Magic The Gathering

[Retink Retunk]

A bit off topic, but apparently Meta Zoo has gone spicier with their new set and includes a card with a burning crosses and ghost, as long as it's not on a lawn it's alright.

Draft is for people who play limited, set is for timmies (and has List reprints and thus always retains some interest as sealed product), and collectors are for investors / whales to buy up. That division is fine, and has helped to drive down the cost of playing the game unless you're trying to go pro in paper standard (lol) or you literally can't even unless you hyper-optimize a casual kitchen-table/commander deck to stomp people playing precons.

The problem is that there's been like 87 sets in a single-year period, and each of those sets also had a commander deck release with them. The volume has been retarded - eternal spoiler season is stupid, and it's pretty clear it started when those fucking ridiculous expectations about boosting revenue by 50% was toted around by a madman. The products themselves are fine; there's just too much of them.

I don't disagree the massive amount of products in a short period is part of the problem, but I'll still stand by that having three tiers of product, with two of the tiers being very similar is silly. They still make Fatpacks as well, which from what I remember have always been poor sellers, but at least Fatpacks include a variance of product (books, sleeves, etc) so they have something more than just different ways of moving around cards that conflict with some of the nice aspects of their core products such as making foils/alt art cards less exciting by means of collector boxes, and making Reprint/Master sets less special by the creation of the list cards.

That's the thing really, Masters sets were the product for collectors and reprints, but like with all things they had to reshuffle everything into multiple products while still releasing those masters/horizons/legends lines. It's just that all they have is the cards, with no skill to diversify or grow other channels, whereas Pokemon and Yugioh have shows, manga, video games, and way more. Hell, even Warcraft had a reasonably ok TCG at one point that was later dissolved in favor of Hearthstone, so it's surprising that MtG has had such a hard time breaking out despite how big of a cultural icon it was. Then again when they finally were ready to expand beyond the cards, they were already politicized which is assured failure for something like a show.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

That's the thing really, Masters sets were the product for collectors and reprints, but like with all things they had to reshuffle everything into multiple products while still releasing those masters/horizons/legends lines. It's just that all they have is the cards, with no skill to diversify or grow other channels, whereas Pokemon and Yugioh have shows, manga, video games, and way more. Hell, even Warcraft had a reasonably ok TCG at one point that was later dissolved in favor of Hearthstone, so it's surprising that MtG has had such a hard time breaking out despite how big of a cultural icon it was. Then again when they finally were ready to expand beyond the cards, they were already politicized which is assured failure for something like a show.

I could conceive of a universe where they threw money at talented Japanese people ala a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and let them fuck around in universe with fairly little oversight. M:tG is actually reasonably popular in Japan so I have no doubt there are many nerds in Japanese animation that understand the setting. Problem is that the upper management would never, ever let the little oversight thing happen and so if they actually planned to do something like this is would be doomed because the heads of Hasbro and/or WotC are inbred kikes of the highest order.

 

[Girl Named Sandoz]

stop supporting nu-mtg

Spoiler

 

[Thiletonomics]

With Magic 30 and their World Championship in the books, the 30th anniversary turned out just as expected:

And why does Brian Kibler have long hair in this video? If the names weren't there, I would have confused him with someone else.



This playmat looks absolutely cheap, and surely not something made for the 30th anniversary of a franchise.



The sold out sizes for even more cheap-quality product, is very telling,



WotC also tried to get people to pay $350 to play Commander during Magic 30, but very few people bought into that bullshit. And WotC realized that too, and opened up some of those tables for free play.



And Mr. J Wong (not the FGC one), tells people to not let other peoples opinions sway your own, except when we do it.

 

[Retink Retunk]

This playmat looks absolutely cheap, and surely not something made for the 30th anniversary of a franchise.

That playmat looks like dog shit, not only in design but also in quality, and playmats are already kind of a trashy item because of how many are out there. I think Rudy's 6.9 year box was goofy but it's way better than this crap and he's just one retard online who shills sealed booster boxes.

And why does Brian Kibler have long hair in this video? If the names weren't there, I would have confused him with someone else.

Kibler always comes off as a drained husk these days, I guess that's what happens when you spend your life playing and shilling card games that are fucked by their owners.

WotC also tried to get people to pay $350 to play Commander during Magic 30, but very few people bought into that bullshit. And WotC realized that too, and opened up some of those tables for free play.

From what I hear they resized it to 50% and shills tried to play off the half sized space as being packed and proof it wasn't shit. They also supposedly didn't let you buy food at the con unless you had one of those 350$ tickets, and they kicked people out to let influencers in at 7pm while they had events that people were in starting at 8pm so they had to qualify people who could stay, and then there was a hard cut off at midnight or something where people got kicked out mid sealed event that was scheduled without enough time to complete. People who got virtual tickets to the Q&A got fucked as well, they got an email on a random day that had a 7 hour window that if expired locked them out completely from the Q&A with Garfield and MaRo, which happened to a few content creators and a bunch of randos, and when they contacted customer support they were told to get fucked.

The best part though, is watching pack openings of people who got the free 30th packs from their super elite tickets (not advertised and it was assumed the packs were to be sold at the event and they pivoted last minute) as they were all opening garbage and just being soul crushed.

It's amazing how hard they fucked up this event, but hey, at least there aren't any Earthbinds to open, enjoy your Fagscapes.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

The one weird exception to WotC going out of their way to piss off literally everyone was on Arena they are making cracking packs less of a terrible way to get cards starting Brother's War. Every 10 packs you get a special pack that holds 2 BRO rares, 2 standard rares, and a standard mythic (with all the normal upgrade chances on rare to mythic, but no chance to get a wildcard instead, also no Alchemy)

Apparently this maths out to make cracking packs comparable to doing limited and winning 50-50

On the other hand, they did some 10k gold limited mixed up draft for 30th Anniversary and apparently it was garbage from a draftfags perspective because there's very little consistent synergy other then "black do black things" across sets

 

[Polock]

Kibler always comes off as a drained husk these days

After his divorce he visibly aged. Once his dog died it got worse. As annoying as it is for him to shill for Magic 30, I feel bad for the guy.

 

[Retink Retunk]

On the other hand, they did some 10k gold limited mixed up draft for 30th Anniversary and apparently it was garbage from a draftfags perspective because there's very little consistent synergy other then "black do black things" across sets

Lately the draft experience hasn't been great, with maybe Kami being the one outlier. My issue is that the power creep has resulted in drafts where things snowball so quickly that bad draws or any mana issues massively punish players, while at the same time if a game gets grindy it gets obnoxiously so until someone manages to stick something that makes the two creature swarms meaningless, in which case it's usually just a matter of who got the best mythic/rare.

Maybe it's just Arena but drafts really do feel one sided when actually playing them far too often.

After his divorce he visibly aged. Once his dog died it got worse. As annoying as it is for him to shill for Magic 30, I feel bad for the guy.

Sounds like a rough ride, what caused the divorce?

 

[Flexo]

I could conceive of a universe where they threw money at talented Japanese people ala a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and let them fuck around in universe with fairly little oversight. M:tG is actually reasonably popular in Japan so I have no doubt there are many nerds in Japanese animation that understand the setting. Problem is that the upper management would never, ever let the little oversight thing happen and so if they actually planned to do something like this is would be doomed because the heads of Hasbro and/or WotC are inbred kikes of the highest order.

Remember when MtG was going to have a netflix series? (I don't recall if they ever settled on it being animated or live.)

Kibler always comes off as a drained husk these days, I guess that's what happens when you spend your life playing and shilling card games that are fucked by their owners.

There is some irony that a friend of mine knows Kibler more from Hearthstone than magic.

After his divorce he visibly aged. Once his dog died it got worse. As annoying as it is for him to shill for Magic 30, I feel bad for the guy.

So was he married to Olivia or is she his rebound girl? When they were playing together on IHYD it was obvious there was something between them. (And I was going to make a joke about her sucking his life out but that may be too mean for even a heartless robot.)

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

With Magic 30 and their World Championship in the books, the 30th anniversary turned out just as expected:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XNb3OZqYzHw
View attachment 3766256

And why does Brian Kibler have long hair in this video? If the names weren't there, I would have confused him with someone else.

View attachment 3766208

This playmat looks absolutely cheap, and surely not something made for the 30th anniversary of a franchise.

View attachment 3766236

The sold out sizes for even more cheap-quality product, is very telling,

View attachment 3766272 View attachment 3766276

WotC also tried to get people to pay $350 to play Commander during Magic 30, but very few people bought into that bullshit. And WotC realized that too, and opened up some of those tables for free play.

View attachment 3766332

And Mr. J Wong (not the FGC one), tells people to not let other peoples opinions sway your own, except when we do it.

Don't forget in like 2 weeks there is an event being run in Utah by an independent company.

Lets see how that one looks in comparison to the mega celebration of magic 30, also here is a question.

Who won worlds at magic 30? Tell me without using google.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Don't forget in like 2 weeks there is an event being run in Utah by an independent company.

Lets see how that one looks in comparison to the mega celebration of magic 30, also here is a question.

Who won worlds at magic 30? Tell me without using google.

I thought they quit doing worlds? (I see your point)

Lemme guess a tranny?

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

I thought they quit doing worlds? (I see your point)

Lemme guess a tranny?

I have no fucking clue.

The MTG discord I am in for EDH games did not mention it, all they cared about was whatever spoilers were given in the panels.


Edit : Also if there is a Mod who catches this post, could you alter the thread Subtitle to

"75% of Players don't know what a Planeswalker is" That is something that Maro unironically said.

 

[Polock]

Sounds like a rough ride, what caused the divorce?

I didn't follow him closely enough to know about the drama. I just instantly noticed a difference one day and did some casual research and found out he was divorced.

So was he married to Olivia or is she his rebound girl? When they were playing together on IHYD it was obvious there was something between them. (And I was going to make a joke about her sucking his life out but that may be too mean for even a heartless robot.)

Olivia is the rebound. Guy already had the remaining bits of his soul sucked out when he lost his dog. He loved that fucking dog. I'm sympathetic.

 

[Noebel]

"75% of Players don't know what a Planeswalker is" That is something that Maro unironically said.

"What's a planeswalker?" asked Gideon?
"It can't be me, since neither plains nor planes under opponents control prevent me from being blocked"

 

[Retink Retunk]

So sounds like their new Secret Lair release crapped out, so all the people who joined early to get in line got randomly booted from the line when the product went live and had to log into a guest account to try to get it, then people had their orders canceled, while others had their orders duplicated multiple times due to lag. Sounds like everything is running smoothly as always.

There is some irony that a friend of mine knows Kibler more from Hearthstone than magic.

To be fair I haven't seen him cover anything Magic related until 30th and it was mostly Hearthstone up until then. Really if I was him I'd have distanced myself as much as possible from 30th as that stink won't really wash off if it sticks to you.

Who won worlds at magic 30? Tell me without using google.

I'm going to say someone famous, so Hitler? That or Wafo-Tappa or something?

I googled it, it wasn't Hitler

 

[CapricornusRex]

To be fair I haven't seen him cover anything Magic related until 30th and it was mostly Hearthstone up until then. Really if I was him I'd have distanced myself as much as possible from 30th as that stink won't really wash off if it sticks to you.

Last thing I remember Kibler doing was getting in to a draft for free, because he's HOF, after he had already pretty much dumped MTG for Hearthstone. They put him under the spotlight match to try and boost their mediocre viewership and he rolled in with a 40 basic land deck because he gave no fucks.

 

[Retink Retunk]

Last thing I remember Kibler doing was getting in to a draft for free, because he's HOF, after he had already pretty much dumped MTG for Hearthstone. They put him under the spotlight match to try and boost their mediocre viewership and he rolled in with a 40 basic land deck because he gave no fucks.

That's pretty hilarious if true, and I do remember he tried getting out of Magic multiple times with Ascension and the original WoW TCG. Probably a good idea on his part, but he always tried to be to directly tied to the product as player instead of doing higher level shit that was more relevant. Though the more I see of these people how are pros and designers of these games the more I realize they're just very unskilled people who happened to go all in on a product and got lucky. I get taking a job seriously, but they act like it's the most important thing in the world and not just an entertainment product.

To quote a wise rabbit interviewing a Blizz dev "I don't think you're preventing World War 3 by arguing with people on the Internet"

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Fucking LOL

Mad at the Internet gets more views than The MTG world championship.

 

[Flexo]

So sounds like their new Secret Lair release crapped out, so all the people who joined early to get in line got randomly booted from the line when the product went live and had to log into a guest account to try to get it, then people had their orders canceled, while others had their orders duplicated multiple times due to lag. Sounds like everything is running smoothly as always.

I seriously do not get WotC's secret lairs.

I mean I get the idea - trying to tap into the direct market without actually being in the direct market, but why this whole "limited window" thing? Why not just have the sales be open for the product for like 1 week, and then however many orders are placed, that's how many you print? You've been doing this for 30 something years. How can you still be this bad at it??

 

[The Ghost of Kviv]

I seriously do not get WotC's secret lairs.

I mean I get the idea - trying to tap into the direct market without actually being in the direct market, but why this whole "limited window" thing? Why not just have the sales be open for the product for like 1 week, and then however many orders are placed, that's how many you print? You've been doing this for 30 something years. How can you still be this bad at it??

That's what it was when they launched it. As usual they found a way to FOMO this product, too.