Lol, wizards just discovered how to print money, didn't they?
They just milk the market.
If people keep buying overpriced crap they get more overpriced crap.
Anybody else just ignores it.
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The absolute worst part of it is that it undermines all the stores.
The product a store gets tanks in value and it just keeps going.
All the stores get a massive "FU" and if anybody cares for their store and place to play, this kind of product has to be boycott, its bleeding out all the stores worldwide.
And if people dont think like that, they will wake up and wonder why there are no stores anymore.
Stores can order secret lair and sell for a bigger profit than any of the regular products. nothing stops them from doing it.
What is astonishing is that War of the spark was their grand finale to a 5 years arc that started in Battle for zendikar, they committed to the arc,developed characters, romance, conflicts, they hyped the arc, they made a big deal about its ending in War of the Spark, the greatest event in Magic since the end of the weatherlight saga.
They spent millions on the animated video which was supper, they made a teaser that left us wanting to know more.
I can't believe the person in charge gave a green light to the war of the spark plot, and then the novel. Who ever was in charge of approving this: doesn't care, has bad taste or maybe he is one of those "i know what is best" guys and thought he had a good "story" for the ending.
And it is a shame because it will take years before we have this kind of build up again, it was a big missed opportunity to engage players in the story (every one was paying attention, the set was story driven, you have 36 PW in it) and really make us engage emotionally with the characters. And they blew it out of the atmosphere.
In short: War of the Spark ****ed it up for everyone and they were spooked by it. Nice to see them admitting this and are going back to the latest tried-and-true approach.
This ought to be interesting moving forward.
'buster
It genuinely irks me that Greg Weisman and his incompetent trash compromised the Theros story release for us all. As if Vorthos didn’t suffer enough enduring what he did to the Bolas arc and all the characters and relationships creative worked so hard to establish. Let alone the insult to injury. I doubt this vetting process for Theros fiction was even warranted. This was a Greg weisman issue. Unless he was the author, they could have just released the Theros ebook. That said, I understand why they needed to take this approach. But if Kate Elliot and the Wildered Quest demonstrated anything, it’s that Greg was the problem, not consumer sensitivity, not the lore itself, but a horrible “author” who smashed the “novels” he “wrote” together the night before on dragon software with Junior high locker room banter in the background evidently.
Greg wasn't the problem alone, someone had to approve his work and since he is an outsider they probably gave him the plot and some details to write about, did they requested him to get up to date in magic lore? who gave the green light on the whole teyo-rat sub plot, Greg in fact stated on twitter that the Chandra-Nissa resolution was requested by higher ups.
Greg writing was terrible but I doubt he is the one responsible for the content.
LGS's are just gonna order a couple of these and mark em up $20-50 for all the latecomers.
And they are dumb if they are not doing it, Secret lair offer a great way to get some good margins on magic product, the hassle is minimal. It is even better product that booster boxes because of the margins. Some of the secret lairs were an obvious hit like kalleidoscope killers, but it seems even the cats are doing very very well second hand.
WotC needs to improve answers for the format with new designs, recently stuff like stony silence has been made easily answerable by new cards like blast zone, I do like blast zone design but it feels like an arms race now, it also feels like permanents (as stony or damping sphere) are no longer the way to go, so they should print better one use spells.
Also, "protection from colorless" should become more prevalent, I mean they clearly know it is needed after they printed giver of runes so hope they step up with more creatures featuring it to punish colorless decks.
I agree Urza should have been banned instead of Opal, it just going to keep getting better with any relevant artifact and will be broke again in a few months.
As for lattice, the problem I see with this ban is the inconsistency, if they don't like strategies that turn magic into solitaire they should ban other unfun cards as blood moon.
Something I would like to see is a Mox for only colored spells, that artifact decks can't use, specially designed to give speed to "fair" decks trying to catch up. Maybe like chrome mox but with some limitations on the use of its mana.
So we are going to new phyrexia with Elspeth and Ashiok it seems, it is going to be an exciting expansions, wonder when.
It said ashiok planeswalked to learn about the phyrexians i didn’t said Elspeth went there as well (but she could go to face her fears)
It’s not like they gonna make ashiok the new heir to yawgmoths throne are they?
My train of thought is that after the nightmares and new powers gained by Elspeth she is determined to go back and help what ever remains to save in new phyrexia.
Combat math and evasive body large enough to swing in and control a board or gain enough lifelink to offset the crackback
Card advantage or otherwise value engine that keeps asserting a dominant board state beyond just being a big dumb beater
Protection from removal you can use while tapped out or at low cost to be able to tap out for it and not just die 1:1 to a murder
Many have two of those factors. But how many have had all three? Chromium is a scary 7/7 flier that's hard to deal with, but if someone can just rush around him he's not going to develop more card advantage or gain life for you. Prognostic Sphinx can keep generating some value (not CA though) and protect itself, but its a 7 turn clock.
This poops card advantage, protects itself with no mana cost after you tap out for it, can swing big enough in the air to both close out a game and make that big life total swing like baneslayer angel, with the upside that it also might jump up to ~7 power when you add in draw spells.
Also, if they bought the secret lair as a bundle they only give one redemption code for the full bundle which includes all the digital perks and can't be split.
The sad part of all the gatewatch-Bolas arc is that htye took the effort to make it a big narrative for 3 years, there is some great writing in there in aminkhet specially.
And then the grand finale got blown up by one of the worst books I have read in my life. I could live with the story in the cards and device the details my self, surely there is already fanfiction trying to fix the mess the novel is, getting rid of Teyo and Ratand and filling the plot holes.
If they are skipping a novel in Theros because of the flop war of the spark novel was then I am Ok with it, I hope they sack the lore director and bring more competent people so we get better lore later in the year. But if they are just cutting costs for the sake of profit it is really shameful.
Stores can order secret lair and sell for a bigger profit than any of the regular products. nothing stops them from doing it.
They spent millions on the animated video which was supper, they made a teaser that left us wanting to know more.
I can't believe the person in charge gave a green light to the war of the spark plot, and then the novel. Who ever was in charge of approving this: doesn't care, has bad taste or maybe he is one of those "i know what is best" guys and thought he had a good "story" for the ending.
And it is a shame because it will take years before we have this kind of build up again, it was a big missed opportunity to engage players in the story (every one was paying attention, the set was story driven, you have 36 PW in it) and really make us engage emotionally with the characters. And they blew it out of the atmosphere.
Greg wasn't the problem alone, someone had to approve his work and since he is an outsider they probably gave him the plot and some details to write about, did they requested him to get up to date in magic lore? who gave the green light on the whole teyo-rat sub plot, Greg in fact stated on twitter that the Chandra-Nissa resolution was requested by higher ups.
Greg writing was terrible but I doubt he is the one responsible for the content.
And they are dumb if they are not doing it, Secret lair offer a great way to get some good margins on magic product, the hassle is minimal. It is even better product that booster boxes because of the margins. Some of the secret lairs were an obvious hit like kalleidoscope killers, but it seems even the cats are doing very very well second hand.
Also, "protection from colorless" should become more prevalent, I mean they clearly know it is needed after they printed giver of runes so hope they step up with more creatures featuring it to punish colorless decks.
As for lattice, the problem I see with this ban is the inconsistency, if they don't like strategies that turn magic into solitaire they should ban other unfun cards as blood moon.
Something I would like to see is a Mox for only colored spells, that artifact decks can't use, specially designed to give speed to "fair" decks trying to catch up. Maybe like chrome mox but with some limitations on the use of its mana.
My train of thought is that after the nightmares and new powers gained by Elspeth she is determined to go back and help what ever remains to save in new phyrexia.
Lochmere serpent does all of them and then some more utility.
And then the grand finale got blown up by one of the worst books I have read in my life. I could live with the story in the cards and device the details my self, surely there is already fanfiction trying to fix the mess the novel is, getting rid of Teyo and Ratand and filling the plot holes.
If they are skipping a novel in Theros because of the flop war of the spark novel was then I am Ok with it, I hope they sack the lore director and bring more competent people so we get better lore later in the year. But if they are just cutting costs for the sake of profit it is really shameful.