Yeah this is kinda cool but Imma just buy more 2XM or singles.
Nothing here really appeals to me? I want X commons, Y Uncommons, Z Rares/Mythics.
I don't care about the art stuff a ton, and you seem to get more commons and less uncommons so...if there's a chase uncommon I guess you're out of luck?
Meh. Just draft boosters for me.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
I’ll break with the crowd and say I prefer these to Draft Boosters, at least in theory.
The vast majority of packs I crack are just as a collector
(and even then only for sets with exceptional Commons/Uncommons like War of the Spark).
I don't think you're wrong, it's just... I dunno. I've never felt physically stressed out reading a description of how a magic the gathering pack works before this article. But this did it to me. I just wanted it to end.
So two LESS cards in a booster for 1 dollar a booster MORE.
LESS product for MORE money. Easy to see through the dog and pony show WotC and Maro are running for Hasbro.
I’ll trade all of my draft boosters for any of these pesky set boosters you obtain. You will make our like a bandit since the pack you’ll be getting has two more cards!
The point you obviously missed is that WotC lowers the amount of cardboard they put in a pack saving money and concurrently charge more for each pack making them more money. Switching to price, the same tactic is used in scratch off tickets. A $1 scratch off may give you 5 to 1 odds of winning, but a $2 scratch off gives you 4 to 1 odds of winning. Set packs are still a gamble with slightly better odds than Draft packs of getting multiple rares. Pick your poison.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Well, this is another great idea executed in a terrible way.
Sure, people want booster sets that aren't designed for draft. The argument for them being that draft boosters are often stuffed with cards that see no play or value outside of that draft environment. It seems Wizard has obliged. However, in the process of obliging, they've stuck two fingers up to the same people: they've increased the booster cost, lowered the number of cards you get, and then 'the set is not intended for drafting, but was designed so you can draft it if you want'. The most infamous excuse for stuffing a set with junk, so they can keep what sells for later cash grabs ancillary products.
This will not do well. On the cost to card ratio, casual players who aren't invested in news will be uninterested. If they then stuff it full of rejected cards from this years various hit-or-miss products, it's going to do even less well because singles sellers and collectors won't be seeking it. Topped with the old metric of asking a random person in the card shop whether they'd rather two boosters of: boosters with 15 cards that are usable in STD and most LGC formats, or pay extra and receive less cards that are only legal in older formats, but are unlikely to be actually played in them? I don't see those pedestrians opting to buy this over the more immediately accessible normal boosters or Jump Start.
They should of just made Double Masters the 'not designed for draft' set. Then that wouldn't be half crammed with useless, unwanted cards under the auspicious claim of 'but draft needs it', and people would have had an actual reason for inflated prices while chasing cards they want. As it appears to me they don't even bother focus testing or researching these ideas anymore, as it seems they're just throwing any idea at the wall to see what makes the most money. Not what's best for consumers, best for the game or best even for newer players: literally just what makes the most short term profit regardless of damage it does to confidence and long term game support.
I can get behind this. I usually buy a box of cards in hope to get the rares AND enough lands/uncommons for my decks, this new Set Booster makes it a lot easier for collector to get what they want without the price tag of the Collector packs. Even for extra $1, your chance of getting rares/mythic is much higher than draft booster.
so cards are being cut out and yet it is still more expansive ?
people are taking the bait here cause of the extra chances for rares / mythics ? it is sill a way to sell cardboard for a higher price. (i mean it would be higher by just cutting cards, but they still had to increase the price... tse, i believe some day i stop playn magic not because the game sucks, but the wizards, by trying to fool everyone)
and who needs art cards ? thats like less worth than a common, since u cant play it. u wanna make a booster for people who dont draft by adding a useless card ??? what logic is that ?
and who needs art cards ? thats like less worth than a common, since u cant play it. u wanna make a booster for people who dont draft by adding a useless card ??? what logic is that ?
You answered your own question, it isn't logical. The only way the art card would be any good is if it had the Magic card back on it so I could Sharpie over the art for a proxy. If I don't draft I want MORE cards AND a better shot at value cards.
Here's my favorite little gem from Maro and the article...
After looking at the research, we found that most players feel that when opening boosters, they quickly get to a point where commons don't matter (and then eventually get to a similar point with uncommons)
It took them 27 years to figure this out through "the research". 27 freaking years, really??? How does this company stay afloat in spite of themselves.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
"...we expect that you will get the same number of rares and mythic rares per dollar spent as you would buying Draft Boosters."
So, what's the point?
Two things: 1) you get less junk. How many people complain about all the commons and uncommons they open cracking packs/boxes? In these packs, the ratio of "junk" to "reward" is a ton lower. 2) Excitement/gambling/whatever you wanna call it. Sure, over the course of a dozen packs you'd expect to open the same numbers. But part of the fun of cracking packs is beating the odds. You're more likely to remember the 4 rare pack you opened the one time than the half dozen 1 rare ones you did before that. And if you've got 5 bucks, why not go with the slightly more exciting option that might have a whole pile of rares in there, rather than the slightly cheaper 1 rare per pack?
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
I don’t... what does this even mean?
Looking at MTGTop8, I count about 140 commons/uncommons that appear in at least %1 of Modern decks.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
Packs will be 6 dollars each, not 5 dollars each (about $2 more, not the $1 more than a draft pack according to the WotC spinmasters). For instance WM sells Draft Packs for $4.18 each. I would guess WM/Target/Box Stores will sell between $6.25 to $6.79 USD.
Set Booster Box (of 30 packs, not 36) will "MSRP" at $199.99 vs. the $144.00 of a Draft booster box. Of course we know you can get a Standard BB for on average shipped from about 90 to 100 USD. So Set Booster Box can probably be had for around 150 to 160 shipped.
Just my guesses but we will see if I am right or wrong.
The idea is a good one, I think the execution is wrong.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I have been thinking on how I would design/execute a Set Booster Pack.
My musings:
16 cards in a pack (15 playables and 1 token) ZERO AD CARDS, ZERO ARTWORK JUNK, NOT DESIGNED FOR DRAFT
2 guaranteed rares and/or mythics per pack
4 guaranteed uncommons per pack
1 guaranteed foil per pack (any rarity C to M)
1 guaranteed land per pack (50% chance of being foil) note: any full art lands would fall in this slot
6 guaranteed commons
1 guaranteed slot for alternate artwork cards/special border (any rarity but NONE foil)
1 guaranteed token card
$6 USD per pack
24 packs per booster box
1 promo booster pack and one foil promo inside each booster box. (3 cards per promo pack, no foils in the promo pack)
That's how I would do it. WotC gets 2 dollars more per pack for the roughly same amount of product as a Draft Booster.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
How would WotC also distribute these packs? They don't know ahead of time what cards will be played in meta. So they'd either have to guess and probably overestimate, so chaff would still get in, and they'd still miss includes, or they'd only be able to ship these packs after the first few weeks of the format, which would be poor business for something like this.
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
I don’t... what does this even mean?
Looking at MTGTop8, I count about 140 commons/uncommons that appear in at least %1 of Modern decks.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
140 playable non-rares in format with over 13k available cards seems abysmally insignificant. but that's modern where the competition for playability is steep so standard would be better example... except in standard the situation is similar, only a handful of non-rares are playable in consructed. it's obvious that most of the cards are designed to be chaff "because limited" which is really tiresome for people who wants to play constructed because it rises the cost of the game and prices out a lot of people.
spreading constructed-useful cards through all rarities instead concentrating them in rares and mythics is what would really help the set to not give out the feeling that only rare/mythic slot in the pack can be worth something.
^ I’d wager these have to be less predictable than a Draft Booster to avoid completely replacing them.
Packs that always have one extra Uncommon and one extra Mythic/Rare would end up becoming the favored way to draft.
They aren't designed for draft and would not be legal for draft at sanctioned events including FNM. If individuals want to draft them go ahead but they would not be LEGAL/SANCTIONED at WotC draft events. Problem solved.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
Something like that.
Each rarity sheet would be a list of known usable cards. Usable cards does not mean expensive cards, as there are cards that in the $2-$5 range that wold be useful. Since Wizards doesn't officially acknowledge the secondary market (even though they do), they should be able to do this.
For example, you might pull yet another Path to Exile in my hypothetical pack, but that card gets used a lot, so it's not a complete loss of value.
This no chaff booster is a silly idea, in that if they really did it immediately half the set (at least, probably more) would instantly become chaff/bulk. I don't know a ton about economics but it's pretty simple. For the packs to hold their price only very few cards can be worth the price of a pack. If half the set is worth $5+ then either those prices will crash or pack prices will rise. I know the proponents of this idea want the crash, but if they do then everyone will just be complaining about their "worthless" chaff in a month. People will be throwing away their paths and bolts from box openings cause they've got 24 of them at home.
I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.
I don’t... what does this even mean?
Looking at MTGTop8, I count about 140 commons/uncommons that appear in at least %1 of Modern decks.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
That.... actually sounds awesome. With no MSRP out, printing a NO-Chaff-All-Staples set would be great from a game accessibility standpoint as well as an economic experiment standpoint.
WotC would simply have to sell this direct from the website, using Amazon/Uber-style flexible pricing so that they get an appropriate slice of whatever the market thinks the set is worth.
And they'd simply have to call it "Expected Value Master's". There's just no other choice.
This no chaff booster is a silly idea, in that if they really did it immediately half the set (at least, probably more) would instantly become chaff/bulk. I don't know a ton about economics but it's pretty simple. For the packs to hold their price only very few cards can be worth the price of a pack. If half the set is worth $5+ then either those prices will crash or pack prices will rise. I know the proponents of this idea want the crash, but if they do then everyone will just be complaining about their "worthless" chaff in a month. People will be throwing away their paths and bolts from box openings cause they've got 24 of them at home.
Prices only crash in the short term. Most of the staples players ask for are always in demand, so those prices would rise back up. It also helps to let new players in the game, since there is a time window where cards are inexpensive. I don't expect Wizards to do this every year, but if they do this every 3-5 years, it would keep prices from going to really ridiculous values. Rather than concentrating the financial value in scarcity, the value is in totality of all the cards.
If a few years went by without a reprint, in example (a), a single card would increase in value greatly, but the supply is constricted. In example (b), 10 cards would rise in value, although not as much as example (a). Nonetheless, example (b) did rise in value.
As Wizards do periodical reprints, more cards would be in circulation, but if they are good, in-demand cards, those reprints would rise in price anyway.
If one was simply a speculator, that person's "net worth" would not be concentrated on only a few cards, but it would be spread out over many cards (volume).
This no chaff booster is a silly idea, in that if they really did it immediately half the set (at least, probably more) would instantly become chaff/bulk. I don't know a ton about economics but it's pretty simple. For the packs to hold their price only very few cards can be worth the price of a pack. If half the set is worth $5+ then either those prices will crash or pack prices will rise. I know the proponents of this idea want the crash, but if they do then everyone will just be complaining about their "worthless" chaff in a month. People will be throwing away their paths and bolts from box openings cause they've got 24 of them at home.
Prices only crash in the short term. Most of the staples players ask for are always in demand, so those prices would rise back up. It also helps to let new players in the game, since there is a time window where cards are inexpensive. I don't expect Wizards to do this every year, but if they do this every 3-5 years, it would keep prices from going to really ridiculous values. Rather than concentrating the financial value in scarcity, the value is in totality of all the cards.
If a few years went by without a reprint, in example (a), a single card would increase in value greatly, but the supply is constricted. In example (b), 10 cards would rise in value, although not as much as example (a). Nonetheless, example (b) did rise in value.
As Wizards do periodical reprints, more cards would be in circulation, but if they are good, in-demand cards, those reprints would rise in price anyway.
If one was simply a speculator, that person's "net worth" would not be concentrated on only a few cards, but it would be spread out over many cards (volume).
It's similar to stock market shares.
i think this is the old way of thinking and we're all still trapped in it. there are plenty of cards that have just had their price absolutely destroyed by the current approach to reprints.
remember when goyf was over 150 dollars?
how about when ancestral vision was pushing 65?
liliana of the veil at 110 anyone?
they're still reasonable value, but they're nowhere near what they once were and all it will take to push them even lower is a single reprinting.
i'm not saying cards should be ridiculously priced, but what i am saying is that there should be reasonable stability. reasonable faith in the pricing for them. currently, if its reprintable at all a lot of people have no faith that it'll retain its value. this is why so many have opted to buy into reserve list cards instead. they'll never be reprint. the pricing stays relatively stable, and rises with time.
and while yes the net worth of a collection is indeed spread over the entire collection not just a small portion of it, with each reprint that spread reduces further in value. its important to remember that in a set like say double masters, where everyone is chasing the mythics, every other card reprint there is going to lower in value dramatically as people crack packs to get the hotter rarer cards. this means the $5 rares drop in value further and may not ever recover because of saturation. we've already seen this with quite a number of cards, and i'd argue eldraine, theros, ikoria, and m21 all suffered from this as well. there is no infinite growth.
on a long enough time line this causes people to stop bothering to buy. you need the contents of a pack to be worth at least the value of the pack. you need to have faith in the secondary market. you need to not feel like its a $4+ lotto ticket where you win all or nothing. this too has been proven in the past, not just with other tcgs and sports cards, but within magic's own history with many of the same arguments for the future and approach to reprints having been discussed over 20 years ago.
so while on paper this pack idea sounds great, it sounds like its what we all want, in practice... well in practice i think there's too many products with too much value at the top end, and too much volatility even there, to be long term viable. buying into products like these set a dangerous precedent and send the company clear messages that its all okay, that we'll keep buying, but in reality eventually... we won't and then we'll sit there wondering what happened.
People will be throwing away their paths and bolts from box openings cause they've got 24 of them at home.
No they won't because they are STAPLES in one or more formats. Some players need far more than 4 copies of a card for multiple decks. I probably have 24 Lightning Bolts and I'd buy them at 25 cents a piece 'til the cows come home for multiple decks I need them for. Playable will always be in demand, CHAFF won't.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
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I think these should be more like jumpstart where they are themed around something in Zenidkar.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Nothing here really appeals to me? I want X commons, Y Uncommons, Z Rares/Mythics.
I don't care about the art stuff a ton, and you seem to get more commons and less uncommons so...if there's a chase uncommon I guess you're out of luck?
Meh. Just draft boosters for me.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
The vast majority of packs I crack are just as a collector
(and even then only for sets with exceptional Commons/Uncommons like War of the Spark).
I don't think you're wrong, it's just... I dunno. I've never felt physically stressed out reading a description of how a magic the gathering pack works before this article. But this did it to me. I just wanted it to end.
The point you obviously missed is that WotC lowers the amount of cardboard they put in a pack saving money and concurrently charge more for each pack making them more money. Switching to price, the same tactic is used in scratch off tickets. A $1 scratch off may give you 5 to 1 odds of winning, but a $2 scratch off gives you 4 to 1 odds of winning. Set packs are still a gamble with slightly better odds than Draft packs of getting multiple rares. Pick your poison.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Sure, people want booster sets that aren't designed for draft. The argument for them being that draft boosters are often stuffed with cards that see no play or value outside of that draft environment. It seems Wizard has obliged. However, in the process of obliging, they've stuck two fingers up to the same people: they've increased the booster cost, lowered the number of cards you get, and then 'the set is not intended for drafting, but was designed so you can draft it if you want'. The most infamous excuse for stuffing a set with junk, so they can keep what sells for later
cash grabsancillary products.This will not do well. On the cost to card ratio, casual players who aren't invested in news will be uninterested. If they then stuff it full of rejected cards from this years various hit-or-miss products, it's going to do even less well because singles sellers and collectors won't be seeking it. Topped with the old metric of asking a random person in the card shop whether they'd rather two boosters of: boosters with 15 cards that are usable in STD and most LGC formats, or pay extra and receive less cards that are only legal in older formats, but are unlikely to be actually played in them? I don't see those pedestrians opting to buy this over the more immediately accessible normal boosters or Jump Start.
They should of just made Double Masters the 'not designed for draft' set. Then that wouldn't be half crammed with useless, unwanted cards under the auspicious claim of 'but draft needs it', and people would have had an actual reason for inflated prices while chasing cards they want. As it appears to me they don't even bother focus testing or researching these ideas anymore, as it seems they're just throwing any idea at the wall to see what makes the most money. Not what's best for consumers, best for the game or best even for newer players: literally just what makes the most short term profit regardless of damage it does to confidence and long term game support.
This user has language problems due to their mental health problems and sometimes may not use the best wording to explain their thoughts.
Draft the "'What Is This Nonsense?'" casual cube.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
people are taking the bait here cause of the extra chances for rares / mythics ? it is sill a way to sell cardboard for a higher price. (i mean it would be higher by just cutting cards, but they still had to increase the price... tse, i believe some day i stop playn magic not because the game sucks, but the wizards, by trying to fool everyone)
and who needs art cards ? thats like less worth than a common, since u cant play it. u wanna make a booster for people who dont draft by adding a useless card ??? what logic is that ?
You answered your own question, it isn't logical. The only way the art card would be any good is if it had the Magic card back on it so I could Sharpie over the art for a proxy. If I don't draft I want MORE cards AND a better shot at value cards.
Here's my favorite little gem from Maro and the article...
It took them 27 years to figure this out through "the research". 27 freaking years, really??? How does this company stay afloat in spite of themselves.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I don’t... what does this even mean?
Looking at MTGTop8, I count about 140 commons/uncommons that appear in at least %1 of Modern decks.
Unless you are literally asking wizards to sell you a pack with 8-12 $5+ Rares in it and nothing else, the non-rares in each “set-without-chaff” would be the same because there simply aren’t enough of them.
...not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Having a non-draft set as a cross between a core set/masters set that has all of the non-rare staples and a rotating selection of chase cards would be pretty cool... though yeah, the price would be a bit absurd.
Packs will be 6 dollars each, not 5 dollars each (about $2 more, not the $1 more than a draft pack according to the WotC spinmasters). For instance WM sells Draft Packs for $4.18 each. I would guess WM/Target/Box Stores will sell between $6.25 to $6.79 USD.
Set Booster Box (of 30 packs, not 36) will "MSRP" at $199.99 vs. the $144.00 of a Draft booster box. Of course we know you can get a Standard BB for on average shipped from about 90 to 100 USD. So Set Booster Box can probably be had for around 150 to 160 shipped.
Just my guesses but we will see if I am right or wrong.
The idea is a good one, I think the execution is wrong.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
My musings:
16 cards in a pack (15 playables and 1 token) ZERO AD CARDS, ZERO ARTWORK JUNK, NOT DESIGNED FOR DRAFT
2 guaranteed rares and/or mythics per pack
4 guaranteed uncommons per pack
1 guaranteed foil per pack (any rarity C to M)
1 guaranteed land per pack (50% chance of being foil) note: any full art lands would fall in this slot
6 guaranteed commons
1 guaranteed slot for alternate artwork cards/special border (any rarity but NONE foil)
1 guaranteed token card
$6 USD per pack
24 packs per booster box
1 promo booster pack and one foil promo inside each booster box. (3 cards per promo pack, no foils in the promo pack)
That's how I would do it. WotC gets 2 dollars more per pack for the roughly same amount of product as a Draft Booster.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Packs that always have one extra Uncommon and one extra Mythic/Rare would end up becoming the favored way to draft.
How would WotC also distribute these packs? They don't know ahead of time what cards will be played in meta. So they'd either have to guess and probably overestimate, so chaff would still get in, and they'd still miss includes, or they'd only be able to ship these packs after the first few weeks of the format, which would be poor business for something like this.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
spreading constructed-useful cards through all rarities instead concentrating them in rares and mythics is what would really help the set to not give out the feeling that only rare/mythic slot in the pack can be worth something.
They aren't designed for draft and would not be legal for draft at sanctioned events including FNM. If individuals want to draft them go ahead but they would not be LEGAL/SANCTIONED at WotC draft events. Problem solved.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Something like that.
Each rarity sheet would be a list of known usable cards. Usable cards does not mean expensive cards, as there are cards that in the $2-$5 range that wold be useful. Since Wizards doesn't officially acknowledge the secondary market (even though they do), they should be able to do this.
For example, you might pull yet another Path to Exile in my hypothetical pack, but that card gets used a lot, so it's not a complete loss of value.
That.... actually sounds awesome. With no MSRP out, printing a NO-Chaff-All-Staples set would be great from a game accessibility standpoint as well as an economic experiment standpoint.
WotC would simply have to sell this direct from the website, using Amazon/Uber-style flexible pricing so that they get an appropriate slice of whatever the market thinks the set is worth.
And they'd simply have to call it "Expected Value Master's". There's just no other choice.
Prices only crash in the short term. Most of the staples players ask for are always in demand, so those prices would rise back up. It also helps to let new players in the game, since there is a time window where cards are inexpensive. I don't expect Wizards to do this every year, but if they do this every 3-5 years, it would keep prices from going to really ridiculous values. Rather than concentrating the financial value in scarcity, the value is in totality of all the cards.
Example:
(a) 1 card worth $100
vs.
(b) 10 cards worth $10
If a few years went by without a reprint, in example (a), a single card would increase in value greatly, but the supply is constricted. In example (b), 10 cards would rise in value, although not as much as example (a). Nonetheless, example (b) did rise in value.
As Wizards do periodical reprints, more cards would be in circulation, but if they are good, in-demand cards, those reprints would rise in price anyway.
If one was simply a speculator, that person's "net worth" would not be concentrated on only a few cards, but it would be spread out over many cards (volume).
It's similar to stock market shares.
i think this is the old way of thinking and we're all still trapped in it. there are plenty of cards that have just had their price absolutely destroyed by the current approach to reprints.
remember when goyf was over 150 dollars?
how about when ancestral vision was pushing 65?
liliana of the veil at 110 anyone?
they're still reasonable value, but they're nowhere near what they once were and all it will take to push them even lower is a single reprinting.
i'm not saying cards should be ridiculously priced, but what i am saying is that there should be reasonable stability. reasonable faith in the pricing for them. currently, if its reprintable at all a lot of people have no faith that it'll retain its value. this is why so many have opted to buy into reserve list cards instead. they'll never be reprint. the pricing stays relatively stable, and rises with time.
and while yes the net worth of a collection is indeed spread over the entire collection not just a small portion of it, with each reprint that spread reduces further in value. its important to remember that in a set like say double masters, where everyone is chasing the mythics, every other card reprint there is going to lower in value dramatically as people crack packs to get the hotter rarer cards. this means the $5 rares drop in value further and may not ever recover because of saturation. we've already seen this with quite a number of cards, and i'd argue eldraine, theros, ikoria, and m21 all suffered from this as well. there is no infinite growth.
on a long enough time line this causes people to stop bothering to buy. you need the contents of a pack to be worth at least the value of the pack. you need to have faith in the secondary market. you need to not feel like its a $4+ lotto ticket where you win all or nothing. this too has been proven in the past, not just with other tcgs and sports cards, but within magic's own history with many of the same arguments for the future and approach to reprints having been discussed over 20 years ago.
so while on paper this pack idea sounds great, it sounds like its what we all want, in practice... well in practice i think there's too many products with too much value at the top end, and too much volatility even there, to be long term viable. buying into products like these set a dangerous precedent and send the company clear messages that its all okay, that we'll keep buying, but in reality eventually... we won't and then we'll sit there wondering what happened.
No they won't because they are STAPLES in one or more formats. Some players need far more than 4 copies of a card for multiple decks. I probably have 24 Lightning Bolts and I'd buy them at 25 cents a piece 'til the cows come home for multiple decks I need them for. Playable will always be in demand, CHAFF won't.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."