I like the article. I would definitely vote for it for Article of the Month. Articles like this are enjoyable because I'm always a fan of anything that talks about history.
Questions/Comments (which can probably help the author to possibly improve):
1. The article, having started with what Mark Rosewater was thinking, could have mentioned when exactly that he was the instigator of certain decisions that led to the controversies. I feel that it's unfair to MaRo to be mentioned at the start when I don't think he was even part of the decision making (unless I'm wrong).
2. Timeshifted cards could possibly be categorized differently from Chronicles reprints. I am a witness to the heightened reaction of players who were swooning over opening the Timeshifted cards - mostly they were happy to see such a card again (despite that it would be a useless card).
3. My take on the foil cards is Neutral to Negative. At a recent GP, we had a debate over using foil cards because they can be considered as marked. This situation is not new to me and foil cards are now album fodder - only played when there is no other choice.
4. On Magic Online, it should be mentioned that there are numerous online games that might have started only after MTGO got going. My sentiments regarding these other online games are similar to how you chronicle the sentiments of people who didn't like MTGO but yet the other online games (and MTGO) are still here. Such games might even eventually replace actual physical games because kids now would rather sit in front of a computer rather than sweat it out. Something to take note of, I guess.
5. I didn't know for sure about the reduction of storyline but I am thankful that they're not doing it anymore. In Tempest and Stronghold, it seemed that the stories produced the cards (which would prompt a question, is the author of the novel making the cards?)
6. The topic on the card frame is quite funny. I've read posts in a forum where a player would say that he will not buy any more cards because of the card frame. I think this is absurd and downright dumb.
I'd expect another article that will outline the June 2008 changes. For one, I'm not a fan of the basic land card in booster packs. I hate drafting (or buying) Core Set packs because of that one useless card. I do collect basic lands and place them in an album but I never run out of basic lands. If one needs a basic land, buy a fat pack! That's 40 basic lands in there.
I look forward to the next article!
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I find it deliciously ironic, darkangel, that you are arguing in favor of the article when your signature reads as such.
The phenomenon described in my sig was short-lived and arised out of a confluence of unforeseen events leading to one clearly superior deck and no serious alternative due to a lack of playable answers. It cleared up with Eventide, thankfully. That's a long cry from the death of the game. All I know is that for about two sets around here, anybody who didn't own a Faerie deck or who got tired of playing mirror matches ended up skipping Standard events and just showing up at drafts.
In any case, IMO Limited = Magic, and Constructed is this interesting side game I participate in once in a while as a mean to justify keeping the cards after the draft is over.
One point's not quite right, though, and there's another point worth mentioning:
1) "While it's hard to measure the actual impact foils have on sales or enjoyment, it does please the crowd that likes to pimp their deck, and does so at no expense to other players."
Not true. Foils warp much more easily - in fact, 90% of the foils I get are already slightly warped when I take them out of a freshly bought packet (and I buy boxes, so it's not because they're damaged in the store or by other players fiddling with the packets or what not). Not only that, but they cause all the cards around them to slowly warp too.
This combined with the annoying way they don't fit in with other cards practically makes the cards unplayable. So I effectively lose one or two rares and a couple of uncommons with every box I buy due to foils - definitely a loss for some players.
2) Future-shifted cards. What a mess. Not like the fairly subtle modernising earlier changes... These cards were absolutely rotten - and they picked the worst set to do it in too. Timeshifted cards were fairly rare, with a tiny little purple symbol. Colour-shifted cards were slightly more common, with a faint change in colouring and texture. Future-shifted cards were the only majorly changed ones that looked 100% like a completely different (and childish) card game and don't work well in your hand - and they made up about 30% of the cards of the set. I could bear 10-15 randomly inserted cards with a flippant design if they'd done it with Time-shifted, and maybe even 10% of my cards if they'd done it with Colour-shifted... but what a horrible feeling as you open the fourth packet of your box to another bunch of dodgy-looking cards and it dawns on you that: 1/3rd of your rares end up useless!? (Well, I guess some people were happy to play with a few anyway - like Tarmagoyf... but man that set was a mess!)
In the end, though, Future-shifted was very temporary... and that means, to me, Wizards has only made one lasting mistake in 20 years amidst thousands of great decisions and designs!
There's a place for backstory and mythos. It's called 'novels'. And Magic has those.
Flavor text is nice as a quirky addition, a bonus if you will, on your occasional card. The rarer it is and the more special it gets.
Most of the magic novels since they stopped the "plotlines" in the game has been less than stellar....
Often, the flavour text is fun, interesting and well written in comparison.
Without flavour text, how will you know the differences between the shards of Alara in any meaingfull way? I stand by that more flavour text would be a huge boon to the game, unlike reminder text which is more neutral.
I have yet to talk to anyone who quit magic because the game mechanic wasn't printed on every card, but I know quite a few who started it because they liked the art and flavour of a particular card.
In fact, that is how I recruited more players to our group back in the day, by showing of particulary nice cards and explaining the story to them. In the days of Urza's Saga, that was interesting stuff, and it made them want to play the game.
I doubt reminder text would have made a fig of difference.
[quote=Myznomer;/comments/8681476]Second, intro packs: you say they give you 56 cards, but what they actually give you is a 40 card mini deck and a booster, which will maybe have two, at best three, cards which will act in any synergistic way with the deck (with Shards heavy multi color, it's possible to get zero interactions) When I played my first FNM, I had no cards that were legal in Type II until I picked up a precon. With intro packs, there is more investment required, you can't just pick up one that looks cool and play.
True, I suppose - but as an experienced player I've bought precons for cards for my deck/collection, and when I started (before precons came along) it was the whole 'make a deck out of random stuff' thing that appealed - no surprise that Sealed is still my favourite environment. I thought the precons tended to lose a lot of that, well, magic for newer players, so I can see where they're coming from here - and a 40-card deck is a standard size for a Limited-type match in any event. The main problem I see for players just starting out is that they might have a shortage of lands just picking up an intro pack. If I was starting now, though, getting a couple of intro packs plus one or two boosters to add options would seem a great idea just to try the game - I can play the 40-card decks straight, and then add to them (without needing to worry too much about which cards to take out until later).
they could make a special 5th rarity, just for lands.
Umm, that's basically what they are doing now. 'Basic land' has the same symbol as a common, but it is a different rarity. Twenty basic lands per large set, one basic per booster, thirty per tournament pack.
Just because they don't call it out as a 5th rarity doesn't mean it isn't.
Prerelease tournaments have been scaled back to sneak preview tournaments; they're six days before release instead of 13, every store has them, and the big organizers are left fighting hard to afford running a big one - otherwise, it's one flight, and no one gets drafts. Hop over to the News forum, there's a big long thread on it. :x
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....The people are WotC are pulling down a paycheck week-in, week-out with these decisions.
You have to believe that they know what they are doing, and it's intended for the future heath of the overall game, cause otherwise .... no more paychecks.
It's rather upsetting to see people calling Mythic Rares a money haul - keep in mind, Wizards only makes money on packs, not single card sales (which is where the card prices will of course skyrocket, should the cards be any good)... and as for people who buy packs to get single cards - or just buy a box with every set, remember that the odds of getting one of these versus another rare is only two to one (due to the number of Mythic Rares versus the number of total rares in packs + how often a Mythic Rare will appear).
Basic lands in every packs? Yeah, that's a bit of a slap in the face. Limited will no doubt end up with weaker pools, but keep in mind... the other players are going to get shafted with basics too, so in essence, this just powers down the format a little.
Eigth Edition - I've come to accept the new frame, though I'm still not a fan. The funny thing is, I almost like it, but I don't like how the name and typelines look like bubbles...makes it look futuristic to me. I love the new backgrounds and always had. Overall I think wizards almost did it right, but not quite. My Rating: :thumbsdown:, but :thumbsup::thumbsup: for the new foils
I quit for two years using the new frame as an excuse, for exactly the reason you say: Futuristic Bubbles. (Rav block was just too sexy to stay away)
It seems to me that they've made slight changes to the border since then that makes it not so bad, but I still hate it.
Even though I've adapted to the new frames, I still think it was unnecessary change. All the templating that came with the frame could have been done with the old frame. That move crushed the aesthetics of the game for anyone who ever plays older formats.
You're probably right that the recent changes will probably end up being good for Magic, according to their track record. The quiet, silent damage is most likely tournament restructuring and MODO 3 sucking.
However, the game play and fantasy world-building have never been better. Magic should do fine as long as the overall game product stays at a high level.
It's rather upsetting to see people calling Mythic Rares a money haul - keep in mind, Wizards only makes money on packs, not single card sales
And they're relying on people buying more packs in hopes of getting the big chase Planeswalker. WotC knows that at least one of these cards is going to hit $40 (non-foil). More than likely 2 of them will. People buy the packs that have the money cards so that they can cash in. After Eventide hit at my store and people realized that there was nothing over $15, they went back to trying to hit the Mutavault / Bitterblossom / Chameleon Colossus lottery prize in Morningtide.
So yeah, this is a money haul attempt. Remember, they're in this to make money, so they're going to do what it takes to make money.
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I started collecting the cards 'round Ice Age. Played 1 game pre 6, understood next to nothing, part to the complexity, part to my own capcity of being younger. I resparked my interest in the game around Oddesey, and the game really opened up to me. I've stuck to the Multiverse on and off till TSP, which basically hooked me in to this game for life. Point is, I'd seen half the changes happend and heard about the other half, so it was part learning, part remembering. It was really excellent article. One of my favorites I've ever read. Well written, concise, organized, and insightful.
This article is not objective at all. Magic has lost a ton of players because of these changes and they are having a hard time keeping the ones they have. The game hasn't died yet, and it may yet live for a long time, but soon this game and its community will be unrecognizable to those who played it during the golden years. Your point about players whining and complaining is obvious - we have all seen it for years. But the game is changing, quite dramatically, and a lot of people don't like it enough to stop spending money on it.
And the 8th edition card frames still look terrible. I think that part of your article is just absurd. We have to live with these new frames but that doesn't make them any less riduclous. The old ones are elegant, respectable, and are permanently associated with golden years of Magic. If a redesign was necessary, making them look incredibly ugly wasnt.
This article is not objective at all. Magic has lost a ton of players because of these changes and they are having a hard time keeping the ones they have. The game hasn't died yet, and it may yet live for a long time, but soon this game and its community will be unrecognizable to those who played it during the golden years. Your point about players whining and complaining is obvious - we have all seen it for years. But the game is changing, quite dramatically, and a lot of people don't like it enough to stop spending money on it.
And the 8th edition card frames still look terrible. I think that part of your article is just absurd. We have to live with these new frames but that doesn't make them any less riduclous. The old ones are elegant, respectable, and are permanently associated with golden years of Magic. If a redesign was necessary, making them look incredibly ugly wasnt.
I must say, this response is no more objective than the article itself. Please, define the 'golden years' of Magic, and why you think of them as that. I'm not saying you are wrong--we will probably have to agree to disagree on several points. And I must agree the game is changing dramatically, but I disagree that that is a bad thing.
I started playing during Revised, played thru Ice Age, and quit for nearly 10 years. I started back at the Betrayers of Kamigawa Prerelease, and so it was difficult for me to relearn the rules, but I've got to say that the 6th edition rules are NOT horrible. They DO make the game easier.
I'll also say that the Planeswalker cards were a good addition. I don't think they cheapen the game any, nor do they take away from the "You are a Planeswalker" mythos. Nowhere in the mythology of Magic does it say "You are the ONLY Planeswalker." Being able to call upon an ally to aid you in a time of peril is something Planeswalkers have done before (Urza's army fighting the Phyrexians, Teferi's cohort during the Time Spiral debacle). This just adds another layer of flavor.
The new sets being smaller does not overly concern me. It means that it shouldn't be as hard to get the cards one needs from the set. HOWEVER, I have serious misgivings about the new rarity, Mythic Rare. Common, Uncommon, and Rare are okay to me. Mythic Rare is unnecessary. It seems that WotC is taking a page from another card game (the one that starts with a Y, and ends with -Oh!). That card game apparently has 10 or 12 levels of rarity...rare, super-rare, ultra-rare, mega-rare, spectral-hypno-holo-giga-rare, and so on. I fear that WotC is headed down that road, and there is nothing but a gaping void at the end.
I hope, for the sake of the game, and all that play it, that I am wrong. I HAVE been wrong before. Once. On a Tuesday. In 1983.
I really didn't like the Mystic Rare idea at first but it seems like they're all going to be the big flashy cards, and that the tournament quality rares in the set will be just 'normal' rares. This is a good idea because it means that we as tournament players will open less unplayable high-mana spells and more of the better stuff. And the mystic rares will probably be somewhat in demand since there are less of them. Lands in booster packs however is an idea I hate, it's just obnoxious drafting with them (plus it makes draft harder), and I never see a store where land isn't $.05 apiece or free. As for prereleases I personally love the idea. I come from a small town with a well run store and dread going to the out of town ones 3 hours away (which is why I stopped going last year). They're expensive and the players are treated like garbage. They're almost always understaffed. A 3-round tournament takes five hours! Is that fun at all??
For the Chronicles/Time Sprial thing - Chronicles was a great set for us who got into the game then. I understand why collectors were upset but I doubt WOTC anticipated that. The Reserved List was an understandable reaction but I really wish they'd just get rid of it. Reprints nowadays only really increase a card's value as people seek out the older versions for their decks.
AFAIK nobody ever complained about Exodus. The only people who disliked it were those people who would trade commons to kids for their rare cards. Foils too, I thought everyone liked that idea. Just because Magic was the original CCG doesn't mean it has to invent everything!
Reminder text for common abilities only really shows up on the Core set cards, which we should all have lots of anyways. On the expansions it's necessary because not all of us follow the game that close. And it's easy to ignore.
Sixth edition rules I remember were a huge complaint among a lot of people. Same with the new card frames (which I still don't like). But it's true, the game was getting too convoluted, with stuff like damage prevention phase, interrupts, mana sources, and strange timing rules. The stack is a pretty easy concept to understand.
Don't have a problem with planeswalkers at all. I think they're pretty cool, really. The game's 15 years old, you gotta try new things every once in a while.
And then there's MOL - yeah, this I really don't like. Digital Magic kind of sucks, especially if you've ever played with Graft on MOL (where it asks you EVERY TIME your opponent plays a creature if you want to +1/+1 it, even if the grafter has no counters!), but seriously Wizards is running that system terribly. There is just no excuse for some of the garbage they've pulled. I had two friends who played it but took a break to "wait for version 3", and then just gave up on it forever. I can't think of a less reliable server than the MOL one.
The new (8th edition) frames are superior in every way from a graphic design POV. The only kvetching about them comes from people who are inherently nostalgic and averse to change.
I see the lands in pack, no big thing, (back to revised). I think the Mythic rares also, no big change. The smaller set sizes, I see as a move to cut production costs, ( fewer pieces of Art, less R&D time etc. ) that does make me worry about Wizards fiscal health.
The change from Preconstructed Decks, to Intro Packs, bothers me both in a personal and a general way. Personally I have looked forward to them each set since they started. I own them all, ( except for the four I made myself the second set, that cost me over twice as much as buying them ), I use them, and adapt them, and learn something about each new set. Now Wizards has decided to focus on getting new players, instead of keeping existing ones, so they change to an Intro Pack for newbies, which I feel will fail to keep old players, and to few will sell to Newbies, so the shops won't carry them, so they won't be there to any good.
The change that I think is the most dangerous to the survival of Magic, is the move away from the traditional Large format Prerelease Tournaments.
I am glad to see that there has been enough Backlash, that some Premier Tournament Organizers are being allowed to offer the Large formats(LFPT). I know that in some areas the small 24 (max) person events are all that area will ever have, and this will give some people there only chance. But in the larger markets, the Large format Prerelease is the only chance to get a new player in your group into Tournaments. I know that canceling the LFPT's has caused some Premier T.O.'s, to quit. In our group no one said, "Oh the're having small Prereleases now", they all said "Oh there not having Prereleases", When a T.O. from outside our area stepped in to offer an LFPT in our area, I was only able to get One to go with me, Instead of a whole carload. I do fervently hope that Wizards, ( or the Hasbro Idiot ) fixes this before it seriously damages Organized Play. Losing the LFPT's will lose T.O.'s, Judges, and Players, and I don't want Magic to slip away, down that slope.
I hate that trample / protection no longer works the way it "should."
I totally agree with this. I kinda like the way that they altered trample itself (it was totally silly that you could just direct all of your trample damage to one creature) but I think that the protection alteration with regards to trample is still bad (reduced to zero means reduced to zero).
Magic Online - although I was done with the physical game, I didn't mind beta-testing MtGO. My thought then is the same opinion I have now - I'm not paying full retail for packs, and for WotC to say they *have* to charge it is ridiculous.
I agree with this too. I've *very* rarely paid full retail for cards and was pretty frustrated when they announced that it would be costing that (I beta-tested it too). Still haven't gone back. I can understand the appeal to some degree but still...
I think Wizards would have done a lot better to discount them from retail price.
Which brings me to the current round of gripes... and I'm definitely in the haters club:
Mythic rares: While WotC shouldn't care about how much your cards are worth, they should care about everyone having decent access to all of the cards. Mythic rares stop that. Is anyone really going to say that none of these Planeswalkers will become a staple of a deck in the next 2 years? The secondary abilities look pretty solid, and I think the odds are that we'll see some top-level decks running 3 copies of a planeswalker in them.
My own personal problem with Type 2 is that you *really* need to keep buying cards to keep up with it. The Mythics really only heighten that. It looks like there is going to be about twenty of them or so. This means to get a set of all of them you need to buy about five boxes (if you are lucky) and to get four of any one you might need to buy twenty boxes! This is (of course) without trading to get them but it looks like trading for the good ones is going to be pretty hellish. Anyone that believes that they aren't good enough is fooling themselves. Like people have commented, Sarkhan Vol is pretty dang close to Garruk powerful (maybe better, maybe worse) and the others have some pretty dang good potential.
Another problem is that some of the Mythics are insane bombs in a Limited format and there will only be three (or so) per pod in a Draft. Chances seem good that one of the three is going to be a bomb.
Foils... Most of my foils are messed up. Curled so that they aren't playable. They don't really stack the same if you are playing without sleeves and wear differently than other cards. Aside from that, the extra card thing is kinda cool but throws off Drafts and threw off (second day/second set) Prereleases (I played against two players that 'coincidentally' had foil copies of power rares). I do kinda like the alternate art stuff but...
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Aside from that, my biggest problem with the article is that it avoids some of the actual problems that Wizards has had over the years that can't be spun positively.
Fallen Empires was one (I've still got a box of them that I couldn't offload for twenty bucks right now). It had some good stuff but most of that was the common stuff.
Homelands... Meh. I kinda liked Homelands and the art was good. The big problem with Homelands is that it was so disconnected from itself. Instead of making a set that worked with itself the set was just oddball with a bunch of themes that sorta worked with already developed things but not that well. On the other hand, very few of the cards in the set had any real playability. A few here and there.
Urza's Block would be another:) Opposite reason but I'd predicted things that they shouldn't do with the set by making a version of the crazy deck with a friend of mine prior to the Block (things I'd predicted not to do: make a card that produced multiple blue mana, and cards that drew multiple cards easily). Awful, awful development with the set.
Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't mention Urza's block. It's a mistake in R&D, not necessarily a fundamental change to the game though. I mean seriously - reprint Timetwister, but make it better? Draw as many cards as you want (Bargain)? Search your deck for an artifact and put it directly in play? A land that taps for multiple blue mana? And who the hell ever thought Yawgmoth's Will was fit to print??
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There's a place for backstory and mythos. It's called 'novels'. And Magic has those.
Flavor text is nice as a quirky addition, a bonus if you will, on your occasional card. The rarer it is and the more special it gets.
Netdecking is Rightdecking
My latest data-driven Magic the Gathering strategy article
(TLDR: Analysis of the Valakut matchups. UB rising in the rankings. Aggro correspondingly taking a dive.)
Questions/Comments (which can probably help the author to possibly improve):
1. The article, having started with what Mark Rosewater was thinking, could have mentioned when exactly that he was the instigator of certain decisions that led to the controversies. I feel that it's unfair to MaRo to be mentioned at the start when I don't think he was even part of the decision making (unless I'm wrong).
2. Timeshifted cards could possibly be categorized differently from Chronicles reprints. I am a witness to the heightened reaction of players who were swooning over opening the Timeshifted cards - mostly they were happy to see such a card again (despite that it would be a useless card).
3. My take on the foil cards is Neutral to Negative. At a recent GP, we had a debate over using foil cards because they can be considered as marked. This situation is not new to me and foil cards are now album fodder - only played when there is no other choice.
4. On Magic Online, it should be mentioned that there are numerous online games that might have started only after MTGO got going. My sentiments regarding these other online games are similar to how you chronicle the sentiments of people who didn't like MTGO but yet the other online games (and MTGO) are still here. Such games might even eventually replace actual physical games because kids now would rather sit in front of a computer rather than sweat it out. Something to take note of, I guess.
5. I didn't know for sure about the reduction of storyline but I am thankful that they're not doing it anymore. In Tempest and Stronghold, it seemed that the stories produced the cards (which would prompt a question, is the author of the novel making the cards?)
6. The topic on the card frame is quite funny. I've read posts in a forum where a player would say that he will not buy any more cards because of the card frame. I think this is absurd and downright dumb.
I'd expect another article that will outline the June 2008 changes. For one, I'm not a fan of the basic land card in booster packs. I hate drafting (or buying) Core Set packs because of that one useless card. I do collect basic lands and place them in an album but I never run out of basic lands. If one needs a basic land, buy a fat pack! That's 40 basic lands in there.
I look forward to the next article!
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
The phenomenon described in my sig was short-lived and arised out of a confluence of unforeseen events leading to one clearly superior deck and no serious alternative due to a lack of playable answers. It cleared up with Eventide, thankfully. That's a long cry from the death of the game. All I know is that for about two sets around here, anybody who didn't own a Faerie deck or who got tired of playing mirror matches ended up skipping Standard events and just showing up at drafts.
In any case, IMO Limited = Magic, and Constructed is this interesting side game I participate in once in a while as a mean to justify keeping the cards after the draft is over.
Netdecking is Rightdecking
My latest data-driven Magic the Gathering strategy article
(TLDR: Analysis of the Valakut matchups. UB rising in the rankings. Aggro correspondingly taking a dive.)
Takhisis isn't exactly omnipotent... since she's dead.
One point's not quite right, though, and there's another point worth mentioning:
1) "While it's hard to measure the actual impact foils have on sales or enjoyment, it does please the crowd that likes to pimp their deck, and does so at no expense to other players."
Not true. Foils warp much more easily - in fact, 90% of the foils I get are already slightly warped when I take them out of a freshly bought packet (and I buy boxes, so it's not because they're damaged in the store or by other players fiddling with the packets or what not). Not only that, but they cause all the cards around them to slowly warp too.
This combined with the annoying way they don't fit in with other cards practically makes the cards unplayable. So I effectively lose one or two rares and a couple of uncommons with every box I buy due to foils - definitely a loss for some players.
2) Future-shifted cards. What a mess. Not like the fairly subtle modernising earlier changes... These cards were absolutely rotten - and they picked the worst set to do it in too. Timeshifted cards were fairly rare, with a tiny little purple symbol. Colour-shifted cards were slightly more common, with a faint change in colouring and texture. Future-shifted cards were the only majorly changed ones that looked 100% like a completely different (and childish) card game and don't work well in your hand - and they made up about 30% of the cards of the set. I could bear 10-15 randomly inserted cards with a flippant design if they'd done it with Time-shifted, and maybe even 10% of my cards if they'd done it with Colour-shifted... but what a horrible feeling as you open the fourth packet of your box to another bunch of dodgy-looking cards and it dawns on you that: 1/3rd of your rares end up useless!? (Well, I guess some people were happy to play with a few anyway - like Tarmagoyf... but man that set was a mess!)
In the end, though, Future-shifted was very temporary... and that means, to me, Wizards has only made one lasting mistake in 20 years amidst thousands of great decisions and designs!
Most of the magic novels since they stopped the "plotlines" in the game has been less than stellar....
Often, the flavour text is fun, interesting and well written in comparison.
Without flavour text, how will you know the differences between the shards of Alara in any meaingfull way? I stand by that more flavour text would be a huge boon to the game, unlike reminder text which is more neutral.
I have yet to talk to anyone who quit magic because the game mechanic wasn't printed on every card, but I know quite a few who started it because they liked the art and flavour of a particular card.
In fact, that is how I recruited more players to our group back in the day, by showing of particulary nice cards and explaining the story to them. In the days of Urza's Saga, that was interesting stuff, and it made them want to play the game.
I doubt reminder text would have made a fig of difference.
True, I suppose - but as an experienced player I've bought precons for cards for my deck/collection, and when I started (before precons came along) it was the whole 'make a deck out of random stuff' thing that appealed - no surprise that Sealed is still my favourite environment. I thought the precons tended to lose a lot of that, well, magic for newer players, so I can see where they're coming from here - and a 40-card deck is a standard size for a Limited-type match in any event. The main problem I see for players just starting out is that they might have a shortage of lands just picking up an intro pack. If I was starting now, though, getting a couple of intro packs plus one or two boosters to add options would seem a great idea just to try the game - I can play the 40-card decks straight, and then add to them (without needing to worry too much about which cards to take out until later).
Phil
Umm, that's basically what they are doing now. 'Basic land' has the same symbol as a common, but it is a different rarity. Twenty basic lands per large set, one basic per booster, thirty per tournament pack.
Just because they don't call it out as a 5th rarity doesn't mean it isn't.
What did I miss here?
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Prerelease tournaments have been scaled back to sneak preview tournaments; they're six days before release instead of 13, every store has them, and the big organizers are left fighting hard to afford running a big one - otherwise, it's one flight, and no one gets drafts. Hop over to the News forum, there's a big long thread on it. :x
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....The people are WotC are pulling down a paycheck week-in, week-out with these decisions.
You have to believe that they know what they are doing, and it's intended for the future heath of the overall game, cause otherwise .... no more paychecks.
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Basic lands in every packs? Yeah, that's a bit of a slap in the face. Limited will no doubt end up with weaker pools, but keep in mind... the other players are going to get shafted with basics too, so in essence, this just powers down the format a little.
I quit for two years using the new frame as an excuse, for exactly the reason you say: Futuristic Bubbles. (Rav block was just too sexy to stay away)
It seems to me that they've made slight changes to the border since then that makes it not so bad, but I still hate it.
You're probably right that the recent changes will probably end up being good for Magic, according to their track record. The quiet, silent damage is most likely tournament restructuring and MODO 3 sucking.
However, the game play and fantasy world-building have never been better. Magic should do fine as long as the overall game product stays at a high level.
And they're relying on people buying more packs in hopes of getting the big chase Planeswalker. WotC knows that at least one of these cards is going to hit $40 (non-foil). More than likely 2 of them will. People buy the packs that have the money cards so that they can cash in. After Eventide hit at my store and people realized that there was nothing over $15, they went back to trying to hit the Mutavault / Bitterblossom / Chameleon Colossus lottery prize in Morningtide.
So yeah, this is a money haul attempt. Remember, they're in this to make money, so they're going to do what it takes to make money.
I'd say 15 basic lands, with a chance of winning the lottery for "ultra secret rare" to replace a land, would put a dent in it.
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And the 8th edition card frames still look terrible. I think that part of your article is just absurd. We have to live with these new frames but that doesn't make them any less riduclous. The old ones are elegant, respectable, and are permanently associated with golden years of Magic. If a redesign was necessary, making them look incredibly ugly wasnt.
I must say, this response is no more objective than the article itself. Please, define the 'golden years' of Magic, and why you think of them as that. I'm not saying you are wrong--we will probably have to agree to disagree on several points. And I must agree the game is changing dramatically, but I disagree that that is a bad thing.
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I'll also say that the Planeswalker cards were a good addition. I don't think they cheapen the game any, nor do they take away from the "You are a Planeswalker" mythos. Nowhere in the mythology of Magic does it say "You are the ONLY Planeswalker." Being able to call upon an ally to aid you in a time of peril is something Planeswalkers have done before (Urza's army fighting the Phyrexians, Teferi's cohort during the Time Spiral debacle). This just adds another layer of flavor.
The new sets being smaller does not overly concern me. It means that it shouldn't be as hard to get the cards one needs from the set. HOWEVER, I have serious misgivings about the new rarity, Mythic Rare. Common, Uncommon, and Rare are okay to me. Mythic Rare is unnecessary. It seems that WotC is taking a page from another card game (the one that starts with a Y, and ends with -Oh!). That card game apparently has 10 or 12 levels of rarity...rare, super-rare, ultra-rare, mega-rare, spectral-hypno-holo-giga-rare, and so on. I fear that WotC is headed down that road, and there is nothing but a gaping void at the end.
I hope, for the sake of the game, and all that play it, that I am wrong. I HAVE been wrong before. Once. On a Tuesday. In 1983.
For the Chronicles/Time Sprial thing - Chronicles was a great set for us who got into the game then. I understand why collectors were upset but I doubt WOTC anticipated that. The Reserved List was an understandable reaction but I really wish they'd just get rid of it. Reprints nowadays only really increase a card's value as people seek out the older versions for their decks.
AFAIK nobody ever complained about Exodus. The only people who disliked it were those people who would trade commons to kids for their rare cards. Foils too, I thought everyone liked that idea. Just because Magic was the original CCG doesn't mean it has to invent everything!
Reminder text for common abilities only really shows up on the Core set cards, which we should all have lots of anyways. On the expansions it's necessary because not all of us follow the game that close. And it's easy to ignore.
Sixth edition rules I remember were a huge complaint among a lot of people. Same with the new card frames (which I still don't like). But it's true, the game was getting too convoluted, with stuff like damage prevention phase, interrupts, mana sources, and strange timing rules. The stack is a pretty easy concept to understand.
Don't have a problem with planeswalkers at all. I think they're pretty cool, really. The game's 15 years old, you gotta try new things every once in a while.
And then there's MOL - yeah, this I really don't like. Digital Magic kind of sucks, especially if you've ever played with Graft on MOL (where it asks you EVERY TIME your opponent plays a creature if you want to +1/+1 it, even if the grafter has no counters!), but seriously Wizards is running that system terribly. There is just no excuse for some of the garbage they've pulled. I had two friends who played it but took a break to "wait for version 3", and then just gave up on it forever. I can't think of a less reliable server than the MOL one.
Netdecking is Rightdecking
My latest data-driven Magic the Gathering strategy article
(TLDR: Analysis of the Valakut matchups. UB rising in the rankings. Aggro correspondingly taking a dive.)
The change from Preconstructed Decks, to Intro Packs, bothers me both in a personal and a general way. Personally I have looked forward to them each set since they started. I own them all, ( except for the four I made myself the second set, that cost me over twice as much as buying them ), I use them, and adapt them, and learn something about each new set. Now Wizards has decided to focus on getting new players, instead of keeping existing ones, so they change to an Intro Pack for newbies, which I feel will fail to keep old players, and to few will sell to Newbies, so the shops won't carry them, so they won't be there to any good.
The change that I think is the most dangerous to the survival of Magic, is the move away from the traditional Large format Prerelease Tournaments.
I am glad to see that there has been enough Backlash, that some Premier Tournament Organizers are being allowed to offer the Large formats(LFPT). I know that in some areas the small 24 (max) person events are all that area will ever have, and this will give some people there only chance. But in the larger markets, the Large format Prerelease is the only chance to get a new player in your group into Tournaments. I know that canceling the LFPT's has caused some Premier T.O.'s, to quit. In our group no one said, "Oh the're having small Prereleases now", they all said "Oh there not having Prereleases", When a T.O. from outside our area stepped in to offer an LFPT in our area, I was only able to get One to go with me, Instead of a whole carload. I do fervently hope that Wizards, ( or the Hasbro Idiot ) fixes this before it seriously damages Organized Play. Losing the LFPT's will lose T.O.'s, Judges, and Players, and I don't want Magic to slip away, down that slope.
I totally agree with this. I kinda like the way that they altered trample itself (it was totally silly that you could just direct all of your trample damage to one creature) but I think that the protection alteration with regards to trample is still bad (reduced to zero means reduced to zero).
I agree with this too. I've *very* rarely paid full retail for cards and was pretty frustrated when they announced that it would be costing that (I beta-tested it too). Still haven't gone back. I can understand the appeal to some degree but still...
I think Wizards would have done a lot better to discount them from retail price.
My own personal problem with Type 2 is that you *really* need to keep buying cards to keep up with it. The Mythics really only heighten that. It looks like there is going to be about twenty of them or so. This means to get a set of all of them you need to buy about five boxes (if you are lucky) and to get four of any one you might need to buy twenty boxes! This is (of course) without trading to get them but it looks like trading for the good ones is going to be pretty hellish. Anyone that believes that they aren't good enough is fooling themselves. Like people have commented, Sarkhan Vol is pretty dang close to Garruk powerful (maybe better, maybe worse) and the others have some pretty dang good potential.
Another problem is that some of the Mythics are insane bombs in a Limited format and there will only be three (or so) per pod in a Draft. Chances seem good that one of the three is going to be a bomb.
Foils... Most of my foils are messed up. Curled so that they aren't playable. They don't really stack the same if you are playing without sleeves and wear differently than other cards. Aside from that, the extra card thing is kinda cool but throws off Drafts and threw off (second day/second set) Prereleases (I played against two players that 'coincidentally' had foil copies of power rares). I do kinda like the alternate art stuff but...
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Aside from that, my biggest problem with the article is that it avoids some of the actual problems that Wizards has had over the years that can't be spun positively.
Fallen Empires was one (I've still got a box of them that I couldn't offload for twenty bucks right now). It had some good stuff but most of that was the common stuff.
Homelands... Meh. I kinda liked Homelands and the art was good. The big problem with Homelands is that it was so disconnected from itself. Instead of making a set that worked with itself the set was just oddball with a bunch of themes that sorta worked with already developed things but not that well. On the other hand, very few of the cards in the set had any real playability. A few here and there.
Urza's Block would be another:) Opposite reason but I'd predicted things that they shouldn't do with the set by making a version of the crazy deck with a friend of mine prior to the Block (things I'd predicted not to do: make a card that produced multiple blue mana, and cards that drew multiple cards easily). Awful, awful development with the set.
Ander