to not caring what the cards cost, and on top of that I already had a nice collection of Modern/Legacy staples. I can go out to eat at a nice restaurant every single day, and still have more money than I can possibly spend on Magic cards available to me.
I still haven't totally figured out what this means to me as a player (I'm still new to this type of disposable income) but I like that it's allowing me to focus less on the financial side of the game, and more on simply playing whatever cards I feel like playing that week. I've stopped caring about prizes or grinding value, I just play mainly to test my deck building theories and run pet decks.
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Suddenly, I no longer feel the rush of chasing that top prize and building a collection from store credits from my wins back when I was a poor student. Heck, if I want a card, I can now just buy it without blinking (duals included).
I can occasionally play a few games, but now the appeal of standard and playing tournaments is lost, I would rather enjoy a game of Commander then grind at a tournament for whatever cash prize.
So the question I have is does having a regular job get in your way of playing tournament magic on a regular basis when obviously the cash incentive is no longer a factor?
Since I don't currently work, my answer to your question is, no.
But the schedules I had in the past prevented me from playing FNM, when FNM promos were great. Aside from that, I never reall yplayed magic events for the prizes. It was never the main goal I had when walking into the store.
It seems your interest to play is to earn prizes. Why not enjoy the ever changing format of Standard for what it is? You have the means, you could play a new top tier or janky brew every week, would that not be fun? I would certainly have more fun doing that over playing against the same handful of commander decks for no prizes at all.
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
The difference is that Magic is fun, and work isn't. None of pros who make a living off Magic would choose this path in life if they didn't enjoy playing the game.
Some of us like the thrill of winning. A reward for proper thought and stat analysis of the board state and meta decklists we've read. Some of us collect rarer things, misprints and oddities that make our collection unique. Some of us enjoy the travel and mini vacations that come with playing competitively. Others just enjoy the game - which is incredibly well built and managed despite what the forums say. A chance to see friends and catch up 1-2 times a week.
Acquisition and payment are no longer as important to me as they once were. You just have to find what attracted yo to the game in the first place and it sounds like you have with commander. Honestly I'd just order a 4x playset of each standard set going forward to continue to fill out your collection and tuck them away if you don't plan on using them if money isn't an issue. This way you have the freedom to play what you want when you want how you want. If you want to get back into the competitive spectrum try chasing silver plus status and or making it to a pro tour. Grind out some gps and play at the highest level. If you're smart enough for your career and money isn't an issue, put reps in to climb the ladder maybe? Time management becomes the new restraint.
Many of my hobbies over the years have tapered off and magic definitely is cyclical for me personally. I love the art, the game and the friends. I just can't get that stuff anywhere else like I can with mtg. I always come back.
In the 2nd PPTQ of the 2nd PPTQ season I ever played with, I offered my opponent in the finals the whole store credit prize, which was $450 for the win and invitation to the RPTQ. He gave it to me because the store credit was more worth it to him than the RPTQ, which he wasn't even sure if he could go to. Basically, I "paid" $225 approximately for the win at the PPTQ since playing in another RPTQ was more important to me than the store credit prizes.
And I think this kind of answers the original poster. I play for the fun and to win. Winning product is really just a byproduct of that. In the past, it was a huge stimulus to play, but nowadays when it's tough for winnings to cover fees, cards, and everything Magic related, it's just not too important to me.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
If you just play for the prize you arent competitive, you are just chase an illusion to get rich in the game, its pointless.
Even as a full on Pro you wont earn enough to compensate that with a high payed job, even if you win everything left and right for some random reason.
If you cannot enjoy the game just playing with friends you will run into problems.
A little bit competitiveness is good, i like to play if "something" is on the line.
If a lot is on the line, it becomes annoying to lose, as its never 100% in your control, you will lose games that are worth like 5000$ just because you have a random bad draw / mana screw and what not, thats how the game rolls, its good on the long run, but an individual game has enough randomness that it cannot really reflect skill by itself (depending on your life you might be badly tired during the tournament, or think of others things too, thats just realistic).
That said, if you cannot enjoy the game for what it is, you are playing for the entirely wrong reasons.
If you want to play for big cash, just make a big cash tournament, you might find a bunch of people that might be interested in tournaments that have like 1000$ Buy-In and cash out like a Million Dollar for 1st place, who knows.
But you can bet this isnt the "normal" player, which can just barely buy the deck at all, and 100$ of cards might be more than they can spend each month ; magic is EXPENSIVE for lots of people.
If you really want huge cash prizes, you have to find enough people that do the same and just start these kind of high cash tournaments.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Modern: Jund
Legacy: Pox
EDH: Chainer Reanimation and The Dragon Show, with Zirilan of the Claw
Been slowly trying to move to just playing fun decks and not caring about winning prizes as much, but that rush is now gone. $50 is no longer enticing for me to truly bring my "A" game. Halfway through a game I may just be thinking of some legal file that's been bothering me lately or whatever life's problem.
For those more established in their careers, do you generally find yourself jumping in and out?
It lost the financial appeal to me a while ago. The minimum to prepare for a tournament is 2 hours. That's to dig through your collection for cards, find the cards, and build a list (and put your old cards back where they go), if you're using a new list. Then you're looking at travel time, for a local FNM that could mean 30 min each way, or 1 hour total. So now you're at 3 hours invested. Even a 4 rounder will go 3 hours at 45 min/round, so now you're at another 3. That brings you to 6 hours just to play in an FNM. If the prize pool is say $2/person a 4 rounder will have $30 in prize support. Even if you get 100% of that for first place, which you won't, you're only making $5 per hour.
The time/payoff investment in Magic is really bad. This holds true for a lot of lower value cards too, they're literally not worth the time it takes to maintain them in your collection.
At Friday after work, i go play FNM and meet friends and new people. After that we are in the city and go eat something and have time to enjoy ourselves, it weekend after all.
This helps to make a clear cut from the week, its the weekly meeting for nerds.
I never play magic during the week, i avoid the cards during the week (still read a bunch of articles, forum and the like, thats all on the computer anyway).
Just make sure you dont get a Magic "overkill" that drains you (which is an enjoyable time for the time being, but after a year or two, you lose a lot of interest in the game, as you took too much of it).
In term so money investment you can go bigger.
Some collectors aim to collect much more expensive cards, like a full set of Summer Magic Edition, which is crazy expensive.
Power 9, full set of Alpha etc.
For constructed tournaments buying cards to get them quickly is somewhat mandatory, but for more casual decks i follow a rule of only trading for them in person, no money involved here, i never buy cards for these decks, i tell friends i need these cards and this keeps the trading spirit alive (as i enjoy looking for cards, and i like to know the person i got all the cards from i have, or they are foils from a particular FNM draft, i remember these moments and i keep these cards, so a deck full of cards with little stories is way more nostalgic and has much more value to you, than a deck you simply bought online). I mean i have cards i got from drafts almost 20 years ago and they allow me to remember these events, they carry much more history (trading them away would be a crime).
----
To remove some of the Real Life thinking from your magic play time, its a good idea to write these thoughts down on paper or your phone, so you actually can attend to them later. Just doing this can help, as your mind can be assured you wont forget about it and now is not the time to think about it any more (if you do not write it down, it will haunt you the entire day, if your mind thinks you will forget about it otherwise).
To not be interrupted its good that family and friends actually know about your magic times, so nobody actually has to question "Where are you?" , its Friday Night, so i am playing magic, you all know about it.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
(Also known as Xenphire)
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
Not that this is the players fault that the game is as financially burdensome as it has turned out to be, mind you. The big problem is that these games and the markets they built are not really able to handle investors along with speculators as it's far too easy to gain control of a "market". It's the same problem the miniatures market has along with a few other old collectible industries right now. Don't think I've ever actually talked about this here yet, now that I think on it.
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 generally only play competitive magic anymore at Legacy league or Modern RPTQs/MWCQs because beating people who actually live to play the game gives you a sense of victory no random budget mill deck made by dude weed lmao guy can.
Problem is these kinds of events happen once a season while I can go play weekly SFV tournaments with some of the top players every friday instead. The money is ***** as well but the time and game-components investment is much smaller and the community is way more hype and fun.
Magic is choking itself trying to be an esport, a high end unregistered asset and a casual game all at the same time.
Kind of agreeing with this. The only hope the game has in the absolute long term is if any of the digital products can finally take off, be it an MMORPG or some other game, then tie the card game in the same way gwent is to the witcher series. That and combining digital code redemption in card packs to boost pack value is going to be necessary in the future, as WoTC is basically just buying time with masterpieces.
The way I'm seeing it, the only reason WoTC hasn't gotten rid of the RL is because if it can get a digital platform going and most players go digital, it will reduce the impact of it significantly.
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've got the opposite view. My income literally went up by more than a factor of 10 in a low cost of living area. From 10k to over 100k. My living expenses are under 25k/year, and that's for some pretty lavish living. I don't obsess over the cost of a Force of Will because I make enough money to buy a playset of them (and I did) before lunch time on Monday morning. I don't want to pay for ultra fancy versions of the cards, because to me they exist to be played with, not sit in a collection, but the cost of cards and decks quickly did a 180 for me when my income changed earlier this year. I went from needing to play on a budget to not caring what the cards cost, and on top of that I already had a nice collection of Modern/Legacy staples. I can go out to eat at a nice restaurant every single day, and still have more money than I can possibly spend on Magic cards available to me.
I still haven't totally figured out what this means to me as a player (I'm still new to this type of disposable income) but I like that it's allowing me to focus less on the financial side of the game, and more on simply playing whatever cards I feel like playing that week. I've stopped caring about prizes or grinding value, I just play mainly to test my deck building theories and run pet decks.