So, my first pass through this thread, I missed that Tishana's Wayfinder was a Merfolk. I'm pretty interested in that now, particularly after watching a few U/G Merfolk videos a few days ago. I love the deck, but it could use some legs at times.
NO BLOODY WAY I WOULD LET MY 13-YEAR OLD BE OUT BY HERSELF AT 11:00 PM.
Hell, when I was 13, at 11:00 my ass was asleep! I remember now Yu-Gi-Oh events on Thursdays at the shop where I used to work ending about 11:00 now that you mention it. No way in hell my parents would have let me do that as a kid, particularly around the sorts of folks who play Yu-Gi-Oh.
I don`t even get it. People that want foil tokens are social justice warriors? Or are WotC SJWs for taking away the regular promos? What the heck are you talking about?
Way to conflate two wholly separate things going on at WotC. Here's your participation prize.
...They're putting their core to the backburner to try and support newcomers and casuals...The vets, the core, are the ones who will play year after year, buy into each and every set released, including supplemental products, yet Wizards is throwing them to the side as if they don't matter.
Wizards seems to be so focused on trying to please everyone that they'll end up pleasing no one. Worst of all, they have this arrogance about their core, that they'll continue to play no matter what. And this the same with regards to all the other SJW tactics they've been pulling. The core is most important. Period. Throw away your core, you have nothing. Make any changes that have a clear negative effect on your core, like this, and you lose your core, the people who will spend hundreds or even thousands on your products ever year.
It's like this entire post came out of my own mouth. You nailed almost every reason why I still play Magic (When I have the chance), but I don't buy Magic anymore. I used to buy every Fat Pack, every Deckbuilders Toolkit, I read some of the books, I collect old ass strategy guides from the early days. I've been playing Fallen Empires, and not only that, the lore and themes of Fallen Empires is what made me love the game.
I look behind me, and I see Fat Pack boxes from Time Spiral through Oath of the Gatewatch (minus Coldsnap and Dragons of Tarkir). Ravinca gift boxes slapped full of cards. But what does this all mean to me now? It means I need to clean my office and get rid of this *****, because I don't care anymore, for exactly the reasons you detailed. They've absolutely alienated long time players, at least all the ones I know.
I have no idea why these companies keep piling on the SJW tactics, because it's a losing move every single time. Colleges enrollment tanks. Target stock prices fell. Uber hired Eric Holder and made this shift, and now they're in trouble despite how they grew. Mass Effect Andromeda was a laughing stock. How, how have these people not realized these two simple, key facts about this: A) It alienates your customer base, and B) SJW's don't buy the ***** they ***** about in the first place. They are not your customers and never will be.
But no, let's keep making sets more bland, let's take away things like Magic Player Rewards, let's continue to push Standard Showdown like it's Roman Reigns, let's lessen rewards on MTGO because it's totally not already a disaster, and now let's give out double sided tokens instead of cool promo cards with alt art.
I swear it's like Eddie Lampert is running the show. Wait, no, he's smart enough to be running a massive real estate con.
So no, WotC, I'm not buying your crap anymore after 23 years. Last thing I bought was the Aether Revolt prerelease, and that was only because it was my local comic book store's first event and I wanted to support the shop. And you know what? He hasn't done another one since. It wasn't worth it to a store owner to run an event. How ****ed up is that?
The gist of it is, well, here, in Blake Rasmussen's own words:
Let's take one of the comments I heard and the general sentiment among those who didn't like the change: "We just want relevant, playable FNM promos." The implication is that the player community as a whole will attend more FNMs if the promos are better. Except it's not true.
So the answer is to make even *****tier promos? To remove data from their site? To request that other sites not provide deck lists and information? This ******* company. Someone above compared them to Games Workshop and my word, is it ever apt.
Calling them Prophecies would have made too much sense I guess. If that name was a problem, hardly anyone remembers the expansion anyway.
The Bolas print looks awesome, and I wish WotC would just drop the stupid ass style guides and let the artists loose a bit so we can have nice things like that again. I like the style of the promos too. Reminds me of Ascension which is a great game.
As for the mural:
Jace is going to get shot by the M:tG police after robbing a liquor store and assaulting the police with a psychic attack but he a good boy din' do nuffin.
Liliana is going to be a Slave of Bolas because that is very original.
Nissa is going to be cellmates with Emrakul.
Chandra is going to be sick of being a discount Jaya Ballard, and go off and make a new group of friends because these other guys are total boring dorks.
Gideon is going to get the Leshrac treatment, and we'll finally be rid of him for a set or two before he makes his triumphant return because M:tG story makes comic books look like Tolstoy.
Oh wow, since I don't pay attention to Commander crap, I didn't know that the art on the lands was reused. I mean, they're nice looking, but FFS commission some new art for a promo.
This thing is hot garbage. WotC wtf are you even doing anymore?
I think it really puts into perspective just how absurd creatures have become when people are poo-pooing this.
False. Primeval Titan is absurd. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is absurd. Steppe Lynx is infinitely more absurd. The only place this will ever see play is in a janky desert-themed deck at your kitchen table. They've been constantly watering down this game more and more since OG Zendikar.
Thanks for proving my point entirely. There was a period where this would be one of the best creatures in the game. Erhnam Djinn and Lhurgoyf used to be top dogs. This is leagues better than them.
So yes, it puts into perspective how absurd creatures have become.
The answer is still no. No matter how many times you try to justify it. I'm sick of consolidation. I'm sick of merging accounts. I'm sick of crap like Arc and Glyph. I'm sick of websites asking for too much information. If I'm forced to merge MTG Salvation and Twitch, I just won't use either. Several people have mentioned not having Twitch accounts, and no desire to have one. This nonsense coupled with stifling, biased overmoderation on the site is going to be the death of it, and good riddance if that's the future.
It may be the "biggest", but does that matter when it's mostly atrocious? It's like dredging through a sewer to find jewelry that accidentally fell down the drain.
Considering everything else lately, that actually increases my opinion of WotC a little bit.
Hell, when I was 13, at 11:00 my ass was asleep! I remember now Yu-Gi-Oh events on Thursdays at the shop where I used to work ending about 11:00 now that you mention it. No way in hell my parents would have let me do that as a kid, particularly around the sorts of folks who play Yu-Gi-Oh.
Man, imagine if WotC got smart and offered him a job related to these kinds of changes.
Way to conflate two wholly separate things going on at WotC. Here's your participation prize.
It's like this entire post came out of my own mouth. You nailed almost every reason why I still play Magic (When I have the chance), but I don't buy Magic anymore. I used to buy every Fat Pack, every Deckbuilders Toolkit, I read some of the books, I collect old ass strategy guides from the early days. I've been playing Fallen Empires, and not only that, the lore and themes of Fallen Empires is what made me love the game.
I look behind me, and I see Fat Pack boxes from Time Spiral through Oath of the Gatewatch (minus Coldsnap and Dragons of Tarkir). Ravinca gift boxes slapped full of cards. But what does this all mean to me now? It means I need to clean my office and get rid of this *****, because I don't care anymore, for exactly the reasons you detailed. They've absolutely alienated long time players, at least all the ones I know.
I have no idea why these companies keep piling on the SJW tactics, because it's a losing move every single time. Colleges enrollment tanks. Target stock prices fell. Uber hired Eric Holder and made this shift, and now they're in trouble despite how they grew. Mass Effect Andromeda was a laughing stock. How, how have these people not realized these two simple, key facts about this: A) It alienates your customer base, and B) SJW's don't buy the ***** they ***** about in the first place. They are not your customers and never will be.
But no, let's keep making sets more bland, let's take away things like Magic Player Rewards, let's continue to push Standard Showdown like it's Roman Reigns, let's lessen rewards on MTGO because it's totally not already a disaster, and now let's give out double sided tokens instead of cool promo cards with alt art.
I swear it's like Eddie Lampert is running the show. Wait, no, he's smart enough to be running a massive real estate con.
So no, WotC, I'm not buying your crap anymore after 23 years. Last thing I bought was the Aether Revolt prerelease, and that was only because it was my local comic book store's first event and I wanted to support the shop. And you know what? He hasn't done another one since. It wasn't worth it to a store owner to run an event. How ****ed up is that?
So the answer is to make even *****tier promos? To remove data from their site? To request that other sites not provide deck lists and information? This ******* company. Someone above compared them to Games Workshop and my word, is it ever apt.
Calling them Prophecies would have made too much sense I guess. If that name was a problem, hardly anyone remembers the expansion anyway.
The Bolas print looks awesome, and I wish WotC would just drop the stupid ass style guides and let the artists loose a bit so we can have nice things like that again. I like the style of the promos too. Reminds me of Ascension which is a great game.
As for the mural:
Jace is going to get shot by the M:tG police after robbing a liquor store and assaulting the police with a psychic attack but he a good boy din' do nuffin.
Liliana is going to be a Slave of Bolas because that is very original.
Nissa is going to be cellmates with Emrakul.
Chandra is going to be sick of being a discount Jaya Ballard, and go off and make a new group of friends because these other guys are total boring dorks.
Gideon is going to get the Leshrac treatment, and we'll finally be rid of him for a set or two before he makes his triumphant return because M:tG story makes comic books look like Tolstoy.
This thing is hot garbage. WotC wtf are you even doing anymore?
The box where the name of the card is has some wacky perspective issues.
Thanks for proving my point entirely. There was a period where this would be one of the best creatures in the game. Erhnam Djinn and Lhurgoyf used to be top dogs. This is leagues better than them.
So yes, it puts into perspective how absurd creatures have become.