quadibloc
01-11-2010, 07:45 PM
The economy tanked, and Magic: the Gathering is an expensive hobby.
As we know, Wizards responded by trying harder. Zendikar booster packs occasionally contained, in place of the (full art!) basic land... very, very, rarely... a "hidden treasure".
Zendikar is a set with a unique land-based theme, and has some really powerful cards in it. I think it can be pigeonholed as a "gimmick" set like Time Spiral.
There is speculation founded on
a Wizards trademark registration
that the block after Zendikar will be a very interesting block with powerful cards too.
That's great, but unfortunately, it also looks like that block will be a hard act to follow. So, even if the Fall 2011 set is well-designed, it could end up as another Kamigawa.
But that's the future.
The present is: after blue dominating Magic for so long, Wizards has finally been able to adjust the strengths of the various cards in Standard so that Blue is no longer dominant. Even White, though, has a leg up with Baneslayer Angel - a card strong in offense rather than defense.
It's good news that the game is more balanced, but its bad news that with less interaction, play is less sophisticated. (Balancing the mana curve of a red or green deck still takes plenty of skill, of course.)
I'm not going to bore you here with the details of the latest silly idea I've inflicted on Wizards' forums. Let's just say that basically it amounts to Wizards continuing to sell New Magic to the masses it wants to grab from Yu-Gi-Oh and Chaotic and so on... but to have Classic Magic as an alternate product to keep the rest of us involved as active customers.
I suppose the appropriate response to this is "Look how well that worked out for Coca-Cola", but... what do you think?
As we know, Wizards responded by trying harder. Zendikar booster packs occasionally contained, in place of the (full art!) basic land... very, very, rarely... a "hidden treasure".
Zendikar is a set with a unique land-based theme, and has some really powerful cards in it. I think it can be pigeonholed as a "gimmick" set like Time Spiral.
There is speculation founded on
a Wizards trademark registration
that the block after Zendikar will be a very interesting block with powerful cards too.
That's great, but unfortunately, it also looks like that block will be a hard act to follow. So, even if the Fall 2011 set is well-designed, it could end up as another Kamigawa.
But that's the future.
The present is: after blue dominating Magic for so long, Wizards has finally been able to adjust the strengths of the various cards in Standard so that Blue is no longer dominant. Even White, though, has a leg up with Baneslayer Angel - a card strong in offense rather than defense.
It's good news that the game is more balanced, but its bad news that with less interaction, play is less sophisticated. (Balancing the mana curve of a red or green deck still takes plenty of skill, of course.)
I'm not going to bore you here with the details of the latest silly idea I've inflicted on Wizards' forums. Let's just say that basically it amounts to Wizards continuing to sell New Magic to the masses it wants to grab from Yu-Gi-Oh and Chaotic and so on... but to have Classic Magic as an alternate product to keep the rest of us involved as active customers.
I suppose the appropriate response to this is "Look how well that worked out for Coca-Cola", but... what do you think?