MTG Salvation

Pro Tour Paris (1997) was Mirage Block constructed. Specifically it was only Mirage and Visions (Weatherlight hadn't been released at the time of the event).
The event was in April and Weatherlight released in June. Also why no one simply played Abeyance to stop all the Pros Bloom decks.

I think what annoys me most is when they change rules NOT to make the game better (which is what rules changes should do), but simply to make their set gimmick work. Legends are perfect examples. They changed it in Kamigawa block because it's very Legends heavy (Chinese/Japanese folklore and mythology inspired). At that time only the oldest Legend stayed if another was played. Which meant you couldn't play your copy and it got stuck in your hand if they had a copy out already. Let's just make them kill each other. Planeswalkers - Oh, they kill each other too. Let's change it again so people can both have Jace in play at the same time. Ixilan - our new Jace doesn't work with that rule because his copies would just instantly die. Planeswalkers are now Legendary. I think it detracts from the creativity of a set when you simply change rules for no reason other than to force your gimmick to work. Also: Like rainbows? Like dinosaurs? Want both together? Rainbow dinosaurs (with feathers)!

The white cards make it difficult to read power/toughness due to the background on the original frames. Other than that I prefer the old card frames myself.

I mean you could go after the retail stockers, but Wal-Mart and Target are going to sell whatever product is on their shelves. If Hasbro/WotC do that the box stores wonder why they have an empty card game section they can use as impulse items (in regards to hammering the early shelf stockers). They do profit off of renting that shelf space and/or taking a percentage of product sales. That'd be my guess on how they operate in regards to Magic product. Anyway...we got four people together Thursday night and had an awesome time with our early pack purchases. It's also not a product designed for Modern/Standard play. This is a specialty set (though they stock other stuff early too that is current). The street dates are to protect Standard/Modern formats and to move draft packs.

Revenues from last year: Hasbro $4.1 billion. Target $73 billion. Wal-Mart $482 billion. You really think Hasbro is going to tank their relationship with Target and Wal-Mart over two days and a $250 million subsidiary division of theirs (WotC)? Probably not. WotC and Hasbro need Target and Wal-Mart to move toys and products for them. Not the other way around.

Problem is WotC can threaten local LGS's by taking away tournament and specialty product eligibility. They can't threaten Target and Wal-Mart who just sell product. Plus, Hasbro isn't going to shun profit from major chain stores. How exactly are you going to crack down on them?

I'd argue the best and worst thing that ever happened to Magic was the Pro Tour. I don't think the game exists after twenty years without them dangling the illusion of fabulous prizes and money for play. The downside to this is that nobody plays casually anymore at this point. It's all about the tournament scene, Pro Tour, grinding FNM, the most recent Top 8 decks, and postive EV (never crack packs unless drafting), etc.

Yeah. Tournaments are great because you can always find somebody to play. But at what price? My life doesn't revolve around Magic since I'm a hard core gamer and play dozens of board games and several other LCG's on a regular basis. I go to Gen Con every year. I love pretty much any and all games. I think Fantasy Flight puts out the best products and miniatures on the market right now. So I haven't exactly got several hundred dollars to throw at a set of Mythic Planeswalkers that are required to run decks these days. Yes. There are rules to this exception. They are rare though.

I am not the player base they are interested in because I lead a healthy gaming balance between this game and many others that I enjoy. My gaming life doesn't revolve solely around M:TG. Even though I have given them plenty of money and have been actively playing since the end of Mirage block.

I'm fully expecting there to be "treasures" in Eternal Masters that are from the Reserved List, just like the first print run of Zendikar. So retailers can justify selling packs of EM for $40 dollars instead of the low price of $30 (and certainly not for MSRP of $9.99).

The other brilliant thing they came up with was forced rotation to make your cards obsolete. Those thousands of dollars you spent over the last two years? No longer valid. A dozen of those cards might be good in Modern. Probably not though. If people can't figure out how to keep things fresh and interesting with over 16,000 unique cards that says something. I'm sure nobody has mastered Mirage-Dissension-Apocalypse draft. Or Kamigawa-Visions-Tenth Edition draft. Or any set of three random sets from the 80 plus they've released at this point.

So yeah. Tournament play and forced rotation ensure that Magic isn't going anywhere. But at what price to the average gamer who doesn't have massive amounts of disposable income lying around but still loves this game, wants to be able to go to their local LGS, support them, and not lose constantly every week because they aren't willing to shell out the money for the decks the "Pros" are playing?

How would they make money by not forcing 95% of your cards to become obsolete every year? I personally run old block draft using excel and randomizers to make booster packs to draft from. It's awesome.

Know what the best-selling board game in the world is every year? Monopoly. Clearly it is the best board game ever designed since hundreds of other board games have come along and failed that fix its many inherent flaws. They come and they go, but Monoploly still outsells them all.

Isn't that a classic Mark Rosewater shtick? "You don't really know what you want, you THINK you know what you want, but I'm smarter than all of you so I'm going to give you what you really need...because you're too stupid to figure that out for yourselves".
I also would be hit pretty hard by a Reserved List abolishment, but would rather play Legacy with the people who are my friends that would have the access, affordability, and desire to do so. Like I said, competitive players DON'T want other people to have access to the cards needed to win. Magic is about percentages and edges. If you have the best cards and they don't...
It's why I think an LCG model is much healthier. I know that every other person I play with can have all the same product that I do and will spend about the same amount of money on it that I did. It gives you an equal playing field and decides things purely on skill. As opposed to: I bought my original Undergrounds for $5 bucks - sucks you don't have $1200 now because you got in too late or are too young to have been around in the 90's and we refuse to reprint these items that are needed. Collectibility over the health of the game. It's Magic number one priority. Here are some badly needed reprints! Now at super deluxe, box topper, approximately one every three box rarity! Thanks for those Expedition lands WotC. Especially Wasteland. Which isn't even on the Reserved List. But you know. Promises over things you ADMITTED OPENLY were a mistake and then correcting them.

Cube is good too. I've enjoyed that when I've played it. Having a few copies of a card in a deck is nice though. I haven't tried Cube with multiples of a card. Could be an interesting twist.

Pretty much the same for me. My close playgroup hadn't been playing since the early to mid 90's like I have. So I basically generate old draft packs through RNG and excel programs. That way we can experience old draft formats. Since we're all solid middle-class and original duals are unaffordable to them. Which is much more interesting than dropping $15 bucks to get three (and often only one or two cards) at FNM. FNM draft is piles of 42 cards on tables every week. Often 42 cards in the trash can. We can play home drafts for maybe a few dollars so the winner can get a couple of packs after an 8-man draft. Providing the cards so they don't have to...

Competitive players don't care about you having access to cards. Quite the opposite. Once they have theirs it's in their best interest that you DON'T have access to the best decks possible. Getting your opponent's best game is secondary to winning. Arguing with them is pointless. The health of the game is of secondary concern. But the very thing that saved Magic (the Pro Tour and and entire mentality of tournament play being paramount) is the same thing that makes Magic players one of the most inhospitable and toxic groups in the gaming industry.

When I say the CCG market is dead it means that no new CCG's are actively produced each year. At least none that are successful for any period of time. FFG is too busy making twenty good product lines as well. They don't focus on one product only. Other than Magic WotC is slowly killing off all its other product lines, managing to screw up D&D as a license, and slapping Magic as a loose theme on products just to sell them (Magic Heroscape). Which is what they should do. Focus on the only thing they do well at this point. They've also shown us that the collectibility aspect of the game is far more important than the game itself. In everything from slap on the wrist penalties for cheating on tournaments to multi-year bans for leaks and issues not even related to the competitive scene (which is what keeps Magic viable). Counterfeits are the newest issue they need answers for and aren't willing to fix.

FFG would disagree with the concept that LCG's are not as popular as CCG's. The genre of The CCG as a whole in the gaming industry is dead. That's why everybody is switching over to an LCG format in the industry for new card games and to a lesser extent on board games. It's also why Pandemic and Risk and many others are offering ways to play a board game twenty times before it wears out (Legacy board game formats exist in Risk and Pandemic Legacy is selling in obscene amounts). It's more cost-effective. It's easier for a player to keep up with a $20 outlay a month then $60 to play FNM draft four times and get 95% product that ceases usability after one-use. No? People draft and then leave 57 cards on the table or even directly throw them away afterwards on a Friday Night. It's like a movie or dinner though. FNM is pay for entertainment. That's fine too. They also burn through players constantly. People play for a bit, get disillusioned by the cost, and quit. There are always more suckers though. Which is why they push Standard so hard. All you have to do is replace the people who leave with new people coming in at a constant or growing rate. Rinse and repeat.