Hey look! Professionally done Planeswalker alters, lol... Look like WotC took a cue from full art alters that are sold on Ebay & various other outlets.
It definitely reeks of short-term gains for Hasbro. They seem to be literally doing everything they can to not sell Magic products in stores.
Will WotC/Hasbro make a quick dollar? Yes.
Will the viability of local game stores decline? Yes.
Will the player base be smaller in the future because players have no medium to play the game? Yes.
Will there be a smaller number of new players coming into the game, because they wouldn't have the same exposure of walking into a local game store? Yes.
It just seems like they are cutting their own limbs off, for the sake of a quick buck.
I am delighted the new walker MPs are not in boosters
I want spread of values in boosters when I draft, and all MPs do is drop the price of the other cards, leaving everyone with nothing unless they get the lottery ticket prize. I don't want to gamble and buy lottery tickets, I want to draft and walk away with a bit of cardboard back most weeks that I can trade instantly, store for five years and then sell/trade, and one way or the other turn into something I want. That does not happen when every card in the set is worth sod all.
Right, but the reason that happens is because people are opening and buying the product. Even if it suppresses the prices on singles, it is still getting people into the game and despite people complaining about how nothing but a few cards were worth something in BFZ, those low prices helped me introduce several people to the game of Magic with actual good decks. If I had a choice between a world where the secondary market is booming or a world where I can go get a booster box and be able to just help people with building decks via direct boosters, I'll take the latter any day of the week.
The real problem is that the people with the dream of opening a card gaming store are entering a failing business model. Stores are so desperate to stay afloat and make any money at all, they are willing to break open anything they can find that they can sell for profits. Scalping and arbitrage have become the tools of the trade, and WoTCs reaction to this was to tear out value cards from the supplementary precon products and put them into masters sets, that they then basically rose the price on to discourage people from trying to scalp and reap all the profits. So, they basically became what they were trying to fight.
If this was the 90s still, they could easily have put the walkers into the main set as masterpieces. No one would have had problems, stores would have been fine, and we'd all keep moving along. However, because of the rise of online video streaming services and sellers, small local businesses that once filled the essential roles began to die off. I find it amazing that the Local Game Store has survived given that Block Buster, Boarders Books, potentially Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us, Radio Shack, and numerous other small time businesses died. The only reason I can fathom is that they used the fact that the business of trading card sales is unregulated and that if they have enough people, they can sort of make up for losses with tournaments.
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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!
So just a straight up 200+ price swing? not in packs? I am sure this has nothing to do with the "REEE LOOT BOXES!!!!!" fad.
Boring and dumb, in before MTG gets rid of packs entirely and you just have to buy the whole set for 500 bucks
If my prior posts are any indication. I'm perfectly ecstatic with the absolute disconnect between the customers and Wizards of the Coast right now. Just when it looked like things were going fine, they pulled yet another exclusive product that is aimed for collectors, and will likely be reprinted in a year anyway despite any claims to the contrary because no one is going to get a copy outside of Ebay scams. Words can not describe how fed up I'm getting with this company.
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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!
Of course the big elephant in the room is the level of controversy surrounding the "Direct to Consumer" business model because If everyone is forced to buy their booster boxes and sealed product from Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro directly then we won't have local game stores anymore for people to actually play Magic. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "At least now we won't have to deal with the hassle of local game stores not being big enough to get supply suitable for demand since we can just order it online." To me that isn't an excuse not to support local game stores when they still provide a venue for people to play Magic: The Gathering and other Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games.
Ask yourself whether If you'd prefer to go to a Walmart or Target to play Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games over an LGS because I can assure you that these retail stores have no interest in running events for these games when they're only looking to sell products. The closest thing you have to table space is by going to your local food court or deli where you're more than likely to get food and drink spillage over your cards and playmats unless they're well protected right? People go to their LGS to play and hang out with their friends and socialize with one another so why take that privilege away from them? Magic: The Gathering wasn't designed to divide access of product between the have's and the have not's.
"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 just a straight up 200+ price swing? not in packs? I am sure this has nothing to do with the "REEE LOOT BOXES!!!!!" fad.
Boring and dumb, in before MTG gets rid of packs entirely and you just have to buy the whole set for 500 bucks
If my prior posts are any indication. I'm perfectly ecstatic with the absolute disconnect between the customers and Wizards of the Coast right now. Just when it looked like things were going fine, they pulled yet another exclusive product that is aimed for collectors, and will likely be reprinted in a year anyway despite any claims to the contrary because no one is going to get a copy outside of Ebay scams. Words can not describe how fed up I'm getting with this company.
It's not just aimed at collectors when it's a matter of the best quality products being reserved this way to the point where the overall player base has extreme difficulty obtaining the cards they want resulting in the death of Magic: The Gathering. Imagine If you were saving $250 to buy this Planeswalker Masterpiece product and you went on the HasbroToyShop.com website to find out that it isn't there? Then the Secondary Market on eBay is now selling this product for $400 MSRP. I feel that this will only shake the very foundation of how Magic cards are distributed and If it works well then we're all screwed. Whose going to be buying booster boxes from someone else other than Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro, Walmart, and Target when it's no longer profitable anymore?
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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
Look at the prices of the masterpieces. They are not cheap. People will still be getting most of their cards/drafting (if they are so inclined) at their local shop. I'm regularly amazed at the money people throw at that format.
This is going to get hit by the collector/scalpers, thats all.
You can only assume that they intend to become an exclusive online only seller of their products. This is fine (for them) if they have done the math and decided that their exposure is good enough, where new players are going to know about the game and how to buy the product. That existing customers are going to know as well, as well as potential returning players of the game.
This might be from projected numbers of people streaming the game online and then feel like they have enough of a medium to have people learn about the game and how to spend their money on it.
But if you look at Twitch and Youtube viewer numbers, online exposure is pretty minimal to essentially dire.
I'm old school, so all my friends got into the game through meeting people and playing Magic in stores. Now this might be too old fashion, but I still feel like the bulk of new players find out about really loving the game through watching other people sitting down and battling.
This will be lost and you will lose a whole culture of people having this revelation to the game.
So it might just be a sad time in Magic the Gathering, where the actual plan is to kill off local gaming stores. But it is a risky move, as I say you have to balance up the numbers ($$) from exposure to the game versus becoming a direct distributor and having to market your product exclusively to the world somehow.
I'm sure they must have a master plan, I mean they are known for their business savvy..
If they were in boosters and in this product, it would be great. But again, it is the next level in wotc greed money grab. hope they don't alienate non us resident players....
Well, i think i will wait for the chinese counterfeits of these, will not pay the premium for this.
So just a straight up 200+ price swing? not in packs? I am sure this has nothing to do with the "REEE LOOT BOXES!!!!!" fad.
Boring and dumb, in before MTG gets rid of packs entirely and you just have to buy the whole set for 500 bucks
If my prior posts are any indication. I'm perfectly ecstatic with the absolute disconnect between the customers and Wizards of the Coast right now. Just when it looked like things were going fine, they pulled yet another exclusive product that is aimed for collectors, and will likely be reprinted in a year anyway despite any claims to the contrary because no one is going to get a copy outside of Ebay scams. Words can not describe how fed up I'm getting with this company.
It's not just aimed at collectors when it's a matter of the best quality products being reserved this way to the point where the overall player base has extreme difficulty obtaining the cards they want resulting in the death of Magic: The Gathering. Imagine If you were saving $250 to buy this Planeswalker Masterpiece product and you went on the HasbroToyShop.com website to find out that it isn't there? Then the Secondary Market on eBay is now selling this product for $400 MSRP. I feel that this will only shake the very foundation of how Magic cards are distributed and If it works well then we're all screwed. Whose going to be buying booster boxes from someone else other than Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro, Walmart, and Target when it's no longer profitable anymore?
What do you mean "not profitable anymore?" It's already not profitable, the only people making money out of this is Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. The stores are running on razor thin margins as is, and that was before the hidden price increases to the distributors. I know a couple of places that will still be around since they don't rely in wizards of the coast products to keep the lights on. Namely Games Plus, which is a big war gaming store that also dabbles in TCGs and Roleplaying games, and the local GWS store with the awsome game tables.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You can only assume that they intend to become an exclusive online only seller of their products. This is fine (for them) if they have done the math and decided that their exposure is good enough, where new players are going to know about the game and how to buy the product. That existing customers are going to know as well, as well as potential returning players of the game.
This might be from projected numbers of people streaming the game online and then feel like they have enough of a medium to have people learn about the game and how to spend their money on it.
But if you look at Twitch and Youtube viewer numbers, online exposure is pretty minimal to essentially dire.
That's mainly due to lack of online advertising, game commentaries of matches being live streamed, as well as podcasts from the staff/community to help promote financial growth for these local game stores that are lacking online exposure. It takes more than a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter to help attract more customers to local game stores when some have already opened up their own YouTube Channels to help advertise as well. Of course If these YouTube Channels don't get enough likes and subscribers then it becomes increasingly difficult to move forward.
I'm not advocating for local game stores to shill for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro like with Star City Games, Card Kingdom, and ChannelFireball when public relations between companies and communities who support local game stores are critically important for the success of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Industry. I feel as though Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro is struggling with the online singles market which explains why they're trying to monopolize e-commerce by making it harder to purchase Magic products on eBay and Amazon.
What do you mean "not profitable anymore?" It's already not profitable, the only people making money out of this is Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. The stores are running on razor thin margins as is, and that was before the hidden price increases to the distributors. I know a couple of places that will still be around since they don't rely in wizards of the coast products to keep the lights on. Namely Games Plus, which is a big war gaming store that also dabbles in TCGs and Roleplaying games, and the local GWS store with the awsome game tables.
Local game stores wouldn't be running on razor thin margins If the Expected Value (EV) of Standard legal booster boxes weren't as abysmal. Wizards of the Coast R&D is afraid to print new powerful cards in Standard thinking they run the risk of being forced to ban more cards when that fear is what's lowering the value of these individual cards and booster sets. Have they really run of out ideas for new cards and keyword mechanics to the point where they've become too reliant on Richard Garfield, reprints, and popular land cycles in order to sell product?
"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
You non-Americans need to settle down—
as an American, I have like a 1% chance of scoring this from Hasbro.
It's hardly anything to be jealous of.
A huge percentage of these will go to Americans who buy them on eBay.
Your 1% chance is a 100% increase on what everyone else in the world gets.
Do you remember when the Global Series was announced and Americans were in conniptions because they might not be able to get them? I do. The difference this time is it's Americans that can get the cards and others can't.
Really? We can only assume that, based on this single product? I'm as down on this product as anyone, but you need to settle way the hell down.
Seriously. There is a lot of misinformation happening in here. People need to take a step back.
1) These are not actual Masterpieces. They will not appear in any normal booster packs. These are a special, limited edition product for collectors, same as the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Planeswalker sets.
2) I don't know where all this non-sense about WotC trying to kill LGSs is coming from but that is demonstrably not true. First of all, this product is supposed to be extremely limited to the point that actually distributing it would be a waste of time and money. There is a reason WotC is selling this directly, and that's because it makes the most sense when they're only producing a few hundred or however many they made. Second, WotC is desperately doing everything in their power to keep LGSs afloat because they know that's the bread and butter of their business. Why do you think they're continuing the extremely unpopular Buy a Box promos? Because LGSs love them. Why do you think WotC has been essentially bribing players to play Standard again every week with Standard Showdown packs as prizes? Because it gets people into the LGSs. Why do you think WotC keeps shoveling out terrible products like From the Vault at inflated prices? Because it allows LGSs to make a decent margin.
People, you can complain about WotC doing a lot of things wrong, but holy hell this is not one of them. This is not the harbringer of the end times. This is not a sign WotC is trying to kill LGSs. This is WotC making some easy money because they know collectors will buy anything at any price regardless of how unnecessary it is. Stop trying to blow this way out of proportion.
I am delighted the new walker MPs are not in boosters
I want spread of values in boosters when I draft, and all MPs do is drop the price of the other cards, leaving everyone with nothing unless they get the lottery ticket prize. I don't want to gamble and buy lottery tickets, I want to draft and walk away with a bit of cardboard back most weeks that I can trade instantly, store for five years and then sell/trade, and one way or the other turn into something I want. That does not happen when every card in the set is worth sod all.
I think this point is important, these new master pieces being distributed this way cuts them off from the set in a way that i think is healthy. To be clear, putting it in boosters definitely helps wotc sell boosters. BFZ sold crazy well but the actual cards are worth rubbish. This mode of selling helps to prevent that. It concentrates the pain such that only collectors and scalpers bear the pain. That is a good thing for the community i feel. We don't NEED these masterpieces, they are just fancy versions of normal edition cards. Let the collectors and scalpers pay for them.
I imagine the price of buying these two (Teferi and Liliana) as singles will be pretty high, and where you'd might look to make your money on the product, as people will look to add them to their constructed decks. But I think it would be a mistake to break them up a set as an original buyer of the boxed product, as the value of the rest of them will be fairly average. I mean I wouldn't even open the boosters. As I say collectors only. Nobody is really going to be "Oh I really want that Elspeth, Knight-Errant for my EDH deck, so going to pay exorbitant prices for it.". It will only be if the demand is there, and I just can't imagine people will pay that much more than the original prints of the cards for the lesser played planeswalkers.
So it really is a collectors only demand, to get your money on the product in my opinion. Splitting them up to sell as singles probably not going to work out as well.
They definitely look good as far as finally copying alternate arts that have been going on for decades, so not slow to the party at all.
It is a limited edition offer, so sure it sucks for us non-Americans, but I feel it's OK to have a few perks of being in the country that has the printing press. First-world problems, limited is always going to mean it's limited on how and who it get's offer to. The world is not a free trade yet, so can't be demanding any less here.
I think this point is important, these new master pieces being distributed this way cuts them off from the set in a way that i think is healthy. To be clear, putting it in boosters definitely helps wotc sell boosters. BFZ sold crazy well but the actual cards are worth rubbish. This mode of selling helps to prevent that. It concentrates the pain such that only collectors and scalpers bear the pain. That is a good thing for the community i feel. We don't NEED these masterpieces, they are just fancy versions of normal edition cards. Let the collectors and scalpers pay for them.
It's not the actual cards that people are concerned with when it's mostly due to the replacement for the Wizards Direct Sales Program that was discontinued at the end of last month. LGS owners are freaking out that they won't be able to order any new sealed products and booster boxes from HasbroToyShop.com with the website's server being down all the time since they'd be unable to get any new Magic products in from their local distributor or on eBay / Amazon unless it's for other gaming products that aren't associated with Magic. It's much easier to get product shipments in locally as opposed to long waiting periods from ordering online outside the state line.
"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
Stupid overpriced product that nobody should fall for, yet will be sold out and probably re-sold for more on eBay. I hate this stuff.
Also, the word Masterpiece doesn´t mean anything anymore. It used to mean lottery card in regular boosters, now it just means "extra super fancy card".
As a draft player, I´m glad they didn´t put regular Masterpieces in the boosters, though, so that the regular cards will actually be worth a few bucks here and there. Makes it less hit-or-bust.
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
You can only assume that they intend to become an exclusive online only seller of their products. This is fine (for them) if they have done the math and decided that their exposure is good enough, where new players are going to know about the game and how to buy the product. That existing customers are going to know as well, as well as potential returning players of the game.
This might be from projected numbers of people streaming the game online and then feel like they have enough of a medium to have people learn about the game and how to spend their money on it.
But if you look at Twitch and Youtube viewer numbers, online exposure is pretty minimal to essentially dire.
That's mainly due to lack of online advertising, game commentaries of matches being live streamed, as well as podcasts from the staff/community to help promote financial growth for these local game stores that are lacking online exposure. It takes more than a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter to help attract more customers to local game stores when some have already opened up their own YouTube Channels to help advertise as well. Of course If these YouTube Channels don't get enough likes and subscribers then it becomes increasingly difficult to move forward.
I'm not advocating for local game stores to shill for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro like with Star City Games, Card Kingdom, and ChannelFireball when public relations between companies and communities who support local game stores are critically important for the success of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Industry. I feel as though Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro is struggling with the online singles market which explains why they're trying to monopolize e-commerce by making it harder to purchase Magic products on eBay and Amazon.
What do you mean "not profitable anymore?" It's already not profitable, the only people making money out of this is Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. The stores are running on razor thin margins as is, and that was before the hidden price increases to the distributors. I know a couple of places that will still be around since they don't rely in wizards of the coast products to keep the lights on. Namely Games Plus, which is a big war gaming store that also dabbles in TCGs and Roleplaying games, and the local GWS store with the awsome game tables.
Local game stores wouldn't be running on razor thin margins If the Expected Value (EV) of Standard legal booster boxes weren't as abysmal. Wizards of the Coast R&D is afraid to print new powerful cards in Standard thinking they run the risk of being forced to ban more cards when that fear is what's lowering the value of these individual cards and booster sets. Have they really run of out ideas for new cards and keyword mechanics to the point where they've become too reliant on Richard Garfield, reprints, and popular land cycles in order to sell product?
The situation with the secondary market is almost irreparable. The reason that the new booster boxes have lower EV most of the time is due to the amount that gets printed and opened, not the actual competitive contents of the box. If the box had the best cards in the world to play the game with eternally and was priced at 120 msrp, the singles seller market would treat it like the next gold rush and just buy until they couldn't pound the buy button on pallets anymore. They'd then flood the market until the prices settled below any point they could net a return. However, the real reason there is a problem is that the entire business is flooded with singles sellers.
Basically, what is making the LGS a bad business is that so many people are trying to get into the business that unless you're name is Star City Games, CFB, or Card Kingdom, there's not enough profit in opening booster boxes except on pre-sales. Its the same problem the ATM industry has with banks and such. There's too much overhead to provide servicing for machines on top of being competitive on pricing with other companies, which is an indicator of a flooded market. The market will correct itself when tons of singles sellers and LGS go out of business, leaving only the ones that are the most robust in the wake of it all.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The market will correct itself when tons of singles sellers and LGS go out of business, leaving only the ones that are the most robust in the wake of it all.
Wouldn't that actually make the secondary market even worse because the remaining businesses would have less competition?
Also, I wouldn't want to live in a world where StarCityGames, ChannelFireball, and Card Kingdom are the only options; I've always found StarCityGames to be overpriced, and I've heard that the other two aren't trustworthy. Give me TCGPlayer or mtgmintcard any day.
Honestly, I just see this as them trying to find excuses to release SDCC sets several times a year instead of once (the packs are literally just the excuse).
It's just another collector's item and if you're one, sorry to say WotC has already been making life difficult for collectors in recent years. In a twisted way, that helps out the players in some way - in the old days collectors didn't have much to collect hence they went for the regular cards themselves and combined with many other factors that mainly didn't have the benefit of hindsight, we ended up with the secondary market issues of today.
So, technically by making it difficult to "collect" MTG, it discourages collectors. We can easily say we print a lot of cards now and wouldn't have the problem of magic past, but who's to guarantee in another twenty years, today's numbers will not seem minuscule?
It wouldn't eradicate collectors completely (nothing ever will, frankly, even the true death of the game will actually breed more collectors than vice versa), but reduces their numbers to basically the whales. At that point, why wouldn't WotC just take direct business?
Honestly, I feel this surge of "death of LGS" to be over-exaggerated - the boosters are just an excuse for regular releases of collector products, no non-collector player in their sane mind will buy this and even the whales will not buy this on the assumption they are getting their Standard pack entry flow from this product. If anything, players would buy from their LGS considering the BAB being a unique card is still a thing and those are locked into LGS and not online. In fact I find it hilarious both decisions (BAB and 16-Pack Masterpieces) are actually for two different markets and people are acting as though they are two opposing forces killing each other (and even funnier, apparently one is capable of reversing the other completely despite them being opposing) based on which one came out later as an announcement...
Funny how we've come to "LGS are dying, save them", when just a few years ago we were berating them for jacking up prices for products like FTVs and Commander's Arsenal. In fact, this whole thing feels like a response to that scenario "Well, LGS can't jack them up if we sell them directly, am I right?", or to be more precise "Since you've complained about LGS making profits, we'll make them ourselves instead".
If Dominaria and Battlebond are any indication, a well designed set will have plenty of buyers even without masterpieces. Though, I agree that having masterpieces in booster box would encourage people to buy them.
What was the reason they temporarily removed Masterpieces from sets?
Will WotC/Hasbro make a quick dollar? Yes.
Will the viability of local game stores decline? Yes.
Will the player base be smaller in the future because players have no medium to play the game? Yes.
Will there be a smaller number of new players coming into the game, because they wouldn't have the same exposure of walking into a local game store? Yes.
It just seems like they are cutting their own limbs off, for the sake of a quick buck.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Right, but the reason that happens is because people are opening and buying the product. Even if it suppresses the prices on singles, it is still getting people into the game and despite people complaining about how nothing but a few cards were worth something in BFZ, those low prices helped me introduce several people to the game of Magic with actual good decks. If I had a choice between a world where the secondary market is booming or a world where I can go get a booster box and be able to just help people with building decks via direct boosters, I'll take the latter any day of the week.
The real problem is that the people with the dream of opening a card gaming store are entering a failing business model. Stores are so desperate to stay afloat and make any money at all, they are willing to break open anything they can find that they can sell for profits. Scalping and arbitrage have become the tools of the trade, and WoTCs reaction to this was to tear out value cards from the supplementary precon products and put them into masters sets, that they then basically rose the price on to discourage people from trying to scalp and reap all the profits. So, they basically became what they were trying to fight.
If this was the 90s still, they could easily have put the walkers into the main set as masterpieces. No one would have had problems, stores would have been fine, and we'd all keep moving along. However, because of the rise of online video streaming services and sellers, small local businesses that once filled the essential roles began to die off. I find it amazing that the Local Game Store has survived given that Block Buster, Boarders Books, potentially Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us, Radio Shack, and numerous other small time businesses died. The only reason I can fathom is that they used the fact that the business of trading card sales is unregulated and that if they have enough people, they can sort of make up for losses with tournaments.
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!
Boring and dumb, in before MTG gets rid of packs entirely and you just have to buy the whole set for 500 bucks
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
If my prior posts are any indication. I'm perfectly ecstatic with the absolute disconnect between the customers and Wizards of the Coast right now. Just when it looked like things were going fine, they pulled yet another exclusive product that is aimed for collectors, and will likely be reprinted in a year anyway despite any claims to the contrary because no one is going to get a copy outside of Ebay scams. Words can not describe how fed up I'm getting with this company.
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!
Ask yourself whether If you'd prefer to go to a Walmart or Target to play Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games over an LGS because I can assure you that these retail stores have no interest in running events for these games when they're only looking to sell products. The closest thing you have to table space is by going to your local food court or deli where you're more than likely to get food and drink spillage over your cards and playmats unless they're well protected right? People go to their LGS to play and hang out with their friends and socialize with one another so why take that privilege away from them? Magic: The Gathering wasn't designed to divide access of product between the have's and the have not's.
"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
"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 going to get hit by the collector/scalpers, thats all.
Spirits
This might be from projected numbers of people streaming the game online and then feel like they have enough of a medium to have people learn about the game and how to spend their money on it.
But if you look at Twitch and Youtube viewer numbers, online exposure is pretty minimal to essentially dire.
I'm old school, so all my friends got into the game through meeting people and playing Magic in stores. Now this might be too old fashion, but I still feel like the bulk of new players find out about really loving the game through watching other people sitting down and battling.
This will be lost and you will lose a whole culture of people having this revelation to the game.
So it might just be a sad time in Magic the Gathering, where the actual plan is to kill off local gaming stores. But it is a risky move, as I say you have to balance up the numbers ($$) from exposure to the game versus becoming a direct distributor and having to market your product exclusively to the world somehow.
I'm sure they must have a master plan, I mean they are known for their business savvy..
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Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
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---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Nice.
Thread | Draft
Well, i think i will wait for the chinese counterfeits of these, will not pay the premium for this.
What do you mean "not profitable anymore?" It's already not profitable, the only people making money out of this is Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. The stores are running on razor thin margins as is, and that was before the hidden price increases to the distributors. I know a couple of places that will still be around since they don't rely in wizards of the coast products to keep the lights on. Namely Games Plus, which is a big war gaming store that also dabbles in TCGs and Roleplaying games, and the local GWS store with the awsome game tables.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm not advocating for local game stores to shill for Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro like with Star City Games, Card Kingdom, and ChannelFireball when public relations between companies and communities who support local game stores are critically important for the success of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Industry. I feel as though Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro is struggling with the online singles market which explains why they're trying to monopolize e-commerce by making it harder to purchase Magic products on eBay and Amazon.
Local game stores wouldn't be running on razor thin margins If the Expected Value (EV) of Standard legal booster boxes weren't as abysmal. Wizards of the Coast R&D is afraid to print new powerful cards in Standard thinking they run the risk of being forced to ban more cards when that fear is what's lowering the value of these individual cards and booster sets. Have they really run of out ideas for new cards and keyword mechanics to the point where they've become too reliant on Richard Garfield, reprints, and popular land cycles in order to sell product?
"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
Really? We can only assume that, based on this single product? I'm as down on this product as anyone, but you need to settle way the hell down.
Your 1% chance is a 100% increase on what everyone else in the world gets.
Do you remember when the Global Series was announced and Americans were in conniptions because they might not be able to get them? I do. The difference this time is it's Americans that can get the cards and others can't.
1) These are not actual Masterpieces. They will not appear in any normal booster packs. These are a special, limited edition product for collectors, same as the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Planeswalker sets.
2) I don't know where all this non-sense about WotC trying to kill LGSs is coming from but that is demonstrably not true. First of all, this product is supposed to be extremely limited to the point that actually distributing it would be a waste of time and money. There is a reason WotC is selling this directly, and that's because it makes the most sense when they're only producing a few hundred or however many they made. Second, WotC is desperately doing everything in their power to keep LGSs afloat because they know that's the bread and butter of their business. Why do you think they're continuing the extremely unpopular Buy a Box promos? Because LGSs love them. Why do you think WotC has been essentially bribing players to play Standard again every week with Standard Showdown packs as prizes? Because it gets people into the LGSs. Why do you think WotC keeps shoveling out terrible products like From the Vault at inflated prices? Because it allows LGSs to make a decent margin.
People, you can complain about WotC doing a lot of things wrong, but holy hell this is not one of them. This is not the harbringer of the end times. This is not a sign WotC is trying to kill LGSs. This is WotC making some easy money because they know collectors will buy anything at any price regardless of how unnecessary it is. Stop trying to blow this way out of proportion.
I think this point is important, these new master pieces being distributed this way cuts them off from the set in a way that i think is healthy. To be clear, putting it in boosters definitely helps wotc sell boosters. BFZ sold crazy well but the actual cards are worth rubbish. This mode of selling helps to prevent that. It concentrates the pain such that only collectors and scalpers bear the pain. That is a good thing for the community i feel. We don't NEED these masterpieces, they are just fancy versions of normal edition cards. Let the collectors and scalpers pay for them.
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881
Oooh Dicey:
[dice=1]100[/dice]
I imagine the price of buying these two (Teferi and Liliana) as singles will be pretty high, and where you'd might look to make your money on the product, as people will look to add them to their constructed decks. But I think it would be a mistake to break them up a set as an original buyer of the boxed product, as the value of the rest of them will be fairly average. I mean I wouldn't even open the boosters. As I say collectors only. Nobody is really going to be "Oh I really want that Elspeth, Knight-Errant for my EDH deck, so going to pay exorbitant prices for it.". It will only be if the demand is there, and I just can't imagine people will pay that much more than the original prints of the cards for the lesser played planeswalkers.
So it really is a collectors only demand, to get your money on the product in my opinion. Splitting them up to sell as singles probably not going to work out as well.
They definitely look good as far as finally copying alternate arts that have been going on for decades, so not slow to the party at all.
It is a limited edition offer, so sure it sucks for us non-Americans, but I feel it's OK to have a few perks of being in the country that has the printing press. First-world problems, limited is always going to mean it's limited on how and who it get's offer to. The world is not a free trade yet, so can't be demanding any less here.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
"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
Also, the word Masterpiece doesn´t mean anything anymore. It used to mean lottery card in regular boosters, now it just means "extra super fancy card".
As a draft player, I´m glad they didn´t put regular Masterpieces in the boosters, though, so that the regular cards will actually be worth a few bucks here and there. Makes it less hit-or-bust.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
The situation with the secondary market is almost irreparable. The reason that the new booster boxes have lower EV most of the time is due to the amount that gets printed and opened, not the actual competitive contents of the box. If the box had the best cards in the world to play the game with eternally and was priced at 120 msrp, the singles seller market would treat it like the next gold rush and just buy until they couldn't pound the buy button on pallets anymore. They'd then flood the market until the prices settled below any point they could net a return. However, the real reason there is a problem is that the entire business is flooded with singles sellers.
Basically, what is making the LGS a bad business is that so many people are trying to get into the business that unless you're name is Star City Games, CFB, or Card Kingdom, there's not enough profit in opening booster boxes except on pre-sales. Its the same problem the ATM industry has with banks and such. There's too much overhead to provide servicing for machines on top of being competitive on pricing with other companies, which is an indicator of a flooded market. The market will correct itself when tons of singles sellers and LGS go out of business, leaving only the ones that are the most robust in the wake of it all.
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!
Wouldn't that actually make the secondary market even worse because the remaining businesses would have less competition?
Also, I wouldn't want to live in a world where StarCityGames, ChannelFireball, and Card Kingdom are the only options; I've always found StarCityGames to be overpriced, and I've heard that the other two aren't trustworthy. Give me TCGPlayer or mtgmintcard any day.
It's just another collector's item and if you're one, sorry to say WotC has already been making life difficult for collectors in recent years. In a twisted way, that helps out the players in some way - in the old days collectors didn't have much to collect hence they went for the regular cards themselves and combined with many other factors that mainly didn't have the benefit of hindsight, we ended up with the secondary market issues of today.
So, technically by making it difficult to "collect" MTG, it discourages collectors. We can easily say we print a lot of cards now and wouldn't have the problem of magic past, but who's to guarantee in another twenty years, today's numbers will not seem minuscule?
It wouldn't eradicate collectors completely (nothing ever will, frankly, even the true death of the game will actually breed more collectors than vice versa), but reduces their numbers to basically the whales. At that point, why wouldn't WotC just take direct business?
Honestly, I feel this surge of "death of LGS" to be over-exaggerated - the boosters are just an excuse for regular releases of collector products, no non-collector player in their sane mind will buy this and even the whales will not buy this on the assumption they are getting their Standard pack entry flow from this product. If anything, players would buy from their LGS considering the BAB being a unique card is still a thing and those are locked into LGS and not online. In fact I find it hilarious both decisions (BAB and 16-Pack Masterpieces) are actually for two different markets and people are acting as though they are two opposing forces killing each other (and even funnier, apparently one is capable of reversing the other completely despite them being opposing) based on which one came out later as an announcement...
Funny how we've come to "LGS are dying, save them", when just a few years ago we were berating them for jacking up prices for products like FTVs and Commander's Arsenal. In fact, this whole thing feels like a response to that scenario "Well, LGS can't jack them up if we sell them directly, am I right?", or to be more precise "Since you've complained about LGS making profits, we'll make them ourselves instead".
What was the reason they temporarily removed Masterpieces from sets?
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