Do you know what getting rid of Core Set means? It means that every set's associated precons are Commander. I hate that. Can't they just release 2 Commander Decks and 2 Planeswalker Decks? Y'know, give new players the choice?
We used to have 24 preconstructed decks that you could buy for under $25 after taxes. You have the 20 Intro Packs and the 4 duel decks, well 2 sets of 2 duel decks. All we have in 2021 are the 2 Arena Starter Kit decks, and the next cheapest option would be the $30 challenger decks.
We also don't know how much the Innistrad midnight Hunt commander decks will cost, but a store is selling it for $85 on preorder.
Cardfight Vanguard has $5 Start Decks. They aren't half decks or decks where you have to do something to make a complete deck. They are full 50 card decks. There are also 5 to choose from. That's cheap, and you get some choices. In 2021, Yugioh has 4 choices of under $15 precon decks and Pokemon has 6 choices. MTG only has 2, well you buy the thing and you get both in the form of the Arena Starter Kit. Anything else is higher than $20.
Because Commander is so popular, WOTC has no incentive to make Standard good anymore. Just keep on selling $50 commander decks, and keep releasing standard sets that people will buy without even thinking about the health of the format.
If I made a game, and someone else took my game, changed the rules a bit, and now everybody else is playing my game by the new rules, while I am desperately trying to get new players to play by my rules, I'd give up, and get people to play by the new rules, because that is where the money is.
There are deck construction rules, like 60-card, 100 card singleton, 40 card limited, and the gameplay rules, like your base rules, Commander, Vanguard, Archenemy, and Planechase. I've said this before. WOTC is over supporting Commander because they lack the confidence to make the base rules better than Commander. They aren't trying anymore.
You want reprints? Try our $10 a pack masters sets.
I'm pretty sure I already read this rant with the almost exact same words somewhere else multiple times. If you're so much upset of how the game is today, maybe is better for you to not play it at all anymore and let the other people enjoy it.
Let me guess, you are ok with WOTC charging double price for a product targeted for new players compared to their competitors, and you are ok with WOTC pandering to one format at the detriment of another. As long as their introductory products, that cost $30 to $50 caters towards bringing in more Commander players, that means that those players won't even try to even play any format that use the base rules, either because the cards are expensive, or they lose all the time. With that in mind, why would WOTC even try to give the effort in making Standard better? With the crappy standard, people would just quit standard and go to Commander, and thus WOTC would support Commander even more, and thus put even less effort into Standard, or any other base rules format, and those players would flock to commander, and thus WOTC supports Commander even more, and thus puts even less effort into standard...
But let's say we live in a scenario where Standard is completely dead. It's all Commander. Remember how the Zendikar Rising and Kaldheim Commander decks costed $25 each? The idea of $25 Commander decks are long gone. I predict that every future Commander deck will be the $50 variety. And they say that these are supposed to replace the Planeswalker decks? Do you know what should have replaced Planeswalker Decks? Almost something that cost just as much as them. Theme boosters are utter trash. I wish they just brought back Theme Decks.
WOTC is thinking about money. Short term gain for long term pain.
You know how we all laugh at those who are saying that Magic is dying? Well in a way it is dying. People would rather play by its alternate rules than its base rules.
From what I read, Pioneer is a dead format, and thus the Pioneer decks will most likely be a one year occurrence. I just hope there are 60-card preconstructed products to replace them, and if they replace them with yet another set of Commander decks, expect another rant.
In my opinion pioneer is dying due to two reasons, the rona and historic. I think a lot of people like myself started around return to ravnica days and have physical collections that they can’t really play with. My lgs hasn’t returned to paper magic and last I was there was using the play area as storage. (It’s still doing very well cuz it also is a comic book store). Historic on arena is a lot easier to get into in my opinion than pioneer would be on mtgo. I think they’re are focusing on commander for two reasons. You can still play commander with family and friends even if you can’t go to an lgs. The other is fairly obvious $$$. I do agree with the idea that they should have digital redemption codes in all of their products.
Private Mod Note
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Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
"What was the rationale for setting the next commander legends in Balders Gate? From the original commander legends reactions it seems there were a number of MTG legends that people still wanted to see printed whereas Elminster seemed to be the only one that I really saw people missing from AFR. Balders Gate is also just one city in the forgotten realms so presumably this limits options for legends vs the whole of the forgotten realms or other worlds/settings like Greyhawk or Eberron?"
"The second Commander Legends needed a theme and we thought the audience would enjoy another D&D set. There are going to be many opportunities to make more legendary characters from Magic’s past. We even have a whole premier expansion coming, Brothers War, set in the past with a lot of Magic characters people have been asking for."
Here's a good "theme" for Commander Legends 2.
Good Commander reprints.
Planeswalkers like Kiora we're unlikely to see for a while.
Past Legends that aren't locked to Dominaria during the Brother's War era.
New takes on popular Commanders.
Partner reprints that aren't in foil and certainly not etched foil.
Popular Commander mechanics and themes we won't see for a time, such as Snow.
So a few notes. Mechanics and themes are not necessarily tied to Magic’s worlds. I don’t think snow will be a thing but we could see other mechanics that don’t have a lot of support appear. And on the note of snow particular it has had like 3-4 sets and has two commanders you can build around. On kiora she’s bound to get more versions and she wouldn’t necessarily receive support in a supplemental set which is reserved more for characters who are either dead or who do not fit in the current canon like Aminatou who is too powerful to fit the story. I am saying this not in a sarcastic way but more out of curiosity What not dominaria based legend are you wanting? They have fulfilled other legends such as feather in a standard set.
All I wanted was a Commander set that isn't locked into one plane, and most certainly not to one external franchise from MTG.
yeah but aren’t you more interested in Theros and Kamigawa lore anyways? We were just at Theros and we’re going to Kamigawa. I don’t know I loved the Adventures in the forgotten realms set, and am excited for more of it I do wish it were more more openended cuz I really want a card for Strahd. I think people are over doing it about their hatred of universes beyond. No one on the site is 100% in love with every plane or every piece of lore. So if the flavor of a set doesn’t make you happy just wait until the next set.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
"What was the rationale for setting the next commander legends in Balders Gate? From the original commander legends reactions it seems there were a number of MTG legends that people still wanted to see printed whereas Elminster seemed to be the only one that I really saw people missing from AFR. Balders Gate is also just one city in the forgotten realms so presumably this limits options for legends vs the whole of the forgotten realms or other worlds/settings like Greyhawk or Eberron?"
"The second Commander Legends needed a theme and we thought the audience would enjoy another D&D set. There are going to be many opportunities to make more legendary characters from Magic’s past. We even have a whole premier expansion coming, Brothers War, set in the past with a lot of Magic characters people have been asking for."
Here's a good "theme" for Commander Legends 2.
Good Commander reprints.
Planeswalkers like Kiora we're unlikely to see for a while.
Past Legends that aren't locked to Dominaria during the Brother's War era.
New takes on popular Commanders.
Partner reprints that aren't in foil and certainly not etched foil.
Popular Commander mechanics and themes we won't see for a time, such as Snow.
So a few notes. Mechanics and themes are not necessarily tied to Magic’s worlds. I don’t think snow will be a thing but we could see other mechanics that don’t have a lot of support appear. And on the note of snow particular it has had like 3-4 sets and has two commanders you can build around. On kiora she’s bound to get more versions and she wouldn’t necessarily receive support in a supplemental set which is reserved more for characters who are either dead or who do not fit in the current canon like Aminatou who is too powerful to fit the story. I am saying this not in a sarcastic way but more out of curiosity What not dominaria based legend are you wanting? They have fulfilled other legends such as feather in a standard set.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
You know what, I’m going to speculate on something that we are going to get an answer to relatively soon.
The showcase stressed that Olivia will be marrying a mystery suitor and I am going full genre-savvy to try predicting things.
Olivia is trying to “marry” the moon. While the set may initially show us another vampire groom, Olivia will kill/sacrifice that groom and end up “marrying” the moon.
Being married in a way that would give her a traditional husband would be against brand for Olivia and creating a blood moon (and the set will be releasing on a blood moon, btw) may somehow give her influence over werewolves in addition to vampires, making her the undisputed ruler of innistrad.
Seems like exactly the sort of thing Wizards would do.
While I think that you may be on to something as far as it being non traditional I think that the ceremony is some how going to empower the Voldaran and Markov bloodlines. Based off of the art of the collector booster for Crimson Vow it looks like Olivia and Edgar and seems more evocative of the ritual that created the vampires on Innistrad Blood Tribute. I think that there is too much bad blood between Olivia and Sorin for even a marriage of convenience. Before we got Mob Nixilis and that art was revealed I thought it could have possibly be him.
Considering what Olivia did for fun it is equally as likely she just kidnapped some poor nobody and plans to cut him up like a wedding cake after they say "I do."
They already do something like that on a regular basis. The court of the vampire king/queen is a three day holiday where they kidnap a human where they are treated as a king and all of there requests are given besides any that let them get away. At the end of the three days all of the vampires feed on the king/queen. They may have already revealed she is getting married to a Markhov according to this wiki https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Innistrad:_Crimson_Vow#cite_note-11. I just watched the segment on the Magic Showcase on Crimson Vow and the wedding does seem like a merging of power in order to take over Innistrad so I'm 99% convinced that she is marrying Edgar.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
You know what, I’m going to speculate on something that we are going to get an answer to relatively soon.
The showcase stressed that Olivia will be marrying a mystery suitor and I am going full genre-savvy to try predicting things.
Olivia is trying to “marry” the moon. While the set may initially show us another vampire groom, Olivia will kill/sacrifice that groom and end up “marrying” the moon.
Being married in a way that would give her a traditional husband would be against brand for Olivia and creating a blood moon (and the set will be releasing on a blood moon, btw) may somehow give her influence over werewolves in addition to vampires, making her the undisputed ruler of innistrad.
Seems like exactly the sort of thing Wizards would do.
While I think that you may be on to something as far as it being non traditional I think that the ceremony is some how going to empower the Voldaran and Markov bloodlines. Based off of the art of the collector booster for Crimson Vow it looks like Olivia and Edgar and seems more evocative of the ritual that created the vampires on Innistrad Blood Tribute. I think that there is too much bad blood between Olivia and Sorin for even a marriage of convenience. Before we got Mob Nixilis and that art was revealed I thought it could have possibly be him.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
Ok I have to ask, who plays Magic the Gathering and Fortnite or otherwise be interested in that outer worlds product?
The only thing I can think is that it is WOTC trying to get more players.
I have nephews who love fortnite and I might get the secret lair to get them more interested in playing magic. I think there’s probably some who are fans of both especially since the advent of arena.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I wonder how they're going to justify the lore we've already seen from current day Kamigawa. Because we know that there are sections that aren't all cyberpunked from the stories about Tamiyo and her children.
Could Tamiyo be the Emperor?
Tamiyo the observer being Empress seems quite out of character to me.
The Sisters of Flesh and Spirit somehow figuring out how to planeswalk would be spicy, but part of me dreads Nicol Bolas finally tracking the Umezawas back to where they came from, escaping his Prison Realm, and becoming Emperor. (Honestly, Bolas not getting killed off still smells like Wizards left open the opportunity for him to come back, and him coming back might only be a matter of time.)
Someone else mentioned Oko as a possibility; IMO, the only way Oko is on the Emperor's throne is if he usurped it. While the flavour behind Oko definitely sounds like the faerie(/Yosei?) faction he came from espouses Asiatic philosophies of harmony, I suspect Wizards left his home plane open instead of fixing it on Kamigawa.
I would like to offer another possibility:
Kamigawa has clearly went through an increase in technology. Who do we know who loves technology, craves power, has a history of infiltrating other planes, and recently lost the only boss who could keep his plans in check?
That's right, Tezzeret.
hmm I will give you points for that
i think all 4 sets will have phyrexian arch including innistrad
and tezzert is believed to be the culprit that got vorinclex to kaldheim since he entered as if he went threw the planar bridge
so him and jin probably went together to kamigawa
I can see them be a big part of the two dominaria sets but I really really really don’t want them to have anything to do with the Innistrad or kamigawa sets. You have to remember that people weren’t very happy with how the eldrazi affected zendikars or Innistrads last return and they’re already trying something new with kamigawa. I think if they do anything it should be bread crumbs that lead to them but I don’t want completed werewolves or ninjas.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
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In my opinion pioneer is dying due to two reasons, the rona and historic. I think a lot of people like myself started around return to ravnica days and have physical collections that they can’t really play with. My lgs hasn’t returned to paper magic and last I was there was using the play area as storage. (It’s still doing very well cuz it also is a comic book store). Historic on arena is a lot easier to get into in my opinion than pioneer would be on mtgo. I think they’re are focusing on commander for two reasons. You can still play commander with family and friends even if you can’t go to an lgs. The other is fairly obvious $$$. I do agree with the idea that they should have digital redemption codes in all of their products.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
yeah but aren’t you more interested in Theros and Kamigawa lore anyways? We were just at Theros and we’re going to Kamigawa. I don’t know I loved the Adventures in the forgotten realms set, and am excited for more of it I do wish it were more more openended cuz I really want a card for Strahd. I think people are over doing it about their hatred of universes beyond. No one on the site is 100% in love with every plane or every piece of lore. So if the flavor of a set doesn’t make you happy just wait until the next set.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
So a few notes. Mechanics and themes are not necessarily tied to Magic’s worlds. I don’t think snow will be a thing but we could see other mechanics that don’t have a lot of support appear. And on the note of snow particular it has had like 3-4 sets and has two commanders you can build around. On kiora she’s bound to get more versions and she wouldn’t necessarily receive support in a supplemental set which is reserved more for characters who are either dead or who do not fit in the current canon like Aminatou who is too powerful to fit the story. I am saying this not in a sarcastic way but more out of curiosity What not dominaria based legend are you wanting? They have fulfilled other legends such as feather in a standard set.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
They already do something like that on a regular basis. The court of the vampire king/queen is a three day holiday where they kidnap a human where they are treated as a king and all of there requests are given besides any that let them get away. At the end of the three days all of the vampires feed on the king/queen. They may have already revealed she is getting married to a Markhov according to this wiki https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Innistrad:_Crimson_Vow#cite_note-11. I just watched the segment on the Magic Showcase on Crimson Vow and the wedding does seem like a merging of power in order to take over Innistrad so I'm 99% convinced that she is marrying Edgar.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
While I think that you may be on to something as far as it being non traditional I think that the ceremony is some how going to empower the Voldaran and Markov bloodlines. Based off of the art of the collector booster for Crimson Vow it looks like Olivia and Edgar and seems more evocative of the ritual that created the vampires on Innistrad Blood Tribute. I think that there is too much bad blood between Olivia and Sorin for even a marriage of convenience. Before we got Mob Nixilis and that art was revealed I thought it could have possibly be him.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I have nephews who love fortnite and I might get the secret lair to get them more interested in playing magic. I think there’s probably some who are fans of both especially since the advent of arena.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I can see them be a big part of the two dominaria sets but I really really really don’t want them to have anything to do with the Innistrad or kamigawa sets. You have to remember that people weren’t very happy with how the eldrazi affected zendikars or Innistrads last return and they’re already trying something new with kamigawa. I think if they do anything it should be bread crumbs that lead to them but I don’t want completed werewolves or ninjas.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone