For those who don't know, the way Wizards Direct Sales Program worked is that it enabled small LGS's to get an allocation of MTG products from Wizards of the Coast directly. If they couldn't get with a distributor or If they didn't have one Wizards of the Coast would always have some product available to cover their allocation for the most part. This program helped make sure in the good old days there were products like Modern Masters or From the Vault that your LGS could get.
MTG products going through distributors will still exist. There are problems that now arise from ending direct sales to local game stores, we can understand why they decided to end it due to being wildly unprofitable for them to staff and ship. The main concern is that when there's a hot item released for MTG that people wanted that they weren't able to get from their local distributor then they would have to rely on Wizards of the Coast to ship the products to them. However by cutting off that back channel it makes it more difficult for the LGS to make enough revenue to keep their shops open.
If the distributors can prove themselves worthy by getting products out in time such as Pre-Release Kits for a new MTG expansion then that would cover a lot of concerns that LGS owners have in order to stay in business. It's important for the LGS to have a strong relationship with their local distributors, then again there's LGS's that never had to order products from Wizards of the Coast and If they're stuck with untrustworthy distributors this could cause a whole lot of problems for those local game stores by threatening to close their doors for good.
The end of Wizards Direct Sales Program also sets a precedent for local distributors to manipulate the price of MTG products they deliver to local game stores instead of being given a set price from Wizards of the Coast directly. In other words distributors would end up making more money than the local game stores who are trying to profit off of the products that these distributors are delivering. While I'm well aware that they're both businesses trying to make money there shouldn't be this much income inequality coming from these business sectors.
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America Bless Christ Jesus
"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
A cost cutting move for WotC and their Hasbro overlords. Looks good on the books and buys the big shareholders another yacht stepping on the necks of the little guy (LGS owner) and the end buyer.
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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."
That's what happens when you cut back over $1 million in prize support while also raising the price of booster boxes to distributors. What Wizards of the Coast doesn't understand is that Magic: The Gathering is the glue that holds small local game stores and their competitors together cause without them everyone loses. Since companies like Konami, Bushiroad, Pokémon Company International, Square Enix, and Force of Will Co. actually look to Wizards of the Coast for guidance within the Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Game Industry, they'll start to perceive it as an unsuccessful business model that's no longer worth investing in as they shift more towards going full digital when they shouldn't.
With the recent Wizards Earnings Report the company claims that MTG's player base has doubled however they're mainly going off of MTG Arena and not the demographic who actually plays Paper MTG. In fact they probably don't think there's any revenue to make within Paper products anymore which could explain the downgrade in card stock quality before Dominaria was released where it seemed as though they finally got the issue fixed. Bottom line, the Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Game Industry isn't in a very good place right now where there's a lot of stagnation with too much saturation of product and not enough public relations to actually help fix these issues.
"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
For a lot of players MTG Arena is the only way they can actually play constructed anymore due to time constraints. I'm hesitant to say that FNM and the LGS are dying because of price climbs as much as just the horrible standard and all the drama.
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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!
For a lot of players MTG Arena is the only way they can actually play constructed anymore due to time constraints. I'm hesitant to say that FNM and the LGS are dying because of price climbs as much as just the horrible standard and all the drama.
Time constraints? I think it's mostly due to Constructed Event Organizers having difficulty persuading MTG players to play in Standard or Modern instead of EDH/Commander where they're losing most of their player base from. The problem is that EDH/Commander has become such a successful MTG format that Wizards of the Coast doesn't even have a proper answer for it in a way that financially supports them through sanctioned events as much as Standard and Modern.
Brawl was a nice attempt however everyone easily saw that as nothing more than a cash grab in order to get people to play Standard. What they should've done instead was adopt Magic Online 1v1 Commander as an official Paper format separate from the official Multiplayer Commander format where the ban lists are actually different from one another.
"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
There is a small card store that sells mtg 30 minute drive from my house. Store is really small, but has been successfully open for years selling trading cards.. their primary product being mtg, but they also had some bushiroad cards + a little konosuba and kancolle. One thing I liked is they always have a lot of new mtg cards once a set is released. I hope the end of Direct Sales Program of WoTC does not affect the store too much.
For a lot of players MTG Arena is the only way they can actually play constructed anymore due to time constraints. I'm hesitant to say that FNM and the LGS are dying because of price climbs as much as just the horrible standard and all the drama.
Time constraints? I think it's mostly due to Constructed Event Organizers having difficulty persuading MTG players to play in Standard or Modern instead of EDH/Commander where they're losing most of their player base from. The problem is that EDH/Commander has become such a successful MTG format that Wizards of the Coast doesn't even have a proper answer for it in a way that financially supports them through sanctioned events as much as Standard and Modern.
Brawl was a nice attempt however everyone easily saw that as nothing more than a cash grab in order to get people to play Standard. What they should've done instead was adopt Magic Online 1v1 Commander as an official Paper format separate from the official Multiplayer Commander format where the ban lists are actually different from one another.
A lot of folks don't play magic at an LGS because of the tournament scene. FNM is a 3-4 hour commitment and happens on Fridays when a lot of people have work or are so beat from the work week they don't have the energy to go anyway. Arena is a way for these people to play the game like they used to. Just count how many more people attend a major pre-release vs FNM or Standard Showdown for an illustration.
I'm also one of the people that just don't like formats at all. I play when there's a deck I want to play, but I just don't understand WoTC set designers these days. It's like Enlistment Officer is evil, but you can have Militia Bugler? They can't even give people playing modern Goblin Ringleader or Counterspell. They've been prioritizing all these cute mechanics and not delivering on real substance. The only two sets where they did deliver this year has been Dominaria and Battlebond.
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!
In regards to all the drama currently taking place within MTG, all these MTG celebrities on social media with Wedge from the Mana Source, The Professor from Tolarian Community College, The Mana Leek, Magic The Amateuring, and their ilk who continue to shill for Wizards of the Coast and their sponsors tend to forget what it truly means to be a part of the MTG Community. Does anyone remember back when MTG was more social before we had social media with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, reddit, and Snapchat? People didn't even post about medical emergencies, sponsored for companies like Ultra Pro, or asked for money back then, they just hung out.
There was still drama taking place but not to the level of magnitude that we currently see today. Back when people started out playing MTG when they were younger where they had more access to local game stores they didn't have what people have today where most MTG celebrities or MTG YouTubers are so disconnected from the casual MTG player. When you think of a pro MTG player, 98% majority have never gone to a GP before and probably 95% have never gone to a Pre-Release or an FNM. So you have to be pretty dedicated to go to any of those types of events. In my case I've mostly been a casual player when it comes to MTG as I've only dabbled onto the competitive scene for awhile with Modern until Combo was too broken.
We used to live in a society where everyone helped each other and the atmosphere was much kinder. I'm sure everyone has their own story of how they got started with a small allowance and would spend most of their money at local game stores where the people there were really nice and taught them how to play MTG as well as other Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games. Usually the grown ups wouldn't trade shark you for the most part and the employees were excellent. They really cared about MTG and other Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games where they understood that the future of these games are in these kids. They understood how important it was.
It's the duty of the older players to help the younger players and they can only do that by directly supporting their local game stores. While these older players can buy these types of products for way less online due to being an accumulation of every local game store, why would they do that when the local game store is a great place to learn and play? Thing is a lot of these MTG celebrities don't even have local game stores to play MTG when they complain about getting ripped off from places like Walmart and Target due to competitive pricing. That's not getting ripped off, that's just a cycle of life. Back when we we're younger, adults actually supported young kids' ability to play MTG.
They gave these kids a place to play, a place to fit in, and a place to be socially accepted. This concept is way above these MTG celebrities' heads since they've never actually gone to a local game store so of course they don't get it. We don't pay for the local game store, the local game store pays for us when we give back to them. Otherwise MTG and their competitors within the Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Game Industry won't survive. I'm not just talking about online stores where you're able to buy card singles on eBay, I'm talking about physical stores where you can get a ride to any day by picking a game, meet up with a group of friends, and have a good time.
Everyone is just looking for a petty excuse not to pay the premium to support their local game stores because If they continue with this attitude then the local game store won't be there anymore. That's a disservice to the younger generation, the misfits, the people who get teased and bullied in elementary, middle, and high school who just want a place to go and a place to hang out during the weekend where everyone else is at work trying to make ends meet. The local game store is a sanctuary for these misfits and Wizards of the Coast will eventually regret attacking this important institution that's extremely vital to MTG's success. We may have more disposable income than the younger generation but that doesn't mean we should give up on them.
Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they would feel If they didn't have the same opportunities that we currently have. Sure they're most likely not going to be able to afford the old school cards from ABU, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and the like. However I think the older players too often take for granted just how much they should be appreciating the opportunity they have for building the disposable income to support their local game stores instead of only looking out for themselves to save money. The older players should also be more open to sharing their decks with the younger players because it gives these young players a genuine perspective of what it's really like to play MTG instead of having them play a Commander Pre-Con or a Challenger Deck.
The decks that these MTG celebrities play aren't even their own decks when they've already been optimized to copy lists from Pro Tour events barring Commander. If these decks have already won a Pro Tour, guess what happened to all the cards in those decks? They're now at all-time highs. Ask yourself this, do you really want to buy a deck where all the card prices come crashing down as soon as the new "flavor of the month" deck comes? No. Why are they telling these people to net deck based on a successful list from a Pro Tour event that they've never played before? I dunno. Insider trading much? I guess that's a topic for another discussion and one that I'd rather not discuss in this thread.
It's hard for someone like myself and many others to describe what MTG means to them. It's not like these people are getting a ton of donations, or MTG is a livelihood or a lifestyle, no MTG has helped these people develop as human beings as it's made them understand personal responsibility and make lifelong friends who actually enjoy this game. There's a lot of excellent people who play MTG and you have to protect the community at all cost, so when you hear these MTG celebrities who shill for Wizards of the Coast that are talking about the MTG Community, they're just talking about a community of people who donates money to them, potentially those outside of MTG who don't actually play the game.
I'm talking about the community of people who are too young to afford a part-time job with the younger generation. It's up to us as responsible adults to give back and support the local game store and to provide that type of environment because it's not only a social contract but a labor of love that we should all be obliged to. These young players might not matter to you at first, but If you actually get their interest into the game then they might change your mind. We seem to easily admit defeat too early thinking that there might not be enough interest left in Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games but I guess time will only tell. I still think there's hope for us If we're able to convince the younger generation that Online Tabletop Gaming isn't the way to go.
"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
This is my own opinion on this, but I feel like the casual player has been exiting the game store scene for ages due to wizards pushing competitive play events over anything else. It's not because the tournaments are crowding out space to play at the store: The issue is that those tournament players want to play against other people playing tournament legal decks. If someone brings their casual nightstalker deck or Curse of Shallow Graves deck, those standard players just pickup and leave because that isn't what they are there for. Additionally, Wizards requires network stores to run at least a certain number of official events a month and maintain good attendance at those events, which means sacrificing prime time for casual tournaments for the official ones.
So WoTC pushed the casual player out of the store and brought in competitive players that fight over prizes. They can't even make a casual 60 card format like brawl without turning it into yet another prize supported tournament event format.
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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!
If stores want to survive, they cannot just be a place where people happen to play. They have to make it a destination location, a place where people WANT to go and a place where people WANT to play. Stores are competing with the ease of online retail and online play. People are inherently lazy. If you do not give them an excuse to get dressed, get in their car and head down to your store for multiple hours each week, then you are simply not going to survive. You also cannot rely solely on one revenue stream to survive. Any game's local community can collapse. You have to be nimble enough to avoid the ebb and flow of your popular games/products. If you just sell Magic, then you need to cultivate communities of players who play other games, be those other card games or - better yet - other genre of games (like 40k, X-Wing, Heroclix, etc.). Something beyond "just Magic". Sell other nerdy stuff, like pops or comics - you always need other games and products to find success.
If stores want to survive, they cannot just be a place where people happen to play. They have to make it a destination location, a place where people WANT to go and a place where people WANT to play. Stores are competing with the ease of online retail and online play. People are inherently lazy. If you do not give them an excuse to get dressed, get in their car and head down to your store for multiple hours each week, then you are simply not going to survive. You also cannot rely solely on one revenue stream to survive. Any game's local community can collapse. You have to be nimble enough to avoid the ebb and flow of your popular games/products. If you just sell Magic, then you need to cultivate communities of players who play other games, be those other card games or - better yet - other genre of games (like 40k, X-Wing, Heroclix, etc.). Something beyond "just Magic". Sell other nerdy stuff, like pops or comics - you always need other games and products to find success.
Basically this. The one caveat to the above scenario is when the local game scene is especially weak due to the location, such as a small town in texas. Then you have to resort to other measures like online sales and potentially youtube streaming or patreon.
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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!
Does the first post refer to local stores in the US only or also local stores in other countries? Sorry if I misunderstood.
Anyway, the small store that I mentioned in a previous post have regular tournaments of pokemon and yu gi-oh every weekends. But they only have Standard for mtg... so I don't / can't play there.
As for game store vs online store. Yeah, I mostly buy from SCG these days when I want certain hard to find singles - but shipping + customs storage fees add to the price of the card. When a new set is released.. it's sure that I'm at the store because they sell Standard singles cheap.. and they also sell card tokens! I'm sort of a token collector. ^^
The store also sells fringe cards like these.. photo shot by me.. so they have plenty of different people going to their place. Probably one reason the store is almost 10 years old now, and still going strong.
Does the first post refer to local stores in the US only or also local stores in other countries? Sorry if I misunderstood.
Anyway, the small store that I mentioned in a previous post have regular tournaments of pokemon and yu gi-oh every weekends. But they only have Standard for mtg... so I don't / can't play there.
As for game store vs online store. Yeah, I mostly buy from SCG these days when I want certain hard to find singles - but shipping + customs storage fees add to the price of the card. When a new set is released.. it's sure that I'm at the store because they sell Standard singles cheap.. and they also sell card tokens! I'm sort of a token collector. ^^
The store also sells fringe cards like these.. photo shot by me.. so they have plenty of different people going to their place. Probably one reason the store is almost 10 years old now, and still going strong.
I feel that this change to the WPN program will hurt small shops that are primarily MTG stores. Places like Games Plus in Illinois will be completely unaffected by the change because they have so many other games that they work with. People play Dungeon Crawl Classic, D&D, Warhammer, Battle tech, TCGs like pokemon and Magic, just about anything over there.
However, this change really isn't the thing that is causing problems with Magic. It's more so the repackaged mechanics that people have seen before and the lack of creativity that is killing them, along with refusing to print older cards that actually fit in sets to preserve scarcity. Also, they are pushing their own politics with the game. I'm not going to go into the madness that some folks have sunk to, but the humor, mature themes, and exploration of the human condition through the lens of an experienced, worldly individual is lacking compared to the games past. Now the creative designers are scared of pushing the boundaries, make characters like they are checking off some kind of randomly rolled ethnic group representation requirement instead of thoughtfully doing it when it makes sense, and want to make some kind of Disney version of MtG. It's hard to describe, but it's like comparing Batman the Animated Series to something like the Super Friends cartoon show. The first has a very well rounded, not too dark or campy, but still serious rendition of Batman and the villains. The latter is very much a campy representation of super heroes and villains.
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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!
This is my own opinion on this, but I feel like the casual player has been exiting the game store scene for ages due to wizards pushing competitive play events over anything else. It's not because the tournaments are crowding out space to play at the store: The issue is that those tournament players want to play against other people playing tournament legal decks. If someone brings their casual nightstalker deck or Curse of Shallow Graves deck, those standard players just pickup and leave because that isn't what they are there for. Additionally, Wizards requires network stores to run at least a certain number of official events a month and maintain good attendance at those events, which means sacrificing prime time for casual tournaments for the official ones.
So WoTC pushed the casual player out of the store and brought in competitive players that fight over prizes. They can't even make a casual 60 card format like brawl without turning it into yet another prize supported tournament event format.
In the case with other Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games it's mostly an issue of being crowded out to the point where the communities behind these games are pushed to other local game stores within the vicinity in order to run events that helps turn a profit for these stores while the local game stores who cast aside these communities are losing revenue for their store as an end result not to mention difficulty getting in certain products from their distributors.
That's the problem with having so many Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Games competing against one another to the point where only specific local game stores can handle a certain handful which is different from the Video Game Industry where space isn't an issue since you're able to play from the comfort of your own home even though it's a less rewarding experience than sitting across the table from someone playing Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games.
If stores want to survive, they cannot just be a place where people happen to play. They have to make it a destination location, a place where people WANT to go and a place where people WANT to play. Stores are competing with the ease of online retail and online play. People are inherently lazy. If you do not give them an excuse to get dressed, get in their car and head down to your store for multiple hours each week, then you are simply not going to survive. You also cannot rely solely on one revenue stream to survive. Any game's local community can collapse. You have to be nimble enough to avoid the ebb and flow of your popular games/products. If you just sell Magic, then you need to cultivate communities of players who play other games, be those other card games or - better yet - other genre of games (like 40k, X-Wing, Heroclix, etc.). Something beyond "just Magic". Sell other nerdy stuff, like pops or comics - you always need other games and products to find success.
Basically this. The one caveat to the above scenario is when the local game scene is especially weak due to the location, such as a small town in texas. Then you have to resort to other measures like online sales and potentially youtube streaming or patreon.
I suppose one way to solve this problem is through monthly loot crates or clubs that people would like that they can sign up for. Why should online companies be the only ones doing loot crates? There's no reason why a local game store who understands their customer base, what they're like, and the value they can sell merchandise at pass up on an opportunity like that. I think a lot of times customers take the privilege they have for attending their LGS for granted far too often while they aren't doing enough to help keep the lights on.
The reality is that local game stores are no longer being run by the titans of the gaming industry as they're being run by their fans. Many of their customers don't have deep pockets and they aren't always loyal. Then the question becomes how can they avoid becoming the way of the North American Amusement Arcade? It's ironic because it's almost as If gaming culture itself nowadays doesn't want us to actively socialize with anyone out in public anymore because technology has made us more anti-social by being stuck in our own echo chambers while giving off the illusion that it isn't.
"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
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For those who don't know, the way Wizards Direct Sales Program worked is that it enabled small LGS's to get an allocation of MTG products from Wizards of the Coast directly. If they couldn't get with a distributor or If they didn't have one Wizards of the Coast would always have some product available to cover their allocation for the most part. This program helped make sure in the good old days there were products like Modern Masters or From the Vault that your LGS could get.
MTG products going through distributors will still exist. There are problems that now arise from ending direct sales to local game stores, we can understand why they decided to end it due to being wildly unprofitable for them to staff and ship. The main concern is that when there's a hot item released for MTG that people wanted that they weren't able to get from their local distributor then they would have to rely on Wizards of the Coast to ship the products to them. However by cutting off that back channel it makes it more difficult for the LGS to make enough revenue to keep their shops open.
If the distributors can prove themselves worthy by getting products out in time such as Pre-Release Kits for a new MTG expansion then that would cover a lot of concerns that LGS owners have in order to stay in business. It's important for the LGS to have a strong relationship with their local distributors, then again there's LGS's that never had to order products from Wizards of the Coast and If they're stuck with untrustworthy distributors this could cause a whole lot of problems for those local game stores by threatening to close their doors for good.
The end of Wizards Direct Sales Program also sets a precedent for local distributors to manipulate the price of MTG products they deliver to local game stores instead of being given a set price from Wizards of the Coast directly. In other words distributors would end up making more money than the local game stores who are trying to profit off of the products that these distributors are delivering. While I'm well aware that they're both businesses trying to make money there shouldn't be this much income inequality coming from these business sectors.
"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
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."
With the recent Wizards Earnings Report the company claims that MTG's player base has doubled however they're mainly going off of MTG Arena and not the demographic who actually plays Paper MTG. In fact they probably don't think there's any revenue to make within Paper products anymore which could explain the downgrade in card stock quality before Dominaria was released where it seemed as though they finally got the issue fixed. Bottom line, the Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Game Industry isn't in a very good place right now where there's a lot of stagnation with too much saturation of product and not enough public relations to actually help fix these issues.
"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
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!
Brawl was a nice attempt however everyone easily saw that as nothing more than a cash grab in order to get people to play Standard. What they should've done instead was adopt Magic Online 1v1 Commander as an official Paper format separate from the official Multiplayer Commander format where the ban lists are actually different from one another.
"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
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
A lot of folks don't play magic at an LGS because of the tournament scene. FNM is a 3-4 hour commitment and happens on Fridays when a lot of people have work or are so beat from the work week they don't have the energy to go anyway. Arena is a way for these people to play the game like they used to. Just count how many more people attend a major pre-release vs FNM or Standard Showdown for an illustration.
I'm also one of the people that just don't like formats at all. I play when there's a deck I want to play, but I just don't understand WoTC set designers these days. It's like Enlistment Officer is evil, but you can have Militia Bugler? They can't even give people playing modern Goblin Ringleader or Counterspell. They've been prioritizing all these cute mechanics and not delivering on real substance. The only two sets where they did deliver this year has been Dominaria and Battlebond.
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!
There was still drama taking place but not to the level of magnitude that we currently see today. Back when people started out playing MTG when they were younger where they had more access to local game stores they didn't have what people have today where most MTG celebrities or MTG YouTubers are so disconnected from the casual MTG player. When you think of a pro MTG player, 98% majority have never gone to a GP before and probably 95% have never gone to a Pre-Release or an FNM. So you have to be pretty dedicated to go to any of those types of events. In my case I've mostly been a casual player when it comes to MTG as I've only dabbled onto the competitive scene for awhile with Modern until Combo was too broken.
We used to live in a society where everyone helped each other and the atmosphere was much kinder. I'm sure everyone has their own story of how they got started with a small allowance and would spend most of their money at local game stores where the people there were really nice and taught them how to play MTG as well as other Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games. Usually the grown ups wouldn't trade shark you for the most part and the employees were excellent. They really cared about MTG and other Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games where they understood that the future of these games are in these kids. They understood how important it was.
It's the duty of the older players to help the younger players and they can only do that by directly supporting their local game stores. While these older players can buy these types of products for way less online due to being an accumulation of every local game store, why would they do that when the local game store is a great place to learn and play? Thing is a lot of these MTG celebrities don't even have local game stores to play MTG when they complain about getting ripped off from places like Walmart and Target due to competitive pricing. That's not getting ripped off, that's just a cycle of life. Back when we we're younger, adults actually supported young kids' ability to play MTG.
They gave these kids a place to play, a place to fit in, and a place to be socially accepted. This concept is way above these MTG celebrities' heads since they've never actually gone to a local game store so of course they don't get it. We don't pay for the local game store, the local game store pays for us when we give back to them. Otherwise MTG and their competitors within the Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Game Industry won't survive. I'm not just talking about online stores where you're able to buy card singles on eBay, I'm talking about physical stores where you can get a ride to any day by picking a game, meet up with a group of friends, and have a good time.
Everyone is just looking for a petty excuse not to pay the premium to support their local game stores because If they continue with this attitude then the local game store won't be there anymore. That's a disservice to the younger generation, the misfits, the people who get teased and bullied in elementary, middle, and high school who just want a place to go and a place to hang out during the weekend where everyone else is at work trying to make ends meet. The local game store is a sanctuary for these misfits and Wizards of the Coast will eventually regret attacking this important institution that's extremely vital to MTG's success. We may have more disposable income than the younger generation but that doesn't mean we should give up on them.
Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they would feel If they didn't have the same opportunities that we currently have. Sure they're most likely not going to be able to afford the old school cards from ABU, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and the like. However I think the older players too often take for granted just how much they should be appreciating the opportunity they have for building the disposable income to support their local game stores instead of only looking out for themselves to save money. The older players should also be more open to sharing their decks with the younger players because it gives these young players a genuine perspective of what it's really like to play MTG instead of having them play a Commander Pre-Con or a Challenger Deck.
The decks that these MTG celebrities play aren't even their own decks when they've already been optimized to copy lists from Pro Tour events barring Commander. If these decks have already won a Pro Tour, guess what happened to all the cards in those decks? They're now at all-time highs. Ask yourself this, do you really want to buy a deck where all the card prices come crashing down as soon as the new "flavor of the month" deck comes? No. Why are they telling these people to net deck based on a successful list from a Pro Tour event that they've never played before? I dunno. Insider trading much? I guess that's a topic for another discussion and one that I'd rather not discuss in this thread.
It's hard for someone like myself and many others to describe what MTG means to them. It's not like these people are getting a ton of donations, or MTG is a livelihood or a lifestyle, no MTG has helped these people develop as human beings as it's made them understand personal responsibility and make lifelong friends who actually enjoy this game. There's a lot of excellent people who play MTG and you have to protect the community at all cost, so when you hear these MTG celebrities who shill for Wizards of the Coast that are talking about the MTG Community, they're just talking about a community of people who donates money to them, potentially those outside of MTG who don't actually play the game.
I'm talking about the community of people who are too young to afford a part-time job with the younger generation. It's up to us as responsible adults to give back and support the local game store and to provide that type of environment because it's not only a social contract but a labor of love that we should all be obliged to. These young players might not matter to you at first, but If you actually get their interest into the game then they might change your mind. We seem to easily admit defeat too early thinking that there might not be enough interest left in Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games but I guess time will only tell. I still think there's hope for us If we're able to convince the younger generation that Online Tabletop Gaming isn't the way to go.
"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
So WoTC pushed the casual player out of the store and brought in competitive players that fight over prizes. They can't even make a casual 60 card format like brawl without turning it into yet another prize supported tournament event format.
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!
Basically this. The one caveat to the above scenario is when the local game scene is especially weak due to the location, such as a small town in texas. Then you have to resort to other measures like online sales and potentially youtube streaming or patreon.
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!
Anyway, the small store that I mentioned in a previous post have regular tournaments of pokemon and yu gi-oh every weekends. But they only have Standard for mtg... so I don't / can't play there.
As for game store vs online store. Yeah, I mostly buy from SCG these days when I want certain hard to find singles - but shipping + customs storage fees add to the price of the card. When a new set is released.. it's sure that I'm at the store because they sell Standard singles cheap.. and they also sell card tokens! I'm sort of a token collector. ^^
The store also sells fringe cards like these.. photo shot by me.. so they have plenty of different people going to their place. Probably one reason the store is almost 10 years old now, and still going strong.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
I feel that this change to the WPN program will hurt small shops that are primarily MTG stores. Places like Games Plus in Illinois will be completely unaffected by the change because they have so many other games that they work with. People play Dungeon Crawl Classic, D&D, Warhammer, Battle tech, TCGs like pokemon and Magic, just about anything over there.
However, this change really isn't the thing that is causing problems with Magic. It's more so the repackaged mechanics that people have seen before and the lack of creativity that is killing them, along with refusing to print older cards that actually fit in sets to preserve scarcity. Also, they are pushing their own politics with the game. I'm not going to go into the madness that some folks have sunk to, but the humor, mature themes, and exploration of the human condition through the lens of an experienced, worldly individual is lacking compared to the games past. Now the creative designers are scared of pushing the boundaries, make characters like they are checking off some kind of randomly rolled ethnic group representation requirement instead of thoughtfully doing it when it makes sense, and want to make some kind of Disney version of MtG. It's hard to describe, but it's like comparing Batman the Animated Series to something like the Super Friends cartoon show. The first has a very well rounded, not too dark or campy, but still serious rendition of Batman and the villains. The latter is very much a campy representation of super heroes and villains.
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!
That's the problem with having so many Trading Card Game/Collectible Card Games competing against one another to the point where only specific local game stores can handle a certain handful which is different from the Video Game Industry where space isn't an issue since you're able to play from the comfort of your own home even though it's a less rewarding experience than sitting across the table from someone playing Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games.
I suppose one way to solve this problem is through monthly loot crates or clubs that people would like that they can sign up for. Why should online companies be the only ones doing loot crates? There's no reason why a local game store who understands their customer base, what they're like, and the value they can sell merchandise at pass up on an opportunity like that. I think a lot of times customers take the privilege they have for attending their LGS for granted far too often while they aren't doing enough to help keep the lights on.
The reality is that local game stores are no longer being run by the titans of the gaming industry as they're being run by their fans. Many of their customers don't have deep pockets and they aren't always loyal. Then the question becomes how can they avoid becoming the way of the North American Amusement Arcade? It's ironic because it's almost as If gaming culture itself nowadays doesn't want us to actively socialize with anyone out in public anymore because technology has made us more anti-social by being stuck in our own echo chambers while giving off the illusion that it isn't.
"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