Undeserving Of My Will

Stuff and things I find and think of.

[markrosewater]

Hey Mark, just wanted to express my voice and say I hate commander decks every sets. Commander used to be the place I could play all the cards that lay unused in my shoe boxes, but now there is a stream of new powerfull cards every two months and it is just too much. I wish we could go just to the one commander set per year (gosh, what an excitement that was), but that wasn't all that profitable I guess

Our goal is to meet player demand. How many Commander decks a year would you all like to see?

[americanlantern]

I'm more annoyed at how slowly we get reprints of the new commander cards, especially ones that become pieces in legacy or ones that quickly become staples in commander itself.

[markrosewater]

So there is 6 versions of the new Elesh Norn (even discounting the foil ones). You gotta admit that is a bit too much...

What’s the right number?

[americanlantern]

2 for most characters/cards 4 for big splashy characters that impact the story. Even then, with stamped and prerelease versions too, as well as foil vs non foil it's becoming much more tedious for people trying to collect sort and categorize things. And it's making understanding the game state at a glance harder. And more than anything I think that's the function art really serves, associate the art with the card, identify it quickly, keep understanding of the game state as you play. The more variations, the larger burden that becomes.

[markrosewater]

“We’re not in conflict. Our goal is to make Magic sets that the players are excited about and want to purchase. When we do that, we all win. When we fail, we all lose.” The conflict isn’t lack of exciting product, it’s that when exciting product comes out it’s overpriced, underprinted, or often both.

Premier booster sets are always the same price. Supplemental booster sets with new content are almost always one of three prices and are very consistent with like-minded sets. All booster sets that aren’t primarily reprints are print to demand.

And all of this has been true for many years. Nothing has changed (with the one exception of a price change this year based on the rising cost of paper, but we hadn’t raised the cost of a premier booster in many years).

[americanlantern]

Supplemental Sets shouldn't cost more than premier sets. If anything, since we've been told they tend to have less development time, they should cost less. The only reason to cost more is paying attention to secondary market value.

[markrosewater]

I understand the risk it is, but I feel like 2 set blocks for new worlds is great. There are so many recent sets like Kaldheim, Ikoria, Strixhaven or New Capenna that I feel like could've been really good if we had more time for the worlds. Like yeah, if people dont like one they wont like the other, but if people did like one they probably would want both.

It’s not off the table, but it has a high bar to clear as being wrong can be a big problem businesswise.

[americanlantern]

I just feel almost no connection to modern planes. I feel like the world building is shallow and we don't spend enough time with the actual normal folks who live there to really invest in their stories. I have no connection to a modern non walker like I did to Glissa or Ixidor or Radha or Toshiro. And it has hurt how I invest in worlds.

[markrosewater]

About stories not having to be all on the same plane: I think that would be a more valid point if you guys weren't forcing each set to have a self contained story. I think if the no-block paradigm into continue, then Wizards should look into having multi part stories across multiple planes more often.

Both the Bolas Arc and the Phyrexian Arc were multi-year stories across multiple planes.

[americanlantern]

I think this might more specifically be in regards to following a handful of main characters that don't change set to set and continue to be a focus in art and flavor text. I know I miss those sorts of threads in blocks as well as the mechanical iteration between sets in a block. Both of these things can be done now. Though in particular I really miss how deeply I used to feel connected to a plane by spending so much time with the non planeswalkers who actually lived there.

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark. Can I express disappointment in the 30th Anniversary Secret Lair? I was really looking forward to it, and it sold out before I woke up. I understand the desire to ship it as an advent calendar and thus preprint it, but for availability it really should have been print to demand. I know this isn't your area but I was hoping you could pass that on.

There was no way to both print to demand and have it arrive before December.

[americanlantern]

it should have been sold months ago at print to demand. It's a celebration of the games history, make it available to EVERYONE that wants one and can afford it.

[markrosewater]

Can you pass along that for future limited releases for Secret Lairs that the order cap not be so high. You were able to get 30 copies in a single order which honestly seems like a REALLY bad to way to make sure the intended audience for the product is able to actually buy it.

I will pass that along.

[americanlantern]

I'd like to chime in and say a limited window for a first wave (to fulfill the advent calendar feel for December) and a print to demand option for later fulfillment would have been preferable here. If it's an anniversary product it should have been as available as needed.

[markrosewater]

I see the new Jumpstart has a little bit of Snow love in it. Would it be possible to get a little love for Arcane in supplementary products? I love seeing cards for shrines/gates/snow and other such themes in supplemental, would like to see Arcane get in on that too

We need to find the right place for it, meaning Arcane has to be mechanically relevant, but we’ve actually had sets we’ve talked about using it. I think it’s more when than if.

[americanlantern]

I think Strixhaven would have been perfect. Arcane as a word has the association to wizards and learned magic from DnD, would have been less parasitic then Lessons and more interesting to boot for older formats.

[markrosewater]

I understand your frustration with longtime players' obsession with eternal formats, because it means that color-pie mistakes are magnified and turned into icons; they're sought-after for their uniqueness and power. Cards like Path to Exile. Where you can say that "white isn't as good at killing creatures as black or red are", but then the players are constantly thinking of Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares... And you know that if I build a mono-red deck I'm reaching for Anarchy!

Truth.

[americanlantern]

Every past game piece exists, the color pie as experienced includes those cards for many players, many are fun and iconic pieces of the game. To me the connection players have to those cards is good and should be supported and fostered rather than trimmed away. The cats out of the bag and all that. Let White have really efficient single target removal that gives the opponent something. Let colors do things because it feels like the right color for something, those cards that feel the most right become very loved.

[markrosewater]

Since we’re talking a lot about UB in general right now, I’ll just give my opinion and say that I definitely don’t hate UB products, but I really, really, REALLY prefer small scale products over full sets/decks, and the best UB products by far have been the simplest (Godzilla and Dracula). I also really appreciated Stranger Things getting easily accessible UW reprints. My feeling, which I know will be disregarded and seen as too severe, is that Wizards just shouldn’t make more UB products than they can make UW equivalents. I don’t think the handful of unique designs are worth how alienating these large-scale UB products are to much of the player base. They’re definitely not as boundary-pushing as something like an unset, and if any of these cards ever actually become popular in competitive play, demand for a UW reprint will be extreme. Basically there’s a way to do these products that wouldn’t cause so much controversy and discourse at every turn, but Wizards keeps turning away from it.

You all haven't experienced much of Universes Beyond, because most of it isn't out yet, but what you're suggesting isn't possible with what's coming. Having the ability to play a game with a deck fully from that IP is a big draw of Universes Beyond.

And yes, we have built the system such that if a Universes Beyond card becomes very popular, we have the ability to create a Universes Within version.

[americanlantern]

my issue is the mechanical uniqueness stuck under another IP, if it's important for UB to be able to create whole themed decks it should be just as important that any if those cards have versions to match Magic IP. That should be a two way street. It's the most inclusive of the playerbase and the desires of enfranchised and newer players both.

[markrosewater]

Hey Mark. I noticed Argivian Phalanx had Human and Kor creature types because it’s a group of them. I wanted to say I enjoyed that choice, and am interested to see if it’s done more in the future.

It’s interesting tech.

[americanlantern]

I'd like to see some knights and other mounted creatures get a similar treatment. I think its good for tribal synergies and intuitive enough. It does limit future art though.

[markrosewater]

I'm legitimately curious: Do you honestly think eternal-legal un-cards are what the players want?

The players are not a single entity. They want different things. So, the real question is “does the audience who these cards are intended for, want them to be eternal legal, if possible?” The number one request I got for Unstable was “please reprint this card with a black border, so I can play it.” I got letters upon letters of players who wanted to play with the cards, but their play group wouldn’t let them, even with cards that had we printed them in any other product would have been playable. So yes, for that audience I believe that is what they wanted.

Another thing to be aware of, is historically Magic players react poorly to change. Almost every big change to the game came with a large sentiment of “you’re ruining the game; don’t do this”. Then with time as they started getting used to the change, they warm up to it, and it becomes the new norm they don’t want to see changed.

[americanlantern]

the unsets should have stayed all silver border. It's a cleaner solution, doesn't complicate anything. People have always and will continue to find places to play them. Mixed legal and illegal cards is a massive headache, it should be all one or the other. Almost every local player I know is constantly asking and questioning, confusion over legality is bad full stop, imo. The stamp isn't a good enough indicator.

[markrosewater]

I'm legitimately curious: Do you honestly think eternal-legal un-cards are what the players want?

The players are not a single entity. They want different things. So, the real question is “does the audience who these cards are intended for, want them to be eternal legal, if possible?” The number one request I got for Unstable was “please reprint this card with a black border, so I can play it.” I got letters upon letters of players who wanted to play with the cards, but their play group wouldn’t let them, even with cards that had we printed them in any other product would have been playable. So yes, for that audience I believe that is what they wanted.

Another thing to be aware of, is historically Magic players react poorly to change. Almost every big change to the game came with a large sentiment of “you’re ruining the game; don’t do this”. Then with time as they started getting used to the change, they warm up to it, and it becomes the new norm they don’t want to see changed.

[americanlantern]

I'm still of the opinion Opt In is the better way. Either way is encroaching on someone's escapism and I think everyone needing to opt in is less problematic than singling out folks after a game begins if it isn't the game they want to play. Pre game convos are important, not always possible, and sometimes uncomfortable for less social folks.

[markrosewater]

HAS R&D considered functionally identical (or mostly identical) in universe card designs as a way to please people who want in universe version of the warhammer cards?

It’s feasible with Secret Lair Universes Beyond, because it’s just a handful of cards, but it’s much less so with larger products.

[americanlantern]

Why was there no agreement to reprint those exact cards as is? That seems like a very reasonable proposition from a consumer perspective.

[markrosewater]

What's the problem with simply errataing the Warhammer creatures to be normal Magic types? Sure, it's a functional change, but it would be more like the cards are a part of Magic. Plus, I doubt types like Astartes will be used again, so why not just make them equivalent to Humans, for example?

It would be functional errata.

[americanlantern]

I think most of them have such a close equivalent though. This seems wrong to me, you just make the creature types match in the rules. It's not different to the Universe within cards having matched Oracle names. It's incredibly semantic.

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark, the more recent "this ability triggers only once each turn" text at the *end* of abilities continues to be frustrating for me to play, I keep thinking I get triggers when I don't. For limiting things to once per turn I much prefer tapping the card because there is a history of things that care about/ interact with that. Is it possible to add an ability word to the *front* of these triggers as an extra memory tool. Hope you're having a good week!

We're always optimizing our templates. I'll pass along the concern.

[americanlantern]

I really think they should templates somehow with Once Per Turn first. It's much clearer to put it at the front.

[markrosewater]

Hey Mark, Been playing for almost 30 years, love the care, thought and work you and your team put into the game. Always super cool to hear your thoughts on design - thanks for being such a fixture in the community and making the game great. Regarding treasure in Commander - I feel (in my own personal experience as a player) that treasure has gotten really ubiquitous and sort of warped the flow of the format. The best part of the magic experience is having such a diverse pool of tools / cards to draw from to solve specific challenges and problems, but I've found that as a player looking to start actively punishing treasure in my metagame (I play with close friends at our respective houses regularly), the tools don't really seem to be there yet to fully do this. Any word on whether their may be a bit more effort towards providing better treasure-hate tools in EDH on the horizon? I'd love to see a couple commanders and other cards that indirectly (or even directly) punish this strategy. I'm at a point where I'd run Mayhem Devil as a commander if I could and Magnetic Mine is starting too look a little juicier every day, but I don't want to resort to running full on turbo stax cards like Stony Silence or that-one-Karn just yet as these are my friends and I still want everyone to play the game and interact. *End polite request for more medium-power, not-too-staxy treasure hate*

I hear your request for more Treasure hate cards and will communicate that desire to the rest of R&D.

[americanlantern]

Treasure entering tapped solves nearly all the biggest issues. Errata would be my solve.