I don't know If any of you have noticed but Flesh and Blood TCG by Legend Story Studios in New Zealand is proving itself to be a DIRECT competitor to Magic: The Gathering more so than Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG. How so? Well there's a lot of YouTube Content Creators for Flesh and Blood TCG who've said that they sold off their ENTIRE Paper Magic: The Gathering collections either in parts, as a whole, or sold off Reserve List and Power Nine cards JUST to buy Flesh and Blood TCG products either to collect or play the game. So If Flesh and Blood TCG didn't exist then we'd expect these same people to just buy more Paper Magic right? Whales who used to buy sealed product for Paper Magic are apparently now buying sealed product for Flesh and Blood TCG and keep them in storage until they flip them online for the right amount of money. Thing is that these people don't have enough money to buy both Paper Magic and Flesh and Blood TCG due to how expensive they are in regards to how there's not as much supply to keep up with demand. The reason why these YouTube Content Creators are uploading less Magic: The Gathering content nowadays is because Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro doesn't treat them with any respect whatsoever like not giving these people any good promos for helping to sponsor their card game.
Have you noticed that Brian from Tolarian Community College is swearing more because he doesn't care about Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro anymore? Sure he still puts out Magic: The Gathering content on his YouTube Channel but do you expect Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro to invite someone like Brian from Tolarian Community College as a special guest at a Grand Prix Style Event like what Legend Story Studios did by inviting him to a In-Person Flesh and Blood TCG Event in Las Vegas? Then again Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro were forced to discontinue MagicFest and Grand Prix Style Events sponsored by Channel Fireball and Star City Games on account of the global pandemic. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro seem to be promoting the wrong people when they favor MPL players more than YouTube Content Creators. How do you think they'll react If Legend Story Studios hires Terese Nielsen to illustrate Flesh and Blood TCG cards for them after Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro fired her as an illustrator for Magic: The Gathering? Don't get the wrong idea I love Magic: The Gathering as a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game and EDH / Commander is my favorite format in the game but there's seriously something wrong with the way the company behind it has been handling the game as of late.
Let's put it this way, If there's more money to be made from Flesh and Blood TCG than there is for Magic: The Gathering (Reserve List be damned) then why would everyone be playing in the same MTG Finance game? The returns are proving to be much better in other areas of Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games. You want to know what really surprised me about the In-Person Las Vegas Event for Flesh and Blood TCG? Over 90% of all the participants at the tournament itself never played Paper Magic before or were familiar with the game AT ALL nor did they have any experience with other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG. It was all a brand new experience for them. They spent countless hours playtesting their decks and didn't take time for other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games. That's how dedicated they were to this brand new Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game. I even know one success story from a good friend of mine of a Local Game Store (LGS) in Omaha, Nebraska that literally thrived off of not selling Magic: The Gathering products, card singles, or run events for the game AT ALL. No EDH / Commander, No Standard, No In-Person Pre-Release, just other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games and Events held for these other card games specifically.
"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
My Local Game Store (LGS) did manage to get some Flesh and Blood TCG products in and have recently started doing In-Person Events for the game. One of my friends whose an employee at the LGS I go to has been trying to get more people into the game and so far he's only managed to get a couple into it while everyone else at my locals is either playing their normal rounds of EDH / Commander because they hate playing Paper Standard (can't say I blame them) with those boycotting my LGS playing exclusively on Arena online. Then we have other players trying out Digimon CCG and UniVersus TCG (My Hero Academia) because we actually managed to get product in from our local distributor. A lot of people hate him but Rudy's been an avid sponsor for Flesh and Blood TCG as he's also close friends with the creator of the game James White from New Zealand. The Las Vegas Event I was talking about earlier had a player turnout of over 750 players with $10,000 cash prizes being offered to the winners and Tolarian Community College recently stated in one of his YouTube videos about whether or not Flesh and Blood TCG is a fad that had it not been for the Delta Variant of COVID-19 that 750 player turnout likely would've doubled being the highest player turnout for an In-Person Event during a global pandemic.
What I've been noticing is that booster boxes / sealed product for Flesh and Blood TCG at least within the last several months had an Expected Value (EV) of $400 to $500 not because people are chasing after Cold Foils but because they're trying to get their hands on the actual cards so they can actually play the game and that's what people had to pay to play with these cards. The Unlimited release of these 1st Edition expansions have helped stabilized the Secondary Market for Flesh and Blood TCG thus far. If you're in this to just play the game then you don't care as much about foils but If you're a collector then you need a base of people who are willing to pay for Flesh and Blood TCG products. The reason why Magic: The Gathering cards keep their value is because once a set's done being printed, it's no longer being printed but with Flesh and Blood TCG that doesn't appear to be the case. No I don't think Legend Story Studios should adopt their own Reserve List for Flesh and Blood TCG, look at what that's done to Magic: The Gathering in the last 20 years under Hasbro's influence. It appears that Flesh and Blood TCG will be around for awhile and eventually these cards will become A LOT more accessible once supply catches up with demand despite current supply chain shortages.
When it comes to the Secondary Market for Flesh and Blood TCG, you have to keep in mind that most of the prices are inflated because the demand is higher than the supply and that's a very bad way to keep the Secondary Market engaged. Because Legend Story Studios' supply is so low it looks like these cards are worth so much money and eventually a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on this stuff because the company's not doing anything to keep the market value up. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro despite everything that Magic: The Gathering players can complain about, the one thing they do pretty well is manage that "after" market because If they didn't then the game wouldn't have lasted for almost 30 years because you'd have that market bubble. Market bubble pops. Then your collectors aren't interested anymore. Then the value of these cards are no longer valuable. There would be no reason to buy a booster pack to get a chase card when you can just get everything like in a Living Card Game (LCG). Part of the problem with Flesh and Blood TCG is that there's WAY too many chase cards compared to just one or two in Magic: The Gathering unless they throw in an expensive Land cycle to sell the set. However the Land cycles they add are mostly just lower rarity cycles unlike Shocks and Fetches.
There also seems to be some power creep issues with some of the max rarity cards (hundreds If not thousands of dollars btw) as opposed to the lower rarity ones which come in Starter Decks that you'd assume would be just as good and that's not good for the average Casual player and If you're a Competitive player then you can't play with the cards that you paid a ton for. It's not for them to not be able to play those either. That's a HUGE problem. There also seems to be some issues with certain Heroes not being on par as they should due to how small the game's card pool is right now. There's too many new elements being pushed and less to experiment with. So is Flesh and Blood TCG going to kill Magic: The Gathering? Magic: The Gathering has an edge due to having an Online Client with Arena where as Flesh and Blood is named Flesh and Blood because the designers want people to play it In-Person. They want people to support their Local Game Stores (LGSs) which is all fine and dandy except you need to be where the people WANT to play and it's okay that Flesh and Blood TCG doesn't have an Online Client because it's so interactive that it'd be miserable to play it online. Everything I do you're going to do something back and If you can't immediately respond to me then it's just going to take FOREVER. It's pretty much a tug-o-war.
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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
F&B is certainly not a fad and will be here to stay. Is there money in it, sure, but i dont think its the only property to take some funds from MTG.
As far as ive seen, more people are interested in and play the new Digimon Cardgame, like myself.
At our local store we have a regular base of Digi players now and it seems to grow every now and then, also in the nearby city (i live in a mid sized town), the Digi group is growing fast too (usually about 15-20 per event), so F&B is certainly not the only game potentially taking from MTG, but at the end of the day MTG will keep surviving for its hardcore base.
Also Digi is much bigger then F&B in our area at the moment (also me being in UK), so not sure if is just bigger in USA. Also the rough stock/distribution is not great for the game. Sure Digi has had some too, but the delays were minimal (usually a week or 2 at most), but F&B delays for its 2-3 sets have been months here, so there is a stark difference (also since Nov 2020 Digi has had 6 releases).
I have tried playing the game with the welcome decks they offered. I didn't really like it at all. It just felt clunky and a bit too predictable in a way. Its not for me. As for the games "growth" it seems overhyped and being driven by investors trying to make a buck. The growth needs to be organic for the game to survive. I don't see that happening. I wish them luck but I am not on board.
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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."
Seems like a lot of anecdotal stuff about F&B's threat to MTG as far as I've seen. I see it advertised a lot and I see some content creators pushing it but I don't know anyone who plays and none of the LGS around here run events even though some do have product for sale. I'd need to see national numbers, but my guess is that F&B's market share is smaller than its marketing makes it out to be.
We had Weiss-Schwarz tourneys fire for a while at my old store because I got some folks into it, but I don't think that's indicative of it being in serious competition with MTG.
I dont know anything about Flesh and Blood but I would think any game that eventually gets enough traction to rival mtg will inevitably follow Hasbros design and strategy. Regardless of how flawed we all think it is, Wizatds have created an economic gargantuan and any company would strive to emulate that.
Flesh and Blood TCG does have a few things going for it that seems to be a vast improvement over Magic: The Gathering, one is the lack of non-interactive Solitaire style plays that come out of nowhere to win you the game as early as turn 4 where opponents are forced to rely on the luck of the draw to stop a combo from going off cause most of the time you're going to be tapped out on mana having to rely on that free counterspell to stay in the game or hinder your Sideboard for other matchups to stop said combo.
Another thing is that Legend Story Studios actually focuses more on players rather than whales and collectors which Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro tend to focus on the most nowadays by having to keep the game's Secondary Market in check to appease said whales and collectors or did they ACTUALLY forget that people play this game? How is it fair for whales and collectors to drain supply to increase demand just to make it harder for people to actually play the game? Why try to create pseudo Reserve Lists just to increase Hasbro's profit margins?
"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
F&B is certainly not a fad and will be here to stay. Is there money in it, sure, but i dont think its the only property to take some funds from MTG.
As far as ive seen, more people are interested in and play the new Digimon Cardgame, like myself.
At our local store we have a regular base of Digi players now and it seems to grow every now and then, also in the nearby city (i live in a mid sized town), the Digi group is growing fast too (usually about 15-20 per event), so F&B is certainly not the only game potentially taking from MTG, but at the end of the day MTG will keep surviving for its hardcore base.
Also Digi is much bigger then F&B in our area at the moment (also me being in UK), so not sure if is just bigger in USA. Also the rough stock/distribution is not great for the game. Sure Digi has had some too, but the delays were minimal (usually a week or 2 at most), but F&B delays for its 2-3 sets have been months here, so there is a stark difference (also since Nov 2020 Digi has had 6 releases).
~Funk Pirate
Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games like the new Digimon CCG always have a tendency to homogenize certain playgroups / communities to specific Local Game Stores (LGSs) from what I've noticed over the years either because there isn't enough overhead to support multiple playgroups / communities of said Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game all at once or it's more out of what's more convenient for certain playgroups / communities because of laziness and not wanting to deal with traffic to get to point A and point B depending on how far apart these Local Game Stores (LGSs) are and even geography / location can make things a hassle as well.
I just know that Bandai Namco doesn't have a good track record when it comes to their Collectible Card Games with the exception of Naruto CCG which kinda died around the second part of the franchise and sadly I see Digimon CCG facing the same fate as Dragon Ball Super CCG, One Piece CCG, Power Rangers CCG, etc. it just isn't going to end well for them unfortunately. Since most of these Collectible Card Games are tied to source material once they run out the company in charge is forced to move onto a different project it's just how it's always been because I've witnessed this happening time and time again, companies like Bandai Namco only care about the short-term rather than the long-term.
I have tried playing the game with the welcome decks they offered. I didn't really like it at all. It just felt clunky and a bit too predictable in a way. Its not for me. As for the games "growth" it seems overhyped and being driven by investors trying to make a buck. The growth needs to be organic for the game to survive. I don't see that happening. I wish them luck but I am not on board.
The reason why it isn't organic is because it was released RIGHT before a global pandemic which led to a public health crisis that grinded the potential for In-Person Organized Play at Local Game Stores (LGSs) to a temporary halt. With a lot of people including myself who've had experienced burnout from various other discontinued Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games in the past due to company incompetence and short-term contractual agreements with no long-term game plan for said card games, I can understand why it'd be hard to get on board with Flesh and Blood TCG especially when the distribution model itself isn't as enticing being branded as another Pay-to-Win Loot Crate / Loot Box Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game.
Why can't we have a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game that's designed to reward players who want to buy card singles instead of having to pull them in sealed products? We have Living Card Games (LCGs) for that and that distribution model isn't nowhere NEAR as popular because there's always more thrill in chase cards and playing the lottery right? Most companies only look out for themselves and their own bottom line however there's only a small handful of companies who are really willing to stick their neck out for their own customers regardless of the circumstances involved. Eventually capitalism will rear it's ugly head just like it did to Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro and Magic: The Gathering.
Seems like a lot of anecdotal stuff about F&B's threat to MTG as far as I've seen. I see it advertised a lot and I see some content creators pushing it but I don't know anyone who plays and none of the LGS around here run events even though some do have product for sale. I'd need to see national numbers, but my guess is that F&B's market share is smaller than its marketing makes it out to be.
We had Weiss-Schwarz tourneys fire for a while at my old store because I got some folks into it, but I don't think that's indicative of it being in serious competition with MTG.
So far this is the best I can give when it comes to national numbers:
Legend Story Studios announced that their The Calling Las Vegas main event, for Flesh and Blood TCG, fielded 750 players. The Calling Las Vegas events took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 10-12 (see "Legend Story Studios and ChannelFireball Team Up Again").
This event offered $10,000 in cash prizes as well as professional tournament invitations and Golden Cold Foil prize cards. The event was also the world premiere of the new Tales of Aria set (see "'Tales of Aria'"), which was unveiled on Friday, September 10 at a six-round sealed Swiss event. The Classic Constructed main event played out over the course of two days, and featured a finals showdown between two decks featuring Monarch heroes, Tyler Horspool's Prism deck and Sebastiano Cavallo's Chane deck. Tyler Horspool ended up winning the championship and took home the top prize of $1200, a Golden Cold Foil Extended Art Fyendal's Spring Tunic, and Professional Tournament Invite.
The Calling Las Vegas represents a major landmark for Flesh and Blood TCG, as far as U.S. organized play is concerned. The main event fielded 750 players, making it was one of the largest in-person TCG tournaments to take place in the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With Wizards of Coast cancelling the Magic Pro and Rivals Leagues after the 2021-2022 season (see "'Magic: The Gathering' Play"), the success of The Calling Las Vegas event opens up space and opportunity for LSS to firmly establish their own competitive professional TCG structure in the U.S.
On the FLGS level, the competition, prizes, and potential glory of a competitive pro tour may function as an incentive for players to buy Flesh and Blood product, as was once the case with Magic: The Gathering and their PPTQ system (see "Old Players and New"). LSS has strong TCG partners, TCGplayer (see "Local Game Stores") and CFB, as well an organized play support system for retailers, which makes Flesh and Blood TCG a solid contender to live up to its tagline as being the "The New Classic TCG."
"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
At this point I think FaB is too big to be just a fad. I believe they've had at least 1 large event equivalent of a Magic Fest, please correct me if I'm wrong. There have been a few other games that have been a flash in the pan such as Keyforge and Dragon Ball but I found those died off quickly.
FaB has been firing events quite regularly as the local level and I still can't find product at local stores.
Wish I could say the same for my LGS except they're mostly firing events for Flesh and Blood TCG during the weekdays when I'm having to work while reserving events for both Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Not to mention there's hardly anyone at my LGS that's really willing to give the game a chance because when it comes to Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games these days there's just too much competition especially with how crowded the market is for it. Magic: The Gathering was first introduced at a time when there were very few tabletop gaming options available where as now there's a plethora of options to choose from that's eating away at the potential success of Flesh and Blood TCG. It needs to prove that it isn't just another run of the mill Magic: The Gathering clone like most of it's predecessors in the past.
Since Flesh and Blood TCG is tailored made for tournament grinders reliant on In-Person Organized Play that makes it very difficult to modify it into a casual setting to accommodate both styles of play. If there's one thing the global pandemic exposed is that most of these Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games desperately need a casual format in times of public health crises. Whether If it's to financially support Local Game Stores (LGSs) like what EDH / Commander did for Magic: The Gathering or to provide some viable alternative that isn't solely reliant on In-Person Organized Play. We saw this with a lot of these companies pushing for Remote Play when most players still prefer to play In-Person. Perhaps the problem with the Local Game Store (LGS) business model today is that it's too reliant on In-Person Organized Play when there needs to be a viable alternative that's just as good.
"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
nah, i've seen so many tcg's come and go since 1994 and all of them have been labeled as the next magic killer. time and again they've failed. some have carved out their own niche (pokemon/yugioh) but those are extremely rare and tend not to be competing for the same players any more.
if it survives, great, we have a new played tcg on the market that still won't be able to steal a significant portion of real magic players as they're not likely to liquidate to chase trends and are more likely to stick with what they know especially given the cost of entry, if it fails... well its just another in the long long long long list of failed card games.
the late 90's were a bloodbath of tcg's
if anything is going to topple magic's empire its going to be decisions from within combined internal scandals - something similar to what happened with world of warcraft - things that push people to not want to support the company any more en masse in any capacity. having a viable alternative game on the market alone is no longer enough - again, see the many years of mmo's competing for wow's space and horribly failing
if anything is going to topple magic's empire its going to be decisions from within combined internal scandals - something similar to what happened with world of warcraft - things that push people to not want to support the company any more en masse in any capacity. having a viable alternative game on the market alone is no longer enough - again, see the many years of mmo's competing for wow's space and horribly failing
When you factor in Risk vs. Reward in a Loot Crate / Loot Box Gaming Model especially with what I see happening today with the Triple A Video Game Industry it's no surprise that these games end up failing miserably simply because it costs so much money and resources to get the same payoff these developers and designers expect to achieve without going on the verge of bankruptcy or losing a crap ton of money on certain gaming projects and indie kickstarters. The biggest threat to Magic's cardboard empire isn't really Flesh and Blood TCG per say but really how the current state of the global economy in regards to the "Great Resignation" has forced the majority of the Old Vanguard of Paper Magic players who used to regular at their Local Game Store (LGS) on Fridays and Saturdays are now having to cover work shifts for the millions of people who literally quit their jobs over the vaccine / mask mandates as well as minimum wage and hyperinflation woes.
With the Old Vanguard gone trying to hold down the fort, the new blood that they're trying to pass the torch to have been unwilling to engage in these sort of activities knowing how predatory the gambling aspect of the Loot Crate / Loot Box Gaming Model that Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games are designed around especially with Whales scalping these products away to increase the barrier of entry for these people to break into. Parents don't feel comfortable with their kids attending Organized Play Events even with the pandemic starting to wind down which Local Game Stores (LGSs) are now trying to rebrand as "Take Home Pre-Release Kits" simply because they don't want to foster an In-Person environment of communities with different age groups regardless of whether If it's politically incorrect or culturally irrelevant. We'll start to see a change next year in regards to how Organized Play for Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games will pan out.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I don't care for Flesh and Blood's gameplay mechanics. However, I do think the game has a market, but it's not apparent to me at all how big that market is. In my local area of the U.S., some stores carry the product, but there aren't any organized events or none have fired with regularity.
If Rudy knows the game's creator and is collaborating with him, I would be very suspicious. Rudy is a former professional financial advisor/investor and is good at hyping. With his follower count and buying power, he can totally affect the market. Other content creators also have potential financial interest in their followers jumping on the bandwagon. So, I can't fully trust what content creators are saying. I need to see publicly announced sales numbers.
If you go on ICv2 and do a search on Flesh and Blood TCG they actually have some sales numbers from TCGPlayer in regards to how much sealed product has been bought though unfortunately there isn't a strong Secondary Market for card singles in Flesh and Blood TCG as of yet. My LGS currently only carries card singles for Paper Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! while they recently discontinued card singles for Pokémon TCG due to scalpers and lack of Organized Play being held due to the pandemic though they recently announced that it's expected to return come March 2022. That's assuming ALL children 5-11+ are fully vaccinated from COVID since that seems to be the majority of Pokémon TCG's main target demographic.
I probably would be more concerned about Flesh and Blood TCG If Legend Story Studios somehow manages to hire employees who used to work for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro's Research & Development Team for their new card game given they're willing to travel from Seattle, Washington to New Zealand and with travel restrictions being more strict than ever due to the pandemic I find this scenario to be highly unlikely. Card design in Paper Magic isn't what it used to be with more quantity over quality especially with how they don't put enough time in to design Commanders that are actually fun to build around. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro recently developed a Casual Play Design Team specifically to deal with this issue.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I'm pretty sure that since its inception, every other game has been hyped as the "Magic Killer" and all have eventually failed to do so (or were outright purchased by WotC). I hope that it does well, but I'm not going to be shelling out any money for it...
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Co-Founder of the Casual Players Alliance and recent refugee of the MTG Arena Forums
I probably would be more concerned about Flesh and Blood TCG If Legend Story Studios somehow manages to hire employees who used to work for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro's Research & Development Team for their new card game given they're willing to travel from Seattle, Washington to New Zealand and with travel restrictions being more strict than ever due to the pandemic I find this scenario to be highly unlikely.
As the pandemic has shown, some jobs can be done remotely, and collaborating over card design remotely seems plausible. However, given the nature of this industry, I believe Wizards/Hasbro has to have a non-compete clause in their employee agreement, so Legend Studios probably can't immediately poach ex-Wizards employees even if it wanted to. Given the current sales momentum of Flesh and Blood, however, Legend Studios seems to be doing fine on their own, so I don't believe they need to hire ex-Wizards card designers.
As the pandemic has shown, some jobs can be done remotely, and collaborating over card design remotely seems plausible. However, given the nature of this industry, I believe Wizards/Hasbro has to have a non-compete clause in their employee agreement, so Legend Studios probably can't immediately poach ex-Wizards employees even if it wanted to. Given the current sales momentum of Flesh and Blood, however, Legend Studios seems to be doing fine on their own, so I don't believe they need to hire ex-Wizards card designers.
Same goes for current or former MTG artists / illustrators as this would be a golden opportunity for Terese Nielsen to get back at Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro for firing her by working for Legend Story Studios' Flesh and Blood TCG as one of their illustrators. Nevertheless she's still an iconic part of MTG history mostly famous for her renditions of Force of Will and Eternal Witness and is still highly regarded as one of the top MTG artists of all time next to the likes of Rebecca Guay.
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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
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Have you noticed that Brian from Tolarian Community College is swearing more because he doesn't care about Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro anymore? Sure he still puts out Magic: The Gathering content on his YouTube Channel but do you expect Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro to invite someone like Brian from Tolarian Community College as a special guest at a Grand Prix Style Event like what Legend Story Studios did by inviting him to a In-Person Flesh and Blood TCG Event in Las Vegas? Then again Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro were forced to discontinue MagicFest and Grand Prix Style Events sponsored by Channel Fireball and Star City Games on account of the global pandemic. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro seem to be promoting the wrong people when they favor MPL players more than YouTube Content Creators. How do you think they'll react If Legend Story Studios hires Terese Nielsen to illustrate Flesh and Blood TCG cards for them after Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro fired her as an illustrator for Magic: The Gathering? Don't get the wrong idea I love Magic: The Gathering as a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game and EDH / Commander is my favorite format in the game but there's seriously something wrong with the way the company behind it has been handling the game as of late.
Let's put it this way, If there's more money to be made from Flesh and Blood TCG than there is for Magic: The Gathering (Reserve List be damned) then why would everyone be playing in the same MTG Finance game? The returns are proving to be much better in other areas of Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games. You want to know what really surprised me about the In-Person Las Vegas Event for Flesh and Blood TCG? Over 90% of all the participants at the tournament itself never played Paper Magic before or were familiar with the game AT ALL nor did they have any experience with other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG. It was all a brand new experience for them. They spent countless hours playtesting their decks and didn't take time for other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games. That's how dedicated they were to this brand new Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game. I even know one success story from a good friend of mine of a Local Game Store (LGS) in Omaha, Nebraska that literally thrived off of not selling Magic: The Gathering products, card singles, or run events for the game AT ALL. No EDH / Commander, No Standard, No In-Person Pre-Release, just other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games and Events held for these other card games specifically.
So what do you guys think?
"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
What I've been noticing is that booster boxes / sealed product for Flesh and Blood TCG at least within the last several months had an Expected Value (EV) of $400 to $500 not because people are chasing after Cold Foils but because they're trying to get their hands on the actual cards so they can actually play the game and that's what people had to pay to play with these cards. The Unlimited release of these 1st Edition expansions have helped stabilized the Secondary Market for Flesh and Blood TCG thus far. If you're in this to just play the game then you don't care as much about foils but If you're a collector then you need a base of people who are willing to pay for Flesh and Blood TCG products. The reason why Magic: The Gathering cards keep their value is because once a set's done being printed, it's no longer being printed but with Flesh and Blood TCG that doesn't appear to be the case. No I don't think Legend Story Studios should adopt their own Reserve List for Flesh and Blood TCG, look at what that's done to Magic: The Gathering in the last 20 years under Hasbro's influence. It appears that Flesh and Blood TCG will be around for awhile and eventually these cards will become A LOT more accessible once supply catches up with demand despite current supply chain shortages.
When it comes to the Secondary Market for Flesh and Blood TCG, you have to keep in mind that most of the prices are inflated because the demand is higher than the supply and that's a very bad way to keep the Secondary Market engaged. Because Legend Story Studios' supply is so low it looks like these cards are worth so much money and eventually a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on this stuff because the company's not doing anything to keep the market value up. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro despite everything that Magic: The Gathering players can complain about, the one thing they do pretty well is manage that "after" market because If they didn't then the game wouldn't have lasted for almost 30 years because you'd have that market bubble. Market bubble pops. Then your collectors aren't interested anymore. Then the value of these cards are no longer valuable. There would be no reason to buy a booster pack to get a chase card when you can just get everything like in a Living Card Game (LCG). Part of the problem with Flesh and Blood TCG is that there's WAY too many chase cards compared to just one or two in Magic: The Gathering unless they throw in an expensive Land cycle to sell the set. However the Land cycles they add are mostly just lower rarity cycles unlike Shocks and Fetches.
There also seems to be some power creep issues with some of the max rarity cards (hundreds If not thousands of dollars btw) as opposed to the lower rarity ones which come in Starter Decks that you'd assume would be just as good and that's not good for the average Casual player and If you're a Competitive player then you can't play with the cards that you paid a ton for. It's not for them to not be able to play those either. That's a HUGE problem. There also seems to be some issues with certain Heroes not being on par as they should due to how small the game's card pool is right now. There's too many new elements being pushed and less to experiment with. So is Flesh and Blood TCG going to kill Magic: The Gathering? Magic: The Gathering has an edge due to having an Online Client with Arena where as Flesh and Blood is named Flesh and Blood because the designers want people to play it In-Person. They want people to support their Local Game Stores (LGSs) which is all fine and dandy except you need to be where the people WANT to play and it's okay that Flesh and Blood TCG doesn't have an Online Client because it's so interactive that it'd be miserable to play it online. Everything I do you're going to do something back and If you can't immediately respond to me then it's just going to take FOREVER. It's pretty much a tug-o-war.
"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
F&B is certainly not a fad and will be here to stay. Is there money in it, sure, but i dont think its the only property to take some funds from MTG.
As far as ive seen, more people are interested in and play the new Digimon Cardgame, like myself.
At our local store we have a regular base of Digi players now and it seems to grow every now and then, also in the nearby city (i live in a mid sized town), the Digi group is growing fast too (usually about 15-20 per event), so F&B is certainly not the only game potentially taking from MTG, but at the end of the day MTG will keep surviving for its hardcore base.
Also Digi is much bigger then F&B in our area at the moment (also me being in UK), so not sure if is just bigger in USA. Also the rough stock/distribution is not great for the game. Sure Digi has had some too, but the delays were minimal (usually a week or 2 at most), but F&B delays for its 2-3 sets have been months here, so there is a stark difference (also since Nov 2020 Digi has had 6 releases).
~Funk Pirate
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."
We had Weiss-Schwarz tourneys fire for a while at my old store because I got some folks into it, but I don't think that's indicative of it being in serious competition with MTG.
https://archidekt.com/user/71716
Another thing is that Legend Story Studios actually focuses more on players rather than whales and collectors which Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro tend to focus on the most nowadays by having to keep the game's Secondary Market in check to appease said whales and collectors or did they ACTUALLY forget that people play this game? How is it fair for whales and collectors to drain supply to increase demand just to make it harder for people to actually play the game? Why try to create pseudo Reserve Lists just to increase Hasbro's profit margins?
"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
https://archidekt.com/user/71716
I just know that Bandai Namco doesn't have a good track record when it comes to their Collectible Card Games with the exception of Naruto CCG which kinda died around the second part of the franchise and sadly I see Digimon CCG facing the same fate as Dragon Ball Super CCG, One Piece CCG, Power Rangers CCG, etc. it just isn't going to end well for them unfortunately. Since most of these Collectible Card Games are tied to source material once they run out the company in charge is forced to move onto a different project it's just how it's always been because I've witnessed this happening time and time again, companies like Bandai Namco only care about the short-term rather than the long-term. The reason why it isn't organic is because it was released RIGHT before a global pandemic which led to a public health crisis that grinded the potential for In-Person Organized Play at Local Game Stores (LGSs) to a temporary halt. With a lot of people including myself who've had experienced burnout from various other discontinued Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games in the past due to company incompetence and short-term contractual agreements with no long-term game plan for said card games, I can understand why it'd be hard to get on board with Flesh and Blood TCG especially when the distribution model itself isn't as enticing being branded as another Pay-to-Win Loot Crate / Loot Box Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game.
Why can't we have a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game that's designed to reward players who want to buy card singles instead of having to pull them in sealed products? We have Living Card Games (LCGs) for that and that distribution model isn't nowhere NEAR as popular because there's always more thrill in chase cards and playing the lottery right? Most companies only look out for themselves and their own bottom line however there's only a small handful of companies who are really willing to stick their neck out for their own customers regardless of the circumstances involved. Eventually capitalism will rear it's ugly head just like it did to Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro and Magic: The Gathering. So far this is the best I can give when it comes to national numbers:
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/49262/flesh-blood-the-calling-las-vegas-tournament-fields-750-players
"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
FaB has been firing events quite regularly as the local level and I still can't find product at local stores.
Since Flesh and Blood TCG is tailored made for tournament grinders reliant on In-Person Organized Play that makes it very difficult to modify it into a casual setting to accommodate both styles of play. If there's one thing the global pandemic exposed is that most of these Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games desperately need a casual format in times of public health crises. Whether If it's to financially support Local Game Stores (LGSs) like what EDH / Commander did for Magic: The Gathering or to provide some viable alternative that isn't solely reliant on In-Person Organized Play. We saw this with a lot of these companies pushing for Remote Play when most players still prefer to play In-Person. Perhaps the problem with the Local Game Store (LGS) business model today is that it's too reliant on In-Person Organized Play when there needs to be a viable alternative that's just as good.
"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
if it survives, great, we have a new played tcg on the market that still won't be able to steal a significant portion of real magic players as they're not likely to liquidate to chase trends and are more likely to stick with what they know especially given the cost of entry, if it fails... well its just another in the long long long long list of failed card games.
the late 90's were a bloodbath of tcg's
if anything is going to topple magic's empire its going to be decisions from within combined internal scandals - something similar to what happened with world of warcraft - things that push people to not want to support the company any more en masse in any capacity. having a viable alternative game on the market alone is no longer enough - again, see the many years of mmo's competing for wow's space and horribly failing
With the Old Vanguard gone trying to hold down the fort, the new blood that they're trying to pass the torch to have been unwilling to engage in these sort of activities knowing how predatory the gambling aspect of the Loot Crate / Loot Box Gaming Model that Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games are designed around especially with Whales scalping these products away to increase the barrier of entry for these people to break into. Parents don't feel comfortable with their kids attending Organized Play Events even with the pandemic starting to wind down which Local Game Stores (LGSs) are now trying to rebrand as "Take Home Pre-Release Kits" simply because they don't want to foster an In-Person environment of communities with different age groups regardless of whether If it's politically incorrect or culturally irrelevant. We'll start to see a change next year in regards to how Organized Play for Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games will pan out.
"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
If Rudy knows the game's creator and is collaborating with him, I would be very suspicious. Rudy is a former professional financial advisor/investor and is good at hyping. With his follower count and buying power, he can totally affect the market. Other content creators also have potential financial interest in their followers jumping on the bandwagon. So, I can't fully trust what content creators are saying. I need to see publicly announced sales numbers.
I probably would be more concerned about Flesh and Blood TCG If Legend Story Studios somehow manages to hire employees who used to work for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro's Research & Development Team for their new card game given they're willing to travel from Seattle, Washington to New Zealand and with travel restrictions being more strict than ever due to the pandemic I find this scenario to be highly unlikely. Card design in Paper Magic isn't what it used to be with more quantity over quality especially with how they don't put enough time in to design Commanders that are actually fun to build around. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro recently developed a Casual Play Design Team specifically to deal with this issue.
"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
As the pandemic has shown, some jobs can be done remotely, and collaborating over card design remotely seems plausible. However, given the nature of this industry, I believe Wizards/Hasbro has to have a non-compete clause in their employee agreement, so Legend Studios probably can't immediately poach ex-Wizards employees even if it wanted to. Given the current sales momentum of Flesh and Blood, however, Legend Studios seems to be doing fine on their own, so I don't believe they need to hire ex-Wizards card designers.
"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