Also I think a lot of people are moving to Arena instead which is further hurting store and paper sales. I'm sorry about your store closing though, that is a huge bummer :( I also have been unable to keep up with the release cycle for the last few years.
I agree with him here, and I think he has a good understanding of Standard.
My personal list is Monstrous Rage, Manifold Mouse, Cori Steel-Cutter, Omniscience, Stormchaser's Talent, Caretaker's Talent, and Up the Beanstalk. I think that has a wide band so as not to "bequeath" the crown to another deck, although something in mono-black may need to be hit as well, and if so I think it should be Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber.
This would get rid of these "hyper efficient engines" that are I think are plaguing Standard right now. Cards that just do too much and are an entire deck in a single card. Even if you slow Standard down by hitting Cori and mono-red, I still think these engines need to go because they we're a huge problem for Standard before this mess too in my opinion.
That's a very good point about Omni. And I totally agree on WOTC breaking standard. Normally some of these problems would be resolved with the 2 year rotation too but now we're stuck in this really tough spot that can't be fixed without those Eldraine style bans. They seem very scared to do that though.
I think they will have to hit Monstrous Rage, that feels obvious. But beyond that, I personally think to re-balance the entire format and prevent the next deck running away with it, they need to also hit Cori Steel-Cutter, Stormchaser's Talent, and one of Abuela's Awakening or Omniscience. Up the Beanstalk and This Town Ain't Big Enough don't rise to the same level and feel more like enablers to lots of other decks.
I think Vivi is another insane, over the top, does-to-much card that wins the game on turn 4, but we will need to wait and see with that because nothing in the FF set will get touched.
Phantasm is someone I've been watching lately -- https://www.youtube.com/@phantasmsplayground
Love their budget brews
Can't believe I'm reading this. Hasbro is truly poisoned if this is what they're still doing even after the WoTC division continues to hit insane growth numbers.
The layoff affects roughly 150 of the company's 4,985 global employees (with math accurate to the company's 2024 annual report).
It doesn't say where the 150 are coming from but it seems like a stupid decision.
Yes I completely agree about the fakes issue. No reason IMO not to have a false card back on every proxy. We shouldn't be in the business of duping people, and conversely no one should be forced to pay more than they're able to for a card game piece.
I don't think there was ever going to be a doubt if Final Fantasy, Spiderman, etc would be more popular than regular MtG. I think it's all but guaranteed to increase player count when you have something like a popular outside IP crossed over with a different game.
Steam saw 6,000 additional active users, a 50% increase, and I honestly don't know if that's a signal that the crossover is a big hit, but that number seems really low overall to me. Fortnite is seeing ~6M average actives for reference. Maybe Steam doesn't account for a very high % of the installs, so assuming a 50% increase in players in Arena is a massive jump, but to the original point, if you're a fan of FF why wouldn't you try a FTP game that features cards from the game? How much of it will you try is the real question.
The bigger issue that the game has had to deal with since the 90s is the complexity. I remember in the late 90s hearing store owners say things like "you have to be too smart to play Magic" and even though it's a little silly, there is a high level of state management and knowledge needed to play the game at all. It's quick to get a rundown of the rules, but it's not simple to play the game. These new players are interested enough to check it out, run through the tutorial, maybe do the color challenge, but then what? It has such a high onboard cost that is very different from an RPG for FPS style game. Will they still be interested after FF rotates in 8 weeks?
These are the unanswered questions that they are gambling with at the expense of the enfranchised player base. Maybe the enfranchised players will always continue to play because they just like the game mechanics. Maybe the added players from FF and Marvel sets will outpace the existing players that quit the game. I don't know, but just like with other technical parallels like chess or computer programming, there is a finite number of people who can play the game beyond a surface level.
I think this is unfortunately all we can do :(
Card Sphere and Mana Pool were two other services I found through all of this, but I haven't used either yet.
Some more info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7zWhqVO5AE
This is pretty insane. Ebay moving the grading to Kentucky to effectively kill off the union that the Syracuse team formed. At this point there is an effective monopoly on trading card sales, it doesn't even seem possible to start a competitor anymore.
I totally agree, I wish they would go back to the original foiling method for new cards
11 new cards added to Arena as well
This card made me fall in love with the game. I remember building a Golgari deck trying to use Urborg Panther, Feral Shadow, and Breathstealer to get Spirit of the Night out into play.
Some pictures of a recent leak of the FF starter kit:
Rosa, Steadfast White Mage - 3W - Legendary Creature : Noble Human Cleric - Reach; At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gains lifelink until end of turn. (2/3).
Beatrix, Loyal General - 4WW - Legendary Creature : Human Soldier - Vigilance; At the beginning of combat on your turn, attach any number of equipment to target creature you control. (4/4).
Lightning, Security Sergeant - 2R - Legendary Creature : Human Soldier - Menace; Whenever Lightning deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of your library. You may cast that card as long as you control Lightning. (2/3).
Rays of Judgement - 3R - Instant - Rays of Judgment deals 5 damage to target creature and X damage to it's controller, where X is the number of equipment you control.
Ultima Weapon - 7 - Legendary Artifact : Equipment - Equip 7; Whenever equipped creature attacks, destroy target creature. Equipped creature gets +7/+7.
Adalbert Steiner - 1W - Legendary Creature : Human Knight - Lifelink; Adalbert Steiner gets +1/+1 for each equipment you control. (2/1)
Cloud Moogle - 3WW - Creature : Moogle - Flying; Whenever this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Plainscycling 2. (2/3).
Coeurl - 1W - Creature : Cat Beast - 1W + Tap -> Tap target non-enchantment creature. (2/2)
Dwarven Castle Guard - 1W - Creature : Dwarf Soldier - When this creature dies, create a colorless 1/1 hero token. (2/1)
Sun-Cryst's Fate - 4W - Instant - This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets a tapped creature. Dstroy target nonland permanent.
Blade of Light - 1W - Instant - Blade of Light deals damage equal to the number of creatures and equipment you control to target creature.
White Auracite - 2WW - Artifact - When this artifact enters, exile target non-land permanent an opponent controls until this artifact leaves the battlefield. Tap -> Add W.
White Mage's Rod - 1W - Artifact : Equipment - Choose A Job (When this equipment enters create a colorless 1/1 hero token and attach this to it). Equip 3; The equipped creature gets +1/+1, gains "Whenever this creature attacks you gain 1 life," and is a Cleric in addition to its other types.
The Chosen of the Crystal - 5WW - Sorcery - Create 4 1/1 colorless hero tokens. Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Dragonspear - 1W - Artifact : Equipment - Choose A Job (When this equipment enters create a colorless 1/1 hero token and attach this to it). Equip 4; Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and is a Knight in addition to it's other types. During your turn equipped creature gets flying.
G'raha Tia - 4W - Legendary Creature : Cat Archer - Reach; Whenever one or more creatures or artifacts you control are put into the graveyard from the battlefield, draw a card. This ability only triggers once per turn. (3/5).
Item Merchant - 1R - Creature : Human Citizen - Whenever you attack, target attacking equipped creature gets menace until the end of the turn. (2/2)
Warrior's Blade - 3R - Artifact : Equipment - Choose A Job (When this equipment enters create a colorless 1/1 hero token and attach this to it). Equip 5; Equipped creature gets +3/+2 and is a Warrior in addition to it's other types.
Suplex - 1R - Sorcery - Choose one: 1) Suplex deals 3 damage to target creature. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead; 2) Exile target artifact.
Freija Crescent - R - Legendary Creature : Rat Knight - During your turn this creature has flying; Tap -> Add R. Only use this mana to cast equipment or activae abilties of equipment. (1/1)
Samurai Katana - 2R - Artifact : Equipment - Choose A Job (When this equipment enters create a colorless 1/1 hero token and attach this to it). Equip 5; Equipped creature gets +2/+2, has trample and haste, and is a Samurai in addition to it's other types.
Barret Wallace - 3R - Legendary Creature : Human Rebel - Reach; Whenever Barret Wallace attacks, he deals damage equal to the number of equipped creatures you control to defending player. (4/4)
Rabanastre, City of the Kingdom - Land : City - This land enters tapped. Tap -> Add W or R
Ultimecia, Menace of Time - 4UU - Legendary Creature : Human Warlock - Whenever this creature enters, tap all creatures your opponents control. Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card. (4/4)
Seymour Flux - 4B - Legendary Creature : Spirit Avatar - At the beginning of your upkeep you may pay 1 life. If you do, draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on Seymour Beta. (5/5)
Deadly Embrace - 3BB - Sorcery - Destroy target creature an opponent controls. Then draw a card for each creature that died this turn.
Xande, Dark Mage - 2UB - Legendary Creature : Human Sorcerer - Menace; Xande gets +1+1 for each non-creature, non-land card in your graveyard. (3/3)
Magitek Scythe - 4 - Artifact : Equipment - When this equipment enters, you may attach it to target creature you control. If you do, that creature gains first strike until end of turn and must be blocked thus turn if able. Equip 2; Equipped creature gets +2/+1.
Sahagin - 1U - Creature : Merfolk Warrior - Whenever you cast a non-creature spell, if at least 4 mana was spent to cast it, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and it can't be blocked this turn. (1/3)
Fairy of Il Mheg - 1U - Creature : Fairy - Flying; Whenever this creature attacks surveil 1. (2/1)
Go for the Esper - 3U - Sorcery - Create a 3/3 blue Robot artifact creature token. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on that token. Flashback 5U.
Laguna's Dreams - 1U - Instant - Scry 1 and then draw a card. Flashback 3U.
Relm Drawings - 2UU - Sorcery - Create a token that is a copy of target artifact, creature, or land.
Aqueduct Rat - 1B - Creature : Rat - When this creature dies, create a treasure token. (2/2)
Shinra Reinforcements - 2B - Creature : Human Soldier - When this creature enters, mill 3 cards and gain 3 life. (2/3)
Sephiroth's Intervention - 3B - Instant - Destroy target creature. You gain 2 life.
Walking Cie'th - 2B - Mutant Horror - This creature enters tapped. Whenever you cast a non-creature spell, you may pay B. If you do, return this creature from your graveyard to your hand. (?/?)
Albhed Rescuers - 2B - Creature : Human Artificer Warrior - Whenever this creatue or another creature or artifact you control is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. (2/3)
Extermination - 2B - Instant - Target creature gets -0/-9999 until end of turn.
The Return of Evil - 4B - Sorcery - Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield with 2 +1/+1 counters on it.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGRumors/comments/1jt1xyj/ff_starterkit/
Just saw these yesterday, what do you all think? Seems like a fun take on basic lands, but it also sort of makes me question what a basic land even is at this point 😝
I think they hit a wide range of cards to really rebalance and shake up the format. I think that Stormchaser's Talent probably should have gone instead of This Town, and I think Omniscience should have gone instead of Abuelo's but I think they hit a wide range of decks with these enough and I'm glad they did it.
Beanstalk hurts because that was driving a LOT of jank and artisan decks, so that is a painful loss. However it is just far too busted with too many cards in Standard right now and it's too much card advantage for nothing. I just am sad to lose it.
I feel like Jeskai Prowess, Golgari Roots, and Mono Black midrange are doing to start cruising though.