They need to end the resserved list, make the game more affordable and incentivize people to both go out to compete, and invite their friends home for casual play.
Magic's prize and "the game with $30K cards" mystique may be something psychologically enticing to stockholders, but it's equally dissuading for newcomers and a game can't subsist without new blood.
16. Give the artists greater freedom to create the cards. I'm getting so tired of the usual homogenized digital artwork. I miss some of that old artwork that was edgy and a bit creepy and pushed the boundaries.
17. FULL ART CARDS other than lands.
18. Get their crap together and support a forum for players to talk openly. Let us grade and rank cards like you used to be able to.
19. Dial back on the "PC-ness". Its important but its not a new religion to lay offerings on its altar.
20. Bring back that feeling of playing the game in the early days. 93-95 or so. I just got a hint of that with the recent UnStable set. It reminded me a lot of play in those early days.
OK, I'm spent.
Private Mod Note
():
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
MaRo has said they will do this in the future. They just have to find the right set. And full art basic lands are also coming back but they will only be done occasionally (to ensure the full art does not become too passe).
Stop the comic books nonsense. The game looks bland, so it feels generic.
A) Our newest player says the art is ugly. (It looks generic and photoshop colors look cheap.) I agree
B) Planeswalker cards were a horrible idea. The Gatewatch made it even worse. Print less planeswalkers; I'd prefer some sets to have 0 planeswalkers in them.
C) The gatewatch walkers have had their day. It's time for a new story-arc, and I'd prefer it to resemble Gerrard's more than this comic book nonsense.
D) The majority of players are now approaching their thirties or already in their thirties. Either bring children into the game (using some type of pokémon schtick, where you can collect and cast an extra deck of pokémon-like creatures) or make it adult by introducing a serious classic art style and more historical serious themes instead of this comic book mess.
I personally would like to see more real-world content in Mtg, like Arthur and the Holy Grail being actually called that Arthur Pendragon, or real life history and occultism with pentagrams etcetera. (As it was in the good old days!) We are not 14 year-olds, so stop treating us that way.
Instead of being politically correct, grow a pair and give us a historical set about the crusades!
You can reprint Army of Allah. You can make the Franks black or red cards, and the Muslims white cards.
The only problems I see with planeswalker cards are their being Mythics all the time, and the difficulty in designing them to be playable while also being unique.
Also I see nothing wrong with taking inspiration from real-world elements to create something a bit different. And what do you mean by Gatewatch have had their day? Three of them have unresolved plots that I highly doubt they'd leave hanging.
Furthermore, while you could argue that comic book style isn't appropriate for a fantasy card game, you do realize that comic books have been made for all ages.
MaRo has said they will do this in the future. They just have to find the right set. And full art basic lands are also coming back but they will only be done occasionally (to ensure the full art does not become too passe).
Maro says a lot of things. I'll believe it when I see it. Perfect chance would be with Dominaria but I bet they don't.
Private Mod Note
():
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Stop the comic books nonsense. The game looks bland, so it feels generic.
[quote from="RichardCardfield »" url="/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/789255-what-does-wizards-of-the-coast-need-to-do-to?comment=30"]A) Our newest player says the art is ugly. (It looks generic and photoshop colors look cheap.) I agree
A lot of people feel older art is generic and cheap looking. Art is subjective. I can get behind the idea of loosening the design requirements, so more styles can be used.
B) Planeswalker cards were a horrible idea. The Gatewatch made it even worse. Print less planeswalkers; I'd prefer some sets to have 0 planeswalkers in them.
They were not a horrible idea. WotC probably never print a true expansion set without Planeswalkers.
C) The gatewatch walkers have had their day. It's time for a new story-arc, and I'd prefer it to resemble Gerrard's more than this comic book nonsense.
Gatewatch is not going anywhere. This is confirmed. We will be getting less Jace-tice league but those characters will still occupy important parts of future stories.
D) The majority of players are now approaching their thirties or already in their thirties. Either bring children into the game (using some type of pokémon schtick, where you can collect and cast an extra deck of pokémon-like creatures) or make it adult by introducing a serious classic art style and more historical serious themes instead of this comic book mess.
I personally would like to see more real-world content in Mtg, like Arthur and the Holy Grail being actually called that Arthur Pendragon, or real life history and occultism with pentagrams etcetera. (As it was in the good old days!) We are not 14 year-olds, so stop treating us that way.
They will never do that. They decided long ago to focus on their own created worlds. However, creating a setting inspired by genre or a region is pretty common (Kamigawa, Tarkir, Amonkhet, etc.). An Arthurian setting is probably in the works.
I wish they would do more sets that reprint older cards as well. They got into this mind set that they have to keep reinventing the wheel each set they release to keep sales up and while there may be some truth to doing so, the effects of reprinting a lot of highly played cards through standard shouldn't create as many issues as they seem to think. That and from a point of sale, it shouldn't matter if a modern player is picking up a clash pack for a specific single or a standard / casual player is picking up the same clash pack for a deck to play. All they have done by taking value out of their secondary products is make it harder for any of those products to find a home, as is evident by the thriving repack industry on long forgotten deck builders tool bits, old loose booster packs, and now it seems even land packs.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I wish Masters sets were 4 bucks a pack, like everything else. It really bugs me that Masters packs cost 10 bucks a pack and you are guaranteed nothing of value.
They've needed to do the same thing for over a decade now:
GET THEIR GODDAMN ***** TOGETHER
garbage card quality
bad communication
***** online products
ignoring older formats
overpriced premium crap
weak flavor
turd promos
pooping on judges
cheating in high-level play
reserved list nonsense
general ******* around
etc
1. Kill the reserved list. FFS, just get it done.
2. Less emphasis on goddamn planeswalkers. Zero emphasis on the ******* Gatewatch, preferably. MtG really has gone full retard.
3. Break the habit of perpetuating Magic: the Midranging.
4. More power cards in Standard sets.
5. More reprints of much needed non-Standard staples, including some in Standard sets.
6. Stop the rank opportunism, that borders on mercenary of late. WotC, you are turning people away by doing these things, *not* increasing profits. Ironic, yes.
7. Return to higher quality printing processes and foiling.
8. All in all, do what is necessary to regain what respect you had. Perhaps earn more than ever! Have faith, and remember that you do indeed have balls.
Public Mod Note
(Wildfire393):
Warning for casual use of "retard"
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
They need to end the resserved list, make the game more affordable and incentivize people to both go out to compete, and invite their friends home for casual play.
Magic's prize and "the game with $30K cards" mystique may be something psychologically enticing to stockholders, but it's equally dissuading for newcomers and a game can't subsist without new blood.
The only reason why Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro would incentivize people to invite their friends home for casual play is because they don't have an LGS to turn to so it'd be more convenient for them to play exclusively online in the hopes of finding people to play against even though it mostly feels like playing against an AI than a real person. For those who still have access to an LGS they should still take advantage of that privilege while they can.
The Reserved List is the ultimate Catch-22 for MTG. Damned If they do end it, damned If they don't end it. Ending it would only result in completely shattering any credibility Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro still has a company because every promise they make is always subject to change. You bought product with the expectation that Reserved List cards weren't going to be reprinted yet they lied to you by "changing their minds".
"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
2. Less emphasis on goddamn planeswalkers. Zero emphasis on the ******* Gatewatch, preferably. MtG really has gone full retard.
They already said we'd be getting less Gatewatch cards per set, but they'll still appear in sets and in the stories (just not 3+ of them at a time like before).
There's no real reason to hate them at the moment.
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
How much did WotC give you to post that up? Oh, that's right, they don't pay non-employees. I'm guessing you got a foil advertising card.
On a more serious note, what do you suggest? The OP is asking for ideas. I don't think people are asking for 40 buck 300 value event decks or 20 dollar EV in a 5 dollar pack. What are your suggestions?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I wish Masters sets were 4 bucks a pack, like everything else. It really bugs me that Masters packs cost 10 bucks a pack and you are guaranteed nothing of value.
They should have never created modern masters. If they had followed the kind of reprint mindset they had back at 10th edition core we'd never have gotten to the point we are at today with out of control prices on cards. There is a reason that lightning bolt and dark Ritual, despite seeing insane amounts of play through casual decks and otherwise, were never too expensive to own. Meanwhile, cards from legends and the like would always be expensive because they were printed once and never again. That was before they added the RL years later and doomed that entire set and many others to the antique collectors and investment community.
Personally, I don't think wizards of the coast is going to keep the reserved list. There is going to be a place in time where they are going to abolish it due to not being able to escape the paper market like they are hoping to. It's going to be a similar situation with masters sets getting dissolved and the game returning to the core set reprint glory days, which we are already seeing happen now.
It's really tiring to see people like Chris Cocks basically slowly kill the game with their own stupidity. Making paper magic more expensive by setting high MSRP on secondary products and siphoning all the money cards into a masters set are not going to grow the game. Likewise, constantly printing newer and goofier versions of older mechanics isn't helping things either. MTG isn't hearthstone: The latter is a video game that looks like a card game, where as MTG is a physical collectible card game that has fans all over the US and the world. I don't even think the majority play at FNM or competitively, either.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
How much did WotC give you to post that up? Oh, that's right, they don't pay non-employees. I'm guessing you got a foil advertising card.
On a more serious note, what do you suggest? The OP is asking for ideas. I don't think people are asking for 40 buck 300 value event decks or 20 dollar EV in a 5 dollar pack. What are your suggestions?
The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
We should be able to buy directly from Wizards then. I've had enough of greedy LGS selling stuff for twice MSRP.
I wish Masters sets were 4 bucks a pack, like everything else. It really bugs me that Masters packs cost 10 bucks a pack and you are guaranteed nothing of value.
Making paper magic more expensive by setting high MSRP on secondary products and siphoning all the money cards into a masters set are not going to grow the game.
Masters sets make me feel like they are cashing in as much money as they possiblye can, while they can, before closing shop on paper Magic.
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
We should be able to buy directly from Wizards then. I've had enough of greedy LGS selling stuff for twice MSRP.
I wish Masters sets were 4 bucks a pack, like everything else. It really bugs me that Masters packs cost 10 bucks a pack and you are guaranteed nothing of value.
Making paper magic more expensive by setting high MSRP on secondary products and siphoning all the money cards into a masters set are not going to grow the game.
Masters sets make me feel like they are cashing in as much money as they possiblye can, while they can, before closing shop on paper Magic.
It wouldn't surprise me. We have them trying to build a hearthstone game out of MtG and they probably want to get away from all the baggage they created with the paper market such as the reserved list, as well as MTGO. The D&D community is probably in a far worse position than the MtG community.
Private Mod Note
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Masters sets make me feel like they are cashing in as much money as they possiblye can, while they can, before closing shop on paper Magic.
If Wizards stops paper Magic, they would screw over a lot of gaming stores that sell their physical product. That is probably not going to happen without some fair warning to those retailers.
Another option wizards has to help themselves out is find more ways to reward people who actually buy sealed product. Adding playmats or other types of goods as rewards for buying X number of boxes, or adding a buy a box pack to the inside of booster boxes during the first run, to so much as making first edition booster boxes hard cased so they can act as storage devices would all help immensely.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
WotC is not going to end Paper Magic. Don't be silly people. It is a big money maker. A renewed focus on a digital version of the game is important because, right now, WotC is leaving a lot of money on the table. Even if Arena only does a tenth of what Hearthstone does, that is still over a hundred million dollars a year. That's 1/8th of Hasbro's total Gaming Portfolio. Not trying to replicate the success of Hearthstone is foolish.
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
How much did WotC give you to post that up? Oh, that's right, they don't pay non-employees. I'm guessing you got a foil advertising card.
On a more serious note, what do you suggest? The OP is asking for ideas. I don't think people are asking for 40 buck 300 value event decks or 20 dollar EV in a 5 dollar pack. What are your suggestions?
The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
Yes I know all of this. Many on the site do as well. There are a few delusional that think you should get twice the EV that you paid for. That's not what I or anyone else reasonable is advocating. What I'm saying is that if the average EV of a pack of Masters is around 3 to 4 bucks (And that is probably stretching it.) then MSRP should be no more than 2 times that amount at $6.99 a pack. There is nothing more feel bad than paying 10 bucks for a pack of Masters and opening it to find a worthless 25 cent bulk rare and an equally worthless common foil that isn't played anywhere. 10 dollars for 50 cents worth of value. Maybe I need to set up a stand at Magic tourneys and offer 2 shiny quarters for a ten dollar bill. Its almost the same lunacy.
So there IS a solution to this. WotC/Hasbro needs to only reprint stronger, reasonable value cards in PREMIUM Masters sets. Screw the "configured for draft". That is what the Conspiracy line is for. Make it so EV of packs is targeted so you at least get half back what you paid for it. Sure some decks will come in way on the high side, but others will fall a slight bit below to balance it out. And yes this would probably take a new pack collation method, not their current one. I'm sure they will say that its time intensive and would cost them money to do so. I'd bet there is still "meat on the bone" per cost of pack produced to do this. But they will never share that information, they don't want us to know.
Thanks for the response though. I think we need a discussion of this topic.
Private Mod Note
():
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
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Magic's prize and "the game with $30K cards" mystique may be something psychologically enticing to stockholders, but it's equally dissuading for newcomers and a game can't subsist without new blood.
16. Give the artists greater freedom to create the cards. I'm getting so tired of the usual homogenized digital artwork. I miss some of that old artwork that was edgy and a bit creepy and pushed the boundaries.
17. FULL ART CARDS other than lands.
18. Get their crap together and support a forum for players to talk openly. Let us grade and rank cards like you used to be able to.
19. Dial back on the "PC-ness". Its important but its not a new religion to lay offerings on its altar.
20. Bring back that feeling of playing the game in the early days. 93-95 or so. I just got a hint of that with the recent UnStable set. It reminded me a lot of play in those early days.
OK, I'm spent.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
MaRo has said they will do this in the future. They just have to find the right set. And full art basic lands are also coming back but they will only be done occasionally (to ensure the full art does not become too passe).
The only problems I see with planeswalker cards are their being Mythics all the time, and the difficulty in designing them to be playable while also being unique.
Also I see nothing wrong with taking inspiration from real-world elements to create something a bit different. And what do you mean by Gatewatch have had their day? Three of them have unresolved plots that I highly doubt they'd leave hanging.
Furthermore, while you could argue that comic book style isn't appropriate for a fantasy card game, you do realize that comic books have been made for all ages.
Maro says a lot of things. I'll believe it when I see it. Perfect chance would be with Dominaria but I bet they don't.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
A lot of people feel older art is generic and cheap looking. Art is subjective. I can get behind the idea of loosening the design requirements, so more styles can be used.
They were not a horrible idea. WotC probably never print a true expansion set without Planeswalkers.
Gatewatch is not going anywhere. This is confirmed. We will be getting less Jace-tice league but those characters will still occupy important parts of future stories.
Sounds like you want to play a different game.
They will never do that. They decided long ago to focus on their own created worlds. However, creating a setting inspired by genre or a region is pretty common (Kamigawa, Tarkir, Amonkhet, etc.). An Arthurian setting is probably in the works.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
garbage card quality
bad communication
***** online products
ignoring older formats
overpriced premium crap
weak flavor
turd promos
pooping on judges
cheating in high-level play
reserved list nonsense
general ******* around
etc
2. Less emphasis on goddamn planeswalkers. Zero emphasis on the ******* Gatewatch, preferably. MtG really has gone full retard.
3. Break the habit of perpetuating Magic: the Midranging.
4. More power cards in Standard sets.
5. More reprints of much needed non-Standard staples, including some in Standard sets.
6. Stop the rank opportunism, that borders on mercenary of late. WotC, you are turning people away by doing these things, *not* increasing profits. Ironic, yes.
7. Return to higher quality printing processes and foiling.
8. All in all, do what is necessary to regain what respect you had. Perhaps earn more than ever! Have faith, and remember that you do indeed have balls.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
The Reserved List is the ultimate Catch-22 for MTG. Damned If they do end it, damned If they don't end it. Ending it would only result in completely shattering any credibility Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro still has a company because every promise they make is always subject to change. You bought product with the expectation that Reserved List cards weren't going to be reprinted yet they lied to you by "changing their minds".
Also can someone explain to me why Mental Misstep isn't unbanned in Modern instead of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf?
"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
They already said we'd be getting less Gatewatch cards per set, but they'll still appear in sets and in the stories (just not 3+ of them at a time like before).
There's no real reason to hate them at the moment.
How much did WotC give you to post that up? Oh, that's right, they don't pay non-employees. I'm guessing you got a foil advertising card.
On a more serious note, what do you suggest? The OP is asking for ideas. I don't think people are asking for 40 buck 300 value event decks or 20 dollar EV in a 5 dollar pack. What are your suggestions?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
They should have never created modern masters. If they had followed the kind of reprint mindset they had back at 10th edition core we'd never have gotten to the point we are at today with out of control prices on cards. There is a reason that lightning bolt and dark Ritual, despite seeing insane amounts of play through casual decks and otherwise, were never too expensive to own. Meanwhile, cards from legends and the like would always be expensive because they were printed once and never again. That was before they added the RL years later and doomed that entire set and many others to the antique collectors and investment community.
Personally, I don't think wizards of the coast is going to keep the reserved list. There is going to be a place in time where they are going to abolish it due to not being able to escape the paper market like they are hoping to. It's going to be a similar situation with masters sets getting dissolved and the game returning to the core set reprint glory days, which we are already seeing happen now.
It's really tiring to see people like Chris Cocks basically slowly kill the game with their own stupidity. Making paper magic more expensive by setting high MSRP on secondary products and siphoning all the money cards into a masters set are not going to grow the game. Likewise, constantly printing newer and goofier versions of older mechanics isn't helping things either. MTG isn't hearthstone: The latter is a video game that looks like a card game, where as MTG is a physical collectible card game that has fans all over the US and the world. I don't even think the majority play at FNM or competitively, either.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
We should be able to buy directly from Wizards then. I've had enough of greedy LGS selling stuff for twice MSRP.
Masters sets make me feel like they are cashing in as much money as they possiblye can, while they can, before closing shop on paper Magic.
It wouldn't surprise me. We have them trying to build a hearthstone game out of MtG and they probably want to get away from all the baggage they created with the paper market such as the reserved list, as well as MTGO. The D&D community is probably in a far worse position than the MtG community.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If Wizards stops paper Magic, they would screw over a lot of gaming stores that sell their physical product. That is probably not going to happen without some fair warning to those retailers.
I for one won't shed a tear for any of them if their business goes belly up.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yes I know all of this. Many on the site do as well. There are a few delusional that think you should get twice the EV that you paid for. That's not what I or anyone else reasonable is advocating. What I'm saying is that if the average EV of a pack of Masters is around 3 to 4 bucks (And that is probably stretching it.) then MSRP should be no more than 2 times that amount at $6.99 a pack. There is nothing more feel bad than paying 10 bucks for a pack of Masters and opening it to find a worthless 25 cent bulk rare and an equally worthless common foil that isn't played anywhere. 10 dollars for 50 cents worth of value. Maybe I need to set up a stand at Magic tourneys and offer 2 shiny quarters for a ten dollar bill. Its almost the same lunacy.
So there IS a solution to this. WotC/Hasbro needs to only reprint stronger, reasonable value cards in PREMIUM Masters sets. Screw the "configured for draft". That is what the Conspiracy line is for. Make it so EV of packs is targeted so you at least get half back what you paid for it. Sure some decks will come in way on the high side, but others will fall a slight bit below to balance it out. And yes this would probably take a new pack collation method, not their current one. I'm sure they will say that its time intensive and would cost them money to do so. I'd bet there is still "meat on the bone" per cost of pack produced to do this. But they will never share that information, they don't want us to know.
Thanks for the response though. I think we need a discussion of this topic.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."