As a 49 year old who started from the beginning, I'm relegated nowadays to breaking out my cards and sorting them over and over again longing for the past.
I hear that, been playing since 1995. I’m 43 and MTG will not be getting any more of my money. I don’t even really get to play anymore and for some reason I was still buying cards every other week. These greedy corporate jackasses can pound sand! I’m over it.
Strixhaven and Streets of New Capenna felt a bit out of place, and they were properly almost almost universes beyond, but anything before that still seemed deeply MTG to me. When a forest is no longer a forest and a mountain is a skyscraper or an island is a planet. That’s where it gets too goofy for me. I need a believable illustration to go with the name of the card and how it works from a flavor perspective fueling that spell with the mana and the source of that mana.
I wouldn't mind all these new IPs and UBs and Secret Lairs (even Spongebob) entering our little Magic the Gathering playground if only the artworks for the new cards weren't so abhorrently revolting and terrible.
@@OmnomnomPancake Fair point 😂. Ravnica can be the exception since it doesn’t have a direct correlation elsewhere. Like strixhaven is clearly Harry Potter and SNC is a mobster movie.
@@Laevateinn- True. They are taking so many shortcuts these days just to get it done 😭. I for one hate the stupid grey triangle that appears at the bottom of every universes beyond card. Not eloquent at all. Zero eye appeal.
No way , everyone can’t wait to have Gandalf fight spider man using a power fist riding in a ufo fighting cloud strife who is wearing power armor and drinking a nuka cola while you use your ring of power.
Thanks for giving your thoughts, it was encouraging! I was disturbed by the announcement, but I can see from a new player perspective if they open some sweet FF cards it would be weird to be told they can’t play with them
I don't have a problem with the UB - well maybe not a fan of something like Spongebob - but my issue is that now they're doing 6 Standard sets a year. You just can't keep up. Who can learn a set, play limited, play constructed with 250 new cards every 8 weeks? They're just pushing out too much product.
must the that mythical "average mtg player" in wotc's mind that has 12k disposal income every month and all the time in the world purely dedicated to a card game
Absolutely agree Kevin. Magic’s biggest strength is its game system. The lore has been bad since Khans block, the world building past Innistrad block has been very gimmicky, and their characters don’t relate to anyone. Their best characters for the last 15 years have been Liliana, Garruk, and Ugin, yet they’ve never capitalized on them like they should’ve. Bring on Universes Beyond. Maybe now we’ll have memorable characters with powerful abilities that resonate between all types of players.
Having to engage with IPs you don't care about in 60 card constructed is super lame. It's just advertisements. But well magic is commander and you pick and choose whatever. Game isn't really for me anymore. But this does open a lot more potential for flipping and scalping, so that's exciting. I think this is absolutely unsustainable, very hard to double profits every few years after running out of S tier IPs. Eventually one of these sets will bomb and all hell will break loose.
@MrRayRockstar Nah it did fine. It had a pretty small print run and prices are stable. I'm talking a 40% drop in price at release. Would make an ip look horrible and the holder would be angry. More likely now thay every set is a standard tent pole.
When the Kevin Rants end, that's when Magic truly ends. 😂 You are correct in your analysis. However, for some of us MTG was about the lore AND the game play. It's a shame WOTC couldn't find a way to preserve the loyalty of the old fan base while chasing a new one. It's a bold strategy thats definitely working in the short term. We'll see how it does long term. I'm out though. 30 years was a good run. I'm too old for this. Only here because I like you guys and watching how things unfold. Best of luck navigating this crazy business!
@freestylestl470 I thought about that before I sold off the bulk of my Commander cards. Figured I can pick them up cheaper if I change my mind. 😄 I'm older than Kevin. I'll probably be before that happens. 🤣
If WotC were better at branching Magic into other media they wouldn’t be playing defense. Look at how accessible yet profitable Pokemon is almost 30 years later. Yet WotC trips over themselves repeatedly when they’ve tried to branch the IP out. So we get the Fortnite-ification of Magic. Lame. Boring. Done.
MTG doesn't have a pikachu or a mickey mouse. Our planeswalkers will never appeal to little children like a mew or a minion will. The face of magic isn't a cartoon character, but the game itself. Imo
@@MrRayRockstar I played Magic in like 95-96, lost an ante match, quit as a kid. Later on I saw the Factory Magic the Gathering commercials etc. corporate joke ones. Borders, Barnes and Noble, local shops all had "Jace" everywhere. Visually he looked very interesting and caught my eye. That cutout of Jace and the Toy, the Books etc. were all pretty good at visually catching my attention back to the game and Lore. And contrary to your own statement, how relevant is . Mickey Mouse? I live by Disneyland and Mickey Mouse hasn't been relevant for 20+ years. (Spongebob is more recognizable and popular than Mickey today) Where as Pikachu still is, even in the current Pokemon Horizons show, more relevant and I doubt it's just due to mascot appeal. Lore, stories, etc. make a difference. Magic the Gathering needed to do their version of Arcane like Riot did and put their lore out there.
@MadolcheGabbana mickey mouse will always be relevant. Do you really think Lorcana will be doing so well without the house of mouse? MTG should do a show like Arcane? Well, they have. Coming out soon. You didn't know? A teaser was released.
@@MrRayRockstar Nah. Mickey wasn't relevant when we were kids. The House of Mouse, Mickey, Donald, Goofy (honestly shocked there's no Kingdom Hearts movie in the works because that would reintroduce these characters) are relics of the past. I don't see anyone today hyped about Mighty Mouse, or Pop-Eye, and same for Mickey. Disney has done well with Cars, Frozen, etc. and keeping their Disney products relevant, but I doubt any child past the toddler stage has any connection to Mickey Mouse. Toon Town has been downsized every other 5 years and the characters don't walk around like back in the day. Ironically it's adult gen X and millennials who get excited about seeing Mickey and Minnie. iPads and this new generation are a little whack lol The Masonic initiation of the sorcerers apprentice in Fantasia was not enough to capture the minds of all children, and for the better. I did know and hear but thought it got pushed back and cancelled etc. Magic would do well though. Or idk Maybe Magic should do an old style show based on the game itself and cardshop life lol
@MadolcheGabbana bro. Every Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, etc, is introduced by Mickey Mouse. If your children can't recognize him, then maybe there's something wrong with your children. But my children know that Mickey's the boss lol
Interesting take. I think the argument of doing Universes Beyond as a defensive measure doesn't hold up though: Magic has had to fend off countless, constant new trading card games and living card games for over 30 years, and only a rare few of those sets felt like Universes Beyond (Arabian Nights and Portal Three Kingdoms come to mind). If the IP has been proven to be good enough before, there's no reason it can't be again, you just have to buckle down and put in the work with storytelling in various forms. That leaves more provincial motives for doing Universes Beyond, like greed.
They made them cowboys, they made them visit a clue mansion.... Yeah time to just use other peoples IP's.... 🤣 MTG should've had animated films and movies similar to RIOT's little videos they make, they spend money making set intro's... Why not get some VA's and push it a bit further. For Lorcana they really should've allowed up to 3 colors instead of 2, I get why BUT if ink is any color you need why not.
I wouldn't mind all these new IPs and UBs and Secret Lairs (even Spongebob) entering our little Magic the Gathering playground if only the artworks for the new cards weren't so abhorrently revolting and terrible.
Don't matter is it negative or positive, gameplay on paper will become more complicated on your local gamestore, just following what's legal and what's not. I've attended to Standard Showdowns and newer players who wanted to try constructed format after Commander, have had cards that are not legal, cause they didn't find the right information through WOTC's own channels and sites. Rather than this they should've just made everything legal in everything and let the players form playgroups based on similar preferences.
Modern culture had an impact as well. To many people focused on winning as quick as possible. That or trying to play solitaire. Either way the focus shifted from playing magic to how can i not play magic and win.
Even something as far away as Spongebob is fitting for Magic in the right context. You've got the entire multiverse of content that is within reach. And in standard everything will rotate out eventually so not the end of the world. I think they went wrong on a few fronts simultaneously and its the combination that's really coming back to haunt them. Not supporting the ecosystem in general, focusing tons of energy on the players while trying to pull cash out of what really should be niche collector product lines, letting the niche products completely dominate and overshadow their own IP and ignoring that TCGs are a mature market space now and there is some strong competition coming up so not every competitor is starting from square zero anymore. Disney has to be way off base before anything it puts out won't sell in bulk (hardcore adult disney fans are one of those cringey millenial things). For now Magic still has a long history and a huge fan base that gives them a lot of strength in the space but if they don't make some course corrections then the bleeding away of fans will eventually become a very big problem for them. Just like new TCGs are copying the best parts of their approach, they need to look at the competition and copy they best parts of their approaches. Ironically it will probably just involve unwinding most of what they've been doing for awhile. Given the lead time on their production I think there will be some wild shifts in sets released in 2026/2027. Maybe in 2028 if they've been slow to react which sadly seems completely plausible.
People really like the story articles that used to be actual books back in the day. Not saying it's widespread everyone loves the characters and lore but people do care. It's where the whole Vorthos identity came from as you should know.
I was fine when this was What If like you said. The problem for me was they killed their own lore and environment to achiev this. Also saying they needed to do this is a fake statement and please the company behind for sure. They grown enough over the decades, but after the shareholders took the game suddenly they need to do this, come on...
People felt the same way when we moved our main focus storyline away from Dominaria into other planes. Ang I know, at least it's still mtg. The lore never goes away. It stays. But in the past.
The set after foundations (innistrad) premise seems very underwhelming. Cool concept but the reprint portion original set doesn’t carry value imo. What if Disney bought MTG 😅
Magic IP is strong & represented in the gameplay... Anyway, i will turn my jace planeswalker into an equipment, equip him to creature jace...and ill swing at your jace. Jace killing jace with a jace mace
What is that Standard, I think I've heard my LGS wanted to host an event of that format once but that never fired because there were to few players. Not that it matters because with it being universes beyond as well, it will probably not take off anyway.
All the people mad about UB in standard probably are the same people saying “standard sucks” and haven’t played it post pandemic. The one thing a lot of magic players hate more than UB is… magic the gathering 😅
Not the case for me. If my LGS offered standard I would play it in paper, as it is I am active on Arena. I know that standard is diverse and pretty healthy, I also know I want nothing to do with Universes Beyond.
I think the mtg lore has always been bad lol. UB makes so much sense when every other successful tcg has a license backing it. Weiss Schwarz is very successful as a game that works like UB with tons of different anime licenses. I think they can be successful with this once the old guard gets accustomed to it.
Agreed. We can't go back an fix 10 years of basically a lackluster world building / characters / writing. It is too late for that. They might as well double down on what is actually "magical" about magic and that is the mechanics. It is the OG that every card game desperately tries to mimic. Not one game has tried to knock off or even be be inspired by the magic lore or storyline ever.
Ok so the original sets of arabian nights etc ARE NOT UNIVERSES BEYOND. As MTG is high fantasy and historical right from the beginning. Now setsnlike duskmourn and bloomburrow, yes those ARE universes beyond as they are just crappy horror and redwall memes in cards. And yes bloomburrow and duskmourn are NEGATIVE for mtg.
The Commie Commander here, I’m only commenting to offer some helpful advice. As a new creator, I’m honestly tired of the cynicism. Magic was never “ours to lose” and has always been about more than any single group’s preferences. Having been around since Ice Age boosters could be bought off store shelves, I’ve never thought about shaping Magic to appeal only to people like me. And if you want to embrace the “curmudgeonly MTG hermit” vibe, that’s fine! But I care more about getting new people to play this game. I’ve never been deeply into MTG lore myself, and let’s be real-there wasn’t much lore in the early days. People who worry about Universes Beyond flooding the game should remember that new players will also encounter traditional cards and will adapt just like we have. Instead of being like the “old man yelling at kids on the lawn,” we should embrace our role as stewards of this next chapter of Magic. So, while I won’t be subscribing to your channel, I hope we can all help the community by breaking up echo chambers and making space for fresh perspectives. Have a great day!
While your points are not wrong I still feel MTG becoming the 'Fortnite' of TCG's is still really lame. All originality is fading and they are just doing a cash grab. In the process they are losing their originality, art style, and history. Not everyone likes superhero marvel garbage ... it infects everything these days and its infuriating when you play a game (video game or board game) and that slop gets into it. It is equivalent to watching a serious WWII movie then random 30 second intervals totally random comedy clips with a totally different cinematic style with different characters, and locations, and stories are injected into the movie. Only time will tell but I think as time goes on this will tank them or they will lose all identity of the original game to keep chasing new IPs from other companies. They now have to keep trying to get new players in as old ones fade when their IP becomes a few years old from a single set or two and then goes out of rotation.
@@MrRayRockstar Not really, its comparing apples to oranges for me 1) Legos since the beginning of time was always various sets of different time periods from sci-fi to pirate ships and styles. Legos has had 1999's Star Wars sets even so they have had IPs from other companies from their early days with no cohesion, MTG is essentially taking their original style and phasing it all out to become the Fortnite TCG. 2) With Lego sets you aren't FORCED to play against/buy each set, with MTG forcing Marvel trash into core sets that have to be played/played against in standard there is no escape for any normal player. Unless you have a large community that all accepts to banish those cards from UB you're mostly out of luck from all those who want to Marvel it up against you. 3) Lego isn't some competitive/casual player vs player(s) game like MTG. With legos you have complete agency to build, create, or evade any set or IP you don't like. Its not like Jimmy will come over to your house and force his sets on you to build lol. With MTG get used to Marvel taking over core sets or sit out for a few years until they make another original set ... even then if you wanted to use said original cards you'll most likely have to face off Iron man or batman beating you to a pulp when all you wanted was the original high fantasy style MTG used to be, EDIT 1: For the record, I haven't bought Legos in decades. I just have my two old tubs of legos when I was a kid but haven't touched them for years. Most of my fond memories from legos were the original creation sets they had, not corporate IP sets really, I didn't even own many of the star wars ones. Lego was always about making original stuff from the pieces for me. If other kids wanted IP sets and thats how they had fun thats great, but other lego enjoyers didn't have to play with or see them. EDIT 2: I am not saying MTG will die with UB sets, if anything its going to expand and the craze will be unfathomable. It will no doubt replace any MTG players who hate UB and stop playing. However, I bet after a few years as these new players who got hooked to only use their IP set soon see those rotate out of standard they may lose interest as WotC starts to run the IP well dry in several years from now. For example, I'm not sure if a Final Fantasy player 3 years later will keep playing when their cards are no longer legal and they gotta play the new set based on Dora the Explorer lol.
