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2 years ago ::
Jan 03, 2011 - 11:17AM
#21
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2005
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This article was 100% phoned in and does not address any of the controversies surrounding Master's Edition 4.
We didn't hear about:
-No Power
-the removal of Mythic rares just before publication
-the pushing back of release dates
-the absurd number of rares, especially relative to com/unc
-the total backtrack from ME3 on cost to collect, and previous stated intentions
-the inclusion of the dual lands as reprints
-the inclusion of so many reprints of existing cards
-the 10 awful rares that shouldn't have made it online, much less at rare (Wood Elemental is fine as a 1 note joke. When it becomes a 10 note joke, it's less funny.)
-the removal of any new legacy playable cards from com/unc
-the lack of 3 obvious cards for Legacy
-the non-restriction of Library
Instead we got:
-the promotion of color hosers to rare ("Because white rares were hard to do, and I felt like it. And despite Pauper having access to REB and BEB forever, I'm not going to give it to them because their text seems like another card we printed as uncommon.")
Also, the total lack of mention for Portal/Stater cards is very odd, I agree. All in all, a poor article that address 1 point out of 15 or so we needed to hear about. Very disappointing for a feature article.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 03, 2011 - 4:43PM
#22
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- with a lance and a windmill to tilt
Date Joined:
Jan 27, 2002
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As someone who has continually opined (opined is a good word here, because the most accurate one isn't printable) for more communication from WotC about the design and intention of the MED sets, I appreciate the article. And it's a lead on the Mothership no less. For that alone, I thank you from the bottom of my cold, blackened (as far as the Eternal formats goes) heart.
As someone who plays the game, this leaves me more (and I'm struggling for the right word here) scared, confused, frustrated (I guess I'll stick with frustrated) with the overall thought process that resulted in this article seeing the light of day.
First off, the release of the MEDs wasn't to create a great limited format. If that was honestly the thought, and you can say that with a straight face ... well, in the words of R Lee Ermey in a recent Geico commercial, "I feel sorry for you."
The purpose of the MEDs (at least from the perspective of everyone I know) was to put cards in the online Classic card pool. I understand the desire to create a great limited format, especially as the online play model revolves around that economic function -- but I'd wager that the majority of people interested in the set were far more concerned with the cards in the set than how they played in a limited format.
Secondly, and let's get straight to the complete disconnect between the community and the designers. MED was sold to us (prior to the release of its contents) as the "some of the greatest cards from Magic's past" ... what we got was Force of Will (as a chase rare) in a short-lived set, and a bunch of random monkey poo. Pretty much the first question everyone asked was either 1) where's the P9, and even more glaringly -- 2) where's the dual lands?
Even Worth came out and said that they were suprised by the reaction of the community to the lack of dual lands in the initial set -- and said they would get into the next set. Then marketing chimed in (most likely explanation to date) -- and pushed the dual lands into two separate MED sets, 5 in MED II and 5 in MED III.
To me, this whole process has smacked of ad hoc planning from the beginning. It began with the reasonable idea of bringing pre-Mirage cards online, but due to a number of factors -- which this article clearly glossed over -- resulted in an initial offering that was, frankly, pretty poor.
The impact of these poor decision points continues to stifle the Eternal online community to this day. FoW is likely the linchpin card of the Eternal formats -- maybe even more so than the P9. With the way this set was released, and the timing of the release (a low point in MTGO programming stability), a de facto barrier has been created for the Eternal formats online. Worth has even created his own one-card online reserved list (hello, FoW) because of the short-sighted decisions made with the release of MED I.
Of course, the other elephant in the room that comes out with every MED set is the fate of the P9 online. I'll go on record (again) as saying that this is not the time, nor place for those cards. The support for both the paper and digital communities just isn't there, or at least, not enough information is available (IMHO) for that bridge to be crossed. But the bottom line is that I don't think there's an overarching vision for the Eternal formats online -- and this article simply reinforces that belief.
I've always believed that the folks who design and make Magic are some of the smartest people I know. After reading this, I have to wonder what happened. The disconnect between what the community was expecting, and what we actually got for our support of the format was jarring to say the least. I understand the needs of marketing and economics for the online game. I really, really do. But to create such a steaming pile of poo, as the MED releases have become -- and then to continue to try and massage words and meanings to keep selling us on a vision that doesn't seem to exist is either cruelty and deceit or incompetence of the highest order.
Sigh.
In public affairs parlance, I'm going to try and end this with an "I'm sorry sandwich" -- I really appreciate the time and effort put into getting an article like this on the Mothership, and that alone is a significant milestone in moving the online community forward. Unfortunately, a discussion of the design of the MED sets without addressing the impact on the online Eternal formats outside limited play is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
Before there was a MED I, II, II or IV, there had to be a vision for where the Eternal formats would wind up online. At least, the rational part of me believes that. And, I know there has to be at least some of that thought brought up in the offices of WotC. What needs to be addressed is that vision of the MED sets -- and not some formulaic, marketing-approved drivel about the limited play nuances of the MED sets.
I sincerely hope that 'The Powers That Be' could find it in there hearts to have a frank and open discussion of the issues many people will post about the flaws in the MED sets. This article isn't it -- but at least it's a start.
Later,
Don!
A failure to plan, is a plan to fail.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 03, 2011 - 5:04PM
#23
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This article must have been written before the contents of MED IV were released. Perhaps it was written way back when the set was finalized. That's the only way I can think of to explain the disconnect between its contents and the information we really want to know. And, with Wizard's on vacation, no one was around to think of how out of touch it was going to be when the clock released it at midnight (EST).
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2 years ago ::
Jan 04, 2011 - 9:08AM
#24
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Date Joined:
Aug 20, 2008
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In general, articles on the Wizards site are going to be focused on the positive, and this can mean, in the worst case, that they will be light and fluffy and turn a blind eye to any contentious issues. I think that's sufficiently commonplace that it needs to be accepted as well-nigh unavoidable. The degree to which the financial element is unleashed in a CCG creates an inherent tension between gameplay requirements and the responsible management of card value that Wizards itself has to work within to keep Magic a success. Force of Will  isn't so much on a Reserved List for the online format as it is simply too expensive to be reasonable to reprint - something like Mana Drain  on paper. So, if and when they work out a suitable venue for making the P9 available in MTGO, such as at a super-high rarity within MED6, they could include FoW alongside the P9.
Coming up with weird ideas to make everyone happy since 2008!     I have now started a blog as an appropriate place to put my crazy ideas.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 04, 2011 - 10:20PM
#25
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I want to see a "Masters Edition" for Paper Magic. It's been a long time since Extended has seen many of these sets as well. I like the idea of pulling out old blocks and putting in the best cards.. but with a twist to pull in variations on repeated mechanics from other blocks. There would be fun work putting together a 200 card set for today's "Standard" environment, and the card selection would be drastically different than the balance (or unbalance) of the previous sets.
I'd like to see a paper "reprint" block starting with Legends... what was supposed to be the first block but didn't make the cut because of play balance.. Stores have tons of stuff on shelves because other than the top 10 cards from each set the rest are useless in Vintage and Legacy. Done correctly, they could make stores happy pulling out lots of backstock that would be legal in Standard again... that's the money-making product now.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 05, 2011 - 2:31AM
#26
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2006
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That sounds good until you get a closer look at the cards. There just aren;t that many cards that they can print in paper that people actually want. The cards from the old days that enough players would want to make this worthwhile are either on the reserved list or cards like Armageddon  that WOTC just doesn't want to print anymore. That's unfortunate because I myself think it would be cool - as long as it is the original art and frames. But I think the most we would get is something like the Timeshifted cards in the Time Spiral set. That was enough to draw me in to an environment with new cards but probably not enough to sustain interest for players of current sets.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 05, 2011 - 6:20AM
#27
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Date Joined:
Aug 20, 2008
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Wizards is doing reasonably well in producing a CCG that attracts people's interest and therefore sells boosters. The reason behind the complaints, though, is easy enough to see. With cards like Tarmogoyf  or Baneslayer Angel  or Jace, the Mind Sculptor  , people have to buy quite a few boosters, or spend quite a bit on cards in the secondary market, to be competitive in Standard Constructed, which is the principal Magic format. (This applies to MTGO as well as paper, but much of what follows will focus on paper, despite the original article being about an MTGO issue.) People wouldn't mind spending a bit more on Magic that would normally seem sensible to spend on a game... if it was 1994 again. If some of those rare cards in the boosters were going to remain valuable after rotating out of Standard - and, in fact, keep going up in price over the years. But that's a very unrealistic hope. You can have power inflation, so that the cards in each new set are worth using in eternal formats. That avoids having to rotate cards out (and take away their value) but cards still lose their value through being superseded - and the game eventually collapses under its own weight. You can have power deflation, so that the cards in each new set are more valuable than anything else that will be printed in the future. And, in order that both Chrome Mox  and Mox Opal  will eventually be worth over $100, Wizards would support a Mirrodin-forward eternal format and a Scars-forward eternal format... and, somehow, twenty years from now, those two formats would get enough attention (instead of being lost in the shuffle) to drive demand for those cards. That, of course, is an impossibly unrealistic scenario - the number of people playing Magic is not going to increase to such an extent that obvious niche formats like Mirrodin-forward and Scars-forward would be big enough to drive a large amount of demand for cards. People see what has happened to the cards from the early days - not just the P9, but the original duals - and wonder why the glory days have ended. But the glory days were before Magic found its market - when far fewer people play it than play it today. Ten years from now, there might be more people playing Magic than there are now, but not ten times as many people playing Magic. Once the unrealistic hope of current cards being serious collectables is put aside, then the question becomes how Magic can be made to function better as a game. From that viewpoint, the calls to abolish the Mythic rarity start to make sense. Mythic Rare cards aren't rarer than rares used to be, but it used to be that Magic cards were serious collectables with a bright future ahead of them. Now, while there are cards that have a temporary high value, that's just a barrier to play and not an investment.
Coming up with weird ideas to make everyone happy since 2008! I have now started a blog as an appropriate place to put my crazy ideas.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 05, 2011 - 8:36AM
#28
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2002
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I'm quite impressed, Quad.
That's some very sound and profound reasoning.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 05, 2011 - 1:19PM
#29
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2008
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These sets were, in fact, designed. No cards were designed, sure, but the concepting and laying out of the set--even one using preexisting parts--is an important design job.
I am probably the last person that should be asking this question, but anyhow.
While it is not at all possible to please everyone, is there anyone who would say, "the designers designed the layout of these previously printed cards that I had no other way of playing with online before in a very poor manner"?
And are the uber fanboys singing praises? Or is that part of design largely unnoticed by the audience, but it has to be there for other, maybe more subtle, reasons that a person like me will never understand?
Orzhova Witness Restarting Quotes Block
Show
Disregard women acquire chase rares.
There are a lot of dudes for whom this is not optional.
How;s a 2 drop 1/2, Flying broken? What am I missing?
You're missing it because *turns Storm Crows sideways* all your base are belong to Chuck Norris and every other overused meme ever.
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2 years ago ::
Jan 05, 2011 - 1:24PM
#30
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2008
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You can have power deflation, so that the cards in each new set are more valuable than anything else that will be printed in the future. And, in order that both Chrome Mox and Mox Opal will eventually be worth over $100
So, from Mox Opal, it's only going to get worse. That's a pretty bleak outlook.
Orzhova Witness Restarting Quotes Block
Show
Disregard women acquire chase rares.
There are a lot of dudes for whom this is not optional.
How;s a 2 drop 1/2, Flying broken? What am I missing?
You're missing it because *turns Storm Crows sideways* all your base are belong to Chuck Norris and every other overused meme ever.
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