Tolarian Winds: The Real Cost Of Double Masters And Premium Priced Magic: The Gathering Sets 

Is is possible for MTG to survive on Commander alone? Check out my new video that explores just this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W_lBN1RzKHw.html

All this guy ever does is give a voice that represents the MTG community. Keep up the great work Prof.

"These aren't collector's pieces, they're GAME pieces being made into collector's pieces." VERY well said, friend

Wizards: Doesn't reprint fetch lands Me: Fine. I'll do it myself.

Players: "16 bucks is too much for 1 pack!" Wotc: "Is this some peasant joke I'm too rich to understand?"

“Twice the pride, double the fall.” - Count Dooku

Reprints don’t mean anything if packs are that expensive

To be fair, a kid spending $16 on a pack and getting a 50¢ rare will probably never touch this game again. Good for him.

I am not a RU-vid commenter. I don’t do the whole like/subscribe song and dance all that much. But this video strikes at the very core of a lot of challenges I am having with this game and company behind it. Thank you for your effort and for being a player advocate. Thank you for not selling out. People need to see and hear this. Liked. Subscribed. Commented. You getting all this, RU-vid? Listen to the man!

wotc: "I guess this product isn't for you" me: "but why not" wotc: "you're poor"

Preach it Professor, your honesty is as rare as a fetch land reprint.

Mystery Booster boxes were incredible. I pre-ordered my box for under $100, and I loved that product. I doubt we'll ever see anything with value like that again.

Magic: the proxy’ing. My favorite game.

Professor, thank you for giving voice to the thousands of players like me who also love this game but are frustrated. You are not complaining just to complain, you are voicing a legitimate concern that I, for one, share. There is no way wizards doesn’t pay attention to your videos in some way or other and the more people who comment, wizards might actually start to see. I, personally, will not be buying any part of this product, sealed or singles, until the culture of reprints change.

I think that if Secret Lairs didn’t shatter the illusion of cards just being 5 cent cardboard pieces, nothing will.

WotC: "wHy WoN't ThEy StOp CoUnTeRfEiTiNg CaRdS?!?!?!?!?!"

Short term gains at the cost of long term health. I see so many businesses do this, and then years down the road when they lose their loyal base they ask themselves "Where did we go wrong" like they didn't know that it was going to happen.

I've had to quit playing competitive magic several times over the years due to not having the money to afford it. Once they ditched MSRP I knew my personal end to magic was coming to an end, and sets like this are why I've wiped my hands entirely from playing the game. I love this game. I've worked at and co-owned LGS's in the past. I've judged magic at the competitive level. I WANT to play it. But I can't. I can't justify paying the amount of money it takes to play anymore. It makes me so sad. Thankfully, I have friends who can afford it, so I'll be able to sit down with their commander decks and play casually with them, but not everyone has that luxury and I don't think WOTC understands that, or if they do they don't care. Thanks for continuing to make great content, Prof. Just because I can't afford to play anymore doesn't mean I don't still love the content. Keep fighting the good fight and holding their feet to the fire.

The second you showed that price my excitement went from 100 to "nope".

I have a completely tuned Tymna/Thrasios Ad Hoc cEDH deck that's optimized all the way up to my copy of Timetwister. The deck is worth a little over $9,000. Even someone like me won't be buying Double Masters. $300 a box for reprints is stupid, I'll just buy the singles I want from my card shop. My deck is filled with black bordered foreign Revised dual lands, Timetwister, Imperial Seal, Mana Drain, Masterpieces galore. I'd abolish the reserve list and tank all of their prices just to keep people playing the game. Wizards is putting too much effort into preserving collection values that making their game approachable for people who actually want to play the damn game. Abolish the Reserved List, make every set pack price $3.99, make every new Commander deck $35, etc. The sheer amount of extra people you will attract to the game and retain as established players will MORE than make up for the lower shelf prices. Wizards and Hasbro don't seem to understand this.

Imagine being a kid trying to by a booster with his allowance and finding it to be $16. He is going to turn around and buy something else

Social distancing highlight: I just watched this guy's hair grow back... Also, I agree 100%.

When I heard the price of this set I immediately said that I'm almost done with magic it just feels like this pandemic is putting it into perspective for me, It feels good to jump onto youtube not even expecting to see anyone saying anything about it and happening upon your post thank you prof. for being real and standing up for what we believe in having a good time and playing games together, we can't do that when my friends can't afford the game.

I played MTG back in the 90’s and ( foolishly) sold my collection. Fast forward to Theros block and I’m playing again. Much to my surprise, WOTC created a fourth rarity ( mythic). At the time I was like “ what the heck” and quickly realized why. Then I started looking up the price of my collection that I sold. Once I regained consciousness, and saw the reserve list ( I have strong feelings on this list), I became even more aware of what was going on. I had a complete set of dual lands, the most expensive was $12. Right before Pioneer came out, there were targeted buyouts and it became clear: WOTC is in fact corrupt. They claim they don’t pay attention to the secondary market which is odd because why else would they feel justified charging a premium for cards that once were sold in a $3 pack? It’s almost like someone should take them to,court over market manipulation. While I do have disposable income, it won’t be going to this game until WOTC gets its head out of its collective asses

I love how after this video they literally announced 5+ secret lairs when people still havent gotten their theros gods yet

Products like this make me increasingly OK using proxies. I have the money, but am tired of spending so much on this game. They are really abusing the secondary market.

Great argumentation! I’ve been playing since 1994, and I’ve never seen the overproduction of product and price gouging like I’ve seen in the last five years. I 100% agree with you! Well done!

One con I can think of with high price per pack is that it actually doesn't get Wizards the most money. A young Timmy with $20 to spend can only get one pack, and Wizards is missing out on $4 profit. Now imagine if he only had $10 to spend - they just lost all $10 of profit. If the packs were $10, or hell let's say $5, then he'll spend all his money because the individual unit price is low enough that he can spend exactly how much he wants. There have been multiple "expensive" sets in the past couple years that I thought were fun to draft, but I didn't draft as much as I would have because the buy-in for each session was just too high. Basically, the lower the cost of each booster, the more everyone will spend.

We've reaching the point of no return: the prof is advocating for $9.99 booster packs. I want my Battlebond prices back

The pricing for this box makes me a little worried for what they are going to do to Commander Legends.

Honestly with the price of magic, I am tempted more and more to sell out all together.

I love every video I have watch this far. From both a hobby aspect along with a business oriented aspect I get from it: Super informative on so many various facets of this game/hobby.

Intelligence is understanding that no matter how high the price, your customers will buy your products. Wisdom is not charging 16 dollars per pack.

Prof, thanks for representing us “little guys”. I’m a fairly new player and frankly, I can’t afford any of these new “premium products”. I feel like I’m losing out on so much value of acquiring these great reprints or cards like the fetch lands that my commander decks really need. Every time I go to my LGS to play, all the older players who played when these cards where affordable seem be able to make their decks work and play much better than mine. It’s starting to get frustrating. It’s forced me to build budget decks, which work fine against other new players, but struggle against just about any veteran player/deck.

I'm so glad you keep it real, I can;t even keep up with all the different prices on everything

Thanks so much, Prof, for advocating for players. I imagine posting something like this comes with a little fear, but it summarizes the exact feelings of many, many people that otherwise love this game. I played MtG as a kid, came back in 2018, happily dropped about $2 k catching up, and the ramp-up of exclusives and arbitrary prices in 2018-19 led to me dropping out of anything more serious than casual kitchen table games. My hobby money now goes toward Gundam kits, and Bandai just started making the rare stuff cheaper and more accessible to US customers. It’s great to give my money away and not feel taken advantage of! If Hasbro cared to treat us with respect, I’m ready to support MtG again.

"People will still buy it. And no, your boycott won't change that." Most of us agree with you, Professor. So the next question is: for a company seemingly interested in short term benefits over long term health of the game, how do we, the consumer, effect change?

I was honestly hyped for this product till I saw prices and realized I can't afford it. Well, yet another product that isn't for me if I understood WotC correctly.

Well said! This is why you're my favorite Magic RU-vidr. Honest, thoughtful, and kind. Keep up the great work Professor

You've earned my respect from this video. Fluent, valid points, and from the heart. Got yourself a subscribe, it's deserved.

Wizards either has to acknowledge the secondary market, and all the legal ramifications of it, or, explain why an entirely reprinted set with no new card design costs so much. No MSRP was a way to wipe their hands of acknowledging cards prices entirely, but an MSRP with set 9.99 per pack for “new art” reprints “masters sets” should be enough to maintain customers and profit largely. No MSRP has ruined magic for a lot of the players I know, including the person who taught me the game in college. They got tired of spending the cash to draft and even more tired of the “bleeding people dry” as you addressed. Great video Prof.

I’m literally about to stop buying anything because of wizards hypocrisy.

Honestly one of the negative impacts that often goes over-looked, has to do with ignoring poorer players who are the wide BASE.. that keeps your game alive/fresh. When people start leaving a game because the company has become too greedy and decides to only market the game to people with higher incomes.. those same people who spent massive amounts of money eventually stop spending money because there isn't anyone left to "get ahead of" which is often the reason they're spending so much to begin with. You have to strike some sort of balance. You can make way more money with a much wider net.. it may require more "effort" to strike such a balance, that you can keep the game alive for decades to come than a quick burn out to exploit the base you've built (on what use to be a fairly cheap game to get into).

100% agreed. Best regards from a small city and mtg community in Mexico.

The first time I heard the “double masters” name, first thing I thought was “at double the price”

Double Masters is a really hype-filled and exciting set, probably with a nice draft environment, that I wont be able to experience because $15 a booster pack are you kidding me?! If I wanna do a winston draft that's $90 for one night and a few hours of fun for two people, that's kinda ridiculous. This is a very nice way of enriching the supplies of cards for players who probably already had the $$$ to buy them at their higher prices.

Way off topic.. but I got a little too excited when I noticed the Death's Gate Cycle books on your shelf. Great and accurate video. Thank you for your continued dedication to keeping things grounded and honest.

Love your videos man. Thanks for the information and your input into the game that we all love.

I see these videos, and they honestly make me feel sick to my stomach... because you're right. I love this game, so damn much. When I was 15 years old and a Freshman in high school, well, I had been homeschooled until the 7th grade, so I had a total of two friends, and that is not a joke. I saw an MTG battle deck box at Toys R Us (this was back when they still existed) and I was intrigued by the art. That Monday, I was in the library getting a book when I noticed a whole crew of people sitting around and playing the same game I had noticed the other day. So... that weekend, I went ahead and bought the Eldrazi vs. Zendikar dual decks, and taught myself how to play. I walked into the library that next Monday with the Eldrazi half of my two new decks and said "who wants to play?" and I was immediately confronted by someone who not only wanted to play but was willing to help me learn more than I had been able to learn on my own. I know everyone in that room to this day, all of them my best friends. Looking at what WoTC has done and continue to do to this amazing game I adore, the same game that helped me find my best friends, it sickens me, because I know that sooner or later, someday, others won't be able to have the same experience I did. They won't be able to buy two decks for $25, have them fight each other and learn to play, and eventually, go to their LGS for their first game. They won't be able to buy a Standard Challenger Deck for $30 and just jump into the game for an FNM tourney or even just a friend. If I had seen those Dual decks for $50, or even $40 I can't say I would have bought the product, which means I most likely would have never found my love for the game, or, more importantly, never met the people I can honestly say feel like a second family to me... and the thought that WoTC is doing this for easy, upfront cash, it makes my blood boil, it makes me wish that one person would just stand up at one of their meetings and say it all out loud: It's "Magic: the Gathering," but the higher they raise the cost of this beloved game, the fewer people there will be Gathering around to play it.

One additional point: I spent around 1K in the past month between Ikoria and Mystery. I have the means. A close friend with whom I play often with is really struggling financially and can barely buy booster packs. If the price goes that high he won't and shouldn't buy any. And he will in time stop, meaning we'll be down to 3 players and we will also eventually stop. That choice is plain stupid... the only 2 reasons this price is so high is profit and avoiding to mess with card prices and alienate hoarders...

13:12 that line honestly hit me in the feels

I don't play this game anymore and ended up giving my cards to my friends. But this channel was always a good recourse for help.

Thank you for voicing us prof! I had to quit magic due to its cost alone. We in South America struggle to play, and if the prices keep hiking, our communities will wane. I know most people won't care, but you do. THANK YOU!

I'm thirteen and these products are cutting me off from the game I just want to play. Edit: thanks so much everyone for the advice I really appreciate it. The magic community is so helpful and kind and no matter what happens with products it is amazing knowing that so many play and I'm so happy knowing that the game I love has such a great playerbas

Prof, I’ve been watching your videos since I started playing last year. I’m happy to have your voice representing the players. Especially the ones without a ton of disposable income

Prof thank you so much for these types of videos. We need someone to point these kinds of things out. The price gouging that has been going in the last couple of years is ridiculous.

13 year old here I’ve been playing since I was 7. I can only make so much babysitting I’m constantly being priced out. I used to be able to play at my LGS but now I can’t as I can’t afford to even buy staples in modern, my format of choice.

I have my old commander deck that i haven't updated since war of the spark. The secret lairs look cool, i can't afford them, double masters looks neat, definitely can't afford it. Never played unsanctioned. I just.. there's too much. There's already too much to keep up with and half of it is waaay to expensive and i can't play magic anymore. At least not with anything new.

I’m really glad that professor is here fo us, and speaks for the player base, not only from his personal standpoint.

300$ for a booster box ... When I was younger I always thought a Yugioh booster box for 100$ is already exorbitant for what you get (which is a box of printed cardboard) and felt unacchievable as a kid ... but this ... 300$ for a gamble box ... 300$ for a box of semirandom cards ... How should the younger starter generation of kids come into the hobby when you lock the best content behind these prices ... For this ammount of money you can buy whole smartphones, laptops, TV's, collections of board games, video game consoles+ games... and kids/teenagers will rather buy these things from their cash ...

Phenomenally articulated, Bravo and couldn't agree more.

"Maybe this product isn't for you!" Well, this product would be for me if I could afford it :)

I dont recommend my friends to get into magic anymore without telling them the prices and they scoop before even have a deck to play.

I can no longer in good faith continue to sponsor my high school's MTG club. I can't justify the prices involved for teenage players and I will not defend the company to parents who may be upset. Thanks for all the good times Prof!

WotC: “The double cost is THEMATIC! It’s so much FUN! Right, everyone!? [Nervous, forced laughter] Everyone: We love your game, but we have bills; if no one can afford to play, you’re smothering your game. Rob L: Proxies. Honestly, though, I think their trying to push the game to a electronic medium. Price a lot of people out, advertise the electronic medium hard, convert the tourneys to electronic, undercut your main suppliers; It all looks like piss-poor, top-down management or an effort to try and convert it to the electronic medium.

watch the Maro quote come out: "It's not designned for you."

Thank you for the video, Professor. As always I come to your channel to hear a reasoned and researched arguments. Regardless of whether I ultimately end up agreeing with your conclusion, I always come out better informed and challenged to make better arguments for my own views. It's a valuable service and I appreciate it. I was very surprised in this particular video, because I saw something I almost never see from you - what I felt to be a misunderstanding or perhaps a misrepresentation of the facts. This does not diminish my respect for your work, as I've seen enough of you to assume this was either an honest oversight or done deliberately with good intention. That is why it is my hope you may see and even respond to this comment. You focus on the price of $16.30 per booster. And yes, bizarrely, Wizards did put that price up on Amazon for a single pack. However at the same time, "Draft Packs" of 3 boosters were listed at $35 (or ~11.66 per pack) and "Booster Box" for $299.99 (or ~12.50 per pack, with 2 free box toppers). Given the "double everything" theme or rares, foils, even box toppers, I don't think double the price is actually unreasonable at all - which would put it in the $8-10 per pack range. Now yes, there is still a gap between $8-10 range and the $11.66-12.50 range. I think there is still a fair point to be made there about increasing cost to the consumer. But why fixate on the 16.30 price for a single pack when (one can hope) almost nobody would buy this "special/premium/double" set 1 pack at a time?

Very well put, I hope somebody out there is paying attention.

Man, as a newer player (around 2 years ago) the consensus I've been seeing first hand is that Hasbro is making poor decisions, and, yes, I've spent liberally on a few big upgrades, but Proxies are legit becoming my go-to. I refuse to pay $40 and more for singles, and it's killing the entry-level for all new players that would LIKE to take the game seriously. Talk about "pay-to-play"

Prof nailed this. Even tho I have the disposable income I don’t want to try and keep up with this. Been playing for 25 years and love this game. But upon realizing I spent $900 on mystery boosters (and got my first six boxes at a steal of 100 each) I had to reflect and decide if this was worth it. They’re spamming us with so many products that I decided against buying ANY ikoria. I bought zero of a standard set. That’s insane! But I can’t rationalize trying to buy what I want anymore, especially with design being so bad that things will get banned left and right. When I thought this product would be $10/pack which is admittedly still expensive, I was hyped af for this product. But at $16 they can keep it. I’ve spent too many hundreds of dollars on trash masters sets to do this again. Wotc, finding a way to drive out consumers with 100k salaries one guy at a time. I feel really badly for your “poor” people making only 60k. Peasants. Fu Wotc

This reminds me of an old Extra Credit video about free-to-play MMOs. I haven't watched it in years but basically the response the team had when developers ask "how much content do you expect me to make for people who won't spend a cent on my game?" was "As much as you can. Because players are content." The same concept applies here. Players with and without disposable income are going to be playing the same game in the same locations. The more meaningful matches affluent players can have against their more frugal counterparts is the more investment they will have in Magic.

Hey Professor, I listened to Drive to Work with Mark Rosewater. It was really nice and I liked the story with Andy and your local game store

Yeah, this was necessary after that disappointing interview with Gavin a couple months back. Thing is, Wizards does perceive the whole game's card pool (every card out there, literally) in terms of net worth. Their operation is always focused in increasing the value of the whole pool, as that is "the value of the game", which is essentially their property. It is an indicator of how much the game is worth, marketwise. Therefore, there is no interest in devaluing it; that's why reprint sets are always expensive and borderline unaccessible. It's been a pay to win game for a long time now, but as more people play it, the worse it gets. Half my playgroup left the game in the past 3 years, all because of the same reason: price. And that is the saddest thing. Nowadays I just keep up because I love the game, love having the decks and thinking and building; but I almost don't play it anymore. I goldfish a lot, though.

Me: " hey I missed a few sets because life happened I miss mtg what's the new masters set like?" "Well I guess I'm missing this one too"

Prof always provides the voice of the community and does such a good job. Well done, Prof

I'm happy you're totally being honest about your views :3

"You can't pull a $.50 rare if you don't believe in the secondary market" -WotC (Probably)

Magic the Gathering is turning into "Magic: this product may not be for you", which is just...sad

A while back I mentioned to a friend about how much I liked Dragon and Angel cards. He pointed me towards Kaalia as a commander and I've been fine tuning a possible deck before I start buying everything including her (which is at around $20 right now). I was hopeful for her reprint but... well... yeah

thank you for your continued efforts to help keep consumer education high. for me personally, i have an addictive personality and have had problems in the past with overextending my bank account on micro transactions and such. you having ordered videos talking about the pros and cons on products has really helped me not get roped into the whale hunting WotC has been doing lately. i really appreciate it.

Magic is going down the what I like to call “theatre concession stand” road. Let me explain it like this If a theatre charges you $10 for a bucket of popcorn that we all know costs $1 to make, you feel taken advantage of as a customer. Meaning that people who feel taken advantage of, seek other alternatives. I will either not eat when going to a movie, bring my own snacks, or worst of all for the theatre, just rent the movie from my own home. Magic is currently going through a similar situation. I will either not buy this, and similarly priced products to begin with, I’ll print proxies because it’s almost mandatory at this point for anyone making less than 100k a year, or worst of all, I will stop playing. A customer who stops playing entirely doesn’t buy new sets and products, Wizards. You would do well to remember that. I can think of plenty of other card, board, and video games that requires a lot less capital to play and enjoy with friends.

we need to stop demonizing counterfeits if this is the result of letting them do this

Pokémon: standard prices are too high, we need to reprint cards so more people can play the game and be happy WoTc: sToP BeInG pOoR lMaO 🤣

Hi professor! I'm a big fan of yours! I stopped playing mtg due to the extremely competitive players and the cost of mtg, but I still watch your videos and learn about new collections just for fun! Thanks for making the video!

Wizards: "Don't you guys have p̶h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶ money?"

Over $16 for 15 cards. More than $1 per card. Might as well play the lottery for that money.

Thank you. This is exactly how I feel about magic now a day's

Love the way you have stated this Professor. This is a great example of WOTC acknowledging the secondary market without actually acknowledging it

All this guy ever does is criticize Wizards of the Coast...for their numerous screwups and extremely bad choices in the past couple years. I just want to enjoy and afford the game again but they make it so so so hard.

Prof, I want to thank you for making these videos and for being a voice for all us. I watch every one of your videos, but have never commented. The crassness with which they have raised these prices, and the way you made so incredibly, sickeningly clear with the Battlebond example, really drives home the contempt that WotC (Hasbro) seems to have for their consumers. Keep fighting the good fight Professor, keep saying it and they will listen.

Great work keep up the content your a voice for the small guy!

He hit the nail on the head with this one. I had been playing for a long time and enjoyed playing draft and standard, but as the price kept creeping up I played less and now I only play tabletop commander.

As someone who has played magic for a really long time and absolutely loves the game, products like these have been making me play less and less over recent years. I basically play exclusively commander now because I just can't afford to buy full playsets of scalding tarns and bloodstained mires because I'm just a teenager who has a job that pays $13 an hour. These products have almost entirely killed the game for me.

Oh man the Nintendo Switch comparison got me, hadn't put that together - YEESH

Thank you for this, I literally only have enough funds to participate in pre-release events and while these boxes look amazing and I definitely want one - I never will unless it’s a private, at home draft; and with how lucky I’m NOT with regular boosters, I can’t see myself paying $15 for any Masters/CE boosters.

I love MTG, played as a middle schooler and now I'm 30. Although I took a break for years I went hard the past year. I was buying Ultimate, Eternal, Modern, and Masters 25 boxes like they were going out of style. I enjoyed cracking the packs and getting an awesome card, but within a few months I noticed a pattern that turned me away from Magic. Although I play, I'm also a big collector. Box toppers, foils, graded cards, etc are all great in my eyes. Furthermore, I would actually use a lot of Master's set cards in my modern decks. I was temporarily content with price point vs. the average value of a box's content until months later, when I realized how volatile prices were, thanks for WOTC undermining their own product. That $200 Mana Crypt I just got from Eternal Masters? That helped justify my absurd purchase of a booster box for $350. But now that card is $120, thanks for another reprint shortly after. So those who collect take a lose bc of WOTC aggressive and greedy reprint policy. Fine. We live with it and move on. Now, only MONTHS later, it gets REPRINTED again in another absurdly expensive set. So now you're $200 collectible "feel good" card is less than half. This is only ONE example. I can go on and on, such as myself building a $1,200 modern deck to have core cards replaced every few months because WOTC is literally forcing new product down our throats, inevitably updating the meta. So now all the time and money I put into customizing, foiling, caring, etc. about my new deck is reversed, and I have to modify it again, and again, and again. WOTC this is not a good look. I used to throw thousands into your company but once I snapped out of it, I realized your corporate greed has taken away from the meaning of the game. I hope more people realize this and stop purchasing your redundant new product, you cheap pricks.

WOTC: Win conditions: $75 Card selection: $20 Interactive spells: $125 Fetchlands: $1,000 Other lands: $100 Someone please help my non-rotating format is dying. Player base: Reprint fetchands. WOTC: No.

I bought the Nintendo Switch Lite for $200, and this box of paper cost $300 lmao. People need to boycott this

6:25 is the same argument I’ve been making about vintage and legacy.

This is a great video. You're back on my good side. I just looked at Amazon and saw Battlebond (and many others like Modern Horizons) at far less than 299.99, which is a price that will go up for Double Masters in my opinion. And considering that we don't even know the catalog of cards for Double Masters, it is safe to say that the fix is in for all those at Wizards and their friends, who are "double" dealing in the secondary market. F's in chat.