Core Sets are so boring. They are like 99% filler cards. I get they are for newer players, but they could do better than reprinting the same 60+ cards every time (looking at cards like cancel, act of treason, etc). They can print "safe" cards that are interesting or new at least. I was actually glad to be rid of core sets, they had the toolkits for new players. Mostly I'm baffled as to why they'd go back to a set that no one wants to draft or open.
Did you just miss all the talk about having Core Sets be an avenue for printing needed answer cards in Standard? Up until WoTC announced they were bringing the M-series back, this was the main argument in the community for why Core Sets should return.
Core Sets are so boring. They are like 99% filler cards. I get they are for newer players, but they could do better than reprinting the same 60+ cards every time (looking at cards like cancel, act of treason, etc). They can print "safe" cards that are interesting or new at least. I was actually glad to be rid of core sets, they had the toolkits for new players. Mostly I'm baffled as to why they'd go back to a set that no one wants to draft or open.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
Dwarve Priest is an interesting convokeless Conclave Phalanx, which shows a payoff to the go wide strategy for white (with green most likely). Also a dwarf, which will slightly overlap with Kaladesh dwarves.
Other than that its mostly the usual common bulk you'd expect. I hope they really go ahead with the reprint strategy of cards that might be needed for Standard (and others) but couldn't find a slot in upcoming sets.
Dwarve Priest is an interesting convokeless Conclave Phalanx, which shows a payoff to the go wide strategy for white (with green most likely). Also a dwarf, which will slightly overlap with Kaladesh dwarves.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
All of this? Exactly! If the expected cards are missing, boy is WotC in for a rude awakening on why M19 may not do well. As its not just standard we are talking about, its also the modern, and legacy and commander and whatever other formats as they are used in other formats than standard.
Core Sets usually have a lot of vanilla and French Vanilla creatures. One way to spice them up a little would be to nudge their power up a little, on account of how simple they are.
My big hope is they undo the death spiral we were in for years where one thing after another got decreed to strong for standard, culminating in divination, of all things, getting the axe. I don't expect to see a ton of interesting, complex cards like we got in Dominaria, so these commons aren't too discouraging or unexpected. I really think they need to include some powerful staples like rampant growth so that all the different archetypes have a good baseline viability for standard.
Anyone who thinks leaks are fine should try running a card business sometime. You won't think they're so fine when they steal thunder from your articles designed to generate hype for your product, thus impacting your profits. And saying "it's fine because they're commons" is like saying "it's fine to steal a pack of gum because it's only $0.98". If a million people followed that creed, $980,000 in gum could be stolen within a day. And how long before they decide a $3.99 pack of booster cards is fair game? A $20 blender? A $100 Microwave? And again, try imagining if that was your profits being taken from you.
Stealing is stealing. If stealing a $1000 plasma widescreen is wrong, so is stealing a 98-cent pack of gum. If leaking the super-cool mythic rare of a set is wrong, then so is leaking the commons you "wouldn't care about anyway".
Honestly, such selfishness just plain pisses me off.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
I don't believe these Core sets are made for new players, at least I don't remember reading about that. In addition the lack of Core sets didn't make normal Standard any better. In fact Standard was at its worst during this time. Close to zero reprints to speak of, meaning Masters were looked to more and those didn't do well either, control cards of all forms were terrible, the game became all about creatures, story cards, and planeswalkers.
I can't imagine the game becoming worse than the years between BFZ and Ixalan when Core sets come back. There's a reason people called for them to come back.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
I don't believe these Core sets are made for new players, at least I don't remember reading about that. In addition the lack of Core sets didn't make normal Standard any better. In fact Standard was at its worst during this time. Close to zero reprints to speak of, meaning Masters were looked to more and those didn't do well either, control cards of all forms were terrible, the game became all about creatures, story cards, and planeswalkers.
I can't imagine the game becoming worse than the years between BFZ and Ixalan when Core sets come back. There's a reason people called for them to come back.
Providing a stepping stone for newer players into the game has always been a goal for core sets. They even used to have difficulty levels in which Portal was beginner, # edition sets were intermediate, and all block sets were expert. More recently, Maro said in metamorphosis 2.0 that they're putting a lot of importance on helping newer players for the new core sets, and are trying to avoid the gimmicks that got out of control with the previous M series.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
I don't believe these Core sets are made for new players, at least I don't remember reading about that. In addition the lack of Core sets didn't make normal Standard any better. In fact Standard was at its worst during this time. Close to zero reprints to speak of, meaning Masters were looked to more and those didn't do well either, control cards of all forms were terrible, the game became all about creatures, story cards, and planeswalkers.
I can't imagine the game becoming worse than the years between BFZ and Ixalan when Core sets come back. There's a reason people called for them to come back.
These Core Sets are explicitly made as an on ramp for new players.
From Maro's Metamorphosis 2.0 Article:
Change #2—The Summer Set Will Be a Revamped Core Set
The core sets are back—kind of. As I explained when we got rid of the core set, they've always had an identity problem. Are they for newer players or enfranchised players? We've decided to err on the side of new players. Note this doesn't mean there won't be some goodies for the enfranchised player (there will be new and reprinted cards aimed for Constructed play), just that whenever we got to a fork in the road, we picked the path of making this product the best introductory booster release possible.
This has a bunch of ramifications. For starters, we're going to look at every card through the lens of "is this something that will cause problems for a newer player?" In the past, we would include things that confused new players at the cost of adding value for a different type of player. We're working hard to meet other needs while not sacrificing the vision of being an entry-level product. This means, for example, that we will have a Draft environment that can be mastered more quickly than normal (meaning it should be fun for enfranchised players but not for as many drafts as usual). The core set will also have a stronger integration with the sample decks, Planeswalker Decks, and Deck Builder's Toolkit, allowing for an easier transition between the products.
The set will be roughly half new cards and half reprints, and all the cards will be Standard-legal. The new cards will push toward resonance (aka things a new player would already recognize by having a familiarity with fantasy from pop culture). The set will have some story relevance, but more in a "filling in information of the past about relevant characters" way than telling a piece of the "present-day" story.
Probably the biggest change about the new core set is a philosophy in how we think about it. In the past, we stuck the core set on equal footing with the other three major sets, but with its return we're going to treat it differently. It has a different purpose, different priorities, and it's going to be designed with a different approach. As such, we're not going to treat it as if it's just like the main three expansions.
Anyone who thinks leaks are fine should try running a card business sometime. You won't think they're so fine when they steal thunder from your articles designed to generate hype for your product, thus impacting your profits. And saying "it's fine because they're commons" is like saying "it's fine to steal a pack of gum because it's only $0.98". If a million people followed that creed, $980,000 in gum could be stolen within a day. And how long before they decide a $3.99 pack of booster cards is fair game? A $20 blender? A $100 Microwave? And again, try imagining if that was your profits being taken from you.
Stealing is stealing. If stealing a $1000 plasma widescreen is wrong, so is stealing a 98-cent pack of gum. If leaking the super-cool mythic rare of a set is wrong, then so is leaking the commons you "wouldn't care about anyway".
Honestly, such selfishness just plain pisses me off.
But these are not "stolen" leaks. These cards were accidentally put into Dominaria boosters, which were purchased by normal consumers (who expected Dominaria cards, not M19 cards).
But these are not "stolen" leaks. These cards were accidentally put into Dominaria boosters, which were purchased by normal consumers (who expected Dominaria cards, not M19 cards).
Okay, so let's say a pack of gum somehow ended up in your pockets by accident. You find the gum by surprise and realize you didn't pay for it. Does that give you the right to keep it without paying for it, just because it was accidental? The people who discovered these cards could have kept them a surprise until the proper time of their reveal. But nope, a moment of internet attention was more important. They paid for the pack, so yes, technically the cards do belong to them, but they could at least have had the decency to contact Wizards first to let them know about the leak so as not to undermine their marketing efforts.
Making Magic sets professionally is hard work. An office full of people have to coordinate to not only design and develop these products, but also to plan marketing, handle production, secure distribution in stores, handle PR, handle international content quality control, handle legality, and manage investments and losses. There is a lot of work involved with running a business, and when that business' profits are affected, everyone in the company is affected. If Wizards loses money, so too do the employees trying to make a living for their families.
And if we tolerate "minor" leaks like these, we open the doors to bigger leaks and encourage such exploitative behavior which will have longterm consequences for the company. Instead of punishing Wizards for an honest mistake, we should be working with them to mitigate the damages caused by such mistakes and quietly bring these things to their attention so they can figure out how to prevent such mistakes in the future.
But hey, what's a company and its employees' well being compared to prematurely sating the curiosity of a handful of so-called "fans" on an internet forum?
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
It is mostly standard for a core set, so that doesn't worry me. I would personally like to see a standard with counterspell, wizard's retort, lightning bolt, wizard's lightning and Adeliz, the Cinder Wind if M19 can help provide this. Wishful thinking, but it would get me very excited about standard and renew my interest in the format.
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Did you just miss all the talk about having Core Sets be an avenue for printing needed answer cards in Standard? Up until WoTC announced they were bringing the M-series back, this was the main argument in the community for why Core Sets should return.
I think you should expand on this if you expect to actually convince him of your position.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
I think the three things we'll be getting are
1. Basic support for common tribes like goblins, elves, knights, wizards, zombies, vampires and angels.
2. Some bog standard effects for burn, control, counter, hate, and removal.
3. Reprints that they want to keep in standard but don't fit the upcoming settings.
4. A cycle of vanilla ally dual lands.
5. One or two Chase mythics that are wanted in other formats.
With standards this low, I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Scholar of stars is a hint to a UX artifact theme.
It is nice to get common payoffs for draft/sealed. It makes for more consistent builds.
lol dont sweat it, convincing me of anything is difficult.
Spirits
Other than that its mostly the usual common bulk you'd expect. I hope they really go ahead with the reprint strategy of cards that might be needed for Standard (and others) but couldn't find a slot in upcoming sets.
Given the Goblin, and the fact that Dwarves are typically in red and then white, I suspect go-wide is in RW for the set, not GW.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
I don't care because there are commons we would get the last day of the spoiler season anyway.
I think leaked commons are fine. It's like a really good teaser trailer for a movie that doesn't show the entire movie in the trailer.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Correct it's the rares is what's bad to leak
WotC don't like non humanoid races that much
Last time they revamped core sets, we've got Doom Blade, Duress, Essence Scatter, Lightning Bolt, Llanowar Elves, Ponder, Rampant Growth, Soul Warden and some other stuff, all at common. Apart from the goblin, these commons are nowhere near as interesting.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
Stealing is stealing. If stealing a $1000 plasma widescreen is wrong, so is stealing a 98-cent pack of gum. If leaking the super-cool mythic rare of a set is wrong, then so is leaking the commons you "wouldn't care about anyway".
Honestly, such selfishness just plain pisses me off.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I don't believe these Core sets are made for new players, at least I don't remember reading about that. In addition the lack of Core sets didn't make normal Standard any better. In fact Standard was at its worst during this time. Close to zero reprints to speak of, meaning Masters were looked to more and those didn't do well either, control cards of all forms were terrible, the game became all about creatures, story cards, and planeswalkers.
I can't imagine the game becoming worse than the years between BFZ and Ixalan when Core sets come back. There's a reason people called for them to come back.
Providing a stepping stone for newer players into the game has always been a goal for core sets. They even used to have difficulty levels in which Portal was beginner, # edition sets were intermediate, and all block sets were expert. More recently, Maro said in metamorphosis 2.0 that they're putting a lot of importance on helping newer players for the new core sets, and are trying to avoid the gimmicks that got out of control with the previous M series.
These Core Sets are explicitly made as an on ramp for new players.
From Maro's Metamorphosis 2.0 Article:
But these are not "stolen" leaks. These cards were accidentally put into Dominaria boosters, which were purchased by normal consumers (who expected Dominaria cards, not M19 cards).
Okay, so let's say a pack of gum somehow ended up in your pockets by accident. You find the gum by surprise and realize you didn't pay for it. Does that give you the right to keep it without paying for it, just because it was accidental? The people who discovered these cards could have kept them a surprise until the proper time of their reveal. But nope, a moment of internet attention was more important. They paid for the pack, so yes, technically the cards do belong to them, but they could at least have had the decency to contact Wizards first to let them know about the leak so as not to undermine their marketing efforts.
Making Magic sets professionally is hard work. An office full of people have to coordinate to not only design and develop these products, but also to plan marketing, handle production, secure distribution in stores, handle PR, handle international content quality control, handle legality, and manage investments and losses. There is a lot of work involved with running a business, and when that business' profits are affected, everyone in the company is affected. If Wizards loses money, so too do the employees trying to make a living for their families.
And if we tolerate "minor" leaks like these, we open the doors to bigger leaks and encourage such exploitative behavior which will have longterm consequences for the company. Instead of punishing Wizards for an honest mistake, we should be working with them to mitigate the damages caused by such mistakes and quietly bring these things to their attention so they can figure out how to prevent such mistakes in the future.
But hey, what's a company and its employees' well being compared to prematurely sating the curiosity of a handful of so-called "fans" on an internet forum?
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.