#blogatog

[magicturtle]

Guys, stop trying to elicit a response from Mark Rosewater about Universes Beyond. He is not gonna give that to you. Magic is his dream job and he is not going to jeopardize that by saying "yeah, you're right UB is a mistake"; even if he believed it he'd never say it. His response about UB and commander is about as close as we're gonna get. He sees the commander craze as something to adapt to, something to weather, something that will pass or change. And that is how he's approaching UB; either as an era of magic to be weathered OR as a negative response from the community to be weathered... like the end of blocks, or double faced cards. He's in it for the long haul, Magic is the biggest game of its kind, there's nowhere to go but down for him. The best you can hope for is that 5 or 10 years after the end of the current MtG epoch he'll admit that the Spider-Man set was undercooked, or that UB was unpopular with a certain cohort of the player base.

Magic Dad's priority is to keep his job. Your blogatog asks are not going to get the response you want.

[thedailymtcheese]

I miss my favorite game

Days like today make me sad. Sometimes i think to myself "What happened to magic the gathering?" If was my favorite game growing up. But recently it's lost that (no pun intended) Magic that made the gatherings so great (okay some pun intended). I think it's partially because i'm getting older and i hate these kids at the game store, like go clubbing why are you here?!?! But i think the more appropriate thing ruining MTG is Universes beyond, it sucks sure at first with the Godzilla cards it was kind goofy and fun but now we have deadpool breaking the 4th wall with SpongeBob FUCK square pants? As weird as it sounds i miss the old days where it was just kinda generic sounding fantasy creatures, spells and some lore specific stuff but i guess big daddy hasbro saw the sales from the walking dead set which i am guilty of buying it literally had a card with my name on it don't judge me to hard. But once we got to that point i think it was over. Now their are so many sets tie ins secret lairs supplemental sets format specific sets and then subsets in these sets split up between different packs of the same set have made it impossible for even long time fans to keep up with all the new cards. it really reflects the crash of the sports card market in the early 2000's. I just can't wait for the day MTG becomes too confusing for anyone to even try and collect the cards and then players who actually want to play the game can buy a pack for less then 10 dollars again.

[joekabox]

@markrosewater

I have been trying to ask you a question for months now, and for some reason, you seem to keep either missing it or avoiding it, so I'm going to post it here. I kindly request that you respond when possible.

The message is as follows:

"I visited my local gaming store a while back, and the owner who I'm familiar with was venting to me about how nobody that attends the Universes Beyond prereleases come back to play, and that the only people that attend are resellers looking to get early product, and fans of the IP being represented that just want the cards to collect. After that, the UB products tend to become shelf warmers as the regular players don't want them.

Similarly, at the big box retail store I work at, we have a great deal of TMNT, Spider-Man, and Avatar packs and products that remain unsold, simply becoming a growing pile as our vendor remains unable to do much about it. From customer feedback, it's because it's just not appealing.

With that in mind, in conjunction with the other complaints I regularly see and hear about UB, and many I know even quitting the game because of it, has WotC reconsidered creating a space for players who do not wish to interact with UB in any way? I have seen that there's something similar in Arena, perhaps a jump to paper?"

I did update the message a few times since I've tried sending it, typically as more unsold Universes Beyond products choke out our store shelves, and now we have the newly added Marvel products adding to this issue.

The vendor was finally forced to take back some of the unsold products, but the TMNT boxes remain untouched, and Avatar packs are mixed in with Marvel. Given that Marvel has been allowed a 3 set block, whereas real Magic: the Gathering sets have been denied this for years, I see this issue only getting worse.

At this point, it's more clear than ever that we need Universes Beyond free spaces. Universes Beyond NEEDS to be changed so that it needs Rule Zeroed into games, not out of them. This truth is not up for debate.

[magicwithclass]

Reserved List

There are over 500 Magic the Gathering cards on the reserved list. This list is a promise to never reprint these cards in paper which means, that for these cards, the copies that exist are the only copies that will ever exist. The reserved list only comprises of sets from before the year 2000 so most reserve list cards are 25 years old minimum. You would think that the cards on the reserve list would all be astronomically high but very few are over a dollar. Many feel that the reserved list will eventually be rescinded but the failure of the 30th anniversary edition cards makes this seem unlikely especially in the modern era. It seems like a lot of money is in newer Magic cards especially with the advent of serialized Magic cards. Now may be the time to move in to bulk Magic the Gathering reserved list cards. Every year the number of reserve list cards in circulation dwindle. Cards get lost or destroyed or they enter vaults never to see circulation ever again due to investors and speculators. At the moment, old school Magic seems to be at an all time low so this might be time to move in to reserve list cards. I recently purchased a couple hundred reserved list cards in various conditions and over the next couple of weeks I will post them online and explain the logic behind my purchase. Am I simply wasting money buying bulk that will never rise above a buck? Am I a fool for diversifying my purchases instead of focusing on one specific reserved list card and attempting to buy it out? Only time will tell. However, I really do have a love and a passion for the cards and it makes me feel a part of the community to have a piece of magic history in my hands. It is an interesting feeling to own something where there are only a certain number of copies on earth. Isn't this the appeal of serial numbered cards? Are serialized cards just a modern day reserved list for a new era? After all, most of the cards on the reserved list are cheap for a reason. They are simply unplayable in the modern magic the gathering era in almost all formats. Most serialized cards are chosen because they see play and are highly sought after cards. Any cards seeing a lot of play on the reserved list are already astronomically expensive so what is the point? Well, no one can see the future and some cards that were completely unplayable just need the right card printed to become all stars. The only question is which cards will reach that echelon. Yes, I have some opinions on which cards are more likely to see possible play in the future but you never know. That is why I want to diversify my assets. Should a reserve list card below one dollar spike card I will likely have many copies of it in my collection. Should all cards on the reserve list eventually spike as people realize that once all copies are gone they are gone and the cards aren't getting any younger then I will have simply made a profit. Even now, I do think there are cards on the reserve list that are criminally undervalued. I also believe that one day a card will spike on the reserve list that no one will predict. I am going to show the reserve list cards I bought this month although I have been buying reserved list cards for years.

[commiecommander]

If you allow proxies in your playgroup and then say stuff like just don't make it look like the real thing because that would be counterfeiting and it is my personal private job to make sure that you aren't making them look like real cards because I have to police everybody and make sure that you aren't going to try and scam someone.

As if suddenly creating a one-to-one replica of a real magic card all the sudden makes my morals and ethics disappear.

You sound like a fool when you spread this stuff around.

You're just being an extension of police for wizard of the Coast. If people want I want to one replica of their magic cards for their purposes of playing the game stop trying to attribute it with criminal activity.

Has someone who has played since 1995, and who will definitely make themselves sound really old you kids today have no idea how friendly the environment is towards the accessibility compared to what it used to be and why how hilarious it is we're still fighting accessibility problems in magic the gathering today at the hands of the community.

Stop it stop it stop it. Proxy everything regardless of quality sees the means of your card production. Hasbro and WOTC cannot stop you.

[justmoveyourhand]

Y'all we are so spoiled by BlogATog.

For anyone not in the know, it's a Tumblr Q&A blog run by Mark Rosewater, head of design for Magic the Gathering. He shares teasers for upcoming sets in the form of riddle-like hints and gives a lot of insight into choices made behind the scenes. It's fascinating. And, to my knowledge, almost entirely unique.

I'm in a lot of gaming circles. I've been heavily invested in Heroclix, Yu-Gi-Oh, Warhammer 40k, Pokemon (VGC, Smogon singles, and TCG) at various times in my life, and none of them have the same kind of open relationship with its playerbase. The best you can hope for is panels at conventions and big tournaments, or the one disastrous attempt at explaining a banlist yugioh did back in 2012(ish). I would LOVE to hear the behind-the scenes reasoning for Yugiohs recent shift away from negation-based endboards, how 40k chooses which models to update and which can wait (both on rules and physical model), why it took wizkids so long to realize that Resources were worse for Heroclix than relics, why Furfrou hasn't been in Pokemon game since it's first appearance. But magic? Magic, ANYONE can go on Tumblr and ask the most random question, and you've got a good chance at getting a compact but solid answer. Especially if it's your birthday.

There's been a lot of discourse around magic lately, namely around pricing, and I feel that that's valid. But I also feel like it should be stated that clearly the faces behind the game care. That blog could have been abandoned years ago, and I don't think anyone would have been surprised. But it's kept going, and man I appreciate it.

[beatsandskies]

Making Enemies: the original duel decks.

It just had to be Rosewater, right? Early issues of The Duelist are wild. Although I was surprised it took until issue 8 until I found any decklists — that weren’t examples of limited pools or part of tournament reports at least. Issue 4 did have a run down on how you can make smart trades and take advantage of Ante to improve your starter deck (essentially a bigger booster pack with basics) and…

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[markrosewater]

I Went Through 1,000 Mark Rosewater Whens and Ifs To See How Many Came True

After tackling the Maybe. : ), I'm back with another Blogatog deep dive. This time, I'm looking a Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater's patente...

The person who went through Blogatog to see how often every “Maybe : )” came true, has a second video where he examines every one of my “if/when” replies to see how often they’ve come true.