If the LGS goes out of business you loss your local tourny scene, if star city games goes out of business you loss the opens and most likely GP's ( they aren't running them now but most people aren't happy with channel fireball way of running them). If you dont care about that you are either playing at home at the kitchen table ( and should have little to no say) or you dont realize the value the LGS is giving in providing you a place to play commander .
Why do kitchen table players have no say? I think you greatly underestimate the casual scene. Casual-only is a large group, if not the largest. Not everyone who plays kitchen table is mashing together one or two precons or playing out of a shoe-box of commons, either. I'd argue the majority of Magic's big spenders never even so much as go to a FNM. Lots of big groups out there, people bringing 20+ decks to play, not all jank either. This is WOTC's target audience. It's not someone doing a $15 draft and a $5 FNM every week running the same deck for 4 months without changing it beyond a few bucks here and there. And it's not some boogieman investor who is squirreling cards away for a ROI in 10 years, there aren't enough of those sharks in the ocean.
In all honesty, and I'm guilty of this too... this is a lot of people making A LOT of assumptions about what Magic is and isn't based on their limited view.
Did you ever make any progress on this? I really like this idea. I think you got I most of the best ideas this post, aside from doing things like guild decks for each ravnica guild.
Why do kitchen table players have no say? I think you greatly underestimate the casual scene. Casual-only is a large group, if not the largest. Not everyone who plays kitchen table is mashing together one or two precons or playing out of a shoe-box of commons, either. I'd argue the majority of Magic's big spenders never even so much as go to a FNM. Lots of big groups out there, people bringing 20+ decks to play, not all jank either. This is WOTC's target audience. It's not someone doing a $15 draft and a $5 FNM every week running the same deck for 4 months without changing it beyond a few bucks here and there. And it's not some boogieman investor who is squirreling cards away for a ROI in 10 years, there aren't enough of those sharks in the ocean.
In all honesty, and I'm guilty of this too... this is a lot of people making A LOT of assumptions about what Magic is and isn't based on their limited view.