Re: Mtg arena open beta
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:17 am
weeeeeell,
lots to digest here. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-08-24
My thoughts, in no particular order...
commander collection Black: Super good value. I got the green one for 5000en, and in doing so got some really, really good staples for every green deck I'll ever build. The only problem with the black one is...I....kinda already have a lot of them already? That said, the two I don't have (Liliana and Ophiomancer) come to 3200 yen between em just for the two, and I know fine well that half the other cards are worth more than 1000 each, having bought them at one time or another. Maybe Gisa might be a smidge under that these days, the green sol ring is 500 and the comm tower is...hard to find? But aye. Even though I own 6 out of the 8 cards, I might pick this up. Ophiomancer is screaming out to go into Sean's Hapatra deck, if nothing else, and any Lils will always have a home in my G&G deck.
Middle Earth set being Modern and Historic legal: This one raises my eyebrows. It raises em right up, lemme tell you. While it's clear that LotR is a pretty close match for MtG, flavor-wise, it is nonetheless a non-Magic property. God help them if even one of the cards from this set turns out to be a staple, because there ain't gonna be reprinting that bugger once the license expires. Yes, there's functional reprints, but then you get into the 8-copies-per-deck problem. Plus there's the whole "I cast Gandalf, equip a storm bolter, tap Grandpa Rick to bounce your Optimus Prime back to your hand and swing for the win" problem. yeuch.
pioneer challenger decks: *shrug* I don't play pioneer and dont intend to. But hey ho, if the decks arent too expensive and have value, then sure. Interestingly, looking at the deck lists, there dont seem to be huge amounts of very expensive cards in there. Also, interestingly, I think I actually have most of that spirits deck at home. Who knew?
Innistrad double feature thing: uh? eh? what? How will this be different to just buying, say 2 packs of one set and 1 of the other and just drafting those? Like, y'know, people used to back when there were blocks in Magic? Also, surely if the two innistrad sets are being largely reprinted with different art (Say what? new art for all the cards? That seems a large investment for what is basically a reprint set) it'll massively impact the value of the cards from the actual midnight hunt/crimson vow sets. Like, if you double the supply of the cards, their individual value will roughly half, no? It just seems a bizarrely costly thing to do - reduce perceived value for the normal sets (announced in advance of their release!), flood the market, and pay for your artists to redo the art for an entire set's worth of cards, plus packaging, printing costs etc. For something that could easily be achieved by just opening 2:1 boosters like the old days? I'm baffled. There must be more to it that hasn't been announced or something.
In store stuff: Good, I guess? I mean, I think it is fairly interesting to have the actual store name printed on the card. Doesn't affect me in the slightest, but fine for those who care.
Kamigawa Lasers and Stuff: Actually, yeah. I like this. It's kinda silly, and I'm a sucker for laser ninjas. I suppose there's an argument to be made for Magic not being the place for SF themes, but we have Mirrodin/Phyrexia, and they seem popular. They're not exactly SF, I know, but it's close enough. I also think it's a very smart idea to explore the planes at different times in their history. Theyve been doing it since forever with Dominaria, so why not everywhere else? Which brings us to...
Streets of New Capenna: Another good one. As with Kamigawa 2049, crime fiction is a genre that's kinda outside the traditional high fantasy explored by Magic, but I can totally see this working. The stylings of the logo and the mood of that demon mobster in the picture give me great hope that it could be handled right.
Dominaria United: Sure. I have no strong feelings about this either way, but after the possibly polarising previous sets, this is a safe space for any players who feel that their beloved IP has been wandering too far off the rails.
The Brothers War: again, sure. It's basically a shoe-in for all the same players who froth at the mouth when cards are re-released in old border frames. That's all before my time, so it gets a *shrug* from me. I did spend a few hours yesterday reading up on the story of the brothers war/phyrexia/karn etc (I was bored at work with no students and bugger all else to do). Did you know that Karn spent a bunch of time being (basically) a mad phyrexian god? There's some interesting art and stuff. Worth a look, if you can be arsed.
Unfinity: meh, it's another un-set. The lands will no doubt be lovely. The rest ignorable. I notice it mentions sci fi shock lands. That will be very interesting to see, especially because as un-cards they will be silver bordered, but as reprints of black border cards, theyd be legal? I guess? I also wonder if it will be all 10 shocks. Also, full art shocks. That'll be expensive...
Commander Legends, Baldur's Gate: I dunno how I feel about this. I have no interest in Baldur's Gate, but the last Legends set was great. I'm kind of in the "Oi, gerrof out of my IP, ya damn kids!" camp here. I'd have preferred another Legends set without the sticky fingers of DnD all over it, but hey ho. I'll live. At least it's not...
Secret Lair - Fortnite: No. This is dreadful, and despite it only being reprints, still very damaging to Magic's IP. Such a poor choice of franchise. Sure, it'll bring in new players, but the kind of person who plays Fortnite is hardly the kind of person who plays Magic. Too many of the pew-pew instant gratification crowd and there will start being calls to simplify Magic, make counterspells less playable, no more boardwipes because theyre frustrating, BAN ISLANDS! BAN EM, I SAY!
'tis the beginnings of the end. The end...
Secret Lair - Streetfighter: No. But that's a very good picture of Chun-Li. Credit where it's due. Still a bloody dreadful idea, though.
Secret Lair, commander decks - 40k: No. It'll depend on the interest of the kiddoes. If they're super keen, I could see myself buying the commander decks. Secret Lair, as always, will be hamstrung by stupid shipping costs. As a franchise, it's marginally better than the above two, but as the thin edge of the wedge I'll still condemn it. I'm vaguely interested to see who's drawing the art, and if any GW artists will be on mtg cards (Blanche springs to mind) and if any MtG artists will do 40k stuff that finds its way into actual 40k (The thought of Seb McKinnon doing dark eldar makes me go "ooooh!"). Of course, a great number of artists work for both companies already, but regardless, it could be interesting.
Secret Lair - Kamigawa: Very pretty. Irrelevant to me, but very pretty.
Secret Lair - olde school planeswalkers: Clearly not aimed at me. Vaguely amusing, I guess? *shrug*
Other stuff relating to actual cards! - Double Masters, JumpStart: Eh, fine. Good. The original Double Masters did wonders for dropping prices of staples, and Jumpstart was fun. I can't say as I'll actually buy any packs of these, but when it comes time to buy singles I'll be grateful they exist. Also, yay Aminatou! (I keep filtering all my best cards into my Aminatou deck, btw. My kids refuse to play against it, and I cant say I blame them. At least I'm clear where it sits in the relative power levels of my decks, though... )
I think that's it? Quite the info dump, to be sure.
What say you? Any thoughts?
lots to digest here. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-08-24
My thoughts, in no particular order...
commander collection Black: Super good value. I got the green one for 5000en, and in doing so got some really, really good staples for every green deck I'll ever build. The only problem with the black one is...I....kinda already have a lot of them already? That said, the two I don't have (Liliana and Ophiomancer) come to 3200 yen between em just for the two, and I know fine well that half the other cards are worth more than 1000 each, having bought them at one time or another. Maybe Gisa might be a smidge under that these days, the green sol ring is 500 and the comm tower is...hard to find? But aye. Even though I own 6 out of the 8 cards, I might pick this up. Ophiomancer is screaming out to go into Sean's Hapatra deck, if nothing else, and any Lils will always have a home in my G&G deck.
Middle Earth set being Modern and Historic legal: This one raises my eyebrows. It raises em right up, lemme tell you. While it's clear that LotR is a pretty close match for MtG, flavor-wise, it is nonetheless a non-Magic property. God help them if even one of the cards from this set turns out to be a staple, because there ain't gonna be reprinting that bugger once the license expires. Yes, there's functional reprints, but then you get into the 8-copies-per-deck problem. Plus there's the whole "I cast Gandalf, equip a storm bolter, tap Grandpa Rick to bounce your Optimus Prime back to your hand and swing for the win" problem. yeuch.
pioneer challenger decks: *shrug* I don't play pioneer and dont intend to. But hey ho, if the decks arent too expensive and have value, then sure. Interestingly, looking at the deck lists, there dont seem to be huge amounts of very expensive cards in there. Also, interestingly, I think I actually have most of that spirits deck at home. Who knew?
Innistrad double feature thing: uh? eh? what? How will this be different to just buying, say 2 packs of one set and 1 of the other and just drafting those? Like, y'know, people used to back when there were blocks in Magic? Also, surely if the two innistrad sets are being largely reprinted with different art (Say what? new art for all the cards? That seems a large investment for what is basically a reprint set) it'll massively impact the value of the cards from the actual midnight hunt/crimson vow sets. Like, if you double the supply of the cards, their individual value will roughly half, no? It just seems a bizarrely costly thing to do - reduce perceived value for the normal sets (announced in advance of their release!), flood the market, and pay for your artists to redo the art for an entire set's worth of cards, plus packaging, printing costs etc. For something that could easily be achieved by just opening 2:1 boosters like the old days? I'm baffled. There must be more to it that hasn't been announced or something.
In store stuff: Good, I guess? I mean, I think it is fairly interesting to have the actual store name printed on the card. Doesn't affect me in the slightest, but fine for those who care.
Kamigawa Lasers and Stuff: Actually, yeah. I like this. It's kinda silly, and I'm a sucker for laser ninjas. I suppose there's an argument to be made for Magic not being the place for SF themes, but we have Mirrodin/Phyrexia, and they seem popular. They're not exactly SF, I know, but it's close enough. I also think it's a very smart idea to explore the planes at different times in their history. Theyve been doing it since forever with Dominaria, so why not everywhere else? Which brings us to...
Streets of New Capenna: Another good one. As with Kamigawa 2049, crime fiction is a genre that's kinda outside the traditional high fantasy explored by Magic, but I can totally see this working. The stylings of the logo and the mood of that demon mobster in the picture give me great hope that it could be handled right.
Dominaria United: Sure. I have no strong feelings about this either way, but after the possibly polarising previous sets, this is a safe space for any players who feel that their beloved IP has been wandering too far off the rails.
The Brothers War: again, sure. It's basically a shoe-in for all the same players who froth at the mouth when cards are re-released in old border frames. That's all before my time, so it gets a *shrug* from me. I did spend a few hours yesterday reading up on the story of the brothers war/phyrexia/karn etc (I was bored at work with no students and bugger all else to do). Did you know that Karn spent a bunch of time being (basically) a mad phyrexian god? There's some interesting art and stuff. Worth a look, if you can be arsed.
Unfinity: meh, it's another un-set. The lands will no doubt be lovely. The rest ignorable. I notice it mentions sci fi shock lands. That will be very interesting to see, especially because as un-cards they will be silver bordered, but as reprints of black border cards, theyd be legal? I guess? I also wonder if it will be all 10 shocks. Also, full art shocks. That'll be expensive...
Commander Legends, Baldur's Gate: I dunno how I feel about this. I have no interest in Baldur's Gate, but the last Legends set was great. I'm kind of in the "Oi, gerrof out of my IP, ya damn kids!" camp here. I'd have preferred another Legends set without the sticky fingers of DnD all over it, but hey ho. I'll live. At least it's not...
Secret Lair - Fortnite: No. This is dreadful, and despite it only being reprints, still very damaging to Magic's IP. Such a poor choice of franchise. Sure, it'll bring in new players, but the kind of person who plays Fortnite is hardly the kind of person who plays Magic. Too many of the pew-pew instant gratification crowd and there will start being calls to simplify Magic, make counterspells less playable, no more boardwipes because theyre frustrating, BAN ISLANDS! BAN EM, I SAY!
'tis the beginnings of the end. The end...
Secret Lair - Streetfighter: No. But that's a very good picture of Chun-Li. Credit where it's due. Still a bloody dreadful idea, though.
Secret Lair, commander decks - 40k: No. It'll depend on the interest of the kiddoes. If they're super keen, I could see myself buying the commander decks. Secret Lair, as always, will be hamstrung by stupid shipping costs. As a franchise, it's marginally better than the above two, but as the thin edge of the wedge I'll still condemn it. I'm vaguely interested to see who's drawing the art, and if any GW artists will be on mtg cards (Blanche springs to mind) and if any MtG artists will do 40k stuff that finds its way into actual 40k (The thought of Seb McKinnon doing dark eldar makes me go "ooooh!"). Of course, a great number of artists work for both companies already, but regardless, it could be interesting.
Secret Lair - Kamigawa: Very pretty. Irrelevant to me, but very pretty.
Secret Lair - olde school planeswalkers: Clearly not aimed at me. Vaguely amusing, I guess? *shrug*
Other stuff relating to actual cards! - Double Masters, JumpStart: Eh, fine. Good. The original Double Masters did wonders for dropping prices of staples, and Jumpstart was fun. I can't say as I'll actually buy any packs of these, but when it comes time to buy singles I'll be grateful they exist. Also, yay Aminatou! (I keep filtering all my best cards into my Aminatou deck, btw. My kids refuse to play against it, and I cant say I blame them. At least I'm clear where it sits in the relative power levels of my decks, though... )
I think that's it? Quite the info dump, to be sure.
What say you? Any thoughts?