Seriously, there are times I don't know what would happen if Magic players were given nothing to whine about. Magic is releasing ludicrous amount of products in a year. Don't like these? Wait a few months and see what the Brawl decks look like and if there's anything you want out of those. At this point, when there's a product I don't really want I'm almost grateful because it means it's one less thing I have to worry about where my Magic budget is concerned.
The level of entitlement from some folks is outrageous.
No where in my OP was there a complaint. I stated facts, asked questions, and asked opinions. Critical analysis and thought provoking discussion is essential to a quality product and also applies to many positive factors outside of MTG in life.
Yes, it is likely I'll be personally skipping this year of the Commander decks. But there is still always room to discuss how things can be better. There's nothing "entitled" about asking questions and bringing a productive conversation to light. You're literally the one complaining right now.
I don't know if your post is targeted at OP. If it isn't, it would probably be a good idea to use the "Quote" feature to avoid any confusion.
I don't think most of the expensive cards that were reprinted in older Commander sets were very expensive when the sets came out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally I don't think it's been common for anything more than $8 (at the time) to be reprinted in these sets. 'Cause then they have to take that out of the rest of the deck. Am I wrong?
Obviously certain cards have shot up, but you can't account for the future.
No, not most, but there always were some $10+ cards before reprint within the decks pre 2018 such as Wurmcoil Engine, Cyclonic Rift, and Mirari's Wake to name a few. And regardless, there were typically a handful of $5+ cards per deck. I count two in the entire "Faceless Menace" deck.
In which Gavin Verhey claims to have heard players dissatisfaction with the reprints of Commander 2018, and then proceeds to show that (at least after the first deck) no, no he didn’t.
“Hey kids, you want better reprints? Enjoy your $7 Seedborn and don’t say I never did anything for ya!”
I'm glad somebody else brought it up because this was exactly what I thought about looking at today's decklist haha.
For anyone absolutely entrenched in the format, these products will always be disappointing... that is just how it is. These decks have never been what I hoped they would be for a $40 price tag, but they are nice to see anyways. Players deep into the format are likely just going to pick up singles anyways, this product isn't geared towards them - it is geared towards people who likely don't have a commander deck or who don't spend a whole lot of money on a secondary market.
I agree with most of what you're saying. Until last year, I always happily picked up a full set of the decks and was very satisfied. I truly do miss playing the decks for a little while before striping them apart for singles to use elsewhere, and it was always just worth it 2017 and prior. I do agree that WotC seems to be targeting players who don't buy singles, but it just seems like that's not even a decent option for those people whereas it used to be a great one. This is, of course, somewhat bold to state about the entire product this year since we've only seen one deck. However, this is an entire deck revealed now, and therefore does set some precedent of what we can expect in the coming week of spoilers.
Calling precons a bust base on the price of reprints is rather skewed, don't you think?
The primary function of commander precons are there to be a gateway for players new to this format, $40 for a cohesive deck with potential for expansion isn't that high. If they include more pricy reprints then individual LGS might also sell them for higher cost, make it truly unapprochable by new players. As it is, I think the deck is fine for amateurs, it has a theme, good mana base and removal, versatile legends, and easy to learn.
Precons are tasked for supporting older deck ideas and/or inventing new one, to stimulate deckbuilding. Morph is an old concept requiring new blood, which this deck provided quite a few. It's a good deck and looks fun to play, I will definitely pick it up and playtest it.
This is the exact scenario so far as to why last year's decks did so poorly. As in, they were a "bust." $40 is pretty expensive for a brand new player to want to invest in something they have no idea whether or not they'll enjoy when it comes to paper magic, where you're limited to when and where you can play much more so then say a video game.
The only way scalping has ever become an issue in the past with Commander products, was when WotC incompetently printed a vastly insufficient amount of the product in 2016.
What badly needed reprint would a morph deck have?
There are a crazy amount of expensive cards to reprint within the Sultai colors. They don't all need to be morph matters. Most of the good reprints in past Commander precons had little to do with the decks outside of being great cards for any deck within their colors. One particularly good card for morph decks though, would be Cloudstone Curio since it's a permanent that allows you to recur your morph abilities consistently throughout the game. There are completely wasted deck slots such as Urban Evolution and Biomass Mutation that literally do nothing for a morph deck and slots like these could've been much better used.
So we've got one full deck list out now, and there isn't a single badly needed reprint in the whole list. Sure, Command Zone states the overall reprint value is high, but that's any deck when you're adding up a bunch of bulk cards. The best reprint we get is Seedborn Muse, which you can get easily for less than $10 already. It's looking a little better than last year I suppose.
I'm curious what other people are thinking and feeling about this. The reprints so far are almost entirely not sought after bulk cards. And this is also considering the still absurd $40 price tag, which already causes tons of new players that don't have a ton to spend to shy away from a precon.
With no badly needed reprints for experienced players, and the high $40 price tag that keeps a lot of newer players away, who is this product even for?
No where in my OP was there a complaint. I stated facts, asked questions, and asked opinions. Critical analysis and thought provoking discussion is essential to a quality product and also applies to many positive factors outside of MTG in life.
Yes, it is likely I'll be personally skipping this year of the Commander decks. But there is still always room to discuss how things can be better. There's nothing "entitled" about asking questions and bringing a productive conversation to light. You're literally the one complaining right now.
I don't know if your post is targeted at OP. If it isn't, it would probably be a good idea to use the "Quote" feature to avoid any confusion.
No, not most, but there always were some $10+ cards before reprint within the decks pre 2018 such as Wurmcoil Engine, Cyclonic Rift, and Mirari's Wake to name a few. And regardless, there were typically a handful of $5+ cards per deck. I count two in the entire "Faceless Menace" deck.
I'm glad somebody else brought it up because this was exactly what I thought about looking at today's decklist haha.
I agree with most of what you're saying. Until last year, I always happily picked up a full set of the decks and was very satisfied. I truly do miss playing the decks for a little while before striping them apart for singles to use elsewhere, and it was always just worth it 2017 and prior. I do agree that WotC seems to be targeting players who don't buy singles, but it just seems like that's not even a decent option for those people whereas it used to be a great one. This is, of course, somewhat bold to state about the entire product this year since we've only seen one deck. However, this is an entire deck revealed now, and therefore does set some precedent of what we can expect in the coming week of spoilers.
This is the exact scenario so far as to why last year's decks did so poorly. As in, they were a "bust." $40 is pretty expensive for a brand new player to want to invest in something they have no idea whether or not they'll enjoy when it comes to paper magic, where you're limited to when and where you can play much more so then say a video game.
The only way scalping has ever become an issue in the past with Commander products, was when WotC incompetently printed a vastly insufficient amount of the product in 2016.
There are a crazy amount of expensive cards to reprint within the Sultai colors. They don't all need to be morph matters. Most of the good reprints in past Commander precons had little to do with the decks outside of being great cards for any deck within their colors. One particularly good card for morph decks though, would be Cloudstone Curio since it's a permanent that allows you to recur your morph abilities consistently throughout the game. There are completely wasted deck slots such as Urban Evolution and Biomass Mutation that literally do nothing for a morph deck and slots like these could've been much better used.
I'm curious what other people are thinking and feeling about this. The reprints so far are almost entirely not sought after bulk cards. And this is also considering the still absurd $40 price tag, which already causes tons of new players that don't have a ton to spend to shy away from a precon.
With no badly needed reprints for experienced players, and the high $40 price tag that keeps a lot of newer players away, who is this product even for?