We’re not going to bury the lede here. We’re not banning the cards from Secret Lair: The Walking Dead. We understand that this won’t sit well with some folks; we have spent a lot of the last few days listening to a wide variety of opinions, and we want to thank everyone for taking the time to share their thoughts. It was, at times, quite overwhelming. It’s clear that this is an issue that many people are passionate about.
Our decision doesn’t reflect an endorsement of these cards, but what we believe is best for Commander in the long run. If you’d like to understand how we arrived at this decision, we encourage you to read on.
We identified three major concerns during the course of these discussions, and we’ll address each and how they relate to Commander below. They are:
The availability of these cards is problematic
The existence of non-Magic IPs on cards should be discouraged
Negan is a dubious character.
There’s no support in the Commander Philosophy Document for banning these cards. They certainly present no mechanical difficulties, and taken simply as cards, don’t come close to fitting any criteria we have for banning. However, as we are always seeking to improve the document, we discussed whether banning these cards could fit under new philosophical criteria and whether using the banlist in this way was appropriate.
CARD AVAILABILITY
A concern of many players is that these cards would not be widely available, and for some countries, only available through third-party sellers. They worry that this model will be repeated in the future. We’ve heard you loud and clear on this issue. Because the cards are mechanically unique, this is the major problem most folks have. We wish that all of our friends around the globe had access to these cards. However, the RC of its own accord can’t solve that problem. What we can do—what we already have done—is add our voice to yours. Since this issue broke, we’ve been in contact with well-placed people at Wizards of the Coast to make sure that they understand your displeasure and where it comes from, as well as urging that they work towards a solution.
While we understand why people are concerned about such limited availability, we don’t believe that the problem applies to Commander in the same way it does to tournament formats. Successful tournament formats require generally equal and complete access to cards. But, one of the themes that we’ve reiterated since the earliest days of the format is that you don’t need access to every card in order to have fun playing Commander. The focus of Commander being on non-tournament play, plus the enormous cardpool available where almost everything goes, means that unique cards floating around don’t present the same kind of problem. The stakes in a Commander game is the fun of the participants, and that doesn’t require all the cards.
A problem we see with adopting a ban philosophy based on card availability is explaining it down the road. If, a year from now, someone stumbles across a copy of one of these cards, tries to use it and discovers that it is banned in Commander, they will ask why. And the explanation is unsatisfactory: people didn’t like how they were allocated. This does not make a lot of sense to the person who is holding the card, and who doesn’t own many other cards that may be out of reach for them. We want people to be able to play the cards they own, and only resort to bans when it’s problematic for the health of the format, not the wider ecosystem.
These cards are in no way a threat to the health of Commander. In fact, we see it just the opposite. We’re the only format that could bear the weight of this kind of experimentation. This is the format in which Crab Tribal is just as valid as Blood Pod. Adding a few quirky cards that aren’t ubiquitously available doesn’t threaten that.
One of the calls from the community was that we should ban these cards to “send a signal” to Wizards of the Coast for a “blatantly commercial act”. First of all, we don’t think it’s appropriate to tell them how to run their business; that’s way outside the scope of our charter. Second, the banned list isn’t the appropriate vehicle to voice our displeasure over something, nor is using it as punishment. The banned list is an abstract construct to corporate decision-makers. The right path to walk is the one we’ve gone down: real change happens from having real conversations with real people, which we have been doing since the news broke. Finally, attempting to send such a signal would be doomed to failure. It will not have the effect that people hope. The primary goal of these cards is almost certainly new-player acquisition. Wizards hopes to lure some Walking Dead fans into Magic and any interest from Commander players is just a small bonus. Banning the cards until functional reprints are available doesn’t do much either.
NON-MAGIC IP
Some folks simply don’t like the idea of The Walking Dead crossing over into Magic, a modern IP breaking an immersion barrier. We understand that feeling (none of us care at all about The Walking Dead), but also realize that almost everyone has some universe for which they’ve dreamed of having Magic cards. We don’t think it’s productive to try to gatekeep that. If you dislike it, we support you not playing with the cards. Introduction of a different IP opens Commander to audiences who might not have ever heard of Magic or the format; we welcome the new friends we haven’t yet met.
NEGAN
We’ve also heard some displeasure over the Negan character being on a card, given his (fictional) history of terrible actions. We are sympathetic to this, and did give some consideration to banning just that card. We chose not to because Negan is a villain, plain and simple. There’s no implied endorsement, sanitation or glorification of his actions. In that, he’s no different than other villains already in the Magic universe, even though as portrayed by an actor it seems closer to “real world” discomfort. No one is suggesting that by putting him on a card he should be idealized, any more so than Nicol Bolas or Yawgmoth. We will use this as an opportunity to remind each other to respect other players’ boundaries. Being empathic and accommodating is vital for a healthy gaming community; being considerate of other players makes us all better.
IN CONCLUSION
The community outcry over these cards did not go unheard. We used our relationship with people inside Wizards of the Coast to have an honest conversation about how and why so many of you felt betrayed by this process. One of the outcomes of that conversation is that they were supportive of whatever decision we made. We believe that conversation has had influence and they clearly understand the concerns. Thank you to everyone who has weighed in with their thoughts. We tried very hard to keep up with all of them, even as the Discord became overwhelming.
Personally what I think will happen is that certain stores might ban these from their tournaments. Sure, the few players that buy these cards will be mad, but from the stores’ and other players’ perspectives it’s a viable reason.
I think ultimately they'll all be in a sort of pseudo-legal state, much like un-cards are already. Which might be mission accomplished, although only time will tell. I don't think it'll dissuade wotc from making more, though.
This is the right call. It is absolutely not the RC's place to enforce how the community feels about wizards products or their distribution methods/pricing. Their job is to care about the health of the format, which means nothing else than keeping it fun. I might add that I have no love for this product and I don't like where wizards is going witht his, but thats not the RC's fault nor is it their job to correct that. If any of these cards turn out to be super busted and unfun in EDH, I'm sure the RC will take another look at them.
If you think "The Walking Dead" should not be in Magic or commander or black border or mechanically unique cards should not be released as a super limited product, those points should be directed at Wizards, the company that made these decisions, and not at the RC.
Of course they werent going to.
The rc lost its spine ages ago, and its reflective of the continued decline in their involvement in the format.
Whatever hide behind rule zero about it some more
Calmly making a decision instead of folloing the demands of an angry internet mob is the exact opposite of being spineless. The RC didn't shy away from voicing an opinion. What you're upset about is the RC voicing an opinion that different to yours.
The rc lost its spine ages ago, and its reflective of the continued decline in their involvement in the format.
Whatever hide behind rule zero about it some more
I think the RC made the right call. It's not their job to police Wizards' sales, nor to discourage players from purchasing something they enjoy, nor to punish legitimate fans of the franchise.
Personally what I think will happen is that certain stores might ban these from their tournaments. Sure, the few players that buy these cards will be mad, but from the stores’ and other players’ perspectives it’s a viable reason.
I don't think this is the right move either. It shouldn't fall on punishing players who have picked up something they love or are excited about. The anger should be directed at Wizards. Not the players.
I'm not really seeing the volume of complaints that most of the official and various media "response" messages are directed. Sure some people are complaining, but did I miss some massive complaint wave that got swept?
I honestly don't care about the cards. Mechanically negan is interesting and rick seems fun for humans in constructed. But nothing really pulls my attention on them. If anything the flavor on negan is pretty good with his entire "people are a resource" goal, or it could be viewed as his trend of killing someone upon first meeting their group.
What does have me curious is where all this hate for branching ips is coming from. Nobody seemed to care about Grimlock, My Little Pony or Godzilla edh decks, but somehow these are worse?
Reddit exploded over this. poll with 30K responses had 93% of people wanting them auto-banned. Lots of arguing on nexus too. Obviously not as much here since not many people are here. Kind of coincided with standard banlist problems that also had people up in arms. Ultimately it's still a fairly small community of people affected so it's not like you'd expect to see protesting in the streets. Ofc the nature of reddit pushes anything older than a day off the front page, but there's still plenty of simmering anger.
The difference between these and grimlock/mlp is that these are fully-legal cards. The difference between these and godzilla is that there were normal versions widely available in normal boosters. These have the problem of ONLY being available in cross-IP form, being fully legal, and only being available via a predatory, overpriced product. I agree these aren't incredibly exciting, but if they were and I wanted to play them, I'd have to pay their exorbitant prices that cut out the LGS and prey on FOMO, and I'd also have to play with whatever IP they've whored themselves out to. Although I can't imagine many franchises I have less respect for than the Walking Dead. If they wanted to cross-IP with something more respectable, like lotr, then I'd at least be less bothered by the cross-IP bit.
If wotc had done them silver bordered, or godzilla-style with the normal versions in packs, I wouldn't have cared a bit.
The reality is that, while there was always a very small contingent of people legitimately upset about 'immersion breaking,' the vast majority of people are just using it as an additional excuse to complain when someone refutes their arguments about why this product is bad and evil.
I guarantee that if YouTubers like Brian and Mitch didn't irresponsibly abuse their platforms to start a knee-jerk sky-is-falling *****-fest, we wouldn't still be talking about this product. Mitch literally attempted to undermine the integrity of the format by actively trying to splinter people off into a sub-format out of pure petulance, so you can tell how much people like him really care about the format, and Brian has always been trying to peel people off into other games because deep down he hates Magic (counter to what he always melodramatically claims in his complaint videos).
The reality is that, while there was always a very small contingent of people legitimately upset about 'immersion breaking,' the vast majority of people are just using it as an additional excuse to complain when someone refutes their arguments about why this product is bad and evil.
Dear god am I tired of this armchair psychologist garbage. The reddit poll - 30K respondents - had 93% in favor of banning these in commander. And that's not even including people who dislike them but didn't want them banned. Everyone hates these stupid cards. If you don't, that's fine, but stop acting like everyone who disagrees secretly hates magic.
I guarantee that if YouTubers like Brian and Mitch didn't irresponsibly abuse their platforms to start a knee-jerk sky-is-falling *****-fest, we wouldn't still be talking about this product. Mitch literally attempted to undermine the integrity of the format by actively trying to splinter people off into a sub-format out of pure petulance, so you can tell how much people like him really care about the format, and Brian has always been trying to peel people off into other games because deep down he hates Magic (counter to what he always melodramatically claims in his complaint videos).
I don't think this particular product is the end of magic, obviously. But I do think that it's very emblematic of some very serious problems with how upper management is treating magic. They're focused entirely on making money ASAP, and not on creating an enjoyable game that can sustain long-term. This product itself happens to be particularly odious, but as far as the existential threat to the game it's a lot bigger than just SLxTWD. And that threat is what I think people are freaking out about, and trying desperate measures to try to correct the direction the ship is heading before it smashes into an iceberg.
That said, this was a huge uproar before there were any YouTube videos about it and it would have been huge without any. Mitch and co rode the wave of anger, they didn't start it. They probably increased it a little, but this was going to be a PR nightmare no matter what they did.
The reality is that, while there was always a very small contingent of people legitimately upset about 'immersion breaking,' the vast majority of people are just using it as an additional excuse to complain when someone refutes their arguments about why this product is bad and evil.
Dear god am I tired of this armchair psychologist garbage. The reddit poll - 30K respondents - had 93% in favor of banning these in commander. And that's not even including people who dislike them but didn't want them banned. Everyone hates these stupid cards. If you don't, that's fine, but stop acting like everyone who disagrees secretly hates magic.
I guarantee that if YouTubers like Brian and Mitch didn't irresponsibly abuse their platforms to start a knee-jerk sky-is-falling *****-fest, we wouldn't still be talking about this product. Mitch literally attempted to undermine the integrity of the format by actively trying to splinter people off into a sub-format out of pure petulance, so you can tell how much people like him really care about the format, and Brian has always been trying to peel people off into other games because deep down he hates Magic (counter to what he always melodramatically claims in his complaint videos).
I don't think this particular product is the end of magic, obviously. But I do think that it's very emblematic of some very serious problems with how upper management is treating magic. They're focused entirely on making money ASAP, and not on creating an enjoyable game that can sustain long-term. This product itself happens to be particularly odious, but as far as the existential threat to the game it's a lot bigger than just SLxTWD. And that threat is what I think people are freaking out about, and trying desperate measures to try to correct the direction the ship is heading before it smashes into an iceberg.
That said, this was a huge uproar before there were any YouTube videos about it and it would have been huge without any. Mitch and co rode the wave of anger, they didn't start it. They probably increased it a little, but this was going to be a PR nightmare no matter what they did.
Yeah I was wondering who Jimmy Wong from The Command Zone was directing his anger toward on their episode discussing Secret Lair x The Walking Dead. It's during the 37 minute mark of the YouTube video right after Josh Lee Kwai was done discussing something. I don't see how having a genuine concern about the health of Paper Magic in general equates to toxicity and vitriol or in my case being hyperbole otherwise nobody would care and would've sold off their collections by now. As you've pointed out Dirk the threat that seems to be being undermined is Wizards of the Coast printing mechanically unique cards in a product with very limited access outside the Secondary Market.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I mean, it makes perfect sense that you haven't been much exposed to the verbal abuse being slung about by people who are irrationally upset by this SL. All of the bullying has been pretty focused and one-sided. I made the mistake of posting a supportive comment on one of the Facebook ads, and the replies jumped immediately to homophobic slurs and ad hominem. As nasty as people have been here, social media is much worse. I can only imagine the toxicity and death threats that WotC and the RC have been getting. If Jimmy is rattled by the ***** being slung his way, it has to be a thousand times worse for them. The mob has so much free time and so little perspective or human empathy O.o
I'm not going to say that people don't take it way too far, or target the wrong people in the wrong way. Especially with a mob this big, there's going to be some ********s.
Definitely not going to defend the actions of those people, but I think it's incorrect to say they don't care about magic.
Isn't it then important for us, the responsible people, not to blow this issue way out of proportion to prevent a hate mob from forming like this?
"A concern of many players is that these cards would not be widely available, and for some countries, only available through third-party sellers. They worry that this model will be repeated in the future. We’ve heard you loud and clear on this issue. Because the cards are mechanically unique, this is the major problem most folks have. We wish that all of our friends around the globe had access to these cards. However, the RC of its own accord can’t solve that problem. What we can do—what we already have done—is add our voice to yours. Since this issue broke, we’ve been in contact with well-placed people at Wizards of the Coast to make sure that they understand your displeasure and where it comes from, as well as urging that they work towards a solution."
The RC clearly understand what the problem is but they don't have the power inside WotC.
My main group had a conversation about these and a fun "they should have" idea popped up. Along the lines of making them alternate reprints of other cards like the Godzilla cards (since most standard equipment is unplayable outside of draft) instead of characters from the show they should have just made equipment (negans bat, michonnes sword, Rick's hatchet, Daryl's crossbow, Morgans staff, etc).
It would have evaded the direct character representation and the artwork wouldn't have been too human. Even reprinting Tenza, Godo's Maul could mechanically feel flavorful to negans bat Lucile, since the scenes from the show where rick or negan carry it always and up more intense (the legendary creature boost)
Was a fun idea, hopefully in an alternate universe that happened.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
The rc lost its spine ages ago, and its reflective of the continued decline in their involvement in the format.
Whatever hide behind rule zero about it some more
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
*Snrk* Stealing this.
If you think "The Walking Dead" should not be in Magic or commander or black border or mechanically unique cards should not be released as a super limited product, those points should be directed at Wizards, the company that made these decisions, and not at the RC.
Calmly making a decision instead of folloing the demands of an angry internet mob is the exact opposite of being spineless. The RC didn't shy away from voicing an opinion. What you're upset about is the RC voicing an opinion that different to yours.
UR Mizzix of the Izmagnus ~~~ Build your own win-condition: Finite Spellslinging
UR Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer ~~~ We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic ~~~ A Guide to dying slowly
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose ~~~ Marchesa's undying Marionettes
RGW Mayael the Anima ~~~ All Hail the Big Chungus
GWU Chulane, Teller of Tales ~~~ Permanents Only ETB Shenanigans
BGU Sidisi, Brood Tyrant ~~~ Sidisi's Restless Servants
WUBRG The Ur-Dragon ~~~ Dragons eat your face
I think the RC made the right call. It's not their job to police Wizards' sales, nor to discourage players from purchasing something they enjoy, nor to punish legitimate fans of the franchise.
The fault here lies with Wizards, not the RC.
I don't think this is the right move either. It shouldn't fall on punishing players who have picked up something they love or are excited about. The anger should be directed at Wizards. Not the players.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
I honestly don't care about the cards. Mechanically negan is interesting and rick seems fun for humans in constructed. But nothing really pulls my attention on them. If anything the flavor on negan is pretty good with his entire "people are a resource" goal, or it could be viewed as his trend of killing someone upon first meeting their group.
What does have me curious is where all this hate for branching ips is coming from. Nobody seemed to care about Grimlock, My Little Pony or Godzilla edh decks, but somehow these are worse?
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
The difference between these and grimlock/mlp is that these are fully-legal cards. The difference between these and godzilla is that there were normal versions widely available in normal boosters. These have the problem of ONLY being available in cross-IP form, being fully legal, and only being available via a predatory, overpriced product. I agree these aren't incredibly exciting, but if they were and I wanted to play them, I'd have to pay their exorbitant prices that cut out the LGS and prey on FOMO, and I'd also have to play with whatever IP they've whored themselves out to. Although I can't imagine many franchises I have less respect for than the Walking Dead. If they wanted to cross-IP with something more respectable, like lotr, then I'd at least be less bothered by the cross-IP bit.
If wotc had done them silver bordered, or godzilla-style with the normal versions in packs, I wouldn't have cared a bit.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
I guarantee that if YouTubers like Brian and Mitch didn't irresponsibly abuse their platforms to start a knee-jerk sky-is-falling *****-fest, we wouldn't still be talking about this product. Mitch literally attempted to undermine the integrity of the format by actively trying to splinter people off into a sub-format out of pure petulance, so you can tell how much people like him really care about the format, and Brian has always been trying to peel people off into other games because deep down he hates Magic (counter to what he always melodramatically claims in his complaint videos).
I don't think this particular product is the end of magic, obviously. But I do think that it's very emblematic of some very serious problems with how upper management is treating magic. They're focused entirely on making money ASAP, and not on creating an enjoyable game that can sustain long-term. This product itself happens to be particularly odious, but as far as the existential threat to the game it's a lot bigger than just SLxTWD. And that threat is what I think people are freaking out about, and trying desperate measures to try to correct the direction the ship is heading before it smashes into an iceberg.
That said, this was a huge uproar before there were any YouTube videos about it and it would have been huge without any. Mitch and co rode the wave of anger, they didn't start it. They probably increased it a little, but this was going to be a PR nightmare no matter what they did.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
The Great Creature Token Project
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Definitely not going to defend the actions of those people, but I think it's incorrect to say they don't care about magic.
yes.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
"A concern of many players is that these cards would not be widely available, and for some countries, only available through third-party sellers. They worry that this model will be repeated in the future. We’ve heard you loud and clear on this issue. Because the cards are mechanically unique, this is the major problem most folks have. We wish that all of our friends around the globe had access to these cards. However, the RC of its own accord can’t solve that problem. What we can do—what we already have done—is add our voice to yours. Since this issue broke, we’ve been in contact with well-placed people at Wizards of the Coast to make sure that they understand your displeasure and where it comes from, as well as urging that they work towards a solution."
The RC clearly understand what the problem is but they don't have the power inside WotC.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
It would have evaded the direct character representation and the artwork wouldn't have been too human. Even reprinting Tenza, Godo's Maul could mechanically feel flavorful to negans bat Lucile, since the scenes from the show where rick or negan carry it always and up more intense (the legendary creature boost)
Was a fun idea, hopefully in an alternate universe that happened.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!