There's currently a rumor mill thread where one person is saying MtG is in decline because WotC isn't reprinting enough cards and someone else is saying that MtG is in decline because WotC is reprinting too many cards. That kind of exchange is why I still read the rumor mill from time to time.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
There's currently a rumor mill thread where one person is saying MtG is in decline because WotC isn't reprinting enough cards and someone else is saying that MtG is in decline because WotC is reprinting too many cards. That kind of exchange is why I still read the rumor mill from time to time.
My personal theory is that Magic is in decline because the popularity of Eternal formats like Commander has increased significantly over the years and that does not jive with Wizards' current business model.
Wizards' business model is asinine to me. It is the only model I can think of that actively discourages its enfranchised players from spending money on it. This just makes no sense. Wizards makes all of their money selling booster packs (lottery tickets) and other sealed product. To encourage players to purchase them, Wizards has to release new products all the time, which is fine, but each Standard legal set they release does extremely little to satisfy Eternal players. The vast majority of cards (the commons and uncommons) in each set they publish are designed exclusively for draft. They have almost no application beyond that. The remaining rares and mythics might have Eternal applications, but most are just designed for Standard. When new sets aren't geared towards Eternal and players only want a handful of new cards out of any given set, they have no incentive to purchase booster packs. To get the cards they want, Eternal players will just buy the singles they want off the secondary market. Players aren't going to shred hundreds of dollars in booster packs hoping to get a copy of the foil rare they want; they'll just get it for $4.50 off TCGPlayer.
I think Wizards is doing a little better than they once were. They're making older, in-demand cards more accessible through products like Modern and Eternal Masters. They're also printing annual Commander products. This just doesn't go far enough though. Players are leaving Standard, Wizards' primary breadwinner, because they keep getting burned. Development has repeatedly proven that it isn't capable of crafting the kinds of Standard environments that players want (who can blame them?), and players are tired of tying up hundreds of dollars in cards that become worthless several months later. These players aren't quitting Magic though; they're just moving on to other formats where Standard legal sets are no longer of interest to them. The new promos we've seen Wizards launch recently is another attempt at lulling players back to Standard. That might work in the short term for some players, but I don't think that's going to be effective at retaining long term interest in Standard. I think the solution is just for Wizards to begin considering adjustments to their business model.
I don't think Magic is in decline unless everyone saying so is using a different metric than I am. I think there's a pretty good chance the rapid growth from the past 5-7 years has declined, but that's not saying much. They reported 25% growth between 08 and 12. Speaking as someone with relatively little business knowledge, that kind of growth sounds hard to sustain over a long term period and they were pulling it off in a recession. Hasbro is publicly traded. You can find their quarterly reports. While they don't break down by property, they consistently say that Magic shows growth and has for years. The game is certainly not in decline by that standard, though it's understandable that the recent growth may have slowed. WotC's current business model is their current business model because it's selling products.
One thing that's absolutely not true is that standard is WotC's primary breadwinner. The vast majority or their sales are to kitchen table players who may not even be aware of the existence of tournament formats. I don't remember the exact numbers and they're several years out of date anyways, but the last time I looked the estimate was something like 12-15 million magic players worldwide and about 400k DCI numbers (I have a post from a couple months ago somewhere that sources all of this, but I don't have it handy and don't really want to go searching). Even making pessimistic assumptions like the total player estimate being wildly overblown, say 2x, and each DCI number actually being a unique, current player, there are 15x as many casual players as tournament ones. Even beyond that, limited formats move more product than standard. Serious constructed players don't crack packs. Serious limited players never stop. The number of eternal/modern players is even smaller than either of those groups, though modern has overtaken standard in some places. It doesn't matter if eternal players don't buy packs because there aren't enough eternal players to sustain the game anyways and buying off the secondary market is still selling/did sell packs somewhere.
We're also discussing this in a place that only the most interested and most invested people are going to be. Internet discussions of the games health are going to disproportionately weight tournament (and EDH) play and discount casual play. WotC wants to promote standard because it spreads the word about their new products and builds a dedicated base, but it's not their only or even primary source of revenue for Magic.
I'm not a WotC apologist. I don't play standard, modern (often), or limited. I generally like the older trend with more powerful spells and less powerful creatures more than the current midrange battles. I just don't think there's any real evidence that Magic on the whole is in decline.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Well, it's an interesting (if crappy) day when your doctor tells you that even though you are still an undergrad, you have severe Carpal Tunnel issues usually seen in people 3x your age and that in a few months you may need surgery on that.
Old threads being 'necroed' or posted on many years or months after theyve been un-replied to.
It's more or less a constant thing. I haven't noticed it happening with any higher frequency recently, though I've admittedly been offline for longer than usual thanks to a conference.
edit: I played Tana/Reyhan the other night against Zada (among others) and now I really want to smash the two decks together into what's basically a limited deck running a bunch of single shot pump spells. I'm almost positive the deck is going to be awful but I'm equally sure I'm going to build it. I look forward to wiping my field of 20 saproling tokens by copying Berserk onto all of them.
I think i figured it out..all of the SCDs in the Rules section boil down to : This card is an example of what I disagree in regards to how the RC sees the format.
*hiss* Sorry to hear that, spike. Nothing else to be done? Is surgery inevitable, or can you possibly head it off?
Thanks for the concern
For now, I'm sleeping in arm braces to relieve pressure. I may start a regular anti inflammatory and/or occupational therapy. If that stuff goes well I should be able to head off the surgery for quite a while. But eventually, even if it's a few years down the road, I'll need surgery. With this preexisting issue and the amount of stress I put on it by playing multiple instruments every day the surgery is inevitable.
All that being said, the braces have seriously cut back on the pain in my wrists which was getting to the point that I couldn't practice my instruments and could barely make it through a rehearsal.
So, I've been trying to double sleeve my decks lately and I'm having some pretty major problems with deck boxes. The Ultra pro 100+ boxes I've been using won't hold them anymore and they don't fit in the Ultra pro 150 Acrylic boxes(which may be discontinued as I can't find them on their site) I have. I can't afford anything more than ~$6 each, so Satin Towers and other options are just not possible for my budget. I recently saw the Ultra pro CUB3 box which was pretty awesome but ludicrously expensive.
Another problem I'm having with this is how to store the decks after I manage to find boxes for them. Right now, I'm using the Return to Ravnica Holiday box which is big enough to hold 9 Ultra Pro 100+ card deck boxes with some extra space, but it won't hold anything bigger than the Ultra Pro 100+ card boxes.
What kind of sleeves do you use? I noticed that the clear acrylic 150 boxes are just perfect for my deck double sleeved in kmc hypermattes but just barely too small for a deck sleeved in dragon shield mattes.
What kind of sleeves do you use? I noticed that the clear acrylic 150 boxes are just perfect for my deck double sleeved in kmc hypermattes but just barely too small for a deck sleeved in dragon shield mattes.
I'm using hyper mattes as well, but I always end up with 6 or so cards that don't fit.
I think i figured it out..all of the SCDs in the Rules section boil down to : This card is an example of what I disagree in regards to how the RC sees the format.
You're not wrong - I'm a firm believer in the "integrity of the spirit of the format should be uncompromising" and hence believe that even if a single card has like a 1% chance of actually violating that integrity, it should be gone... which was why I started (as of the time of this post) the SCD with the most pages... (Long story cut short when Iona names a color that locks only a weaker player out and the other players don't help out because it doesn't affect them, it violates/inverses the typical Multiplayer concept of "Archenemy when someone is strong". Adding salt to that wound is that Iona operates on the Color Identity Concept of the format in order to be able to inverse said Mutliplayer concept, so it's doubly guilty of "Interacts badly with the format". Yes, color hate cards also do that, but Iona is the only one who can both choose colors and implement a "Stasis-level" of disability to a single player if desired.... all on a single card, because the rules enabled it. Okay fine, this turned out longer than expected, but I didn't want to awaken the sleeping leviathan of the thread but you can go read it... but I think you already did at some point of time...)
Also to reinforce my stand (and prove I'm not here to rant about Iona only), I never liked Rule 4 (the one that limited the types of mana you could produce) before it was abolished, simply because the ability "you can spend mana as though it is of any color" effectively subverts it and violates the integrity (and spirit) of that rule and since that rule is fundamentally flavor-inspired, the integrity of its "spirit" felt even more important to me. I won't deny Daxos of Meletis kicked-started the whole process for me when I saw it and compared it to Sen Triplets, but like I said before, even if 1%/1 card felt like it was violating the integrity of a rule/structure (besides Mycosynth Lattice already existed anyway), I would have argued against it (be it card or rule). I know it was C that actually brought down Rule 4, but I'm okay with it since basically if there's no Rule 4 to argue against, then it's balanced to me (yeah the end mattered more than the means in that case...).
So, I've been trying to double sleeve my decks lately and I'm having some pretty major problems with deck boxes. The Ultra pro 100+ boxes I've been using won't hold them anymore and they don't fit in the Ultra pro 150 Acrylic boxes(which may be discontinued as I can't find them on their site) I have. I can't afford anything more than ~$6 each, so Satin Towers and other options are just not possible for my budget. I recently saw the Ultra pro CUB3 box which was pretty awesome but ludicrously expensive.
Another problem I'm having with this is how to store the decks after I manage to find boxes for them. Right now, I'm using the Return to Ravnica Holiday box which is big enough to hold 9 Ultra Pro 100+ card deck boxes with some extra space, but it won't hold anything bigger than the Ultra Pro 100+ card boxes.
I started using it a couple of years ago and it's great. It holds 12 commander decks double or single sleeves. If they are all double, it's weird though.
Those Stanley organizers are great. I have all my decks in Dragon Shield colored arcylic boxes and they fit in the Stanley perfectly. I was able to use the yellow tubs for card sorting and storage in my office. Most everyone in my group has a couple of them for deck and cube storage (they're great for cube addicts). Home Depot used to carry them a while back so you can always check there too.
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EDH playing competitive Magic cast away
Current Decks GTitania midrange RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
I use perfect fits and Dragon Shields and the 150 fit mine too without trouble :/
I mean, they fit. Kind of. It's a very, very tight squeeze and I have to shake the box rather violently to get the deck back out, which is far from ideal.
I started using it a couple of years ago and it's great. It holds 12 commander decks double or single sleeves. If they are all double, it's weird though.
Yeah, most of the compartments are a couple different sizes.
Those Stanley organizers are great. I have all my decks in Dragon Shield colored arcylic boxes and they fit in the Stanley perfectly. I was able to use the yellow tubs for card sorting and storage in my office. Most everyone in my group has a couple of them for deck and cube storage (they're great for cube addicts). Home Depot used to carry them a while back so you can always check there too.
I didn't know Dragon Shield made acrylic boxes. Do they hold double sleeved decks or just singled? Also, I don't know of a home depot anywhere near me now that I think about it; like 5 Lowes though which is kind of amusing.
My personal theory is that Magic is in decline because the popularity of Eternal formats like Commander has increased significantly over the years and that does not jive with Wizards' current business model.
Wizards' business model is asinine to me. It is the only model I can think of that actively discourages its enfranchised players from spending money on it. This just makes no sense. Wizards makes all of their money selling booster packs (lottery tickets) and other sealed product. To encourage players to purchase them, Wizards has to release new products all the time, which is fine, but each Standard legal set they release does extremely little to satisfy Eternal players. The vast majority of cards (the commons and uncommons) in each set they publish are designed exclusively for draft. They have almost no application beyond that. The remaining rares and mythics might have Eternal applications, but most are just designed for Standard. When new sets aren't geared towards Eternal and players only want a handful of new cards out of any given set, they have no incentive to purchase booster packs. To get the cards they want, Eternal players will just buy the singles they want off the secondary market. Players aren't going to shred hundreds of dollars in booster packs hoping to get a copy of the foil rare they want; they'll just get it for $4.50 off TCGPlayer.
I think Wizards is doing a little better than they once were. They're making older, in-demand cards more accessible through products like Modern and Eternal Masters. They're also printing annual Commander products. This just doesn't go far enough though. Players are leaving Standard, Wizards' primary breadwinner, because they keep getting burned. Development has repeatedly proven that it isn't capable of crafting the kinds of Standard environments that players want (who can blame them?), and players are tired of tying up hundreds of dollars in cards that become worthless several months later. These players aren't quitting Magic though; they're just moving on to other formats where Standard legal sets are no longer of interest to them. The new promos we've seen Wizards launch recently is another attempt at lulling players back to Standard. That might work in the short term for some players, but I don't think that's going to be effective at retaining long term interest in Standard. I think the solution is just for Wizards to begin considering adjustments to their business model.
EDIT: Grammar
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
One thing that's absolutely not true is that standard is WotC's primary breadwinner. The vast majority or their sales are to kitchen table players who may not even be aware of the existence of tournament formats. I don't remember the exact numbers and they're several years out of date anyways, but the last time I looked the estimate was something like 12-15 million magic players worldwide and about 400k DCI numbers (I have a post from a couple months ago somewhere that sources all of this, but I don't have it handy and don't really want to go searching). Even making pessimistic assumptions like the total player estimate being wildly overblown, say 2x, and each DCI number actually being a unique, current player, there are 15x as many casual players as tournament ones. Even beyond that, limited formats move more product than standard. Serious constructed players don't crack packs. Serious limited players never stop. The number of eternal/modern players is even smaller than either of those groups, though modern has overtaken standard in some places. It doesn't matter if eternal players don't buy packs because there aren't enough eternal players to sustain the game anyways and buying off the secondary market is still selling/did sell packs somewhere.
We're also discussing this in a place that only the most interested and most invested people are going to be. Internet discussions of the games health are going to disproportionately weight tournament (and EDH) play and discount casual play. WotC wants to promote standard because it spreads the word about their new products and builds a dedicated base, but it's not their only or even primary source of revenue for Magic.
I'm not a WotC apologist. I don't play standard, modern (often), or limited. I generally like the older trend with more powerful spells and less powerful creatures more than the current midrange battles. I just don't think there's any real evidence that Magic on the whole is in decline.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
So that's fun...
Modern
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
How do you mean?
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
edit: I played Tana/Reyhan the other night against Zada (among others) and now I really want to smash the two decks together into what's basically a limited deck running a bunch of single shot pump spells. I'm almost positive the deck is going to be awful but I'm equally sure I'm going to build it. I look forward to wiping my field of 20 saproling tokens by copying Berserk onto all of them.
I don't think i would have built it with the old tuck rules.
Maybe it wasn't such a terrible change.
WBRG Saskia the Unyielding
WUB Sharuum the Hegemon
RWU Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
RG Wort, the Raidmother
WU Brago, King Eternal
B Chainer, Dementia Master
It's generally consistent. Random threads get found by a Google search, and a person will make an account in order to reply.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Thanks for the concern
For now, I'm sleeping in arm braces to relieve pressure. I may start a regular anti inflammatory and/or occupational therapy. If that stuff goes well I should be able to head off the surgery for quite a while. But eventually, even if it's a few years down the road, I'll need surgery. With this preexisting issue and the amount of stress I put on it by playing multiple instruments every day the surgery is inevitable.
All that being said, the braces have seriously cut back on the pain in my wrists which was getting to the point that I couldn't practice my instruments and could barely make it through a rehearsal.
Modern
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
Modern
Another problem I'm having with this is how to store the decks after I manage to find boxes for them. Right now, I'm using the Return to Ravnica Holiday box which is big enough to hold 9 Ultra Pro 100+ card deck boxes with some extra space, but it won't hold anything bigger than the Ultra Pro 100+ card boxes.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
I'm using hyper mattes as well, but I always end up with 6 or so cards that don't fit.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
You're not wrong - I'm a firm believer in the "integrity of the spirit of the format should be uncompromising" and hence believe that even if a single card has like a 1% chance of actually violating that integrity, it should be gone... which was why I started (as of the time of this post) the SCD with the most pages... (Long story cut short when Iona names a color that locks only a weaker player out and the other players don't help out because it doesn't affect them, it violates/inverses the typical Multiplayer concept of "Archenemy when someone is strong". Adding salt to that wound is that Iona operates on the Color Identity Concept of the format in order to be able to inverse said Mutliplayer concept, so it's doubly guilty of "Interacts badly with the format". Yes, color hate cards also do that, but Iona is the only one who can both choose colors and implement a "Stasis-level" of disability to a single player if desired.... all on a single card, because the rules enabled it. Okay fine, this turned out longer than expected, but I didn't want to awaken the sleeping leviathan of the thread but you can go read it... but I think you already did at some point of time...)
Also to reinforce my stand (and prove I'm not here to rant about Iona only), I never liked Rule 4 (the one that limited the types of mana you could produce) before it was abolished, simply because the ability "you can spend mana as though it is of any color" effectively subverts it and violates the integrity (and spirit) of that rule and since that rule is fundamentally flavor-inspired, the integrity of its "spirit" felt even more important to me. I won't deny Daxos of Meletis kicked-started the whole process for me when I saw it and compared it to Sen Triplets, but like I said before, even if 1%/1 card felt like it was violating the integrity of a rule/structure (besides Mycosynth Lattice already existed anyway), I would have argued against it (be it card or rule). I know it was C that actually brought down Rule 4, but I'm okay with it since basically if there's no Rule 4 to argue against, then it's balanced to me (yeah the end mattered more than the means in that case...).
That's weird. Mine fit perfectly.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
I would go for this.
https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Removable-Compartment-Professional-Organizer/dp/B001G1CUK0
I started using it a couple of years ago and it's great. It holds 12 commander decks double or single sleeves. If they are all double, it's weird though.
Modern
Current Decks
GTitania midrange
RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal
GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron
U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher
RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
I mean, they fit. Kind of. It's a very, very tight squeeze and I have to shake the box rather violently to get the deck back out, which is far from ideal.
Yeah, most of the compartments are a couple different sizes.
I didn't know Dragon Shield made acrylic boxes. Do they hold double sleeved decks or just singled? Also, I don't know of a home depot anywhere near me now that I think about it; like 5 Lowes though which is kind of amusing.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade