The current state of Magic

Sorry guys, was really busy the last months thanks to housebuilding - but WotC overall already started to gather informations from the community, the biggest issue seems that they (see our discussion here) aren't able to rebuild MTGO (yet). At my freetime i write some articles for the german marketing agency. Last year me and other were interviewed about "Media Perceptions Magic". I only knew about some answers from italy. But we shared the same view, that WotC digital products aren't good enough.

According to my opinion WotC needs to address three points:
develop a cross plattform app (as lemnear pointed out, you can't even play the casual "duels" on android(!) or PS4), massiv decrease to buy into competitive MTGO (i feel sorry for players that need to invest several hundreds or thousands to get digital(!) cards), graphic/visual rework of MTGO (any "competitive" mobile card game looks better... even the casual "magic duels" game looks better than MTGO)

At least i can say, the agency send all the feedback to WotC/Hasbro.

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Originally Posted by MaximumC

We already know what that looks like.

It is not pretty.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...49397726,d.cGw

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Had a legit fear of getting rickrolled, there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

An interesting tidbit found by Julian:

https://twitter.com/itsJulian23/stat...93666090422272

The European MKM series isn't getting sanctioned so far because it doesn't have enough Standard and Limited for Wizards' taste.

Just what the flying fuck? :eyebrow:

One should add that it already has a T2 main event. It's just not very well-attended. Why would it? There's plenty of GPs to choose from.

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Originally Posted by Lord_Mcdonalds

Pokémon throws shit at you (their fatpacks comes with sleeves, flip coins, I think dice) and makes it super easy to get into the digital game, also their foils are cool.

It's like they actually want you to spend money on their game

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They could've just put more awesome cards that are hard to come by into Eternal Masters instead of abominable rares. I probably spent $36 minimum on Rorix Bladewings, and I had playsets of everything else I pulled that would be worth pulling.

This is why I buy packs about three times a year.

You buy packs? I found your problem.

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Originally Posted by Barook

An interesting tidbit found by Julian:

https://twitter.com/itsJulian23/stat...93666090422272

The European MKM series isn't getting sanctioned so far because it doesn't have enough Standard and Limited for Wizards' taste.

Just what the flying fuck? :eyebrow:

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This is just WOTC saying "you suspected we are idiots, we'll prove it for you"

Its especially hilarious when you consider MKM offers tournament organizers prize support and smaller stuff (pens, notebooks, banners, ..) just for having MKM publicity at the event. Iirc its about 1€ of support / player which they give out pretty easily.

Well played WOTC.

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Originally Posted by Dice_Box

You buy packs? I found your problem.

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The cards have to come from somewhere, though. If Wizards wanted people to buy more of their stuff, improving the quality of the stuff would go a long way.

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Originally Posted by Dice_Box

You buy packs? I found your problem.

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If everyone held this view, the game you're so obsessed with would die

I will let my local store open the packs and I buy the singles I need. Win win. Opening packs for any reason that doesn't include a draft, a sealed deck or a store inventory is a waste in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by LegacyIsAnEternalFormat

If everyone held this view, the game you're so obsessed with would die

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i buy lots of packs. just normally three or six at a time

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8020zhXkAAd7gX.jpg

Thank God!

I like all the acknowledgment of mistakes going on. Makes me feel like they are actually learning from stuff like BFZ and standard the last couple years. Shit like the invocations will still happen but admitting to mistakes is a lot more than you can ask from most companies.

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Originally Posted by supremePINEAPPLE

I like all the acknowledgment of mistakes going on. Makes me feel like they are actually learning from stuff like BFZ and standard the last couple years. Shit like the invocations will still happen but admitting to mistakes is a lot more than you can ask from most companies.

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Now if they had only listened and improved that PoS that is MTGO years ago...

The Gatewatch was a marketing attempt to increase sales, and I dare to say, it failed spectacularly at that, considering the info we have that sales are slightly down last year after years over years of record sales. The combination of unappealing story telling + trying to push the Gatewatch to be the faces of their sets (leading to various balance fuck-ups Standard has to suffer through) did its number on the sales.

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Originally Posted by Barook

Now if they had only listened and improved that PoS that is MTGO years ago...

The Gatewatch was a marketing attempt to increase sales, and I dare to say, it failed spectacularly at that, considering the info we have that sales are slightly down last year after years over years of record sales. The combination of unappealing story telling + trying to push the Gatewatch to be the faces of their sets (leading to various balance fuck-ups Standard has to suffer through) did its number on the sales.

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I don't think trying to push the Gatewatch to be the faces of their sets really led to the problems with Standard. Yes, Gideon is a pest, but he didn't become as good as he is until recently, and even if he were gone Standard wouldn't be fixed.

The major reason for Standard's woes have been them nerfing answer spells so bad so that there's not really a good way to deal with the pushed threats. I don't think the Gatewatch focus is the reason for the problems with balance. It's a problem in that it's kind of boring to always see them, but that's not really a gameplay thing.

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Originally Posted by Dice_Box

Opening packs for any reason that doesn't include a draft, a sealed deck or a store inventory is a waste in my opinion.

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Well, I guess that depends on whether you consider spending money to have fun a "waste". I still buy packs, but I don't do it expecting great returns on the price I pay for packs or with the expectation of breaking even, I open packs sometimes because I enjoy it. I also "waste" money at the bar, going out to eat, watching a movie, etc., but I enjoy it none the less. I've been playing this game for over 21 years [fucking Christ] and I still like opening packs and sometimes even buying boxes when a new set comes out. I still enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Stinky-Dinkins

Well, I guess that depends on whether you consider spending money to have fun a "waste". I still buy packs, but I don't do it expecting great returns on the price I pay for packs or with the expectation of breaking even, I open packs sometimes because I enjoy it. I also "waste" money at the bar, going out to eat, watching a movie, etc., but I enjoy it none the less. I've been playing this game for over 21 years [fucking Christ] and I still like opening packs and sometimes even buying boxes when a new set comes out. I still enjoy it.

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Curiosity and excitement is a powerful force.

I've been wanting to buy a playset of Lilis for a while now, but spending 250 € on these only four cards bothers me. Yet I was almost willing to buy some MM2017 product (probably one box) because the idea of "pulling all these amazing reprints" (that I don't really want nor need) made it exciting. Well, luckily my brain was always there to keep me from being this financially inefficient (even at 120€ a box I would not really be interested in buying some), but I still spent regular time checking out the spoilers lists etc.

Hasbro Q1 2017 Earnings Management Remarks

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MAGIC: THE GATHERING revenue was negatively impacted by the timing of new story-lead releases. As outlined at Toy Fair, the second quarter marks the release of the Amonkhet set which is expected to deliver a strong performance for this Franchise Brand.

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So Amonkhet being in Q2 is impacting sales. That makes sense. But it totally ignores that Q1 had MM17 as additional set (which should make them tons of money). Looks like Standard being crappy really does its numbers on MtG.

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Originally Posted by Barook

Looks like Standard being crappy really does its numbers on MtG.

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I doubt WotC makes a lot of money off Masters sets given that the print runs are much more limited than Standard sets (while being "unlimited"). I honestly believe that Masters sets are WotC's gift back to the players. I wouldn't say they lose money on them, but that they don't make nearly as much money off them as many on Reddit claim. They have no obligation to print these sets, and could make much more money off spending time developing more Standard sets which would be more widely distributed while also moving more product.

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Originally Posted by CutthroatCasual

I doubt WotC makes a lot of money off Masters sets given that the print runs are much more limited than Standard sets (while being "unlimited"). I honestly believe that Masters sets are WotC's gift back to the players. I wouldn't say they lose money on them, but that they don't make nearly as much money off them as many on Reddit claim. They have no obligation to print these sets, and could make much more money off spending time developing more Standard sets which would be more widely distributed while also moving more product.

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this actually made me think. i've noticed that there's been a pretty big uptick in supplemental sets in the past few years with the masters set, the conspiracy/planechase slot, and the commander slot. in addition to iconic masters or whatever coming this year. I wonder if wotc has actually spread themselves out a little too thin and that's why development for standard has suffered so much.

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Originally Posted by CutthroatCasual

I doubt WotC makes a lot of money off Masters sets given that the print runs are much more limited than Standard sets (while being "unlimited"). I honestly believe that Masters sets are WotC's gift back to the players. I wouldn't say they lose money on them, but that they don't make nearly as much money off them as many on Reddit claim. They have no obligation to print these sets, and could make much more money off spending time developing more Standard sets which would be more widely distributed while also moving more product.

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10 bucks per pack, what a gift!

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Originally Posted by resum

this actually made me think. i've noticed that there's been a pretty big uptick in supplemental sets in the past few years with the masters set, the conspiracy/planechase slot, and the commander slot. in addition to iconic masters or whatever coming this year. I wonder if wotc has actually spread themselves out a little too thin and that's why development for standard has suffered so much.

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I don't think it's so much standard suffers, I think it just leads to a bit of product overload which results in customer apathy.

If you think about joe average player, for each set maybe he buys a box and a fat pack, so that's about £100 each 4x a year.

Then you've got a couple of supplemental booster sets like conspiracy, MM etc... if they buy a box of each that's another £250ish per year.

Then they might buy a couple of commander precons, maybe a duel deck or two (I never bought a duel deck as they all look awful but I guess some people do). Another £100 there.

So that's about £750 a year and ontop of that you have drafts, pre-release, event entry fees, singles, the costs are really starting to rack up and I think some people are just getting fed up of keeping on coughing up money. They're not going to just buy it all probably so they will spread their spending out more, rather than spending more cash. Each new product comes with a ton of costs, from RnD to artists to distribution to marketing and PoS materials for retailers.

I think they'd be better off releasing less supplemental products. Maybe alternate between conspiracy and masters sets each year, and make EDH precons every couple of years. This reduces their costs and means that their customers don't feel so fatigued with trying to keep up with this never ending stream of products.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a5&oe=597B9D35

Leo buyout guys

Any other cards hit, or is it just Handshake Guy?

True-Name Nemesis has spiked, too. The sad thing is I was going to buy one this Friday when I went to my LGS for $20, now he's at $30.

I don't think Cradle has spiked, which surprises me. Although I guess it already is $221, but according to MTGStocks that price hasn't changed.

"How do we fix Standard?"
"Let's bring back core sets!"

https://out.reddit.com/t3_67xen4?url...ame=reddit.com

They really don't know what to do anymore, do they? Their lack of direction and flailing around is worrying.

Booster packs of Corporate Buzzword 2019, that'll get the kids going.

I have to say I think things are looking up for legacy, My weekly event had more people tonight then in some time. People seemed over all happy and ready to try new things. I think as the weeks go by people will come to realize this is a great positive change for legacy and might bring back people that grew tired of miracles.

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Originally Posted by Tantarus

I think as the weeks go by people will come to realize this is a great positive change for legacy and might bring back people that grew tired of miracles.

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Even people who were not tired of Miracles are probably excited to beart of the format as it shapes up going forward. These are fun times (unless you are scrambling because Miracles was your only deck I guess).

We also had more people playing last night than we've had in months.

Ditto on attendance numbers. We had way more players at last night's weekly and plenty of new faces. I'm also hearing that lots of friends of friends are returning to the game. People were playing wild shit too. Last night I matched up against Lantern Control and had to read all his damn cards, most of which I had never seen before.

That's why I play Legacy.

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Originally Posted by danyul

That's why I play Legacy.

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Amen to that.
My early memories of Legacy were going to big 8+ round tournaments and playing different decks every round. Not just BUG mid compared to BUG aggro, but wildly different avenues of gameplay. I'm not the happiest about the Top ban, but the though of playing more than 4 different decks over 9 rounds is very exciting.

The local shop hasn't been firing Modern on Wednesdays, so they changed it up to Legacy two weeks ago and got 12 to show, and 10 this week (including the Miracles player who had to switch to Show and Tell). Heard the Legacy FNM has been firing too but not sure on the numbers there.

This change was 1 week pre-ban anyway, but I think we could see better turn out going forward.

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Originally Posted by Crimhead

(unless you are scrambling because Miracles was your only deck I guess).

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I'm not that worried for them, it's what like $300 to turn UWR from miracles to Blade?

Legacy finally has reasonable control decks again, and a lot of color combinations within the Blade and Standstill archetypes.

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Originally Posted by PirateKing

... the thought of playing more than 4 different decks over 9 rounds is very exciting.

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Unless the situation is very special, there are only going to be a small number of top tier decks and the meta will slowly degenerate into some version of rock-paper-scissors.

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Originally Posted by rufus

Unless the situation is very special, there are only going to be a small number of top tier decks and the meta will slowly degenerate into some version of rock-paper-scissors.

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It's still more decksthan Miracles - the rest.

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Originally Posted by Zombie

It's still more decksthan Miracles - the rest.

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There is always going to be a top deck, I'm convinced actually that something will always be tier 0. Said deck might not always be found, or be popular though.

To give an example, it took 2+ years for Amulet Bloom to gain popularity in Modern, while that entire time it was secretly the best deck in the format by a large margin.

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Originally Posted by Brael

There is always going to be a top deck, I'm convinced actually that something will always be tier 0. Said deck might not always be found, or be popular though.

To give an example, it took 2+ years for Amulet Bloom to gain popularity in Modern, while that entire time it was secretly the best deck in the format by a large margin.

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My understanding is that a "tier 0" deck is a deck that is so strong that there are no viable counter decks. For example in this standard, it was turning into "play cat, or lose." Legacy tends not to be like that because the card pool is so big and there's a lot of potent hate available.

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Originally Posted by Fox

I'm not that worried for them, it's what like $300 to turn UWR from miracles to Blade?

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Still $300 is $300. I know If I suddenly needed $300 to play a good deck, it would be an issue. Not everybody has that on the drop of a hat.

I'm sure there are a couple people for whom this really sucks in the short term. For everyone else it's exciting times.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Legacy finally has reasonable control decks again, and a lot of color combinations within the Blade and Standstill archetypes.

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A bit premature, perhaps? It remains to be seen if either of those decks can establish a home in the new meta.