remember when secret lairs were a new thing and garnered a little bit of excitement, but a vocal minority of us were concerned about things like reprint equity?
we're there!
I don't know if reprint equity is why these are subpar/bad. SLs have always been this way, usually one card propping up the value of the entire thing while you have at least one or two that are 60-80% the value and one that is usually amazing in foil due to first time foil reprints. Then you have the land SLs, which are always a bad value no matter if you like the art or not.
So only about two of these are worth getting based on value alone based on one card, which tends to be the SL MO. One of these is almost illegible. I will say I get a bit of a chuckle seeing Rewind in the VHS SL. I kinda like the baseball one, even if the value isn't there; Ajani's "briefly traded to the Phyrexians" is a good joke.
WotC, how you gonna show gummy worm monsters in this world and not make one gummy worm creature that we can actually play? This set is a failure on that alone.
After Commander Masters, LotR, and Aftermath this set feels great to be back with normal Magic that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, isn't a gimmick set, or a IP set with a gimmick in it. I quite enjoy this set, minus the lack of gummy worms.
One thing I think people are forgetting with Antics is that Roles are enchantments and many ways to gain benefit from spitting out 6+ enchantments at one time.
Finally, proper versions of those cards. Now WotC just needs to end the other parts of the UB Reserved List with proper versions of 40k, LotR, Transformers, Dr. Who, and every other UB they'll do that nonsense with.
[quote from="Dontrike »" url="/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/830344-sld-angels-theyre-just-like-us-but-cooler-and?comment=6"]
They changed secret lair commander decks from $100 to $150 with the Brute to Cute Commander deck a while back. As for why, it's to maximize profits.
I figured that's what it was, but was hoping (why, I don't know) that there would be an actual reason that's not dollar sign pupils. Totally forgot Cute to Brute even came out, and it's price, even though it just did three months ago. That product deluge really helps you forget.
It does look like Rakdos, but Rakdos is very big. Just take a look at the art for Unlikely Aid (War of the Spark version), or Rakdos the Defiler. As you can see Rakdos is huge, so unless he can manipulate his size, or they retcon his size, it may not be.
I'm at least excited for the actual Magic products though them rotating Modern again is unlikely to go down smooth. The only Magic set I'm not looking forward to is the space one, it just seems odd to me. Maybe I'll be surprised like I was with Kamigawa 2.
Seeing so much UB makes my eyes win gold in the rolling Olympics.
I mean, the focus on Commander from WotC is them following people's interest. They are encouraging it along the way, but there is genuine popular support for it.
Don't get me wrong, Commander is popular and there are reasons for it, but them forcing every set to be Commander with obvious format plants in every single product is partly why formats aren't doing well, either due to power creep forcing it to be more expensive (thanks to those cards coming from premium sets), WotC constantly pointing them towards Commander, rather than Standard or other sets, or the lack of support for those sets (from the focus on Commander.)
Maybe that's me not enjoying there being 30+ legendaries in every set.
WotC changed standard because of their business interests in trying to get people to buy packs. They are trying to address their reluctance some people have to buy cards for standard because they will be spending all that money only for things to rotate. I think this is especially on their mind given the success of Commander, which I think has been in part driven by it being an eternal format where people feel safe investing a bunch into a deck.
EDIT: Goes hand in hand with ban announcements being less frequent too. They want players to feel safer buying cards knowing they will get good use out of them.
It also goes along with the lack of tournament support for Standard. They kept taking away from it and it's no wonder people don't want to play it when there's nothing to strive for with it or even decent rewards from FNM. I don't know why they're surprised people are going to Commander, they're making every set about Commander now and if that's what they will focus on then so will the players, among a myriad of other reasons.
Finally, some sets of Magic I get to look forward to. It's felt like an eternity with CMM's price being awful and UB being never good. The art for Ixalan, especially that butterfly/hydra god, has me excited to return to it and I can only hope that there's a gummy worm creature, thanks to that art of that Sugar Hunter.
Are they really mixing UB with the really bad set specific Jumpstart? I feel bad for LotR fans if that's the case.
Why? LotR products are by definition UB, so they wouldn't get an additional Jumpstart product unless UB gets mixed with Jumpstart.
Because set specific Jumpstarts (like Brother's War,All Will Be One, and many more) have been abysmal. None of them have been worth getting and have been a stain on Jumpstart's brand name and general quality. UB already feels bad and now WotC wants to make it worse for some reason.
I don't know if reprint equity is why these are subpar/bad. SLs have always been this way, usually one card propping up the value of the entire thing while you have at least one or two that are 60-80% the value and one that is usually amazing in foil due to first time foil reprints. Then you have the land SLs, which are always a bad value no matter if you like the art or not.
After Commander Masters, LotR, and Aftermath this set feels great to be back with normal Magic that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, isn't a gimmick set, or a IP set with a gimmick in it. I quite enjoy this set, minus the lack of gummy worms.
For $100, like the coin flip deck, this would be alright, but for $150 this is just plain disappointing.
I figured that's what it was, but was hoping (why, I don't know) that there would be an actual reason that's not dollar sign pupils. Totally forgot Cute to Brute even came out, and it's price, even though it just did three months ago. That product deluge really helps you forget.
It does look like Rakdos, but Rakdos is very big. Just take a look at the art for Unlikely Aid (War of the Spark version), or Rakdos the Defiler. As you can see Rakdos is huge, so unless he can manipulate his size, or they retcon his size, it may not be.
Seeing so much UB makes my eyes win gold in the rolling Olympics.
The deck seems fine, nothing spectacular for the price you're paying. Why is this $50 more than the coin flip deck?
If I had to pick one from Arena I'd say Inspiring Commander would be an easy digital to paper.
Don't get me wrong, Commander is popular and there are reasons for it, but them forcing every set to be Commander with obvious format plants in every single product is partly why formats aren't doing well, either due to power creep forcing it to be more expensive (thanks to those cards coming from premium sets), WotC constantly pointing them towards Commander, rather than Standard or other sets, or the lack of support for those sets (from the focus on Commander.)
Maybe that's me not enjoying there being 30+ legendaries in every set.
It also goes along with the lack of tournament support for Standard. They kept taking away from it and it's no wonder people don't want to play it when there's nothing to strive for with it or even decent rewards from FNM. I don't know why they're surprised people are going to Commander, they're making every set about Commander now and if that's what they will focus on then so will the players, among a myriad of other reasons.
Because set specific Jumpstarts (like Brother's War,All Will Be One, and many more) have been abysmal. None of them have been worth getting and have been a stain on Jumpstart's brand name and general quality. UB already feels bad and now WotC wants to make it worse for some reason.