Yeah, yeah, I know the argument "he's way too good at uncommon for limited", I get that.
Here's the counterpoint, how about they just, you know, not reprint it at all in the set? I mean, it's certainly not a card people were fighting tooth and nail to get a reprint, right? Is it really so necessary that this format have Pelakka Wurm in it? Couldn't they have just..made something new or different for that spot?
They did it because it's in the planeswalker deck for Vivien. Everyone knows they intentionally nerf those decks, so they probably moved it from uncommon to rare to make it feel special. Considering it's in a planeswalker deck and in the main set it's going to be everywhere anyway.
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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!
Still someone had to make that decision and that person deserves to get fired for that kind of stupidity.
In the end its a small thing, but its exactly the kind of crap you can avoid entirely if you just think a second if its a good idea.
These are exceptionally contradictory. For what other profession would this be an acceptable response? "You forgot to put extra pickles on my burger. It is a small thing, but I will have your job for this!" I mean, come on.
Also, there is no "person" who made this decision. They have an entire group (or groups) dedicated to coming up with different aspects of each set. I would be surprised if Play Design and Development didn't both have a part in this and multiple people signed off on it because it was what they felt the set needed or what was best for limited.
And, in the end, who cares? Are you going to swear of Magic forever because this card could have been that sweet Prodigious Growth you really wanted? Or now you missed out on your copy of Infernal Reckoning you just had to have for your limited deck? Or you were really hoping to open that cool Spit Flame?
I get that it is disappointing in the sense that it was at uncommon in the past and, based on that, it might seem worthless to open in a pack. But every set has worthless rares (and Mythics) that this is not anything new. To be honest, I would fully expect that a brand new player opening their first pack of Magic ever and opening this card as their rare would be ecstatic. To a newer player (and maybe some veterans) a 7/7 Trampler that gains you 7 life and draws you a card when it dies is not exactly bad.
And, to the OP's point of not printing it at all, I could see that being an option. It is not like this has to be in the set as they probably could have found something else. But its presence in the set does not diminish the set or the card, especially since it is a Core set. It is a big, beefy creature in green and seems like it fits perfectly for the needs of this set.
Draft has a lot of junk rares value wise that are really good in the limited environment. Even if they put something else in that slot it still probably wouldnt be worth much
It’s a power house in limited. Think of it like this “Sorry that you opened this worthless rare, but here, take these wins and free stuff as a consolation prize!”.
Seriously though, it was going to be a bulk rare anyway, so why does it even matter?
There's just something about rarity upshifts that makes people lose their freaking minds. I don't know if it's a sense of entitlement or some sort of psychological thing. People ranted and raved for years about the non-appearance of Cavern of Souls, especially in Shadows and Eldritch Moon, but as soon as it was spoiled at mythic I could swear that some people would have rather gone back to no reprint at all. Even people who take the, "Wizards is being predatory for reprinting valuable cards at mythic," route will then turn around and complain when Wizards prints or reprints a mythic that isn't worth much money.
Pelakka Wurm was uncommon in Rise of the Eldrazi, and it was absolutely first pickable - often it was a stronger pull than the actual rare in a pack. Sure, it sucks having cards upshifted, but it's still a good card, it still helps you win, and if you're worried about value, you should be buying singles instead of cracking packs.
These are exceptionally contradictory. For what other profession would this be an acceptable response? "You forgot to put extra pickles on my burger. It is a small thing, but I will have your job for this!" I mean, come on.
Someone made that decision and its such a terrible one that you cannot be in that position to make MORE of these decisions.
Ignore it and keep that person and expect more of that garbage to come to light.
Also, there is no "person" who made this decision. They have an entire group (or groups) dedicated to coming up with different aspects of each set. I would be surprised if Play Design and Development didn't both have a part in this and multiple people signed off on it because it was what they felt the set needed or what was best for limited.
If you know how they work, they change cards on the fly because 1 random dude did the change ; read the articles how they design, someone writes it in their internal chat/forum and especially the "last minute" changes turn out to be the biggest mistakes of them all.
At some point you simply dont have enough control of what is happening at all and if everyone can do whatever without anyone checking what they are doing, thats the kind of results you get. Its as unprofessional as it gets, and thats how WotC operates in a lot of spaces (which is a big issue pretty much overall in the company).
And, in the end, who cares? Are you going to swear of Magic forever because this card could have been that sweet Prodigious Growth you really wanted? Or now you missed out on your copy of Infernal Reckoning you just had to have for your limited deck? Or you were really hoping to open that cool Spit Flame?
I dont think you really understand what a "feel bad moment" really is.
Ofcourse not everyone likes every card.
But literally nobody likes rares that are former uncommons and absolutely worthless by default, they literally have not even a remote chance to have any value, as there are already so many of them that nobody wants and you shift the card to a higher rarity, as something that people "should" be at least a little bit excited about.
So cards are designed with some specific players in mind. Reprints of cards that are already not high on the list is an issue you can and should avoid if you design a set and its not hard to understand that at all, unless the people in charge simply didnt give a crap about there work (which is a real problem and you dont want these people in your workplace, these people are a sickness you have to get rid of as early as possible, before it spreads).
If you are happy with ignoring everything unless its literally a nuclear bomb that explodes in your own basement, then fine.
Others look at the small issues and try to stop the bigger ones by making sure you dont even the small crap isnt simply ignored.
Especially the small issues can be very easily identified and avoided.
Have 10 persons look at the spoiler and literally 9 out of 10 (that actually know the game) will ask you "Why is Pelakka Wurm a rare ?". And i absolutely expect more of designers to get that.
And especially Maro should get it, as he is one of the biggest defenders of the "avoid feel bad moments" out of booster packs, and this plays directly into that issue and produces these moments that nobody wants EVER.
I get that it is disappointing in the sense that it was at uncommon in the past and, based on that, it might seem worthless to open in a pack. But every set has worthless rares (and Mythics) that this is not anything new. To be honest, I would fully expect that a brand new player opening their first pack of Magic ever and opening this card as their rare would be ecstatic. To a newer player (and maybe some veterans) a 7/7 Trampler that gains you 7 life and draws you a card when it dies is not exactly bad.
A new card is always a NEW card , bad or not, its NEW and people are guaranteed to not have them.
If a reprint is just garbage, you have to question why its reprinted at all.
Its neither needed nor do players enjoy to see the card, its just terrible in every way imaginable.
And someone made that choice, and that person needs to be fired, for the sake of being incompetent in that jobs position, and nobody should accept incompetent people in these positions (as there are plenty of people that would like to work in that place and actually could do a good job).
And, to the OP's point of not printing it at all, I could see that being an option. It is not like this has to be in the set as they probably could have found something else. But its presence in the set does not diminish the set or the card, especially since it is a Core set. It is a big, beefy creature in green and seems like it fits perfectly for the needs of this set.
Not printing it would have been exactly the right call.
If the card needs to be upgraded in rarity, its a bad fit for the set and you can simply design a card to fill that rare-slot.
The existence of the card is a feel bad moment, and you dont want them.
Every time WotC does something like this the first question you have to ask yourself is ; "Would you mind MORE of that?" , and if they keep doing rarity upshifts of worthless cards its a terrible trend that can be avoided asap and not later when the damage is done.
----
Talking the issue down is a pretty fundamental problem.
If WotC simply makes sure to not ever upshift a card to rare they avoid this pitfall.
Its as easy as that.
Never ever upshift a card in rarity, go down if needed.
If you want a rare, make a new card, designing cards is your job, making sure people have as little feel bad moments as possible is your job and anything that actively works against that is a issue that has to be avoided.
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TLDR:
If the card would be almost the same, new name, not a reprint, nobody would mind.
As a reprint, upshifted to rare, THATS the issue and no matter how small, its something that could have been easily avoided, if they spend 5 minutes thinking about the decision.
Pelakka Wurm was uncommon in Rise of the Eldrazi, and it was absolutely first pickable - often it was a stronger pull than the actual rare in a pack. Sure, it sucks having cards upshifted, but it's still a good card, it still helps you win, and if you're worried about value, you should be buying singles instead of cracking packs.
There's just something about rarity upshifts that makes people lose their freaking minds. I don't know if it's a sense of entitlement or some sort of psychological thing. People ranted and raved for years about the non-appearance of Cavern of Souls, especially in Shadows and Eldritch Moon, but as soon as it was spoiled at mythic I could swear that some people would have rather gone back to no reprint at all. Even people who take the, "Wizards is being predatory for reprinting valuable cards at mythic," route will then turn around and complain when Wizards prints or reprints a mythic that isn't worth much money.
Whats the justification for Cavern of Souls to be mythic? Its not even close to a limtied bomb or amoung the first picks. It was jsutified the flack for them pulling that crap.
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Talking the issue down is a pretty fundamental problem.
If WotC simply makes sure to not ever upshift a card to rare they avoid this pitfall.
Its as easy as that.
Never ever upshift a card in rarity, go down if needed.
If you want a rare, make a new card, designing cards is your job, making sure people have as little feel bad moments as possible is your job and anything that actively works against that is a issue that has to be avoided.
----
TLDR:
If the card would be almost the same, new name, not a reprint, nobody would mind.
As a reprint, upshifted to rare, THATS the issue and no matter how small, its something that could have been easily avoided, if they spend 5 minutes thinking about the decision.
Choosing to never reprint a card unless you leave it the same rarity or more common means lots of cards will never be reprinted for a multitude of reasons. This is a horrible stance and not one someone who has the future of the game in mind should ever have.
Proclaiming that EVERYONE will Always feel a certain way is never right. There are enough people that play, such that every emotion is felt for every action.
Have you seen the threads for functional reprints of cards? They are filled with so much hate and calls for 'why isn't this a reprint'. Goes to show even further that saying everyone will feel someway always is foolish at best.
I for one will never be upset to open this card because it is a beast in draft which is the only place I would open it. Unlike other 'new at the time' examples Aetherwind Basker, Arashin Sovereign, Giant Adephage. Every card can't be the absolute best card, and cards that are actually good in the role they were meant for shouldn't be hated.
Yeah, this seems like a pretty dumb decision, but the outrage also seems pretty silly. I agree with the arguments against it getting upshifted, but the anti-Wizards rhetoric is pretty overblown. There's a way to say these things that doesn't make you look like a nerd-rage elemental.
Pelakka Wurm is easily powerful enough to be a rare, but it's an unnecessary reprint, and to a avoid salty reaction, the best solution would probably have been to design a new card for the slot. I can definitely see the argument for it from a Limited perspective, but this was going to cause annoyance, and bring little joy.
Whats the justification for Cavern of Souls to be mythic? Its not even close to a limtied bomb or amoung the first picks. It was jsutified the flack for them pulling that crap.
First of all, the mythic rarity's primary purpose in limited is to shuffle away cards that Wizards doesn't want to appear often, for reasons of both power level and niche applicability, which is why the rarity is a mixture of bombs and weird stuff. Outside of limited, the expectation is that mythic rares are a set's big-ticket items, so low value picks like the oft-mentioned Past in Flames also get complaints for being too cheap. It's a catch-22 because printing both low-value mythic rares and upshifting high-value non-mythics in reprint-heavy sets get complains. The in-between of high-value cards originally printed at mythic is very narrow and largely composed of planeswalkers.
If you know how they work, they change cards on the fly because 1 random dude did the change ; read the articles how they design, someone writes it in their internal chat/forum and especially the "last minute" changes turn out to be the biggest mistakes of them all.
Someone made that decision and its such a terrible one that you cannot be in that position to make MORE of these decisions.
Ignore it and keep that person and expect more of that garbage to come to light.
And especially Maro should get it, as he is one of the biggest defenders of the "avoid feel bad moments" out of booster packs, and this plays directly into that issue and produces these moments that nobody wants EVER.
Holy...
This is a reprint. There is no Design. Design does not dictate power level and I am not sure of their role in decisions on rarity, if any. That is something Play Design or Development handles. Any "mistakes" you mentioned came about from changes in Design/Development that made a card more powerful than desired. Again, it is unlikely that "Bill from accounting" went into a file and just randomly changed a card's rarity on their own without anyone catching it. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding over how WOTC operates and how sets are put together. And upshifting Wurm is so far from the issue with Skullclamp that it isn't even worth discussing further.
MaRo would have very little input on that since, you know, it is not what his job is. He wants Squirrels and he wants to remove the rules baggage from "Legendary". These things don't happen because he is not in charge of them. The same with this. He is not some God in all thing Magic. He has his role (and does it well) but not everything (good or bad) falls on him.
And, in any case, his defense of limiting "feel-bad moments" has been mostly focused on gameplay, not the way cards are printed or at what rarity. He uses this to defend the limit the use LD, Discard, and Counter-magic not the rarity they print cards at. In fact, he has often defended the printing of certain cards at Mythic that people felt should be rare for the reason of being OP in limited. This seems no different.
While we are on the subject: I was not around when Pelakka Wurm was in Standard the last time, but it was in a set with a bunch of huge Eldrazi at common, uncommon, and rare. At that time, a 7/7 was still powerful, but with a bunch of huge creatures, its impact was mitigated. However, what about the feel-bad moment now in limited? What happens when a single player drafts 3 Wurms (or opens multiples in Sealed) because they are uncommon? What do I do when I get them down to 3 life and they then go back to 10 with a 7/7 that I can only hope to chump? What about my feel bad moment when I then have to face 2 or 3 in the same game and now they have gone from 3 life to 24? Or do we only need to consider your feel bad moment of opening a worthless rare outside of Draft?
Not everyone thinks this is a bad decision. Not everyone thinks this is worth getting into this much of an uproar over. There are legitimate reasons for the upshift. This set it meant to be drafted and meant to be an introduction to the game. As I said, I firmly believe this card succeeds in both of these cases. If this was a new card, or was something almost identical but with a different P/T or a different number (gain 6 life...) would it have been that much different? No, and people would just complain about it not being Pelakka Wurm.
I just don't get this hostility towards the inclusion of this card specifically. There is no real issue with what they have done here. They have made a set that they felt would benefit best from Pelakka Wurm at rare. They have made mistakes in the past (Saheeli and Felidar Guardian was fairly recent). But this is not one of those mistakes. This is not something that will cause the death of Magic (and neither were any other major mistakes) and they have shown no predilection towards making this a super common occurrence. They can certainly do it again, but upshifting one card every year will have literally no effect on the health of the game as a whole. If they start upshifting Healing Salve and Llanowar Elves to rare, you may have a case. We are not at that point.
To be clear, I am not even saying this is the perfect decision for this slot. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe there is something better. I am simply pointing out that that in a world where a slot is rated 1-10, this is at least a 7 (maybe 8) because of the role of this card in limited and its appeal to newer players. Some of the comments in this thread seem to suggest this card is a 1 and that is simply not true.
There's just something about rarity upshifts that makes people lose their freaking minds. I don't know if it's a sense of entitlement or some sort of psychological thing. People ranted and raved for years about the non-appearance of Cavern of Souls, especially in Shadows and Eldritch Moon, but as soon as it was spoiled at mythic I could swear that some people would have rather gone back to no reprint at all. Even people who take the, "Wizards is being predatory for reprinting valuable cards at mythic," route will then turn around and complain when Wizards prints or reprints a mythic that isn't worth much money.
Whats the justification for Cavern of Souls to be mythic? Its not even close to a limtied bomb or amoung the first picks. It was jsutified the flack for them pulling that crap.
MaRo has already answered this question a number of times: they do it to a) increase supply while b) not hurting the people that already have theirs.
I disagree with this philosophy in general, but he has come out and said it already. We can infer that this means they do in fact care about the Secondary Market (which is a fairly open secret already). It is not even a question of why they did it and your conclusion is correct.
However, again, I don't think that decision, in and of itself, is something to be up in arms about. Wizards lived through massive collection devaluation once before and they are taking a cautious approach. If the choices are "Reprint at Mythic" or "Don't reprint at all", I will take the first every time.
There is certainly a case for being upset that they upshifted to sell the set or whatever. But, on the other hand, I think there is an equal case for being glad that they decided to reprint it at all. The next reprint (and there will be one) will be at Mythic and will bring it down further in price.
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I love how upset people get over this, when pelakka wurm could have been some new crappy rare that isn't even good in limited that would also be a bulk rare, just like pelakka wurm. People in here seem to think that this is some horrible mistake that is going to ruin the game and have dire consequences like the reserved list. A rarity upshift for a limited bomb happened, big deal. Cracking packs for value has never been worth it anyways unless you get lucky.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
Pelakka Wurm was uncommon in Rise of the Eldrazi, and it was absolutely first pickable - often it was a stronger pull than the actual rare in a pack. Sure, it sucks having cards upshifted, but it's still a good card, it still helps you win, and if you're worried about value, you should be buying singles instead of cracking packs.
The best comparison might be Duskdale Wurm, which is an uncommon, but without the triggers à la Solemn Simulacrum (some trigger when it ETB, cantrip when it dies). Since Pelakka Wurm has two additional abilities, both of which are upsides, but is otherwise just Duskdale Wurm but with a trivial (unless you're in 3+ colors) change to its mana cost, it's rare. Greater complexity (even if only slightly) and stronger. Obviously a different set, but hey, Fog now costs 1G.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
These are exceptionally contradictory. For what other profession would this be an acceptable response? "You forgot to put extra pickles on my burger. It is a small thing, but I will have your job for this!" I mean, come on.
Someone made that decision and its such a terrible one that you cannot be in that position to make MORE of these decisions.
Ignore it and keep that person and expect more of that garbage to come to light.
Also, there is no "person" who made this decision. They have an entire group (or groups) dedicated to coming up with different aspects of each set. I would be surprised if Play Design and Development didn't both have a part in this and multiple people signed off on it because it was what they felt the set needed or what was best for limited.
If you know how they work, they change cards on the fly because 1 random dude did the change ; read the articles how they design, someone writes it in their internal chat/forum and especially the "last minute" changes turn out to be the biggest mistakes of them all.
At some point you simply dont have enough control of what is happening at all and if everyone can do whatever without anyone checking what they are doing, thats the kind of results you get. Its as unprofessional as it gets, and thats how WotC operates in a lot of spaces (which is a big issue pretty much overall in the company).
And, in the end, who cares? Are you going to swear of Magic forever because this card could have been that sweet Prodigious Growth you really wanted? Or now you missed out on your copy of Infernal Reckoning you just had to have for your limited deck? Or you were really hoping to open that cool Spit Flame?
I dont think you really understand what a "feel bad moment" really is.
Ofcourse not everyone likes every card.
But literally nobody likes rares that are former uncommons and absolutely worthless by default, they literally have not even a remote chance to have any value, as there are already so many of them that nobody wants and you shift the card to a higher rarity, as something that people "should" be at least a little bit excited about.
So cards are designed with some specific players in mind. Reprints of cards that are already not high on the list is an issue you can and should avoid if you design a set and its not hard to understand that at all, unless the people in charge simply didnt give a crap about there work (which is a real problem and you dont want these people in your workplace, these people are a sickness you have to get rid of as early as possible, before it spreads).
If you are happy with ignoring everything unless its literally a nuclear bomb that explodes in your own basement, then fine.
Others look at the small issues and try to stop the bigger ones by making sure you dont even the small crap isnt simply ignored.
Especially the small issues can be very easily identified and avoided.
Have 10 persons look at the spoiler and literally 9 out of 10 (that actually know the game) will ask you "Why is Pelakka Wurm a rare ?". And i absolutely expect more of designers to get that.
And especially Maro should get it, as he is one of the biggest defenders of the "avoid feel bad moments" out of booster packs, and this plays directly into that issue and produces these moments that nobody wants EVER.
I get that it is disappointing in the sense that it was at uncommon in the past and, based on that, it might seem worthless to open in a pack. But every set has worthless rares (and Mythics) that this is not anything new. To be honest, I would fully expect that a brand new player opening their first pack of Magic ever and opening this card as their rare would be ecstatic. To a newer player (and maybe some veterans) a 7/7 Trampler that gains you 7 life and draws you a card when it dies is not exactly bad.
A new card is always a NEW card , bad or not, its NEW and people are guaranteed to not have them.
If a reprint is just garbage, you have to question why its reprinted at all.
Its neither needed nor do players enjoy to see the card, its just terrible in every way imaginable.
And someone made that choice, and that person needs to be fired, for the sake of being incompetent in that jobs position, and nobody should accept incompetent people in these positions (as there are plenty of people that would like to work in that place and actually could do a good job).
And, to the OP's point of not printing it at all, I could see that being an option. It is not like this has to be in the set as they probably could have found something else. But its presence in the set does not diminish the set or the card, especially since it is a Core set. It is a big, beefy creature in green and seems like it fits perfectly for the needs of this set.
Not printing it would have been exactly the right call.
If the card needs to be upgraded in rarity, its a bad fit for the set and you can simply design a card to fill that rare-slot.
The existence of the card is a feel bad moment, and you dont want them.
Every time WotC does something like this the first question you have to ask yourself is ; "Would you mind MORE of that?" , and if they keep doing rarity upshifts of worthless cards its a terrible trend that can be avoided asap and not later when the damage is done.
----
Talking the issue down is a pretty fundamental problem.
If WotC simply makes sure to not ever upshift a card to rare they avoid this pitfall.
Its as easy as that.
Never ever upshift a card in rarity, go down if needed.
If you want a rare, make a new card, designing cards is your job, making sure people have as little feel bad moments as possible is your job and anything that actively works against that is a issue that has to be avoided.
----
TLDR:
If the card would be almost the same, new name, not a reprint, nobody would mind.
As a reprint, upshifted to rare, THATS the issue and no matter how small, its something that could have been easily avoided, if they spend 5 minutes thinking about the decision.
"But literally nobody likes rares that are former uncommons" Aether Vial
Couldn't they have found something else to be reprinted? Makes no sense, what does Pellaka Wurm reprint contributes to the game? Din't knew it was in high demand or opened a new arhctype for standard.....
I just don't get it, specially after upshifting it to rare. jsut leave it alone, it already had a reprint, no one asked for its return at RARE.
Couldn't they have found something else to be reprinted? Makes no sense, what does Pellaka Wurm reprint contributes to the game? Din't knew it was in high demand or opened a new arhctype for standard.....
It shows that rarity really is about power and when they print a powerful card at a lower rarity it was by mistake, a mistake they correct by upshifting the rarity on reprints.
CCGs are the original lootbox, and Magic has always been one of the worst at not being pay to win.
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Here's the counterpoint, how about they just, you know, not reprint it at all in the set? I mean, it's certainly not a card people were fighting tooth and nail to get a reprint, right? Is it really so necessary that this format have Pelakka Wurm in it? Couldn't they have just..made something new or different for that spot?
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Still someone had to make that decision and that person deserves to get fired for that kind of stupidity.
In the end its a small thing, but its exactly the kind of crap you can avoid entirely if you just think a second if its a good idea.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
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Also, there is no "person" who made this decision. They have an entire group (or groups) dedicated to coming up with different aspects of each set. I would be surprised if Play Design and Development didn't both have a part in this and multiple people signed off on it because it was what they felt the set needed or what was best for limited.
And, in the end, who cares? Are you going to swear of Magic forever because this card could have been that sweet Prodigious Growth you really wanted? Or now you missed out on your copy of Infernal Reckoning you just had to have for your limited deck? Or you were really hoping to open that cool Spit Flame?
I get that it is disappointing in the sense that it was at uncommon in the past and, based on that, it might seem worthless to open in a pack. But every set has worthless rares (and Mythics) that this is not anything new. To be honest, I would fully expect that a brand new player opening their first pack of Magic ever and opening this card as their rare would be ecstatic. To a newer player (and maybe some veterans) a 7/7 Trampler that gains you 7 life and draws you a card when it dies is not exactly bad.
And, to the OP's point of not printing it at all, I could see that being an option. It is not like this has to be in the set as they probably could have found something else. But its presence in the set does not diminish the set or the card, especially since it is a Core set. It is a big, beefy creature in green and seems like it fits perfectly for the needs of this set.
pretty much what wizardmn said
Seriously though, it was going to be a bulk rare anyway, so why does it even matter?
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Someone made that decision and its such a terrible one that you cannot be in that position to make MORE of these decisions.
Ignore it and keep that person and expect more of that garbage to come to light.
If you know how they work, they change cards on the fly because 1 random dude did the change ; read the articles how they design, someone writes it in their internal chat/forum and especially the "last minute" changes turn out to be the biggest mistakes of them all.
At some point you simply dont have enough control of what is happening at all and if everyone can do whatever without anyone checking what they are doing, thats the kind of results you get. Its as unprofessional as it gets, and thats how WotC operates in a lot of spaces (which is a big issue pretty much overall in the company).
I dont think you really understand what a "feel bad moment" really is.
Ofcourse not everyone likes every card.
But literally nobody likes rares that are former uncommons and absolutely worthless by default, they literally have not even a remote chance to have any value, as there are already so many of them that nobody wants and you shift the card to a higher rarity, as something that people "should" be at least a little bit excited about.
So cards are designed with some specific players in mind. Reprints of cards that are already not high on the list is an issue you can and should avoid if you design a set and its not hard to understand that at all, unless the people in charge simply didnt give a crap about there work (which is a real problem and you dont want these people in your workplace, these people are a sickness you have to get rid of as early as possible, before it spreads).
If you are happy with ignoring everything unless its literally a nuclear bomb that explodes in your own basement, then fine.
Others look at the small issues and try to stop the bigger ones by making sure you dont even the small crap isnt simply ignored.
Especially the small issues can be very easily identified and avoided.
Have 10 persons look at the spoiler and literally 9 out of 10 (that actually know the game) will ask you "Why is Pelakka Wurm a rare ?". And i absolutely expect more of designers to get that.
And especially Maro should get it, as he is one of the biggest defenders of the "avoid feel bad moments" out of booster packs, and this plays directly into that issue and produces these moments that nobody wants EVER.
A new card is always a NEW card , bad or not, its NEW and people are guaranteed to not have them.
If a reprint is just garbage, you have to question why its reprinted at all.
Its neither needed nor do players enjoy to see the card, its just terrible in every way imaginable.
And someone made that choice, and that person needs to be fired, for the sake of being incompetent in that jobs position, and nobody should accept incompetent people in these positions (as there are plenty of people that would like to work in that place and actually could do a good job).
Not printing it would have been exactly the right call.
If the card needs to be upgraded in rarity, its a bad fit for the set and you can simply design a card to fill that rare-slot.
The existence of the card is a feel bad moment, and you dont want them.
Every time WotC does something like this the first question you have to ask yourself is ; "Would you mind MORE of that?" , and if they keep doing rarity upshifts of worthless cards its a terrible trend that can be avoided asap and not later when the damage is done.
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Talking the issue down is a pretty fundamental problem.
If WotC simply makes sure to not ever upshift a card to rare they avoid this pitfall.
Its as easy as that.
Never ever upshift a card in rarity, go down if needed.
If you want a rare, make a new card, designing cards is your job, making sure people have as little feel bad moments as possible is your job and anything that actively works against that is a issue that has to be avoided.
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TLDR:
If the card would be almost the same, new name, not a reprint, nobody would mind.
As a reprint, upshifted to rare, THATS the issue and no matter how small, its something that could have been easily avoided, if they spend 5 minutes thinking about the decision.
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So print something else...
Why it had to be Pelakka Wurm?
Whats the justification for Cavern of Souls to be mythic? Its not even close to a limtied bomb or amoung the first picks. It was jsutified the flack for them pulling that crap.
Proclaiming that EVERYONE will Always feel a certain way is never right. There are enough people that play, such that every emotion is felt for every action.
Have you seen the threads for functional reprints of cards? They are filled with so much hate and calls for 'why isn't this a reprint'. Goes to show even further that saying everyone will feel someway always is foolish at best.
I for one will never be upset to open this card because it is a beast in draft which is the only place I would open it. Unlike other 'new at the time' examples Aetherwind Basker, Arashin Sovereign, Giant Adephage. Every card can't be the absolute best card, and cards that are actually good in the role they were meant for shouldn't be hated.
Pelakka Wurm is easily powerful enough to be a rare, but it's an unnecessary reprint, and to a avoid salty reaction, the best solution would probably have been to design a new card for the slot. I can definitely see the argument for it from a Limited perspective, but this was going to cause annoyance, and bring little joy.
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First of all, the mythic rarity's primary purpose in limited is to shuffle away cards that Wizards doesn't want to appear often, for reasons of both power level and niche applicability, which is why the rarity is a mixture of bombs and weird stuff. Outside of limited, the expectation is that mythic rares are a set's big-ticket items, so low value picks like the oft-mentioned Past in Flames also get complaints for being too cheap. It's a catch-22 because printing both low-value mythic rares and upshifting high-value non-mythics in reprint-heavy sets get complains. The in-between of high-value cards originally printed at mythic is very narrow and largely composed of planeswalkers.
This is a reprint. There is no Design. Design does not dictate power level and I am not sure of their role in decisions on rarity, if any. That is something Play Design or Development handles. Any "mistakes" you mentioned came about from changes in Design/Development that made a card more powerful than desired. Again, it is unlikely that "Bill from accounting" went into a file and just randomly changed a card's rarity on their own without anyone catching it. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding over how WOTC operates and how sets are put together. And upshifting Wurm is so far from the issue with Skullclamp that it isn't even worth discussing further.
MaRo would have very little input on that since, you know, it is not what his job is. He wants Squirrels and he wants to remove the rules baggage from "Legendary". These things don't happen because he is not in charge of them. The same with this. He is not some God in all thing Magic. He has his role (and does it well) but not everything (good or bad) falls on him.
And, in any case, his defense of limiting "feel-bad moments" has been mostly focused on gameplay, not the way cards are printed or at what rarity. He uses this to defend the limit the use LD, Discard, and Counter-magic not the rarity they print cards at. In fact, he has often defended the printing of certain cards at Mythic that people felt should be rare for the reason of being OP in limited. This seems no different.
While we are on the subject: I was not around when Pelakka Wurm was in Standard the last time, but it was in a set with a bunch of huge Eldrazi at common, uncommon, and rare. At that time, a 7/7 was still powerful, but with a bunch of huge creatures, its impact was mitigated. However, what about the feel-bad moment now in limited? What happens when a single player drafts 3 Wurms (or opens multiples in Sealed) because they are uncommon? What do I do when I get them down to 3 life and they then go back to 10 with a 7/7 that I can only hope to chump? What about my feel bad moment when I then have to face 2 or 3 in the same game and now they have gone from 3 life to 24? Or do we only need to consider your feel bad moment of opening a worthless rare outside of Draft?
Not everyone thinks this is a bad decision. Not everyone thinks this is worth getting into this much of an uproar over. There are legitimate reasons for the upshift. This set it meant to be drafted and meant to be an introduction to the game. As I said, I firmly believe this card succeeds in both of these cases. If this was a new card, or was something almost identical but with a different P/T or a different number (gain 6 life...) would it have been that much different? No, and people would just complain about it not being Pelakka Wurm.
I just don't get this hostility towards the inclusion of this card specifically. There is no real issue with what they have done here. They have made a set that they felt would benefit best from Pelakka Wurm at rare. They have made mistakes in the past (Saheeli and Felidar Guardian was fairly recent). But this is not one of those mistakes. This is not something that will cause the death of Magic (and neither were any other major mistakes) and they have shown no predilection towards making this a super common occurrence. They can certainly do it again, but upshifting one card every year will have literally no effect on the health of the game as a whole. If they start upshifting Healing Salve and Llanowar Elves to rare, you may have a case. We are not at that point.
To be clear, I am not even saying this is the perfect decision for this slot. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe there is something better. I am simply pointing out that that in a world where a slot is rated 1-10, this is at least a 7 (maybe 8) because of the role of this card in limited and its appeal to newer players. Some of the comments in this thread seem to suggest this card is a 1 and that is simply not true.
I disagree with this philosophy in general, but he has come out and said it already. We can infer that this means they do in fact care about the Secondary Market (which is a fairly open secret already). It is not even a question of why they did it and your conclusion is correct.
However, again, I don't think that decision, in and of itself, is something to be up in arms about. Wizards lived through massive collection devaluation once before and they are taking a cautious approach. If the choices are "Reprint at Mythic" or "Don't reprint at all", I will take the first every time.
There is certainly a case for being upset that they upshifted to sell the set or whatever. But, on the other hand, I think there is an equal case for being glad that they decided to reprint it at all. The next reprint (and there will be one) will be at Mythic and will bring it down further in price.
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The best comparison might be Duskdale Wurm, which is an uncommon, but without the triggers à la Solemn Simulacrum (some trigger when it ETB, cantrip when it dies). Since Pelakka Wurm has two additional abilities, both of which are upsides, but is otherwise just Duskdale Wurm but with a trivial (unless you're in 3+ colors) change to its mana cost, it's rare. Greater complexity (even if only slightly) and stronger. Obviously a different set, but hey, Fog now costs 1G.
On phasing:
"But literally nobody likes rares that are former uncommons" Aether Vial
I know I only quoted part of the sentence
At least the card is good and useful in limited.
I just don't get it, specially after upshifting it to rare. jsut leave it alone, it already had a reprint, no one asked for its return at RARE.
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