...Before I get into the blocks, I always start by asking: How was the last year of Magic design? It was a transitional year. We were changing over to an entirely new model, and that transition proved more difficult than I think we realized at the time. There were plenty of highlights, as I'll get into in a second, but I think this last year to me was more defined as a year of important lessons. We're on the verge of another big step up in Magic design technology, and this last year has been a valuable learning year...
Is he talking here about the two-block model or something new coming in kaladesh?
When he says technology it has whispers of MtGO, are they trying to catch up to hearthstone now?
Return trips are a lot less exciting when done so frequently. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm freakin' tired of Zendikar and Innistrad already. Both felt like they were too soon, especially Innistrad. This whole year left me anticipating Kaladesh with a particular fervor. I just need something new, something interesting. For me, WotC going back to the well so frequently has resulted in a case of diminishing returns. The Eldrazi are lackluster villains. I find villains to be interesting and compelling when their motivations are revealed to the audience. Mindless drones destroying/assimilating everything isn't that exciting when there's no real reason for it. The Eldrazi actually seem like the henchmen that a superior villain would employ; they are the Foot Clan to someone else's Shredder, if you will. Limited print runs are bull*****. Eternal Masters, like the original Modern Masters, was an excellent Limited format and had a ton of value across rarities. This propensity for conservative print runs, especially when the demand is certainly there, is frustrating to say the least. Why craft such an awesome Limited environment when so few players will even get a chance to crack a pack? The story sucks. Sure, they're integrating the story into the cards much better, but is the story itself any good? I'd say no. I have tried to keep up with the stories since Khan's block, but so many of them are just poorly written series of cliches. I find them almost unreadable.
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with Magic though. Though I wasn't excited at the prospect of returning to Innistrad, I thought the block was designed rather well. SOI in particular had some excellent Limited. The cards and mechanics themselves have been solid, in my opinion. Actually, it's pretty tough to make a list of things you're happy with. Oh well...
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Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 6/29/20 (Core Set 2021).
I'd been looking forward to this article for a long time. I was and am an ardent detractor of Battle for Zendikar. I think it ranks among the 5 worst sets ever printed.
Oh it certainly was, hands down. It's actually pretty remarkable how much BFZ got wrong. Tribal aspect, complexity, being ROE over Zendikar, Eldrazi over Adventure World, and then doing that to the extreme, to finally relying on Expedition Lottery as a gimmicky crutch to sell it off anyway. Not to mention how much hype the name Zendikar inspires, only to fall horrendously flat. The only aspect of BFZ I even liked was Landfall, which was from the original anyway AND was de-powered in BFZ. So it's almost as if that set couldn't get anything right.
BFZ was so awful its shortcomings bled into Innistrad and almost ruined what turned out to be the Eldrazi done right, and a return done right.
Interesting discussion of Zendikar and the Eldrazi. I never felt they were tacked on per se; they mostly felt like an oblique deconstruction of "what happens when you're trapped, and why do people keep building tombs and temples full of traps and priceless artifacts". Only here, it's the villains who are trapped.
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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!
I really enjoyed reading his article and plan on reading the past ones because it was fascinating. I really appreciated him admitted to their mistakes and successes. I just disagreed with one thing in particular; that the eldrazi were done right in SOI block. There are four different ways they represented them in the block: emerge, meld, tokens, and werewolves. Emerge admittedly is a homerun and I think he over stated the success of the eldrazi here because of this. It is a great mechanic, BUT it's so much more powerful than the other 3 that they are almost useless in comparison. Meld is the second best of the eldrazi mechanics, but there is only 6 meld cards making 3 total melds. 3 of those cards are rare and one mythic, making the mechanic all but unplayable in limited, but its still decent for contructed, so it's a passable mechanic. the tokens part of the eldrazi cards were not terrible, but not anywhere near good. the best card to make the tokens is one of meld creatures, and the green 3 drop that searches the top cards of your deck and is sac fodder for the emerge cards is good too. but both of those are dependent on the first two mechanics listed, so the tokens strategy was pretty bad. Now for the worst of the worst. The abomination. Taking the only tribe on innistrad that is never represented on any other plane, and giving them the worst eldrazi mechanic by a mile to replace the tried and true flip mechanic is mind boggling. werewolves as a clan needed just a little more help after SOI to be playable, and WotC handed us unflippable werewolves in the second set?! Well unflippable until turn 5 without ramp. Meaning you can emerge out a devastating eldrazi turn 4 with emerge, but you cant flip your 1 drop werewolf until turn 5 without help?!! The eldrazi actually ruined the entire werewolf clan to a level of unplayability. so lets tally up:
emerge= awesome
meld= decent, but parasitic to a point
tokens= bad
werewolves= beyond terrible
that looks a lot like they got only 25% of their eldrazi flavored cards right, and the other 75% is lacking, some to a great degree. I think his article should have said "We finally got AN eldrazi mechanic right."
I find it interesting that they have such a hard time with telling a story through cards as they used to be really, really good at it for a very long time (see: Ice Age block through Invasion block).
The story in Ice Age and, say, the Weatherlight saga was pretty hard to fathom from just the cards, though. Now you can pick up more of the story, I would agree with MaRo on that. The problem for me is, I don't really want this to happen- dragging in players to play Mtg is good, but the players they drag in are those who have expectations of story, planeswalkers and basically more of what they are doing now, and I want them to stop. The story is rubbish, but even if it were good I really resent it getting in the way of card design- the need for sodding Planeswalkers in every set, because that is how they tell stories.
The interesting thing for me is the way they make the sets now. It is comparable with blockbuster movies that are designed by committee and also heavily influenced by market research- they sell loads every summer- but are empty, vacuous and largely forgettable.
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People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
No, just so much no. They were not good at telling the story in cards. They put story on cards but it was not told. The entire Weatherlight journey through rath, even mundane things, is on cards but almost no one knows this. Just because you can find your story on cards doesn't mean the story was told on cards. Do you know how many people know that Terminate(from planshift) shows Darigaaz sacrificing himself so that the other Primeval aren't immortal? Almost no one can look at that card and even understand half of that. It doesn't help that the card is a disconnect of flavor and function, how does Darigaaz's self-sacrifice turn into a destroy spell? It is almost impossible to have someone figure out the story from those cards, but it is reasonable for someone to figure out the story of the two newest blocks from just the cards.
One thing that always irks me when MARO writes is how he mentions market research like the research is public knowledge.
Also i really dont want to buy a set based off market research. I want a set made by creative inspired individuals who can think outside the focus group.
I think this is just complaining for the sake of complaining. Market research makes sets better and has little to do with stifling creativity. Is Egypt World less fun if they reveal that it tested well instead of someone naturally deciding to do it?
I think you're viewing it too much as "Market research means someone comes and says you must have X mechanics, and creatures must be this big, etc." when it's usually more like "Wow, people hated this mechanic. Maybe we should try to do a different thing they like more." or "Design isn't the place for us to be self indulgent just to show we can do something."
Being against market research is like telling WotC "please stop addressing the issues that I personally complain about on sites like mtgsalvation!" It's completely nonsensical.
I actually forgot that half of the BFZ and Oath mechanics existed.
There needed to be fewer eldrazi. As many of you stated, they all looked the same artwise. Tiny eldrazi are not intimidating, nor do they feel like cosmic horrors.
While there were smaller eldrazi in Eldritch Moon, at least they looked unique enough. The small number of them made them distinct from each other, and the artists are allowed to go crazy on Innistrad, while Zendikar was much more tame.
Market research is not inherently good or bad. This is idiotic binary thinking. USING market research to put out a product that has the qualities most desired according to said research can do many things. Some examples:
If you're a company exec whose goal is turning a profit, market research can help you make more money.
If you're a consumer who wants to consume what other consumers like, market research can give you the product you desire.
If you're someone who wants to appreciate the creative output of others with as few filters as possible, market research can give you a homogenized product without any sharp corners.
If you're a creative person who wants to have your expression appreciated by others, market research can dull your vision and make your expression unrecognizable.
Obviously MaRo falls into the first category, and I imagine the last as well.
Too many things fly over my head, but one thing I really have to scowl over is the fact that he mentioned about "returning to the beloved aspects of a revisited plane" and "the success of keeping the storyline progressing forward" in the same article, because those two aspects are, at this point, contradictory, especially in the case of Zendikar.
If anything, it seems that this pair of mindset was among the reason of their near-complete failure of portraying the Eldrazi as true Lovecraftian beings; because they are trying to push forward to turning Zendikar into the adventure world that they used to be, they ended up making a half-hearted attempt to off the Eldrazi out of the picture forever by relegating them into giant plane-eating monsters of the week. I remember some of us saying that the involvement of Eldrazi turns the conflicts in the stories into simple dichotomy: Protectors vs Destroyers, and perhaps MaRo did read about these sentiments.
And as for Innistrad, well, yes, so they decided to overturn whatever happy ending AVR gave so that they have the easiest excuse to turn Innistrad into what it used to be: Horror-filled world where humanity is forever besieged. Pft. They could've handled it better than just randomly introducing new plot twists to cancel out happy endings. Well, I understand conflict is needed for a story to happen, but SOI's method of introducing conflict to move the story forward felt much too half-assed that I pretty much lost hope of any decent story developments in the future.
the thematic disconnect of BFZ/OGW like the colorless mana retemplating
IIRC, this was one of the main reasons you didn't believe that the symbol could really represent just normal colorless mana. You thought it was nonsensical. I'm glad you're still keeping my reply in your sig as a reminder
Yeah, maro weighed in on it back then on his blog and said that it was a big discussion while BFZ was being developed and he was against it, but they went with it anyway. So we already knew he thought that much was a mistake, but I bet the rest are on board with him now in retrospect.
Well, yes. It was a mistake. They could resolve it, for example, by simply swapping Kozilek and Ulamog, with colorless mana in BFZ and Processors in OGW.
The interesting thing for me is the way they make the sets now. It is comparable with blockbuster movies that are designed by committee and also heavily influenced by market research- they sell loads every summer- but are empty, vacuous and largely forgettable.
So they shouldn't use market research? Not care what people think about the sets? Market research is not some evil thing, just one way to get information. Starting all the way from Alpha magic has been made by "committee", there is nothing wrong with that either. It is too big thing for one individual to do properly, it needs to be group effort.
I am not saying that Mtg should be done by an individual- it has always been done by committee, and always should. But those summer blockbuster films I used as a comparison are now designed to appeal to as many as possible, using demographics, audience testing and extensive market research, whilst ultimately being hollow, forgettable, critically panned and eventually rejected in favour of the next flavour of the month. There is a danger in placing undue emphasis on market research, not in the conducting of it- trying to please as many as possible can produce a mess, and popular culture is full of highly rated lowest common demoninator products such as McDonalds and soap operas that might sell well but are not very good. I am not sure that I was clear in my original post, I am not saying they should use market research, but perhaps be wary of placing too much emphasis on it. It is also worth noting that the same market research can be used to direct the product towards those not playing the game, who outnumber those that do. Market research can be dangerous here- it would tell you for example that the most popular sport in the world is soccer (by a considerable factor over any other sport), because it is simple, fast and accessible- whilst other sports are more intricate, more nuanced and harder to get into. Those other sports would find themselves simplifying their game to get the non-followers in if they misused the data, losing the essence of what makes them special. I am worried that Mtg's quest for expansion might do the same thing if not handled well.
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People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
I love how when someone mentions market research as a contributing factor, everyone seems to narrow in and act like it is the only contributing factor, or even the biggest contributing factor. You act like your voices and opinions are getting ignored in favor of this mysterious research. In reality, your voices and opinions probably count as most of the market research. Well, not this community's. Thank Purphoros.
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MTGSalvation; Where the whining is a time honored tradition, and enjoying the game is trolling.
It probably sells more packs though, because young Timmy buys a booster and goes like "Whoa I got a super mythic ghost rare shifted thing. This game is amazing."
Yes, I'm said Timmy, who likes to open packs from time to time, which was originally the reason why I started. Now it's not fun anymore with all that garbage inside.
I don't want any stupid rare Eldrazi Horrors which don't fit in any deck, not even an Eldrazi deck. Or rare make-a-choice cards which are less effective than friggin Commands from Lorwyn.
While we're at it, just bring back Lorwyn.
Remember when Jace wasn't in every set?
But... Jace was in Lorwyn. In fact, he has only been in 4 blocks since he appeared.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
It probably sells more packs though, because young Timmy buys a booster and goes like "Whoa I got a super mythic ghost rare shifted thing. This game is amazing."
Yes, I'm said Timmy, who likes to open packs from time to time, which was originally the reason why I started. Now it's not fun anymore with all that garbage inside.
I don't want any stupid rare Eldrazi Horrors which don't fit in any deck, not even an Eldrazi deck. Or rare make-a-choice cards which are less effective than friggin Commands from Lorwyn.
While we're at it, just bring back Lorwyn.
Remember when Jace wasn't in every set?
But... Jace was in Lorwyn. In fact, he has only been in 4 blocks since he appeared.
I think it's because Jace is in a lot of core sets and so he seems to appear in every Standard.
Just to clarify my stance about market research (as someone who works in marketing with loads of market research data.) market research can be very important and provide some key insights about a consumer groups habbits and desires. But there are big limitations to what you get out of it. A focus group of a dozen people informing a product with a consconsumer base in the millions. Youll get some interesting nuggets but a very very narrow view of the market. Online or phone polls are also dodgy outside of very simple questions (like trump vs hillary).
My original point was that Maros writing leads me to believe that market research drives design. Maybe it plays a much smaller role than i think. But back in the early 90s before mtg if you did market research on gamers they would habe said lots of interesting things about improving monopoly and dungeons and dragons. It took a creative guy to invent a whole new genre of gaming with MTG that combines the portability of a deck of cards,the flavor of classic fantasy, the strategic depth of chess and bluffing of poker and collectibility of trading cards. It wasnt market research it was a dude named garfield.
Looking at the past few years and we have returned to all kinds of planes that market researched said people loved. Is it bad to return to ravnica? Not at all, i really enjoyed those sets. But is it lazy uninspired design? You bet it is.
Darn near every sequel to every beloved piece of entertainment is accompanied by commentary from the creators talking about how hard it was to return to the material and capture the same magic again. Whether Wizards has succeeded or not is another story, but saying that returns themselves are automatically "lazy" and/or "uninspired" means you either don't know what those words mean, or you're wrong.
It probably sells more packs though, because young Timmy buys a booster and goes like "Whoa I got a super mythic ghost rare shifted thing. This game is amazing."
Yes, I'm said Timmy, who likes to open packs from time to time, which was originally the reason why I started. Now it's not fun anymore with all that garbage inside.
I don't want any stupid rare Eldrazi Horrors which don't fit in any deck, not even an Eldrazi deck. Or rare make-a-choice cards which are less effective than friggin Commands from Lorwyn.
While we're at it, just bring back Lorwyn.
Remember when Jace wasn't in every set?
But... Jace was in Lorwyn. In fact, he has only been in 4 blocks since he appeared.
I think it's because Jace is in a lot of core sets and so he seems to appear in every Standard.
Chandra did too, and yet people don't seem to hate her as much. It's probably what you said, and how good Jace has been vs how bad Chandra has been, on average.
Darn near every sequel to every beloved piece of entertainment is accompanied by commentary from the creators talking about how hard it was to return to the material and capture the same magic again. Whether Wizards has succeeded or not is another story, but saying that returns themselves are automatically "lazy" and/or "uninspired" means you either don't know what those words mean, or you're wrong.
And darn near every sequel to every beloved piece of entertainment fails to live up to its predecessor on a creative level.
Most of them come about through a combination of fan pressure and greed. Does that mean RtRtR will be terrible? Of course not. Less inspired? Probably.
Just to clarify my stance about market research (as someone who works in marketing with loads of market research data.) market research can be very important and provide some key insights about a consumer groups habbits and desires. But there are big limitations to what you get out of it. A focus group of a dozen people informing a product with a consconsumer base in the millions. Youll get some interesting nuggets but a very very narrow view of the market. Online or phone polls are also dodgy outside of very simple questions (like trump vs hillary).
You can bet that WotC's market research for Magic is not "a dozen people". With polls, surveys, players' emails, crawling of social media, etc. it's likely that their sample size is pretty significative.
My original point was that Maros writing leads me to believe that market research drives design. Maybe it plays a much smaller role than i think. But back in the early 90s before mtg if you did market research on gamers they would habe said lots of interesting things about improving monopoly and dungeons and dragons. It took a creative guy to invent a whole new genre of gaming with MTG that combines the portability of a deck of cards,the flavor of classic fantasy, the strategic depth of chess and bluffing of poker and collectibility of trading cards. It wasnt market research it was a dude named garfield.
You realise that you are basically saying that R. Garfield took a bunch of already existing, already popular things and made something new out of it? That's what Magic does nowadays all the time.
Looking at the past few years and we have returned to all kinds of planes that market researched said people loved. Is it bad to return to ravnica? Not at all, i really enjoyed those sets. But is it lazy uninspired design? You bet it is.
This is a very selfish point of view. Just because you'd rather /every single block/ be in a completely new and original plane, you don't think that a significant percentage of people LOVE revisiting places and things that they once loved. Similarly, you must not work within any creative industry (note the word "industry", as opposed to "artistic endeavour") if you don't realise how risky (and exhausting) is to continuously release previously untested creations to a public that will judge them mostly on subjective appraisal. Being able to spend some time and effort into creations that have already proven successful is a huge stress reliever.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Awww man... now I wanna see Phyrexia invade Kaladesh. That would be fatal. Does the name "Aether Revolt" imply, that the machines will rebel?
I hope it will be a machine revolution. I'm hoping it WON'T be Phyrexia. However, based on what happened with Emrakul I kind of expect it will be Phyrexia, simply because "Artifact block = Phyrexia". Here's to hoping they are not that obvious.
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
Awww man... now I wanna see Phyrexia invade Kaladesh. That would be fatal. Does the name "Aether Revolt" imply, that the machines will rebel?
I hope it will be a machine revolution. I'm hoping it WON'T be Phyrexia. However, based on what happened with Emrakul I kind of expect it will be Phyrexia, simply because "Artifact block = Phyrexia". Here's to hoping they are not that obvious.
I think it's going to be Chandra, Saheeli, and Nissa joining forces with the rebels to take down the Consul.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
---
Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
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When he says technology it has whispers of MtGO, are they trying to catch up to hearthstone now?
UBU/B Tezz ControlUB
WTempered SteelW
EDH
BWTeysa, Orzhov ScionBW
RUJhoira of the GhituRU
RGWMayael the AnimaRGW
Return trips are a lot less exciting when done so frequently. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm freakin' tired of Zendikar and Innistrad already. Both felt like they were too soon, especially Innistrad. This whole year left me anticipating Kaladesh with a particular fervor. I just need something new, something interesting. For me, WotC going back to the well so frequently has resulted in a case of diminishing returns.
The Eldrazi are lackluster villains. I find villains to be interesting and compelling when their motivations are revealed to the audience. Mindless drones destroying/assimilating everything isn't that exciting when there's no real reason for it. The Eldrazi actually seem like the henchmen that a superior villain would employ; they are the Foot Clan to someone else's Shredder, if you will.
Limited print runs are bull*****. Eternal Masters, like the original Modern Masters, was an excellent Limited format and had a ton of value across rarities. This propensity for conservative print runs, especially when the demand is certainly there, is frustrating to say the least. Why craft such an awesome Limited environment when so few players will even get a chance to crack a pack?
The story sucks. Sure, they're integrating the story into the cards much better, but is the story itself any good? I'd say no. I have tried to keep up with the stories since Khan's block, but so many of them are just poorly written series of cliches. I find them almost unreadable.
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with Magic though. Though I wasn't excited at the prospect of returning to Innistrad, I thought the block was designed rather well. SOI in particular had some excellent Limited. The cards and mechanics themselves have been solid, in my opinion. Actually, it's pretty tough to make a list of things you're happy with. Oh well...
My 720 Peasant Cube
BFZ was so awful its shortcomings bled into Innistrad and almost ruined what turned out to be the Eldrazi done right, and a return done right.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
On phasing:
emerge= awesome
meld= decent, but parasitic to a point
tokens= bad
werewolves= beyond terrible
that looks a lot like they got only 25% of their eldrazi flavored cards right, and the other 75% is lacking, some to a great degree. I think his article should have said "We finally got AN eldrazi mechanic right."
The interesting thing for me is the way they make the sets now. It is comparable with blockbuster movies that are designed by committee and also heavily influenced by market research- they sell loads every summer- but are empty, vacuous and largely forgettable.
I think this is just complaining for the sake of complaining. Market research makes sets better and has little to do with stifling creativity. Is Egypt World less fun if they reveal that it tested well instead of someone naturally deciding to do it?
I think you're viewing it too much as "Market research means someone comes and says you must have X mechanics, and creatures must be this big, etc." when it's usually more like "Wow, people hated this mechanic. Maybe we should try to do a different thing they like more." or "Design isn't the place for us to be self indulgent just to show we can do something."
There needed to be fewer eldrazi. As many of you stated, they all looked the same artwise. Tiny eldrazi are not intimidating, nor do they feel like cosmic horrors.
While there were smaller eldrazi in Eldritch Moon, at least they looked unique enough. The small number of them made them distinct from each other, and the artists are allowed to go crazy on Innistrad, while Zendikar was much more tame.
If you're a company exec whose goal is turning a profit, market research can help you make more money.
If you're a consumer who wants to consume what other consumers like, market research can give you the product you desire.
If you're someone who wants to appreciate the creative output of others with as few filters as possible, market research can give you a homogenized product without any sharp corners.
If you're a creative person who wants to have your expression appreciated by others, market research can dull your vision and make your expression unrecognizable.
Obviously MaRo falls into the first category, and I imagine the last as well.
If anything, it seems that this pair of mindset was among the reason of their near-complete failure of portraying the Eldrazi as true Lovecraftian beings; because they are trying to push forward to turning Zendikar into the adventure world that they used to be, they ended up making a half-hearted attempt to off the Eldrazi out of the picture forever by relegating them into giant plane-eating monsters of the week. I remember some of us saying that the involvement of Eldrazi turns the conflicts in the stories into simple dichotomy: Protectors vs Destroyers, and perhaps MaRo did read about these sentiments.
And as for Innistrad, well, yes, so they decided to overturn whatever happy ending AVR gave so that they have the easiest excuse to turn Innistrad into what it used to be: Horror-filled world where humanity is forever besieged. Pft. They could've handled it better than just randomly introducing new plot twists to cancel out happy endings. Well, I understand conflict is needed for a story to happen, but SOI's method of introducing conflict to move the story forward felt much too half-assed that I pretty much lost hope of any decent story developments in the future.
Well, yes. It was a mistake. They could resolve it, for example, by simply swapping Kozilek and Ulamog, with colorless mana in BFZ and Processors in OGW.
I am not saying that Mtg should be done by an individual- it has always been done by committee, and always should. But those summer blockbuster films I used as a comparison are now designed to appeal to as many as possible, using demographics, audience testing and extensive market research, whilst ultimately being hollow, forgettable, critically panned and eventually rejected in favour of the next flavour of the month. There is a danger in placing undue emphasis on market research, not in the conducting of it- trying to please as many as possible can produce a mess, and popular culture is full of highly rated lowest common demoninator products such as McDonalds and soap operas that might sell well but are not very good. I am not sure that I was clear in my original post, I am not saying they should use market research, but perhaps be wary of placing too much emphasis on it. It is also worth noting that the same market research can be used to direct the product towards those not playing the game, who outnumber those that do. Market research can be dangerous here- it would tell you for example that the most popular sport in the world is soccer (by a considerable factor over any other sport), because it is simple, fast and accessible- whilst other sports are more intricate, more nuanced and harder to get into. Those other sports would find themselves simplifying their game to get the non-followers in if they misused the data, losing the essence of what makes them special. I am worried that Mtg's quest for expansion might do the same thing if not handled well.
But... Jace was in Lorwyn. In fact, he has only been in 4 blocks since he appeared.
I think it's because Jace is in a lot of core sets and so he seems to appear in every Standard.
My original point was that Maros writing leads me to believe that market research drives design. Maybe it plays a much smaller role than i think. But back in the early 90s before mtg if you did market research on gamers they would habe said lots of interesting things about improving monopoly and dungeons and dragons. It took a creative guy to invent a whole new genre of gaming with MTG that combines the portability of a deck of cards,the flavor of classic fantasy, the strategic depth of chess and bluffing of poker and collectibility of trading cards. It wasnt market research it was a dude named garfield.
Looking at the past few years and we have returned to all kinds of planes that market researched said people loved. Is it bad to return to ravnica? Not at all, i really enjoyed those sets. But is it lazy uninspired design? You bet it is.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Chandra did too, and yet people don't seem to hate her as much. It's probably what you said, and how good Jace has been vs how bad Chandra has been, on average.
And darn near every sequel to every beloved piece of entertainment fails to live up to its predecessor on a creative level.
Most of them come about through a combination of fan pressure and greed. Does that mean RtRtR will be terrible? Of course not. Less inspired? Probably.
You can bet that WotC's market research for Magic is not "a dozen people". With polls, surveys, players' emails, crawling of social media, etc. it's likely that their sample size is pretty significative.
You realise that you are basically saying that R. Garfield took a bunch of already existing, already popular things and made something new out of it? That's what Magic does nowadays all the time.
This is a very selfish point of view. Just because you'd rather /every single block/ be in a completely new and original plane, you don't think that a significant percentage of people LOVE revisiting places and things that they once loved. Similarly, you must not work within any creative industry (note the word "industry", as opposed to "artistic endeavour") if you don't realise how risky (and exhausting) is to continuously release previously untested creations to a public that will judge them mostly on subjective appraisal. Being able to spend some time and effort into creations that have already proven successful is a huge stress reliever.
I hope it will be a machine revolution. I'm hoping it WON'T be Phyrexia. However, based on what happened with Emrakul I kind of expect it will be Phyrexia, simply because "Artifact block = Phyrexia". Here's to hoping they are not that obvious.
I think it's going to be Chandra, Saheeli, and Nissa joining forces with the rebels to take down the Consul.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.