There is a lot to e worried about and plenty legitimate complaints, but there seem to be just too many people all too willing to ignore that we are not past the threshold where all "old employees will go away and they'll hire new ones who have no passion". There are plenty of people who are putting in the work to make more of a game they are passionate about while also satisfying the directions of "the proprietors". People that care about gameplay. People that care about story. Or at least people that care about balancing the wishes of a diverse fan base in addition to the voices of the investors.
Throwing out products to see what works is a way to gauge reaction. If the right stuff works out, that can still lead to an enjoyable game with exquisite world building. As far as I can tell the only thing that is really problematic right is that not all dozen Constructed formats work out well enough for everyone to like everything, but almost every "Standard sucks" tirade I've read in the last years always had a "That's why I stick with Modern" portion that just shows that there is a niche for that player to enjoy.
I personally agree this is a lazy product, but that also kinda means it can fail without me having to be sad about too much resources being taken away from premium sets and major supplemental releases.
This obviously is meant concerning the actual design of the products. There are legitimate issues with distribution and local support and possibly the way competitive tournaments have been handled, but that's really a different set of issues way beyond a product release like this.
You know what I always tought to be really unforgivable to me? To not give to Vraska the Unseen Assassin token death touch despite the fact they can literally kill players. They can kill a player but not an Utopia Tree? WTF?
I always thought that was neat since Vraska was quite selective in her actions in the story, going out of her way to pick and kill that one Azorius guy, not going on a siege of the Senate, but directly for the intended target. Discriminate killing.
Oh they absolutely will eventually, we all know they'd make far more money selling the Power 9 than any potential lawsuit could ever take away from them. In addition, we saw that they have tried to break the RL in the past with Phyrexian Negators Duel Deck reprinting. I'm sure they are saving it as their last resort, if the game ever gets close to dying. It also wouldn't surprise me if someone at Hasbro forced them to do so, this AAA microtransaction age of Magic is making them money and suits are never known to stop pushing the envelope.
Why open yourself up to a lawsuit/legal action at all though if you can just go digital and serve endless RL cards to players without reprinting a single one?
i never liked that the Rebel is search a rebel permanent card instead of a rebel card
they should had expanded it and dominaria is another chance
What exactly would be the point? Every single Rebel card I recall that searches for a Rebel permanent card puts it onto the battlefield and there are no nonpermanent cards that can be put onto the battlefield that way. So finding yourself a tribal instant with changeling will have no benefit at all.
Personally, I’d be overjoyed to have some plane-themed commander decks with plane chase cards.
A graveyard-based deck for innistrad (as we haven’t seen one since the Jeskai flashback deck)
An energy deck (with proper commander) for kaladesh
A multicolor matters deck for ravnica.
A counter based deck with artifact and infect subthemes for new phyrexia.
Give me some of that and I would be happy as a clam.
I always wanted a Commander deck themed around multiple planes to just revisit the places as well as make unique new cards for mechanics that might not make it through Standard/premium sets.
I would expect though that an energy deck already would cover the counter theme.
I... did not realize any of those were cards people worried about overmuch. Good thing functional reprints are a thing, eh?
Functional reprints don't at all serve that purpose. The whole point is to re-interpret an existing cardname into a new world like done with Breeding Pool, Sacred Foundry etc.
Once all is said and done the real problem won't be the many different IPs with many different mechanically more or less unique cards that nevertheless are easily legible, but having the same card reprinted in a dozen different Collector Boosters and Secret Lairs with textless/borderless versions with illustrations that make it hard to tell even the cardname or mana cost because all was incorporated into the artwork, or because they thought black-on-black planeswalkers would look cool and forgot they were still making game pieces that sometimes need to get played by people that don't have permanent internet access.
Add to that the cards that will have two versions with different English cardnames courtesy of the Godzilla-experiment.
So apparently they decided to make every single creature card with a Phyrexian watermark creature type Phyrexian unless it was also printed in another set where it was not definitely Phrexian. And that sucks. I am never going to get a non-Phyrexian Geralf-themed Nested Ghoul, because of this creature type. It sucks that the creature type just denominates a faction. I could see it for the Praetors and creatures that are strongly compleated (like that one card that they decided would only have a class and no race since it was now beyond its former race, Priests of Norn etc.)
If there is one thing about MtG I really appreciate it is the great reprints that re-interpret a card entirely with a reprint. They just did it with a whole ten-card cycle of lands where ever member was flavored after a different plane. But this update closes the door on Kaladeshi Wing Splicer, Theran Blind Zealot, Ixalan Dementia Bat or Valor's Reach Oculus. Not neat.
Notably "dungeon" is not capitalized, so it is not a subtype like Saga is. If this is on a card's type line it would be a new card type (or super type, but that doesn't seem likely).
Maybe the dungeon is a different game object though e. g. a zone/pile of cards like the library or graveyard. Or maybe it's neither like the city's blessing.
A notable aspect is, how little room for reminder text this has.
Phyrexian is pretty much conceptually identical as Vampires or Zombies creature types, a contagious corruption that can take over any kind of creature type regardless of where they come from.
Except Zombies and Vampires can evolve independently on different planes the same way Humans and Elves and Kithkin and Dragons can. Phyrexian is a bit more biased towards its point of origin.
One might argue if the creature type was Cyborg instead (describing the fusion of artificial and biological nature; also covering the assimilation aspect since the same word is the origin of Borg, cousin to the Phyrexians), then that creature type could reasonably be used for Esper creatures. And it's not like enhancement with etherium is not something that could be exported to other planes by a willing planeswalker acquiring the necessary knowledge.
The Esperite status is quite similar to the Phyrexian, conceptually maybe not further apart than Shadowmoor Duergar and Kaladeshi Dwarves. Phyrexian though is not about such parallel evolution, but about the "bloodline" as far as I can see.
And Consecrated Sphinx shows why that prevention of parallel evolution is backwards. Either that, or the Phyrexians are about to really kick Amonkhet while its already sooo down.
Could this have been Marit Lage themed, with art and flavor text referencing MTG's last remaining interesting villain besides Phyrexia?
Yes, it could.
But did it?
No. It didn't.
Wait, this isn't Marit Lage themed? That's not Marit Lage's tentacles in that illustration. You are right about the flavor text missing to clarify, but I'm not certain on the art.
Throwing out products to see what works is a way to gauge reaction. If the right stuff works out, that can still lead to an enjoyable game with exquisite world building. As far as I can tell the only thing that is really problematic right is that not all dozen Constructed formats work out well enough for everyone to like everything, but almost every "Standard sucks" tirade I've read in the last years always had a "That's why I stick with Modern" portion that just shows that there is a niche for that player to enjoy.
I personally agree this is a lazy product, but that also kinda means it can fail without me having to be sad about too much resources being taken away from premium sets and major supplemental releases.
This obviously is meant concerning the actual design of the products. There are legitimate issues with distribution and local support and possibly the way competitive tournaments have been handled, but that's really a different set of issues way beyond a product release like this.
I always thought that was neat since Vraska was quite selective in her actions in the story, going out of her way to pick and kill that one Azorius guy, not going on a siege of the Senate, but directly for the intended target. Discriminate killing.
Why open yourself up to a lawsuit/legal action at all though if you can just go digital and serve endless RL cards to players without reprinting a single one?
Wouldn't that be an argument in favor of a product that covers both Commander and Planechase? A 2-for-1 product?
What exactly would be the point? Every single Rebel card I recall that searches for a Rebel permanent card puts it onto the battlefield and there are no nonpermanent cards that can be put onto the battlefield that way. So finding yourself a tribal instant with changeling will have no benefit at all.
I always wanted a Commander deck themed around multiple planes to just revisit the places as well as make unique new cards for mechanics that might not make it through Standard/premium sets.
I would expect though that an energy deck already would cover the counter theme.
Functional reprints don't at all serve that purpose. The whole point is to re-interpret an existing cardname into a new world like done with Breeding Pool, Sacred Foundry etc.
Add to that the cards that will have two versions with different English cardnames courtesy of the Godzilla-experiment.
If there is one thing about MtG I really appreciate it is the great reprints that re-interpret a card entirely with a reprint. They just did it with a whole ten-card cycle of lands where ever member was flavored after a different plane. But this update closes the door on Kaladeshi Wing Splicer, Theran Blind Zealot, Ixalan Dementia Bat or Valor's Reach Oculus. Not neat.
Maybe the dungeon is a different game object though e. g. a zone/pile of cards like the library or graveyard. Or maybe it's neither like the city's blessing.
A notable aspect is, how little room for reminder text this has.
Thanks for helping me find the word. It's indeed "danger".
Except Zombies and Vampires can evolve independently on different planes the same way Humans and Elves and Kithkin and Dragons can. Phyrexian is a bit more biased towards its point of origin.
One might argue if the creature type was Cyborg instead (describing the fusion of artificial and biological nature; also covering the assimilation aspect since the same word is the origin of Borg, cousin to the Phyrexians), then that creature type could reasonably be used for Esper creatures. And it's not like enhancement with etherium is not something that could be exported to other planes by a willing planeswalker acquiring the necessary knowledge.
The Esperite status is quite similar to the Phyrexian, conceptually maybe not further apart than Shadowmoor Duergar and Kaladeshi Dwarves. Phyrexian though is not about such parallel evolution, but about the "bloodline" as far as I can see.
And Consecrated Sphinx shows why that prevention of parallel evolution is backwards. Either that, or the Phyrexians are about to really kick Amonkhet while its already sooo down.
Wait, this isn't Marit Lage themed? That's not Marit Lage's tentacles in that illustration. You are right about the flavor text missing to clarify, but I'm not certain on the art.