The number one complaint I received after Innistrad previews: Why did we have to include double-faced cards?
The number one complaint I received after Avacyn Restored previews: Why didn't we include double-faced cards?
These aren't contradictory, Mark. Once you've introduced the complexity of double-faced cards, using them in a third set doesn't bring nearly so much baggage.
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I'm glad to see that Innistrad was such a big hit! You mentioned a lot of issues I had over the year, most importantly AVR Limited. (Though I still maintain that Black isn't a bad support color at all in Draft)
Agreed on DFC, more Werewolves and Flashback in AVR, too. Those were three things that MADE Innistrad for me, and it was disappointing to only have two sets' worth. I'm excited to see the lessons you took from this reflected in the next year and going forward.
Overall, an incredible year, and well-deserved success. May RtR continue the trend--I'm excited to Overload some spells.
I was actually saddened by the lack of mention about the FTV series. These boxed sets, while incredible at offering players that want these expensive cards access they wouldn't otherwise have, these are printed in such a limited run, the average player has to shell out double or more of the MSRP to get them.
It would seem to me from a business standpoint, that if Wizards wants to make more money they would print more of these. Don't get me wrong, the retailers are LOVING this, as they pay the same for the cost of the product then turn right around and sell them for twice what they should because THAT is what people are going to pay to get a copy of them.
Up the print run quantity and Wizards would be making the money instead of retailers greedily profiting off their short-sightedness.
I'm really hoping and praying that the Commander's Arsenal product and future Commander supported sets are not going to follow the FTV print format. It would be a shame to limit these to the point that it's too expensive to acquire them!
I'm both orderly and rational. I value control, information, and order. I love structure and hierarchy, and will actively use whatever power or knowledge I have to maintain it. At best, I am lawful and insightful; at worst, I am bureaucratic and tyrannical.
Well, as you ask for feedback, I'll give mine as well. I guess I'll go with the same order as in the article.
Innistrad - I have to say, I really liked Innistrad. While it wasn't my favorite set of all time, it was probably the best draft environment I've ever played in. I enjoyed the horror themes, and was impressed by the way each tribe felt defined. I will have to say that the one 'flaw' with Innistrad doesn't have to do with Innistrad per se but instead relates to a previous state of design goal: Inter-block planning. I didn't feel that SOM block and Innistrad had many interactions, and I feel this may be a potential pitfall of 'Fifth-stage' design. The only real direct interaction I can think of between the blocks is proliferate (which can pretty much interact with any set ever). I think part of this is just the nature of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia as having poison or artifacts matter show up in Innistrad would be jarring. So I feel like if Fifth-stage design is something you plan on doing, the themes need to be chosen carefully so that you don't make another shift quite so disparate.
Double-Face Cards - Hmm. I feel weird talking about this particular topic. I only play online so I didn't have to deal with the change in drafting rules or checklist cards. I also am someone who really really REALLY likes flip cards, and felt that DFC just acted to smack them in the face. So... I guess if other people liked them that's fine. But PLEASE can you print more flip cards? Just put them in Commander or Planechase products but PLEASE! I will say, if you guys do bring back DFCs, it be nice to be able to play either side like a creature split card (with or without transform).
Avacyn Restored - And here's when you lost me. I think it's funny, last time you had a L/S/L block structure, I really didn't like the first 2 sets, but thought the third set was one of the most fun sets I've ever played or drafted. Whereas the opposite is true this time around. In both cases it's just the case of drafting environments that are so hyper aggressive that by the time you're finished drafting you basically know whether your deck is going to win or not. At the same time, when I spend my money to draft and play I like to... you know play... if I just wanted to draft I'd just stick with the draft simulator. So please, if you guys make aggressive sets in the future don't make them as insanely fast as they have been in the past.
Dark Ascension - You didn't actually talk about this set, so I'll just put it here. First - best set name to date IMO. I really liked the ideas this set was trying for, but I don't think it was executed quite right. Final Hour was just silly and hardly ever mattered in my experience. I feel like it would have been more interesting to look more at the corruption of Humans than throwing in a new keyword. Maybe a modified Morbid, where the spell got even stronger if it was a Human that died? Undying was a more interesting mechanice, but I prefer Persist. I get that the sense of dread was what you were going for, but I think you guys need to think about why players play Magic. When I go to play, I'm usually not thinking "I hope I feel dread and am forced to make bad decision this game!" I also felt DKA really decreased the overall quality of Innistrad drafting.
Hoping Return to Ravnica turns out well, and am looking forward to it.
To me, Avacyn Restored was a big miss, here's why:
* It was very disconnected from ISD and DKA and failed to capitalize on what those two had built. I remember waiting with excitement to find out what happens when the Helvault opens, and then all you gave us was "Avacyn and Grislebrand come out, Avacyn kills Grislebrand, everyone goes home and is happy ever after". What happened to Sorin? Why did we have to wait so much to hear from Garruk again? Wasn't Avacyn injured? So many things made no sense...
* Black was awful in it and White got most of the good stuff. I don't mind angels, but I think there were too many of them. Black missed on the two best mechanics of the set, Miracle and Soulbound and didn't get anything cool to make up for it.
* The limited was awful. It was basically a 4 colour format, where black turned out to be good because it was so weak that you would get all the black cards up and to pick 14. Generally the number of playables was very very low and there were no cool archetypes like ISD's Spider Spawning ones.
* Mythic Rares strike again. As soon as Grislebrand and Temporal Mastery were spoiled, I checked the StarcityGames site for the price and I was met with absurd numbers.
Okay, here is the clincher. I've been waiting to say this.
The "cam girl" this was inspired by was just a girl from a social networking website, Stickam. Her name was TinyTerror and she was just a regular girl who was on her webcam, totally unrelated to any type of adult content.
I hope you all feel really smart now.
This is like someone coming into class with a bloody nose and everyone's like "Jeez what happened to you" and they're like "I ran into a wall" and everyone laughs at them for being an idiot but then at the end of the class they say "HAHA JUST KIDDING I PUNCHED MYSELF IN THE FACE!!!!!! TALK ABOUT OWNED HAHAHAHAHA"
I really enjoy imagining this from Kevin's perspective. Because in Kevin's world, Rosewater actually reads everything he types. Mark is sitting there right now, reading this, and thinking "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled. . ." Or some such. He chuckles low, then clicks on "The Best Of KEVINSET" and says "Yes, this'll do just fine. A busty lady with banding who deals direct damage to Zones!? Why this will be the star of my next set, and no one will ever believe you Kevin." Then he closes his Macbook, so his servant may move it out of the way, while another servant puts a Fetal Richard Garfield Clone lathered in Steak Sauce in front of him. Then Mark Feasts.
Sorin walked into the chamber where his newly wed bride, Vampy, awaited. A beam of moonlight illuminated his brilliant silver hair as he strode with confidence towards the bed. His shirtless body showcased his powerful abdominal muscles and he was wearing jeans with holes in the knees.
This was a really great article. It hit on all the things players have been commenting on with Innistrad block, and I'm glad that it lived up to Mark's expectations.
It's also great because he addressed things from both a monetary perspective (Alara Reborn was a huge success) and things from a complaint perspective (Alara Reborn received a ton of complaints). He's one of those people who really responds to feedback; I never expected the complaints about no Legendary Werewolf to be acknowledged.
I really hope double-faced cards come back, and I hope Return to Ravnica turns out to be awesome.
I was actually saddened by the lack of mention about the FTV series. These boxed sets, while incredible at offering players that want these expensive cards access they wouldn't otherwise have, these are printed in such a limited run, the average player has to shell out double or more of the MSRP to get them.
It would seem to me from a business standpoint, that if Wizards wants to make more money they would print more of these. Don't get me wrong, the retailers are LOVING this, as they pay the same for the cost of the product then turn right around and sell them for twice what they should because THAT is what people are going to pay to get a copy of them.
Up the print run quantity and Wizards would be making the money instead of retailers greedily profiting off their short-sightedness.
I'm really hoping and praying that the Commander's Arsenal product and future Commander supported sets are not going to follow the FTV print format. It would be a shame to limit these to the point that it's too expensive to acquire them!
FTV sets are intended to be more helpful to LGSs than to Wizards. They're essentially a gift to LGS joints for the role they have in keeping Magic the Gathering healthy.
2) You failed to mention the #1 most important card for older formats printed in the last...well, probably since the Zendikar Fetchlands. That being, of course, Delver of Secrets. Do you feel Delver was a triumph or a failure on the part of R&D? Is the tournament popularity of Delver a hint of future things to come, or a hint of things R&D will seek to avoid from now on?
Delver was a development mistake. Mark's article deals with design.
Almost every single article posted on the mothership gets a complaint like mine or Ertai87's on the cost of playing the game we're addicted to, yet NEVER do we get even an acknowledgment of the issue from the powers that be.
C'mon Wizards, at least throw us a bone.
Why not post on Maro's Tumblr? He actually answers questions on there.
Good luck on that, I've tried and he's proven to be wholly unwilling (probably legally so) to talk about how financial barrier to entry is an even bigger problem than the "complexity" one. This is the first time I've seen him even acknowledge finances at all. Sure, you can make the game easy enough to understand, but if they're then told "Oh, if you're wanting to actually win games, you're going to have to spend $300 for 75 cards," that's not going to keep them playing.
* Mythic Rares strike again. As soon as Grislebrand and Temporal Mastery were spoiled, I checked the StarcityGames site for the price and I was met with absurd numbers.
Well of course it's absurd, it's SCG, what do you expect?
SCG's tendency to overcharge people for cards aside, they would've been high even if they weren't mythics. Temporal Mastery's price was high for a simple reason: People were buying it in droves, to the point that SCG had to halt preorders of it. And due to the extremely high demand, they increased the price accordingly (supply and demand, you know).
And the reason people were buying it in such droves was because so many people thought it was some kind of incredible super card to the point I saw some people arguing it should be pre-emptively banned in Legacy or else it would wreck the format. Now obviously, it was really just an okay card that's decent in a few decks but nowhere near the powerhouse people thought it would be.
The absurdly high price for Temporal Mastery early on (before it dropped when everyone realized how overrated it was) wasn't really the fault of it being a mythic rare, it's the fault of so many people incorrectly thinking it'd be another Time Walk.
2) You failed to mention the #1 most important card for older formats printed in the last...well, probably since the Zendikar Fetchlands. That being, of course, Delver of Secrets. Do you feel Delver was a triumph or a failure on the part of R&D? Is the tournament popularity of Delver a hint of future things to come, or a hint of things R&D will seek to avoid from now on?
Delver was a development mistake. Mark's article deals with design.
Still, a brief mention of cards like Delver of Secrets or Snapcaster Mage would have been nice.
On the article in general: Avacyn Restored Limited being subpar was absolutely true and it's nice to see that admitted. I do remember having some fun with it in Sealed, but in Draft it was ugh, which is a shame because Innistrad had such a great Draft. Honestly, Innistrad Draft being so great was a big reason I came back to Magic, I decided to (after years of being away) to check out a Friday Night Magic Draft and immediately fell in love with it. It was great from not just a being fun perspective, but also I thought there was a really great feeling of the plane in it that I noticed in the very first draft.
I don't have much of an opinion one way or the other on the two-sided cards. On one hand I liked the fact it let them put a lot more in it than the flip cards, but they were not without their problems.
Great article. The "State of Design" articles are always among my favorites. The highlight of the year for me was definitely Innistrad (the set, not the block). Dark Ascension was good too, but it definitely made the limited environment worse and overall wasn't as good of a set as Innistrad (then again, Innistrad is a pretty tough act to follow). Avacyn Restored was pretty meh IMO, though the legends were all pretty cool. I appreciate the honest critiques you make in the "lessons" section, and I agree with all of them; they are spot on, especially the parts about having more/better block continuity and making sure the limited environment works well.
As for Avacyn Restored's financial success: As several other people have said, it's not simply enough to look at a set and see that a lot of packs have been sold. You have to ask yourself why so many packs have been sold, and in this case I do think it's more because of the chase rares and mythics in the set than stellar design. I'm sure Jace inflated the numbers for Worldwake in a similar fashion. In this case, it's because of Griselbrand, Cavern of Souls, Bonfire of the Damned, and (initially) Temporal Mastery.
All that being said, overall I agree that this was a great year for Magic.
Also, you should get Richard Garfield on more design teams. IIRC, the last one he was on before Innistrad was Ravnica, and I don't think it's a coincidence that Ravnica and Innistrad are two of the best and most beloved Magic sets ever. I'm really looking forward to RTR!
1) I simply have to respond to this passage from the article:
Avacyn Restored was a giant success. By what metric? People buying packs. A lot—a LOT—of Avacyn Restored has been sold. So much so that R&D had a meeting to discuss all the things we did right in the set.
The question I always love to ask R&D, and which I have yet to receive an answer to, is: Do you guys really believe that players buy packs because they enjoy the set? I'm sure there's an element of players who simply must have that fourth Seraph of Dawn or second Avacyn, Angel of Hope, but do you really think that is what sells packs? Is it more influential than, say, the fact that Bonfire of the Damned is currently approximately $50 AND RISING on most online retailers? How about the fact that Cavern of Souls was $30 for quite some time (is now around $25)? Avacyn herself was (is?) $15 for a very long time, and Griselbrand was...well let's say he generated an entire Twitter hashtag all on his own (#griselbanned, for the non-Legacy players in the audience). There are many other examples I could name. Is it really the "love of the set", and not "the love of the value" that sold the set?
Furthermore, do you truly believe this was a "triumph" in terms of the future of Magic? Do you believe it's healthy when all the marquee cards in a set cost $10 or more? When the prices of cards go up, the barrier to entry goes up as well...
Because I do NOT think avacyn restored is successfull only because of the reasons listed in the article. Heck I think its not even MAJORLY because of them.
Bonfire is 42 Caverns is 18 Restoration Angels are 10
These are the reasons a lot of people in my LGS buy tons and tons of packs. When they win FNM, they pick AVR, when Me and my friends buy each other packs for each others bday its AVR. The casuals, and I play both casually and tournament since the casuals do some fun EDHing when I need a competetive break, they look for EDH viables and AVR has very little outside Griselbrand.
Competetively I mostly play draft and AVR is ATROCIOUS in draft. It becomes a pull-fest where the game hinges way too much you either pull good packs or not because of the unusually vast amount of unusable cards in ratio to usable cards. This as opposed to innistrad where you can draft a theme via dredge, or whatever you want because the majority of the cards are usables.
So sorry but I would like to voice my opinion to maybe bring you guys back down to earth and realize that like the poster above said, the price to make a deck is a barrier of entry. Avacyn Restored is not helping here. I stopped FNMing as often as I used to because my choices are limited heavily because most viable decks require a bonfire in it.
The go-to example of this has been the Legions set for a long time. Very little value, selling like hotcakes. There simply is this huge mass of casual players that are invisible to us more invested players, but they're outbuying us.
