I believe at least some of the fault lies with Wizards reducing how much public metagame data is available. In theory it makes sense that you'd get more variety in decks by making it unclear what the optimal strategy is, but in practice I've seen the opposite: without knowing exactly what you're playing against it's hard to know what to build your deck for. You don't see nearly as many attempts to "beat the meta" because the meta is so weak.
It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
I believe at least some of the fault lies with Wizards reducing how much public metagame data is available. In theory it makes sense that you'd get more variety in decks by making it unclear what the optimal strategy is, but in practice I've seen the opposite: without knowing exactly what you're playing against it's hard to know what to build your deck for. You don't see nearly as many attempts to "beat the meta" because the meta is so weak.
It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
Finally, I don't know if this applies to others, but I find all the novelty mechanics tiresome. I don't want "brick counters" if all they are there for is to make things sound egyptian. Also, not making one, but three different versions of the same thing with Etherium Cells, Treasures, and Gold? Why the heck can I sacrifice treasure and gold for colored mana? At least the first actually makes sense. At least Wastes and Snow lands added something to their respective sets that likely will endure the tests of time. Energy and all this garbage they've been creating lately is going to be forgotten and buried under the deluge of stuff being churned out.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
Last I checked The Force of Will Company has an incompetent development staff who not too long ago recently fired their English Manager/Translator for catering more towards that niche of Otaku culture which a lot of friends at my locals found deeply disturbing and offensive. While Cardfight!! Vanguard's a much better alternative to Yu-Gi-Oh! it's been having it's own power creep issues as of late while everyone I know has moved onto Dragon Ball Super CCG over Future Card Buddyfight.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
Last I checked The Force of Will Company has an incompetent development staff who not too long ago recently fired their English Manager/Translator for catering more towards that niche of Otaku culture which a lot of friends at my locals found deeply disturbing and offensive. While Cardfight!! Vanguard's a much better alternative to Yu-Gi-Oh! it's been having it's own power creep issues as of late while everyone I know has moved onto Dragon Ball Super CCG over Future Card Buddyfight.
Buddyfight is fun since you start at G3 instead of how it works in Vanguard, so mana screw basically doesn't exist. Also, despite FOW company having some issues they still really put good value into the starters as well as make good quality cards. Wizards in the meantime seems content to just plow through with underwhelming crap for starter decks and intends anyone wanting to actually play their game to buy up tons of packs... which no one in their right mind does outside draft and limited so we just all buy singles for constructed play. Also FoW includes the basic lands and rulers needed to run a draft in the booster boxes, so there's a better all in one experience with a single box of FoW vs a single box of MtG.
Private Mod Note
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
One thing i dont see anyone saying in regards to the Attendance issue is this:
The influx of players over the last 5 years has not been new players in the 12-16 range. They have been 30-45 year olds. I can attest to this cause 5 years ago when i started i met and hung out with a dozen new players who were all in this range. Most of us were coming back from playing a long time ago. I played from 92-96 and then joined the military and then 16 years later got reintroduced to it.
Of those 12 people here is the breakdown of where they are now:
2-3 of them play standard still consistently (me included)
6 of them have become commander only players because of the costly nature of standard and it volatility.
3 of them sold their collection after 3 or 4 years and don't play at all... various reasons 2/3 personal 1/3 wizards related
3-4 of them play mostly modern (i'm included in this count with a few commander players just owning one or two modern decks)
1-2 of them just play new set releases and a few weeks after
I think the most detrimental issue is the High cost of "Playable" Standard decks. Because of this most of the guys moved to commander where they could control the costs of their spending more limited. Now they don't buy new product at all they are secondary market buyers. That's half of my initial playgroup of guys who i met that all came back around the same time. I have also watched older players become disillusioned over the meta the last 3 years, and moved on either to commander, modern or all out.
I look at these chaff 40 bulk rares each set and think if they just made the cost one cheaper, added one toughness here, or made it dual color, or made the efefct just a little better, it wouldnt be a chase rare, but it would be a playable, let me tinker with this rare and deck build with them.
I will give two examples from Ixalan
Rowdy Crew MYTHIC!!!!
If they just would have made this a 3/4 It might see play and possibly make it worthwhile and might make it into a weird modern deck, maybe a 3 dollar card... AS it is now Probably never see play anywhere
Boneyard Parley Mythic again.
for 7 mana not sure if this is ever worth it. We just had ever after at 6 mana and i got to choose two creature sand put them on the Battlefield.
Make this say i choose the piles and opponent picks the one to put on the battlefield and i might play it.
Actually having gone through all of ixalan, i actually gotta say they did a good job of making the rares reasonable for the most part.
There is a big push back right now from consumers on casino / gambling systems that have shown up in more and more places and unfortunately I am foreseeing this wave expanding into the tcg industry. Even if no legal action hits the company, people may refuse to buy booster packs.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Losing Player Trust, the Data Dilemma. Going to post this here because this is basically what has happened to Magic the Gathering and Wizards of the Coast. Ultimately, Wizards fell pray to the sales numbers and didn't notice the issues with players until it was too late. People will keep buying and playing a game while grumbling about it (happened all the time with World of Warcraft as is evident by their forums back in 2010-2015), but if that trust erodes too much eventually people will walk away, and it's very hard to get those people who walked away to come back again.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Losing Player Trust, the Data Dilemma. Going to post this here because this is basically what has happened to Magic the Gathering and Wizards of the Coast. Ultimately, Wizards fell pray to the sales numbers and didn't notice the issues with players until it was too late. People will keep buying and playing a game while grumbling about it (happened all the time with World of Warcraft as is evident by their forums back in 2010-2015), but if that trust erodes too much eventually people will walk away, and it's very hard to get those people who walked away to come back again.
I doubt it, they will just make the odds of the casino more in favor of the house and bleed whales even more.
Losing Player Trust, the Data Dilemma. Going to post this here because this is basically what has happened to Magic the Gathering and Wizards of the Coast. Ultimately, Wizards fell pray to the sales numbers and didn't notice the issues with players until it was too late. People will keep buying and playing a game while grumbling about it (happened all the time with World of Warcraft as is evident by their forums back in 2010-2015), but if that trust erodes too much eventually people will walk away, and it's very hard to get those people who walked away to come back again.
I come back to WoW for every expansion, do the quests to the next level cap for the storyline, and then cancel my account. Depending on how Standard changes I may do the same for MTG.
Losing Player Trust, the Data Dilemma. Going to post this here because this is basically what has happened to Magic the Gathering and Wizards of the Coast. Ultimately, Wizards fell pray to the sales numbers and didn't notice the issues with players until it was too late. People will keep buying and playing a game while grumbling about it (happened all the time with World of Warcraft as is evident by their forums back in 2010-2015), but if that trust erodes too much eventually people will walk away, and it's very hard to get those people who walked away to come back again.
I doubt it, they will just make the odds of the casino more in favor of the house and bleed whales even more.
The whales already jumped ship. The bull market in magic at the moment is the reserved list and investors have been backing out of booster boxes for a while now. Modern players buy singles along with standard players, so boxes are only worth it to people during the initial push with draft at the start of a season. Singles sellers basically are the WoTC market now.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
There is a big push back right now from consumers on casino / gambling systems that have shown up in more and more places and unfortunately I am foreseeing this wave expanding into the tcg industry. Even if no legal action hits the company, people may refuse to buy booster packs.
It could be worse granted Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro does decide to rescind the Reserved List and get sued by the Collectors citing the Secondary Market value in a court of law, thus acknowledging the Secondary Market value of cards, which would lead to "Magic: The Gathering" being classified as Gambling, thus becoming illegal to sell to minors.
One of my friends at my locals discussed this awhile back in regards to the subject of state gambling laws.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
There is a big push back right now from consumers on casino / gambling systems that have shown up in more and more places and unfortunately I am foreseeing this wave expanding into the tcg industry. Even if no legal action hits the company, people may refuse to buy booster packs.
It could be worse granted Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro does decide to rescind the Reserved List and get sued by the Collectors citing the Secondary Market value in a court of law, thus acknowledging the Secondary Market value of cards, which would lead to "Magic: The Gathering" being classified as Gambling, thus becoming illegal to sell to minors.
One of my friends at my locals discussed this awhile back in regards to the subject of state gambling laws.
So the legal age for MtG would go from 13 to 18. Given the current demographic that probably wouldn't do a whole lot anyway.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Hey guys today I'm going to be drawing a line in the sand and make my opinions about Wizards of the Coast VERY clear, I would not buy any new cards, I would not buy any Modern cards, I would get out of this game, Modern and Standard especially, I would not draft, I would not play limited, I would just play EDH and Casual because no matter what Wizards of the Coast does to those formats they will be around.
It is my opinion and I will present the evidence that they are trying to destroy this game, I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe they want the new CEO to look bad, maybe MTG Arena is going to take all the space and they need to get rid of the physical cardboard to encourage everyone to play MTG Arena. Banning Jeremy from UnsleevedMedia/MTGHeadquarters/TheQuartering is a terrible, terrible financial decision no matter how much you disagree with him or how much you dislike him, I do feel like it is unfair.
Banning Travis Woo from Travis Wizard is even more unfair IMO because he just created a Facebook group, didn't moderate it, forgot it, and people made memes. Those memes got out as they always do, they always get out and If you feel like, "Oh that's cute you got banned, great..." well you're next, and you're next. Everyone has skeletons in their closets. Anyway Level 3 MTG Judge Chris Lansdell whose been accused of sexual harassment and has been found, I don't know If you say guilty or not guilty...but he's been kicked out.
From my reading of what he did, he used his position to ask female players very creepily on dates. Now imagine If you're a female MTG player, you called a Judge, the Judge winks at you, hugs you, and asks you out on a date. That is just creepy beyond all creepiness and you ask why women don't play MTG. Okay Alex Bertoncini banned two times for cheating, caught multiple times on camera including at high level events, won multiple events, and well documented cheater is now able to play Magic again. He's not only allowed to play Magic, he is FAVORED by Wizards of the Coast.
I could go onto greater detail, Rachel is currently in Vintage League by Wizards of the Coast so she is heavily promoted and Wizards of the Coast also promotes Alex, again known cheater. Wizards of the Coast has promoted cheaters in the past, you have to understand MTG history because this is really important when I say this, you have to listen closely. They believe it was necessary to have a villain, that you had to create a villain, Alex Bertoncini is their villain, Alex Bertoncini is their Mike Wong and Mike Wong was the villain of MTG, Jon Finkel was the good guy.
Sometimes you're going to win by cheating and sometimes you're going to lose by not cheating enough. That is what Wizards of the Coast is doing by promoting the crap out of him so that he can be the villain. Embarrassing. Okay let's talk about a lawsuit that many of you have forgotten. Imagine you're on a Facebook group, it's a private group, of course it's always private and somebody texts/posts a picture of a leaked card, you don't know If it's leaked, you don't know If it's not leaked.
"Oh it's kinda funny, oh hey cool card!" And it's a group of Judges. Now Wizards of the Coast is super angry at you, and they disqualify ALL of you, they ban ALL of you for having a leaked card in your Facebook group that you didn't put in there that you yourself didn't steal. How many leaks have happened in this year? We had Commander 2017 when entire decks were leaked and how a Dragon deck was physically in someone's hand when they were taking potato shots of it. The entire Ixalan set, an entire set of MTG cards, rares and mythics were leaked.
And let's keep blaming the Facebook Groups cause that's exactly who did it right? Facebook Groups through some advancement in technology were able to get the leaks. No it is your problem Wizards of the Coast, it is not the consumer's problem, and it is not the Judge's problem who is volunteering to help you. Now Puca Trade, MTG promoted a scam, they knew it was a scam, they promoted a scam, how can I prove it? Well they promoted MTG Vintage League which was sponsored by Puca Trade. I saw commercial after commercial, it was part of the video. It wasn't like a YouTube ad video, it was part of the video.
They would promote the scam on the MTG main YouTube Channel and they all knew it was a scam. So the Vintage Super League was on the main MTG YouTube Channel and every single time there would be a commercial in the middle, there would be a commercial in the end. Obviously they don't do this anymore cause they would get called out on it. But given the fact that Puca Trade owner Eric Freytag made $5 million from MTG players, how did they get those millions of dollars? Wizards of the Coast.
Anyway, but that's not even the worst part. Let me explain the worst part of this whole thing is, people are willing to sell their souls for a free monthly MTG box. Not gonna name name's but they know who they are. People are willing to lie toward YouTube subscribers, If you go on these types of videos and you look at the comments there are people who didn't receive their box. There are people who think that, "Oh these sleeves are not very good, these are very bad sleeves." There are people who expressed concern. Like that doesn't stop content creators from producing YouTube videos sponsored by Wizards of the Coast?
Things are going to get really tough in the next few days, and you cannot remain neutral forever. Christine Sprankle I agree with her, I agree with her opinion, and I voiced Jeremy by voicing my opinion who would just apologize to make me feel a little bit better and then we wouldn't have to deal with this. But now that we have to deal with it card quality is very poor, Wizards of the Coast is a terrible terrible company. I have dealt with them from a counterfeit instance, and I can tell you that they're absolutely unprofessional in every single way. I have recordings, I have records, I have e-mails.
Some of this stuff they were talking about from one lawyer to another lawyer, are you what the? At least save your own reputation right? Things are going to get much worse in the coming days cause there's A LOT of skeletons out there, and I have a few myself which will be interesting. There's a lot of people who supported Monthly MTG Box when everyone knew it was a scam and there was a Facebook post where people knew it was a scam and continued to make videos promoting it. They still did. There are people at Wizards of the Coast who believe that silence is the best solution when they're promoting their diversity.
And there are people in our community that's livelihoods have been affected negatively including Travis, including Jeremy, including Christine because Wizards of the Coast didn't treat Christine the way that she should've been treated. She should've been paid, Wizards of the Coast did not treat Judges the way they should've been treated, they should be paid. Wizards of the Coast did not treat Jeremy the way he should've been treated with some idiom of respect, and of course Travis whose a Pro MTG player was treated horribly by Wizards of the Coast in this instance.
At the end of the day I'm only going to play EDH, I'm going to speculate on some cards cause manipulating markets is kinda fun and it's relatively easy to do If you have the capital. But I would advise you that not only just the numbers don't add up, there's no Standard cards to make money on, there's very little Modern cards to make money on, it's Reserved List or bust. If you buy cards on the Reserved List based on what Wizards of the Coast has told me on their counterfeit policy they don't make any money from that. So that's what I'd urge you to do. I would urge you to play EDH. I would urge you to play Kitchen Table.
I would urge you not to buy Unstable, I would urge you not to play any competitive level play because Alex Bertoncini is still out there and they're still promoting him as this villain of MTG for their own marketing ploys, in the past that was Mike Wong this time it's Alex Bertoncini. I can lay way more dirt on this than there needs to be, there's a reason Alex's not banned and he's still playing MTG and there's a reason why Jeremy is banned. Anyway bye guys.
I only quoted what MTG Lion said in the following YouTube video I posted a link to, so those are his words not mine.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I believe at least some of the fault lies with Wizards reducing how much public metagame data is available. In theory it makes sense that you'd get more variety in decks by making it unclear what the optimal strategy is, but in practice I've seen the opposite: without knowing exactly what you're playing against it's hard to know what to build your deck for. You don't see nearly as many attempts to "beat the meta" because the meta is so weak.
It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
Going to be honest, one of the worst financial decisions they made was pushing hard into making Modern a supported format. That's where a lot of this mess started, and is a large part of why players stopped playing standard. Modern is just not able to support the game, and it fundamentally fractured the player base to the point it is now. It also doesn't help that Modern players tend to be some of the cynical lot in the game. It also makes the Masters set situation notoriously difficult, as you need to keep said sets print runs small enough to not completely kill demand (Which will eventually happen simply from people getting the cards they need without needing to get more new ones), while also printing often enough to meet demand. WHich has led to the unsavory back-and-forth of "too much value, drives the pack price up, not enough value, isn't worth a pack". Modern is honestly a no-win scenario for them. Everybody they try and please creates problems with other people, and ultimately cannot maintain the population at all. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case. They should just say "F-it" to supporting modern to any major extent, but I fear we've gone too far down the road to go back.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
This is fair. THere is no making FNM "uncompetitive", so what they should do is make starters at least reasonable jumping-off points. Casual players honestly don't need help building a casual deck, however new players showing up to FNM really do need help understanding how to make a functional deck that actually does things at the FNM level, at least. It doesn't need to be a fantastic deck, but it shouldn't as massive a gulf as it is.
There is a big push back right now from consumers on casino / gambling systems that have shown up in more and more places and unfortunately I am foreseeing this wave expanding into the tcg industry. Even if no legal action hits the company, people may refuse to buy booster packs.
It could be worse granted Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro does decide to rescind the Reserved List and get sued by the Collectors citing the Secondary Market value in a court of law, thus acknowledging the Secondary Market value of cards, which would lead to "Magic: The Gathering" being classified as Gambling, thus becoming illegal to sell to minors.
One of my friends at my locals discussed this awhile back in regards to the subject of state gambling laws.
So the legal age for MtG would go from 13 to 18. Given the current demographic that probably wouldn't do a whole lot anyway.
I mean Im not sure how its dodged that for so long actually, it is gambling right? Even those sweepstakes like McDonalds Monopoly get away with it because of the whole no purchase necessary clause right?
There is a big push back right now from consumers on casino / gambling systems that have shown up in more and more places and unfortunately I am foreseeing this wave expanding into the tcg industry. Even if no legal action hits the company, people may refuse to buy booster packs.
It could be worse granted Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro does decide to rescind the Reserved List and get sued by the Collectors citing the Secondary Market value in a court of law, thus acknowledging the Secondary Market value of cards, which would lead to "Magic: The Gathering" being classified as Gambling, thus becoming illegal to sell to minors.
One of my friends at my locals discussed this awhile back in regards to the subject of state gambling laws.
So the legal age for MtG would go from 13 to 18. Given the current demographic that probably wouldn't do a whole lot anyway.
I mean Im not sure how its dodged that for so long actually, it is gambling right? Even those sweepstakes like McDonalds Monopoly get away with it because of the whole no purchase necessary clause right?
It's skirts the line. Some European countries, AFAIK, do label it as gambling and treat tournaments as such. It really just comes down to whether or not a given jurisdiction decides it's gambling.
I believe at least some of the fault lies with Wizards reducing how much public metagame data is available. In theory it makes sense that you'd get more variety in decks by making it unclear what the optimal strategy is, but in practice I've seen the opposite: without knowing exactly what you're playing against it's hard to know what to build your deck for. You don't see nearly as many attempts to "beat the meta" because the meta is so weak.
It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
Going to be honest, one of the worst financial decisions they made was pushing hard into making Modern a supported format. That's where a lot of this mess started, and is a large part of why players stopped playing standard. Modern is just not able to support the game, and it fundamentally fractured the player base to the point it is now. It also doesn't help that Modern players tend to be some of the cynical lot in the game. It also makes the Masters set situation notoriously difficult, as you need to keep said sets print runs small enough to not completely kill demand (Which will eventually happen simply from people getting the cards they need without needing to get more new ones), while also printing often enough to meet demand. WHich has led to the unsavory back-and-forth of "too much value, drives the pack price up, not enough value, isn't worth a pack". Modern is honestly a no-win scenario for them. Everybody they try and please creates problems with other people, and ultimately cannot maintain the population at all. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case. They should just say "F-it" to supporting modern to any major extent, but I fear we've gone too far down the road to go back.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
This is fair. THere is no making FNM "uncompetitive", so what they should do is make starters at least reasonable jumping-off points. Casual players honestly don't need help building a casual deck, however new players showing up to FNM really do need help understanding how to make a functional deck that actually does things at the FNM level, at least. It doesn't need to be a fantastic deck, but it shouldn't as massive a gulf as it is.
So you want a hail back to the precons of old where if you bought two of the same one you HAD a solid discard/mirgum deck? (which at the time was a T1.5 deck)
I believe at least some of the fault lies with Wizards reducing how much public metagame data is available. In theory it makes sense that you'd get more variety in decks by making it unclear what the optimal strategy is, but in practice I've seen the opposite: without knowing exactly what you're playing against it's hard to know what to build your deck for. You don't see nearly as many attempts to "beat the meta" because the meta is so weak.
It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
Going to be honest, one of the worst financial decisions they made was pushing hard into making Modern a supported format. That's where a lot of this mess started, and is a large part of why players stopped playing standard. Modern is just not able to support the game, and it fundamentally fractured the player base to the point it is now. It also doesn't help that Modern players tend to be some of the cynical lot in the game. It also makes the Masters set situation notoriously difficult, as you need to keep said sets print runs small enough to not completely kill demand (Which will eventually happen simply from people getting the cards they need without needing to get more new ones), while also printing often enough to meet demand. WHich has led to the unsavory back-and-forth of "too much value, drives the pack price up, not enough value, isn't worth a pack". Modern is honestly a no-win scenario for them. Everybody they try and please creates problems with other people, and ultimately cannot maintain the population at all. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case. They should just say "F-it" to supporting modern to any major extent, but I fear we've gone too far down the road to go back.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
This is fair. THere is no making FNM "uncompetitive", so what they should do is make starters at least reasonable jumping-off points. Casual players honestly don't need help building a casual deck, however new players showing up to FNM really do need help understanding how to make a functional deck that actually does things at the FNM level, at least. It doesn't need to be a fantastic deck, but it shouldn't as massive a gulf as it is.
So you want a hail back to the precons of old where if you bought two of the same one you HAD a solid discard/mirgum deck? (which at the time was a T1.5 deck)
It would be a good start to put people on an even playing field. The big problem with Magic is the cost to transition into stronger decks and how all the casual products have nothing playable at all in them that has a strong presence in competitive play.
Force of will reiya cluster starters are sort of bad, but they are nothing compared to planeswalker deck garbage and the later duel decks in magic.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm going to be honest, I haven't seen the Magic Community in this sour a state ever in it's history. The closest I can think of was when Mirrodin was around with Eggs and Affinity, but that was a gameplay issue and not a political / burning of the player base one. I'm not envisioning WoTC springing back from this at all since they just became a blight to a bunch of people, including myself. This entire situation feels like it was 3+ years in the making ever since the close of Kahns and the start of Battle for Zendikar.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I dunno about other peoples stores, but where I'm at, the shop usually has events going. Whether such events be MTG, Yugioh, Pokemon, Force of Will, etc. It also used to L5R awhile back.
I'm going to be honest, I haven't seen the Magic Community in this sour a state ever in it's history. The closest I can think of was when Mirrodin was around with Eggs and Affinity, but that was a gameplay issue and not a political / burning of the player base one. I'm not envisioning WoTC springing back from this at all since they just became a blight to a bunch of people, including myself. This entire situation feels like it was 3+ years in the making ever since the close of Kahns and the start of Battle for Zendikar.
I disagree, I think its comparable to when they changed the card face (both times but perticaularly the first time) and when mythic rares became a thing. Modern is a component too. Modern fell victim to Wizards unwillingness to print new sets/cards explicitly FOR modern (and legacy/vintage) Imagin if Modern Masters (or Iconic or whatever they are calling it these days) had NEW cards in it too only legal for Moder+ formats... (let me be clear here PLAYABLE GOOD cards not just new jank) The fact is that people prefer playing with powerful (good) cards over bad ones. IF you want Standard (the weaker format) to be able to compeat you need standard to be interesting, flavorful and CHEAP.
So I think I may have figured out what's going on with the low card stock quality in Magic and I'm also seeing similar signs with Pokémon TCG as well. There's rumors of a potential upcoming crash of the Bulk Market where consumers sell off all their cards from booster box openings to their local game stores only to keep all the valuable cards they've pulled for themselves.
Most businesses will buy your card collections and then sell them for the lowest price point because with larger print quantity the more they absorb risk. So the question in regards to this is whether or not If there's a shrink in the Buyer Pool that's leading to the potential rise of counterfeit cards and low card stock quality.
In other words it's siphoning out cash flow from licensed product which ends up hurting local game stores and brick and mortal only venues in the long run. The question then becomes what can local game stores including brick and mortar only venues do to adapt to this situation before they lose out to local and online retailers for good? The problem with Iconic Masters was that Collectors were making less money off the set than the Players. That needs to change.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I don't agree with MTG Lion in that statement of his, mostly because it is an ivory tower statement.
As it must be so easy for him to basically say "Don't support your LGS because of this one guy" as he looks like he is jumping ship. As mass boycotting WotC and not participating in local game store events because of one guy actually hurts those local game stores more and expedites the problems some locations might be having with attendance. Also if it hurts these locations big time as they might be mostly focused on MTG, then they have to close shop because of the massive decrease of foot traffic to their store.
I'm still going to play competitively because its fun, I'm going to play limited because I enjoy it, I'm going to get Unstable as I been looking forward to it for so many years now, I'm going to buy modern cards because I enjoy the format. I'm not going to let the actions of someone* I don't even know or care about get in the way of me enjoying the hobby I have loved for well over two decades now.
I don't agree with MTG Lion in that statement of his, mostly because it is an ivory tower statement.
As it must be so easy for him to basically say "Don't support your LGS because of this one guy" as he looks like he is jumping ship. As mass boycotting WotC and not participating in local game store events because of one guy actually hurts those local game stores more and expedites the problems some locations might be having with attendance. Also if it hurts these locations big time as they might be mostly focused on MTG, then they have to close shop because of the massive decrease of foot traffic to their store.
I'm still going to play competitively because its fun, I'm going to play limited because I enjoy it, I'm going to get Unstable as I been looking forward to it for so many years now, I'm going to buy modern cards because I enjoy the format. I'm not going to let the actions of someone* I don't even know or care about get in the way of me enjoying the hobby I have loved for well over two decades now.
* = Alex Bertoncini
The problem is that the LGS that people are talking about are really unpaid Magic the Gathering Stores that just happen to support other card games. This entire situation was years in the making and I started seeing it when the MTG Judges thing happened (the part with unpaid labor). Wizards of the Coast has a huge issue that they created themselves with the support infrastructure for the game. The entire game is supported by basically third party sources composed of fans and players. Even the LGS are basically run by people who originally played the game and know it well enough to want to support it. This is built to basically die in a blazing fire of glory as the only thing the company has to do is make enough people angry to give up on the game. As bad as EA or other game vendors are, they never built a support infrastructure based around a fandom to market and sell their products. Heck, Games Workshop does a better job at maintaining store locations, and they are viewed as the devil incarnate in some respects.
Let me put it this way: If someone came to you and said their favorite store that mostly sells ladders to stay in business is having trouble because the guys making the ladders are having manufacturing problems, but says that they are doing changes and in two years the ladders will be okay, would you honestly go buy ladders from the store? Maybe if someone really liked the guy running it, but ultimately it's the store owner who has to change things around to stay in business because it makes no sense to buy a faulty ladder.
Also, I looked into the gambling thing and actually, they don't even need to abolish the reserved list to get people to classify MTG as gambling. However, I think it is a good idea that this gets taken to court because what really needs to happen is to have measures put in place to prevent massive secondary market pricing on cards. The main problem is that players end up branching into a few different groups when they go into a TCG depending on how they play the game:
1) Draft night players (Pop packs, drop the cards to buy more packs...)
2) Constructed Players (Buy singles, trade em in for next season)
3) Living Card Game Players (Screw rotation! I got my vintage!) -> The problem group
The third party is the one that is causing issues right now. They play the game like it was a living card game and just seek out to buy playsets of the best cards in the games history. No TCG actually supports this type of play, so the secondary market prices keep climbing up unless the company reprints the cards. Sure, a TCG can survive for a while with the LCG crowd in their midst, but eventually the haves vs the have nots sets in and the grumbling will cause discontent.
Really, they could fix the majority of issues the game has by just converting the majority of modern / legacy into a Living Card Game while keeping standard. Modern doesn't really innovate much and from experience it feels like when new cards enter the format it causes more issues for players and wizards of the coast than positive things. Is this a rudy approved move? Hell no the guy is probably going to throw a big video up refuting this is a smart decision if wizards did it, but by doing this it would cut a huge swath of criticism away in regards to the game.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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It is difficult to "play" the standard meta when Combo and control no long exist IN the meta. What are they playing, likely another mid range or agro grind fest.... cool to meta against that I will just play my combo... but their IS no combo (combo is ment to be FASTER then agro). Agro/midrange are designed to defeat control.... Even if we had good control cards (and we don't because they "aren't fun or are too "complicated") it wouldn't matter. The removal of combo from standard killed meta guessing.
I would like to see every 2-3 years a GOOD T1 combo deck in standard. Give control the tools to keep combo in check and give combo the tools to run wild and watch you meta become more interesting.
That's the other big piece as to why MTG is dropping right now: Standard powers the game and when that engine gets damaged by decks staying in the format too long attendance drops. Combine that with long term players just being financially exhausted and selling out of modern and there's a serious decline in the player base. Now, there's always going to be fanatics like myself that keep up with the latest sets for no real rhyme or reason (I don't even have the time to play magic much these days), but when there are just better options out there like Force of Will, Cardfight Vanguard, BuddyFight, etc, and various strategy games like Total War: Warhammer 2 or Civilization VI (I highly recommend the former over the latter), all it takes is a moment of weakness to trip up the giant.
This is especially true due to just the sheer amount of negative air WoTC has generated around the game the last two years. The Force of Will Company is incredibly player and LGS friendly along with Bushiroad in general these days. WoTC on the other hand is like an amorphous blob eating pie in the corner while everyone is trying to make out what exactly is going through it's head. The new player experience is leaps and bounds better elsewhere such as Force of Will Starters actually being competitive with minor upgrades. Cardfight Vanguard starters back in the G Series were pretty good as well, though a few later ones got even better.
Finally, I don't know if this applies to others, but I find all the novelty mechanics tiresome. I don't want "brick counters" if all they are there for is to make things sound egyptian. Also, not making one, but three different versions of the same thing with Etherium Cells, Treasures, and Gold? Why the heck can I sacrifice treasure and gold for colored mana? At least the first actually makes sense. At least Wastes and Snow lands added something to their respective sets that likely will endure the tests of time. Energy and all this garbage they've been creating lately is going to be forgotten and buried under the deluge of stuff being churned out.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Buddyfight is fun since you start at G3 instead of how it works in Vanguard, so mana screw basically doesn't exist. Also, despite FOW company having some issues they still really put good value into the starters as well as make good quality cards. Wizards in the meantime seems content to just plow through with underwhelming crap for starter decks and intends anyone wanting to actually play their game to buy up tons of packs... which no one in their right mind does outside draft and limited so we just all buy singles for constructed play. Also FoW includes the basic lands and rulers needed to run a draft in the booster boxes, so there's a better all in one experience with a single box of FoW vs a single box of MtG.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The influx of players over the last 5 years has not been new players in the 12-16 range. They have been 30-45 year olds. I can attest to this cause 5 years ago when i started i met and hung out with a dozen new players who were all in this range. Most of us were coming back from playing a long time ago. I played from 92-96 and then joined the military and then 16 years later got reintroduced to it.
Of those 12 people here is the breakdown of where they are now:
2-3 of them play standard still consistently (me included)
6 of them have become commander only players because of the costly nature of standard and it volatility.
3 of them sold their collection after 3 or 4 years and don't play at all... various reasons 2/3 personal 1/3 wizards related
3-4 of them play mostly modern (i'm included in this count with a few commander players just owning one or two modern decks)
1-2 of them just play new set releases and a few weeks after
I think the most detrimental issue is the High cost of "Playable" Standard decks. Because of this most of the guys moved to commander where they could control the costs of their spending more limited. Now they don't buy new product at all they are secondary market buyers. That's half of my initial playgroup of guys who i met that all came back around the same time. I have also watched older players become disillusioned over the meta the last 3 years, and moved on either to commander, modern or all out.
I look at these chaff 40 bulk rares each set and think if they just made the cost one cheaper, added one toughness here, or made it dual color, or made the efefct just a little better, it wouldnt be a chase rare, but it would be a playable, let me tinker with this rare and deck build with them.
I will give two examples from Ixalan
Rowdy Crew MYTHIC!!!!
If they just would have made this a 3/4 It might see play and possibly make it worthwhile and might make it into a weird modern deck, maybe a 3 dollar card... AS it is now Probably never see play anywhere
Boneyard Parley Mythic again.
for 7 mana not sure if this is ever worth it. We just had ever after at 6 mana and i got to choose two creature sand put them on the Battlefield.
Make this say i choose the piles and opponent picks the one to put on the battlefield and i might play it.
Actually having gone through all of ixalan, i actually gotta say they did a good job of making the rares reasonable for the most part.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I doubt it, they will just make the odds of the casino more in favor of the house and bleed whales even more.
I come back to WoW for every expansion, do the quests to the next level cap for the storyline, and then cancel my account. Depending on how Standard changes I may do the same for MTG.
The whales already jumped ship. The bull market in magic at the moment is the reserved list and investors have been backing out of booster boxes for a while now. Modern players buy singles along with standard players, so boxes are only worth it to people during the initial push with draft at the start of a season. Singles sellers basically are the WoTC market now.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
One of my friends at my locals discussed this awhile back in regards to the subject of state gambling laws.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
So the legal age for MtG would go from 13 to 18. Given the current demographic that probably wouldn't do a whole lot anyway.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdxJHqqyN_8 I only quoted what MTG Lion said in the following YouTube video I posted a link to, so those are his words not mine.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Going to be honest, one of the worst financial decisions they made was pushing hard into making Modern a supported format. That's where a lot of this mess started, and is a large part of why players stopped playing standard. Modern is just not able to support the game, and it fundamentally fractured the player base to the point it is now. It also doesn't help that Modern players tend to be some of the cynical lot in the game. It also makes the Masters set situation notoriously difficult, as you need to keep said sets print runs small enough to not completely kill demand (Which will eventually happen simply from people getting the cards they need without needing to get more new ones), while also printing often enough to meet demand. WHich has led to the unsavory back-and-forth of "too much value, drives the pack price up, not enough value, isn't worth a pack". Modern is honestly a no-win scenario for them. Everybody they try and please creates problems with other people, and ultimately cannot maintain the population at all. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case. They should just say "F-it" to supporting modern to any major extent, but I fear we've gone too far down the road to go back.
This is fair. THere is no making FNM "uncompetitive", so what they should do is make starters at least reasonable jumping-off points. Casual players honestly don't need help building a casual deck, however new players showing up to FNM really do need help understanding how to make a functional deck that actually does things at the FNM level, at least. It doesn't need to be a fantastic deck, but it shouldn't as massive a gulf as it is.
I mean Im not sure how its dodged that for so long actually, it is gambling right? Even those sweepstakes like McDonalds Monopoly get away with it because of the whole no purchase necessary clause right?
It's skirts the line. Some European countries, AFAIK, do label it as gambling and treat tournaments as such. It really just comes down to whether or not a given jurisdiction decides it's gambling.
So you want a hail back to the precons of old where if you bought two of the same one you HAD a solid discard/mirgum deck? (which at the time was a T1.5 deck)
It would be a good start to put people on an even playing field. The big problem with Magic is the cost to transition into stronger decks and how all the casual products have nothing playable at all in them that has a strong presence in competitive play.
Force of will reiya cluster starters are sort of bad, but they are nothing compared to planeswalker deck garbage and the later duel decks in magic.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I disagree, I think its comparable to when they changed the card face (both times but perticaularly the first time) and when mythic rares became a thing. Modern is a component too. Modern fell victim to Wizards unwillingness to print new sets/cards explicitly FOR modern (and legacy/vintage) Imagin if Modern Masters (or Iconic or whatever they are calling it these days) had NEW cards in it too only legal for Moder+ formats... (let me be clear here PLAYABLE GOOD cards not just new jank) The fact is that people prefer playing with powerful (good) cards over bad ones. IF you want Standard (the weaker format) to be able to compeat you need standard to be interesting, flavorful and CHEAP.
Most businesses will buy your card collections and then sell them for the lowest price point because with larger print quantity the more they absorb risk. So the question in regards to this is whether or not If there's a shrink in the Buyer Pool that's leading to the potential rise of counterfeit cards and low card stock quality.
In other words it's siphoning out cash flow from licensed product which ends up hurting local game stores and brick and mortal only venues in the long run. The question then becomes what can local game stores including brick and mortar only venues do to adapt to this situation before they lose out to local and online retailers for good? The problem with Iconic Masters was that Collectors were making less money off the set than the Players. That needs to change.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I must be missing it because I keep seeing this cited as showing player numbers and I cant find it anywhere in the document.
I don't agree with MTG Lion in that statement of his, mostly because it is an ivory tower statement.
As it must be so easy for him to basically say "Don't support your LGS because of this one guy" as he looks like he is jumping ship. As mass boycotting WotC and not participating in local game store events because of one guy actually hurts those local game stores more and expedites the problems some locations might be having with attendance. Also if it hurts these locations big time as they might be mostly focused on MTG, then they have to close shop because of the massive decrease of foot traffic to their store.
I'm still going to play competitively because its fun, I'm going to play limited because I enjoy it, I'm going to get Unstable as I been looking forward to it for so many years now, I'm going to buy modern cards because I enjoy the format. I'm not going to let the actions of someone* I don't even know or care about get in the way of me enjoying the hobby I have loved for well over two decades now.
* = Alex Bertoncini
The problem is that the LGS that people are talking about are really unpaid Magic the Gathering Stores that just happen to support other card games. This entire situation was years in the making and I started seeing it when the MTG Judges thing happened (the part with unpaid labor). Wizards of the Coast has a huge issue that they created themselves with the support infrastructure for the game. The entire game is supported by basically third party sources composed of fans and players. Even the LGS are basically run by people who originally played the game and know it well enough to want to support it. This is built to basically die in a blazing fire of glory as the only thing the company has to do is make enough people angry to give up on the game. As bad as EA or other game vendors are, they never built a support infrastructure based around a fandom to market and sell their products. Heck, Games Workshop does a better job at maintaining store locations, and they are viewed as the devil incarnate in some respects.
Let me put it this way: If someone came to you and said their favorite store that mostly sells ladders to stay in business is having trouble because the guys making the ladders are having manufacturing problems, but says that they are doing changes and in two years the ladders will be okay, would you honestly go buy ladders from the store? Maybe if someone really liked the guy running it, but ultimately it's the store owner who has to change things around to stay in business because it makes no sense to buy a faulty ladder.
Also, I looked into the gambling thing and actually, they don't even need to abolish the reserved list to get people to classify MTG as gambling. However, I think it is a good idea that this gets taken to court because what really needs to happen is to have measures put in place to prevent massive secondary market pricing on cards. The main problem is that players end up branching into a few different groups when they go into a TCG depending on how they play the game:
1) Draft night players (Pop packs, drop the cards to buy more packs...)
2) Constructed Players (Buy singles, trade em in for next season)
3) Living Card Game Players (Screw rotation! I got my vintage!) -> The problem group
The third party is the one that is causing issues right now. They play the game like it was a living card game and just seek out to buy playsets of the best cards in the games history. No TCG actually supports this type of play, so the secondary market prices keep climbing up unless the company reprints the cards. Sure, a TCG can survive for a while with the LCG crowd in their midst, but eventually the haves vs the have nots sets in and the grumbling will cause discontent.
Really, they could fix the majority of issues the game has by just converting the majority of modern / legacy into a Living Card Game while keeping standard. Modern doesn't really innovate much and from experience it feels like when new cards enter the format it causes more issues for players and wizards of the coast than positive things. Is this a rudy approved move? Hell no the guy is probably going to throw a big video up refuting this is a smart decision if wizards did it, but by doing this it would cut a huge swath of criticism away in regards to the game.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!