IS MAGIC DYING? WOTC's PATH TO RUIN! | Magic: the Gathering

[@Beesechurger_73]

Commander is the only thing anyone plays within 2+ hours from me. Some modern but places are allowing proxies even in that. It’s really sad to see what Wizards has done to this game, but I still enjoy playing with friends.

[@ethanjohnson2849]

My opinion is Commander is the problem. Commander is the primary cause of the damage to magic

[@Beesechurger_73]

@@ShannonBarber78 sometimes that's true, but these places near me are just allowing proxies, even if you don't have the card, which is kinda bunk.

[@TheJadeFist]

Hell they don't even make standard precons anymore, those used to be a part of new sets. It gave you the flavour of the set, gave you a base for a deck you could play out of the box and then go mess with. They also insist on making X number of legendaries every set to appease the commander gods, even if it's just a slightly better than normal mana producer, you would normally 3 or 4 in a deck but you can't play 2 of them so that screws up that up too.

[@piffling2238]

The moment they gave us Godzilla variants in Ikoria the floodgates were opened.

[@stormybaker4135]

Honesty, it isn't bringing outside IPs into MTG that pisses me off the most...it's the frequency with which they keep introducing mechanically unique cards into the game through UB. I've been playing for 25 years and have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the cards, but last week I sat down to play EDH with some young 'uns and they were playing so many new cards from LOTR that I simply had no idea what was happening 1/2 the time. And all the alternate arts make it damn difficult to even recognize the cards anymore.

[@gmGrudgeMonster]

Honestly, my friends and I have been playing around the kitchen table for many years. We might buy and play the new sets unless its priced past what we are comfortable spending, which is sadly the new normal. Mostly we just play with the cards we already have. Very little of the crossover universe product gets used in our decks, mostly because it just feels off. I might, at some point, build a Jump-the-Shark cube for all the universe beyond cards, but I dont expect it will see any more play than my Un-Cube does.

[@TheJadeFist]

I don't mind it when it's a card reskin. Optimus Prime is in my ninja deck, but that's about it. Maybe a handful of balder's gate cards that play normally have found their way into things too (mainly because I didn't realize they were from beyond), but any of these things with special rules just go into the box and aren't going to get used.

[@nicholascox6411]

Standard is dead , mtg is just commander now

[@tysnow9524]

For now until wotc milks it dry.

[@luxray4911]

It's unfortunate honestly. I feel for people who play other formats and having to see edh just eat into what they like.

[@thebigsquig]

Commander players are starting to get wise and now just proxy everything. Why buy product?

[@Svergara1]

Yea draft and cube are the ticket formats to long term enjoyment… at least for me

[@makidiaz3894]

It was dead for years and years, I remember LGS’s only doing Friday Night Drafts because no one wanted to play standard way back in 2014

[@returnoftheduelist9790]

Been playing mtg since Ikoria released and the main issues i have are: 1.) the insane power creep within the past fews year, and now set to set. It’s almost impossible to not get new cards for decks; decks should be allowed to sit on a shelf for 1 year and be playable. 2.) casual edh being basically dead due to power creep; ppl quitting 1v1 formats and going to edh with a competitive mindset, and no one plays precons/budget brews and casual jank. Its not a high power format and there no prizes so why be a d**k and ruin ppls casual fun. 3.) price increases every year if not each set as well. No way intro precons should be $80 or more when that and jumpstart is for new players. Precons should always be $30-$40. 4.) mtg brand dilution; and with all the random ips, legal unset, and forced non mtg arts in mtg, how is one supposed to know what the mtg brand is? Or even create a connection when nothing is unique? 5.) too much product and too many sets per year; theres zero hype and a week after a set releases we have spoilers for the next set, and leaks for the following set. Its way too much; 2x as much as what we need. We could not print legends or even cards for that matter, and be set to play mtg for life…..nothing new is needed, power creep only ruins games (look what happened to yugioh), and the art and flavor is lackluster compared to what we had.

[@justinw4447]

I second the power creep issue. They just keep pushing a single cards power level to the point its warping the Meta. On my LGS, everyone is running the same deck and it's gotten to the point that it's not fun anymore. I stopped playing paper Standard and EDH because of this. Just doing casual pauper with friends and I am honestly having more fun with it.

[@sattoriemei3210]

This is gonna go down the funko pop path imo.

[@Beckola44]

I agree with what you said. Wizards has lost its direction because Hasbro keeps forcing them to make more money. My oldest son and I started playing Magic in 1994 when Revised came out. We left the game several times but always came back. We love playing Commander at the kitchen table and having drafts. There have been far too many price increases this year. All of the reprint sets are so overpriced driving down the value of cards on the secondary market and later on those expensive boxes tank when there is an Amazon dump. Wizards is taking the collectability out of Magic with soooo many reprints. The Brothers War was the last time we bought boxes. We are excited about the Wilds of Eldraine because it is so affordable and there are some powerful cards in the set with some good reprints. I want to build a good Faerie deck. I My oldest son and I pre-ordered quite a few sealed boxes from our LGS. I have been a Doctor Who fan since 1970 and I may buy the Commander Decks depending on the price. I am also excited about MH3, Assassin's Creed, and Bloomburrow. It all depends on the price point. If they are too expensive, we will pass on the set and get proxies instead. I think Ravnica Remastered will be another expensive reprint set just like Dominaria Remastered and Commander Masters. In order for Magic to change direction, Cocks, Williams, and other top people need to go. Thank you for the video Marc.

[@ryanthompson4770]

I love Magic, have since 1995. It makes me so sad to see it's current state. It's never been a worse time for collector's. And I would say it's never been better for players. But the constant deluge of product is not sustainable and will eventually drive the players away too. I can confidently say the beginning of the end for Magic the way we love it started with the end of War of the Spark. The greed, overprinting, backtracking on the Reserved List, etc. all started with the changes of "Project Booster Fun" and Eldraine. I love Eldraine, but this was the beginning of where it's been going. Hasbro will have to learn a hard lesson, and I mean extreme, before they admit it too.

[@shadowedknight66]

Universus Beyond would be great if they were treated as Un-sets and just a fun thing by itself using MtGs rule system. But now parts of Un-sets aren't even treated like Un-sets. Lol

[@jcec]

Here's my "new player" experience: I've been on the fence about getting into MTG for years. I won't lie, I was really intrigued by the 40k and LOTR Universes Beyond sets. Those got me to finally pull the trigger and jump in... only to get burnt immediately by Commander Masters. I'll take my lesson and go play some other card games, see ya later WOTC.

[@TheHamgamer]

Try Flesh And Blood if you haven't looked into it by now.

[@bigpablo673]

​@@TheHamgamergood luck finding any people to play fab with lol

[@MTGUnpacked]

Nice summary of all the issues. Magic has pretty much become the Funko of cardboard, with all that implies.

[@hamsandwich6685]

You can find both in the dump now

[@joejones3387]

WotC: Give us money. People who care: why? WotC: just because it’s been 3 months since you gave us money People who care: what’s new? WotC: we adjusted the gamble chance of chase cards and added new art work reprints. People who care: I mean I would like that chase card. WotC: yeah and we doubled the price again People who care: no.

[@TheJadeFist]

"They want woke, they want more black people, they want more white people" No pro -woke person ever said they want more white people, infact magic has reprinted cards to make white characters black, and it never goes the other way. It's always anti-white because the people doing it are racist against people. It wasn't an artistic choice to make Lord of the Rings characters into africans, it was a hostile act of vandalism. You can have black characters that's fine but make them new or for an actual artistic vision reason. Why not just actually an African tribal themed plane, Egypt kinda was a plane, that's a different things altogether. As far as Asians, Kamigawa was cool, I hope get more sets in that world. That whole Jianggu vs what ever the blue one named was kinda cool, mostly for the puppy, but they should have just done a normal set in a mythical Chinese themed plane. I would be totally down for that, with the palaces and architecture in the cart art, maybe some Kung Fu Masters who roam the world. I thought the blue chick had some cool stuff going but the limited set being a precon vs deck, that was bad, didn't help sell the theme, she cost like 6 mana, requires 10 loyalty to give things flying... and her whole archtype was based on bouncing your own stuff and replaying cards... that didn't have ETB triggers other than like bouncing the other stuff bounces your own stuff. Portals 3K would be worth a revisit also.

[@kennethstarkey4360]

The best analogy I’ve heard is that magic is now cardboard super smash brothers

[@providencebreaker1558]

Things are so bad that i miss the Homelands/Fallen Empires era.

[@Lord-Pepsi]

Wotc is now dependent on new ip. New regular lore won't keep enough of the playerbase interested. It's the point of no return. I watch Rudy from Alpha more for what he doesn't say(rather can't say). Only Irl Modern and most commander players will support singles. Rudy/investors now have to compete with amazon dumps. We cannot he naive to hope wotc will course correct when wotc thinks there's nothing wrong; only adjustments. Things have changed too much. .

[@aggilex5417]

I do agree with basically all of this (and yes, I'm also old and that might just be it). A very fundamental problem I see for the future is that for young players the game becomes more and more unaffordable and at the same time it is - indeed - missing identity. All this mix of various modern digital art styles, the crazy diversity in appearance, the lack of story and strong characters. A few years ago I brought 2 of my kids into Magic. (Let's leave aside the financial aspect of me having to heavily support this:) They loved it and were really excited about every new set, collecting the sets, building new decks, getting rare and powerful pieces for their collections. Now, just a few years later, they still love to play the game but they've given up on everything else: Previews don't get them excited, collecting (or even organizing the cards) is out of the question. Not even previews or opening boosters holds the same "Magic" as it once did Why? The reasons we all know about: There is no time to spend together on a set before the next comes out - especially for casual players. Even pulling a mythic isn't special any more, "normal" cards are almost generally without value. The pieces they were proud of have been reprinted multiple times, making them nothing special any more. And from a visual design perspective Magic is so diluted that cards do no longer feel like they belong together. When I look trough my decks I often feel like I've thrown together cards from at least a dozen games: Magic has reduced itself to its mechanics, the art and identity seem to play no role any longer. But do my kids care or is it just the old man? I recently bought some Sorcery cards to try out the game. Just some old school stuff, no modern art, no crazy confetti foil, no silly golden number - surely they wouldn't give much about it? Well, they absolutely loved it. They opened the boosters with joy and excitement, savoring the art on commons and uniques alike, wanting to collect them and build decks. And they did build decks, based on their own original ideas rather than predefined themes. Something they had rarely done in Magic for a long time. How that reminded me of what Magic has once been. So, am I out of Magic? I sometime wish I were, but maybe not, not yet. I still have this crazy large old ship of a collection of cards that constantly leaks (value) and threatens to sink. But I can't let go easily, so I prop up the holes with ever more new cards to keep it afloat. And hope to reach more pleasant waters. Or the shore?

[@clafey]

100% with you.

[@dough4prez]

100% I feel this. It's so sad😢

[@akaqueequeg]

The 40K sets were better than a lot of the recent mtg sets. But they have no place in mtg. The only effect it's has it make me want to play a 40k ccg and drop Mtg.

[@davidcrain453]

Wow man im a fairly new player and i never really fully undersood the whole picture. That was a great in depth analysis and im glad i watched. I can certainly agree.

[@breakingbadlands]

MTG should start being called "Funko Pop" the gathering...they are over saturating their market and over relying on other IP.

[@sircrocus9839]

I have played MTG for many years, and I don't know any stories. I just know some of the iconic characters/cards. I am lazy, and I don't go to search for it and read it, but I would certainly go to watch a TV series or a film. Many card games owe their success to anime or adaptations. I believe that these crossover will work only on the short term.

[@mfdoom1898]

Yes, and I think WOTC knows it's dying. It's why they don't care about reprinting cards in back to back to back sets. 3-4 times a year. And why they're throwing out all these gimmicks like serialized and going bananas with the Universes Beyond. WOTC is milking MTG for every penny before it's over in 3-5 years.

[@heliaxx]

I want to see what happens when one of the IPs get cancel and magic has those cards forever.

[@stephengoddard5362]

Jihad, cleanse... yeah mtg was never cool 😎 (sarcasm)

[@jaicro89]

on my locals,there is an group playing F&B and they are geting new players every month,and with Lorcana coming out this week, I'm sure the player base is going to go down,but is probably going to stay at pre-pandemic leves, Is not going to die, but is not going to be has big.

[@nikator8097]

Lorcana? Have you seen the Lorcana prices? I have the problems whom this product is targeting except rich grandparents.

[@jellybiscuit]

They are just widgets to Hasbro. Is profit up or down y/y. None of these managers will be around in 5 years anyway.

[@0oghi]

Print on demand and too many sets per year. It's not a collectable anymore

[@thefrizmeister3666]

I'd come back to magic. However, wotc are going to need to go back to their roots. Break the color pie, explore new character creation, LOWER RETAIL PRICES, create new stories, or explore older stories like Brothers War. Eliminate universes beyond. I dont mind the occasional unset or secret lair; ( i always wanted to build a mortal combat themed deck with scorpion or shao kahn ) however i dont need a whole set dedicated to that theme tho. They would need to quit reprinting in massive amounts and more. Im also tired of every set being the "same" essentially; Like, how many versions of snakeskin veil do we need? Do we need a new version in every set?

[@Leny1777]

Big mistake of coming back

[@pandoranbias1622]

Magic is making more money than ever before, but player sentiment is in the gutter. Just remember, it can always get worse. Yugioh is in a worse position than Magic and it's even bigger than Magic.

[@PJB-bh8bn]

I agree with you totally But Yu-Gi-Oh is nowhere near as big as magic the Gathering

[@larryohh6974]

Wtf? It is not bigger than mtg

[@pandoranbias1622]

@@PJB-bh8bn Not in the states, no.

[@PJB-bh8bn]

@@larryohh6974 I take that back MTG is the legendary pioneer of cardgames they are technically about the same probably I am not a Yu-Gi-Oh player but I do like that Kaiba dude and his three-headed dragon💀

[@larryohh6974]

@@PJB-bh8bn i just cant stand all the anime girls and stuff. That keeps me away from yugi

[@chipserkland]

Excellent content Mark! I'm no longer super interested in MTG. I've always been a collector first and played when I had time, had players, and it fit in my life. I had to sell my first collection during the great unpleasantness of 2008-2010 to keep my house. Now when I play it's with decks I build with my wife and I from a set or block I have in my current collection. The couple times I've played commander I've had to spend a night reading cards and hoping I understand the larger implications of each card. It was not fun. I can't keep up with MTG as it stands and see it leaving my list of things I do. Thanks for your insights.

[@closetmtg8029]

Love the genuine emotion and feel of this vid mark, true words spoken from someone who truly cares about this great game. Thanks as always man. 👍

[@TunnelSnakesrule13]

'I'd like to play Standard again.' "Awesome! We totally agree and understand! Here is a set that isn't Standard legal. You love LotR, right?" 'I want to play Standard.' "Bro, we get it. You love Standard. Here are a few Commander precons that you will love even more!" 'I don't want to sit at the Commander table. I can smell them from here. I want Standard.' "Look, Standard is definitely coming back! Hey here's a Fallout set that won't be Standard legal, spend your money on this." 'I'm going back to Chess.'

[@LL-m-n9u]

Well said. Looking forward to Sorcery, Grand Archive and Lorcana.

[@lcronovt]

Do we have a way to play multiplayer Sorcery and Grand Archive ? I think that's the only thing stopping me from buying them.

[@Tac0boss]

​@@lcronovtI think, speaking of Grand Archive. That the came has the potential to play in multiplayer as it has the same language as MTG. I just haven't seen anyone play multiplayer in it yet.

[@tholloway81]

Mark's sigh is classic at this point.

[@penguinlust6749]

Project Booster Fun seemed successful due to incredibly lucky timing -- but black swan events like what happened are once a century. Hasbro + WotC needs to make some painful decisions to ensure the long term. I don't think they'll do it under the current combined regime. The fact that some sets are now over 1000 cards points out how ludicrous it's become.

[@jimjones9631]

Thats been my major issue is that magic has slowly become like the fortnite of card games. Its losing its indentity for the sake of cash grab collabs to try to hook new people into it. Im seriously considering flesh and blood as an option for card games

[@TheDarkElder]

I missed Humility as add-in card like in the first chapter. Will they show humility like Karn in that cage? I doubt it. They seem more intent on getting in as much as they can, take their shares and move on to the next job. So who cares about the game, these guys like Cox and Williams will not be around forever. It's more critical to save some of the core identity of the game, the last years have done a lot of harm. It may well become a rotting zombie patched together by external IPs. If I want a game that does constant crossovers, I go to Weiss Schwarz. After all, the market is big, many good games out there.

[@ivarcollison5965]

My kitchen table games are still fun. That's what matters to me.

[@danieltenny817]

Great video! I agree that Universes Beyond is a dilution to the brand, however, when the Godzilla cards appeared for the first time, as alternative art to cards that were original MTG, it was well accepted. Maybe WotC can reprint the most popular cards but with an in-universe name and artwork and make them interchangeable. Also, good point on the "pushing of product" onto the fanbase, I feel like they are not expanding the player base enough to accommodate for all these new lines of product and the design of the cards and rules introduced into the game. This is especially evident when it comes to one-set keyword mechanics that are introduced just because and then are forgotten about. WotC is transitioning into a "mostly digital product" company, so a lot of their effort when it comes to MTG is on MTG: Arena with new formats like Timeless and Historic Brawl receiving a lot of support. This leaves the player community that likes the physical game at a disadvantage with a very expensive product that we never asked for. Don't get me wrong I love Arena, it is easy and I'm glad they are supporting it more, but it lacks a lot of the social side of the game. As you said, they could have invested all this extra money on good card design and storytelling to build a more coherent release schedule. In my opinion, I would reduce the number of sets per year, bringing back "block sets" to have a more coherent storyline. And if they are not going to invest in local game stores' draft scene, they could reduce the number of cards per set (what we normally call draft-chaff) and focus on playability and mechanics instead. Releasing commander pre-cons once a year to include the whole thematic block and new releases would also be a great way of bringing standard players into commander and vice-versa. All in all, I am glad you took the time to put out this video voicing what many of us are thinking and to open up a space for debate around it. Good work!

[@stephengoddard5362]

Lorcana hit my lgs hard... is this happening everywhere?

[@SolarGamesllc]

Yeah lorcana is no joke.

[@hopperpeace]

good video, I never was so unexcited for the next 5 years of magic cause of this unsiverse beyond bs.

[@grasshopper1153]

agreed. Magic's story is really lame. The good guys always win. It is all rainbows and cotton candy in the stories. 🤮

[@TheJadeFist]

Maybe there'd be more interest if they weren't putting out 20 sets a year, just a thought.

[@SolarGamesllc]

When everything is special nothing is.

[@carlosmunoz3089]

ban all universes benyond cards from standard and commander and create a new format where you can play ONLY with cards from universes beyond sets. It can literally be its own plane where all the universes beyond people are from. Ban that plane from all other official formats.

[@ArenaRat-xd8fu]

Lol fuck that

[@kyvss]

No one sighs like that about something they don’t feel genuinely passionate/ in love with. Great video dude!

[@gtfawaynotnow]

Very deep vid here….my thoughts….. -due to the organization of WOTC’s “Leadership” I think MTG needs to consecutively fail before anything changes. -in my opinion all the issues can be summed up in 2 words; POOR LEADERSHIP. -I can figuratively “see” Cynthia William’s fingerprints all over this IP now……it’s being run like a mmo with monthly content updates, IP crossovers and now power creep to hype the new sets but MMO’s don’t last. -now they are seeking to ruin the last ‘safe haven’ for both new and old players which is Commander. From my perspective the reason commander is/was so popular was due to the fact it was a creation that addressed a core issue that a large segment of the player base had with the other formats. It was casual, not hyper competitive which by default association not hyper-financialized like the other formats requiring entire play sets of expensive cards; that and it supports more than 2 players. Of course now commander is starting to follow that same route slowly pushing out parts of its player base as WOTC has stepped in and proceeded to financialize commander. -I agree with the op about IP dilution but I don’t believe it ruins actual gameplay….I believe this issue can be corrected by creating a divergent path in gameplay by simply separating games into 2 categories……are you running universes beyond or no? To be honest I think it will come to that in the future as a sort of “course correction”. -I also agree that a real effort needs to go into the lore. All that being said I do wish to give credit where credit is due even if I believe it was by accident. I do however believe that the latest direction of marginalizing planeswalkers and allowing interplanar travel by anyone will create an opportunity for a more rich storyline going forward. -I foresee any potential hope coming from an unlikely place which would be from WOTC’s parent company, Hasbro itself. I think once the current leadership really fails and they will that if Hasbro really stepped in and ran MTG’s IP like a toy IP instead of what now I perceive as WOTC to be running MTG a MMO IP that the brand overall would do better……hear me out; just consider the amount of effort, lore and character development it takes to push a toy line. I find it hard to believe that MTG would not benefit from that. Lastly, I’ll address the elephant in the room which is the greed machine…. I think that to survive long term that MTG needs to revisit its fundamentals such as how the color pie brought a sort of balance and flavor to the game where running certain colors produced a very unique type of deck and theme….now it’s all vanilla really. But most importantly the game was designed FOR KIDS 12 and up to play and grow with whereas now it’s blatantly obvious the game is designed with one goal which is to extract money from adults which as a result will turn away potential audiences to grow with the game. As I said before it’s more like a MMO which after 3-5 years runs out of design ideas then they fold and then just “invent” a “new” mmo then just wash and repeat.

[@heecks9375]

I'm a returning mtg player after 28 years. I spend 0$ on packs, I only buy singles. 28 years ago there was no internet and it was more difficult to get the cards. Now with internet I get rare for 0,25$ It is so easy to build a fun commander deck. As long there is single to buy, the game is not dying for me :) I'm a PC gamer first, I stopped playing MTG for that and AAA don't do better today, they work for money and shareholder. I stopped buying AAA game 13 years ago and I'm happy.

[@Leny1777]

Magic died in 2020. What an odd time to come back. Mtg prime waa 2011-2018.

[@benjaminsantiagosstuff]

31:48 lol Shambling Ghasts make treasure tho

[@MTG69]

I won't be satisfied until we get a He-Man Universes Beyond set.

[@ak2298]

My playgroup like 8-10 people basically all stopped buying new product…it just feels 0 special, like a money waste, the cards you buy are worth nothing in 2-3 years due to this insane printing and power spiking pace, and over all it just feels wrong…

[@SolarGamesllc]

True. This is what has happened to magic and much of it is expected.

[@chocobojerky4844]

I think tying to other IPs is a desperate attempt to grow the player base that I think is stagnant and soon to be falling off. They're making money because prices are going up and they're pumping out so much product. But are they really sucking in younger generation for the next era of magic?if They can't grow the player base then they're in some serious trouble. Witches of the coast needs to hire somebody to adapt into a series or a movie. A storyline from there history, animated or not, movie or television, they need to get their IP out and blowing up

[@Gaming_Nerd1993]

As much as I love the Jurassic Saga Franchise even I don't think it needs to be within the entire MTG Game. I haven't bought a Box of any set since War of the Spark as I was going for a certain Planeswalker. I will only now buy the cards I want on the secondary market.

[@Ozclusive]

27:24 It does not make any sense, not one bit. But hey....Dont ask questions, just get excited for new product and consume new product.

[@josephpurdy8390]

All game expansions that increase the quantity and rules for it. This over time fatigues the entirety of the other tested methods. If the focus was to offer more of the same mechanics in conjunction with other older mechanics. That were not available within the set previously. This may extend the life cycle of Magic a bit longer.

[@tonda01]

Woke killed vibe of Mtg. They basically killed it's soul.

[@D0012D13]

Magic is just printing yu gi oh cards now with at least 3 paragraphs.

[@SolarGamesllc]

Yeah I discovered recently how wordy YGO is

[@jellybiscuit]

Transition Chandra to Chad. Add a +1/+1 counter.

[@Tornven2003]

I've been in and out of mtg 2002-2006, 2010-2015 what stopped me from progressing in standard after 7th edition and the other sets around that went out. Had a mono blue wizard deck, won my local Friday night mtg lower league tournament. Once the cards went out I had to revert to a seriously weak deck and immediately got priced out of the upper league and relegated. I only got back into the game because of friends and I really got back into it in 2010 because of EDH - Commander. I'm actually a fan of some of the multiverse stuff and think it makes the game a bit more fresh Vs what I was used to. But I do feel like some revisit to an older storyline in the lore (brothers of war was great and I enjoyed the transformers but felt like that should have been separate from bothers of war like with warhammer and LOTR) so maybe similar with yawgmoth but without some abstract within the set? Also seeing a couple of planes Vs each other in a set would be cool. Probably done before but other planes Vs the current phyrexia is something I'm looking forward to.

[@ekolimitsLIVE]

Honestly. We should just make our own game. Then we don’t have to worry about some company making decisions that hurt us all. If you feel like I do, then I will have a surprise for you soon.

[@gtfawaynotnow]

I went back to this to like and share but just wanted to say a great synopsis that will resonate with nearly everyone.

[@456jm]

The reality is that the people who truly care about the original story and lore of Magic: The Gathering as an IP (Intellectual Property) only makes up a VERY small percentage of the actual games' player base as most are more romanticized with the mechanical identity of Magic: The Gathering than it's very own source material. It's exactly because of how the game's play and not what it actually represents that makes it such a unique success as a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game. This is why Universes Beyond is successful as Magic: The Gathering is an extremely versatile and customizable game where much like with D&D you can give it any kind of flavor you want and still find a way to make it work. Back when I first got into Magic: The Gathering when the latest release was 8th Edition and Onslaught I didn't care for the story or lore of Magic: The Gathering until Planeswalkers were first introduced in Lorwyn and it was akin to the impact The Avengers had in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but before then I didn't care about the story and lore of Magic: The Gathering other than thinking that Urza was a hero when in actuality he was a villain and the Weatherlight were a swashbuckling crew of heroes out to save the multiverse that was once known as Dominia now renamed Dominaria to defeat Yawgmoth the leader of the Phyrexians only to repeat the story again with the Planeswalkers leading up to defeating Nicol Bolas. The mechanical identity of Magic: The Gathering was what really brought me into the game during a time when Yu-Gi-Oh! was going through it's own renaissance period in the late 90's and early 2000's that would eventually peter out until it found it's own identity so to speak. It's that same mechanical identity of Magic: The Gathering that despite lacking religious neutrality especially for Christian gamers like myself I still enjoy the intricacies, enigma, and genius behind this design by Richard Garfield that ushered in and pioneered a gaming genre that most gamers nowadays take for granted compared to video games where it doesn't have the kind of fellowship and in-person social interaction with other players outside of online play that I enjoy.

[@RL_22]

I agree with you in that wotc didn't take advantage of their own IP and taking the easy way out in partnering with other ips. The crossovers are ok, but still so strange seeing non-mtg characters. How wotc didn't look at examples like pokemon, digimon, yugioh, cyberpunk, arcane, etc. Where they all benefitted from shows, movies, branding which helped to increase interest.

[@nicks4802]

The Bart Simpson card, ah yes....... Can't wait for a Bort secret lair with the meme style border and the double glazed donut foil variant

[@Der81Joffel]

It's a lost chance but avatar movie could have been a magic story playing in zendikar.. How amazing would this start for the ip mtg in movies could been..

[@libertyjones1451]

"IT'S A *GUNDAM!* " ~Bart Simpson

[@edenconeby8227]

The fact that PAUPER decks can approach $100-$200 is a massive indicator of how bad the market is

[@_APG_]

It's not that magic is just dead, it's that it's entered the "zombie phase" of death much like The Simpsons did. Honestly I don't get why the players don't just make their own sets, and play in online leagues with those sets. Do we really need Wizards and Hasbro to deliver nonstop mediocrity for money? We need to show them what we want, and that we're willing to go elsewhere to get it.

[@jamescobblepot4744]

"zombie phase" is very accurate. I have seen mmos have this happen to them and it follows a very similar mentality to how wizards is managing mtg now. The game can stick around a long time but it ends up supported by whales and addicts with an unhealthy relationship to the game the company preys on, and the actual integrity just takes a huge hit to serve this base

[@HavingAnAverageWeeke]

As a Standard player, can we get a sequel to this video!

[@Lornext]

I sold all my MTG cards two years ago... Im glad to be rid of them and only play with proxies and counterfeits now. The greed was simply too much, Modern Horizons products were the literal end for me.

[@cosmicodyssey3382]

21:21 regarding universes beyond it’s a great idea, Magic is supposed to be about multiple planes of existence so it fits in just fine it’s magics own fault they haven’t gone into more different planes.

[@bennefib]

Ot was clear since the pandemic that companies willing chose to either appeal to the casual market or the financial market to reclaim loses and magic is no different Its just that they of all people should know theyre target audience would be able to pull up from oandemic lose, instead theyve chosen the financial route

[@shryque]

WotC is turning Magic into Fortnite

[@luisvicharra7623]

Chizuru legendary human with Tarmogoyf stats, evasion BUT with cumulative upkeep.

[@metalplaysgames]

boomers never think theyre wrong, universes beyond revitalized my love for magic, its always been hallow lorewise with an awesome ruleset. i had no idea why the set was called ice age other than it was generic fantacy snow themed, the dark was generic horror, its always been diluted

[@providencebreaker1558]

You were supposed to exercise your own imagination to fill in the gaps. Weatherlight ruined the ambiance of Magic and the Jacestice league was the final nail in the coffin. You are supposed to be the planeswalking main character of the story, not these superfluous clowns.

[@metalplaysgames]

@@providencebreaker1558 yea that's what I remember from the starter deck how to play

[@flowbot159]

I am all for using Maro's quotes to help illustrate your point, but I think you need to quote directly and not paraphrase. Because he definitely didn't say "If you try to make everybody happy then no one's happy" (13:57). I think you could have kept the video conversational when you were drawing your conclusions, but you shouldn't when you lay out your evidence.

[@hypter8425]

It would be too much to try and break down and list all my thoughts about this video, but I can say I agree with a lot of it. WotC is in a downwards spiral and I don't think they can get out of it unless they're forcibly pushed. And I think the playerbase are boiled frogs and WotC is a walking corpse, stumbling on because of the massive momentum. However I think that they can still pull back, the next three years don't look good, but not terrible either. But they better start implementing some rather drastic changes in the period after. The main issue is actually a perfect storm that has been brewing for a while now. They have too many products, at too high price, releasing too closely, with not enough overseeing and too poor quality. You can't release a product a month at 150 bucks, it's not sustainable. Meanwhile the top dog is telling the players to not interract with each product, but that's ofc just bullshit because more or less every product that comes out have a handfull of cards that you pretty much need to include in a deck. As a player you have so little time to engage with the products, when one release it's just another two weeks or so until the next is spoiled. And another issue is the amount of reprints, which is an inevitability because of the amount of products that keeps being released. I also feel like a lot is confusing for customers, both old and new, which cards are in what products, did ya just pull a foil or a cold foil, and what pile does it go in? It's simply too much to digest, and it feels like keeping track of all products and which cards goes where is a mini game of itself. And when you start opening certain products most of the time the quality is already scuffed, damaged edges, poor cardboard quality, curling cards, etc. And finally we come around to where the lgs' comes in, as they are normally forced to order not only quite a big amount of boxes way ahead of time, but also a lot of the products on the side. And I think it's silly of WotC to print up as many commander decks as they do, which small lgs is gonna sell through both 10 or more commander decks of each variant, as well as a handful of cases of display boxes. It just ain't happening in a small town, they might need two or three of each commander deck, if that even, and perhaps just one case of display boxes. Now the lgs' are left with huge inventories, not enough time to sell it off until the new products roll around, it keeps growing, and they end up with a ton of money stuck in products they can only sell at a loss. And lets be real, what is a cardgame without a lgs to play it at? Sure a few smitten friends might keep going at it at home around the kitchen table, but WotC would lose so many customers if lgs' would stop carrying their product. And at this point in time, the players don't need Mtg, Mtg needs the players. And it's high time that WotC and Hasbro realise that.

[@nachtgoblin]

I left mtg for sorcery, I can recommend it

[@paulopbga]

MTG is now following the Fortnite model to stay relevant and sell products to new players

[@noneyabizness6094]

UB will be the thing that makes me leave magic. The idea of sitting across the table from a Spiderman deck is awful.

[@nathanieljohnson9318]

Harry Potter Universes Beyond sets are the end game. Not one, many. The fanaticism of that fan base… if they do it well it will make lord of the rings look like a practice scrimmage.

[@KennethKnickerbocker]

Really enjoyed this video. You missed an opportunity to drop "WotC is on a path to exile" when you kept using the word path over and over...I was waiting for it! 😂😂 WotC does needs to reinvest in the Magic IP 100%. They really should stop all the outside IP product and go back to developing the lore and characters. Dare I say, they need a hard reboot.

[@corinelliott3596]

Long live pre-formats.

[@thekittenfreakify]

They haven't gone to the tried and true heroes journey either. We haven't had that

[@christopherm.7310]

Sad that arena has ruined standard. Arena needs to go away.

[@wad_Mr.J]

Some people do care about the story, characters, and the IP itself but NOT OVER THE GAME ITSELF. Personally I feel like the story has gotten much better over recent years.

[@SolarGamesllc]

Yeah I guess we have more of a story now? But the story is sooo thin. Especially in a world where we have much better alternatives. Witcher books, ASOIAF, Dune etc

[@wad_Mr.J]

@SolarGamesllc there is some stuff that's thin, and plot points that just ended n we don't know what happened, etc. Some people think there's been lazy and rushed writing (tons of product releases, wotc is spread thin), but personally I've loved the 3 years of phyrexian story starting in Kaldhiem and obviously ending in the pinnacle of that story being All will be 1 and aftermath. I absolutely loved the moment when Jace gave up his logic and reason to attempt to rescue Vraska (his lover) from the phyrexians ignoring the process of phyresis, refusing to leave her side which may or may not have resulted in their deaths. It wasn't really clear what happened after Vraska stabbed him in the storyline spotlight moment (phyrexian arena).

[@wad_Mr.J]

@SolarGamesllc probably something similar to what happened to the others that lost their sparks, if they lived... but also Nahiri was cured without much of an explanation as to why. It explained Nissa and Ajani's situation but only kinda hinted at Halo having something to do with Nahiri being cured (still a planeswalker btw). So idk what's next, but here's hoping the new story starting in eldrane is as good as the last 3 years.

[@josephrodriguez3588]

I love magic played since the days of alpha.i spend a lot of around 200-500 a month and play comander three days. The Entire time i have been playing What journey of the people and play? Don't have money especially in spain four hundred dollars on a set box

[@JaceRishel-p2c]

I agree the game is getting somewhat diluted adding all these other IPs, but to even speculate whether Magic is dying when Lord of the Rings is on par to be the most successful set of all time doesn't make sense to me. And that also proves people *do* still care.

[@ricardoblikman2676]

Everyone with knowledge of business including Richard Garfield knows that as soon as a stock company bought MTG they will slaughter the golden goose! I played 1994-1997 I retried mtg when Arena was new playing vs people with Obama decks (teferi) taking turn after turn playing with themselves, I instantly quit mtg again its nonsense!

[@tedybruschi12345]

dude if they make gundam magic cards im going all in

[@MrHoneuma]

For the most part, I've stopped buying any of the new products coming out because theres too much too fast thats too expensive. For reference, when Wilds of Eldraine comes out they will have released 3 sets within 71 days. That's insane, not to mention that 2 of those 3 sets are above normal cost, 1 of which was the most expensive ever. All this, plus increasingly mounting power creep, which then results in singles being super expensive has been ruining the game for me. I took a step back and realized that I could actually afford Warhammer if I stopped handing my money to WoTC. For less than the cost of a precon or 2-3 good singles, I could instead pick up an entire Kill Team for that and get significantly more joy out of it.

[@ShadowWalker-ng1it]

TBH I moved on from magic at the start of the year and found other games I like now. I'm only sticking around the community to see how they can burn the rest

[@The_Protagonist]

Hard to comment on this video there is so much to unpack. I will say pairing with so many other IP outside of something like LotR or final fantasy… it doesn’t really bring players into the game. They do give mtg players who do like fallout (as example) they get something special but fallout players don’t give a crap about mtg and they aren’t going to all the sudden start busting packs. (General statement). But it does turn off some of the player base who aren’t interested in Dr Who or Creed or Fallout etc. Yet ppl still buy it and until that changes WotC not only has no reason to change but they don’t even have a reason to listen. I did find it interesting that with revenues increasing they had a NOP decrease….. While they are doing well now tho. Sometimes it takes a while to see the results of certain decisions. And while I think they have made some major mistakes, I don’t think it will be fully understood for a while. But we shall see.

[@binkycat]

I think you're almost there at the very end. "One set of audience must die for another set to have space to grow. Could they have a new game?". They've been making that new game for a while now, as you said multiple times throughout the video. You're just the audience they chose to polarize, rather than another portion of it. You also do have the right to not enjoy it, which you already clearly don't. The questions have already been answered, and now it's just a waiting game to see whose going to be right or wrong.

[@jonous2001]

Universes beyond come from a lack of creative talent. Price hikes come from too many middlemen and the ever endless pursuit of keeping shareholders happy ..I'm the first person who is ready for a change...but it isn't coming. Think of all the IPs that have been ruined by these amazing corporate policies.

[@adambandurak8913]

Dumping most of my stuff on ebay now. Keeping enough staples/jank for 4 decks or so (I don't need 40 Sol Rings, command towers etc). Have a set of shocks, fetches, duals. Keeping a few old boxes, precons for a nostagia draft or to let a friend sling a deck on casual nights. Watching my old 'valuable' cards like original Tron lands, Phyrexian/Ashnod's Altar, Oracle of Mul Daya, Parallel Lives etc just tank away to nothing while the cost of everything just keeps going up and up...why am I even hanging on to this game when I just get sad when I see my collection. I knew this was coming when they introduced Collector's Edition boxes, with the power creep ramping up in Throne and Ikoria (did Oko, Nyxbloom Ancient, or Winota need to exist? No). 30th was the biggest middle finger possible to its players and LGSs - I don't even know where to start. The lore was pretty pointless, and I didn't really give a crap if Teferi was Gideon's bottom or not - though some of the Chandra/Liliana art was pretty sweet. Why they had Kinnan look like he/she/they/it/(?) look like they have down syndrome is beyond me. Maybe I'm old and pissed off that a game I've enjoyed for 3 decades is not only pricing me out while devaluing my existing pile, but pricing out replacement players. Time to enjoy hobbies where I don't feel like I have to keep spending money on top of older money in order to have a chance of winning a game. Old-guy rant done.

[@BlightDragonBrewery]

They did my boy Vorinclex dirty.

[@thekittenfreakify]

Reprints are good. In moderation like beer. They need to learn from theyr competition pokemon reprint policy is the most consumer friendly one i have seen. Yugioh is tolerable's too having reprint products is good. Original set cards get priced apropriately while the reprint leaves room for price of entry to be affordable. It boggles my mind how they messed this up when theyr competition has proven it works.

[@Zoulz666]

There are only so many ways to sell cardboard before people get tired of buying it. Wotc should have diversified their mtg brand a long time ago.

[@Joe-cp5ud]

IP matters, and not other people’s IPs

[@benpuffer7891]

Universes Beyond sucks