MTG Salvation

Like the walking dead, i wont be buying any of that product. **** em.

assuming the lord of the rings cross over is a full walking dead style set: the thing that gets me too is like... these are forced on you. if they're strong cards you're going to see them, you have no choice. if they do an entire set of lord of the rings, you're stuck. if you don't support this decision, and you don't want your immersion factor broken, if you'd rather speak with your wallet... now you're out until bare minimum the set rotates.


they'll be all over standard, and if you want to participate because its an entire set you WILL have to buy in. so now you get to sit out of standard for like 2 years. you won't be drafting this set if you don't support the idea, you won't be going to prerelease events, limited events, nothing. if anything is strong (and something will be) you'll also see it pop up in other formats, repeatedly. arena also ends up being majorly out since all it is is standard sets.
so now you're forced to make a choice. support this with your wallet like it or not if you want to keep playing... or don't play.


and then on top of that you might sit down for a game and have someone slap down bilbo baggins and gandalf with their great unclean one and michone. at a certain point you're not even playing magic any more, and you had no say in it.
magic's lore and history is far too rich to need to blend it with other properties. if wotc can't write a story any more, thats a major problem and resources need to be spent on fixing that, not stealing from another unrelated property to muddy up their existing one.


part of magic is its story and flavor.


once you start down this path all of that becomes meaningless. why even have art on cards, or anything flavorful at all.
i think thats all a big part of why you don't see that kind of blending with other long time properties. lord of the rings is its own miniatures game, its not jammed into 40k. better to include nods and references to other things over straight up including them because all you do is make a mess.

Quote from Flamebuster »

For those saying it's not Harry Potter influenced...it looks pretty Harry Potter influenced here if you ask me.

'buster

this was discussed in the other thread, wizard schools and houses within them is nothing new. its just a fantasy trope. it was popularized by harry potter but existed long before harry potter. within magic's own history even.

i'm reminded of innistrad where everyone was oh so insistent that the set was banking off twilight's popularity as if werewolves and vampires hadn't existed prior to that trash.

Quote from the n00b king »

Quote from Ryperior74 »

https://twitter.com/maro254/status/1359920300784193536?s=19

long story short it’s not based in Harry Potter or any other magic school theme in anything

This will be 100% unqiue outside anything even tolarian academy
(Fun fact are tolarian academy was born before Harry Potter)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, published in 1997
Urza's Saga (not sure if that was the first time Tolarian Academy was mentioned though) was released in 1998

Even if you take into account that the design took place one year before, at best, they were invented at the same time. But considering that Rowling came up with the story before it was officially published...Looks like Potter WAS before Tolarian

Edit: The first time the players heard of Tolarian was in 1998, so Potter precedes. But perhaps you're tacit to additional facts I missed?

Lat-nam predates tolaria as it came to be by several sets.

There was also a wizards school on ulgrotha prior to urzas saga too

i really like these. especially the comicbooky kaya. just a huge fan of that style of art.

also a fan of how the art for teferi pushes the feeling of strong, happy, family values - its a nice change from the typical dour magic card art where everything is the end of the world. we don't see nearly enough of just plain wholesome goodness in the art any more. it makes me long for the days of the occasional beeble or goblin snowman

thats pretty nice, i do miss the old borders

Quote from illidqn »

Quote from Dontrike »

Gitrog monster is a bit too changed for my liking, but it's definitely got the horror things down.

It's his "second version":
With the arrival of Emrakul, the monster became even more horrific, slowly losing any resemblance to a creature of the natural world.
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Gitrog_monster

shame that. giant frog horror worked just fine on its own. didn't need to become a tentacled unnatural thing. then again, they spent a lot of that set tearing down what actually worked in favor of what didn't. just like every other time eldrazi showed up.

anyway... not a fan of this new version of the monster. the bolas art is... okay.

the elf is solid. i think some people are a little too critical of it. in the right builds its going to get out of control quickly. builds that run a lot of token doublers want it. yes sure, we have other cards that do this effect already that don't see a ton of play... but these are elves. most of the time they're not staying 1/1. most of the time, they're fueling heaps of other things too. its easy to abuse elven bodies to generate mana, or fodder for sac outlets with the relevant (and a lot of newly relevant) other elven sac outlets, they synergize with lathril or whatever her name is, the new commander, and the majority of the time they're going to end up being imposing due to all the elf lords elf tribal runs. yes, it'll eat removal in any good pod, but for the elf tribal decks that want it, they REALLY want it. not everything has to make an immediate board impact to be worth it. its not an amazeballs type card, but it IS a solid addition to elf tribal

the sphinx still sucks.

i love this guys art, and his ability is really interesting to build around. he feels mythic, without feeling like a staple to every deck that can run him. that's how mythics should be designed.

edit: finally a reason to twiddle my bone flute

Not a fan of it at mythic. Not because its too strong, but because idk, it just doesnt scream mythic

Quote from Flisch »

I find it weird that people think this is ruining Kaldheim.

You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.

This is a good thing, story telling wise. Was Lord of the Rings ruined for you when Frodo left the shire and came in contact with the Nazgul for the first time and there was now the real possibility that he could die or be injured?

I don't get this. The magic multiverse is way too much a museum of planes rather than an ecosystem of planes as it is. More interconnectivity and agents for change are a good thing in my book. (And we all know that if enough people like Kaldheim, it will not fall to the phyrexians because brand beats storytelling.)

Except we dont know kaldheim.

Im not invested in it at all. I havent seen it grow and develop. I havent watched its characters do anything. Theres no connection to the plane yet so caring about its future is almost moot.

Hopefully this means WoTC can finally give us a Werewolf Commander deck and a Vampire Commander deck as the Precons!

Quote from foam_dome »

Exactly. As long as people are going to buy huge quantities of basic land secret lairs, Wizards is going to keep making them. It doesn’t matter how much people whine on forums; the only voice Wizards cares to hear is the one that comes from people’s wallets.

If releasing a secret lair with only 1 of each basic land would encourage more people to buy many multiples of them, then why would they release a secret lair with 5 or 6 of each and risk cutting into their profits?

Customer Satisfaction is a diminishing currency.
Bad business practice might not immediately translate into people not buying your product, but it will eat away on them, till it becomes relevant.

Keeping customers happy on the long term guarantees a steady stream of income, it might even encourage them to buy more, as they are indeed happy to do so.
If you continue to slap your customers in the face, they might turn away sooner or later.

Its basically what happens to all products WotC releases, its great at first, then they creep into practices that make the product more and more filthy and garbage, so they need to re-brand their product (aka Master sets, FTV, etc.).

If someone would have wanted to give the Valentine drop to their own Valentine on Valentine's Day, WotC should have offered that drop months ago so you could have purchased it for your sweetheart and give it to them on time, not in May. Another logistics fail.

Quote from SpeedGrapher »

Listen, we've had this conversation already about other products Wizards has released. Everyone on this website is an extreme liberal. Two generations are brainwashed extreme liberals. If you argue against extreme liberalism you will be shouted down. You will be hunted to the point of losing your job or worse. There are all kinds of news stories like that and it's disgusting.
You have to understand the rational arguments are over. Just enjoy the societal collapse. Arguing against the ideology behind this product is a massive waste of time.
In the context of a product available for purchase that you disagree with there is only one solution of not buying the product.
Solution: Don't buy the product.

Please tell me this post is satire. Please.

Quote from JuiceBOX »

Kaya is my favorite MTG character atm, and I am loving that Teferi is back. it is really nice having people of color represented in MTG.

I just wish there was not the showboating to go with all of it, and that things like this could be done in silence and everyone who makes the game and plays the game not bat an eye about it.

Man what a world that would be.

It’s Black History Month. Calling this showboating seems exceptionally tone deaf.

Quote from Werewolf_Rawr »

So much woke in Magic: the Gathering where escapism should be at it's peak. Glad to see so many woke people on this forum too. Glad y'all have a place to remind everyone how with it you are. Product is 100% pandering. Could've released this at any time - but it wasn't, it was done now. And that's why it's off. It has nothing to do with the product itself and some of you can't see that. That being said, this is nothing to be surprised about from WOTC.

Magic is absolutely a place for escapism. What your not realizing is that seeing yourself in the characters is a big part of escapism. Black Magic players deserve escapism just as much as you do. Sure, people can see themselves in characters with different skin color from their own, but that just makes your complaint all the more absurd.

In case you guys haven't noticed, Magic is all about pandering. They literally just released a set pandering to Norse mythology fans, then they're going to pander to Harry Potter fans, then D&D fans, then horror fans. How about when they pander to someone who isn't you, you can just, like, not throw a fit?

Yikes, I knew MTGS had a super toxic community, but I thought at least it was beyond outright racism. Ffs guys, if a traditionally oppressed group getting a little light pandering during a month dedicated to them really gets your panties in a twist please look inside yourself and think about why you feel that way.

This product is great so far. Excellent art, solid (if not particularly highly desirable) card picks, and a good cause. They'd have to include a bunch of serious duds from here on to scuttle the box.

Quote from OrzhovPlaneswalker »

Quote from mikeyG »

Wait, WotC is doing a great thing for Black girls, and your first thought was "what about me?" Yikes.

At this point it's kinda bread and butter to the MO of some of these regular naysayers.

All we can do is speak out, block, and/or report.

There's a persistent pattern here of particular users always going out of their way to problematize greater inclusivity for marginalized folks and folx.

Are there any good online MtG communities that don't put up with this kinda stuff that one can join?

The Vorthos community on this here website is still pretty small, and I'd be willing to join other sites and help build a Vorthos/Timmie community there if its user base is a little more progressive than MtGsalv.

This used to be a community that was well moderated and didn't allow stuff like this, much less allow the same people to say the same bigoted stuff over and over with little to no consequences, but that just isn't the case anymore. If anyone can recommend a community withh plenty of discussion that will actually put their foot down when it comes to bigots peddling hate speech left and right, please let me know because I'd like to join.

Quote from mikeyG »

Wait, WotC is doing a great thing for Black girls, and your first thought was "what about me?" Yikes.

At this point it's kinda bread and butter to the MO of some of these regular naysayers.

All we can do is speak out, block, and/or report.

There's a persistent pattern here of particular users always going out of their way to problematize greater inclusivity for marginalized folks and folx.

Are there any good online MtG communities that don't put up with this kinda stuff that one can join?

The Vorthos community on this here website is still pretty small, and I'd be willing to join other sites and help build a Vorthos/Timmie community there if its user base is a little more progressive than MtGsalv.