First My little pony
2nd Godzilla
Now walking dead?
1. NONE of the cards (other then Godzilla) are playable
Another thing is My little pony, walking dead and Godzilla do NOT belong in MTG
Also the collectors packs ARE NOT worth it.
First I will be discussing the weird typing and cards/themes that should not be in magic
First off My little pony . The only good thing I could see is that we get some legends for horses/pegasus/unicorn . However since there abilities are not viable in ANY way it does no good. Remember what audience My little pony is for. Next we have Godzilla, Now this isn't nearly as bad as it's just a art/name change. Although Godzilla does fit a bit more then the others I will give credit where it is due. THE BIG ONE is walking dead. Number one - WTF is this Walker typing ? I get they changed it, But also They are average cards. Much better cards can take the place 10/10. WTF is that release time? 4 days? 4 DAYS, for those people who only get paid once a month, they can't even get it. The prices for the My little pony/ Walking dead set are ridiculously overpriced for cards that are unplayable. Collectors Packs are 9/10 not worth it. Even modern masters is getting hella expensive. I do not appreciate the fact that collectors packs usually don't even give you back your money. So is Hasbro trying to help us the players? Or be selfish and take our money.(Do not blame Wizards of the coast, tbh they are suffering too)
Either way the advent of IP crossovers might mean that MTG as we know it is dying for real this time around. We always assumed that "MTG dying" meant Wizards of the Coast going out of business due to no one wanting to play anymore. In reality, it's a planned euthanasia committed upon the game by Wizards of the Coast themselves because it makes them more money to turn MTG into an advertising business for other franchises / intellectual properties. Technically the game will still exist, but in reality it will be void of what was once held sacred among the community.
What better than to spend less money on MTG's own lore when they can use other IP's every time they release a new product? Contrary to popular belief the games' own source material was on an upswing until after War of the Spark where they sort of just gave up shortly after. Of course it would cost Wizards of the Coast more time and money to license other IP's than it does for them to commission new artwork but If they split the profits however then it may not be a problem. Not to themselves of course but to us as a community.
Can you imagine the potential legal battles and lawsuits they might end up facing If they end up acquiring an IP that gets themselves into more trouble as a company? Would you want to continue to risk spending money on a hobby that mostly cares about profits over community? I sure wouldn't but that's the real danger that MTG faces right now IMO. Wizards of the Coast have managed to go unscathed from their recent legal battles but in the happenstance that Hasbro is no longer able to back them up I'm not so sure they'd be as lucky.
"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
And they are clearly planning to do more; apologies if this is already posted else where but,
Forsythe talked about the origin of the set, and how it was inspired by internal discussions at WOTC about peeling the world of Magic away from the core mechanics of the game. "There are tons and tons of partners who would make awesome, fun Magic cards, and the Walking Dead was the first one we decided to try this out with."
(emphasis mine)
Oh yeah... there are just tons and tons and tons of corporate partners to crossover with. Maybe we can get some Smurfs and gem bellied Trolls sets - that would be awesome, right folks?
The core mechanics of Magic are now so varied and multifaceted almost everything works with it. Like we could have Malibu Barbie andher beach cruiser as a vehicle! Or Han Solo and the Melenium Falcon.
Nothing screams Magic: the Gathering like Star Wars, right?
Not like there used to be a whole separate TCG for that or anything...
You can't do anything about this stuff besides not buy the product.
I would say we could not buy the product and complain loudly, frequently, and over a wide variety of platforms. If they get enough negative feedback and don't sell a huge amount maybe they will reevaluate what they are doing with their lives and to the game we all want to love
Nah I'ma buy whatever crossovers tickle my fancy and encourage everyone I know to do the same, because I love Magic and want to see WotC succeed. These crossovers ain't hurtin' anybody, and to say otherwise is churlish.
Believe it or not, the best way to ensure that Magic survives is to give WotC your money when they do something good, not screech at them like entitled lunatics on social media as if they're killing babies when they make something that doesn't excite you.
People used to (and still do) alter their cards with some custom art.
Its either to make a full-art paint over the borders, and/or adding new art.
WotC capitalizes of exactly that and just produces the alters themselves , selling directly to the people.
These cards are way less unique and personalized, so it makes them basically worse in every aspect to actual alters that are well done.
----
But the market exists, people buy these, even if its just to have something to collect.
So thats fine as it is.
If a fringe section of players buy these, let them have it, even if its marketed to a much bigger audience, which mostly dont care at all.
----
If its just alternate art for an existing card i would say its acceptable.
I truly dislike almost any Secret Lair they did so far, but if they for some miracle reason produce one i truly like, i could see me buying them (not from WotC but the singles sure).
----
WotC as of right now is very aggresively trying to hit as many fringe groups of players.
That in itself is a problem, as it deludes the players and the products into more and more very small variations, instead of uniforming the product like it was (you just had Booster-Packs and everything of a set, every card was in that packs, so you could always just buy them).
Right now theres so much product i dont know in what product is what card, or if i can get the "special art version" in what product.
Its absolute overkill, but as long as the market buys them up, they will continue doing so and get even more extreme.
The only way to send a message is with your wallet.
Dont buy these things.
(So far i could buy basically all the singles i am interested in for each set for just around 50 bucks , even foils, Magic was never cheaper as its now, if you dodge and avoid all the fancy "expensive" special products that nobody really needs anyway)
And alternate arts dont go away either.
You can always hire an artist, send them cards and have them painted in your personal wish art.
WotC will never be able to beat that kind of unique cards.
So far i could buy basically all the singles i am interested in for each set for just around 50 bucks , even foils, Magic was never cheaper as its now, if you dodge and avoid all the fancy "expensive" special products that nobody really needs anyway
I think it is important to highlight this. All of the whale-hunting and niche-filling they're doing makes the game DRAMATICALLY less expensive for the average player. The average player wins. The whales win(?). Those niche players win. WotC wins.
This is simply not true. I still remember buying my Moderate play Underground Sea from under the glass counter of my LGS for 4$
... give WotC your money when they do something good, not screech at them like entitled lunatics on social media as if they're killing babies when they make something that doesn't excite you
But I am a screeching entitled lunatic. My aunt, who introduced me to Magic, was one of the original organizers of RustyCon. I've been with this game since the beginning - although with significant breaks along the when when I got frustrated with design decisions. I've still got 100's of dollars in Wizards Bucks... Wizards Bucks people!!! It is a game that I loved and believe in - and I liked that it appealed to the outsider, wierdo, and outcast.
I fell in love with an fantasy game that had awesome gritty elements illustrated by talented local artists, and I loved supporting other talented locals by getting them to do card art alters when I wanted them. I know we've come a long long way from those days - but these endless crossovers represent a dramatic leap in a direction I a simply not comfortable with. It is turning Magic into something that is the diametric opposite of what appealed to me about the game. I am upset because Magic has been a significant part of my life and of my identity. I mean, I know that it is a selfish reaction and that I in no way should expect to own the entire concept as my own but... This is like a huge gentrifying moment. It's like when Grunge hit top of the Pops. It became something that was a mockery of itself and it had to die.
You can't do anything about this stuff besides not buy the product.
You could form a bandit company and sabotage their supply lines, and then lay siege to Hasbro Headquarters in Rhode Island, in a John Brownesque attempt to force change through direct violence, but it would come at great personal cost as you'd be executed by the Hasbro Megacorps
So far i could buy basically all the singles i am interested in for each set for just around 50 bucks , even foils, Magic was never cheaper as its now, if you dodge and avoid all the fancy "expensive" special products that nobody really needs anyway
I think it is important to highlight this. All of the whale-hunting and niche-filling they're doing makes the game DRAMATICALLY less expensive for the average player. The average player wins. The whales win(?). Those niche players win. WotC wins.
No, we don't win. You know why? Because the Walking Dead cards are effectively on their own version of the Reserved List. The characters are not owned by Wizards of the Coast. When the license runs out, WotC can no longer print these cards, which means their price will dramatically increase just like the rest of the cards on the Reserved List. The problem you aren't seeing is that its short term gain for all parties, but the damage is to the long term health of the game.
The only difference between these cards and the actual Reserved List is that the original list promised there would be no functional reprints, whereas here they can almost certainly make functional reprints. But that doesn't really solve the problem. Lets say hypothetically they get the Star Wars license and Darth Vader manages to become Legacy viable or even a staple. There is a very limited supply of Darth Vader cards, and when Disney yanks the license, they can't print any more of him. BUT they could print a functionally identical card, lets say Lord Soth from Dragonlance (because that's a property Wizards owns). That doesn't really solve the problem, because now Legacy players can potentially play with two copies of Vader and four of Soth, and this could be a degenerate deck. Or you could see Commander decks with a Soth as commander and a Vader in the deck as backup, leading to potential degenerate plays there as well. Hypothetical, of course, because these cards don't exist, but they show why you can't solve the problem with functional reprints. You shouldn't impose a Reserved List on your game to begin with.
Contrast this with the approach taken with previous crossovers. The silver bordered cards can't be played in tournaments at all, so the My Little Pony cards present no threat to tournament play or Commander at all. Likewise, when the Toho license runs out, that just means they cannot reprint Luminous Broodmoth with Mothra's name and artwork on it. But they can still print Luminous Broodmoth and you can't put more than four of that card in your deck just because there are Mothra art versions out there. Its not a functional reprint, its literally the same card. Also, I mentioned Dragonlance above, and we know there will be a Forgotten Realms expansion next year. This is also a kind of crossover, but importantly its not an inter-company crossover. There is no issue with licensing. When inevitably Drizzt Do'Urden becomes a staple of Commander or even other formats (as we all know he will be) he's not going to enter the Honorary Reserved List, because he's a character WotC actually owns. As long as they own D&D, they can crossover with these properties whenever they feel like, and even in terms of flavor few people are going to complain because they're from the same genre as Magic. They're High Fantasy, while The Walking Dead is not. Actually, the most complaining I see over the D&D crossovers is from D&D players, and only because they're getting impatient for a 5e take on Dark Sun (or at least Planescape). Otherwise, the Ravnica crossover didn't bother MtG players at all, and the Theros book was actually fairly popular. It doesn't ruin anyone's immersion, and they can reprint those books indefinitely, for the same reason they will be able to reprint Forgotten Realms cards indefinitely.
They won't be able to do that with mechanically unique inter-company crossover cards that aren't done as artwork alters like the Godzilla cards, and that's what makes this legitimately aggravating for players of Commander and older formats that are already plagued by the original Reserved List.
That doesn't really solve the problem, because now Legacy players can potentially play with two copies of Vader and four of Soth, and this could be a degenerate deck. Or you could see Commander decks with a Soth as commander and a Vader in the deck as backup, leading to potential degenerate plays there as well. Hypothetical, of course, because these cards don't exist, but they show why you can't solve the problem with functional reprints. You shouldn't impose a Reserved List on your game to begin with.
This is the part that I was very unhappy with... and it happens to be flat-out untrue.
On the blogatog entry answering several questions about the TWD promos, Maro SPECIFICALLY states that the new functional reprint version and the previous secret lair version would be mutually exclusive, that the oracle page on gatherer would specifically state that the two versions are the exact same card for the purpose of deck building restrictions. Mechanically, these cards work like Zilortha in that a new version without crossover art CAN be made but just hasn’t been announced yet.
That you have to visit Blogatog to get this important information is definitely a point of criticism as this point has not been properly communicated to the masses but this specific problem is still a non-issue.
This is the part that I was very unhappy with... and it happens to be flat-out untrue.
On the blogatog entry answering several questions about the TWD promos, Maro SPECIFICALLY states that the new functional reprint version and the previous secret lair version would be mutually exclusive, that the oracle page on gatherer would specifically state that the two versions are the exact same card for the purpose of deck building restrictions. Mechanically, these cards work like Zilortha in that a new version without crossover art CAN be made but just hasn’t been announced yet.
That you have to visit Blogatog to get this important information is definitely a point of criticism as this point has not been properly communicated to the masses but this specific problem is still a non-issue.
That's only because they are backpedaling. IF their original intention was to do this the same way as the Godzilla cards, they would have used the same formatting as the Godzilla cards, with the "unofficial" name for the crossover art version on top and the "official" card name in the frame underneath. Doing it any other way WILL lead to confusion about how many copies of a card you can actually put in your deck. You shouldn't have to look on Gatherer to see that the Crossover version is the same card as the "canon" version of the card. In fact, that's why the Godzilla cards are formatted the way they are, to ensure everyone is on the same page that they are just promotional artwork versions, not an entirely different card. The fact they didn't do that this time suggests they didn't have plans for a "canon" version until the public told WotC to go Fork themselves. Which is the problem: some shareholder told them to do this, MaRo has enough integrity to know this was a bad idea, so he's now making promises I'm not sure he is actually able to make no matter how much clout he has as lead game designer. Hopefully he does, but the formatting of the cards does not bode well for this being the same situation as the Godzilla cards. And even if they do the retroactive "LOLZ it was promo art all along" lie, the fact they are formatted improperly (according to their own rules!) will cause confusion and be a legitimate cause for criticism by players going into the future.
I’m willing to believe Wizards regarding not planning on a pseudo reserve-list for 2 reasons.
1. It maximizes FOMO. If people could look at Rick and see the title “Riccard, Gavony Champion”, they could look to the release schedule and surmise that the card is coming out in Innistrad late next year, kind of breaking the superficial fear of “what if it’s never reprinted again”? As wizards wants that sweet, unethical FOMO money, they aren’t inclined to do that.
2. It gives Wizards more flexibility in reprints. If a card is really popular, it might end up being a known and famous character in a future set (Rick could turn out to be Thalia, for example). If there isn’t space for a popular legend in one set, it could be squeezed into the design document for another set with ease (such as putting Rick in the next Ikiora or Eldraine set if Innistrad doesn’t work). Finally, it lets wizards pick and choose the good/popular cards to reprint rather than obligating a rare slot in a future set for, say, Darryl. Contrary to what I hear from a lot of complaints, I really do believe wizards when they say that a card becoming popular increases the chances of it being reprinted. Wizards wants to take advantage of that secondary market and print the cards that players really want (even if it ends up happening in places like masters sets) as it takes advantage of precasting hype to sell more packs/products.
while i agree, the only thing that will matter to them is the bottom line.
regardless, i recommend writing a letter. a real letter. not a tweet or a facebook post, or even an e-mail, a genuine letter.
after that, stop buying. no more sealed product.
if you want to take it even further, start writing your state representatives and explain how the game is unregulated gambling. if you can get someone to take that up things will change super quick across the board.
The problem is that the only sources claiming that they planned on this being a Godzilla-like situation are untrustworthy by default, because all of them are Wizards employees. Even disregarding the crossover aspect of this Secret Lair, you are forgetting that this Lair also breaks a promise that Secret Lairs would be for reprints only. I also don't think it makes any sense for them to omit the "canon" names for spoiler purposes because why would they care? Seriously, it wouldn't actually spoil anything, because many legendary creatures from the Commander products have no tie in with the story or future settings they plan on using. Heck, Future Sight deliberately contained cards from future sets in order to create hype for the game's future. In a similar veign its no secret the upcoming Norse themed set is almost certainly based on one of the planes from Planechase, just like Tarkir was. So not only does it not matter to them, they could have used the name reveal to hype future products.
Furthermore, that's not their official reason. Their official excuse is that it would ruin the aesthetics of the cards, which is a strange and dubious argument to make when it would be no different aesthetically than on the Godzilla cards; AND this is the same company that keeps the back of the cards unchanged after 25 years because it would represent a cheating issue if they so much as removed the accidental pen stroke on the back of every Magic card. It is also a direct violation of rule 201.1, the name of the card is in the left hand corner of the card. The true name apparently isn't even on the card! Rule 201.5 was created for the Ikoria promo cards specifically to mitigate this problem, and those cards are already out in the wild. Why not use that rule, even if it was just an empty box under the "crossover" name lacking the official name of the cards, if only to show that they were not the final product? The rules exist to facilitate the game, not to be ignored when its inconvenient for aesthetic purposes. That sets a precedent arguably worse than a neo-reserved list. This should be a game first, a collectable second. If it was intended purely to be a collectable, it should be silver bordered. That's literally what the silver border was made for.
And finally, I don't buy that this is simply a result of poor planning. That is, I don't think its the case that they created the cards before creating their "official" names, simply because we all know how long it takes for Wizards to get a card through the process of design, development, getting artwork commissioned, templating, and sent to the printers. In the time it took for them to do all that, they had plenty of time to come up with some kind of official name for them, perhaps even a tiny bit of lore and flavor text. And if they have, omitting that information from the initial announcement is so misleading I can't imagine their marketing department signing off on such stupidity. I really do think they are trying to save face by misrepresenting how these cards came to exist in the format they were revealed in. All the evidence we need for that is in the original announcement itself, the screenshots of the cards, and the way WotC has done things in the past. Saving face with post-hoc excuses isn't out of character for them, sadly.
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2nd Godzilla
Now walking dead?
1. NONE of the cards (other then Godzilla) are playable
Another thing is My little pony, walking dead and Godzilla do NOT belong in MTG
Also the collectors packs ARE NOT worth it.
First I will be discussing the weird typing and cards/themes that should not be in magic
First off My little pony . The only good thing I could see is that we get some legends for horses/pegasus/unicorn . However since there abilities are not viable in ANY way it does no good. Remember what audience My little pony is for. Next we have Godzilla, Now this isn't nearly as bad as it's just a art/name change. Although Godzilla does fit a bit more then the others I will give credit where it is due. THE BIG ONE is walking dead. Number one - WTF is this Walker typing ? I get they changed it, But also They are average cards. Much better cards can take the place 10/10. WTF is that release time? 4 days? 4 DAYS, for those people who only get paid once a month, they can't even get it. The prices for the My little pony/ Walking dead set are ridiculously overpriced for cards that are unplayable. Collectors Packs are 9/10 not worth it. Even modern masters is getting hella expensive. I do not appreciate the fact that collectors packs usually don't even give you back your money. So is Hasbro trying to help us the players? Or be selfish and take our money.(Do not blame Wizards of the coast, tbh they are suffering too)
What better than to spend less money on MTG's own lore when they can use other IP's every time they release a new product? Contrary to popular belief the games' own source material was on an upswing until after War of the Spark where they sort of just gave up shortly after. Of course it would cost Wizards of the Coast more time and money to license other IP's than it does for them to commission new artwork but If they split the profits however then it may not be a problem. Not to themselves of course but to us as a community.
Can you imagine the potential legal battles and lawsuits they might end up facing If they end up acquiring an IP that gets themselves into more trouble as a company? Would you want to continue to risk spending money on a hobby that mostly cares about profits over community? I sure wouldn't but that's the real danger that MTG faces right now IMO. Wizards of the Coast have managed to go unscathed from their recent legal battles but in the happenstance that Hasbro is no longer able to back them up I'm not so sure they'd be as lucky.
"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
(emphasis mine)
Oh yeah... there are just tons and tons and tons of corporate partners to crossover with. Maybe we can get some Smurfs and gem bellied Trolls sets - that would be awesome, right folks?
The core mechanics of Magic are now so varied and multifaceted almost everything works with it. Like we could have Malibu Barbie andher beach cruiser as a vehicle! Or Han Solo and the Melenium Falcon.
Nothing screams Magic: the Gathering like Star Wars, right?
Not like there used to be a whole separate TCG for that or anything...
taken from;
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/wizards-of-the-coast-responds-to-concerns-over-walking-dead-crossover/1100-6482915/
I would say we could not buy the product and complain loudly, frequently, and over a wide variety of platforms. If they get enough negative feedback and don't sell a huge amount maybe they will reevaluate what they are doing with their lives and to the game we all want to love
Believe it or not, the best way to ensure that Magic survives is to give WotC your money when they do something good, not screech at them like entitled lunatics on social media as if they're killing babies when they make something that doesn't excite you.
Wild concept, I know
People used to (and still do) alter their cards with some custom art.
Its either to make a full-art paint over the borders, and/or adding new art.
WotC capitalizes of exactly that and just produces the alters themselves , selling directly to the people.
These cards are way less unique and personalized, so it makes them basically worse in every aspect to actual alters that are well done.
----
But the market exists, people buy these, even if its just to have something to collect.
So thats fine as it is.
If a fringe section of players buy these, let them have it, even if its marketed to a much bigger audience, which mostly dont care at all.
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If its just alternate art for an existing card i would say its acceptable.
I truly dislike almost any Secret Lair they did so far, but if they for some miracle reason produce one i truly like, i could see me buying them (not from WotC but the singles sure).
----
WotC as of right now is very aggresively trying to hit as many fringe groups of players.
That in itself is a problem, as it deludes the players and the products into more and more very small variations, instead of uniforming the product like it was (you just had Booster-Packs and everything of a set, every card was in that packs, so you could always just buy them).
Right now theres so much product i dont know in what product is what card, or if i can get the "special art version" in what product.
Its absolute overkill, but as long as the market buys them up, they will continue doing so and get even more extreme.
The only way to send a message is with your wallet.
Dont buy these things.
(So far i could buy basically all the singles i am interested in for each set for just around 50 bucks , even foils, Magic was never cheaper as its now, if you dodge and avoid all the fancy "expensive" special products that nobody really needs anyway)
And alternate arts dont go away either.
You can always hire an artist, send them cards and have them painted in your personal wish art.
WotC will never be able to beat that kind of unique cards.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
I think it is important to highlight this. All of the whale-hunting and niche-filling they're doing makes the game DRAMATICALLY less expensive for the average player. The average player wins. The whales win(?). Those niche players win. WotC wins.
This is simply not true. I still remember buying my Moderate play Underground Sea from under the glass counter of my LGS for 4$
But I am a screeching entitled lunatic. My aunt, who introduced me to Magic, was one of the original organizers of RustyCon. I've been with this game since the beginning - although with significant breaks along the when when I got frustrated with design decisions. I've still got 100's of dollars in Wizards Bucks... Wizards Bucks people!!! It is a game that I loved and believe in - and I liked that it appealed to the outsider, wierdo, and outcast.
I fell in love with an fantasy game that had awesome gritty elements illustrated by talented local artists, and I loved supporting other talented locals by getting them to do card art alters when I wanted them. I know we've come a long long way from those days - but these endless crossovers represent a dramatic leap in a direction I a simply not comfortable with. It is turning Magic into something that is the diametric opposite of what appealed to me about the game. I am upset because Magic has been a significant part of my life and of my identity. I mean, I know that it is a selfish reaction and that I in no way should expect to own the entire concept as my own but... This is like a huge gentrifying moment. It's like when Grunge hit top of the Pops. It became something that was a mockery of itself and it had to die.
You could form a bandit company and sabotage their supply lines, and then lay siege to Hasbro Headquarters in Rhode Island, in a John Brownesque attempt to force change through direct violence, but it would come at great personal cost as you'd be executed by the Hasbro Megacorps
I can see this point of view, sure. I definitely don't agree that its a problem but I can see it.
No, we don't win. You know why? Because the Walking Dead cards are effectively on their own version of the Reserved List. The characters are not owned by Wizards of the Coast. When the license runs out, WotC can no longer print these cards, which means their price will dramatically increase just like the rest of the cards on the Reserved List. The problem you aren't seeing is that its short term gain for all parties, but the damage is to the long term health of the game.
The only difference between these cards and the actual Reserved List is that the original list promised there would be no functional reprints, whereas here they can almost certainly make functional reprints. But that doesn't really solve the problem. Lets say hypothetically they get the Star Wars license and Darth Vader manages to become Legacy viable or even a staple. There is a very limited supply of Darth Vader cards, and when Disney yanks the license, they can't print any more of him. BUT they could print a functionally identical card, lets say Lord Soth from Dragonlance (because that's a property Wizards owns). That doesn't really solve the problem, because now Legacy players can potentially play with two copies of Vader and four of Soth, and this could be a degenerate deck. Or you could see Commander decks with a Soth as commander and a Vader in the deck as backup, leading to potential degenerate plays there as well. Hypothetical, of course, because these cards don't exist, but they show why you can't solve the problem with functional reprints. You shouldn't impose a Reserved List on your game to begin with.
Contrast this with the approach taken with previous crossovers. The silver bordered cards can't be played in tournaments at all, so the My Little Pony cards present no threat to tournament play or Commander at all. Likewise, when the Toho license runs out, that just means they cannot reprint Luminous Broodmoth with Mothra's name and artwork on it. But they can still print Luminous Broodmoth and you can't put more than four of that card in your deck just because there are Mothra art versions out there. Its not a functional reprint, its literally the same card. Also, I mentioned Dragonlance above, and we know there will be a Forgotten Realms expansion next year. This is also a kind of crossover, but importantly its not an inter-company crossover. There is no issue with licensing. When inevitably Drizzt Do'Urden becomes a staple of Commander or even other formats (as we all know he will be) he's not going to enter the Honorary Reserved List, because he's a character WotC actually owns. As long as they own D&D, they can crossover with these properties whenever they feel like, and even in terms of flavor few people are going to complain because they're from the same genre as Magic. They're High Fantasy, while The Walking Dead is not. Actually, the most complaining I see over the D&D crossovers is from D&D players, and only because they're getting impatient for a 5e take on Dark Sun (or at least Planescape). Otherwise, the Ravnica crossover didn't bother MtG players at all, and the Theros book was actually fairly popular. It doesn't ruin anyone's immersion, and they can reprint those books indefinitely, for the same reason they will be able to reprint Forgotten Realms cards indefinitely.
They won't be able to do that with mechanically unique inter-company crossover cards that aren't done as artwork alters like the Godzilla cards, and that's what makes this legitimately aggravating for players of Commander and older formats that are already plagued by the original Reserved List.
This is the part that I was very unhappy with... and it happens to be flat-out untrue.
On the blogatog entry answering several questions about the TWD promos, Maro SPECIFICALLY states that the new functional reprint version and the previous secret lair version would be mutually exclusive, that the oracle page on gatherer would specifically state that the two versions are the exact same card for the purpose of deck building restrictions. Mechanically, these cards work like Zilortha in that a new version without crossover art CAN be made but just hasn’t been announced yet.
That you have to visit Blogatog to get this important information is definitely a point of criticism as this point has not been properly communicated to the masses but this specific problem is still a non-issue.
That's only because they are backpedaling. IF their original intention was to do this the same way as the Godzilla cards, they would have used the same formatting as the Godzilla cards, with the "unofficial" name for the crossover art version on top and the "official" card name in the frame underneath. Doing it any other way WILL lead to confusion about how many copies of a card you can actually put in your deck. You shouldn't have to look on Gatherer to see that the Crossover version is the same card as the "canon" version of the card. In fact, that's why the Godzilla cards are formatted the way they are, to ensure everyone is on the same page that they are just promotional artwork versions, not an entirely different card. The fact they didn't do that this time suggests they didn't have plans for a "canon" version until the public told WotC to go Fork themselves. Which is the problem: some shareholder told them to do this, MaRo has enough integrity to know this was a bad idea, so he's now making promises I'm not sure he is actually able to make no matter how much clout he has as lead game designer. Hopefully he does, but the formatting of the cards does not bode well for this being the same situation as the Godzilla cards. And even if they do the retroactive "LOLZ it was promo art all along" lie, the fact they are formatted improperly (according to their own rules!) will cause confusion and be a legitimate cause for criticism by players going into the future.
1. It maximizes FOMO. If people could look at Rick and see the title “Riccard, Gavony Champion”, they could look to the release schedule and surmise that the card is coming out in Innistrad late next year, kind of breaking the superficial fear of “what if it’s never reprinted again”? As wizards wants that sweet, unethical FOMO money, they aren’t inclined to do that.
2. It gives Wizards more flexibility in reprints. If a card is really popular, it might end up being a known and famous character in a future set (Rick could turn out to be Thalia, for example). If there isn’t space for a popular legend in one set, it could be squeezed into the design document for another set with ease (such as putting Rick in the next Ikiora or Eldraine set if Innistrad doesn’t work). Finally, it lets wizards pick and choose the good/popular cards to reprint rather than obligating a rare slot in a future set for, say, Darryl. Contrary to what I hear from a lot of complaints, I really do believe wizards when they say that a card becoming popular increases the chances of it being reprinted. Wizards wants to take advantage of that secondary market and print the cards that players really want (even if it ends up happening in places like masters sets) as it takes advantage of precasting hype to sell more packs/products.
regardless, i recommend writing a letter. a real letter. not a tweet or a facebook post, or even an e-mail, a genuine letter.
after that, stop buying. no more sealed product.
if you want to take it even further, start writing your state representatives and explain how the game is unregulated gambling. if you can get someone to take that up things will change super quick across the board.
Furthermore, that's not their official reason. Their official excuse is that it would ruin the aesthetics of the cards, which is a strange and dubious argument to make when it would be no different aesthetically than on the Godzilla cards; AND this is the same company that keeps the back of the cards unchanged after 25 years because it would represent a cheating issue if they so much as removed the accidental pen stroke on the back of every Magic card. It is also a direct violation of rule 201.1, the name of the card is in the left hand corner of the card. The true name apparently isn't even on the card! Rule 201.5 was created for the Ikoria promo cards specifically to mitigate this problem, and those cards are already out in the wild. Why not use that rule, even if it was just an empty box under the "crossover" name lacking the official name of the cards, if only to show that they were not the final product? The rules exist to facilitate the game, not to be ignored when its inconvenient for aesthetic purposes. That sets a precedent arguably worse than a neo-reserved list. This should be a game first, a collectable second. If it was intended purely to be a collectable, it should be silver bordered. That's literally what the silver border was made for.
And finally, I don't buy that this is simply a result of poor planning. That is, I don't think its the case that they created the cards before creating their "official" names, simply because we all know how long it takes for Wizards to get a card through the process of design, development, getting artwork commissioned, templating, and sent to the printers. In the time it took for them to do all that, they had plenty of time to come up with some kind of official name for them, perhaps even a tiny bit of lore and flavor text. And if they have, omitting that information from the initial announcement is so misleading I can't imagine their marketing department signing off on such stupidity. I really do think they are trying to save face by misrepresenting how these cards came to exist in the format they were revealed in. All the evidence we need for that is in the original announcement itself, the screenshots of the cards, and the way WotC has done things in the past. Saving face with post-hoc excuses isn't out of character for them, sadly.