WOTC going all-in on universes beyond is really disappointing. The original fantasy art was the most unique thing about MTG, and now its just turning into Weiss.
@@joeferreti9442 yeah how can they go from creating such great sets like Lorwyn shadowmooor time spiral block and so many others from the mid to early 2000s and late 90s to making the grobage today.
And Yet those morons at ''tolerian community college do counts all cards they have like 14 cents, 23 cents etc....all cards below 1 dollars..they count the amount of precise cents of its value. 100% ridiculous. many even listen, ...have no value at all.
The thing that makes me chuckle the most is the irony of what they've done to commander. Originally EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander, for the kids) was a side game created by either judges or players (i cant remember) to be a fun alternative to the sweaty style play of Standard and Modern to make use of old cards that weren't necessarily good in their run, but can be good in this one since it's a singleton format. Then WOTC got ahold of it and marketed the hell of it. And of course, to sell more cards for it, you gotta make em bigger and better every time. So that now it's no different than the other formats it was meant to be a break from.
The really depressing thing too is that in the earlier days of EDH cards were readily avalible and EXTREMELY affordable. You could buy most (not all) dual lands for around what shock lands would cost. Reserved list cards that are too expensive to be even considered for most people now were actually obtainable without having to sell body parts before. Stuff like Rhystic Study you could get for a dollar maybe. It was a format made to be affordable and let cards that would never otherwise see the light of day to see some play. Now look at what has happened. You almost cant even look at an EDH deck to play at FNM for under 800 dollars. God himself cant help you if you need something off the reserved list like a Mox Diamond, Dual lands ect and many of those reserved list cards have no equivalent.
1. extremely high prices 2. way too many set releases per second 3. shitty Universes Beyond 4. card balancing, overly pushed cards, power creep 5. print quality issues 6. way too many and confusing products 7. horrible management by Hasbro 8. cut support and exploitation of LGSs
@marcelofrmo players don't enjoy playing weak cards, they don't engage with the game when it is low power. 2019 Ixalan, Homelands, Masques Block, Dragon Maze....anytime WotC actually pulls back on power players hate it and rank those sets as all time worst consistently.
The Beyond Booster is another ripoff product like the Aftermath one. I don't care about Marvel. Wizards will probably try to get the DC Universe IP. Our group used to buy so many cases of Magic boxes. Now, we hardly buy anything. The new Ixalan Commander Decks were so cheap and are good. We paid $32.00 each. We will wait to buy some singles on the secondary market. Another big issue is the card quality is getting worse. Why pay these high prices for sealed boxes with bad card quality? I do not care about serialized cards. Remember, NOTHING IS SPECIAL ANYMORE. My oldest son and I started playing Magic back in 1994. Now, my two sons, friends, and I have drafts and play Commander at the kitchen table. We always have a great time. Thank you for the video Mark.
I have a feeling the DC IP could be used for a song and a dance. Much less costly than the Marvel IP. DC is another company that has no idea what it is doing.
You can guarantee there will be a 1/1 Ironman card, 1/1 Cloud or 1/1 Tifa to bring all the gambling addicts so they can boost their numbers. Very sad they're taking the easy way out for cash instead of actually making a good game.
@@The-Entelechy Wizards doesn't even follow the Magic Lore With Murders and Thunder. All they did was take some old art and added hats, trench coats, gun belts, and ridiculous Star Wars like laser guns on the characters. How sad! Wilds of Eldraine and the Lost Caverns of Ixalan are very good sets and so affordable. Its hard for players to enjoy and play with a set because a new one comes out one month later.
@@ericjohnson6105 The Murders and Thunder sets do not even follow the Magic Lore. Wizards had some extra old art kicking around and put hats, trench coats, gun belts, and ridiculous Star Wars like laser guns on the characters. Who approves these idiotic ideas? Wilds of Eldraine and the new Ixalan sets are really good and so affordable and follow the Magic Lore.
Love the fact that they're saying "universes beyond is not for everyone." I wonder what would happen if Rolex collaborated with Hello Kittie and said the same thing. Wizard's doesn't seem to understand that they’re seriously damaging their brand.
Sanrio Rolex would actually be popping. Think of the young generation Rolex. Buy one for dad and one for baby! It would be more like Rolex X Panda Express. WTF?
You hit the nail on the head. The card design just sucks with the Universes Beyond stuff. Cards have mile long text boxes and just don’t feel like magic cards anymore. There is also just no where to play. The incentives for constructed are gone. Capped with so many products you can’t keep track of. They will eventually wake up when other games like FnB and Sorcery eat away at them. They will be slow to respond like they did with Hearthstone but they will right the ship.
All of what you say here is absolutely 100% true!! Excellent list of problems, and very well thought out! Diluting their brand is the biggest one which no one actually gets. Killing competitive scene and product dilution will kill the game, but for now they can procrastinate and shift their demise since they started from a very high standard and their downfall will take long time. The rise of games like flesh and blood shows you are right.
I think initially Universes Beyond was the idea of Hasbro business strategy guys. They’ve been doing it with their board games for a long time, stamping other brands on Cluedo and Monopoly over and over again. WotC were allowed to operative pretty independently until the late 2010s when their revenue started to become such a large percentage of Hasbro’s total revenue and once the Hasbro executives started paying attention to the Magic product line, they wanted WotC to implement their familiar brand crossover strategy because it’s the only trick the business guys have. They’re not creative people, they have one trick. Instead of creating a new board game, they put a Big Bang Theory skin on Cluedo. They don’t understand that Magic has an identity and it’s not a rules shell for any brand to get stamped on
It really is a rule set that any IP could be attached to. Magics Lore is and always has been garbage. They had 30 years to get a significant amount of people to care and they couldn't.
@@TheEvolver311 I think the point he is trying to make is that MTG has/had it's own identity. While yes, technically any IP works with Magic's game systems; the core fanbase whether they care about the story or not does for the most part like the "Magic" part of MTG. (Art, Style, Themes, Characters, Worlds, ect.) Like if you told Star Wars fans that all future Star Wars movies are included in the MCU and will have crossovers with Spiderman, Deadpool and Thanos. That would be weird and probably not recieved well even though there are some casual movie goers that wouldn't care. Like I don't HATE universes beyond as a concept but I don't like all the IPs that are chosen and that's weird for me because now I cant just like "Magic", I have to also like or at least partake in: Walking Dead, Dr Who, Warhammer, Fortnight, ect.
@@PensFan96 Yes, I totally agree. The Star Wars example was especially appropriate. I should add that I wouldn't mind UB if it was treated like old silver border stuff, not legal in formats and effectively a novelty product meant for kitchen table play. But they made it legel to incentivise sales and only because it's legal in Modern and Commander, it creates this uncomfortable mixing of canon. I would suspect that most UB fans aren't dead set on their IP being played with Magic IP stuff anyway. As was said in the video, the new players buying these UB decks are dipping in for the novelty of their favourite IP and they don't necessarily want to mix it with normal Magic cards anyway because it ironically would dilute the purity of their favoured IP with the Magic IP they never cared about. When the Warhammer decks were released, most people I talked to at that pre-release said they were planning on using them as a fixed 4 player UB Commander cube type situation and didn't plan on adding non-Warhammer cards. It's anecdotal but most people I've seen using UB cards use them as pure UB decks or 98% pure Magic IP with a couple of unavoidable staples like The One Ring and Delighted Halfling. I've only seen one person mix IPs unabashedly in their decks.
@PensFan96 Sure lots of players enjoy the aesthetic but not the actual IP. Wotac has tried for decades via books, comicbooks etc..to get a large segment of the playerbase to care but it has never worked, caring about lore has consistently been a fringe . I read the books and the comics and I don't care. I'd even argue that Magic doesn't and has never had a consistent aesthetic direction, it's shifted and changed. Like when I started playing in the 90's the art and themes were way darker like the Brothers War/phyrexian war story I remember being like oh who is this guy Urza? Oh he is immortal demi-god wizard Hitler and he is only the protagonist because he is trying to out Hitler Phyrexian Hitler, not so surprising to find literal neo-nazi allusions in early MtG art from that era I guess. Then we get PG Planeswalkers post mending and honestly if they didn't reuse the same ones year after year people probably wouldn't know who the F Jace is....the point is MtG isn't a new game trying its and old game that has been trying and failing for decades. And failing repeatedly. Honestly I'd say that modern MtG most players don't care that much and I know older players don't because again we as a community of players have demonstrated that we don't care by never caring all those times WotC tried to. If the story mattered all that much to people they would have complained about it unendingly when the mending happened and they literally redefined the entire premise if the game. But no that isn't what happened it was like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure switching from Harmon to Stands no buddy cared cause that aspect of the story isn't what was bringing in fans and literally completely changing the entire premise for how our heros resolve conflicts was changed etc...and people don't play the sets that are weak and underpowered just because of how drawn in they are by aesthetic. Like I said he is completely incorrect in that assessment and it just feels like grasping at straws for a reason to complain. Most if the appeal the art has is with players growing and affinity for specific cards that they played with alots art.
@@TheEvolver311 I would say you’re right about a lot of what you say but only for the story segments. Yes, their written story is generally crap and only a small chunk of the player base pays attention to it especially in this new decade but the story and lore are still important to maintain because it’s the structure that informs their card design. Even if you never read their lore releases, every player still enjoys a game using cards which reflect a cohesive story where every event depicted on the cards has meaning. If they cut all narrative intent from their set design, the printed game would be a lot worse off. Each set would feel disjointed and random. So everyone benefits from the narrative and the lore existing even if it’s a benefit they don’t fully appreciate
started watching this video and then paused to talk to a few friends on discord, we literally had this exact conversation moments ago and I'm only 7 minutes into the video lol
I agree with your approach, as a kid that started playing in 1997 in Portugal and reaching today, i transformed myself in a casual pauper, commander and mtg collector as i dont have a budget to buy every product, became disappointed with the actual products day by day, and can't keep up with all the variance and decision making that change day by day without a propper course. They don't make their mind and keep changing vision and strategy affecting all players and corrupting in some way the core of MTG story...
home run man, all points. I've especially wondered why they've never really developed their IP... toys, shows, collectibles, more card sales, etc. It's like they don't trust their own stories they've created and made cards for. It's really weird and sad.
Is anyone, besides myself, going to call out the reason we're here...."Commander" players have put us in this position. Most UB and SL releases are for "commander" not many other formats. Most cards printed in any set are meant for "commander" rather than the intended block they're printed. Go google the amount of Legendries we've got in the past 2yrs, just the past 2yrs. This isn't happening because of standard players, modern, pio, pauper, legacy, vintage, it's "commander" and if you can't come to terms and understand that then you're part of the problem. Stop buying every damn UB/SL that comes out!
I still play 60 card casual! Commander isn’t really “Magic”. Magic is Bears. Hitting the ground running with some 1-2cc interaction. Eeking out card advantage. A 1vs1 no holds barred match to the death. That’s Magic to me. Commander is relaxing, so nothing for several turns, just ramp. No danger of dying early. Letting others “do their thing”. It’s like a different game using the same pieces.
I don't really get the excitement discourse about opening packs... I don't buy packs. I never have, except for a few when I was a kid. None of my friends ever have. We still play mtg to this day and we started with 4th edition. If I could get cards only by opening packs I would have quit a long time ago... I don't really like gambling with my money. If what you are saying is that pack opening creates a sort of addiction similar to gambling, you might be right, but I would hesitate to present it as a good thing. imho the real issue is that the game is not fun outside of commander. As I was watching this I played 7 games on arena. 2 endend on turn 3 and 4 with my opponents not having lands, 1 I lost without doing much, 1 I won with a combo on turn 4, 2 finished on turn 4 with me having too much advantage for the opponent to recover... was that fun? maybe 1 match out of 7 was
Pokemon does it best. There's one booster box, and all the additional product carry the same booster packs you would find in the box, plus bonus content. But it's all the same booster and they keep all the chase cards in that same single booster. There's no confusion.
Pretty much. The Pokemon Model tends to be 1 Booster Box(usually $120+), 1 Elite Trainer Box($40-$60), Blister Pack Sets($15) and 2-3 Theme Boxes built around promo versions of cards from the sets($30). All having the same Booster pack series.
Hasbro bought a whole film studio for billions and sold it for a couple million, they've been promising an MTG movie for decades and managed to f*ck up the success of Baldur's Gate 3 and moderately good DnD movie. Even if Wizards could get an Arcane or Edgerunners they will find some way to f*ck it up.
Agree on every point except getting mad at reprints. Reprints are always good- collectibles will stay collectible, but these cards need to be affordable to play with.
I think current Magic does a great job of making me look at other card games and wonder… *I wish we got it that good* I started around 2015 and in comparison from then to now, it’s such a drastic change. New ages of Magic happen, sure… but in comparison to the flagstones of when people have quit, this is completely different than Urza’s Block or the Mirrodin/Kamigawa blocks I feel like something huge has to happen to course correct, or just die outright I’ve actually had feelings where I wish Magic would just die so I don’t have to watch a game that used to mean so much to me crawl on broken legs also the issue with this late stage capitalism move is that there is no infinite money glitch, even if Hasbro thinks otherwise
Specially, most of this products are targeted at the EDH community. Just recently, MH3 has been announced and that product includes EDH precons. Just horrible, imagine a product for Modern but some cards printed will not be modern legal?! Atrocious. Universes beyond is a total abomination for MTG and also making some "UN" cards legal. Wat the actual F.
This is freaking concise bro. Subbed. 1- Moved Away from Fantasy 2- Moves TO Commander These things create players with low to NO cost of entry. Players who dont have to make an investment to play will walk away alot faster than someone entrenched.
I've been playing magic online for years. I recently decided I wanted to start my actual physical collection. When I saw all the different boxes draft jumpstart set play I was like the fuck is all this bullshit. so you nailed it. yugioh just sells you the fucking set and that's it.
My main issue is the people at the top. They are those executives from executive class. They are so far removed from the product they make, the customer, the history of MTG as a whole. They just wanna pump some cheap ass product for a big price tag. They wanna introduce every single psychological tactic abusive marketing has on their sleeve. They hire the cheapest yes man workers as possible. The ink and cardboard quality are crappy and worse than Chinese proxies. They don't have a long term vision for MTG.
Don't forget black Galadriel, black Theoden, black Eowyn, and black Dunedain, plus a poorly designed One Ring card, a poorly designed Ring mechanic, and the most broken two drop creature ever printed
And it would have been so easy for WotC to make Universes Beyond be not a problem by simply printing those card sets with silver border and therefore making them not legal by default.
The Universes Beyond argument isn't necessarily limited to UB. I got into the game because the Phyrexians were extremely cool with lots of interesting story and an incredible aesthetic. But they killed them off entirely and now I'm expected to still be interested in releases like Karlov Manor which appeals to literally no one or Bloomburrow which exists to please that guy at your locals who only plays squirrels. Core Magic needs to actually become appealing and confident in its identity or else the cheap cash grabs will be all that's left.
Lord of the rings set and dungeons and dragons (art) is fine with me but not feeling welcome to the game and the stupid reprints is what pisses me off💯
Bringing up good points. I jumped back into MTG after two decades of not playing because LOTR looked really cool. I bought the decks, some packs, and am trying to acquire select singles. However, mixing these with my other cards feels off. I'm just planning on keeping them separate and having a playable LOTR commander POD for when my friends rotate around our game night choices. Will probably do the same with Final Fantasy to be honest.
For me, leaning hardcore into Universes Beyond is a huge issue. It was fun as a side thing. Not so fun when it looks like they're gonna eventually be focusing only on that cuz 💰 And the not knowing what to buy is a huge issue. When I want to introduce people to the game I can't point them towards a product. There just aren't any starter products around.
I just live in the past now. The game I once loved is no more. I only play, buy, and collect cards from Rivals of Ixalan and before. After that Fire design started, power creep went off the rails, and cards became full text box of abilities. 😔
You have perfectly expressed the issues with MTG that I see. What do you think is the most likely future for the game? Will there be a revival some time in the future after Hasbro runs the game into the ground? Or will it continue as it is?
I stopped playing about. I guess 10 years ago I started in 96 I stopped for awhile. I started again and yeah I stopped about 10 years ago. I recently started to look into getting back into the game and saw all this stuff about Lord of the rings and stuff like that What has that got to do with Magic the gathering I don’t wanna play anything like that I’m sure it might be fun but I wanna play mono Black vampires or red green blood rush deck. I don’t wanna play something that isn’t within the magic universe it’s really put me off and I don’t know whether i actually wanna jump back into Magic now Because of this now
Great video! yes! let us know how you would run our company. Our current president has to read a wikipedia article in order to know what this Magic the Gathering Deckmaster cardgame is, and our CEO only cares about whether people recognize him at cocktail parties. Please make a video as your application for one of these two positions that should be open soon.
It seems like their have no idea of how to merchandise anything other than cards. Which leads to the weirdest aspect of this is the chicken tenders (Jackie Chan holding head meme). Much rumored, TV series of the "main characters" of Magic, the planeswalkers, going on 17 years since their introduction in Lorwyn - nowhere to be seen. Boardgames was a half hearted attempt, when all they had to do to make sure that their audience would buy them was to include Magic cards with them. The whole universes beyond trying to snooker in other IP to make them Magic players, who knows how that is really turning out. You can say the LOTR was a success, but it is close to the same type of audience as Magic itself.
It's unfortunate that the only cool set for standard this year seems like Bloomburrow, and that's all the way in Q3. These new standard sets get way too gimmicky where it only works in limited. Draft feels fun for me right now, but outside of that the mechanics are clunky and underpowered. A lot of it is definitely not doing the rotation before extending it another year. Flavorwise, it just feels like they're leaning too hard on a few characters (like who really cares about kellen lmao) and the theme for the set is not pervasive enough. MKM does not feel like a set about a mystery murder at all. Not only do they reveal the killer outright, but most of the cards are just too goofy for the setting. Only the detectives theme feels like it's touching the theme and everything else is just tangential. You can guarantee there will be a 1/1 Ironman card, 1/1 Cloud or 1/1 Tifa to bring all the gambling addicts so they can boost their numbers. Very sad they're taking the easy way out for cash instead of actually making a good game.
There would be a way if Magic would not be crippled so badly by Hasbro. The way I see it, Hasbro requires more money coming in and other divisions are failing to do so. That leads to Magic (and D&D to a smaller degree) having to make the money by itself. The way I suggest would be: Scrap all the dumb product lines, drastically simplify: 1 Box of boosters for the players (call it draft or play) at a reasonable price, like $80. With MSRP. And 1 Box for collectors, say at $200 for all the fancy stuff. No more commander sets and cards for each release, do 1 set of commander only per year with good reprints and some new cards in each deck, call it $40 or even $100 if it contains appropriate value. Nobody, no player, no collector, no store wants to have all the different versions, art styles, foil (mis)treatment and the other bs they came up with since "Project booster fun" - remove all of it, print playable and readable cards that feel like Magic, not "we just do crossovers with anyone who agrees to have cards with our logo on the backside". There is no organic growth anymore, no innovation other than "look at all the shiny stuff we produce" - Magic truly lost its heart and brain and now just shambles along, uncertain if it will crumble soon or get a fresh body to walk on its own legs. BTW: I vote for your idea-video, Mark, sounds good.
One comment on advertising. I don’t know if this is still true..but large GPs and PTs were considered advertising. If Magiccons and RCs are considered advertising..those are huge productions
Im commenting before i watch the video but if its not #1 Too many products a year #2 Products Too expensive #3 card quality sucks and dunno what 4 and 5 would be, but 1-3 should be enough for people to complain to Hasbro that they need to change tactics or they will start loosing even more people buying product.
Atm we're in a teeter-tooter. I'm a commander junkie. Wotc is relying heavy on a fickle format and playerbase. Mtg is changing too quickly and won't ever go back...disenfranchisement is outpacing the dangling carrots.
For some reason, they're trying to run all the old school players off by discriminating against them In various ways. If your going to collect I would only buy R L
I really hope a WOTC executive/major stakeholder finds this video and at least consider the points you are making. Bringing in these different IP's into MTG has costed WOTC hundreds of dollars I would have normally spent on some of these newer sets. The new cards might be powerful to play but I don't want to see Robert Downey Jr. Ironman when I'm playing a hard magic system fantasy card game.
Hey Mark, if my memory is right Profit was down to 36 oR 38% from 40-42% that I think they attributed to royalty cost of UB. And they sell us UB at higher price than a standard set. This makes me wonder... even if LOTR is best all time set on the revenue side, would it be possible that it was less profitable than MH2 in the end? MH2 is #2 best sellling set, but they didn't had royalty fees on it.
To be fair, Duel Masters initially was gonna be a Manga/Anime designed to promote MtG but when the chapters went on WotC and TakaraTOMY decided to make it become it's own thing. And they even still throw MtG shoutouts too, like an episode of Duel Masters KING that had Emrakul herself turn up as a summon once.
I love duel masters so much. The anime was hilarious, the games were amazing (loved the gba and ps2 games). Sucks they nuked the game for the Western audience and tried that disgusting Kaijudo Showdown reboot with that ugly cartoon. I heard that Duel Masters is like top 5 in Japan.
LOTR best selling set of all time (Made more than 200 million in 6 months)... MTG last year, year over year was flat. Ranica ramastered and Karlov Manor sales looks really meh.... Where are those new players from LOTR? Your thoughts on UB set Mark where the same as mine. People are in for an IP they are fan of and they don't care at all for other IPs. And I sense that only a small portion of the players are excited to the idea of fighting Iron Man against Gandalf. The majority are not excited at the idea of MTG becoming a heterogeneous mix of hundreds of IP in their decks as well as on the table. Not just a mix of characters but Fantasy mixed with strong Sci-fi (Star Trek, Dune, Star Wars) and mixed with modern/historical elements (cars, jets, skyscrappers, Leonardo DaVinci, Cleopatra, etc). Well would not be surpised at one point we get Trump and Obama cards. For many, playing a game is a way to get away for a moment of the stress, the reality, political matters, etc. MTG had a well establiched identity that felt magical and that you could immerse in. That identity is being eclipsed and for me... the immersion is no longer there. I would even say that MTG feels more like and ad to other IPs now than it feels Magic. And when I see players reaction and hype towards Blumborrow, this makes me beleive that this is the kind of creative that MTG players love commonly. I would not be surprised that Blumborrow sell way better than Assasin's Creed.
I’m simply not interest in magic anymore. I can’t imagine modern horizons 3 will change that. Mh1 was very exciting, but by MH3, I know my deck will just rotate during MH4 at this point. DROPPED
I got brought in with the LoTR cards and wanted to play and learn so obviously I ended up on arena. Now I understand but I would rather play constructed but Arena itself is so greedy that it burnt me out before even constructing a deck in person. And I could see a commander problem with all the universe beyond with the players being able to undestand these really niche but powerful mechanics they have
And arena with its matchmaking really hurts people from understanding how to build a deck. You make a good deck and it realizes so it gives "opponents' the perfect counters so you modify the deck until it doesn't resemble anything any more. Very discouraging for new players
I think Hasbro is eating away the MTG brand to quickly cash out on it before it eventually flops altogether and stops getting enough attention and therefore income
I dont understand why many people play commander and thus need 1 of each instead of 4 but the sales have increased. MTG is just like an F2P game now with a 4 weekly item shop.
wow that kamigawa neon dynasty trailer had almost 5 mil views. I would love a more old school anime for the vintage sets, a bit like pirates of dark water but with the Weatherlight crew instead, but I don't think it will happen.
I agree that people like discovering new cards... Your comment reminded me of the Star Trek card game, for me it was about collecting the cards and staring at the artwork more than playing the game. I don't remember playing the game a single time. I doubt that Tolkien fans who bought MTG cards last year actually played Magic much if at all.
This video perfectly describes how I feel. I played digital a lot, and then decided to finally start buying product about 7 months ago. I got really into playing only modern and standard, but I found my self getting annoyed with my community for magic where I live due to the fact that THEY ONLY WANT TO PLAY COMMANDER. Listen, I don’t like commander, I like the more competitive side of modern and standard, even on digital I only play historic and standard. There’s barely anyone that shows up for modern nights at my LGS’s, and it’s sad. I’ve started feeling like maybe it was a mistake to get into magic seeing that this game is/has changed into something else, and simply doesn’t care for its own competitive side.
Also with what you said for not know what product to buy, I truly feel like that. I’ve bought some play booster boxes, but ultimately I just buy singles for the decks I want. Right now I’m not sure if I buy the modern horizons 3 product because uh… why the hell are there commander cards in it…
If you want a competitive constructed game that is similar to Magic but isn’t infested by commander only cards give grand archive a try. The game play is Very good.
The only reason for beyond boosters is to get people to buy packs for modern and commander without having to buy collector boosters. Calling them play would be confusing cause it’s not legal in standard. If they called it modern booster. Made it 12-14 cards and it would have been fine IMO
I think the beyond booster is suppose to be like the aftermath booster but specifically for universes beyond only. Either way releasing all 4 of the next set this early for preorder is concerning. not sure why there are 2 types of the same commanders each for modern horizons.
If wizards wants to make more money they need to drop prices on boxes. Reinstate a MSRP. And sponsor prizes for FNM at local games stores. This will make playing paper magic more fun with bigger crowds and higher stakes. More people playing magic more often will be a higher revenue stream than just gouging prices.
1. Commander 2. Commander 3. Commander 4. Did I mention Commander yet? 5. If not then Commander There i summed up the entire video for everyone on a time crunch who can't be bothered to watch the entire video. Your welcome.
I don't think Hasbro cares about pulling in new players to traditional Magic products with the UB releases. As long as they make a profit in-and-of themselves, any players that end up crossing over are just a bonus.
I play Yu-Gi-Oh, but checked out your video to wonder what's happening there in magic land For you guys it's the product, for yugioh the actual game itself is more the problem. Yugioh has gotten so absurd it will immediately turn any casual player away from the game, and it will take you a minimum of a month of playing every day to learn even the most basic meta strategies That being said, while a lot of Konami's products are lackluster, I really can't complain about what the company is putting out. The 25th anniversary stuff is pretty sweet
Most players want MTG to cater to commander, competitive paper and Arena, respectively. While not impossible, it would be a struggle for even a great company to pull off (do those even exist anymore?) So, assuming from what we know, Wotc half-asses between commander and Arena while completely forgetting the founding formats of this game. Years ago, (when they still focused on Standard, Modern, etc.) they put out a few commander sets and that was all. That feels like the golden time for MTG. Commander was *about* playing an odd assortment of cards, and it's lost this charm now being the staple. But when the biggest wrench (called Arena) got thrown in, now they just want nothing more than profits. _N O T H I N G ._
Well it's just a bummer for its fanbase. Although there's probably a lot to enjoy still it's just too estranging. I was into Magic for a while but figured out it wasn't the game for me, I branched out to a game that clicked incredibly well and since then I noticed that there's sooo many good TCGs out there that it's completely unfathomable to me why so many people prohibit themselves from acknowledging that the best game in the world might not actually be that these days. The game systen can be fun of course but man 30 years into TCG design don't you think other games were able to figure out how to grant you an incredible experience? Well spoiler alert they did. You can play One Piece, Flesh and Blood, soon Altered, even Sorcery and what do I know else. All of them are incredible games as well, I'm just so surprised how much patience the average Magicfan has to get disappointed over and over.
Hasbro is fucked and their monetization is fucked, but a VAST majority of magic players play commander and are quietly enjoying the game so from a design standpoint it’s fine. The only ones complaining are RUclipsrs that need content. And the Alpha Investment stans keep saying that cards are becoming worthless but they just aren’t. This is clickbait. Just cause you make poor investment decisions doesn’t mean things shouldn’t be reprinted every now and then.
Yes, the classic "pander to people who will drop the game after a week and have your core audience be stuck with whatever the game has become". The people from outside say "Oh cool, the lord of ring is in mtg, i will buy card, wow i got the bülbo, nice." and after a week they say "Anyway, that was fun, back to my leågue of legénd game! Here i come Ahri my queen!" while commander players are stuck with the nuka cola and transformers. While i personally do like that lotr set, it's only because it fits in, marvel on the other hand...
All WOTC needs is a draft box(the list slot is lame AF), a collector box, commander deck set, pre release kit, and a bundle/fatpack. Anything more than that is "beyond" stupid
Id rather wotc just made a game called universes beyond and made a couple rules fixes but essentially had a magic clone and then put all the ips there. Itd be pretty cool
WOTC going all-in on universes beyond is really disappointing. The original fantasy art was the most unique thing about MTG, and now its just turning into Weiss.
This
true
People has lost interest in Magic as a game, and more like a colector hunt
And WotC used to be very good with doing their own creative riff on pub culture themes which was way better than integrating foreign IPs.
@@joeferreti9442 yeah how can they go from creating such great sets like Lorwyn shadowmooor time spiral block and so many others from the mid to early 2000s and late 90s to making the grobage today.
I’m glad that other magic players feel the same about universes beyond. I love magic for the magic lore and art not so much assassins creed crap
Very true, its sooo confusing nowadays, i started playing circa ‘96 and MTG was so much simple and so much fun to play then.
I only came to mtg last year and I've already gone back to the earlier cards and a game that I can actually get my head around!
#1... too expensive for seal products and cards have no value....
I'd love cheap packaging if it would drop the price.
And Yet those morons at ''tolerian community college do counts all cards they have like 14 cents, 23 cents etc....all cards below 1 dollars..they count the amount of precise cents of its value. 100% ridiculous. many even listen, ...have no value at all.
The thing that makes me chuckle the most is the irony of what they've done to commander. Originally EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander, for the kids) was a side game created by either judges or players (i cant remember) to be a fun alternative to the sweaty style play of Standard and Modern to make use of old cards that weren't necessarily good in their run, but can be good in this one since it's a singleton format. Then WOTC got ahold of it and marketed the hell of it. And of course, to sell more cards for it, you gotta make em bigger and better every time. So that now it's no different than the other formats it was meant to be a break from.
The format became everything it started out not being.
It’s come full circle.
The really depressing thing too is that in the earlier days of EDH cards were readily avalible and EXTREMELY affordable. You could buy most (not all) dual lands for around what shock lands would cost. Reserved list cards that are too expensive to be even considered for most people now were actually obtainable without having to sell body parts before. Stuff like Rhystic Study you could get for a dollar maybe.
It was a format made to be affordable and let cards that would never otherwise see the light of day to see some play.
Now look at what has happened. You almost cant even look at an EDH deck to play at FNM for under 800 dollars. God himself cant help you if you need something off the reserved list like a Mox Diamond, Dual lands ect and many of those reserved list cards have no equivalent.
1. extremely high prices
2. way too many set releases per second
3. shitty Universes Beyond
4. card balancing, overly pushed cards, power creep
5. print quality issues
6. way too many and confusing products
7. horrible management by Hasbro
8. cut support and exploitation of LGSs
So, basically the same issues as Yugioh.
Pushed cards are the dumbest.
@marcelofrmo players don't enjoy playing weak cards, they don't engage with the game when it is low power. 2019 Ixalan, Homelands, Masques Block, Dragon Maze....anytime WotC actually pulls back on power players hate it and rank those sets as all time worst consistently.
@@TheEvolver311 i was around for Homelands and loved that set.
i do love goofing off with wacky decks.
Universes Beyond is trash and annoying me.
9. lack of elegant card designs, complexity creep
The Beyond Booster is another ripoff product like the Aftermath one. I don't care about Marvel. Wizards will probably try to get the DC Universe IP. Our group used to buy so many cases of Magic boxes. Now, we hardly buy anything. The new Ixalan Commander Decks were so cheap and are good. We paid $32.00 each. We will wait to buy some singles on the secondary market. Another big issue is the card quality is getting worse. Why pay these high prices for sealed boxes with bad card quality? I do not care about serialized cards. Remember, NOTHING IS SPECIAL ANYMORE. My oldest son and I started playing Magic back in 1994. Now, my two sons, friends, and I have drafts and play Commander at the kitchen table. We always have a great time. Thank you for the video Mark.
I have a feeling the DC IP could be used for a song and a dance. Much less costly than the Marvel IP. DC is another company that has no idea what it is doing.
You can guarantee there will be a 1/1 Ironman card, 1/1 Cloud or 1/1 Tifa to bring all the gambling addicts so they can boost their numbers. Very sad they're taking the easy way out for cash instead of actually making a good game.
@@The-Entelechy Wizards doesn't even follow the Magic Lore With Murders and Thunder. All they did was take some old art and added hats, trench coats, gun belts, and ridiculous Star Wars like laser guns on the characters. How sad! Wilds of Eldraine and the Lost Caverns of Ixalan are very good sets and so affordable. Its hard for players to enjoy and play with a set because a new one comes out one month later.
@@ericjohnson6105 The Murders and Thunder sets do not even follow the Magic Lore. Wizards had some extra old art kicking around and put hats, trench coats, gun belts, and ridiculous Star Wars like laser guns on the characters. Who approves these idiotic ideas? Wilds of Eldraine and the new Ixalan sets are really good and so affordable and follow the Magic Lore.
Love the fact that they're saying "universes beyond is not for everyone."
I wonder what would happen if Rolex collaborated with Hello Kittie and said the same thing.
Wizard's doesn't seem to understand that they’re seriously damaging their brand.
Sanrio Rolex would actually be popping. Think of the young generation Rolex. Buy one for dad and one for baby!
It would be more like Rolex X Panda Express. WTF?
“Maybe it is not for me anymore” - exactly. The disappointment is now a constant, it is not even a surprise anymore.
You hit the nail on the head. The card design just sucks with the Universes Beyond stuff. Cards have mile long text boxes and just don’t feel like magic cards anymore. There is also just no where to play. The incentives for constructed are gone. Capped with so many products you can’t keep track of. They will eventually wake up when other games like FnB and Sorcery eat away at them. They will be slow to respond like they did with Hearthstone but they will right the ship.
All of what you say here is absolutely 100% true!! Excellent list of problems, and very well thought out! Diluting their brand is the biggest one which no one actually gets. Killing competitive scene and product dilution will kill the game, but for now they can procrastinate and shift their demise since they started from a very high standard and their downfall will take long time. The rise of games like flesh and blood shows you are right.
Avatar of Woe! Avatar of Woe! I hated when my friend got four of those!
I think initially Universes Beyond was the idea of Hasbro business strategy guys. They’ve been doing it with their board games for a long time, stamping other brands on Cluedo and Monopoly over and over again. WotC were allowed to operative pretty independently until the late 2010s when their revenue started to become such a large percentage of Hasbro’s total revenue and once the Hasbro executives started paying attention to the Magic product line, they wanted WotC to implement their familiar brand crossover strategy because it’s the only trick the business guys have. They’re not creative people, they have one trick. Instead of creating a new board game, they put a Big Bang Theory skin on Cluedo. They don’t understand that Magic has an identity and it’s not a rules shell for any brand to get stamped on
It really is a rule set that any IP could be attached to.
Magics Lore is and always has been garbage.
They had 30 years to get a significant amount of people to care and they couldn't.
@@TheEvolver311 I think the point he is trying to make is that MTG has/had it's own identity. While yes, technically any IP works with Magic's game systems; the core fanbase whether they care about the story or not does for the most part like the "Magic" part of MTG. (Art, Style, Themes, Characters, Worlds, ect.)
Like if you told Star Wars fans that all future Star Wars movies are included in the MCU and will have crossovers with Spiderman, Deadpool and Thanos. That would be weird and probably not recieved well even though there are some casual movie goers that wouldn't care.
Like I don't HATE universes beyond as a concept but I don't like all the IPs that are chosen and that's weird for me because now I cant just like "Magic", I have to also like or at least partake in: Walking Dead, Dr Who, Warhammer, Fortnight, ect.
@@PensFan96 Yes, I totally agree. The Star Wars example was especially appropriate. I should add that I wouldn't mind UB if it was treated like old silver border stuff, not legal in formats and effectively a novelty product meant for kitchen table play. But they made it legel to incentivise sales and only because it's legal in Modern and Commander, it creates this uncomfortable mixing of canon. I would suspect that most UB fans aren't dead set on their IP being played with Magic IP stuff anyway. As was said in the video, the new players buying these UB decks are dipping in for the novelty of their favourite IP and they don't necessarily want to mix it with normal Magic cards anyway because it ironically would dilute the purity of their favoured IP with the Magic IP they never cared about. When the Warhammer decks were released, most people I talked to at that pre-release said they were planning on using them as a fixed 4 player UB Commander cube type situation and didn't plan on adding non-Warhammer cards.
It's anecdotal but most people I've seen using UB cards use them as pure UB decks or 98% pure Magic IP with a couple of unavoidable staples like The One Ring and Delighted Halfling. I've only seen one person mix IPs unabashedly in their decks.
@PensFan96
Sure lots of players enjoy the aesthetic but not the actual IP. Wotac has tried for decades via books, comicbooks etc..to get a large segment of the playerbase to care but it has never worked, caring about lore has consistently been a fringe . I read the books and the comics and I don't care. I'd even argue that Magic doesn't and has never had a consistent aesthetic direction, it's shifted and changed. Like when I started playing in the 90's the art and themes were way darker like the Brothers War/phyrexian war story I remember being like oh who is this guy Urza? Oh he is immortal demi-god wizard Hitler and he is only the protagonist because he is trying to out Hitler Phyrexian Hitler, not so surprising to find literal neo-nazi allusions in early MtG art from that era I guess. Then we get PG Planeswalkers post mending and honestly if they didn't reuse the same ones year after year people probably wouldn't know who the F Jace is....the point is MtG isn't a new game trying its and old game that has been trying and failing for decades. And failing repeatedly.
Honestly I'd say that modern MtG most players don't care that much and I know older players don't because again we as a community of players have demonstrated that we don't care by never caring all those times WotC tried to. If the story mattered all that much to people they would have complained about it unendingly when the mending happened and they literally redefined the entire premise if the game. But no that isn't what happened it was like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure switching from Harmon to Stands no buddy cared cause that aspect of the story isn't what was bringing in fans and literally completely changing the entire premise for how our heros resolve conflicts was changed etc...and people don't play the sets that are weak and underpowered just because of how drawn in they are by aesthetic.
Like I said he is completely incorrect in that assessment and it just feels like grasping at straws for a reason to complain. Most if the appeal the art has is with players growing and affinity for specific cards that they played with alots art.
@@TheEvolver311 I would say you’re right about a lot of what you say but only for the story segments. Yes, their written story is generally crap and only a small chunk of the player base pays attention to it especially in this new decade but the story and lore are still important to maintain because it’s the structure that informs their card design. Even if you never read their lore releases, every player still enjoys a game using cards which reflect a cohesive story where every event depicted on the cards has meaning. If they cut all narrative intent from their set design, the printed game would be a lot worse off. Each set would feel disjointed and random. So everyone benefits from the narrative and the lore existing even if it’s a benefit they don’t fully appreciate
Yep, they are diluting their brand for new players who don’t care about Magic and all in the name of short term profits
started watching this video and then paused to talk to a few friends on discord, we literally had this exact conversation moments ago and I'm only 7 minutes into the video lol
Seems like the thing that is on everyone’s mind nowadays. How’s that MH3 eh?
I agree with your approach, as a kid that started playing in 1997 in Portugal and reaching today, i transformed myself in a casual pauper, commander and mtg collector as i dont have a budget to buy every product, became disappointed with the actual products day by day, and can't keep up with all the variance and decision making that change day by day without a propper course. They don't make their mind and keep changing vision and strategy affecting all players and corrupting in some way the core of MTG story...
Believe it or not, a lot of the old, jaded, MTG grinders in my area have left to play Lorcana.
Believe!
I don't think they left specifically to play Lorcana. They left because Commander Forced them out and so did the LGS's that bent the knee to them.
home run man, all points. I've especially wondered why they've never really developed their IP... toys, shows, collectibles, more card sales, etc. It's like they don't trust their own stories they've created and made cards for. It's really weird and sad.
Is anyone, besides myself, going to call out the reason we're here...."Commander" players have put us in this position. Most UB and SL releases are for "commander" not many other formats. Most cards printed in any set are meant for "commander" rather than the intended block they're printed. Go google the amount of Legendries we've got in the past 2yrs, just the past 2yrs. This isn't happening because of standard players, modern, pio, pauper, legacy, vintage, it's "commander" and if you can't come to terms and understand that then you're part of the problem. Stop buying every damn UB/SL that comes out!
I still play 60 card casual!
Commander isn’t really “Magic”. Magic is Bears. Hitting the ground running with some 1-2cc interaction. Eeking out card advantage. A 1vs1 no holds barred match to the death. That’s Magic to me. Commander is relaxing, so nothing for several turns, just ramp. No danger of dying early. Letting others “do their thing”. It’s like a different game using the same pieces.
I don't really get the excitement discourse about opening packs... I don't buy packs. I never have, except for a few when I was a kid. None of my friends ever have. We still play mtg to this day and we started with 4th edition. If I could get cards only by opening packs I would have quit a long time ago... I don't really like gambling with my money. If what you are saying is that pack opening creates a sort of addiction similar to gambling, you might be right, but I would hesitate to present it as a good thing. imho the real issue is that the game is not fun outside of commander. As I was watching this I played 7 games on arena. 2 endend on turn 3 and 4 with my opponents not having lands, 1 I lost without doing much, 1 I won with a combo on turn 4, 2 finished on turn 4 with me having too much advantage for the opponent to recover... was that fun? maybe 1 match out of 7 was
MTG already has an on going manga in Japan that's a romance novel about playing magic in the 90s
Destroy all Humanity?
Pokemon does it best. There's one booster box, and all the additional product carry the same booster packs you would find in the box, plus bonus content. But it's all the same booster and they keep all the chase cards in that same single booster. There's no confusion.
Pretty much. The Pokemon Model tends to be 1 Booster Box(usually $120+), 1 Elite Trainer Box($40-$60), Blister Pack Sets($15) and 2-3 Theme Boxes built around promo versions of cards from the sets($30). All having the same Booster pack series.
Hasbro bought a whole film studio for billions and sold it for a couple million, they've been promising an MTG movie for decades and managed to f*ck up the success of Baldur's Gate 3 and moderately good DnD movie. Even if Wizards could get an Arcane or Edgerunners they will find some way to f*ck it up.
Agree on every point except getting mad at reprints. Reprints are always good- collectibles will stay collectible, but these cards need to be affordable to play with.
I think current Magic does a great job of making me look at other card games and wonder… *I wish we got it that good*
I started around 2015 and in comparison from then to now, it’s such a drastic change. New ages of Magic happen, sure… but in comparison to the flagstones of when people have quit, this is completely different than Urza’s Block or the Mirrodin/Kamigawa blocks
I feel like something huge has to happen to course correct, or just die outright
I’ve actually had feelings where I wish Magic would just die so I don’t have to watch a game that used to mean so much to me crawl on broken legs
also the issue with this late stage capitalism move is that there is no infinite money glitch, even if Hasbro thinks otherwise
Yeah. Robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn’t work.
Specially, most of this products are targeted at the EDH community. Just recently, MH3 has been announced and that product includes EDH precons. Just horrible, imagine a product for Modern but some cards printed will not be modern legal?! Atrocious. Universes beyond is a total abomination for MTG and also making some "UN" cards legal. Wat the actual F.
This is freaking concise bro. Subbed.
1- Moved Away from Fantasy
2- Moves TO Commander
These things create players with low to NO cost of entry. Players who dont have to make an investment to play will walk away alot faster than someone entrenched.
I've been playing magic online for years. I recently decided I wanted to start my actual physical collection. When I saw all the different boxes draft jumpstart set play I was like the fuck is all this bullshit. so you nailed it. yugioh just sells you the fucking set and that's it.
My main issue is the people at the top. They are those executives from executive class. They are so far removed from the product they make, the customer, the history of MTG as a whole. They just wanna pump some cheap ass product for a big price tag. They wanna introduce every single psychological tactic abusive marketing has on their sleeve. They hire the cheapest yes man workers as possible. The ink and cardboard quality are crappy and worse than Chinese proxies. They don't have a long term vision for MTG.
Everyone is a try hard and there is no escape. There is little fun to be had nowadays that's why I'm checking out of Magic
Sell everything, play pauper. Problem solved. That's what I did. Ker-ching.
This is why tons of mtg players are going to new games like flesh and blood that honor the gathering and competitive scene
That's what me and one of my friends are doing slowly transitioning to fab
Enjoy! If you have any questions reach out to the community, they love new players!@@everythingmetal9400
Sorcery
Turning point for me was Black Aragorn. I’ve not bought a single card/pack/box since.
watch as they do something similar with the FF set coming out.
Omg yes...how did they think there ?? Its wizz the bew disney ?
They changed it because they didn’t like Aragorns race… It’s so racist. Idk how they can be so blind.
Don't forget black Galadriel, black Theoden, black Eowyn, and black Dunedain, plus a poorly designed One Ring card, a poorly designed Ring mechanic, and the most broken two drop creature ever printed
Same here. Lotr can rot.
I wonder if Hasbro will fail so badly, they need to sell off Magic. Then we can buy it and make it great again!
And it would have been so easy for WotC to make Universes Beyond be not a problem by simply printing those card sets with silver border and therefore making them not legal by default.
But then almost nobody would have bought them.
The Universes Beyond argument isn't necessarily limited to UB. I got into the game because the Phyrexians were extremely cool with lots of interesting story and an incredible aesthetic. But they killed them off entirely and now I'm expected to still be interested in releases like Karlov Manor which appeals to literally no one or Bloomburrow which exists to please that guy at your locals who only plays squirrels. Core Magic needs to actually become appealing and confident in its identity or else the cheap cash grabs will be all that's left.
How do you feel about Real Life people as Magic cards like Leo Davinci in the Assasins Creed set?
I kinda feel like this is the line for me.
Lord of the rings set and dungeons and dragons (art) is fine with me but not feeling welcome to the game and the stupid reprints is what pisses me off💯
D&D was weird but is in parts almost acceptable. But LotR is a terrible fit into MTG.
Magic is basically paper Fortnite now
How so? Fortnite is free and mostly fun.
Too much product and products that are too expensive.
Bringing up good points. I jumped back into MTG after two decades of not playing because LOTR looked really cool. I bought the decks, some packs, and am trying to acquire select singles. However, mixing these with my other cards feels off. I'm just planning on keeping them separate and having a playable LOTR commander POD for when my friends rotate around our game night choices. Will probably do the same with Final Fantasy to be honest.
For me, leaning hardcore into Universes Beyond is a huge issue. It was fun as a side thing. Not so fun when it looks like they're gonna eventually be focusing only on that cuz 💰
And the not knowing what to buy is a huge issue. When I want to introduce people to the game I can't point them towards a product. There just aren't any starter products around.
I just live in the past now. The game I once loved is no more.
I only play, buy, and collect cards from Rivals of Ixalan and before. After that Fire design started, power creep went off the rails, and cards became full text box of abilities. 😔
You have perfectly expressed the issues with MTG that I see. What do you think is the most likely future for the game? Will there be a revival some time in the future after Hasbro runs the game into the ground? Or will it continue as it is?
I stopped playing about. I guess 10 years ago I started in 96 I stopped for awhile. I started again and yeah I stopped about 10 years ago. I recently started to look into getting back into the game and saw all this stuff about Lord of the rings and stuff like that What has that got to do with Magic the gathering I don’t wanna play anything like that I’m sure it might be fun but I wanna play mono Black vampires or red green blood rush deck. I don’t wanna play something that isn’t within the magic universe it’s really put me off and I don’t know whether i actually wanna jump back into Magic now Because of this now
Right! WOTC has made the decision to bring in new players at the cost of the previous player base. I wonder if it makes sense long term.
Great video! yes! let us know how you would run our company. Our current president has to read a wikipedia article in order to know what this Magic the Gathering Deckmaster cardgame is, and our CEO only cares about whether people recognize him at cocktail parties. Please make a video as your application for one of these two positions that should be open soon.
This guy gets it
You’re right Mark. Spot on
It seems like their have no idea of how to merchandise anything other than cards. Which leads to the weirdest aspect of this is the chicken tenders (Jackie Chan holding head meme). Much rumored, TV series of the "main characters" of Magic, the planeswalkers, going on 17 years since their introduction in Lorwyn - nowhere to be seen. Boardgames was a half hearted attempt, when all they had to do to make sure that their audience would buy them was to include Magic cards with them. The whole universes beyond trying to snooker in other IP to make them Magic players, who knows how that is really turning out. You can say the LOTR was a success, but it is close to the same type of audience as Magic itself.
There was also an Omega Chase rare that Tolkien nerds were chasing. I don't think LOTR is still selling as welll
These cards are permanently in the game now, it’s just everything the gathering now.
Even my friends who actually like Universes Beyond say Marvel is where they draw the line. Eff that.
this was a very good discussion thank you
Greed. Greed is the problem.
It's unfortunate that the only cool set for standard this year seems like Bloomburrow, and that's all the way in Q3. These new standard sets get way too gimmicky where it only works in limited. Draft feels fun for me right now, but outside of that the mechanics are clunky and underpowered. A lot of it is definitely not doing the rotation before extending it another year. Flavorwise, it just feels like they're leaning too hard on a few characters (like who really cares about kellen lmao) and the theme for the set is not pervasive enough. MKM does not feel like a set about a mystery murder at all. Not only do they reveal the killer outright, but most of the cards are just too goofy for the setting. Only the detectives theme feels like it's touching the theme and everything else is just tangential.
You can guarantee there will be a 1/1 Ironman card, 1/1 Cloud or 1/1 Tifa to bring all the gambling addicts so they can boost their numbers. Very sad they're taking the easy way out for cash instead of actually making a good game.
Having the top 2 institutional investors in Hasbro be Blackrock and Vanguard doesn't help...
There would be a way if Magic would not be crippled so badly by Hasbro. The way I see it, Hasbro requires more money coming in and other divisions are failing to do so. That leads to Magic (and D&D to a smaller degree) having to make the money by itself.
The way I suggest would be: Scrap all the dumb product lines, drastically simplify: 1 Box of boosters for the players (call it draft or play) at a reasonable price, like $80. With MSRP. And 1 Box for collectors, say at $200 for all the fancy stuff. No more commander sets and cards for each release, do 1 set of commander only per year with good reprints and some new cards in each deck, call it $40 or even $100 if it contains appropriate value.
Nobody, no player, no collector, no store wants to have all the different versions, art styles, foil (mis)treatment and the other bs they came up with since "Project booster fun" - remove all of it, print playable and readable cards that feel like Magic, not "we just do crossovers with anyone who agrees to have cards with our logo on the backside".
There is no organic growth anymore, no innovation other than "look at all the shiny stuff we produce" - Magic truly lost its heart and brain and now just shambles along, uncertain if it will crumble soon or get a fresh body to walk on its own legs.
BTW: I vote for your idea-video, Mark, sounds good.
One comment on advertising.
I don’t know if this is still true..but large GPs and PTs were considered advertising. If Magiccons and RCs are considered advertising..those are huge productions
Im commenting before i watch the video but if its not
#1 Too many products a year
#2 Products Too expensive
#3 card quality sucks
and dunno what 4 and 5 would be, but 1-3 should be enough for people to complain to Hasbro that they need to change tactics or they will start loosing even more people buying product.
I don’t even care about Marvel anymore since Disney just destroyed the brand. It’s so lame now.
The worst part about the universes beyond stuff is when a card has a really cool effect but I don’t want to put it my decks for a flavour fail
Atm we're in a teeter-tooter. I'm a commander junkie. Wotc is relying heavy on a fickle format and playerbase.
Mtg is changing too quickly and won't ever go back...disenfranchisement is outpacing the dangling carrots.
I wish Universes Beyond would not have introduced new mechanics to the game because now I have to live with it.
Belated 新年快乐 🐲 great video, you get right to the point with 5 burning issues with the game.
For some reason, they're trying to run all the old school players off by discriminating against them In various ways. If your going to collect I would only buy R L
Yeah. I’m mostly RL now. But I still have sealed products.
RL will be reprinted ....remember this. Now you have been warned.
I really hope a WOTC executive/major stakeholder finds this video and at least consider the points you are making. Bringing in these different IP's into MTG has costed WOTC hundreds of dollars I would have normally spent on some of these newer sets.
The new cards might be powerful to play but I don't want to see Robert Downey Jr. Ironman when I'm playing a hard magic system fantasy card game.
My fees are 2x Alpha Black Lotus/hr.
to me universes beyond is like the funko pop era of MTG, of course there are some cool cards but overall it's cringe
Hey Mark, if my memory is right Profit was down to 36 oR 38% from 40-42% that I think they attributed to royalty cost of UB. And they sell us UB at higher price than a standard set. This makes me wonder... even if LOTR is best all time set on the revenue side, would it be possible that it was less profitable than MH2 in the end? MH2 is #2 best sellling set, but they didn't had royalty fees on it.
That's a good point. LOVE me some MH2.
Commander killed Magic
To be fair, Duel Masters initially was gonna be a Manga/Anime designed to promote MtG but when the chapters went on WotC and TakaraTOMY decided to make it become it's own thing. And they even still throw MtG shoutouts too, like an episode of Duel Masters KING that had Emrakul herself turn up as a summon once.
I love duel masters so much. The anime was hilarious, the games were amazing (loved the gba and ps2 games). Sucks they nuked the game for the Western audience and tried that disgusting Kaijudo Showdown reboot with that ugly cartoon. I heard that Duel Masters is like top 5 in Japan.
No wonder there are so many TCGs doing so well these days! Nothing will change as long as the money keeps pouring in🤷♂️
LOTR best selling set of all time (Made more than 200 million in 6 months)... MTG last year, year over year was flat. Ranica ramastered and Karlov Manor sales looks really meh.... Where are those new players from LOTR?
Your thoughts on UB set Mark where the same as mine. People are in for an IP they are fan of and they don't care at all for other IPs. And I sense that only a small portion of the players are excited to the idea of fighting Iron Man against Gandalf. The majority are not excited at the idea of MTG becoming a heterogeneous mix of hundreds of IP in their decks as well as on the table. Not just a mix of characters but Fantasy mixed with strong Sci-fi (Star Trek, Dune, Star Wars) and mixed with modern/historical elements (cars, jets, skyscrappers, Leonardo DaVinci, Cleopatra, etc). Well would not be surpised at one point we get Trump and Obama cards.
For many, playing a game is a way to get away for a moment of the stress, the reality, political matters, etc. MTG had a well establiched identity that felt magical and that you could immerse in. That identity is being eclipsed and for me... the immersion is no longer there. I would even say that MTG feels more like and ad to other IPs now than it feels Magic. And when I see players reaction and hype towards Blumborrow, this makes me beleive that this is the kind of creative that MTG players love commonly. I would not be surprised that Blumborrow sell way better than Assasin's Creed.
I’m simply not interest in magic anymore. I can’t imagine modern horizons 3 will change that. Mh1 was very exciting, but by MH3, I know my deck will just rotate during MH4 at this point. DROPPED
I got brought in with the LoTR cards and wanted to play and learn so obviously I ended up on arena. Now I understand but I would rather play constructed but Arena itself is so greedy that it burnt me out before even constructing a deck in person. And I could see a commander problem with all the universe beyond with the players being able to undestand these really niche but powerful mechanics they have
And arena with its matchmaking really hurts people from understanding how to build a deck. You make a good deck and it realizes so it gives "opponents' the perfect counters so you modify the deck until it doesn't resemble anything any more. Very discouraging for new players
I think Hasbro is eating away the MTG brand to quickly cash out on it before it eventually flops altogether and stops getting enough attention and therefore income
I dont understand why many people play commander and thus need 1 of each instead of 4 but the sales have increased. MTG is just like an F2P game now with a 4 weekly item shop.
wow that kamigawa neon dynasty trailer had almost 5 mil views. I would love a more old school anime for the vintage sets, a bit like pirates of dark water but with the Weatherlight crew instead, but I don't think it will happen.
I know a few people who bought some Warhammer decks to learn magic, and they still play.
They don't buy anything else, but they love those decks.
I've watched some of your videos and from what I have seen, I really like your takes. This was a good one. Thanks.
I agree that people like discovering new cards... Your comment reminded me of the Star Trek card game, for me it was about collecting the cards and staring at the artwork more than playing the game. I don't remember playing the game a single time. I doubt that Tolkien fans who bought MTG cards last year actually played Magic much if at all.
Tolkien fans like myself when we saw what they did to the IP didn’t buy a single card/pack/box.
Correct. LotR fans may have bought the product. Tolkien fans spat on the product.
@@SuperDuperHappyTime love that you described it that way. Spot on.
The statement about water was absolutely hilarious
This video perfectly describes how I feel. I played digital a lot, and then decided to finally start buying product about 7 months ago. I got really into playing only modern and standard, but I found my self getting annoyed with my community for magic where I live due to the fact that THEY ONLY WANT TO PLAY COMMANDER. Listen, I don’t like commander, I like the more competitive side of modern and standard, even on digital I only play historic and standard. There’s barely anyone that shows up for modern nights at my LGS’s, and it’s sad. I’ve started feeling like maybe it was a mistake to get into magic seeing that this game is/has changed into something else, and simply doesn’t care for its own competitive side.
Also with what you said for not know what product to buy, I truly feel like that. I’ve bought some play booster boxes, but ultimately I just buy singles for the decks I want. Right now I’m not sure if I buy the modern horizons 3 product because uh… why the hell are there commander cards in it…
If you want a competitive constructed game that is similar to Magic but isn’t infested by commander only cards give grand archive a try. The game play is Very good.
The only reason for beyond boosters is to get people to buy packs for modern and commander without having to buy collector boosters. Calling them play would be confusing cause it’s not legal in standard. If they called it modern booster. Made it 12-14 cards and it would have been fine IMO
Bc when there’s nothing inbetween the revolving door on a creative team and the investors -a gypsy flea market of skus makes perfect sense.
If universes beyond crap actually brought in new players, then explain why they’re expecting a down year? Lol
I think the beyond booster is suppose to be like the aftermath booster but specifically for universes beyond only. Either way releasing all 4 of the next set this early for preorder is concerning. not sure why there are 2 types of the same commanders each for modern horizons.
Decks have no identity anymore. But at least we have identity politics.
The emphasis in the word "viscera" is on the first syllable
If wizards wants to make more money they need to drop prices on boxes. Reinstate a MSRP. And sponsor prizes for FNM at local games stores.
This will make playing paper magic more fun with bigger crowds and higher stakes. More people playing magic more often will be a higher revenue stream than just gouging prices.
2:36 My stance on Beyond Boosters:
Where are the cards? 😶
1. Commander
2. Commander
3. Commander
4. Did I mention Commander yet?
5. If not then Commander
There i summed up the entire video for everyone on a time crunch who can't be bothered to watch the entire video. Your welcome.
I don't think Hasbro cares about pulling in new players to traditional Magic products with the UB releases. As long as they make a profit in-and-of themselves, any players that end up crossing over are just a bonus.
I play Yu-Gi-Oh, but checked out your video to wonder what's happening there in magic land
For you guys it's the product, for yugioh the actual game itself is more the problem. Yugioh has gotten so absurd it will immediately turn any casual player away from the game, and it will take you a minimum of a month of playing every day to learn even the most basic meta strategies
That being said, while a lot of Konami's products are lackluster, I really can't complain about what the company is putting out. The 25th anniversary stuff is pretty sweet
Most players want MTG to cater to commander, competitive paper and Arena, respectively.
While not impossible, it would be a struggle for even a great company to pull off (do those even exist anymore?)
So, assuming from what we know, Wotc half-asses between commander and Arena while completely forgetting the founding formats of this game.
Years ago, (when they still focused on Standard, Modern, etc.) they put out a few commander sets and that was all. That feels like the golden time for MTG. Commander was *about* playing an odd assortment of cards, and it's lost this charm now being the staple. But when the biggest wrench (called Arena) got thrown in, now they just want nothing more than profits. _N O T H I N G ._
Well it's just a bummer for its fanbase. Although there's probably a lot to enjoy still it's just too estranging.
I was into Magic for a while but figured out it wasn't the game for me, I branched out to a game that clicked incredibly well and since then I noticed that there's sooo many good TCGs out there that it's completely unfathomable to me why so many people prohibit themselves from acknowledging that the best game in the world might not actually be that these days.
The game systen can be fun of course but man 30 years into TCG design don't you think other games were able to figure out how to grant you an incredible experience? Well spoiler alert they did. You can play One Piece, Flesh and Blood, soon Altered, even Sorcery and what do I know else. All of them are incredible games as well, I'm just so surprised how much patience the average Magicfan has to get disappointed over and over.
Nah man universes beyond is the reason my entire play group including myself started playing
Hasbro is fucked and their monetization is fucked, but a VAST majority of magic players play commander and are quietly enjoying the game so from a design standpoint it’s fine. The only ones complaining are RUclipsrs that need content. And the Alpha Investment stans keep saying that cards are becoming worthless but they just aren’t. This is clickbait. Just cause you make poor investment decisions doesn’t mean things shouldn’t be reprinted every now and then.
I wanna play "magic", but apparently I will be playing "western" soon.
Yes, the classic "pander to people who will drop the game after a week and have your core audience be stuck with whatever the game has become".
The people from outside say "Oh cool, the lord of ring is in mtg, i will buy card, wow i got the bülbo, nice." and after a week they say "Anyway, that was fun, back to my leågue of legénd game! Here i come Ahri my queen!" while commander players are stuck with the nuka cola and transformers. While i personally do like that lotr set, it's only because it fits in, marvel on the other hand...
All WOTC needs is a draft box(the list slot is lame AF), a collector box, commander deck set, pre release kit, and a bundle/fatpack. Anything more than that is "beyond" stupid
Id rather wotc just made a game called universes beyond and made a couple rules fixes but essentially had a magic clone and then put all the ips there.
Itd be pretty cool
I respect the honesty bro. Earned my sub