I hate playing Control. It just seems that delay, delay, delay, is a boring game. I like games that move forward, decks that DO things. Aggro and Tempo are my favorites to play, and to play against.
Then again, I'm currently playing Grixis Control and G/U tempo. What I really like are decks nobody's playing, decks that nobody expects. I enjoy playing jank and homebrew, even though it tends to lose a lot more often than the top decks everyone else plays.
It just seems like you want good cards at a cheap price. Play a different game if you want to get everything for cheap. Why would they want they most useful cards in the game to be easy to obtain?
Because they can't afford the perception that the game belongs solely to those with a few thousand dollars to spend?
Standard isn't so bad, with even the best cards rarely staying above $20. Not surprisingly, this is also the most popular format. Modern, though, has cards that go for enough money to present a real barrier to competitive play. I'm actually curious to see what "Legacy Masters" does on MODO. I suspect that it will reveal that a lot of players WANT to play legacy, but the money sink involved in playing prevents it.
It really is in WotC's best interests to keep formats accessible, drawing in and retaining as many players as possible. They can interfere in the secondary market to keep the barrier to entry low, or they can allow things to go on as they are, which leads to Legacy-range prices and FAR fewer players.
Wizards has said they want Modern to expand. The only way to do that is to keep the staples accessible, and that means reprinting them. reprinting them enough to meet demand at least of those who want to play competitively. Modern Masters needs to be a regular thing, and it needs to be printed in sufficient quantities to actually impact the prices of Modern. Anything else is insufficient, and will undermine their stated goal of expanding modern.
I wasn't clear in my last post: I didn't mean for WotC to sell complete sets direct to consumer.. I was suggesting they sell them alongside boosters.
I'm one of the people who buys a box with each new set release. If I had the option of buying a booster box for $100, or buying a single complete set, I'd buy the complete set, then have to turn around and buy 3 more. I'd likely buy them from the LGS (and this really SHOULD be LGS-only as a specialty product.) Not sure what the price point should be for something like this. I'd lean towards around $70 - less than the price of a box, but guaranteed non-random complete sets. If they really wanted to push things, they could print both regular sets and full-foil sets.
This satisfies the people who want to play Constructed: no lottery, no having to buy singles (although they certainly still could, and prices would likely be a LOT more stable with the option to just go buy a complete set.)
People who play Limited still have the Booster packs option, as well as people who want to play casually or just play the lottery on packs. Big-box stores likely wouldn't carry the full sets because of limited demand for them, and the print run would have to be sufficient to demand to prevent any large online warehouses from buying up enough to artificially create a shortage.
I really think Wizards should stay completely out of the singles market. They should not sell individual cards, not to stores and not to players. That's asking for problems when they can control supply completely. If WotC decided to start selling individual cards, for a profit, then Marketing would be crazy to NOT push for special printings, functionally unique cards, and anything else they thought they could get away with. SDCC planeswalkers? Judge promos? Full-arts? All available only through the Wizards Store! Pass, thanks.
And why would they do this? WotC wants you to play standard. They dont want you to play Legacy, or T1 or even Modern on a regular basis. Standard drives booster sales. Therefore their business depends on Standard being the most popular format. If Modern or heaven forbid Legacy was the most popular format, WotC would not sell nearly as many boosters as they currently do even if the player base was slightly larger.
1: Pretty sure WotC wants you to play Limited, if they had a choice. THAT drives booster sales.
2: I WotC printed packs like this, Modern staples, they'd actually make money on the format from people buying those packs.
The biggest problem I see is that for Standard, the same advice always crops up: "Don't buy packs. Buy singles." This common admission that packs aren't worth buying is what's non-obvious.
WotC COULD release product as factory sets, at a competitive MSRP, which would incidentally set a price ceiling for singles of a set. Instead, they let the demand for specific cards be filled by the secondary market rather than catering to the demand themselves. I've referred to it as printing money for the resellers: Wizards could make money with factory sets, but for some reason chooses to forego that profit and pass it on to resellers instead. I simply don't understand why any business would see a demand for their product, something they already make, and let a third party make money on it instead.
Casual 4-player game. This was before the 6e rules changes, specifically at the time it was legal to continue at 0 life until the end of a phase.
T1: Forest, elf, pass
T2: swamp, dark ritual(x2), channel, initiates of the ebon hand. Channel 20 life through initiates to make 20 black, cast drain life for 20. Back at 20 life, continue to use channel to turn all 20 life back into mana, then into black mana. Drain life the NEXT player for 20.
I died pretty fast after that, but burning through 9 cards and 2 opponents in 2 turns is something I still remember 15 years later.
My favorite card is Library of Lat-Nam. It's always fun to watch newer players have to read the card 3-4 times, then try to decide what to do about it.
Then again, I'm currently playing Grixis Control and G/U tempo. What I really like are decks nobody's playing, decks that nobody expects. I enjoy playing jank and homebrew, even though it tends to lose a lot more often than the top decks everyone else plays.
Because they can't afford the perception that the game belongs solely to those with a few thousand dollars to spend?
Standard isn't so bad, with even the best cards rarely staying above $20. Not surprisingly, this is also the most popular format. Modern, though, has cards that go for enough money to present a real barrier to competitive play. I'm actually curious to see what "Legacy Masters" does on MODO. I suspect that it will reveal that a lot of players WANT to play legacy, but the money sink involved in playing prevents it.
It really is in WotC's best interests to keep formats accessible, drawing in and retaining as many players as possible. They can interfere in the secondary market to keep the barrier to entry low, or they can allow things to go on as they are, which leads to Legacy-range prices and FAR fewer players.
Wizards has said they want Modern to expand. The only way to do that is to keep the staples accessible, and that means reprinting them. reprinting them enough to meet demand at least of those who want to play competitively. Modern Masters needs to be a regular thing, and it needs to be printed in sufficient quantities to actually impact the prices of Modern. Anything else is insufficient, and will undermine their stated goal of expanding modern.
I'm one of the people who buys a box with each new set release. If I had the option of buying a booster box for $100, or buying a single complete set, I'd buy the complete set, then have to turn around and buy 3 more. I'd likely buy them from the LGS (and this really SHOULD be LGS-only as a specialty product.) Not sure what the price point should be for something like this. I'd lean towards around $70 - less than the price of a box, but guaranteed non-random complete sets. If they really wanted to push things, they could print both regular sets and full-foil sets.
This satisfies the people who want to play Constructed: no lottery, no having to buy singles (although they certainly still could, and prices would likely be a LOT more stable with the option to just go buy a complete set.)
People who play Limited still have the Booster packs option, as well as people who want to play casually or just play the lottery on packs. Big-box stores likely wouldn't carry the full sets because of limited demand for them, and the print run would have to be sufficient to demand to prevent any large online warehouses from buying up enough to artificially create a shortage.
I really think Wizards should stay completely out of the singles market. They should not sell individual cards, not to stores and not to players. That's asking for problems when they can control supply completely. If WotC decided to start selling individual cards, for a profit, then Marketing would be crazy to NOT push for special printings, functionally unique cards, and anything else they thought they could get away with. SDCC planeswalkers? Judge promos? Full-arts? All available only through the Wizards Store! Pass, thanks.
1: Pretty sure WotC wants you to play Limited, if they had a choice. THAT drives booster sales.
2: I WotC printed packs like this, Modern staples, they'd actually make money on the format from people buying those packs.
The biggest problem I see is that for Standard, the same advice always crops up: "Don't buy packs. Buy singles." This common admission that packs aren't worth buying is what's non-obvious.
WotC COULD release product as factory sets, at a competitive MSRP, which would incidentally set a price ceiling for singles of a set. Instead, they let the demand for specific cards be filled by the secondary market rather than catering to the demand themselves. I've referred to it as printing money for the resellers: Wizards could make money with factory sets, but for some reason chooses to forego that profit and pass it on to resellers instead. I simply don't understand why any business would see a demand for their product, something they already make, and let a third party make money on it instead.
Casual 4-player game. This was before the 6e rules changes, specifically at the time it was legal to continue at 0 life until the end of a phase.
T1: Forest, elf, pass
T2: swamp, dark ritual(x2), channel, initiates of the ebon hand. Channel 20 life through initiates to make 20 black, cast drain life for 20. Back at 20 life, continue to use channel to turn all 20 life back into mana, then into black mana. Drain life the NEXT player for 20.
I died pretty fast after that, but burning through 9 cards and 2 opponents in 2 turns is something I still remember 15 years later.