Is ‘none of the above’ an option ? I love the game but overall, I think everything in 2024 was for the worse. It would be safe to say the worst of 2024 was the whole rules committee debacle. It was kind of a low bar, but I guess Duskmourn was the best set from 2024, if we pretend the Leyline of Resonance never happened.
Every year, I gain more and more respect for Gavin Verhey. Out of everyone who works at wizards, he is the only one that has convinced me that he really understands the game and all the various groups(competitive, casual, collector, investor, art appreciator, lore aficionado) that plays the game.
Honesty has been missing from Magic: The Gathering for quite some time now. Thank you for putting my feelings into words. But I feel like it's not just honesty. Magic becomes less and less every year. At first, it was just the storylines-rushed, a little shallow, and more exciting on paper than in execution. Then, the perspective shifted. Instead of exploring what happens when we infuse Magic with a theme (like Innistrad being Magic: The Gathering with a horror theme), the focus became: What happens if we put Magic into this or that theme? Even though sets like Duskmourn were awesome, they often felt like references to existing genres (e.g., horror) with Magic added on as an aftertought. Now, with recent changes, Magic feels even smaller-its essence diluted in both story and themes. The only thing that's left are the mechanics now, a skeleton we can use for other IPs. It’s sad to see how, as Magic tries to expand, it paradoxically becomes poorer.
Also the honesty from wotc/hasbro. UB was originally done for people who wanted it and had universes within options and wasn’t in standard. Now the game IS UB.
Key word you used here being “skeleton”…. Magic used to be a thriving, healthy, living, breathing organism that all others strived to be. Now it is just a husk of what it once was, a skeleton, there for other IP’s failed attempts at card games to come feed on what’s left.
@@Lazydino59 That is only because of the influence that Hasbro has on Wotc. Hasbro did a nosedive in the pandemic and Wizards was one of the very few that made profit and that is why they push that horse until its dead
I think if Hasbro would actually invest in a legit piece of media dedicated to the MTG universe, it would be good for everyone. Show on Netflix or Amazon would bring in new fans and people who would want to play the game. It would reinvigorate the Magic IP and legitimize all these fascinating characters that we fans know and love for a new audience. And there wouldn't be as big of a need for constant UB releases. UB could be special and interesting again because they would be rare. And Hasbro would make so much money. I don't know why a Show hasn't happened yet but I hope it does. Also, why do we get Marvel UB before the Witcher or GOT? I need a Geralt Commander deck.
Exactly what I was thinking too. I have basically given up on ordering SLs after they said they are limited. I have spent hundreds on SLs so I will be better for this change lol
@@kylestuart4811 The only downside about doing this with Secret Lairs is they still sell out from scalpers. They need to go back to print to demand to both screw scalpers, and show the dissatisfaction for lairs. And they've shown they don't care, as long as things sell.
@@Stonehornonly one set is unannounced and it’s probably a marvel universe beyond. And aetherdrift looks sorta dumb. I understand if your excited for final fantasy but I’ve never played it and could not care less about it
@@Stonehorn Innistrad is just a reprint set. They basically do one every year now in January. I'm referring to the Standard releases. Since they pushed Lorwyn, there is only one real Magic set this year which is Tarkir Dragonstorm. Edge of Eternities might end up being good since its a new plane (or in between planes), but I'm not holding my breath.
Bloomburrow is the set that got me and my wife to purchase magic cards for the first time. I have been watching from the sidelines, watching streamers play magic, but I had yet to purchase anything. And now it’s full steam ahead, we’ve got a full playgroup of 12 people who have all gotten into magic this yearand we play almost every weekend. I’m very thankful for this game.
English is the lingua-franca of the world, if having to use English cards really makes some folk unable to play Magic, maybe they should focus on learning the lingua-franca of the world instead of playing games. I know I'm gonna sound rude, but I'm French and own no French cards, simply because I put the effort of learning the lingua franca. I find it astounding that having to use English is such an issue, in a world where English is used for everything internationally.
@@TheSmartCinemaNo. the burden on breaking the language barrier and printing cards in a language kids in my country can read is on the multi millionaire company, not on the kids. Horrible take
I think a lot of the ban controversy is WotC's fault: if they didn't work so hard to keep so many cards so expensive, it wouldn't have been such a massive blow to so many people. Some people "lost" thousands and if MTG was cheaper to play, this would be less of a factor.
I really appreciate you all highlighting the “this card” change. It’s something that seemed to mostly get glossed over by a lot of people but it’s really a big thing that handles a lot of confusion for newer players. I’ve fielded a lot of questions related to self-referential card names and wordings in the past and this helps it a lot. A great change and I’m glad they did it.
It's confusedly, at least in my view, the entire opposite of the etb-shorthand "enters". While self-referencing has become easier to understand, the etb wording change has made cards weirder and less easy to understand imo. But yes, cards referring to themselves by "this card" is a much better way of doing it.
The bans were a failure because they were implemented poorly. Had the RC listened to Olivia, the big mess would not have happened. Of course this doesn't excuse the community response - it was horrendous - but the implementation of the bans was not done well
The comment that resonated with me most was Jimmy's R&D comment, this year had a lot of cards that inspired me to build decks. Having single cards that were the complete package e.g. Forensic Gadgeteer clicked in my head, like, oh, *that's* how i can make a deck with high synergy. It often wasn't stapled on a legendary creature either, so I also enjoyed finding a commander that fit the theme. The other big thing for me this year was group hug and slug. Ms Bumbleflower was so popular that everyone was figuring out how much to benefit from the hug player, then we got Valgavoth and Lord of Pain and fast games. These were big themes of 2024, hopefully they continue to get support in 2025. I'm nearly done with a hellbent + group hug deck with Winter, Misanthropic Guide, that I'm determined to tune and make work in my playgroups, as a consequence of the cards this year.
Play packs are terrible, no list, no extra exclusive commander cards. They removed everything that made set packs good, and just stsrted charging the price of a set pack for a draft pack, absolutely terrible.
Completely with you. My wife & I by at least one box of every set to open and build new decks or improve old ones. The set boxes were perfect for those of who don't draft but also don't want collectors boosters. Play boosters were an example of less for more
Idk about everyone else but my purchase of packs has significantly decreased since play boosters. Paying more $$ for fewer cards, The List is gone, and i dislike we have a lower chance of pulling cool alts unless we buy collectors boosters
yeah. i don't buy boosters if not just a fat pack of the set I like (this year was only BLB). I spend all the money on singles and I don't even do prerelase or sealed anymore. not worth it, nobody goes there anymore
I am a huge fan for magic and have a close friendship within wizards. Next to loss of language for our Brazilian magic friends the secret lairs choice is the worst slap in the face to me for the hobby I love. I will buy zero secret lairs till it fully changed, even the amazing yearly charity. I will donate straight to the source instead. Also Rachel your voice has become one the most respected in magic community that I listen to. Thank you for your contributions and for the whole command zone cast and crew always love and laughter in your lives :)
A controversy missed is that for 2025 they have not announced any magic cons outside of the US. Very disappointing for anyone who cannot travel to that area of the world.
2:47:32 Rachel, the self-referential humor you are trying to pinpoint is called Bathos :) Overly Sarcastic Productions’ Red did a wonderful Trope Talk video explaining it and how it works (or doesn’t) in film, television, and other media. Highly recommend.
Funny thing about the LEGO comparison, I was watching a video about LEGO video games, and people were pointing out how LEGO barely has its own IPs anymore. If you buy a set, it’s either a real-world thing (a flower or the Eiffel Tower or a dinosaur) or a licensed product like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Mario, Minecraft, DC, Marvel, etc. And that made me realize that the sets I grew up with, the Power Miners and Dino Hunters and Life on Mars and Bionicle and LEGO City…pretty much don’t exist anymore. There’s a handful of “city” style sets and Ninjago…and that’s it. Just like MTG, they realized that there’s more money and easier money in licensed products. It’s easier to get people to say “hey, I like X and there’s a LEGO/MTG set for that!” Instead of coming up with their own world and story that may or may not resonate. It feels that kind of like the movie/TV industry, everybody is just feeding off of each other and the past.
Lots og LEGO city out there. BTW if you go back, LEGO originally was none of that. But LEGO was never tied to One genre or story. The point of LEGO was and still very much is to learn kids and adults to be creative. But of course it has large elements of selling popular IPs as LEGO. But if you go to LEGO house or LEGO Land creative LEGObuilding is the number one priority
@ oh I’m not saying it was one big interconnected world, just that LEGO and MTG share some similarities when it comes to OG settings competing with licensed products. I remember the old pirate sets and castle sets and race cars and Wild West sets, I had lots of the Johnny Thunder sets as a kid…the dinosaur hunters and “movie sets” and Monster sets. But walking down the isle of Walmart or Target it’s mostly the creator sets (which are really cool I’m not hating on them) and licensed sets. The City/Friends sets and Ninjago sets are drastically outnumbered by all the licensed stuff, either they sell well or they aren’t given much shelf space at the stores in my area. I know that at the official LEGO store the varieties are a little bit better than the big box stores, I was just pointing out the similarities between MTG and LEGO…having their own original themes and IPs, even if they were usually based on pre-existing themes or even being “knock-offs” like generic pirates or Johnny Thunder vs Indiana Jones…and then abandoning them in favor of licensed products. LEGO still makes fantastic sets to build and play with, just like how mechanically most of the Universes Beyond cards play well within the game…but as they said in the video MTG is becoming the rule set for other properties to use instead of its own thing…and LEGO has become a building toy system for other properties. Not necessarily saying it’s bad just…kinda sad to see.
@@SendReinforcements something interesting to point out about Lego though... They likely would have gone bankrupt without Star wars. In the late 90s that theme as well as an assist from Bionicle saved the company. The reality is most consumers don't want original sets.
The shop I work at sells Lego and most of the sets we sell are Lego city/friends/creator, granted they are all cheaper sets because it’s a supermarket but I don’t think most Lego sets are different IPs
I'm sure the bannings didn't have a major effect on the people playing with them (aside from the financial effects, which explain the outrage) but to those of us playing at a casual level who kept only a sol ring for the LOW chance magical start, it was a godsend and the changes have been felt. Mana crypt was rampant on Tabletop simulator and no longer seeing it has been phenomenal. Edit: I said this in another comment but as I believe The CZ mentioned, the tier system might help with the unbanning of some of those cards by, for example, only allowing 1 of sol ring/mana crypt/jeweled lotus in tiers 1-3 and allowing all 3 simultaneously in tier 4.
2024 was the year I got more tolerance towards proxy’s. Things becoming harder and harder to get, generally more expensive, too many sets, and awful lands generally in precons.
2024 was the year I went from a hardline "no proxy" guy to having 2 proxy decks, The decisions made by WOTC have burned almost any good will I had, and I don't want to give them any of my money, even via secondary market.
*On Shipping to Brazil For primarily US companies, in the last few years, unexpected tariffs, taxes, and sudden changes to customs regulations have been reported with many companies now optioning to not ship until things settle down. Not to mention a growing infrastructure, shipping is difficult in Brazil (many roads are not paved, etc.) making it difficult for carriers to prioritize shipments in many parts of the country. It's understandable, Brazil sees a large US corporation shipping non-essential goods, hits them for tax, etc. Shippers take longer to get product tied up in customs through a large and complex infrastructure to the consumer, this leads to returns, negative outlook on product, unpredictable end-user/vendor pricing, and in the end WOTC drops support for that market. *Flies away
I specifically chose not to watch any content about the Marvel Secret Lairs unless it was criticizing the implementation. I'm sorry you guys put effort into a video that did poorly. But WotC is not feeling my discontent by me not purchasing them, that is in fact the issue. I hope WotC notices the enduring discontent their Secret Lair availability is generating in the community. That many would be buyers were left unserved.
My favourite moment in 2024 was coincidentally starting Magic in 2024 the day Foundations released on arena and becoming hooked. I was aware of the game previously because some friends played it in college, and I decided to see if there was an app after also starting Pokémon TCG pocket.
Nice video, love to hear your opninion on those topics and got so much more insight, thanks! I felt that sentence „Magic was more awesome“ from rachel a lot. So yeah … i am looking forward to dragonstorm too. Wish u all just the best!
Here in Brazil, the Marvel secret lair exclusive legends just led commander players proxying even more. To a point where they start questioning if it is worth buying original cards anymore 1) no more Portuguese cards 2) terrible selling practices 3) overload of new products
Great discussion, folks. Thank you for reviewing and analyzing the highlights and lowlights of the year so comprehensively. Thanks to the whole Command Zone team for making Magic even more awesome in 2024 and every year! I look forward to 2025.
Always appreciate these videos, love to see y'all talking openly about the state of the game and stuff. A lot of what you talked about really resonated with me. I've personally be looking to probably offload my card collection soon because I've not been liking the direction the game has been heading in. For me, free playing on Arena and watching the great content from people like you is enough to keep me happy.
My idea for secret lairs. Print serialized versions for the initial drop, and if they sell out then do print to demand after the 1st batch is sold out.
CORRECTION: Rakshasa are no longer Cats is the change that was made. This is because Rakshasa in mythology are not cats they are closer to Demons or Angels of a sort and the Rakshasa in the American cultural zeitgeist are a misunderstanding from an old American TV show
Perhaps ward needs to be errata'd to where you have a choice to pay the ward cost once the card resolves, so if the card gets countered, you don't have to pay the ward cost, or if a player protects the card with something like heroic intervention, then you can just choose to not pay the ward cost so the card would just get countered by the ward ability without having to pay extra
Josh, thank you for pointing out how well R&D is doing with card design. Sooo many Magic players complain about so many aspects of this company or game, but the bottom line is that the cards are better than they've ever been, and continue to create cards that just make you go THIS DOES WHAT??
Foundations by and large was my favorite part of 2024. I rarely ever went to play Magic at my LGS because I was scared to have to deal with possibly sweaty people and what I found was some of the most welcoming people I’ve ever played the game with. Also, Jumpstart was just a ton of fun to play. EDIT: Also it’s Lego as plural and not Lego’s 🙂
Favorite set was definitely Bloomburrow (it just hit so well) and favorite product… I actually loved the $25 Tuvasa secret lair. Great art, had real synergy, and is beautifully produced.
This is maybe the only set I’m really looking forward to. The space one and racing one seem too weird of a theme, and I am not a fan of Universes Beyond…I guess guys like me who like the classic “Magic feel” are down to one a year now 😢
As someone who plays at an LGS (where Magic’s rules say you must play the same deck the entire night) in randomised matches. The bans are a GODSEND. There are fewer games where I sit down and think “well this is an hour wasted” as I get my fun tribal deck absolutely stomped by a $5000 deck. This still happens, as is the nature of magic and eternal formats, but it happens a lot less. The command zone and also edhreccast’s views are driven by people in curated playgroups. Not with strangers out in the wild and DEFINITELY not randomised placements at an LGS. Rule zero doesn’t help at all when you can’t change your deck
1:05:13 Appearantly artists for the universes beyond products do get paid around 2-3x the rate compared to non UB stuff, there were some artists talking about this 2-3 years ago with those numbers. So it's at least something
1:54:37 Rachel/Team, a word that covers what you're talking about here (learning how to shortcut parsing cards) is heuristics - mental shortcuts we make to be able to process stuff quicker. Just a fun word to be able to add to your lexicon :)
1:19:10 Josh, we cant get employers to pay their staff better wages for work currently - how are you going to convince them to get taxed to hell to subsidize the people the actively laid off?
Depressingly you are only half right, The government after the Aether Revolt turned out to be basically as bad, so after the Phyrexian invasion there was another revolt, entirely bloodless called "The Indigo Revolution" Why did they add a second revolution to remove the consulate, after the last set was a revolution to remove the consulate? Why was it bloodless and therefore have no real impact on the plane? Why did WOTC add this entirely unnecessary and confusing step? Beats me.
In my playgroup I don't care if you put 37 proxied black lotuses in your deck instead of lands ... this is OUR game and nothing WotC does will change how we play. It's my party and I'll scry if I want to!
I'm really glad, that i have found your channel last year and i would thank you for your content. It was a good investment in time for me and I found my fun in commander. So nowi play it often on spelltable. Go on with your work.
I think you all missed the real problem with the marvel secret lair, its not the timing that is the issue it’s that cards with unique mechanics should never be a limited run product its not like your shoe analogy because its not about aesthetic only.
I do wish they had done their list of reprints that we need and got and a list of reprints that commander still needs. I loved when they would do that in the past! 2024 will go down as the year of The Ban and wizards taking control of the format.
Assassin's Creed distribution-wise was a mess, but the design on the cards is really fun - I've never played an AC game, but I just finished building my 3rd AC deck, and the first 2 (Alexios and Shao Jun) are absolute bangers. If you just squint and pretend they're from Tarkir or something they could easily pass as generic magic IP.
Rewording ward to be "opponents pay" instead of "that player pays" would be a pretty drastic change, but more things like Victory Chimes and Nowhere to Run will help with ward costs as they get printed more.
I think the reason for the lengthy explanation for Nadu was to put in context how the mistake had occurred. That it was an error due to late changes and not uncontrolled and intentional power creep to sell cards. People were quitting the game because they felt it was all just downhill from there if we were going to get these absurd Commanders that were CEDH without even trying,..
biggest failures 2024: commander bans, renaming Kaladesh, Nadu (just another 3 mana value Simic creature-oopsie) biggest wins 2024: easier templating, Lands, bringing back MSRP, recruiting new players with FDN/BLB/UB etc.
Discontinuing Chinese mtg cards had definetly left a sour taste in most Chinese mtg players. Everytime wotc post a new trailer or video on Bilibili, the comment section is always full of players sarcastic saying they can't understand the cards, or they need a English degree to play this game.
@@OhNoTheFace I think the main issue is that Pokemon and Yugioh both have Chinese localization(also a lot more popular in China), causing players to treat Chinese localization as a standard for popular tcg. Considering the majority of Chinese don't speak any English, it will appear to the Chinese customers that wotc doesn't really care about expanding the Chinese market.
Weren't secret lairs originally print to demand but available for like a day? And given just a couple days heads up? Feels kinda similar to limited print. So new model more aligns with original model. Sux in some ways but it's not bad as a collector. Screw the scalpers though
If they re released the marvel secret lairs I would stop buying them. It's seen as a mini reserved list, that these versions are not supposed to be reprinted. They'd lose a lot of community trust. The mechanically unique cards shouldn't be limited run imo either unless there's a in universe planned relatively soon after
As the internet's foremost Loot defender, I really can't get onto this narrative that hes being forcibly pushed as the heart of all magic story. The lad shows up at the end of Thunder Junction and then leaves with Jace and Vraska - Helga just mentions in Bloomburrow she saw em with Jace and Vraska in a vision (not even revealing what animal he was turned into, I might add) and then in Duskmourn we find out offhandedly that he got kidnapped by Valgavoth off-screen. The fella hasn't even really DONE anything. Hes hardly being pushed as a like Olaf or Minions level character where hes omnipresent and the narrative demands that you love him. Hes just a cute lil guy whos Jace and Vraska's map McGuffin. If you wanna talk about forced characters in the story we should be talking about Kellain and how he was the main character of like 5 consecutive sets despite having absolutely nothing interesting going on personality wise. His big character moment is realizing that his dad sucks and its like, yeah man, I feel you shoulda gotten that vibe when he left for milk and never came back. Outside the story, hes not even being merched like hes Magics new mascot. I should know - I want merch of this lad! But all we got is a deckbox, a binder from the set he came out in, and a single dicebag plushie which is the scrunglyiest looking plushie I've ever seen. If this is supposed to be Magic's mascot, I demand more and better plushies!
@@OhNoTheFace The boy has no more merch than characters like Jace, Ajani, and even new characters like Mabel do, so the point still stands. He's not some omnipresent force thats being shoved down our throats.
I feel the Loot hatred comes from 3 main areas that are "kinda" connected 1) We've just finished a big arc, The main story has wrapped up and we are in the post big arc lull, the time when the new pieces are being put into place for the next arc. This is when Loot first appeared and a character being introduced at the start of story usually indicates they're gonna be a big character, combined with being raised by the "Previous Protagonist" (Although I admit that is a sketchy way to describe Jace) And he's a little cute creature which leads us onto.... 2) Magic, at the moment, seems very focused on doing the big "in thing," UB as a whole jumping on the Marvel train, Duskmourne being 80's horror inspired has the strong feel of Stranger Things and IT, Alot of people aren't on board with this direction of following trends. With the introduction of cute Lil creature, Who is incredibly strong yet child like gives very strong Grogu vibes from the Mandalorian. This can lead people to think that one of the new big characters, potentially a protagonist, has been entirely created because "Baby Yoda was popular.....So was Pikachu.....we need a Cute lil guy in the franchise!" Rather than "We think this would be a good character" If he was introduced at a time where Magic wasn't seemingly chasing trends it'd probably feel less egregious. Some People would still complain however, because.... 3) Magic has always had a certain vibe to it, and that vibe has been fantasy written for 13-15 year olds, Which I characterize as "Adult topics, Hope of a child" The Sudden introduction of Chibi Ratatoskr feels like it changes that age range to skew a bit younger. All that being said, I don't dislike Loot at all, I wanna see more of him, and I agree with Kellan being a wet blanket. I can see why they are trying with him though, he seems more like the type of protagonist they'd usually expand on, and being Half Fae seems like it'd catch peoples attention, I'm amazed they are doing so poorly with him. This got away from me a bit so TL/DR:- Introduced in the between arc lull and very powerful likely means he'll be a very important later on, Feels like the design came more from trend following than what would fit the story, and feels kinda out of place.
The frame up on play boosters here is not entirely accurate. For 25 years there was ONE booster type and it was fine. The confusion and fragmentation on pack types was foisted upon us by WOTC and corporate bean counters, and then the play booster "solution" was just a band aid for a problem of their own making. In the end, the players got shrinkflation'd and their product diminished, limited formats diminished all on account of chasing revenue. Nothing more or less. I think this deserves a harsher eye and criticism.
Amazing video captured the year super well. Encapsulated the way my play group has felt perfectly at the end Magic doesn't feel like Magic anymore it just feels like Fortnite the card game with everything being a reference and not the Magic universe growing and developing its own jokes/lore within the community.
Be careful with Play Boosters. They started off with ~1.4 rares per pack in Karlov Manor. It went up to about ~1.75 rares per pack in Thunder Junction. It has come all the way down to 1.25 rares per pack in Bloomburrow and Foundations. Wizards have nerfed them to be basically the same as Draft Boosters...except they're more expensive and now we'll get 30 packs instead of 36 packs per box come Aetherdrift. The grift is real. But this time they're doing it in a much more subtle way and most people haven't even noticed. Until end of next year we start realizing we'll be getting 24 packs per box for $100 and be told that it's was necessary 'price reduction' to make boxes more affordable.
Yep for set booster boxes without bonus sheets I was getting around 43 to 45r/m per box and for those with bonus sheets a whopping 54 to 58 r/m per box. That is a range of 1.4 to 1.9 per pack 😮. These play booster pull rates suck by comparison.
On the subject of card counts (e.g., ETB on non-creatures), it may be useful to do percentages as well. We've seen an uptick in number of cards per year.
Wow, as a new player this is the first im learning about their artist compensation structure, and gotta say it leaves a lot to be desired. They need to treat the artists better, their work is such a huge lure of the game.
I agree w/ JLK and Jimmy's sentiment starting around 2:45 in this episode about the planeswalkers. Magic has been around for over 30 years and unfortunately none of the characters made the leap that something like Harry Potter did after it released.
I love the trends segment from Rachel. I’m glad I wasn’t going crazy that there have been so many noncreature cards having ETB. Also, I do hope they consolidate tokens. I have a tokens binder for commander games, and it’s ridiculous to carry 2 kinds of rat tokens(ones that can block and ones that can’t) and keywords or 2 types of Demon tokens, both with flying but one is 5/5 and another is a 6/6. Make each token have a unique statline and keywords and consistent across sets!
hey, Command Zone! I've got a great, and simple, idea for you to show your support for artists: for each video focused on Universes Beyond products, place a disclaimer letting people know about the effed up discrepancies in artist compensation between Universes Beyond and Universes Within products. the only way that Wizards will begin to compensate artists fairly is if *people make noise about artists being paid fairly.* you all, as one of the premier destinations for Magic content on RUclips, are uniquely situated in the ecosystem and what you say matters. I trust and believe you want to support the artists that make Magic what we know and love, so please do so.
*patting self on back* thank you for an excellent year in review. Big Fallout fan and I loved the pre cons. Favorite set was Duskmourne, but only slightly above Bloomburrow and (not sure why) OTJ. I agree however, there seams to be less MTG Awesomeness in the game since I started in Zendikar. But, that being said, the gameplay is so much fun with the popularity of Commander. Love you guys. Have a great 2025
I don't know the exact issue but I know it's such a big problem for importing that Pokemon has a different company based in Brazil to print Brazil cards for Pokemon
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
What were your favorite moments for Magic in 2024? What was your favorite set or product?
Is ‘none of the above’ an option ? I love the game but overall, I think everything in 2024 was for the worse.
It would be safe to say the worst of 2024 was the whole rules committee debacle.
It was kind of a low bar, but I guess Duskmourn was the best set from 2024, if we pretend the Leyline of Resonance never happened.
My favorite moment of 2024 was definitely Jan 1 because we didn’t know just how bad this year was going to be for the game
every game night with my friends :)
@@Lazydino59 Your optimism for 2025 is adorable 😇
BLB was such a smash for me, i built so many decks within the set. and the Necrobloom too. ❤
Jimmy: “I’m not a high enough skill cap drafter to really notice the difference”
Rachel: “true” 😂😂😂
Command Zone team has been putting in work putting out all of these year end videos! Thank you, great quality content that keeps getting better
We're so glad you like them! It's been a VERY busy time over here.
@@commandcastdo you still hire people?😂
Every year, I gain more and more respect for Gavin Verhey. Out of everyone who works at wizards, he is the only one that has convinced me that he really understands the game and all the various groups(competitive, casual, collector, investor, art appreciator, lore aficionado) that plays the game.
Honesty has been missing from Magic: The Gathering for quite some time now. Thank you for putting my feelings into words. But I feel like it's not just honesty. Magic becomes less and less every year.
At first, it was just the storylines-rushed, a little shallow, and more exciting on paper than in execution. Then, the perspective shifted. Instead of exploring what happens when we infuse Magic with a theme (like Innistrad being Magic: The Gathering with a horror theme), the focus became: What happens if we put Magic into this or that theme? Even though sets like Duskmourn were awesome, they often felt like references to existing genres (e.g., horror) with Magic added on as an aftertought. Now, with recent changes, Magic feels even smaller-its essence diluted in both story and themes. The only thing that's left are the mechanics now, a skeleton we can use for other IPs. It’s sad to see how, as Magic tries to expand, it paradoxically becomes poorer.
Also the honesty from wotc/hasbro. UB was originally done for people who wanted it and had universes within options and wasn’t in standard. Now the game IS UB.
Key word you used here being “skeleton”…. Magic used to be a thriving, healthy, living, breathing organism that all others strived to be. Now it is just a husk of what it once was, a skeleton, there for other IP’s failed attempts at card games to come feed on what’s left.
@@Lazydino59 That is only because of the influence that Hasbro has on Wotc. Hasbro did a nosedive in the pandemic and Wizards was one of the very few that made profit and that is why they push that horse until its dead
@@jturn314lmao it’s still thriving. It’s thriving more since UB started.
I think if Hasbro would actually invest in a legit piece of media dedicated to the MTG universe, it would be good for everyone. Show on Netflix or Amazon would bring in new fans and people who would want to play the game. It would reinvigorate the Magic IP and legitimize all these fascinating characters that we fans know and love for a new audience. And there wouldn't be as big of a need for constant UB releases. UB could be special and interesting again because they would be rare. And Hasbro would make so much money. I don't know why a Show hasn't happened yet but I hope it does.
Also, why do we get Marvel UB before the Witcher or GOT? I need a Geralt Commander deck.
The upside to WotC's shortsightedness with Secret Lairs is that it saved me over $500 in 2024. Proxies FTW.
Exactly what I was thinking too. I have basically given up on ordering SLs after they said they are limited.
I have spent hundreds on SLs so I will be better for this change lol
This was always the smart option. This is also how you share your voice with a company - the wallet. *Cheers
@@kylestuart4811 The only downside about doing this with Secret Lairs is they still sell out from scalpers. They need to go back to print to demand to both screw scalpers, and show the dissatisfaction for lairs. And they've shown they don't care, as long as things sell.
@@NecroNathancon great insight. Well said.
I’ll buy the charity ones for as long as they remain print-to-demand. But that’s it
Hopefully the Tarkir set in 2025 is a banger because this year's release schedule is looking pretty rough.
Rough? It looks great aside from Aetherdrift.
A reprint of Innistrad, Tarkir, Final Fantasy. And half the year isn’t even announced yet.
I'll be saving so much money 😁💰
don't hold your breath for it :(
@@Stonehornonly one set is unannounced and it’s probably a marvel universe beyond. And aetherdrift looks sorta dumb. I understand if your excited for final fantasy but I’ve never played it and could not care less about it
@@Stonehorn Innistrad is just a reprint set. They basically do one every year now in January. I'm referring to the Standard releases. Since they pushed Lorwyn, there is only one real Magic set this year which is Tarkir Dragonstorm. Edge of Eternities might end up being good since its a new plane (or in between planes), but I'm not holding my breath.
Bloomburrow is the set that got me and my wife to purchase magic cards for the first time. I have been watching from the sidelines, watching streamers play magic, but I had yet to purchase anything. And now it’s full steam ahead, we’ve got a full playgroup of 12 people who have all gotten into magic this yearand we play almost every weekend. I’m very thankful for this game.
Well done everyone! Been following for less than a year but learnt and laughed a ton with you all!
As a Brazilian, i feel honored that u guys are aware of this problem here in Brazil; many ppl may not even try magic cus of the language barrier.
English is the lingua-franca of the world, if having to use English cards really makes some folk unable to play Magic, maybe they should focus on learning the lingua-franca of the world instead of playing games. I know I'm gonna sound rude, but I'm French and own no French cards, simply because I put the effort of learning the lingua franca. I find it astounding that having to use English is such an issue, in a world where English is used for everything internationally.
Meh. Ignore the frenchman. Proxy the cards. Use ai to do it and have tons of fun lol.
@@TheSmartCinemaThat's a stupid take
@@TheSmartCinema Ok Marie Antoiniette.
@@TheSmartCinemaNo. the burden on breaking the language barrier and printing cards in a language kids in my country can read is on the multi millionaire company, not on the kids. Horrible take
I think a lot of the ban controversy is WotC's fault: if they didn't work so hard to keep so many cards so expensive, it wouldn't have been such a massive blow to so many people. Some people "lost" thousands and if MTG was cheaper to play, this would be less of a factor.
I really appreciate you all highlighting the “this card” change. It’s something that seemed to mostly get glossed over by a lot of people but it’s really a big thing that handles a lot of confusion for newer players. I’ve fielded a lot of questions related to self-referential card names and wordings in the past and this helps it a lot. A great change and I’m glad they did it.
It really does simplify things a lot!
It's confusedly, at least in my view, the entire opposite of the etb-shorthand "enters". While self-referencing has become easier to understand, the etb wording change has made cards weirder and less easy to understand imo.
But yes, cards referring to themselves by "this card" is a much better way of doing it.
The Bans were not a failure. The community response to the bans was the failure.
The bans were a failure because they were implemented poorly. Had the RC listened to Olivia, the big mess would not have happened. Of course this doesn't excuse the community response - it was horrendous - but the implementation of the bans was not done well
Could not agree more about the marvel secret lair. Hit the nail on the head.
The connection with sneaker culture blew my mind.
The comment that resonated with me most was Jimmy's R&D comment, this year had a lot of cards that inspired me to build decks. Having single cards that were the complete package e.g. Forensic Gadgeteer clicked in my head, like, oh, *that's* how i can make a deck with high synergy. It often wasn't stapled on a legendary creature either, so I also enjoyed finding a commander that fit the theme.
The other big thing for me this year was group hug and slug. Ms Bumbleflower was so popular that everyone was figuring out how much to benefit from the hug player, then we got Valgavoth and Lord of Pain and fast games. These were big themes of 2024, hopefully they continue to get support in 2025. I'm nearly done with a hellbent + group hug deck with Winter, Misanthropic Guide, that I'm determined to tune and make work in my playgroups, as a consequence of the cards this year.
Play packs are terrible, no list, no extra exclusive commander cards. They removed everything that made set packs good, and just stsrted charging the price of a set pack for a draft pack, absolutely terrible.
Collector boosters are the real problem.
@rydry2741 collector boosters are the only thing worth opening, unless your funds are to low then just buy singles. So not a problem in any way.
Completely with you. My wife & I by at least one box of every set to open and build new decks or improve old ones. The set boxes were perfect for those of who don't draft but also don't want collectors boosters. Play boosters were an example of less for more
@tonehunter8755 yeah the set boosters were really nice for adding to the collection for a more affordable price in a way that play packs are not
If you think collector boosters are good. Your class is showing. Its a game everyone should be able to afford it.
Idk about everyone else but my purchase of packs has significantly decreased since play boosters. Paying more $$ for fewer cards, The List is gone, and i dislike we have a lower chance of pulling cool alts unless we buy collectors boosters
yeah. i don't buy boosters if not just a fat pack of the set I like (this year was only BLB). I spend all the money on singles and I don't even do prerelase or sealed anymore. not worth it, nobody goes there anymore
Me too I buy singles on a regular basis the only packs I buy are on my local commander night $9 gets you a pack $7 or less and a raffle ticket
I am a huge fan for magic and have a close friendship within wizards. Next to loss of language for our Brazilian magic friends the secret lairs choice is the worst slap in the face to me for the hobby I love. I will buy zero secret lairs till it fully changed, even the amazing yearly charity. I will donate straight to the source instead.
Also Rachel your voice has become one the most respected in magic community that I listen to. Thank you for your contributions and for the whole command zone cast and crew always love and laughter in your lives :)
A controversy missed is that for 2025 they have not announced any magic cons outside of the US. Very disappointing for anyone who cannot travel to that area of the world.
2:47:32 Rachel, the self-referential humor you are trying to pinpoint is called Bathos :) Overly Sarcastic Productions’ Red did a wonderful Trope Talk video explaining it and how it works (or doesn’t) in film, television, and other media. Highly recommend.
Thank you for that. Will watch it in the morning
This was super interesting and definitely puts a name to what we're feeling!
Magic is Hearthstone now
@@totakekeslider3835 not a fair comparison at all
Woo! Let’s go Command Zone team! I loved the content you put out in 2024 and I’m looking forward to what’s in store for 2025!
Liked that you went into the topics in depth (:
Funny thing about the LEGO comparison, I was watching a video about LEGO video games, and people were pointing out how LEGO barely has its own IPs anymore. If you buy a set, it’s either a real-world thing (a flower or the Eiffel Tower or a dinosaur) or a licensed product like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Mario, Minecraft, DC, Marvel, etc.
And that made me realize that the sets I grew up with, the Power Miners and Dino Hunters and Life on Mars and Bionicle and LEGO City…pretty much don’t exist anymore. There’s a handful of “city” style sets and Ninjago…and that’s it.
Just like MTG, they realized that there’s more money and easier money in licensed products. It’s easier to get people to say “hey, I like X and there’s a LEGO/MTG set for that!” Instead of coming up with their own world and story that may or may not resonate. It feels that kind of like the movie/TV industry, everybody is just feeding off of each other and the past.
Lots og LEGO city out there. BTW if you go back, LEGO originally was none of that.
But LEGO was never tied to One genre or story.
The point of LEGO was and still very much is to learn kids and adults to be creative.
But of course it has large elements of selling popular IPs as LEGO. But if you go to LEGO house or LEGO Land creative LEGObuilding is the number one priority
@ oh I’m not saying it was one big interconnected world, just that LEGO and MTG share some similarities when it comes to OG settings competing with licensed products. I remember the old pirate sets and castle sets and race cars and Wild West sets, I had lots of the Johnny Thunder sets as a kid…the dinosaur hunters and “movie sets” and Monster sets. But walking down the isle of Walmart or Target it’s mostly the creator sets (which are really cool I’m not hating on them) and licensed sets. The City/Friends sets and Ninjago sets are drastically outnumbered by all the licensed stuff, either they sell well or they aren’t given much shelf space at the stores in my area. I know that at the official LEGO store the varieties are a little bit better than the big box stores, I was just pointing out the similarities between MTG and LEGO…having their own original themes and IPs, even if they were usually based on pre-existing themes or even being “knock-offs” like generic pirates or Johnny Thunder vs Indiana Jones…and then abandoning them in favor of licensed products. LEGO still makes fantastic sets to build and play with, just like how mechanically most of the Universes Beyond cards play well within the game…but as they said in the video MTG is becoming the rule set for other properties to use instead of its own thing…and LEGO has become a building toy system for other properties. Not necessarily saying it’s bad just…kinda sad to see.
@@SendReinforcements something interesting to point out about Lego though... They likely would have gone bankrupt without Star wars. In the late 90s that theme as well as an assist from Bionicle saved the company. The reality is most consumers don't want original sets.
The shop I work at sells Lego and most of the sets we sell are Lego city/friends/creator, granted they are all cheaper sets because it’s a supermarket but I don’t think most Lego sets are different IPs
Adults have more money than kis so they mainly focus on adults nowadays. Same with magic. 13yr olds don't buy collector boosters
I'm sure the bannings didn't have a major effect on the people playing with them (aside from the financial effects, which explain the outrage) but to those of us playing at a casual level who kept only a sol ring for the LOW chance magical start, it was a godsend and the changes have been felt. Mana crypt was rampant on Tabletop simulator and no longer seeing it has been phenomenal.
Edit: I said this in another comment but as I believe The CZ mentioned, the tier system might help with the unbanning of some of those cards by, for example, only allowing 1 of sol ring/mana crypt/jeweled lotus in tiers 1-3 and allowing all 3 simultaneously in tier 4.
2024 was the year I got more tolerance towards proxy’s. Things becoming harder and harder to get, generally more expensive, too many sets, and awful lands generally in precons.
2024 was the year I went from a hardline "no proxy" guy to having 2 proxy decks, The decisions made by WOTC have burned almost any good will I had, and I don't want to give them any of my money, even via secondary market.
Ya it’s insane that the filter lands are over $10 US, insane! And that’s just one example
*On Shipping to Brazil
For primarily US companies, in the last few years, unexpected tariffs, taxes, and sudden changes to customs regulations have been reported with many companies now optioning to not ship until things settle down. Not to mention a growing infrastructure, shipping is difficult in Brazil (many roads are not paved, etc.) making it difficult for carriers to prioritize shipments in many parts of the country. It's understandable, Brazil sees a large US corporation shipping non-essential goods, hits them for tax, etc. Shippers take longer to get product tied up in customs through a large and complex infrastructure to the consumer, this leads to returns, negative outlook on product, unpredictable end-user/vendor pricing, and in the end WOTC drops support for that market.
*Flies away
I specifically chose not to watch any content about the Marvel Secret Lairs unless it was criticizing the implementation.
I'm sorry you guys put effort into a video that did poorly. But WotC is not feeling my discontent by me not purchasing them, that is in fact the issue. I hope WotC notices the enduring discontent their Secret Lair availability is generating in the community. That many would be buyers were left unserved.
My favourite moment in 2024 was coincidentally starting Magic in 2024 the day Foundations released on arena and becoming hooked.
I was aware of the game previously because some friends played it in college, and I decided to see if there was an app after also starting Pokémon TCG pocket.
Nice video, love to hear your opninion on those topics and got so much more insight, thanks!
I felt that sentence „Magic was more awesome“ from rachel a lot.
So yeah … i am looking forward to dragonstorm too.
Wish u all just the best!
Here in Brazil, the Marvel secret lair exclusive legends just led commander players proxying even more. To a point where they start questioning if it is worth buying original cards anymore
1) no more Portuguese cards
2) terrible selling practices
3) overload of new products
55:11 Jimmy spitting straight fire
Jimmy's delivery of "I got to put in more lands" on the ban discussion may be my favorite MTG comment ever 😊
Great discussion, folks. Thank you for reviewing and analyzing the highlights and lowlights of the year so comprehensively. Thanks to the whole Command Zone team for making Magic even more awesome in 2024 and every year! I look forward to 2025.
Always appreciate these videos, love to see y'all talking openly about the state of the game and stuff. A lot of what you talked about really resonated with me. I've personally be looking to probably offload my card collection soon because I've not been liking the direction the game has been heading in. For me, free playing on Arena and watching the great content from people like you is enough to keep me happy.
My idea for secret lairs. Print serialized versions for the initial drop, and if they sell out then do print to demand after the 1st batch is sold out.
Serialized Magi cards are already popular.
CORRECTION: Rakshasa are no longer Cats is the change that was made. This is because Rakshasa in mythology are not cats they are closer to Demons or Angels of a sort and the Rakshasa in the American cultural zeitgeist are a misunderstanding from an old American TV show
I try to be a token aficionado. Im a big fan a unique tokens and go out of my way to collect and play with officially printed tokens for my EDH decks.
Perhaps ward needs to be errata'd to where you have a choice to pay the ward cost once the card resolves, so if the card gets countered, you don't have to pay the ward cost, or if a player protects the card with something like heroic intervention, then you can just choose to not pay the ward cost so the card would just get countered by the ward ability without having to pay extra
Today I learned that I'm one of the Damon Lindelofs of Magic
(Awesome end of year recap y'all, listened to the whole thing start to finish!)
Josh, thank you for pointing out how well R&D is doing with card design. Sooo many Magic players complain about so many aspects of this company or game, but the bottom line is that the cards are better than they've ever been, and continue to create cards that just make you go THIS DOES WHAT??
The editors are great, and the animation mix really makes the games pop 🎉
Command Zone is the best Happy New Year!
The trillion dollar problem AI is trying to solve is wages.
Foundations by and large was my favorite part of 2024. I rarely ever went to play Magic at my LGS because I was scared to have to deal with possibly sweaty people and what I found was some of the most welcoming people I’ve ever played the game with. Also, Jumpstart was just a ton of fun to play.
EDIT: Also it’s Lego as plural and not Lego’s 🙂
Favorite set was definitely Bloomburrow (it just hit so well) and favorite product… I actually loved the $25 Tuvasa secret lair. Great art, had real synergy, and is beautifully produced.
Definitely looking forward to dragon storm later 2025!,
This is maybe the only set I’m really looking forward to. The space one and racing one seem too weird of a theme, and I am not a fan of Universes Beyond…I guess guys like me who like the classic “Magic feel” are down to one a year now 😢
As someone who plays at an LGS (where Magic’s rules say you must play the same deck the entire night) in randomised matches. The bans are a GODSEND. There are fewer games where I sit down and think “well this is an hour wasted” as I get my fun tribal deck absolutely stomped by a $5000 deck. This still happens, as is the nature of magic and eternal formats, but it happens a lot less.
The command zone and also edhreccast’s views are driven by people in curated playgroups. Not with strangers out in the wild and DEFINITELY not randomised placements at an LGS. Rule zero doesn’t help at all when you can’t change your deck
Octavia chillin with ward 8
I have payed that once
I feel things can't be that great if msrp is the biggest cheer in the room
Very interesting that literally nothing happend yet with the Commander Format Panel in the last few months.
1:05:13 Appearantly artists for the universes beyond products do get paid around 2-3x the rate compared to non UB stuff, there were some artists talking about this 2-3 years ago with those numbers. So it's at least something
Can't wait for command zone and wotc to figure out avishkar is close to an Albanian slur
1:54:37 Rachel/Team, a word that covers what you're talking about here (learning how to shortcut parsing cards) is heuristics - mental shortcuts we make to be able to process stuff quicker. Just a fun word to be able to add to your lexicon :)
I'm with Rachel, gifting a tapped fish was my favorite Bloomburrow mechanic. I laugh every single time.
Thanks so much for talking about Donato and all the art related things. I'm an illustrator and it's close to my heart.
My commander engagement feels like 2024 was another great year. But my 60 card engagement feels like 2024 was just more reasons to quit those formats.
1:19:10
Josh, we cant get employers to pay their staff better wages for work currently - how are you going to convince them to get taxed to hell to subsidize the people the actively laid off?
Bought the Sheldon secret lair as my first one, tried to buy the Marvel one, guess I'm never buying secret lair again.
I would like magic to do a more darker tone, not straight up edgy but more of the horror brought with the older phyrexians
The closest thing would be the upcoming Innistrad Remastered.
You are otherwise looking at more cartoon / anime style sets for 2025 and 2026.
Duskmourn is pretty dark imo. Put it next to BLB 😉
1:49:59
The in universe explanation already happened. It was the Aether Revolt.
New government, new name. While rare, it happens in real life too.
Depressingly you are only half right, The government after the Aether Revolt turned out to be basically as bad, so after the Phyrexian invasion there was another revolt, entirely bloodless called "The Indigo Revolution"
Why did they add a second revolution to remove the consulate, after the last set was a revolution to remove the consulate? Why was it bloodless and therefore have no real impact on the plane? Why did WOTC add this entirely unnecessary and confusing step?
Beats me.
How Seldon kept EDH together without it imploding before the bans is amazing.
Josh calling skullclamp not a mistake is a WILD choice lmao. That card broke constructed 😂
This is not the constructed zone
It also broke commander
Jimmy askign Rachel right in the beginning: "Whats your name?" and rachels facial expression brought me so much joy ngl!
Loved listening to this! Thank you for harping on magic not feeling like magic.. I hope WotC is listening...
In my playgroup I don't care if you put 37 proxied black lotuses in your deck instead of lands ... this is OUR game and nothing WotC does will change how we play. It's my party and I'll scry if I want to!
When I heard about SL Marvel print to demand, my first thought was "whelp... time to proxy"
I'm really glad, that i have found your channel last year and i would thank you for your content. It was a good investment in time for me and I found my fun in commander. So nowi play it often on spelltable. Go on with your work.
1:32:06 - I snorted tea through my nose - what a jab hahahah 'no communication devices' :D
Drafting tomorrow with my 2 best friends and my brother! excited for racvnica remastered
You mean Innistrad Remastered?
Ravnica was remastered already
@@Stonehorn ha sorry for not making this clear, but i have the ravnica remastered draft for my friend who hasnt played since guilds of ravnica :)
I think you all missed the real problem with the marvel secret lair, its not the timing that is the issue it’s that cards with unique mechanics should never be a limited run product its not like your shoe analogy because its not about aesthetic only.
I do wish they had done their list of reprints that we need and got and a list of reprints that commander still needs. I loved when they would do that in the past! 2024 will go down as the year of The Ban and wizards taking control of the format.
Combat tricks I mainly use in Feather or Kalamax, where there’s a natural element that’s doing more to the card.
Spiderman is by far my favorite IP in all of fiction, and somehow WotC has made me refuse to buy it before its even been spoiled. smh
Wow we‘re going to need a summary of this 3h podcast that will be as long as normal videos of other content creators.
Bring back print ti demand secret lairs
Assassin's Creed distribution-wise was a mess, but the design on the cards is really fun - I've never played an AC game, but I just finished building my 3rd AC deck, and the first 2 (Alexios and Shao Jun) are absolute bangers. If you just squint and pretend they're from Tarkir or something they could easily pass as generic magic IP.
(AC deck 3 is Shay Cormac and it looks similarly wildly strong)
Rewording ward to be "opponents pay" instead of "that player pays" would be a pretty drastic change, but more things like Victory Chimes and Nowhere to Run will help with ward costs as they get printed more.
Meh ward 1 and sometimes 2 is fine, it just stops blue from fun policing as hard. It's the high ones that are dangerous
I think the reason for the lengthy explanation for Nadu was to put in context how the mistake had occurred. That it was an error due to late changes and not uncontrolled and intentional power creep to sell cards. People were quitting the game because they felt it was all just downhill from there if we were going to get these absurd Commanders that were CEDH without even trying,..
biggest failures 2024: commander bans, renaming Kaladesh, Nadu (just another 3 mana value Simic creature-oopsie)
biggest wins 2024: easier templating, Lands, bringing back MSRP, recruiting new players with FDN/BLB/UB etc.
Discontinuing Chinese mtg cards had definetly left a sour taste in most Chinese mtg players. Everytime wotc post a new trailer or video on Bilibili, the comment section is always full of players sarcastic saying they can't understand the cards, or they need a English degree to play this game.
Ah taking pride in your ignorance as on "own" of something
@@OhNoTheFace I think the main issue is that Pokemon and Yugioh both have Chinese localization(also a lot more popular in China), causing players to treat Chinese localization as a standard for popular tcg. Considering the majority of Chinese don't speak any English, it will appear to the Chinese customers that wotc doesn't really care about expanding the Chinese market.
Please please please do more long form content like this. ❤❤❤
Weren't secret lairs originally print to demand but available for like a day? And given just a couple days heads up? Feels kinda similar to limited print. So new model more aligns with original model. Sux in some ways but it's not bad as a collector. Screw the scalpers though
If they re released the marvel secret lairs I would stop buying them. It's seen as a mini reserved list, that these versions are not supposed to be reprinted. They'd lose a lot of community trust. The mechanically unique cards shouldn't be limited run imo either unless there's a in universe planned relatively soon after
As the internet's foremost Loot defender, I really can't get onto this narrative that hes being forcibly pushed as the heart of all magic story. The lad shows up at the end of Thunder Junction and then leaves with Jace and Vraska - Helga just mentions in Bloomburrow she saw em with Jace and Vraska in a vision (not even revealing what animal he was turned into, I might add) and then in Duskmourn we find out offhandedly that he got kidnapped by Valgavoth off-screen. The fella hasn't even really DONE anything. Hes hardly being pushed as a like Olaf or Minions level character where hes omnipresent and the narrative demands that you love him. Hes just a cute lil guy whos Jace and Vraska's map McGuffin. If you wanna talk about forced characters in the story we should be talking about Kellain and how he was the main character of like 5 consecutive sets despite having absolutely nothing interesting going on personality wise. His big character moment is realizing that his dad sucks and its like, yeah man, I feel you shoulda gotten that vibe when he left for milk and never came back.
Outside the story, hes not even being merched like hes Magics new mascot. I should know - I want merch of this lad! But all we got is a deckbox, a binder from the set he came out in, and a single dicebag plushie which is the scrunglyiest looking plushie I've ever seen. If this is supposed to be Magic's mascot, I demand more and better plushies!
But there enough to sell mech
Loot got 2 cards, Kellan got like 5 too
Loot is way to hated, partly because his first card is a little lame I'd guess, poor little fella
@@OhNoTheFace The boy has no more merch than characters like Jace, Ajani, and even new characters like Mabel do, so the point still stands. He's not some omnipresent force thats being shoved down our throats.
I feel the Loot hatred comes from 3 main areas that are "kinda" connected
1) We've just finished a big arc, The main story has wrapped up and we are in the post big arc lull, the time when the new pieces are being put into place for the next arc. This is when Loot first appeared and a character being introduced at the start of story usually indicates they're gonna be a big character, combined with being raised by the "Previous Protagonist" (Although I admit that is a sketchy way to describe Jace) And he's a little cute creature which leads us onto....
2) Magic, at the moment, seems very focused on doing the big "in thing," UB as a whole jumping on the Marvel train, Duskmourne being 80's horror inspired has the strong feel of Stranger Things and IT, Alot of people aren't on board with this direction of following trends. With the introduction of cute Lil creature, Who is incredibly strong yet child like gives very strong Grogu vibes from the Mandalorian. This can lead people to think that one of the new big characters, potentially a protagonist, has been entirely created because "Baby Yoda was popular.....So was Pikachu.....we need a Cute lil guy in the franchise!" Rather than "We think this would be a good character" If he was introduced at a time where Magic wasn't seemingly chasing trends it'd probably feel less egregious. Some People would still complain however, because....
3) Magic has always had a certain vibe to it, and that vibe has been fantasy written for 13-15 year olds, Which I characterize as "Adult topics, Hope of a child" The Sudden introduction of Chibi Ratatoskr feels like it changes that age range to skew a bit younger.
All that being said, I don't dislike Loot at all, I wanna see more of him, and I agree with Kellan being a wet blanket. I can see why they are trying with him though, he seems more like the type of protagonist they'd usually expand on, and being Half Fae seems like it'd catch peoples attention, I'm amazed they are doing so poorly with him.
This got away from me a bit so
TL/DR:- Introduced in the between arc lull and very powerful likely means he'll be a very important later on, Feels like the design came more from trend following than what would fit the story, and feels kinda out of place.
The frame up on play boosters here is not entirely accurate. For 25 years there was ONE booster type and it was fine. The confusion and fragmentation on pack types was foisted upon us by WOTC and corporate bean counters, and then the play booster "solution" was just a band aid for a problem of their own making. In the end, the players got shrinkflation'd and their product diminished, limited formats diminished all on account of chasing revenue. Nothing more or less. I think this deserves a harsher eye and criticism.
Yes and no. Booster packs have largely ignored inflation, so boosters have largely avoided inflation overall, but it still looks and feels bad.
Amazing video captured the year super well. Encapsulated the way my play group has felt perfectly at the end Magic doesn't feel like Magic anymore it just feels like Fortnite the card game with everything being a reference and not the Magic universe growing and developing its own jokes/lore within the community.
Be careful with Play Boosters. They started off with ~1.4 rares per pack in Karlov Manor. It went up to about ~1.75 rares per pack in Thunder Junction. It has come all the way down to 1.25 rares per pack in Bloomburrow and Foundations. Wizards have nerfed them to be basically the same as Draft Boosters...except they're more expensive and now we'll get 30 packs instead of 36 packs per box come Aetherdrift. The grift is real. But this time they're doing it in a much more subtle way and most people haven't even noticed. Until end of next year we start realizing we'll be getting 24 packs per box for $100 and be told that it's was necessary 'price reduction' to make boxes more affordable.
Yep for set booster boxes without bonus sheets I was getting around 43 to 45r/m per box and for those with bonus sheets a whopping 54 to 58 r/m per box. That is a range of 1.4 to 1.9 per pack 😮. These play booster pull rates suck by comparison.
On the subject of card counts (e.g., ETB on non-creatures), it may be useful to do percentages as well. We've seen an uptick in number of cards per year.
They did the print to demand and had some stock ready to ship for the Extra Life 2024 drop.
Glad to see jimmy and Josh on 3 floating! Flesh and blood has been really carrying me through with what has been a rough year in magic.
Wow, as a new player this is the first im learning about their artist compensation structure, and gotta say it leaves a lot to be desired. They need to treat the artists better, their work is such a huge lure of the game.
I agree w/ JLK and Jimmy's sentiment starting around 2:45 in this episode about the planeswalkers. Magic has been around for over 30 years and unfortunately none of the characters made the leap that something like Harry Potter did after it released.
so nice this video came out today! listened to it as i drove for 10 hours🤣
I love the trends segment from Rachel. I’m glad I wasn’t going crazy that there have been so many noncreature cards having ETB. Also, I do hope they consolidate tokens. I have a tokens binder for commander games, and it’s ridiculous to carry 2 kinds of rat tokens(ones that can block and ones that can’t) and keywords or 2 types of Demon tokens, both with flying but one is 5/5 and another is a 6/6. Make each token have a unique statline and keywords and consistent across sets!
hey, Command Zone! I've got a great, and simple, idea for you to show your support for artists:
for each video focused on Universes Beyond products, place a disclaimer letting people know about the effed up discrepancies in artist compensation between Universes Beyond and Universes Within products.
the only way that Wizards will begin to compensate artists fairly is if *people make noise about artists being paid fairly.*
you all, as one of the premier destinations for Magic content on RUclips, are uniquely situated in the ecosystem and what you say matters. I trust and believe you want to support the artists that make Magic what we know and love, so please do so.
56:07 you can't have solid reprints in precons if you don't create "sought after" cards. Im not in favor of this but the logic is there.
2025 is already cooked with the horrible sets on the horizon, every year I wonder when it will be enough for me to sell everything and move on.
*patting self on back* thank you for an excellent year in review. Big Fallout fan and I loved the pre cons. Favorite set was Duskmourne, but only slightly above Bloomburrow and (not sure why) OTJ. I agree however, there seams to be less MTG Awesomeness in the game since I started in Zendikar. But, that being said, the gameplay is so much fun with the popularity of Commander. Love you guys. Have a great 2025
Magic con Amsterdam was definitely the highlight of my year. I'm just hoping we get a European Magic Con for 2025 🤞🏻
I don't know the exact issue but I know it's such a big problem for importing that Pokemon has a different company based in Brazil to print Brazil cards for Pokemon