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Wizards of the Coast is a business. Their goal is to sell cards. Our part as players are to buy said cards and if said cards fit well with our games then everyone is happy. Yesterday's news from WoTC has me in for a rant so you might as well buckle up and I will take you to a place of bitter resentment.Ever feel that you have no mouth, no voice in which to express your opinion ? The new Magic 2010 card, Silence, sums up my feelings at the moment.
As I am certain any eMail with a hint of dissention directed to Wizards will go unanswered, I turn to my blog. Here is a few opinions right off the top :* Standard Players are going to get hit hard unless they have the opportunity to be able to play two Core Edition sets.
* The young kid who just got a Magic 2010 set in the summer of 2010 (birthday, graduation, whatever), is sure to cry when he / she is told that half their cards cannot be played at Friday Night Magic after the fall rotation.
* As one forum member summed up "MoneyGrubbing scheme sure is MoneyGrubbing".
I have a love / hate releationship with new set releases . . . I really do get very excited about all the new card goodness and cannot wait to get the grey matter working on combos and synergies for a new deck. At the same time, I realise that an older very loved deck is just another step closer to the grave. To this end, I may simply move to extended if all the players there had not left already in disgust.
Well . . . I was going to drop my cash on a Magic 2010 core set in July but now I am having second thoughts. As I am not a tournament or extended player and only head out to Friday Night Magic, the thought of annual core set rotations is most un-inviting. The plan this year (as it stood last week) was to purchase a booster box of the core set along with a fat-pack from "Live". After this, I would then dip into the singles market and through trades, would hope to reach the finish line in October, 2010 with a Standard Constructed deck which did not totally suck.
I now think that perhaps I will stick to Intro Packs (or less) with each new Core Edition Set as well as each new Expansion Set. I fully expect mushrooming prices on the singles market as players are forced to keep up with four new sets each year which translates directly into fewer packs being ripped open. I guess that one can argue that there is only 3.5 new sets each year as one can expect approximately 50 % reprints from the new Core Edition but this argument is null / void as players still need to purchase it.
Please do not get me wrong . . . Core Edition Sets were on the whole pretty bad. These cards did not have much appeal to either the advanced or the new player and needed to be fixed. New cards not limited by the flavour of a storyline is a definite improvement and jank reprints of vinilla cr@p like Grizzly Bears (or the obvious plant of Cylian Elf) were not welcome visitors in any booster pack. I am OK with Mythic Rares and Planeswalkers in the new Core Set Edition as well although I as sure some more vetran players are not estatic about this.
In summary . . .> A Standard player who goes out once a week to FNM just got hit hard below the belt.
>The Core Set Edition problems are fixed . . . sort of and with the increased rotation tempo are not.
>Message to Wizards : Sit and Rotate ! ! I want a two-year rotation back !
>By-the-way - Silence is awesome and I want to forgive you.
Release Dates
(Please correct me if I err)
(Please correct me if I err)
Shards of Alara : October 3, 2008
Conflux : February 6, 2009
Alara Reborn : April 30, 2009
Magic 2010 : July 17, 2009
"Live" : October 2009 (Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, & Eventide rotate out of Standard)
"Long" : February 2010
"Prosper" : May 2010
Magic 2011 : October 2010
"Lights" : October 2010 (Shards of Alara & Magic 2010 rotate out of Standard)
"Camera" : February 2011
"Action" : May 2011
Magic 2012 : October 2012
"Shake" : October 2011 ("Live", "Long", "Prosper" & Magic 2011 rotate out of Standard)
"Rattle" : February 2012
"Roll" : May 2012
They announced that after 10th editions is pushed out of standard, there will always be 2 core sets in standard at all times.
ReplyDeleteBut I will be terribly terribly sad when Lorwyn, Shadowmoor go :(
Great thoughts. I'm still not sure how I feel about all this change. I am for change don't get me wrong but it all does seem to be in favor of a more expensive venture for the common man.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really considered the fact that core sets are 85% cards you already have too many of. The need to pick up the rare lands or that extra wrath or $20 staple card is great but seriously good call on it being broken. With that said there is something about changing the nature of core sets that has been a staple of the game. You could always go back and pick up an earlier version of the card. There is something comforting in the familiarity of a core set. It would have been really cool if they lowered the prices of the core set. That might have drawn more people to the game. Make it cost less than competitor games.
When I opened that box of 9th last week with some friends it it was a lot of fun to build decks with them. I was playing with casual people only, you know the kind of people who have the same deck for years and always talk about getting around to making that one deck idea but never do. Ya they had a lot of fun getting into new cards, but don't want to spend more money on the game. Anyway I feel like I'm rambling and copysix just cast Silence on me.
Oh I really dislike the rotation, but I try to refrain from playing standard..
ReplyDeleteI think that...core sets shouldn't ever rotate. They provide core cards, that should always be usable.