Dear Wizards of the Coast. 

You know it's serious when Rudy doesn't call Streets of New Capenna "Copacabanna".

WOTC: Shoves a fire hose down your throat and turns it on full blast. You fall over and cough up water for five minutes. WOTC: Oh sorry, looks like you're a little "water sensitive."

Collector boosters should be a once a year product like a core set and contain all of the big hits from the previous year in all flashy full alternate art fancy foil. There's no reason to have draft chaff in a collector's product, those cards only exist for the draft format. This will also help with the product overload wallet fatigue people are having.

Rudy did call them making serialized magic cards 2 years ago. Pepperidge farm remembers.

This is kinda heartbreaking to hear.

Hasbro / WOTC's plan is simple. They moved the pro tour to MTG Arena because they want total control over the game, cards, and players. Now, they are slowly killing off the paper version to save money from printing costs. Except for the direct-to-high-end consumer collector products. Which will be in limited quantity and triple in price over the next 12 months. Rudy's right, things are changing.

Florida man analyzes cardboard market in cardboard box fort

Random funfacts: For the month of October alone there was 30 Different Secret Lairs. 2 Post Malone, 3 GamesWorkshop, If Looks Could Kill, 4 Special Guests (2 that were in english and Japanese, Space Beyond the Stars, Weirdest Pets in the Multiverse, Extra Live 2022. All of these were also available on Foil. On top of that you had the the Totally Spaced Out Galaxy Foil Edition (only in foil), the disastrous 30th Anniversary Countdown kit, and the Hasbro Pulse Exclusif Lil'l'er Walkers Secret lairs (that have the most insulting narrow shipping region coverage I've ever seen) that comes both in Foil or Standard. Even if you wanted to take just 1 version of each and don't want to cover ALL the versions, that's still 14 different Secret Lairs. Let that sink if for a second. Edit: oh and I forgot to add on top of that the zodiac one!

I love how everyone says 999 or a thousand, but Rudy gives the real price

In five years we've gone from 80 dollar boxes to 150 dollar boxes, that's pretty damning imho.

If I don't have a game store to play at, I don't have a reason to play or collect.

Rudy slowly selling his backlog would be his swan song. When it runs out, that's his youtube exit. Seems perfect.

This makes me kinda sad, but..... It was really nice to see the amount of people attending Flesh and Bloods World Championship.

Rudy's green screen background has gotten better!

It would be odd to see Alpha Investments become a Pokémon business channel.

On the LGS note, the other day I was speaking with the owner of a new and he told me WotC has been one of the worst companies to work with to the point he said he will probably not be ordering any new stock and canceling his FNM events. Which is really sad to hear.

I don't know about 30th Anniversary being the first randomized direct-to-consumer Wizards product. I've bought some Secret Lairs where I had no idea what product Wizards finally shipped.

Wizards of the Coast bout to start selling Commander Decks in which you have 30% to get the commander

I'm not sure Rudy is "staying the course" anymore. End of an era.

Hasbro trying to get rid of the LGS...so crazy...

Sick, Werner 8 ft. Aluminum Step Ladder. Careful with the tacos, that bad boy's only got a 250 lb. Load Capacity.

Wizards of the Coast Corporate Accounting: *"DOUBLE THE PRICES!! TRIPLE THE PRICES!! SQUEEZE EVERY LAST DROP OUT OF THOSE WORTHLESS PEASANTS!!"*

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

I think they’d be happiest is pper magic dies and the digital realm takes over. Thy don’t want new players to gravitate to paper magic. Currently they want to keep the whales in paper magic, but they want all the new entries to gravitate towards arena and spend their money there. The profit margins for a digital product is so much larger. So if they can convert, and make two digital buyers for ever lost paper player, they will succeed to eventually kill paper magic and be happy about it.

We need to realize that companies don’t care about their consumer base, they only care about the share holders. It’s sad but cooperate is taking over everything we once loved

My problem lately with magic is we're getting way way way too much product than ever before. It's simply too much. Standard boxes, collector boxes, set boxes, commander sets for each set, secret lair sets it seems every week or two and much more. When do we say enough is too much. I can barely keep up with new releases. It seems when a set releases, the next one comes out like 2-3 weeks later

I stepped away from magic for a couple years. Focused on FaB and other items. Finally came back. Then this 30th fiasco happened. Took me 3 years to get over my gut feeling. Always trust your gut.

Rudy kinda did the same thing with your 6.9 set. Limited amount, very high price and made it outta reach for most of us.

If the correct Corporate Suits don't learn anything from "Dear Wotc" there is no more hope and Rudy will need to show actual pics to get some attention. Bravo Good Sir!

Magic wants the investing hype that MetaZoo, Pokemon get but they can't achieve it. Also while browsing MTG investing forums, people are hyped about a single going up by $2 while Pokemon boxes are jumping from $140 to $250 in 1 month.

It's funny how in todays economic climate publishers of a product continue to blame the consumer for product that nobody has asked for or wants. I remember when I played magic, ALL magic packs (except The Fallen) had the same price point upon release. If a product created by WOTC has a base production cost of X, that is what people consuming product are willing to pay. Not some inflated price due to nostalgia bating, especial if the bate is unplayable at all competition levels.

Still feels to me as if LEGO sold you 5000 randomized bricks for a thousand bucks, but worse.

I am going to try out what Rudy suggests and just avoid negative content and try avoid being negative myself.

Wizards of the Coast is messing up our beloved game of Magic the Gathering why won't they sit down and listen to the players or try to expand the the player base of the game greed is ruining Wizards of the Coast and the whole United States in total Wizards needs to get their act together Rudy you have hit the nail on the head good luck in the future I hope everything works out for you I am a long time player of magic I've been playing since 1994 and find Wizards has given up on the player base

I'm a lifelong player, began back in 94 or 95 as a kid who had no idea what he was doing but definitely knew banding was the best ability and that it would never go away. Over time I came and went with breaks but now I see no reason to come back. It's just stupid gimmick sets, and even the core styles are completely weird to me and as nice as the art is it doesn't feel the same. If they just made sets that felt like it was 95, 99, 2005 or whatever again I would be back in a heartbeat. Instead I get offered an Un-set with stickers that is apparently legal in standard games, Warhammer 40k that is again apparently legal, and so on. Wtf happened?

Amazing closing of the video Rudy....so wholesome and so true! Thank you!

I work for one of the top asset management firm in NYC and got into mtg recently as a player . From what i have heard on the street, no one takes Hasbros recent investor day projections seriously and smart money is quite skeptic on Wotc. We do quite deep dive into what we invest in, and what we see is too many product launches that no one can keep up with especially new players like me are completely blown away. Recent 30th anniversary seems a toast, but gotta wait for next earnings call to see whats happening. Personally i think Hasbro is so desperate under new CEO they just throw everything hoping something will stick. also as a new player, i am not so convinced MTG attracts new player base. Learning curve is quite steep, too many games launched by other publishers people are after games that dont require too much brain power. I dont think WotC will be at a better position in 5 years than today. They are making quite progress on MTG arena though. And you are right, i think direct to consumer will boost their margins, aka cutting out middle man. Thats where they wanna go. I am sure you are smart businessman Rudy, diversification is key. Owning hasbro stock while selling their products though is a risky bet. One thing i learned , don’t invest in the industry, you work at

Eagerly waiting for nicknames such as "Brothers Poor" and "All Will Be Zero" moving into 2023 and beyond.

I've been spending the last year trying to build a complete AFR set, to store in 9 pocket sheets, in a 3 ring binder. I'm getting pretty close, but have noticed no matter how many packs I open, I've really only ever seen 4 token cards: Atropal, Zombie, Skeleton, & Goblin. The only other Magic product I've been buying at my LGS is this thing they call Magic Repacks... A 200 card storage box, filled to nearly bursting with random cards for all of $5. They always make sure to include about a half dozen rares & usually a few foil cards to make the searching a bit more fun. I've found a bit of almost everything from Fallen Empires all the way thru this year's Double Masters. One of my favorite cards from one of these boxes is a Modern Horizons retro frame, Faerie Seer (gorgeous blue etched foil). I've also found a couple foil mythics: Sigarda, Champion of Light from Midnight Hunt... & Anhelo, the Painter from New Capenna Commander. The strangest find (which they admitted shouldn't have been in the box when I asked about it) is a Pokemon Breakpoint 1/122 Chikorita reverse holo League promo card.

I'm walking away from the game . Consumers should speak with their wallet

It's hilarious WotC want celebrities to endorse and play with their products when Wizard's pro-play and tournament programs used to make their own celebrities. The appeal and backbone of Magic is still the LGS, sanctioned play, events, and community. WotC and Hasbro have utterly gutted all of these programs. Many players have stayed due to nostalgia, but I think a sense of community, more events, a route to become a pro player, and that shared communal sense that the game can bring is what's required to see larger numbers of players move into the game and stay playing. Standard sets, the lifeblood of MTG sales, are at a near all time low like Rudy mentioned with so many typical outlets drastically cutting their inventory. This has to occur when there is no demand for standard. If WotC wants people excited to buy and crack standard to play they need to start pulling out numbered cards out of Collector Boosters just for the elite spenders and start making them prizes for players. Real numbered cards for showing up. Make large tournament entries "limited" to create FOMO. Duplicate the same thing on a smaller level with individual stores. Slow down on sets and pump way up on support for sanctioned play. Better integrate Arena with paper Magic where someone doesn't have to be wealthy twice over to be able to play both. Wizard's has the best competitive card game ever printed and a rotating format that has kept sales churning for 30 years, but has all but abandoned the play that made the sets sell. It isn't rocket science. Make tournaments exciting. Make the prizes things like incredibly rare numbered cards. Move all the crazy variants to that sort of thing. Incentivize play like never before. I remember when the original instore programs started and the excitement was truly astonishing. These days if you are lucky enough to find a local standard tournament and go undefeated you'll win 8 packs of a set you already have the cards you needed out of since you are playing with a standard deck that just won. Make the experience special. Make the prizes special. Make your own celebrities again. Or let the game languish and die. The most important thing about a game is that people are PLAYING THE GAME, something that Wizards has seemed to forget over the years. Instead of coming back with a vengeance with exciting event and tournament offerings WotC has tried to shift further away from actual play. Things do have to change and hopefully they do before it is too late.

Selling out X/= Well received. Wizards has forgotten this and if they continue ignoring this than I fear MTG will one day collapse.

Ruthless Rudy ordering his tacos to go and saying "don't forget the salsa".

Hasbro has been on a burnout strategy for MTG. They've been trying to get as much as quick as possible and get out.

I am actually surprised you did not talk about the large amount of misprint in brother war product. Cards with wrong name or art. Some cards not even having the right coloring on the back of the magic cards.

I feel like magic is dying at least the magic I fell in love with, 2-3 years ago when I started we had a ton of people playing at my local lgs. Nowadays more and more people are quitting and I feel we are in a downwards spiral

Like a couple other comments have said, I think the public image Wotc wants for Magic is what Pokemon had like a year or two ago. They saw all these influencers and celebrities doing vintage box openings and investing in the game, generating a *massive* hype bubble, and causing the speculative value of the game to inflate beyond belief. It's a hype bubble that's since popped, but the after effects can still be felt. Its also worth noting that many people into the Pokemon TCG are purely collectors (though not necessarily investors). I've seen many people admit that they basically just love collecting the shiny cardboard that has characters from the games they like, and don't have much interest in actually playing the TCG. If Wotc knows this, and is trying to emulate Pokemon to achieve the same status it has, it could explain some of the decisions Wotc's made with recent product design.

Coming from the D&D side of things WotC certainly seems to be leaving the LGS for direct to consumer platforms. The books are 1/2 price online compared to the stores. I think all these share-holder-driven companies salivating over visions of infinite growth have overproduced and overstocked to levels that are highly detrimental to the front line stores. Strange how inflation and inventory can both be staggeringly high. Great points all through this video, thanks for posting!

Love you rudy!!! Keep up the good work

The was i see it, everyone benefits from a player focused approach, and holy shit this is anything but, a set a month is psychotic for standard, and modern horizons/made for format sets are tearing the sets apart, in theory it used to be that the other formats sift through standard and get a card or two per set at most, or pick up the stuff that doesn’t work in standard. Knock on effect for investors would be that they have a better reason to hold both singles and sealed stuffs, singles for commander/modern/pauper and all, sealed for anyone either wanting to get stuff for standard or make their own cube I’m sure that there is some strategy behind what WotC is doing, but that strategy is myopic at best

Here is the flaw in WOTC logic, without the LGS there is no replenishment of the player base that drifts away from the game naturally. I worked at a bar once, that had live music. It was busy but the owner said the margins were not big enough, so they switched to Karaoke. Profits went way up, for about six months. The live band crowd slowly drifted away and left behind the water drinking karaoke crowd. Wizards is going to learn the same lesson.

It seems people are only buying during initial release because they have all their new commander cards they want, and are not playing Standard.

You're right, the Transformers in this set are fu*$ing stupid. Especially with one in EVERY collector booster pack, there are going to be a million of them.

I appreciate the update.

So true. I like your video endings. 👌👍

They don't need to ask. Everyone knows it. Price tag of a certain product has exactly 2 digits too many.

Thanks for the positivity at the end Rudy! Keep up the good work!

I really appreciate the message at the end. Needed that

Always true words! Some crazy decisions behind the path wizards is choosing :(

I like the idea of metazoo, selling products to stores that support the community (doing local events etc and yes they sell also directly). Luv u Rudy regardless ❤

"My concern is that it just doesn't fit." GIGGITY

If MTG abandons LGS, then LGS will abandon MTG, and MTG will fold because if you don't have a place to play the game, you can't actually play the game, so why would you buy it? EDIT: I mean, why does a LGS run tournaments? To get people into the store and to sell product. Why would you hold a tournament for a product that doesn't sell? You wouldn't, because no one coming into the store would be buying that product.

They already did this with Transformers TCG. After the first wave booster boxes sold out you could buy a cube from pulse with all the super rares and promos + half a boosterbox. and after that you could buy every boosterbox direct.

What if the product sucks AND the price is too high? Oh, that's right now?

“equinsu ocha” called and wants his hair back Rudy! “No one. Messes. With the doo!”

Thanks for the video and perspective Rudy! I will take your "between the lines" advice and triple my position on delicious tacos. Today is taco Tuesday after all.

I'm also wondering if perhaps Hasbro might be dying. It could happen. It's not common something that large just dying but I mean, block buster did.

How do I purchase collector boxes of the new set the Brothers

If the margins were better, maybe. LGS's are still needed to continue to build the game IMO. Direct to consumer products will increase for sure but they won't shut down LGS's.

Forsythe kinda did wonder today what's going on with tweeting why Standard mtg is in a decline lately. Think the change reached at least the old guard of WoTC officials, wondering what's going on.

I think this channel might be my favourite channel on RU-vid right now and I’m not sure how that even happened

That ending was so funny I finally subscribed lolol good video. 👍

Brother's War looks like a really great and very original set.

Got to say I think Rudy is right here. Hasbro is running WOTC as a commodity. Ruthlessly maximising product with the assumption that the public will continue to buy regardless because it’s a ‘needed’ product. I see no change in this policy until they bleed the market dry which means more direct to consumer as middle men services always get squeezed in downturns. Interesting times ahead

Thanks for these videos, Rudy!

Rudy, what's your favorite way to move pallets around the warehouse? Electric pallet jack, manual pallet jack, forklift, bare hands?

The mellow "folks" hit the feels.

Here in Brazil, they are starting to make mtg ads with local celebrities. I do understand your point.

Bring me back to the era of deriums card shop life..good ol days of magic feeling so alive and free

The crux of his argument appears to be that mr. Cocks doesn't want it raw. That'd explain a lot.

I asked my son does he like the transformer magic cards. He said: "those are not magic cards" 7 years old, played a handful times magic with me and my brother ...

I agree if NKE does direct to consumer why not follow the same business model

God damn do I appreciate you rudy. You may be more financially into it while i just love the game and find this stuff fascinating, you are incredibly patient and measured in your actual response. I cant think the amount of people if they were in your position would curse wotc up and fucking down. Im sure most viewers are silent but feel similarly. Thanks for the great videos.

To your point. I have 2 LGS within 50 miles that sell Magic cards. Both of them sell sealed collector boxes for 40 to 50$ higher than what I can buy them for online. I want to support my local LGS but that's not worth it to me. Something is broken.

Dominaria remastered is already on amazon

2010s the entire decade data demonstrates that DTC is not a stable business-model, at least not if you rely on it exclusively.

I've been saying that for the last few years, even before the first Secret Lair drop.

Something I learned about cards a long time ago is they are only worth what someone will pay for them.not wanting to pay a rand for some cards isn't price sensitive

The whole video was great, but the ending was amazing!

We have the technology to build him decks, we have the inventory to fulfill his seedy needs

I tried to look for a brick and mortar LGS, but where is it?

Don't worry MTG is just the new Monopoly

I needed this long Rudy video

Good day, this is the first video I have seen from Alpha Investments. I started playing MTG with my son, then 10 years old with 4th edition/Fallen Empires. It has always been a struggle to get the power 9 etc. The few we did manage to get and revised dual lands, all got sold to help the family eat in the late 90's. Now, for the past 7 years or so, I have tried to keep up and keep going. The power 9 and revised dual lands are pretty much impossible for us to acquire without a lottery win. I envy your being able to stockpile and I value your integrity with the position you are taking. I feel too, like why the greed for direct products that the average new or long-time player cannot get. Where is the "thank you " to forever players with cool stuff to Game stores and distributors, which then trickles down to folks like me? I subscribed now and will try and get the time to go back through your videos. I love Magic, I hope things change, however I agree with you, if they can make the whales and make money without Stores and folks like me, then they will continue to do it. As fans of MTG, no matter what, will still want to play and buy products, because what's the alternative, not play (OMG), boycott (how?) get really mad and scream out the window (doing this now) ...Reality is, no matter what, we will all spend so we will all play...Thanks Hasbro for Hearding all us horses into the box canyon that has only 1 way out.

Surely this falls down at the point that people stop buying direct from Wizards because there is nothing left of the game/community that brought them into the hobby in the first place? I haven't bought a Magic product since Kaldheim and have never bought a secret lair in my life because I just don't want to be a part of it. Surely more and more people are going to fall into the same category over time as wizards keep slapping them with more and more f*ck yous'. That is something I never understood about secret lairs and certainly the 30th annihilation.....Who the hell is buying this shit? I honestly don't understand.

WotC trying to cut LGS out of their distribution model seems to be be deterimental and self-harming in the mid- to long run in my opinion: for all the ecosystem to thrive, people playing the game are ultimately needed; take the place where people can play out of the equation, and why should Timmy buy the new fancy alternate art galaxy foil card is there's nowhere he can show it off? Unless the strategy is to move more and more into Arena, on the base of biased data ("see? people are no longer interested in paper Magic!", says WotC suit after the had the next price increase and LGS discontinue their orders and events).

Ah selling direct to consumer via Amazon has been going poorly. At least in my case. Twice I've ordered from Amazon and twice I have received botched products from missing an entire deck from a 4 deck commander precon to them just sending me 4 of the same decks rather than the four different decks I initially ordered for the WH40k commander decks. Needless to say I will not order Magic products, unless it's older stuff, from Amazon again.

Thanks Rudy. :)

I feel like this outro is my new favorite.

💎 Thanks for playing, please try again 💎