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Product Ideas?
WOTC seem to be constantly switching between MTG products, with the death of Fat + Intro Packs now that Kaladesh is out. So, does anyone have any ideas for potential future products?
Here's two:
From the Vault: Drafted.
Basically From the Vault but with the best draft cards ever in it.
[Haven't thought of a name yet]:
Basically a cube, featuring, again, some really powerful draft cards, some conspiracy mechanics, and some all-new releases. Could have a few too many cards in it, if it was going to be a full-size one, and maybe too expensive, but then they have announced there will be a product featuring four commander decks appearing on shelves later this year, so maybe not.
Here's two:
From the Vault: Drafted.
Basically From the Vault but with the best draft cards ever in it.
[Haven't thought of a name yet]:
Basically a cube, featuring, again, some really powerful draft cards, some conspiracy mechanics, and some all-new releases. Could have a few too many cards in it, if it was going to be a full-size one, and maybe too expensive, but then they have announced there will be a product featuring four commander decks appearing on shelves later this year, so maybe not.
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Also, what drafts? Drafts of main sets? Does that include core sets? Does that mean SOI draft or SOI/EMM draft since EMN couldn't be drafted on its own and cards that were good in SOI were not necessarily good in SOI/EMN?
They should go back to non-planeswalker intro decks. They created a problem that didn't exist before when they switched to planeswalker decks. They couldn't put any of the set's four planeswalkers in the decks because that would seriously destroy the card's value and make two of the four planeswalkers of the set too widely available. They also couldn't make good additional planeswalkers for the decks since making a good planeswalker that was planeswalker deck-exclusive would have been even worse, forcing people to buy expensive product with lots of junk they didn't need just to get a single card that they did need.
So what was the solution? Make new planeswalkers just for the deck but make them suck. That way, existing players wouldn't feel the need to buy the decks to get a single card out of them... But they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. Who the hell wants to buy a product that is intentionally and by design nothing but crap for the price of a deck? The only people that end up buying them are the people who are new and don't know they are being screwed and that is terrible. The planeswalkers are awful and will never be used in constructed (by design), the cards that are specific to that planeswalker also then can't be used in constructed and the rest of the deck contains pennies worth of value and virtually no playsets of any card. The very few cards that are even halfway decent in constructed are worth nothing, and there's only about 4 of them per deck (total, not playsets).
What they should release are intro decks that are fun to play, contain decent cards from the actual set, contain at least 3-4 copies of most of the cards, aren't overly complicated (metas like vehicles and energy and not control) and also contain a sideboard with cards useful in different situations. That way, a new player who buys one might actually get some cards they might want to play with in the future once they learn more and existing players might want to buy one to flesh out their collections quickly with cards that could be playable.
Also? Reprints. 'Masters' sets are wonderful because they often contain a number of cards in them that are crazy expensive and have only had very limited print runs. However, when they decide to release a masters set, they jack up the price and release very few (compare $300 for an EMA box vs. $90 for a Kaladesh box) so that half the time, even if you're willing to spend a crazy amount of money, you can't get your hands on the cards. On top of that, the limited quantities make them impossible to draft more than once or twice. On top of that on top of that, 'eternal' formats see changes all of the time (except Vintage) where banlists and restrictions make cards that were incredibly expensive virtually worthless, so they can't possibly be restricting reprints based on what they would do to the secondary market. A single Snapcaster Mage is $50 and goes in damn near any modern blue deck. A set of Goblin Guides is close to $200 and are required for most burn decks, even though the rest of the deck probably costs $100 combined. Crucible of Worlds has had reprints but they were so scarce that they are still upwards of $60 each. All this is doing is preventing players from getting into more formats of Magic where older cards are allowed. A top-tier modern deck? $600-$2,000. A top-tier legacy deck? $2,500-$4,000. Vintage? Sell your house, your car and your children into slavery and they may let you close enough to a vintage deck to sniff it. They need to issue more reprints via reprint sets or collections and seriously rethink the reserved list, since cards on it can only be played in very limited circumstances anyway.
It's a miracle @Strongbelieves has all that time to write all that!
Chronicles was also in 1995, less than two years after the initial Alpha release. There are literally tens of millions of more players now than there were than and because of these limitations, the vast majority of those players simply can't play in most eternal formats at anything near a competitive level.
There are countless other cards outside the ABU sets that have also never seen a reprint and that makes obtaining them nearly impossible. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale was legends-only and you can pick one up for the low, low price of $1,350. Moat? Legends-only, $600. Mishra's Workshop, Gaea's Cradle, Capture of Jingzhou, City of Traitors, Imperial Seal? All between $200-$800. Grim Tutor was a card from a starter set and it's $220 simply because it was good and hasn't been reprinted. Even cards that have been reprinted (in the previously mentioned limited-run masters sets) like FOW and Karakas are still obscenely priced.
To make a long story short, players can't 'get into' eternal formats. Unless you want to spend more money than you'd pay to get a nice used car, it's simply not going to happen for legacy and unless you want to spend more money than you'd pay to get a nice new car, it's simply not going to happen for vintage. Modern is much more plausible (though still very expensive) but calling modern an eternal format is a joke because of how often the meta changes from new cards being introduced (good) and new bans forcing out decks (bad). On top of that, WOTC doesn't hold modern pro tours any more so the competitive scene is mostly local or SCG.
They need to reprint cards. The lack of availability is pigeonholing players, especially newer players, into standard and kitchen table Magic and not letting them have a chance to try the incredibly cerebral and complex gameplay that only the longest-running players get to try or those with very deep pockets.
I can't read all that!
That's a very good point about draft, actually.
The thing that p***** me off the most about the new planeswalker decks is about how the planeswalkers can only be found in those decks. There's 4 sets being released each year, two planeswalker decks each time. So, what's bound to happen at least once? An unseen combo, or a horrifically broken card is released into one of the decks. The card, even if it is only being played moderately in standard, will spike, and those $14 planeswalker decks won't be costing that any more.
Wizards have a policy which means that they can't say 'It costs too much' as a reason to reprint something, not to mention the power nine was incredibly stupid. Black Lotus and so on suddenly became 'safe investments' - they're never going to be reprinted, so there's no reason to worry about buying them. Of course, the people who were selling them suddenly jacked up their prices, or probably just started hoarding them.
The best two formats for MTG by far are:
1) Pauper. It's cheap and it's fun. The one problem with it is how, because commmons are dirt cheap, wizards don't want to support it. So for the only place to play it is on MTGO, which costs a fortune anyway.
2) Commander. It is the funnest format, and your deck never rotates out.
So here's my idea for a good MTG product line.
Modern.
Now, I know they've released the Modern Masters series over the years, but I think it would be nice if WOTC could bring the Modern format to the forefront and truly sell it as its own product, with full event decks and everything.
Oooh, event decks. Now there's another thing WOTC discontinued that I sorely miss, for one.
Anyway, that's just my rambling. If any of you guys wanna play me on UnTap, I use my IRL decks on there. I'll be on over the weekends.
- FatCat23476
Actually, isn't the next commander set getting announced in, like, two weeks?
Really? I thought it was a bit longer, but then I have the memory of a chicken, so who knows.
• Cards need to be reprinted. A lot more. Although I can respect the fact that people are concerned about keeping cards for investments, even Karlov of the Ghost Council would be shaming those who's career balances on a pretty piece of cardboard that has a picture of a black flower on it. Well, I know that will never be reprinted, but I want my cheap(er) Snapcaster Mages now.
• Be careful @everyone who feverently supports Commander with an unhealthy passion. It is a fantastic format, even being my personal favorite, but if you guys convince WotC to make Commander a sanctioned format, poor Magic players will never be able to buy EDH cards again.
• Honestly, I like the Planeswalker decks, even though I have never bought one. Do any of you guys know how happy beginning Magic players are when they get their first ever planeswalker? And it's foil? Now, the starter decks are even more alluring to beginning Magic player. However, it would be nice to have more options than just two decks.
• Pauper is awesome! If your play group can't afford Commander (which is pretty silly), I would highly suggest Pauper.
For those who don't know, frontier is a constructed format, except its card pool consists of cards from core set 2015 on. While this means that Bant company and the like will likely gain precedence, and that the fetch lands will still be around, it's essentially guaranteed to be cheaper than Modern, and with games that actually last more than four turns.
As long as one doesn't pour too much into the mana base, it'd be a fairly cheap format to build for, perhaps just a few clicks above pauper. Even better, most newer players and some older ones will be able to participate and be able to play.
If you wanna save money, play pauper.
If you wanna save money and play good decks, print proxies.
If you wanna save money, play good decks, and win, print some fake cards with this site.
Personally, I only play casual, unless it's standard tournament.
The good pauper decks, especially things like five color tron or affinity can cost close to a hundred dollars, even while loaded with commons.
I build a deck (duh) whether competitive or not, and as I get the cash, I upgrade it.
I used to play standard but I don't anymore because (being 13) I have little money and don't want to spend loads of money on something that will rotate.
Yes, but there are always tier 1 pauper decks that are around $40. And then, yes, there is casual. I used to play standard, back when Theros was new, with a mono-blue deck. Now I just have it as a casual one.
Themes:
Maybe a land based set?
Portal Three Kingdoms Remastered?
Dinosaur theme!
Space theme!
Underwater.
Air themed.
Out of ideas themed.
Dual Decks:
More tribal dual decks.
New Phyrexia vs Resistance.
Memnarch vs Glissa
Types of Sets:
More Tribal!!!
Eternal Masters
Modern Masters
Modern Masters 2015
Lorwyn
Darksteel
Elves vs Goblins
That's how I built my favorite deck, Zen Goose. It is the product of a lot, lot, lot of commander play and testing lots of variations and slowly upgrading it as I could. Now it's at the point where there's virtually no way to make it play better and each time a set comes out I check to see if any new cards would fit a slot better than one of the existing ones.
One of the reasons reprints are so awesome is because if cards like Bloodbraid Elf, Berserk, Wurmcoil Engine, Sylvan Library and Sneak Attack weren't reprinted pretty recently, the deck would cost oodles of money more, and it's still pretty cheap as commander decks go.
See this Mana Crypt drop around June 6th? That is when it was announced for EMA. Sneak Attack also took a big hit at the same time...