I saw this Tweet the other day from TCC and then a follow-up from Maro that the February product IS one of the products he is excited about. I didn't see any thread on this, so I started one.
What we know is it's Modern focused and came from WotC's "Hackathon" that focuses on new product SKUs. Products like Modern Masters, Unstable, Conspiracy, and Battlebond all came out of meetings like these in the past. In his podcast "Hackathon" from February 2018 it's possibly the set he worked on and vaguely describing. The details I could gather that could be applicable to this set are: Future worlds, mechanical elements to support story, reevaluate basic choices. All the product ideas were binned in high/low potential to be a hit (e.g. double faced cards, etc) and high/low obstacle (e.g. can we physically print it now). There were 5 ideas in the HP/LO bin and would gather this set is from there if it were to ship this February.
He talks about double faced cards being a big hit, but not something they want all the time. What they developed is something like DF cards but not DF cards, and could possibly be used infrequently say every 3 years or so.
It's more speculation if it's a booster set or precons, but at least we know something is coming in February and likely has Modern reprints with some new card design that is likely to make it a big hit.
Maro is excited about every product he's worked on. I'd be hilariously surprised if he wasn't -> "Yeah this product I helped design, but it's alright I guess. I wouldn't waste your money on it to be honest."
Although I think people would probably be appreciative of his blunt honesty. WOTC Board of Directors/shrareholders not so much.
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Maro is excited about every product he's worked on. I'd be hilariously surprised if he wasn't -> "Yeah this product I helped design, but it's alright I guess. I wouldn't waste your money on it to be honest."
Although I think people would probably be appreciative of his blunt honesty. WOTC Board of Directors/shrareholders not so much.
'buster
I don't think its his level of excitement drawing attention here, but, rather, the focus on Modern.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
I know Maro has to be excited, because it's one of his jobs to promote MtG. It is the unusual high level of excitement he has from this Hackathon and then the Tweet, that is on par to the release of Unstable IMO.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
Yeah, I have to wonder about that too but not getting my hopes up. Sure you can make a supplemental set with a new card type, but I hope that is not enough to make it innovative. He commented in the same vlog; just because something was always done a certain way doesn't mean it has to be that way. Maybe next week we will have some other info from the Mothership since they just teased us with a new product coming. I find it unusual that Ultimate Masters and now this set basically came out of nowhere. After WotC sent out those Box Toppers to tease UMA, they came out and announced it and then started spoilers soon after. Seems like they are taking a different approach to announce new sets or at least supplemental sets than before. Less to get upset about if you don't know about it I guess.
Fetchlands are needed, as are Goblin Guides and a variety of other staples. Turn this into a Conspiracy-type product with a focus on Modern and you could have a winner.
Hoping Arena gets stuff as well, like maybe a re-release of some older sets to support the oft-surmised new format?
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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.
Oh, there is a set at the end of february?
When they are gonna announce it?
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
I’d still be severely ******* annoyed that it took WotC 8 years to do something the playerbase has been asking for since the first Commander decks where released....make new cards released in supplemental products Modern legal!
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WOut of the ground,I rise to grace...W BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B
I know Maro has to be excited, because it's one of his jobs to promote MtG. It is the unusual high level of excitement he has from this Hackathon and then the Tweet, that is on par to the release of Unstable IMO.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
Yeah, I have to wonder about that too but not getting my hopes up. Sure you can make a supplemental set with a new card type, but I hope that is not enough to make it innovative. He commented in the same vlog; just because something was always done a certain way doesn't mean it has to be that way. Maybe next week we will have some other info from the Mothership since they just teased us with a new product coming. I find it unusual that Ultimate Masters and now this set basically came out of nowhere. After WotC sent out those Box Toppers to tease UMA, they came out and announced it and then started spoilers soon after. Seems like they are taking a different approach to announce new sets or at least supplemental sets than before. Less to get upset about if you don't know about it I guess.
for UMA wizards confirmed that announcing it so close to the release was a test to see how close they could cut it and still get the community/market response they wanted. i wouldnt expect that timeline to become the standard, but indicative that the announcement -> release gap may be shorter going forward.
its hard not to assume that it is anything other than a 'straight-to-modern' set. it would make sense, but i worry that the downsides may be too hard to overcome. i know a lot of people, including myself, have asked for it over the years.
regardless, im definitely very interested to see what is innovative about the product. i also listened to the 'hackathon' maro podcast after the announcement. cool to think the idea for this product happened like 1.5+ years go, but does make me question whether the set/product will really be as straight forward as many think (ie a masters type set with new modern legal cards splashed in).
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
I’d still be severely ******* annoyed that it took WotC 8 years to do something the playerbase has been asking for since the first Commander decks where released....make new cards released in supplemental products Modern legal!
...would you rather they took longer? Those 8 years are gone, and being happy with what Wizards does right in the present/future (so they keep doing it) is far more productive than getting mad about what they did wrong in the past.
I know Maro has to be excited, because it's one of his jobs to promote MtG. It is the unusual high level of excitement he has from this Hackathon and then the Tweet, that is on par to the release of Unstable IMO.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
Yeah, I have to wonder about that too but not getting my hopes up. Sure you can make a supplemental set with a new card type, but I hope that is not enough to make it innovative. He commented in the same vlog; just because something was always done a certain way doesn't mean it has to be that way. Maybe next week we will have some other info from the Mothership since they just teased us with a new product coming. I find it unusual that Ultimate Masters and now this set basically came out of nowhere. After WotC sent out those Box Toppers to tease UMA, they came out and announced it and then started spoilers soon after. Seems like they are taking a different approach to announce new sets or at least supplemental sets than before. Less to get upset about if you don't know about it I guess.
for UMA wizards confirmed that announcing it so close to the release was a test to see how close they could cut it and still get the community/market response they wanted. i wouldnt expect that timeline to become the standard, but indicative that the announcement -> release gap may be shorter going forward..
Why? Is the purpose/intent to reduce the impact new sets will have on prior sets or to see how much shorter the hype machine can run before jamming another product in each year?
The UMA short-announcement window only worked because it was UMA. If they're going to short-announce more products going forward, I guarantee stores will not like it. Using the response to UMA as a gauge for how this will work is a mistake, if that's what they're actually doing.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
The UMA short-announcement window only worked because it was UMA. If they're going to short-announce more products going forward, I guarantee stores will not like it. Using the response to UMA as a gauge for how this will work is a mistake, if that's what they're actually doing.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
I don't think LGS are necessarily "left in the dark" as it is. My local owners hints at what he knows but says he isn't allowed to discuss anything until someone else brings it up.
I believe the entire supply chain has to be aware of products far in advance. I can't imagine any of that changing unless it's to shoehorn more product into the pipeline. In other words, even though WotC made UMA announcement later, it didn't change the timing of the supply chain.
Why? Is the purpose/intent to reduce the impact new sets will have on prior sets or to see how much shorter the hype machine can run before jamming another product in each year?
i cant be sure of the exact reasons. here is where i read about it, perhaps it was mentioned elsewhere with more detail:
HotC: Most recent sets have been announced via the twice/year announcement days. Is this a one-off departure from that model or are we seeing changes come to the announcement process?
Blake: We are rethinking how and when we announce products. This was an opportunity to try something different and see how far to one extreme-as close to release as possible-we could go. Would there be leaks? Would the right people get the information in time? Would the rumor mill grab this? How does it shift our internal dates? We’re exploring different options for 2019 and beyond, and this was something of a stress test for the timing of set announcements. We probably won’t be cutting it this close with everything we do, but now we know we’re capable of something like this.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Maro is excited about every product he's worked on. I'd be hilariously surprised if he wasn't -> "Yeah this product I helped design, but it's alright I guess. I wouldn't waste your money on it to be honest."
Although I think people would probably be appreciative of his blunt honesty. WOTC Board of Directors/shrareholders not so much.
'buster
Ya, he's the hype man. It's like when you watch a late night show and in the opener they always tell you they have a really good show that night.
He probably is excited, the guy seems to like Magic a lot. That's not a guarantee that the product is any good though.
the announcement is at the end of feb, not the set
Then the title of this thread is misleading
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
I'm assuming we'll be getting more info on War of the Spark. I'd also like to know if they'll be replacing Masters sets or reprinting cards in a new way
To be fair, MaRo has been extra excited about few specific products.
Since I've started reading his block, those are the ones I remember him being excited above the average:
- Khans of Tarkir (and Tarkir block as a whole)
- Kaladesh
- Unstable
- War of the Spark
- Another set in 2019
- This Modern product
He said he is excited about three sets this year, and RNA is not one of them. It's probably not Core 2020 either, which leaves WAR, the innovation set and the Fall set.
Gavin has also talked about WAR doing something completely new and exciting.
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
if it is a modern product it has to have fetch lands, which i think would also sell well with the shocklands in the current standard sets. i think that would synergize and boost up some sales.
just hoping its not another overprized premium product.
The UMA short-announcement window only worked because it was UMA. If they're going to short-announce more products going forward, I guarantee stores will not like it. Using the response to UMA as a gauge for how this will work is a mistake, if that's what they're actually doing.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
I don't think LGS are necessarily "left in the dark" as it is.
They are.
My local owners hints at what he knows but says he isn't allowed to discuss anything until someone else brings it up.
I believe the entire supply chain has to be aware of products far in advance. I can't imagine any of that changing unless it's to shoehorn more product into the pipeline. In other words, even though WotC made UMA announcement later, it didn't change the timing of the supply chain.
They used to be. It was common that WotC would announce products, or at least street dates, several months in advance. This is apparently no longer the case, as the window has been getting shorter and shorter. And I don't believe your store owner knows anything significant in terms of a release date, because my store owner would know it then as well. And right now, we're kind of in a weird situation with scheduling other non-MTG events in that same time frame, because we don't know.
Shoehorning more product into the schedule like UMA is one thing, not even giving release info on normally scheduled products is another.
Gavin has also talked about WAR doing something completely new and exciting.
My bet is that it will have Planeswalkers at uncommon or guaranteed one per pack.
I think MaRo indirectly nixed this idea when talking about the number of Planeswalkers per set in a recent article. Something about not wanting to unbalance Standard with Planeswalkers. They would have to have a lot of Planeswalkers in the set to make one per pack viable without ridiculous amounts of duplicates in a display.
I thought WAR would be PW-heavy too, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have more than normal, because I can't see them not including the Gatewatch and Bolas in the set.
https://twitter.com/maro254/status/1092137659101675520
I saw this Tweet the other day from TCC and then a follow-up from Maro that the February product IS one of the products he is excited about. I didn't see any thread on this, so I started one.
What we know is it's Modern focused and came from WotC's "Hackathon" that focuses on new product SKUs. Products like Modern Masters, Unstable, Conspiracy, and Battlebond all came out of meetings like these in the past. In his podcast "Hackathon" from February 2018 it's possibly the set he worked on and vaguely describing. The details I could gather that could be applicable to this set are: Future worlds, mechanical elements to support story, reevaluate basic choices. All the product ideas were binned in high/low potential to be a hit (e.g. double faced cards, etc) and high/low obstacle (e.g. can we physically print it now). There were 5 ideas in the HP/LO bin and would gather this set is from there if it were to ship this February.
He talks about double faced cards being a big hit, but not something they want all the time. What they developed is something like DF cards but not DF cards, and could possibly be used infrequently say every 3 years or so.
It's more speculation if it's a booster set or precons, but at least we know something is coming in February and likely has Modern reprints with some new card design that is likely to make it a big hit.
Moved to Speculation - Wildfire393
Although I think people would probably be appreciative of his blunt honesty. WOTC Board of Directors/shrareholders not so much.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I don't think its his level of excitement drawing attention here, but, rather, the focus on Modern.
There's so much hope for a direct-to-Modern product.
Yeah, I have to wonder about that too but not getting my hopes up. Sure you can make a supplemental set with a new card type, but I hope that is not enough to make it innovative. He commented in the same vlog; just because something was always done a certain way doesn't mean it has to be that way. Maybe next week we will have some other info from the Mothership since they just teased us with a new product coming. I find it unusual that Ultimate Masters and now this set basically came out of nowhere. After WotC sent out those Box Toppers to tease UMA, they came out and announced it and then started spoilers soon after. Seems like they are taking a different approach to announce new sets or at least supplemental sets than before. Less to get upset about if you don't know about it I guess.
Hoping Arena gets stuff as well, like maybe a re-release of some older sets to support the oft-surmised new format?
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.
When they are gonna announce it?
I’d still be severely ******* annoyed that it took WotC 8 years to do something the playerbase has been asking for since the first Commander decks where released....make new cards released in supplemental products Modern legal!
BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B
for UMA wizards confirmed that announcing it so close to the release was a test to see how close they could cut it and still get the community/market response they wanted. i wouldnt expect that timeline to become the standard, but indicative that the announcement -> release gap may be shorter going forward.
its hard not to assume that it is anything other than a 'straight-to-modern' set. it would make sense, but i worry that the downsides may be too hard to overcome. i know a lot of people, including myself, have asked for it over the years.
regardless, im definitely very interested to see what is innovative about the product. i also listened to the 'hackathon' maro podcast after the announcement. cool to think the idea for this product happened like 1.5+ years go, but does make me question whether the set/product will really be as straight forward as many think (ie a masters type set with new modern legal cards splashed in).
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)...would you rather they took longer? Those 8 years are gone, and being happy with what Wizards does right in the present/future (so they keep doing it) is far more productive than getting mad about what they did wrong in the past.
Why? Is the purpose/intent to reduce the impact new sets will have on prior sets or to see how much shorter the hype machine can run before jamming another product in each year?
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
I don't think LGS are necessarily "left in the dark" as it is. My local owners hints at what he knows but says he isn't allowed to discuss anything until someone else brings it up.
I believe the entire supply chain has to be aware of products far in advance. I can't imagine any of that changing unless it's to shoehorn more product into the pipeline. In other words, even though WotC made UMA announcement later, it didn't change the timing of the supply chain.
i cant be sure of the exact reasons. here is where i read about it, perhaps it was mentioned elsewhere with more detail:
https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2018/11/some-ultimate-masters-questions-with-blake-rasmussen/
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Ya, he's the hype man. It's like when you watch a late night show and in the opener they always tell you they have a really good show that night.
He probably is excited, the guy seems to like Magic a lot. That's not a guarantee that the product is any good though.
And it’s near the end of February right?
Make sense since war of the spark is april
Then the title of this thread is misleading
Since I've started reading his block, those are the ones I remember him being excited above the average:
- Khans of Tarkir (and Tarkir block as a whole)
- Kaladesh
- Unstable
- War of the Spark
- Another set in 2019
- This Modern product
Commander: WUBRG Superfriends, GW Rhys Tokens, WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Kitchen Table (now that's real Magic): WUBRG Domain, GU Biovisionary, UB Korlash Grandeur, UW Merfolk Mill
Gavin has also talked about WAR doing something completely new and exciting.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
just hoping its not another overprized premium product.
My bet is that it will have Planeswalkers at uncommon or guaranteed one per pack.
heh if that happened, each PW would be called "Redshirt #X" and would die at the beginning of each combat
you know... for flavor
They are.
They used to be. It was common that WotC would announce products, or at least street dates, several months in advance. This is apparently no longer the case, as the window has been getting shorter and shorter. And I don't believe your store owner knows anything significant in terms of a release date, because my store owner would know it then as well. And right now, we're kind of in a weird situation with scheduling other non-MTG events in that same time frame, because we don't know.
Shoehorning more product into the schedule like UMA is one thing, not even giving release info on normally scheduled products is another.
I think MaRo indirectly nixed this idea when talking about the number of Planeswalkers per set in a recent article. Something about not wanting to unbalance Standard with Planeswalkers. They would have to have a lot of Planeswalkers in the set to make one per pack viable without ridiculous amounts of duplicates in a display.
I thought WAR would be PW-heavy too, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have more than normal, because I can't see them not including the Gatewatch and Bolas in the set.
I have a theory that some will will work like Sagas (set abilities each turn), and their third ability flips them into Creatures...