There are currently no proposed bills in either the House or the Senate which address loot boxes. Two or three pieces of proposed legislation have been introduced into the Hawaii State Legislature but none of them have been passed as of yet.
Truthfully, this is single most interesting topic I have ever seen posted on this forum. I am the mod of the politics/news/current events forum elsewhere; I think I will create a new thread to highlight this issue.
Really we should all show some discipline along these lines. Refrain from buying so the prices come down then buy 3 to 6 months out in moderation as to not drive prices too high. That's asking a lot to say the least.
That depends entirely upon the personality of the person in question.
If you were WOTC/Hasbro and you were trying to squeeze the secondary market (mostly: hobby stores with online presence) so that you could take it over, how would you go about doing it? Without declaring your intention and sparking insane outrage?
Partner with a private equity firm to set up shell corporation A which, in turn, owns shell corporation B, then use shell B to start having a large presence in the secondary market, buying as much as you can afford in both singles and sealed product. Make the initial budget something along the lines of, oh, $5 million to $10 million (or at lot more, if you can afford it), make people really great offers on your buy list (perhaps something like full value for M/NM, 80% for SP, and 65% for HP), and offer to match any other online seller's price and that should be a good start. Finally, and here is the icing on the cake, have your sales team at WotC convince their bosses over at Hasbro to "force" WotC to abandon the reserved list, allowing reprints of those cards but make them an exclusive offer only through shell corporation B and that should lock most other venues out of the secondary market.
I concur. Now that I think about it, I hope none of you buy anything from this release. That way, I can wait 2 or 3 months for the prices to plummet then buy the individual cards I want at a decent discount.
People are complaining because the company is not communicating and getting to know what their audience actually wants and needs as far as the game goes. Their solution to trying to fix magic has been to try to force people into a different way of playing the game than keeping up with the evolution of the game, and their lack of balancing constructed needs with their draft sets has created a ton of friction with the player base. It's tiring to see so many people complain all the time, but they have every right to do so.
Surely WotC has people who lurk on all the boards, watch the videos, and so on--they cannot be oblivious to what the community wants.
As far as "a different way of playing the game" versus "the evolution of the game"...wouldn't that be a matter of personal opinion? Playing the game differently...how? No one could design a set which will satisfy aggro players, midrange players, and control players all at the same time. An entire format...probably so, yes. I couldn't do it and I freely admit that. Meanwhile, aren't the ideas of Vintage, Legacy, and Modern so that the game *doesn't* evolve? With the exception of BR Hollow One the last few Modern tournaments I have watched have pretty much all been the same--the same decks played by the same people, over and over again. Standard has built-in evolution because of set rotation...but sometimes a new set becoming available doesn't change the situation much--the best decks after RIX were still Energy and Red.
Again, I am not saying that players shouldn't voice their opinions. That being said, consider if Magic were like your marriage. If you complained about most the decisions your spouse made then after a while the resentment would begin to settle in and, before you know it, you are being served divorce papers and trying to find a new place to live. (this is not happening in real life, mind you, and is only an example to explain the situation)
It's just that more thought needs to be put into what they print.
They put plenty of thought into what they print. The problem right now is the same problem every time a set is being spoiled--too many players are upset because they aren't getting exactly what they think they should be getting.
As far as environmental impact...cardboard is paper and thus biodegradable. The plastic wrapping could probably be recycled but I suppose they could try to switch to some sort of paper packaging, as well. I have no idea what that might do to the cost of the product, though.
I meant to put a comment like this is the other thread about what WotC should do to improve the game but I am not going down that rabbit hole. The overall position I had was that WotC doesn't need to do anything to improve the game; instead, the players need to quit complaining about every single decision that WotC makes...or doesn't make. A card gets spoiled--"this card sucks! It is unplayable in (insert pet format here)" or "that card is strictly worse than (insert pet card from a previously-released set which came out 5, 10, or 15 years ago). A card gets unbanned--"what the--?! they are only unbanning it to make money" (they are a corporation, after all--they are in the business of making money, not making cards) or if a card gets banned--"they hate my deck because it can reliably combo off on turn 3". (well, yes--everyone hates your deck)
I am not saying that players should fawn over all of WotC's decisions, but neither are they the Illuminati. Just roll with it.
I never said "stack the deck with all those cards". Someone thought it would be nice if white had non-enchantment removal so I listed some of the options which are available. Whether anyone uses them is an entirely different matter altogether.
Countervailing Winds is playable, but there's quite a few decks running Scavenger Grounds. Having a counter basically rendered useless by a graveyard exile effect is not a good feeling.
True. Not every card or strategy is perfect.
Anyway...back on topic...does anyone else find it strangely curious that they banned Rogue Refiner when they knew Tocatli Honor Guard already existed? Especially when the guard also stops the most negative part of Rampaging Ferocidon?
Average cmc of creatures in Standard which have power >= 3: 4.46 (you may take my word for it or you can calculate that number for yourself; there are 351 of them out of about 711 in total, not counting creatures which are listed as */* or 0/0). Skywhaler's Shot. Given this set of circumstances, the removal is definitely more efficient that the creatures necessitating it. You even get a free scry.
Creatures coming in to attack? Impeccable Timing if they are smaller (average cmc of creatures which are x/3 or less = 2.81), Sandblast if they are bigger (average cmc of creatures which are x/5 or less = 3.17; there are 673 creatures in this category), or Farm in any other instance (average cmc of all creatures in Standard = 3.36). These also deal with blocking creatures, of course.
Your opponent cast Hazoret? Let her attack, chump-block her, Slaughter the Strong, then see if have another copy in hand. Tokens starting to get out of hand? Time for a reduced-cost Hour of Revelation.
Sufficient answers exist. I suspect the problem comes from people still trying to view Standard through the lens of Modern and the two formats are simply different beasts.
Counterspells? I see a lot of blue players using Search for Azcanta but *not* using Countervailing Winds. They are already looking to put >= 7 cards in the graveyard, so why not "counter target spell unless your opponent pays 5 (or 6, or 7, or more)"? Actually, I know why they don't--it is because they read an article which told them "don't use that".
Looking at that infographic reminds me of one of the very few things in my life I actually regret--I wish I had not stopped being involved in Magic back in 1995.
Are they doing it because Pauper is hot at the moment, or are they trying hard to make it look hot at the moment? I don’t know. All I know is this was all done at the same time pauper cards were spiking like crazy.
Probably both. The real question is this: is Pauper being hot right now a bad thing? I would say that the answer is "no"--it gets people to tournaments, it generates interest in cards or sets people might not have looked at before, people enjoy playing it, etc. The fact that some people are going to make money in the secondary market because of Pauper's current popularity is irrelevant--some people are *always* going to make money in the secondary market regardless of what is going on.
Truthfully, this is single most interesting topic I have ever seen posted on this forum. I am the mod of the politics/news/current events forum elsewhere; I think I will create a new thread to highlight this issue.
That depends entirely upon the personality of the person in question.
Partner with a private equity firm to set up shell corporation A which, in turn, owns shell corporation B, then use shell B to start having a large presence in the secondary market, buying as much as you can afford in both singles and sealed product. Make the initial budget something along the lines of, oh, $5 million to $10 million (or at lot more, if you can afford it), make people really great offers on your buy list (perhaps something like full value for M/NM, 80% for SP, and 65% for HP), and offer to match any other online seller's price and that should be a good start. Finally, and here is the icing on the cake, have your sales team at WotC convince their bosses over at Hasbro to "force" WotC to abandon the reserved list, allowing reprints of those cards but make them an exclusive offer only through shell corporation B and that should lock most other venues out of the secondary market.
Possible? Sure. Likely? Of course not.
Surely WotC has people who lurk on all the boards, watch the videos, and so on--they cannot be oblivious to what the community wants.
As far as "a different way of playing the game" versus "the evolution of the game"...wouldn't that be a matter of personal opinion? Playing the game differently...how? No one could design a set which will satisfy aggro players, midrange players, and control players all at the same time. An entire format...probably so, yes. I couldn't do it and I freely admit that. Meanwhile, aren't the ideas of Vintage, Legacy, and Modern so that the game *doesn't* evolve? With the exception of BR Hollow One the last few Modern tournaments I have watched have pretty much all been the same--the same decks played by the same people, over and over again. Standard has built-in evolution because of set rotation...but sometimes a new set becoming available doesn't change the situation much--the best decks after RIX were still Energy and Red.
Again, I am not saying that players shouldn't voice their opinions. That being said, consider if Magic were like your marriage. If you complained about most the decisions your spouse made then after a while the resentment would begin to settle in and, before you know it, you are being served divorce papers and trying to find a new place to live. (this is not happening in real life, mind you, and is only an example to explain the situation)
They put plenty of thought into what they print. The problem right now is the same problem every time a set is being spoiled--too many players are upset because they aren't getting exactly what they think they should be getting.
As far as environmental impact...cardboard is paper and thus biodegradable. The plastic wrapping could probably be recycled but I suppose they could try to switch to some sort of paper packaging, as well. I have no idea what that might do to the cost of the product, though.
I am not saying that players should fawn over all of WotC's decisions, but neither are they the Illuminati. Just roll with it.
That depends upon your point of view, as well as whether or not you have a Soul-Scar Mage on the battlefield.
True. Not every card or strategy is perfect.
Anyway...back on topic...does anyone else find it strangely curious that they banned Rogue Refiner when they knew Tocatli Honor Guard already existed? Especially when the guard also stops the most negative part of Rampaging Ferocidon?
Average cmc of creatures in Standard which have power >= 3: 4.46 (you may take my word for it or you can calculate that number for yourself; there are 351 of them out of about 711 in total, not counting creatures which are listed as */* or 0/0). Skywhaler's Shot. Given this set of circumstances, the removal is definitely more efficient that the creatures necessitating it. You even get a free scry.
Creatures coming in to attack? Impeccable Timing if they are smaller (average cmc of creatures which are x/3 or less = 2.81), Sandblast if they are bigger (average cmc of creatures which are x/5 or less = 3.17; there are 673 creatures in this category), or Farm in any other instance (average cmc of all creatures in Standard = 3.36). These also deal with blocking creatures, of course.
Your opponent cast Hazoret? Let her attack, chump-block her, Slaughter the Strong, then see if have another copy in hand. Tokens starting to get out of hand? Time for a reduced-cost Hour of Revelation.
Sufficient answers exist. I suspect the problem comes from people still trying to view Standard through the lens of Modern and the two formats are simply different beasts.
Counterspells? I see a lot of blue players using Search for Azcanta but *not* using Countervailing Winds. They are already looking to put >= 7 cards in the graveyard, so why not "counter target spell unless your opponent pays 5 (or 6, or 7, or more)"? Actually, I know why they don't--it is because they read an article which told them "don't use that".
Probably both. The real question is this: is Pauper being hot right now a bad thing? I would say that the answer is "no"--it gets people to tournaments, it generates interest in cards or sets people might not have looked at before, people enjoy playing it, etc. The fact that some people are going to make money in the secondary market because of Pauper's current popularity is irrelevant--some people are *always* going to make money in the secondary market regardless of what is going on.