That's a really good question. Don't get me wrong, I like the fantasy lore and read some of the text that comes with it. It just isn't my thing. I love Magic because of the infinite intellectual challenge that is deckbuilding. I love the artwork too, and I am cool with it having a story. I just think that when Wizards thought they could wrap how they issue the sets around the story, they came up empty as far as story and the Vorthos thing directly increasing sales. It just didn't happen.
My own opinion is that wizards actually did something right with making the story of the game world easier to understand. The only problem was the story they had when they did this was awful. If this movement was done during the Brothers War, or maybe Urza's Saga times things probably would have been a bit different. Mercadian Masques had a pretty decent story as well. In any case, I feel the planeswalkers are the main issue and that the entire game world got hurt when walkers became too commonplace. It was much better when the players were implied to be the planeswalkers and the heroes of each world were the focus.
Sure, I agree with you on all counts. Wizards needs to come up with stories that are really compelling, and when you have too many planeswalkers, that's a problem. The Gatewatch could have been done differently, maybe add one walker per set. The too-many-Guideons problem sure didn't help!
That's a really good question. Don't get me wrong, I like the fantasy lore and read some of the text that comes with it. It just isn't my thing. I love Magic because of the infinite intellectual challenge that is deckbuilding. I love the artwork too, and I am cool with it having a story. I just think that when Wizards thought they could wrap how they issue the sets around the story, they came up empty as far as story and the Vorthos thing directly increasing sales. It just didn't happen.
I may be a less-representative voice, but I think the answer to the question 'What's Wrong With Today's Magic?' is 'almost nothing.'
The point of a for-profit game is to maximize profits, while keeping other metrics healthy. Wizards continues to maximize profits while steadily increasing the size of the player base and expanding the number of products it publishes for the game. The overall TCG market is doing great. The Big Three paper TCGs are doing great: Pokemon and Yugioh. All three companies are very responsive, and turn their focus on a dime when they encounter a rough spot. Each company focuses on a specific demographic, and Magic has the most to gain when expanding their audience demographic. Magic still has room to grow by appealing more to young women, and also by appealing more to the 30+ demographic.
The biggest threats to paper Magic are digital TCGs and other games. Hearthstone came on the scene very strong, but has plateaued. I think the biggest threat to Magic (paper and digital) is the move away from TCGs, whenever it happens. I hope this move happens many decades from now, and if that's the case, there's a whole-lot-of-Magic left for us to enjoy.
At the tactical level, the small things that are wrong with Magic, IMHO are:
1. A close relationship between Wizards and some of the secondary market companies that can blowback against Wizards. I would call this one the 'insider threat' to the game.
2. Paper forgers for out-of-print cards continue to improve the quality of their forgeries.
3. Vorthos is not the fourth type of player, just deal with it. We are here to play Magic, and fantasy fiction is a small side show.
4. The obsession with value is a distraction. Magic is a game with collectible pieces, and the vast majority of these pieces have no economic value now and forever. 'Magic Finance' is really a benign ponzi scheme. Baseball cards, comic books and stamps have been where Magic Finance will be.
5. The obsession with the Reserved List going away is another distraction to the game. The reserved list cards will only be reprinted after Wizards ceases to be a company and by some other company, and what would be the point of that, since by that time all TCGs will be out of fashion anyways.
6. Reddit is a troll echo chamber where alters are more important than deckbuilding. Reddit is where I practice my eye rolls.
What's RIght with Magic? A lot, almost everything. Standard is going to be in a much better place next summer. That's all I really need to stay in this game.
Yeah, and by adding one mana to every major effect, nothing but land drops happen in some games for the first two turns. The biggest annoyance by far is the two drop mana dork. The point of a mana dork is to come in on turn one. I don't need a two drop mana dork. For that, I will use some ability two drop.
I like that they are bringing back the core set, that was a huge mistake.
We will have five two-set blocks are barely interactive blocks.
Wow, this is the best news from WOTC in some time. An artifacts-matter block (my favorite type) followed by an Ancient Egypt block (awesome, awesome flavor, incredible source of art), that's just great!
I predict that everything in the Eternal Masters set will be legal in the new format, which means including some cards that are banned in current Legacy. Basically, without Reserved List cards, the power level of Legacy drops quite a bit, so there is room to bring in some cards that are banned in Legacy right now, like Balance. This might explain why Mana Drain did not get printed in EM.
I agree with this. Balance would work fine in a format as a restricted card, as long as that format doesn't have power 9 etc.
Exactly what happened with Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time right?
Decks playing the powerful card drawers have been winning a lot, and pushing a lot of other decks down in competitive play. Blue-Red Delver decks, playing efficient creatures, card drawers, burn, and some permission spells have been the most successful. Also, decks focused on more burn, or combination decks using Jeskai Ascendancy, have done well. However, as these decks have occupied a large portion of the competitive metagame, the overall variety of successful decks has been suppressed. It is imbalanced enough that Wizards of the Coast has decided to act. In Modern, these cards are easy replacements for one another—while a Delver deck might use Treasure Cruise over Dig Through Time, banning one but not the other would do little to change the deck. Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise are banned.
-Banned and Restricted Announcement, January 19th 2015
Khans had just dropped a few months prior and while I don't have the attendance numbers in front of me, I don't believe there was a "HUGE" dip in attendance during this time.
While my decks are not tier 1, they are reasonable, and by now I have played against the Eldrazi deck in Legacy, Modern, and Standard, and this situation is very similar to when Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time found themselves in every dominant deck. I even think this situation is worse, because instead of two cards making it into most decks, now we have two cards making it into one and only one deck, Eldrazi, and therefore way too many players on Eldrazi. And don't get me wrong, I love playing Eldrazi, and even have most of the deck except for some of the OGW cards, but its no fun to play what everyone else is playing. When I realize I am not playing against an Eldrazi deck I think to myself 'Thank God,' and when someone plays cards that tell me I am facing an Eldrazi deck I think to myself 'oh, sucks.'
It failed because monoblack was just not a thing. It was almost impossible to play mono black or black anything in draft. Not to mention all the cool things such as werewolves, vampires, zombies tribal were gone. Werewolves were apparently cured, humans were op and white just had too much power over other colours.
It was a balancing issue, if the other colours, especially black had been given good draft/sealed/constructed toys then maybe it would have been a another amazing set. If white would have been nerfed though to compensate for weaker colours, the set would have bombed even more. Good cards like Restoration Angel were given away as promos, that is an amazing rare to be given.
Also cards like Zealous Conscripts helped give red players a way of handling planewalkers without wasting burn spells.
Yeah, that makes sense. Its almost its own block, a little like Rise of the Eldrazi. I made a bunch of decks with AVR only and added everything but ISD and DKA, and they were a ton of fun. AVR definitely had that weird duckling thrid set thing.
Avacyn Restored was not liked by some. I would like to know why? Innistrad was great, but it also had one of the most monolithic standards: Geist of Saint Traft, Delver of Secrets, and Snapcaster Mage formed what I called then the Three Amigos, and they were everywhere (and in the same deck). I remember being able to net deck like a hundred of these decks all at once.
Avacyn Restored has the basic cards for the most played deck in Legacy (Miracles), arguably one of the strongest creatures in Magic with Griselbrand, and, of course, it has flaws, like the worst planeswalker in Magic (poor Tibalt).
tangolands seems like a fitting name: takes two to tango.
can those who don't like this name explain why it is not fitting?
also, battle lands means nothing to me. What is the meaning that is intended with battle land.
I don't care much what we call them, but a catchy title does allow for better communication, right?
I have a blog: MTG Adventures. Its mostly about casual play on MTGO. Here is a screen shot. The link is in my signature. Its just me and my hobby (don't sell cards, not affiliated with anyone who does). I also analyze (net) decks, have the occasional commentary, and cube ideas. Its mostly Standard and Modern, but I have dabbled in Legacy and Vintage.
Sure, I agree with you on all counts. Wizards needs to come up with stories that are really compelling, and when you have too many planeswalkers, that's a problem. The Gatewatch could have been done differently, maybe add one walker per set. The too-many-Guideons problem sure didn't help!
The point of a for-profit game is to maximize profits, while keeping other metrics healthy. Wizards continues to maximize profits while steadily increasing the size of the player base and expanding the number of products it publishes for the game. The overall TCG market is doing great. The Big Three paper TCGs are doing great: Pokemon and Yugioh. All three companies are very responsive, and turn their focus on a dime when they encounter a rough spot. Each company focuses on a specific demographic, and Magic has the most to gain when expanding their audience demographic. Magic still has room to grow by appealing more to young women, and also by appealing more to the 30+ demographic.
The biggest threats to paper Magic are digital TCGs and other games. Hearthstone came on the scene very strong, but has plateaued. I think the biggest threat to Magic (paper and digital) is the move away from TCGs, whenever it happens. I hope this move happens many decades from now, and if that's the case, there's a whole-lot-of-Magic left for us to enjoy.
At the tactical level, the small things that are wrong with Magic, IMHO are:
1. A close relationship between Wizards and some of the secondary market companies that can blowback against Wizards. I would call this one the 'insider threat' to the game.
2. Paper forgers for out-of-print cards continue to improve the quality of their forgeries.
3. Vorthos is not the fourth type of player, just deal with it. We are here to play Magic, and fantasy fiction is a small side show.
4. The obsession with value is a distraction. Magic is a game with collectible pieces, and the vast majority of these pieces have no economic value now and forever. 'Magic Finance' is really a benign ponzi scheme. Baseball cards, comic books and stamps have been where Magic Finance will be.
5. The obsession with the Reserved List going away is another distraction to the game. The reserved list cards will only be reprinted after Wizards ceases to be a company and by some other company, and what would be the point of that, since by that time all TCGs will be out of fashion anyways.
6. Reddit is a troll echo chamber where alters are more important than deckbuilding. Reddit is where I practice my eye rolls.
What's RIght with Magic? A lot, almost everything. Standard is going to be in a much better place next summer. That's all I really need to stay in this game.
I like that they are bringing back the core set, that was a huge mistake.
We will have five two-set blocks are barely interactive blocks.
I agree with this. Balance would work fine in a format as a restricted card, as long as that format doesn't have power 9 etc.
While my decks are not tier 1, they are reasonable, and by now I have played against the Eldrazi deck in Legacy, Modern, and Standard, and this situation is very similar to when Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time found themselves in every dominant deck. I even think this situation is worse, because instead of two cards making it into most decks, now we have two cards making it into one and only one deck, Eldrazi, and therefore way too many players on Eldrazi. And don't get me wrong, I love playing Eldrazi, and even have most of the deck except for some of the OGW cards, but its no fun to play what everyone else is playing. When I realize I am not playing against an Eldrazi deck I think to myself 'Thank God,' and when someone plays cards that tell me I am facing an Eldrazi deck I think to myself 'oh, sucks.'
Me too! I really want this (especially the legendary werewolf!).
Yeah, that makes sense. Its almost its own block, a little like Rise of the Eldrazi. I made a bunch of decks with AVR only and added everything but ISD and DKA, and they were a ton of fun. AVR definitely had that weird duckling thrid set thing.
Edit: actually, 154 decks to be exact,
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2012/08/154-delver-standard-online-decks.html
Avacyn Restored has the basic cards for the most played deck in Legacy (Miracles), arguably one of the strongest creatures in Magic with Griselbrand, and, of course, it has flaws, like the worst planeswalker in Magic (poor Tibalt).
Now, please be civil in your response, please!
can those who don't like this name explain why it is not fitting?
also, battle lands means nothing to me. What is the meaning that is intended with battle land.
I don't care much what we call them, but a catchy title does allow for better communication, right?
This. It actually is NOT good news if the return sets are a way to screw up something good. We are already getting a taste of that with BFZ.