The problem with MTGs aren't the bullies, but the investors. Unlike other card games that are mostly played for fun, some people treat MTG cards as stocks and Wizards of the Coast even officially stated they wouldn't reprint certain cards even under a different name to keep their prices high. It doesn't help that they don't do large enough reprints of high demand cards. But over time, we've seen some of them decline due to having reasonable alternatives. The cards that they banned this time were Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, and Dockside Extortionist, which were 3 very powerful and very expensive cards for the Commander format. Their banning means that the card prices will tank and that's why these people are upset. Mana Crypt has already lost about a quarter of its value while Dockside Extortionist and Jeweled Lotus are down about half. The general population of Commander couldn't care less about it because they're casual players.
Bullies can be from any group, including nerds. The biggest bullies I ever had were cliche nerds people I often played CCGs with at lunch, who were outcasts outside our group, and/or were in the same enhanced class (aka "smart class") as myself. A lot of these 'woke'/DEI people were probably theater/art nerds, they were always the most pretentious self-centered people. (I say that as someone who went into an artistic field but I never got along with those types.)
But you can't enjoy it anymore. I liked playing MTG. Got about 40,000 cards in my storage building. Even some alphas. I never look at them anymore. And my cool 90s trapper-keeper collection is gay now. Cuz the wizards, dragons and d&d fantasy scenes often featured rainbows. And even if I played d&d now, I'm too much of a smartass to *not* play a mexican orc or dwarf barrista, even in 2nd edition.
And this is why people should support Steve Jackson Games and play his cute little card game, Munchkins. Also, play GURPS/Car Wars. Far superior TTRPG game...okay that is an opinion but Steve Jackson hasn't said anything stupid, that I know of, to offend people. Mostly just wants to make games.
'A culture of fear and intimidation while wearing the mask of being very progressive' If I'm not mistaken, this is basically standard-issue among the communities that shout the loudest about how progressive they are. That's why the term "Crybully" is a thing.
I can tell you as someone who's very recently left the MTG scene. At this moment most players do not care and still play the game. They ignore drama and just play the cards with their friends. I'm not even sure what its going to take for WOTC to get them to actually be forced to pay attention, let alone make a stance to stop giving them money.
Backstory time to explain whats happening. i play magic the gathering and the format involved in this contract. There was a fan made and ran format called EDH, WotC overtime began making more products targeting our format. Some of the cards became powerhouses as they power crept the game and the format. The organizers of the format the Rules Committee (RC) banned these cards without notice and against the advice of WotC and without advising their sub Committee the Commander Advisory Group (CAG). Three of the four cards banned were $80+ in price some upwards of $200 for one card. This wiped out millions of dollars in value overnight. This triggered a backlash from the community, and the RC and CAG received death threats doxxing, and other abuse. In response once again without consulting anyone the RC turned over control of the format to WotC. Now that they have control they are trying to start a new Committee and to be on it they are requiring a Non-Disparagement contract in perpetuity. Me personally I believe this was entirely planned from the start.
The worst part was that all 4 cards were still being printed and were still being sold. Some can be found inside the most recent set's Play Boosters/Collector Booster packs. So people would open packs get excited to own these really powerful/expensive cards... only to find that they've been banned from multiple formats. I'm not a lawyer and don't understand gambling laws but I feel like that is illegal; selling and advertising products for sale that are unusable.
Little extra context for those on the outside, before 2011 it was called EDH, when WotC officially began supporting it they renamed it to Commander though many people still use both names interchangeably.
Commander died the moment WotC got involved. It was a format specifically created BECAUSE official formats were no longer any fun, now they've removed all the fun from Commander by making it official.
That's how it was for me at least; once it got officially supported, the LGS I used to play at had their Commander decks suddenly become very competitive. No longer was it random ass stuff with dumb ideas, it was just streamlined heavy search with combos that killed as soon as possible.
@@linusgustafsson2629 100 card deck, only allowed one copy of anything that isn't a basic land, all sets from the beginning of MTG to now are legal. You pick a legendary creature to be your Commander, your entire deck can only consist of cards that match colors on that Commander, and your Commander is set apart from your deck so you can cast it at any time. There's more to it, but that's the gist of it. The whole idea of the format was that people were tired of not being able to play using old or banned cards, so some guys cooked up this format to have looser rules and be the "fun" format, to the point that there is the famous "Rule Zero: The rules can be changed if everyone at the table agrees." Then WotC got involved and started printing cards specifically for the format, and now it's basically just another official format with strict rules.
It's not about the brand or money it's about the ideology and culture, anything that doesn't function under their belief system shouldn't exist anyway, to them. It's not their money, it's the investors money, so if they burn it all without making any back, what's it to them? Sooner or later they will realize gold is not a good material to make a parachute out of.
Sheldon wouldn't have banned Mana Crypt. Which is why it started being discussed the moment he died. Man this video is F'n stupid, to be honest. All of this is on the Rules Committee F'ing it up royally. What else was WOTC going to do?
The problem there is we don't have the same type of players that he did when the format was created. Rule 0 works in a dedicated playgroup. It's meaningless in LGS casual night pick up games. The bans served a purpose of creating a minimum standard of what to expect from random players for that night. I can state from experience that the casuals and the cEDH people didn't mix well, and even we'll intentioned cEDH players were driving people away.
As I understand it, the guy who made Commander recently died, and he was the only one keeping the rest of the rules committee in check, they did the ban, pissed off the players, and WotC got what they wanted.
WOTC had to have a recovery plan, in case the Rules Committee went rogue. And they did - the moment Sheldon died - the first thing they started talking about was banning a card he didn't want banned in the first place (and has been around since the 90s). Its not an unreasonable emergency/backup plan, since they actually own MTG. All of this is on the Rules Committee - and the reaction is based on the fans. And yet WOTC is the villain still, under these circumstances? Please... We've got to be credible to have legitimate issues listened to.
I have not picked up my magic cards since my father died which was about 6 years now. Had not played much the previous few years. Kind of glad I drifted away from the game at this point.
It's fine to play with old cards if you can find other players who are also willing to play with cards no newer than an agreed-upon era. This gets rid of a lot of power-creep problems.
The coming Magic The Gathering price collapse is going to be insane. It's going to destroy lives, just like the fall of so many other collection brands. Star Wars, comics, etc.
From a player perspective, I could see game designers suddenly undermining your favorite strats and playing pieces being cause for a big personal grievance. From an economic perspective, I could see a petty nation state in west africa suddenly devaluing their currency to the tune of millions of dollars being cause for the wealthiest stakeholders to launch an armed coup.
Not really. While Commander is the most popular format, it's also the format with the least competitive play. Most Commander is a bunch of people paying $5 to rent store space to play with friends or randoms for a few hours on a Friday night. The only price collapse coming is on the cards that are banned, which are Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist. They're already down about half due to the ban since people are trying to unload them as fast as possible right now. The funny thing is that people should've seen the Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt ban coming a mile away since they previously banned Mox Amber as well and that card had more restrictions. The casual audience couldn't care less about these bans since these cards were always out of their price range.
I keep saying this. Create your own. Be it Card Games, TTRPG, Strategy Games or any other. Create your own. We don't need these corporations any more. They do a good job, fine. They get scummy? Byebye.
Oh, I've created my own, and published my own, but we small presses don't have the monster promotional and advertisement apparatus of big corps. We suffer by being in the looming shadow of the Big Companies (like Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, etc.). The sooner that oppressive shadow disappears, the better for the gaming ecosystem in the long run.
@@whiskeyvictor5703 Not sure how to tell you this, but I was talking about the fans, the people actually playing these games. Thanks to current developments all non-digital gaming companies have become conveniences. It always begins the same way, someone starts something, it becomes bigger, the original creators take the money and leave and the companies become too big for their britches. But now? We don't need them any more. As long as they are convenient and give us what we want, fine. But they are no longer needed. Sure, what we create might not be as good or as well tested, but we can change it whenever we want. All it takes a little time and effort. And it will be what we want it to be with no compromises. Because at the end of day, with TTRPG's, Card Games and Tabletop Strategy Games we will always have to accept compromises. Especially in the worldbuilding. Sure, we could change that for our table, but if we start that, why not create something that fits exactly to our own tastes?
Ya the RC made a huge mistake. They made this huge ban for "the health of the format". Well the format was perfectly fine, growing to become the most popular Magic format by far. Instead they chose to make their mark after the passing of Sheldon (one of the founders of the format) and it backfired. I feel pity that they have to go through all that crap but they brought it upon themselves.
Eh, The Bans were fine. Colorless fast mana that were auto includes in every deck on cards that (when I last played) were 80-100$ a pop. There are worse offenders on the ban list (Free Iona!) People reacted the way they did because the cards were expensive and people lost money. Some people that (stupidly) invest in cardboard lost thousands of dollars.
I dropped WotC more than two years ago. Since then I have seen nothing but trash from them. From the OGL scandal to AI art the once great games of D&D and Magic have truly died.
Hold on! Something this article doesnt mention about that commander scandal is that the biggest online card sellers allegedly sold off all of their stock of those cards a few weeks before being banned. And apparantly it was a lot of the small mom and pop shops who bought up a lot of the stock that I guess was being sold on the cheap, so a lot of the upset to my understanding was over some potential shady insider trading. Oh and let me point out that when this happened, WotC taking over flew WAY under the radar compared to all the coverage the scandal got. So in my opinion, I say it's likely WotC had set up a deal with the rules committee to take over and wanted that banlist outrage to run cover for them. They dropped some info to their biggest partners to screw over the small local shops and add some actual 'justification' to the outrage so it would actually spread. And then they swoop in and take over when the fans are more concerned being outraged over the bans.
@@MatthewCenancewhat do you mean. Its no surprise, it gives an unfair advantage to the people who know about what about to happen and allowing them to buy into or out of a market before anything happens allowing them to get as much money before a change happens. Just like when congress commits insider trading since they know how the market will be affected due to theyre decisions.
@@MatthewCenance it's an extremely unfair practice and even illegal in many cases iirc. If intent could be proven here AND of it could be proven there was insider info given, then this might count as illegal too. Because if the intent was to ruin competition by selling goods to them you knew was going to drop in value, then that's an illegal act of I remember right.
@@MatthewCenance I do not know how to answer your question in any way to help you understand because I can not comprehend what you aren't understanding. You alone amongst your competition got information from the producer of content that you sell that you use to get ahead of the competition. It's unfair. And it also is collusion and allows for the same shit that arose during the industrial revolution between the coal, steel and railroad monopolies who worked together to keep others from rising.
It's never appropriate to threaten people, unless they're legal threats in the form of non-disparagement clauses or physical threats in the form of Pinkertons. Then it's fine.
Me, too. I haven't played physical cards in years, but I was casually playing Arena... until they started introducing Godzilla and Lord of the Rings sets. Now I can't take their garbage seriously, anymore
As someone who is actually deeply invested in the MTG Commander space, this isn't nearly as shady as you insinuate. The Rules Committee gave no warning to making a few very controversial decisions and bypassed talking with the Advisory Group (also community volunteers) entirely. Side note they did give the ban reasons in the ban announcement and it is pretty extensive. They got some insane heat from it and basically went to WOTC and said "take over we are done". WOTC to its credit actually told them no at first, before actually taking over.
And there are governments and politicians that exist, who wish to also enforce Non-Disparagement Clauses upon their entire citizenry. It isn't just the corporations, but they're sharing the playbook (Orwell's 1984, among others)
WotC (and Hasbro) skirting the line of what is legal? Never! And I'd bet money that the first person to make one of these alleged threats was a WotC loyalists. One of these days, they're going to discover that outside of Seattle and Portland and parts of NYC and LA, they have no customers any more. When MtG first came out, I said "save gaming, burn a deck". Now, "save gaming, abandon WotC". Because they are the bad guys. And always were.
I knew The Command Zone was compromised doing their reviews once WOTC sponsored them felt very inorganic and forced rather than actual feelings of good and bad on the sets and work. Its sad because their production value and banter in game feels organic like they ENJOY the event but its like if you were playing Magic knowing your boss is going to ask you “how was it?” After the game.
Two of the bans were expected, and would have been fine, they were overpowered. The article from the RC said that the banning of the other two, Mana Crypt and Jewelled Lotus, each worth a lot of money, was more of a message to restrict fast mana in the format. Mana Crypt in particular was legal in the format for a long time, so there were a lot of bad feelings and money lost in the bans.
I feel for the people who only just got the cards and wanted to play them but, the loudest complainers have definitely been the ones treating them like stocks and being surprised that not all stocks maintain their value. they're a gamble. even the 'safe' ones.
@@TGPDrunknHick except Jeweled and Crypt were just reprinted recently as chase cards. Jeweled was even the box art! WotC warned the RC not to do the bans but they did it anyway. If the RC was apart of the company it would’ve been insubordination.
@@foreal7712 yep, this all boils down to the RC ignoring advice from the Commander design team at WotC, and not consulting their community advisory group (CAG). It comes across that the RC arrogantly (or ignorantly?) thought that they knew what was best, better the community or the team designing cards for the format. And now they will be remembered as the fools that, through their own incompetence, gave WotC the most popular community-managed format in MtG.
@@foreal7712 oh no! it's gambling. stocks, crypto and collectables are gambling. even the safe ones. shit happens. prices fluctuate. it is the way of things.
The Rules Committees were the reasons I got out of playing any form of Cardboard Crack and went over to Warhammer which now unfortunately has the same sort of problems
Most MTG players aren't that bright. As a MTG player for 30 years I find it funny people crying over cards getting banned or cards losing value on the market. Especially since it's a game and not a collector card like sports cards. But yet these players will take a card and go well it's worth $500, why is it with $500 cause I said so. Then a idiot buys it and now that card is $500. That's literally how it works. And cards only get banned when they are way over powered and not balanced. And the only ones who cries over banned cards are the ones who most don't want to play with anyways. Because Lord knows if they can't sit down and end a game in one turn and never give the opponent a chance to even play.
I feel for Neon. I’ve been dealing with a head cold for almost a week, and completely lost my voice. Just now recovering, and mostly got my voice back. Hopefully ya get better soon, Neon.
From what I understand, based on a conversation with a long time MTG player and game shop worker, the current panel was made up of 2 WOTC employees and 2 former WOTC contractors so the independence of the panel was fairly illusionary. This accurate?
Who is this Keeon impersonator...jkjk. Its good to hear you to back doing videos. I hope you get to feeling better. I'm honestly glad I never play any of their games I mean seriously they seem to want their games to go away. They seem to not want any fans, it's fans who are or were willing to pay and play for your games.
And now to wait for a couple months and see if/when another new fan-made format is developed. Could be wrong about the time frame, there are some crazy creative people out there, but I feel pretty confident that someone will make a new fan-made format.
This makes me thankful i play Yugioh, and Asian. The OCG i play don't need to deal with WoTC shinenigans(we deal with Konami Japan Shinenigans instead), and out Beyblade supplier is Takara Tomy.
There's a simple rule for clauses in a contract that survive the end of the contract: You get paid for every month that they survive the contract; or you don't sign. If a company wants me to do something for X months, they need to pay me for X months. Whether it's a non-disparagement clause or a non-compete clause. I'm perfectly willing to sign a non-disparagement contract that extends to the end of my life; IF it comes with a rent payment every month to the end of my life.
Such draconian non-disparagement clauses are in all likelihood worse to my opinion of the company than most of the things the people the company is making sign them could possibly reveal, especially with WotC! So much damning news has already surfaced about them!
To be fair, the secondary market shouldn't be Wizards' concern, their only job is to balance the game the best they can - if you decided to treat cardboard scraps as "investment" that's your problem. Magic is a game, not an investment portfolio! Too bad that Wizards absolutely does price their products based on the included cards' secondary market value, and only release reprints of cards that won't hurt their "investors" instead of what would be necessary for the game to be more widely available.
isn't it illigal for non goverment non secret facillaties to have a NDC contract that doesn't end when the contract expires? and goverment secret facilities have clearance checks to make sure the people who don't talk get the higher clearance, when the chatterboxes get no clearance at all.
The Commander Rules Committiee banned 3 cards that were each worth approx. $100. This means millions of dollars were removed from players' pockets. Players got angry and sent death threats to the members of the committee. The committee resigned and wizards picked up where they left off. The cards were banned for power level and repetitious gameplay.
I’m a MTG fan, I’ve been playing since 2011 and I started playing DnD in 2021. Both are great ways to hang out with friends who live thousands of miles apart. It’s how my best friend, my childhood friends and, battle buddies all keep in touch. I’m not a fan of what Wizards of the Coast has been doing. I’m here because, it’s genuinely one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends. At some point, I’d like to be financially secure enough to spend $100 on Great Hedge and Doubling Season. It sucks that those two cards are worth so much money because, I’d like to actually play with them. It’s the same way with Star Wars and, the upcoming Harry Potter series. It’s all being taken over by people who only care about money. Rather than the people who genuinely care about the franchises. The new TV Writer for Harry Potter Andy Greenwald hasn’t even read the books. If these companies simply put people in charge who genuinely love the products they produce, it’ll be an excellent move.
The most important thing to remember in D&D is that the books were always supposed to be more of a guideline... they laid out a reasonable set of tables and rules to make it easier to play but ultimately all the "rules" are made up and agreed upon by the game master and the players... Older editions are still available and do NOT require buying into the current sewer fire that is WotC... I can still put together a fun dungeon crawl in a mere couple of days and have it last for months... The game is run by those who play, the companies merely provide pre-made scenarios and tools. Tell these companies where to stuff their greed.
The storyline went.... (CRC = Commander Rules Committee) (cEDH = Competitive Elder Dragon Highlander aka - Competitive Commander players) CRC Banned - Mana Crypt (normally a 100+ dollar card) - Jeweled Lotus (normally a 100ish dollar or more card) - Dockside Extortionish (70ish or more card) - and Nadu (Created by mistake in the newer sets and banned across most formats, wasn't a very high dollar card) CRC reasons - Fast Mana (Mana Crypt/Jeweled Lotus/Dockside Extortionist) tends to ruin the game play for the more casual format, generally causing a poor game experience (CRC kinda messed up since they hadn't banned anything for a good long time, then suddenly banned the 3 major cards due to their impact on the game itself) Mana Crypt/Dockside/Jeweled Lotus owners - My cards have lost their value on the market! Magic Finance Bros/cEDH players - OMG our cards lost a ton of a value, and you made our niche playstyle of EDH less fun. Lets harass the CRC with threats of death and such! CRC members one by one started to resign from the committee, then suddenly WotC took over the Format. Now WotC wants to silence any future people who are on the panel from speaking out against WotC WotC could cause Commander to tank depending how they handle the game, since they are traditionally known for printing for profit... and a lot of other stuff. Kind of sucks as someone who still plays the game, may be my sign to get out, but that's the best internal information as a player I could give to your video
"and today we actually have Kneon!" Me :" HE HAS ARISEN BABY GIRL!!!" *Que Iris* Been waiting days to make that joke. Hope you feel better and your voice comes back soon Kneon.
So you said you didn't get into Magic because of the complexity. Well unfortunately with the power creep, the game has also gotten a complexity creep. Additionally, since the Commander format became a formal product focus rather than an informal way for players to play with janky non-meta cards, the power balance went haywire and the demand for specific reprints of secondary market value has shifted. There were issues with the rules committee ban and a bunch of other points such as them not discussing things with a secondary group that was intended to assist them with making these sorts of decisions and an impact on recently reprinted cards or recently printed cards solely for the Commander format that may have been beneficial for the quality of play, though arguably other cards may need banning to truly discouraging competitive decks from being more homogenized due to universally powerful cards or staples that are in high need of reprints. But now they have complete direct control, as opposed to the previous indirect control through internal pressure. Either way, the quality of their game is going down, their quality control is going down, Nadu winged wisdom that was on the ban list was clear evidence and them openly admitting that they skipped their usual play testing of cards before releasing cards that accidentally broke multiple formats. And on top of that the actual quality of the physical cards have also gone down, where you can physically detect the difference in the quality of the card stock itself by just running your finger on the card. It's all pretty much gone downhill. Also they stated they would reduce the amount of products, but instead have accelerated releases of products which has flooded the market with new sets, not allowing any set to breathe. It's all a mess.
Welcome back Kneon. Although Geeky Sparkles is honestly speaking my thoughts lol. Glad to have both of you on. This is so sad what is happening but I'll continue to hold on to my fond memories to get me through this phase.
This is a problem only WE can solve and it's rather simple to do so....STOP BUYING FROM THEM. I know you're a fan, but if corporate comes by and decides to destroy the thing you used to love, LET IT GO AND WALK AWAY. I love Star Wars... haven't bought a damn thing, watched any of their movies, TV shows or played any of their games since Battlefront 2 and The Last Jedi because I refuse to support Lucas Film and Disney. If I can give up something that I grew up with, so can you, there are other things in the world to enjoy. If these companies want to spiral down the drain in a burning heap of garbage....let them do it. They need YOU more than you need them.
All time one thing you might want to look up is the solar system event happening on December 6th this year when earth will be directly between Jupiter and mercy at the same time. It will supposedly show the morthen lights everywhwere
They are trying to slow down commander because too many people are building decks to win in turn 4 or something, which is actually more like the 60 card Modern... Commander isn't "casual" anymore.
Can at least give a brief rundown on the bans. Mana Crypty, Jeweled Lotus, and Dockside Extortionist were all mana acceleration, speed the game from early to late game plays in a hurry. These were the ones most controversial. Plus these were all money cards. Nadu was one that could lead to long loops in turns without a clear chance of leading to a win. Not fun so no trouble. That said the non-disparaging clause feels crazy.
I was done with WotC when they sent the Pinkertons to that superfan's house to basically jack his cards,when it was the official WotC site THAT SOLD HIM THE WRONG CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE! When they came out with the 30th anniversary boosters and had the gall to charge 1,000 dollars for FOUR CRAPPY BOOSTER PACKS I said "F!@$ it I'm out!!!" I don't buy cards or MTG products anymore(haven't since '22 in fact),and removed all MTG content from my RUclips recommended feeds. Still love the game,and if you asked me to I'll gladly sit down with you for a casual match,and hand your @$$ to you with my Grixis "Discarder" deck(it's full of surprises),but I won't give WotC a dime of my money anymore OR my time. 🤨👍 Edit:They banned those 4 cards because they were scared that they'd break the format. Cowards. 🤬👎👎
When being a nerd became cool, the bullies swooped in and stole everything and went right back to bullying the real nerds
Amen. I remember being bullied in high school for wearing a Nightwing shirt, same d-bags are probably the biggest MCU fans now.
The problem with MTGs aren't the bullies, but the investors. Unlike other card games that are mostly played for fun, some people treat MTG cards as stocks and Wizards of the Coast even officially stated they wouldn't reprint certain cards even under a different name to keep their prices high. It doesn't help that they don't do large enough reprints of high demand cards. But over time, we've seen some of them decline due to having reasonable alternatives. The cards that they banned this time were Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, and Dockside Extortionist, which were 3 very powerful and very expensive cards for the Commander format. Their banning means that the card prices will tank and that's why these people are upset. Mana Crypt has already lost about a quarter of its value while Dockside Extortionist and Jeweled Lotus are down about half.
The general population of Commander couldn't care less about it because they're casual players.
They saw how much money the nerd stuff was making and hijacked the media to use it as a vehicle to spread their message.
Profitable, not cool.
Bullies can be from any group, including nerds. The biggest bullies I ever had were cliche nerds people I often played CCGs with at lunch, who were outcasts outside our group, and/or were in the same enhanced class (aka "smart class") as myself. A lot of these 'woke'/DEI people were probably theater/art nerds, they were always the most pretentious self-centered people. (I say that as someone who went into an artistic field but I never got along with those types.)
Being a nerd used to be fun. This is why people just watch old TV show and movies and play old games.
Or even... read books!
Fun is Alt-Right.
I like fun stuff. If it's nerdy or not I don't care.
But you can't enjoy it anymore. I liked playing MTG. Got about 40,000 cards in my storage building. Even some alphas. I never look at them anymore. And my cool 90s trapper-keeper collection is gay now. Cuz the wizards, dragons and d&d fantasy scenes often featured rainbows. And even if I played d&d now, I'm too much of a smartass to *not* play a mexican orc or dwarf barrista, even in 2nd edition.
Its still fun to be a nerd if you just stop watching hate grifters on youtube.
If everyone abandons MTG because of WOTC's stupidity it would be delicious irony.
Make Spellfire Great Again! Although that would be under the same parent company so no. 😅
@@MrKezzerdrix nah, make fanworks great again!
And this is why people should support Steve Jackson Games and play his cute little card game, Munchkins. Also, play GURPS/Car Wars. Far superior TTRPG game...okay that is an opinion but Steve Jackson hasn't said anything stupid, that I know of, to offend people. Mostly just wants to make games.
Im baffled people havent abandoned WotC by now, given all the shit they've done. How can people not see how awful they are?
I'm getting into Flesh and Blood cause of WOTC.
'A culture of fear and intimidation while wearing the mask of being very progressive'
If I'm not mistaken, this is basically standard-issue among the communities that shout the loudest about how progressive they are.
That's why the term "Crybully" is a thing.
Ok. He's sick. We get it.
This is right out of the Communist playbook. 😂
Nobody ever saw these threats. Classic mean words will take over.
It is common to be "progressive" and be massively bigoted online and in real life. its normal
I really hope WOTC doesn't get away with this. It's already disgusting they can send Pinkerton's to people's houses.
Get some rest Kneon 🙏
They won't. They intimidate because they're afraid people would bring them in. They would lose in court big time.
That wasn't actually legal. The Pinkerton's Incident was armed robbery.
@@Theranthrope and intimidation
@@NovaZero They won't? They already did! Was it legal? Most definitely not. But it happened once already.
I can tell you as someone who's very recently left the MTG scene. At this moment most players do not care and still play the game. They ignore drama and just play the cards with their friends. I'm not even sure what its going to take for WOTC to get them to actually be forced to pay attention, let alone make a stance to stop giving them money.
If you are still giving any money to WotC, you are part of the problem.
Stoped 2-3 years ago. To many products to much greed and capitalism.
ABP
Always... Be.... Proxying...
I stopped when they openly declared the old AD&D modules from the 80s problematic. That’s gotta be at least three years or so.
Yep, dnd 3.5 is the last wotc I bought.
Good thing buying off the secondary market doesn't benefit wotc lol
Backstory time to explain whats happening.
i play magic the gathering and the format involved in this contract.
There was a fan made and ran format called EDH, WotC overtime began making more products targeting our format. Some of the cards became powerhouses as they power crept the game and the format. The organizers of the format the Rules Committee (RC) banned these cards without notice and against the advice of WotC and without advising their sub Committee the Commander Advisory Group (CAG).
Three of the four cards banned were $80+ in price some upwards of $200 for one card. This wiped out millions of dollars in value overnight. This triggered a backlash from the community, and the RC and CAG received death threats doxxing, and other abuse. In response once again without consulting anyone the RC turned over control of the format to WotC. Now that they have control they are trying to start a new Committee and to be on it they are requiring a Non-Disparagement contract in perpetuity.
Me personally I believe this was entirely planned from the start.
The worst part was that all 4 cards were still being printed and were still being sold. Some can be found inside the most recent set's Play Boosters/Collector Booster packs. So people would open packs get excited to own these really powerful/expensive cards... only to find that they've been banned from multiple formats. I'm not a lawyer and don't understand gambling laws but I feel like that is illegal; selling and advertising products for sale that are unusable.
@Surfer669 if what I read was right, WotC TOLD the RC to not ban those cards.
Interesting never knew that Commander was a fan made format
Little extra context for those on the outside, before 2011 it was called EDH, when WotC officially began supporting it they renamed it to Commander though many people still use both names interchangeably.
Yeah, I cannot find any actual threats. Not even in social media.
they don't want customers anymore and I can oblige that
Commander died the moment WotC got involved. It was a format specifically created BECAUSE official formats were no longer any fun, now they've removed all the fun from Commander by making it official.
I still call it EDH for a reason. I don't even play anymore, but it's always gonna be EDH to me.
That's how it was for me at least; once it got officially supported, the LGS I used to play at had their Commander decks suddenly become very competitive. No longer was it random ass stuff with dumb ideas, it was just streamlined heavy search with combos that killed as soon as possible.
@@djmagichat1721Legit 💯,"There can be only one." 🤨👍
I only ever played before commander. I have no clue what it even is. I just imagine you toss out some hero unit and it changes the game.
@@linusgustafsson2629 100 card deck, only allowed one copy of anything that isn't a basic land, all sets from the beginning of MTG to now are legal. You pick a legendary creature to be your Commander, your entire deck can only consist of cards that match colors on that Commander, and your Commander is set apart from your deck so you can cast it at any time. There's more to it, but that's the gist of it.
The whole idea of the format was that people were tired of not being able to play using old or banned cards, so some guys cooked up this format to have looser rules and be the "fun" format, to the point that there is the famous "Rule Zero: The rules can be changed if everyone at the table agrees." Then WotC got involved and started printing cards specifically for the format, and now it's basically just another official format with strict rules.
That's how you kill a popular game
That seems to be WotC's specialty of late.
D&D still dominates the market. So, Hasbro may still get away with this.
WotC needs a reality check, they intentionally want to ruin their brand and honesty people will leave
good, it's time to support another TCG
It's not about the brand or money it's about the ideology and culture, anything that doesn't function under their belief system shouldn't exist anyway, to them.
It's not their money, it's the investors money, so if they burn it all without making any back, what's it to them?
Sooner or later they will realize gold is not a good material to make a parachute out of.
i dropped them a long time ago... i just started making my own games. im very proud of the games i made.
@@jeffduncan1212In terms of what?
@@mrconroy4672 stopped buying their stuff. i designed my own card games.
Sheldon was strictly anti-ban, firmly believing in "rule 0" which is that as long as the players agree on something, you can do your own bans/unbans.
Sheldon wouldn't have banned Mana Crypt. Which is why it started being discussed the moment he died. Man this video is F'n stupid, to be honest. All of this is on the Rules Committee F'ing it up royally. What else was WOTC going to do?
The problem there is we don't have the same type of players that he did when the format was created.
Rule 0 works in a dedicated playgroup. It's meaningless in LGS casual night pick up games. The bans served a purpose of creating a minimum standard of what to expect from random players for that night.
I can state from experience that the casuals and the cEDH people didn't mix well, and even we'll intentioned cEDH players were driving people away.
As I understand it, the guy who made Commander recently died, and he was the only one keeping the rest of the rules committee in check, they did the ban, pissed off the players, and WotC got what they wanted.
WOTC had to have a recovery plan, in case the Rules Committee went rogue. And they did - the moment Sheldon died - the first thing they started talking about was banning a card he didn't want banned in the first place (and has been around since the 90s). Its not an unreasonable emergency/backup plan, since they actually own MTG. All of this is on the Rules Committee - and the reaction is based on the fans. And yet WOTC is the villain still, under these circumstances? Please... We've got to be credible to have legitimate issues listened to.
So it's a day that ends in "y" then.
Commander is a player-created format. Just ignore what those clowns say.
I have not picked up my magic cards since my father died which was about 6 years now. Had not played much the previous few years. Kind of glad I drifted away from the game at this point.
It's fine to play with old cards if you can find other players who are also willing to play with cards no newer than an agreed-upon era. This gets rid of a lot of power-creep problems.
The coming Magic The Gathering price collapse is going to be insane. It's going to destroy lives, just like the fall of so many other collection brands. Star Wars, comics, etc.
Sadly, it’s going to be the other card games as well. MTG is a canary in the coal mine.
From a player perspective, I could see game designers suddenly undermining your favorite strats and playing pieces being cause for a big personal grievance.
From an economic perspective, I could see a petty nation state in west africa suddenly devaluing their currency to the tune of millions of dollars being cause for the wealthiest stakeholders to launch an armed coup.
The Funcopocalypse.
I have no sympathy for those who "invested" in those ugly things.
Not really. While Commander is the most popular format, it's also the format with the least competitive play. Most Commander is a bunch of people paying $5 to rent store space to play with friends or randoms for a few hours on a Friday night. The only price collapse coming is on the cards that are banned, which are Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist. They're already down about half due to the ban since people are trying to unload them as fast as possible right now. The funny thing is that people should've seen the Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt ban coming a mile away since they previously banned Mox Amber as well and that card had more restrictions.
The casual audience couldn't care less about these bans since these cards were always out of their price range.
I keep saying this.
Create your own.
Be it Card Games, TTRPG, Strategy Games or any other.
Create your own.
We don't need these corporations any more.
They do a good job, fine. They get scummy? Byebye.
This is why I love Shards of Infinity.
It’s Draft and Commander in the same game. Plays super tight, and modifications are easily done.
Oh, I've created my own, and published my own, but we small presses don't have the monster promotional and advertisement apparatus of big corps. We suffer by being in the looming shadow of the Big Companies (like Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, etc.). The sooner that oppressive shadow disappears, the better for the gaming ecosystem in the long run.
@@whiskeyvictor5703 Not sure how to tell you this, but I was talking about the fans, the people actually playing these games.
Thanks to current developments all non-digital gaming companies have become conveniences.
It always begins the same way, someone starts something, it becomes bigger, the original creators take the money and leave and the companies become too big for their britches.
But now? We don't need them any more. As long as they are convenient and give us what we want, fine. But they are no longer needed.
Sure, what we create might not be as good or as well tested, but we can change it whenever we want. All it takes a little time and effort. And it will be what we want it to be with no compromises.
Because at the end of day, with TTRPG's, Card Games and Tabletop Strategy Games we will always have to accept compromises. Especially in the worldbuilding.
Sure, we could change that for our table, but if we start that, why not create something that fits exactly to our own tastes?
Nice to see you back Kneon, a lot of people are getting that throat virus around here.
Speedy recovery bro!🙂👻🎃
I Agree I know I am really late to reply, you can tell in Kneon Voice Poor thing. Kneon a Speedy recovery My Friend🤒🤕❤️🩹👻🎃👽🧟🧛🧌
Ya the RC made a huge mistake. They made this huge ban for "the health of the format". Well the format was perfectly fine, growing to become the most popular Magic format by far. Instead they chose to make their mark after the passing of Sheldon (one of the founders of the format) and it backfired. I feel pity that they have to go through all that crap but they brought it upon themselves.
Eh, The Bans were fine. Colorless fast mana that were auto includes in every deck on cards that (when I last played) were 80-100$ a pop. There are worse offenders on the ban list (Free Iona!) People reacted the way they did because the cards were expensive and people lost money. Some people that (stupidly) invest in cardboard lost thousands of dollars.
I dropped WotC more than two years ago. Since then I have seen nothing but trash from them. From the OGL scandal to AI art the once great games of D&D and Magic have truly died.
I quit when they race swapped lotr it's just anti white bs
Hold on! Something this article doesnt mention about that commander scandal is that the biggest online card sellers allegedly sold off all of their stock of those cards a few weeks before being banned. And apparantly it was a lot of the small mom and pop shops who bought up a lot of the stock that I guess was being sold on the cheap, so a lot of the upset to my understanding was over some potential shady insider trading.
Oh and let me point out that when this happened, WotC taking over flew WAY under the radar compared to all the coverage the scandal got. So in my opinion, I say it's likely WotC had set up a deal with the rules committee to take over and wanted that banlist outrage to run cover for them. They dropped some info to their biggest partners to screw over the small local shops and add some actual 'justification' to the outrage so it would actually spread. And then they swoop in and take over when the fans are more concerned being outraged over the bans.
Why is insider trading so hated?
@@MatthewCenancewhat do you mean. Its no surprise, it gives an unfair advantage to the people who know about what about to happen and allowing them to buy into or out of a market before anything happens allowing them to get as much money before a change happens. Just like when congress commits insider trading since they know how the market will be affected due to theyre decisions.
@@MatthewCenance it's an extremely unfair practice and even illegal in many cases iirc. If intent could be proven here AND of it could be proven there was insider info given, then this might count as illegal too.
Because if the intent was to ruin competition by selling goods to them you knew was going to drop in value, then that's an illegal act of I remember right.
@@davidfitzsimmons2451 Why is it considered overwhelmingly unfair?
@@MatthewCenance I do not know how to answer your question in any way to help you understand because I can not comprehend what you aren't understanding.
You alone amongst your competition got information from the producer of content that you sell that you use to get ahead of the competition. It's unfair.
And it also is collusion and allows for the same shit that arose during the industrial revolution between the coal, steel and railroad monopolies who worked together to keep others from rising.
Artificial scarcity and CRAP like this dissuaded me from sticking with comic-book-shop collectible games like Magic and what followed in its wake.
It's never appropriate to threaten people, unless they're legal threats in the form of non-disparagement clauses or physical threats in the form of Pinkertons. Then it's fine.
Watching Wizards die has been quite a trip.
Still enjoying my 3.5e books and not buying 5e.
Can't mourn a company I don't know at this point.
Not surprised that a company that stopped listing playtesters for D&D books would do this.
Thank you Geeky for taking over reading the article. Kneon sounded miserable. I hope he gets better soon. You’ve been doing a great job on your own!
0:51 this is why i find and dl anything on the high seas. Ill buy proxy cards for mtg than to buy anything that gives wotc money
Or buy singles through local game stores. Also buy physical when you can, dead internet theory is more likely to happen long term.
I have stopped playing magic months ago. All the external ip fucked up my enjoyment of the game
Me, too. I haven't played physical cards in years, but I was casually playing Arena... until they started introducing Godzilla and Lord of the Rings sets. Now I can't take their garbage seriously, anymore
I miss Magi Nation. It was a card game just like Magic, but it already pretty much had the commander format already baked in.
Oh yeah! I had the Gameboy version. I bought some cards but had no one to play with.
As someone who is actually deeply invested in the MTG Commander space, this isn't nearly as shady as you insinuate. The Rules Committee gave no warning to making a few very controversial decisions and bypassed talking with the Advisory Group (also community volunteers) entirely. Side note they did give the ban reasons in the ban announcement and it is pretty extensive. They got some insane heat from it and basically went to WOTC and said "take over we are done". WOTC to its credit actually told them no at first, before actually taking over.
And there are governments and politicians that exist, who wish to also enforce Non-Disparagement Clauses upon their entire citizenry. It isn't just the corporations, but they're sharing the playbook (Orwell's 1984, among others)
Welcome back, Kneon, and please Get Well Soon; don't push yourself, get some rest and do what you need to do!
WotC (and Hasbro) skirting the line of what is legal? Never! And I'd bet money that the first person to make one of these alleged threats was a WotC loyalists. One of these days, they're going to discover that outside of Seattle and Portland and parts of NYC and LA, they have no customers any more.
When MtG first came out, I said "save gaming, burn a deck". Now, "save gaming, abandon WotC". Because they are the bad guys. And always were.
5:52 too fast mana ramp was their reason. They did say more, but that was the major reason
Except Nadu who just caused 30 minutes to an hour long turn without necessarily winning. Nadu was just miserable haha
@@jacobnordquist3448nadu scute Swarm loops.
"No, we have to play this out, I *can* whiff"
Me: "just fuckin end it .."
Welcome back and glad you're feeling a bit better!
I knew The Command Zone was compromised doing their reviews once WOTC sponsored them felt very inorganic and forced rather than actual feelings of good and bad on the sets and work.
Its sad because their production value and banter in game feels organic like they ENJOY the event but its like if you were playing Magic knowing your boss is going to ask you “how was it?” After the game.
Two of the bans were expected, and would have been fine, they were overpowered. The article from the RC said that the banning of the other two, Mana Crypt and Jewelled Lotus, each worth a lot of money, was more of a message to restrict fast mana in the format. Mana Crypt in particular was legal in the format for a long time, so there were a lot of bad feelings and money lost in the bans.
I feel for the people who only just got the cards and wanted to play them but, the loudest complainers have definitely been the ones treating them like stocks and being surprised that not all stocks maintain their value. they're a gamble. even the 'safe' ones.
@@TGPDrunknHick except Jeweled and Crypt were just reprinted recently as chase cards. Jeweled was even the box art! WotC warned the RC not to do the bans but they did it anyway. If the RC was apart of the company it would’ve been insubordination.
Fast mana isnt an issue. They literally just took away things to do so. If your deck sucks, thats your fault......MTG has never been about feelings
@@foreal7712 yep, this all boils down to the RC ignoring advice from the Commander design team at WotC, and not consulting their community advisory group (CAG). It comes across that the RC arrogantly (or ignorantly?) thought that they knew what was best, better the community or the team designing cards for the format. And now they will be remembered as the fools that, through their own incompetence, gave WotC the most popular community-managed format in MtG.
@@foreal7712 oh no! it's gambling. stocks, crypto and collectables are gambling. even the safe ones. shit happens. prices fluctuate. it is the way of things.
Commander is MTG's most popular format. Make no mistake, WotC was always in control of the Rules Committee.
Yup
The Rules Committees were the reasons I got out of playing any form of Cardboard Crack and went over to Warhammer which now unfortunately has the same sort of problems
Talk about going from the frying pan into the oven 😅
You do an extremely good job on your own Geeky. None of us are worried about it, we know how it is. Just get better kneon.👍
Time for your Weekly Woe of WotC
IT'S ALIVE!!!!
Welcome back Neon.
No receipts were provided, was literally 2 days oh no def threat. Plus suspicious sales before the ban
Howdy Geeky! Hi Kne-! GAH! Are you gargeling glass?!? Go get some ice cream!
Most MTG players aren't that bright. As a MTG player for 30 years I find it funny people crying over cards getting banned or cards losing value on the market. Especially since it's a game and not a collector card like sports cards. But yet these players will take a card and go well it's worth $500, why is it with $500 cause I said so. Then a idiot buys it and now that card is $500. That's literally how it works. And cards only get banned when they are way over powered and not balanced. And the only ones who cries over banned cards are the ones who most don't want to play with anyways. Because Lord knows if they can't sit down and end a game in one turn and never give the opponent a chance to even play.
Dear Lord man!!
Kneon's throat sure took a pounding, eh?
lewd
Bit of role reversal
I feel for Neon. I’ve been dealing with a head cold for almost a week, and completely lost my voice. Just now recovering, and mostly got my voice back.
Hopefully ya get better soon, Neon.
From what I understand, based on a conversation with a long time MTG player and game shop worker, the current panel was made up of 2 WOTC employees and 2 former WOTC contractors so the independence of the panel was fairly illusionary.
This accurate?
Hey Kneon! Glad you are feeling better and I hope you fully recover soon.
They have forgotten that we nerds are awesome.
mmmm, it's debatable
@@RC-go2kl Get lost, anti-nerd.
Your kneon impression got good real fast. Kudos!
Who is this Keeon impersonator...jkjk. Its good to hear you to back doing videos. I hope you get to feeling better. I'm honestly glad I never play any of their games I mean seriously they seem to want their games to go away. They seem to not want any fans, it's fans who are or were willing to pay and play for your games.
glad he's back and feeling better.
“We’re Hasbro and WOTC, out of touch with greed…” 🤑
a perpetual non-disparage clause is itself nonenforceable. such a clause that survives past the life of a contract is illegal.
'in perpetuity' is completely unenforceable and would legally null the entire agreement.
And now to wait for a couple months and see if/when another new fan-made format is developed. Could be wrong about the time frame, there are some crazy creative people out there, but I feel pretty confident that someone will make a new fan-made format.
Kneon glad u're recovering well. Take all the time u need to rest and recover. You didn't sound too bad. Was glad to hear your voice🙂
The worst thing to ever happen to nerd culture was going mainstream.
This makes me thankful i play Yugioh, and Asian. The OCG i play don't need to deal with WoTC shinenigans(we deal with Konami Japan Shinenigans instead), and out Beyblade supplier is Takara Tomy.
Kneon, good sir, glad to have ya back, but take rest and get well soon.
There's a simple rule for clauses in a contract that survive the end of the contract: You get paid for every month that they survive the contract; or you don't sign. If a company wants me to do something for X months, they need to pay me for X months. Whether it's a non-disparagement clause or a non-compete clause. I'm perfectly willing to sign a non-disparagement contract that extends to the end of my life; IF it comes with a rent payment every month to the end of my life.
Such draconian non-disparagement clauses are in all likelihood worse to my opinion of the company than most of the things the people the company is making sign them could possibly reveal, especially with WotC! So much damning news has already surfaced about them!
Get well soon man. And good work covering Kneons absence Geeky
Glad your feeling somewhat better Kneon. 😊
Knwon sounds like the dude from smiling friends
Commies bein' Commies.
What else is new?
To be fair, the secondary market shouldn't be Wizards' concern, their only job is to balance the game the best they can - if you decided to treat cardboard scraps as "investment" that's your problem. Magic is a game, not an investment portfolio!
Too bad that Wizards absolutely does price their products based on the included cards' secondary market value, and only release reprints of cards that won't hurt their "investors" instead of what would be necessary for the game to be more widely available.
isn't it illigal for non goverment non secret facillaties to have a NDC contract that doesn't end when the contract expires?
and goverment secret facilities have clearance checks to make sure the people who don't talk get the higher clearance, when the chatterboxes get no clearance at all.
The Commander Rules Committiee banned 3 cards that were each worth approx. $100. This means millions of dollars were removed from players' pockets. Players got angry and sent death threats to the members of the committee. The committee resigned and wizards picked up where they left off. The cards were banned for power level and repetitious gameplay.
I’m a MTG fan, I’ve been playing since 2011 and I started playing DnD in 2021. Both are great ways to hang out with friends who live thousands of miles apart. It’s how my best friend, my childhood friends and, battle buddies all keep in touch. I’m not a fan of what Wizards of the Coast has been doing. I’m here because, it’s genuinely one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends. At some point, I’d like to be financially secure enough to spend $100 on Great Hedge and Doubling Season. It sucks that those two cards are worth so much money because, I’d like to actually play with them. It’s the same way with Star Wars and, the upcoming Harry Potter series. It’s all being taken over by people who only care about money. Rather than the people who genuinely care about the franchises. The new TV Writer for Harry Potter Andy Greenwald hasn’t even read the books. If these companies simply put people in charge who genuinely love the products they produce, it’ll be an excellent move.
The most important thing to remember in D&D is that the books were always supposed to be more of a guideline... they laid out a reasonable set of tables and rules to make it easier to play but ultimately all the "rules" are made up and agreed upon by the game master and the players... Older editions are still available and do NOT require buying into the current sewer fire that is WotC... I can still put together a fun dungeon crawl in a mere couple of days and have it last for months... The game is run by those who play, the companies merely provide pre-made scenarios and tools. Tell these companies where to stuff their greed.
There's a reason I, as someone who's bought 85%+ of all D&D books since 1980, is not even considering buying the new player's handbook.
I know MTG Fans love the game. But Wotc doesn't. They love exploiting passion to make money.
WotC : We'll never tolerate threats
Also WotC : Send in the Pinkertons
Yeah, I am 100% with Neon here! I can't roll with the deckheads, no disrespect, just way too complicated. I'm a tiny toys and dice guy. 😂
The storyline went....
(CRC = Commander Rules Committee)
(cEDH = Competitive Elder Dragon Highlander aka - Competitive Commander players)
CRC Banned - Mana Crypt (normally a 100+ dollar card) - Jeweled Lotus (normally a 100ish dollar or more card) - Dockside Extortionish (70ish or more card) - and Nadu (Created by mistake in the newer sets and banned across most formats, wasn't a very high dollar card)
CRC reasons - Fast Mana (Mana Crypt/Jeweled Lotus/Dockside Extortionist) tends to ruin the game play for the more casual format, generally causing a poor game experience (CRC kinda messed up since they hadn't banned anything for a good long time, then suddenly banned the 3 major cards due to their impact on the game itself)
Mana Crypt/Dockside/Jeweled Lotus owners - My cards have lost their value on the market!
Magic Finance Bros/cEDH players - OMG our cards lost a ton of a value, and you made our niche playstyle of EDH less fun. Lets harass the CRC with threats of death and such!
CRC members one by one started to resign from the committee, then suddenly WotC took over the Format.
Now WotC wants to silence any future people who are on the panel from speaking out against WotC
WotC could cause Commander to tank depending how they handle the game, since they are traditionally known for printing for profit... and a lot of other stuff.
Kind of sucks as someone who still plays the game, may be my sign to get out, but that's the best internal information as a player I could give to your video
Surprise, surprise. The game is ruined by the stock brokers thinking the game shop is Wall St.
This is why I don't bother with card games anymore.
Bloomburrow and this stupid Duskmourn or whatever was it for me.....and they made Aragorn Black.....
I hope you get well soon, Kneon. This sounds really rough.
"and today we actually have Kneon!"
Me :" HE HAS ARISEN BABY GIRL!!!"
*Que Iris*
Been waiting days to make that joke. Hope you feel better and your voice comes back soon Kneon.
So you said you didn't get into Magic because of the complexity. Well unfortunately with the power creep, the game has also gotten a complexity creep.
Additionally, since the Commander format became a formal product focus rather than an informal way for players to play with janky non-meta cards, the power balance went haywire and the demand for specific reprints of secondary market value has shifted.
There were issues with the rules committee ban and a bunch of other points such as them not discussing things with a secondary group that was intended to assist them with making these sorts of decisions and an impact on recently reprinted cards or recently printed cards solely for the Commander format that may have been beneficial for the quality of play, though arguably other cards may need banning to truly discouraging competitive decks from being more homogenized due to universally powerful cards or staples that are in high need of reprints.
But now they have complete direct control, as opposed to the previous indirect control through internal pressure. Either way, the quality of their game is going down, their quality control is going down, Nadu winged wisdom that was on the ban list was clear evidence and them openly admitting that they skipped their usual play testing of cards before releasing cards that accidentally broke multiple formats. And on top of that the actual quality of the physical cards have also gone down, where you can physically detect the difference in the quality of the card stock itself by just running your finger on the card.
It's all pretty much gone downhill. Also they stated they would reduce the amount of products, but instead have accelerated releases of products which has flooded the market with new sets, not allowing any set to breathe. It's all a mess.
Aww, poor Neon! That's hilarious though 😅 hoping you feel better soon man
They'd probably send the Pinkertons again.
Now I want to hear neon with that specific voice before it heals completely singing bad romance LOL
Not surprised this is what they do. It reads like a convenient smoke screen for what was really a back room strong arming of those volunteers.
Welcome back Kneon. Although Geeky Sparkles is honestly speaking my thoughts lol. Glad to have both of you on. This is so sad what is happening but I'll continue to hold on to my fond memories to get me through this phase.
This is a problem only WE can solve and it's rather simple to do so....STOP BUYING FROM THEM. I know you're a fan, but if corporate comes by and decides to destroy the thing you used to love, LET IT GO AND WALK AWAY.
I love Star Wars... haven't bought a damn thing, watched any of their movies, TV shows or played any of their games since Battlefront 2 and The Last Jedi because I refuse to support Lucas Film and Disney. If I can give up something that I grew up with, so can you, there are other things in the world to enjoy. If these companies want to spiral down the drain in a burning heap of garbage....let them do it. They need YOU more than you need them.
Hope you feel better and get well Neon 🙏🏽
I switched from MtG to Sorcery: Contested Realms a few years ago.
All time one thing you might want to look up is the solar system event happening on December 6th this year when earth will be directly between Jupiter and mercy at the same time. It will supposedly show the morthen lights everywhwere
They are trying to slow down commander because too many people are building decks to win in turn 4 or something, which is actually more like the 60 card Modern...
Commander isn't "casual" anymore.
Can at least give a brief rundown on the bans.
Mana Crypty, Jeweled Lotus, and Dockside Extortionist were all mana acceleration, speed the game from early to late game plays in a hurry. These were the ones most controversial. Plus these were all money cards.
Nadu was one that could lead to long loops in turns without a clear chance of leading to a win. Not fun so no trouble.
That said the non-disparaging clause feels crazy.
YOU ARE BACK!!!!! I miss you neon
They've been bullying players for years, nothing new. Good to see you back Kneon!
The Nerd rage is strong in the MTG community.
Neon. Get well soon. Good to hear ya again. G Sparkles did great.
I was done with WotC when they sent the Pinkertons to that superfan's house to basically jack his cards,when it was the official WotC site THAT SOLD HIM THE WRONG CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE!
When they came out with the 30th anniversary boosters and had the gall to charge 1,000 dollars for FOUR CRAPPY BOOSTER PACKS I said "F!@$ it I'm out!!!" I don't buy cards or MTG products anymore(haven't since '22 in fact),and removed all MTG content from my RUclips recommended feeds. Still love the game,and if you asked me to I'll gladly sit down with you for a casual match,and hand your @$$ to you with my Grixis
"Discarder" deck(it's full of surprises),but I won't give WotC a dime of my money anymore OR my time. 🤨👍
Edit:They banned those 4 cards because they were scared that they'd break the format. Cowards. 🤬👎👎
Feel better, Kneon! Geeky is doing a great job!
Wow Geeky sparkles impression of Neon is getting better over time
No report to the police then it's not a threat