Reading Homework: The Foundation Is Rotten: rhysticstudies.substack.com/p/what-are-we-doing-really? The Thermacline Principle: every.to/p/breaching-the-trust-thermocline-is-the-biggest-hidden-risk-in-business and also nitter.poast.org/garius/status/1588115310124539904
Welp MAGIC is DEAD can't play in my city anymore anyway due to a store owner who has it out for me but to quote Grandpa Motto from Yugioh (In my day Monster cards used to be actual Monsters not this)
Please read geeks, MOPS, and sociopaths in subculture evolution. It's on the meaningness website. It perfectly explains why everything feels like it's losing its soul and why we get things like secret lairs and universes beyond.
Well they made them Cowboys with a circular saw train, they went to the Clue mansion and made a Clue game.... Probably better they just make MTG using other peoples IP's because they literally have no direction to take the actual stories in the game. Bloomborrow was great, it should've been a 3 set release like -- "The good old days" instead of a single set that got run over by the next set 1.5 months later. Will I buy singles from these sets? Of course but I'm not happy about it. Maybe this is why I try harder and harder to use old cards from 30 years ago in my decks. The "racing set" reminds me of Yugioh 5d's where they played cards while riding around a race track.... Pretty funny. Great video Prof.
I believe it was the Lord of the rings set and the card The One Ring that brought this all forward. Look at how well that set sold and how the card The One Ring has dominated modern. Wizards wants that type of sales to continue. I get that people are mad with the beyond sets being in every format. You have to look at it from Wizards point of view, though. Lord of the Rings set sold very well, so they see that as a open letter to bring more sets like that into the game for every format now.
Not matter how much you love MTG, if you still support Hasbro so much after all they have done to their IPs, you are part of the problem about Hasbro being a greedy and incompetent company. They're ruining their IPs and they don't care about it. They just care about profit. What about your dignity, hardcore MTG fans?
@@halfdecentstrange The new mechanic "spectrum shift" is awesome. "When a creature becomes untapped, choose any creature type and apply it to this creature. All opponents must verbally acknowledge the new creature type or they lose the game."
Crazy how all the people who were upset way back then were actually founded in their concerns and criticism. It leaves me smug about all the people who were fine with the UB stuff and moaned about all the complainers.
They said people complaining about Horse Armor were being hysterical and overreacting and that one piece of cosmetic armor won't actually be that bad Nearly 20 years later, games a service is considered the default for major game developers, microtransactions are near in every game (including indie games) and games have to advertise that they aren't pay-to-win because of how pervasive that model is in modern day gaming Idk why people think that companies won't tank any sort of integrity they have for potentially millions of extra dollars if they can do it. Of course WotC is expanding beyond the original fantasy/mediveal/folktale/mythology settings and into already existing IPs because that shit makes money.
@@jakehr3 this, also now everyones fears of mobile game design infiltrating the territory of true gaming is going to come true now that genshin has opened pandoras box as alot of people dont classify it as mobile since it has console releases..
Please dont pretend there wasn't massive toxicity and harassment and death threats. People called them out because of the toxicity primarily. @Tristan-fz8jg
Sets like Foundations and Bloomburrow are what reignited my partner's deep love for Magic and introduced me to this amazing game. It is admittedly a little disheartening to feel like we got into it just in time for everything to turn into Magic: Funko Pops, but there's no ignoring what he and I have already gotten out of playing Magic together. We'll see what the future holds. Thank you for this video!
Me too! I love both sets, especially bloomburrow. It reminded me so much of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. I got 2 booster boxes and bought all 4 of the commander precons for the set. This news about the UB stuff wont kill my love of magic but I do mirror the profs feelings. These IPs being brought in feel like cop outs on being creative. That being said I will be buying several boxes of Final Fantasy because I am a massive FF fan. Still things like spiderman and the walking dead while not crazy still dont make much sense. I am out on spongebob... thats just nonsense.
I don't have anything against any of the individual properties, including Spongebob Squarepants. But I do loathe this practice of turning absolutely everything into a cauldron of pop culture slop. Not slop because the components are worthless, but slop because that's what it turns into when it's all just blended together and shoved into whatever container someone is trying to sell.
it's the fortnite effect, the first collabs where amazing because they were unexpected, now silly collabs are the default and not something special anymore
Isn't that Marvel's core identity though? Shoving itself into people's face with as much content as possible and wherever possible? Are the movies even still relevant? Aren't they basically advertisements at this point?
But don't you get it?! Marvel is for everyone! You are part of everyone! Therefore marvel is for you! Magic is for everyone too! Everything is for everyone! And to make sure that everyone can enjoy everything and no one feels left out, everything is watered down to the point of being completely tasteless! It's like drinking air! Isn't it great?! If no one can taste any flavor, no one will complain that it tastes bad! And Wizards can make a lot more m- I mean, MTG will have a lot more fans!
I used to joke that I'll be equipping Captain America with Darth Vaders lightsaber and using him to crew the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Scary how it's slowly but surely coming true.
I'll just leave a quote from my favorite band Rush. "One likes to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity."
Hasbro did the stupid corporate thing of "This rare and special version of a thing sells well, so lets make more of it until it's no longer special and degrades the foundation of the thing." Sets like Neon Dynasty did well, so we get Aetherdrift. UB products always sold out, so we get more of them. No subtle understanding of why those things were special, just "this sells, so sell more".
Do the right thing. Don't support Hasbro. They're destroying MTG. They're destroying their IPs. Just because Hasbro is a greedy and incompetent company. Move on from Hasbro, people. They don't deserve support. Just support IPs owned by company which care. Please. Make it right. Do it for your own good. For your information, the MTG UA-cam channel deleted some comments about criticism for Hasbro. That's the Hasbro company for you all.
Prof, the most well-reasoned arguments for giving on up Magic followed by "but it's OK I still love it, will keep buying, and don't hold any ill will towards WotC" is exactly why they're getting away with this and will continue to do so.
I disagree, I understand your point for sure regarding continuing to give them money, but this is the direction; whether we like it or not and they don’t care about what the consumer wants but rather the ones in charge, making decisions in “our best interest” I’m new to MTG so maybe I don’t have much of a say, I do love the game, and I understand the old school guys frustrations, truly; but it won’t change anything so fuck it, beat some nerd at Friday night magic with a SpongeBob commander like wizard daddy told us 😂
This is exactly correct. With no consequences, the capitalistic company will continue to do capitalistic company things. The fans have to drop the game for their own health, and (hopefully) the health of the game. (The prior is guaranteed, but the latter isn't.)
@@ajaxtaur I guess I’m confused on what consequences those would be? People just giving up on it and not playing or buying anymore? Ideally; in a perfect world they would receive consequences for being greedy fucks, but it isn’t illegal so aside from everyone just not paying them any more money, effectively decimating the magic community; I guess my question is, what could be done, that wouldn’t result in us losing the game entirely
@@DFTRTITAN If the community doesn't turn screws and wield what leverage it has, they're going to kill the game anyway once it is hollowed out to nothing but whales and speculators. Now is not a time for some empty conciliatory messaging, it is the time to actually go "I cannot continue to support this" and follow through on that
@@DFTRTITAN even if wizards fucking exploded today, we wont 'lose the game entirely'. wotc is not the magic community, the most popular format (commander) was created by people who wanted to ESCAPE wotc. wotc fucking killed pro magic and largely nobody cared. the first post is right. i dont blame prof - this is his livelihood. but its still funny to have someone say 'i hate this, i hate the direction this is going, here's 200 dollars for the next booster box'. it is objectively hilarious.
they said they didn't do it because it would be too confusing for players. mind you this is the same company that makes 20 different versions of the same card and releases cards alongside a standard set that for whatever reason are *NOT* standard playable.
I think a big part of the problem is that Hasbro learned the wrong lesson from LOTR's success. It was the best-selling set because it was Universes Beyond, it was the best-selling set because it was freaking Lord of the Rings.
They already knew from secret lairs how profitable Universes Beyond was. What they learned from Lord of the Rings is that printing full UB sets would go fine.
I feel like LOTR was a great example of how to do a universes beyond set since it still followed the themes of mtg. Once doctor who came out sure the sol ring was cool, but I much rather it be a secret lair with a different art and name of an existing card like the party tree and the great henge. I feel the new cards should be in mtgs standard sets, and secret lairs should be remakes of those cards in universes beyond.
You know when the execs were saying they wanted to make MTG a lifestyle brand, I kinda laughed because it already was to me. MTG & D&D is how I spend most of my hobby time with my friends. The gutting of half of MTG's IP from MTG feels so wrong. I kinda now get why Nintendo made crossovers the exceptions and not the rule. Smash bros was nice, but we didn't need smash kart, smash tennis, smash sports, smash rpg, smash strikers, etc. I get it.
Exactly this. Universes Beyond would have been cool, if it was an exception. I am personally really excited about the Final Fantasy set. Partly because I would love to finally have a FANTASY set in this card game again. Another reason, obviously, because I love Final Fantasy. My excitement for the FF set is true for other universes beyond sets, of course. Still, turning MtG into a 50% advertisement for other non-MtG franchises saddens me.
Unlike WotC nintendo actually foster and value their IPs and do valuable things with them... wizards has dropped the ball on especially magic for 30 years because theyre morons. Management dont know what theyre doing. Its pathetic frankly
@@ThorsShadow yeah like final fantasy actually fits! And sure some marvel series too even especially if based on the comics, like focussing on Thor's side of things with the norse gods... but spongebob nuh uh
@@veeeeeeeeee453 lol when i saw SpongeBob i rolled my eyes. it would makes sense if you added thor, doctor strange and black heart to magic because they fit in but SpongeBob?
We need to stop calling this Magic the Gathering and start calling the game Deckmaster. Deckmaster was supposed to be exactly what MtG has become - a universal rules set to make a wide variety of themed games.
What is brutal to me is that instead of launching a separate card game, they decided to launch deckmaster through cannibalizing magic the gathering. There is no way that MTG and Deckmaster wouldn't make hasbro more money as separate entities. So this is completely unnecessary.
@@Wild-Coma Creative? What are you trying to imply? That veteran players aren't creative? You realize the only people who will be playing with you are people who have no other way to socialize.
I stopped buying magic a few years ago and every time I start thinking I might miss the game, I see something like this and realize that I don’t want to play modern magic at all.
I sold my entire collection to a friend this year. I've played one game since then, and it reminded me of all the reasons I stopped playing. The power creep, the lack of cohesion, etc.
It's sad how we've gone from "This product isn't for you" to "This game isn't for you". If there's no format that offers an escape from these Universes Beyond sets, then the only escape is to quit the game entirely. I've lost count of how many times I've said this over the last few years, but I miss when Magic took itself seriously.
@@olamoum3695 I love sorcery. Unfortunately I don't think it'll ever get too far off the ground. I only know 3 other people who play it and the lack of available sources to buy singles and even sealed product makes deckbuilding hard
I miss blocks. Back when they cared about the product. Pushing one major box set every month is too much. Eventually the bubble will pop and all the investors who push this .. As long as they keep doing this, it makes it harder not easier to get into magic. The block method allowed for synergy over sets.
I started getting into magic right around the time of Guilds/Allegiance/War of the Spark so I never really got to experience what blocks were like but, yeah, returning to blocks would be great. I know some players back then had complaints about the block structure, especially the smaller sets, but, I don't know how much of a problem it was. The most common complaint I've heard from magic players every single year since I started playing has been about product fatigue to the point that perpetual spoiler season went from being a meme to becoming reality. Blocks would fix that.
Frankly, I would be fine with Universes Beyond as standard sets if the release schedule were 1 standalone UB set (preferably IPs that are thematically consistent with core MTG) and a 3-set block per year. That would be a manageable number of releases with an acceptable, although not negligible, rate of introducing UB cards to the game. Half of all sets being UB with a new release every 2 months is ludicrous.
I agree. My friend recently got me to jump on Arena and build a deck to play Standard with him. I looked over the card pool and it's utter chaos. No consistency, a million mechanics, just a total mess.
I've already stopped buying two or three sets with every new release, simply because it's too much AND there are too many silly IPs and ideas being forced upon us. I have lost interest in those cards specifically, but magic in general because of over saturation. I have ONLY bought singles for the last year, so instead of me spending thousands each year, I now will only spend a few hundred, at most, so good job WotC. You played yourself.
This is a money grab. Plain and simple. These sets are easier for them to come up with, easier to illustrate, and have guaranteed customers and fans including customers OUTSIDE of Mtg. I’m sure the numbers reflect that.
It reminds me of how the only Hollywood movies we get these days are remakes and sequels due to built-in audience. It's risk adverse behavior for the shareholders at the cost of creativity and trying fresh new ideas. Why do that when an established IP has less risk and guaranteed audience to buy product? Lore and old timers be darned!
@@Wild-Coma this is such a weird reply to my comment lmfao. I never even said I disliked it, ima be the first niqqa wit a SpongeBob card 😂 I simply described a predatory business practice. Go talk trash to actual non fans. I’m not the 1
@@ignskeletons that’s exactly what it is. There is also a phenomenon when brands get so big, they’re to big to fail. Then, they start collabing with everyone and everything (old example would be Mickey Mouse, new one would be fortnite) and it’s clearly hitting mtg hard lol
@@23345star "I Doom Blade Optimus" "I pay 1 for Mirror Entity, making all my creatures all creature types. Since that makes my Optimus a Time Lord, I'm going to play Time Lord Regeneration. My Optimus regenerations into... The 10th Doctor!"
Likewise 😂 Guilds of RAV was the last time I played standard and every set after that was uhhhh either a reprint set or a failed and not fun packed full of gimmicks sets
@@John_Smith_ That's exactly when I stopped playing as well. Glad I'm not the only one. Its a shame to see this IP driven into the ground. No one cares about Magic anymore.
Same man, I haven't played in years. I was going to get back in a while back but the Lord of the Rings set was coming out and I thought, wow, that's weird. I don't like it but I guess it's a one off. I don't think I'll ever get back in now.
Foundations is what they can point to as a temporary bandaid when anyone says anything bad about having to put the new spider man and final fantasy cards in their deck "Well just play with those instead" while everything else is power creeped to hell and back. "Oh you don't like aetherdrift and dont want cowboys riding motorcycles.... poor baby buy another pack of foundations then."
I see it more as a love letter and a last effort to put a ton of time, energy and effort into making the highest quality quintessential magic set possible in an effort to outsell UB sets. If Foundations became the highest selling set of the year it'd maybe not change the planned releases for 2025 but it may make the suits at Hasbro rethink plans for 2026 onward by showing them that there is a real desire and enthusiasm for Magic sets which are quintessentially magic. I think Bloomburrow exceding their expectations in terms of how popular it was already shows this to some extent and the point needs to be driven home by embracing foundations
I'll be honest. I deeply hope this isn't true but I'll force myself to go the the pre-release. If nothing else it'll be a good memorial service for the game I once loved.
For some people maybe, I've never been into the lore or anything. I just enjoy the game, so cards of another UB set that I also like is fine by me. I only play commander with friends too so its no big deal to me honestly (other than the facts that, yeah HALF of the sets ar UB is kinda ridiculous). But I can see why this would upset MTG players who are in it for immersion and lore and such. Also the fact that its legal in ALL formats feels kind of wrong.
@codymarcotte512 I also don't care about lore, what bothers me is when completely different IPs cross over. You have knights, cowboys, teenage cheerleaders, Tommy-guns, Transformers and soon Marvel heroes and Spongebob on the battlefield together. It's a mess IMO...
I used to joke with friends when the walking dead sld came out how in the future I would “equip SpongeBob with Darth Vaders lightsaber and use Winnie the Poos activated ability to let him fight my opponents Gandalf” …. It was supposed to be a joke damnit
Well, in YGO, we had Gradius and cards from other Konami titles. Also, we had that wannabe Star Wars archetype. But this is hilarious, and I want to see how it plays out for MTG.
@@joseortega7815 Yugioh doesn't really have it's own lore though, and the lore it does have take place in different universes (the Abyss storyline happens in a completely different universe than the Visas Saga, allowing one to be Steampunk Fantasy and the other to be a Sci-Fi planet hopping adventure). That's the fun of Yugioh. A lot of Yugioh archetypes are also just knock-offs of other series, but it's still its own IP. Like Kozmo might be a weird mixture of Star Wars + The Wizard of Oz, but it still feels like its own thing that fits in with Yugioh because everything is disconnected anyways.
@@SeveNStarSeveN Yu-Gi-Oh not having its own lore is laughable. Even random, normal cards like Warrior Dai Grephr have insane amounts of backstory to them that weave with other cards alongside the established histories of cards like Dark Magician and the Blue Eyes White Dragon. You know both of them used to be people? Nah, the reality is that Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh honestly had the same approach when it came to tying all these cards together in a narrative. They simply exist in the same multiverse together, and just like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic even had its own little "Gradius" cards that came from outside the narrative, but being based on myths and legends instead. Remember the fourth expansion was wholesale an adaptation of Arabian Nights. I'm not a fan of a potential crossover-overdosed future, I'm just pointing out that Magic did historically have a few cards that existed outside its narrative the same Yu-Gi-Oh did.
Sky strikers, Draco, Albaz, all of dual terminal, Centur-ions, vandread, and so many more have in card lore. Yugioh has card lore people just know it mostly for the anime though.
For some reason Prof's description of Foundations as this "Love Letter to Magic set" has put this horrible almost baseless fear in me that it's almost like a fond farewell, and WOTC is gonna use "Of course we care about the MTG IP, we have Foundations" as UB becomes 55% of total product, then 60% then 70% etc
Yeah, UB will grow and grow, and wotc will just claim Foundations is there so you have nothing to fear. Foundations is only meant as a way to offload actual Magic card creation so they could focus on UB, at least till 2029, or longer.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they did that, where MTG normal sets would go back to only 2 or 3 per year, and the rest can just be UB or other cash-grabbing sets that I have no problem just ignoring. Issue is that they are going to be legal in all formats, so once you get broken op cards in those sets, you will have to buy them...
@@mugthemagpie3001Bloomburrow feels like an old Magic set that somebody brainstormed in 2006 that got lost in a drawer at WOTC until now. Good theme, good flavor, fun mechanics, a decent story that's basically disconnected from their bootleg Avengers plotline going on in the background. Unfortunately I could throw money at them for Bloomburrow specifically and WOTC would think I want more Spongebob cards.
Foundations is weird. Gloss over the reasons core sets have been cancelled at least 3 times in the past. Never mind that this set targeted at stability for new players needed 133 new cards among 600 reprints. Why fix for 5 years? Standard is already set for 3. Why would you want a different rotation on top of that? I don't even think they can go 5 years without announcing a change to their printing. And if the goal is that it exists for new players, how many stores are going to keep these packs stocked in 4 years when 20+ new sets have come out since then? I predict Foundations will rotate before 2029. But I also don't care, because I won't be playing anymore.
It absolutely breaks my heart hearing this. The Universes Beyond really pulls me out of the immersion and fantasy of the game. These cards will probably be filling landfills more than decks and collections. We're watching Magic become Funko Pop TCG.
It actually sells way more than the rest. So I'm pretty sure the collecting phenomena is going to increase. Even if I hate everything about the consequences on the original content.
Lol funko pop tcg, that's a way of putting why I couldn't get into Weiss Schwarz or the coming battle arena, I love the series that I'm into but that doesn't means I care that much about my opponents one to learn how to counter their cards xd
I think you said it best when comparing UB to advertisements. It feels we are bombarded by ads from everywhere and MTG has been an escape from that (and pop culture). I play magic to “escape” and now I’ve got pop-up ads everywhere in our once “pure” world. BRANDO, it’s what plants crave.
Idk, I know how to play magic, I know how the game functions. I like that. These let me play with Ip's that i love without having to learn new games, games that would probably be half baked, poorly balanced with a minimal player base. Instead i get to play one of the most popular card games in the world with a bunch of cool cards from a bunch of stuff i already love. As someone who has never had a single interest in the "World of magic" or rather even knew there was a whole lore behind it... UB is the reason I am playing Magic today. You can complain about the new sets all you like but the reality is WotC is printing them, because people are buying them. Makning money isn't a bad thing... it's what makes them able to make new sets and continue printing cards year after year and pumping more money into the magic community. I'd much rather have a pile of trash cards and people to play with then sit at home with my Perfect deck of "Traditional Magic Cards" wanking off...
@@GeneralHiro the thing is why cant we both be happy, we can have magic as it curently is and you can have the UB sets that are not legal in normal magic. you get to play with the sets you want to with other people who also want to and we get to play MTG with the lore accurat stuff. sure we can have crossover tornament that allow both sets but then we also have seperate sets so if you dont like just the lore acurate stuff or if we dont like the UB stuff you still have a choice. the problem is by making these sets legal in all formats we then have one of two options buy all this exstra stuff or dont be competative, its a cash grab forsing anyone who want to play certan formats to spend more money.
@@GeneralHiroWhy should we be miserable so you can be happy? When you don't even care enough about the game to begin to understand its storied almost 30 year old setting, older than you are probably? Why should we have our hobby degraded into funko pop slop just so Johnny Come Lately can be pulled in because they had the right brands flashed into their mindless consumer skull? You leave.
As someone who doesn't even play MtG this just makes me sad. Watching yet another beloved and venerable franchise get turned into corporate slop by transparent greed is just so depressing and demotivating.
I’ve been considering getting into MTG but after seeing this it’s really turned me off. Wokeism is destroying everything. IMO what makes MTG interesting is the fantasy aspect, I love Marvel but I don’t need that crap in Magic. Marvel can make their own TCG if people want it.
@@SpacemonkeymojoCorporation ruins franchise for profit. Then morons start claiming that its "wokism" like that word means anything other than "stuff you dont like"
@@byronholt2031dude you’re an absolute idiot if you can’t see how this isn’t woke. Marvel doesn’t belong in MTG just like how Aragorn in LoTR isn’t black. Instead of knee-jerking at the term “wokeism” maybe open your eyes a bit and see what is actually happening. Wolverine and Spider-Man and The Walking Dead are being shoehorned into Magic where they don’t belong, that is being woke no matter how much you want to deny it. People like you, who defend this crap, are the ones ruining society.
While I've never actually played MtG, I do admire the cool lore and art from the game as well as the general influence it's had on every TCG ever made. Coming out with random real world IPs feels like a major greedy cash grab. It completely removes everything that made Magic unique for all these years and any original creative vision the early designers had.
“They have taken the Bridge and the Second Hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes... Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark... We cannot get out... They are coming”
@@BludMun i'd say a fantasy set with fitting archetypes, lore, creature types and aesthetics is extremely different from a modern-day set about quirky superheroes...
@@gronizherz3603 couldn't agree more. Lord of the Rings feels like magic, it's fantasy. My favorite fantasy. I hadn't played magic in a few years and the LOTR set was one of the things that brought me back if I'm being entirely transparent. But to me there is a huge difference between a UB set with elves/dwarves/dragons/etc and a UB set with effing Spongebob.
5:06 THANK YOU, I feel like this point has been drowned out by the bigger issues, but the fact that the main sets have been moving away from fantasy/fantasy interpretations of mythology, and into more contemporary or future settings is also a problem. In the Aetherdrift promo Chandra was riding motorbike doing an Akira slide, and these are the sets that are meant to be a blessed relief from UB??
As best as I can recall we’ve had mechs more or less the whole time, they were just called golems and constructs, despite said constructs being effectively mechs and the stories being hilariously close to sci-fi, and honestly feeling a lot like stuff pulled from Dune. Unfortunate that upper level executives think that somehow doesn’t have as much “mass market appeal” as UB flavored products.
This move is the equivalent of a restaurant saying "Appetizers and drinks sell well and have high margins. Let's just eliminate the whole menu except appetizers and drinks".
I made a similar analogy. Like a restaurant analyzing that people love their long-cherished spaghetti, but also receiving incredible praise about a new chocolate cheesecake they brought in- and deciding to put chocolate sauce from the cheesecake into the spaghetti the restaurant is famous for.
Absolutely the best metaphor I have seen to describe this. I was extremely salty towards Universes Beyond when I first saw them and avoided them like the plague. But then a long-time friend of mine who had never once played Magic asked me about the Fallout set. And we each ended up buying one of the Preconstructed decks, and he had a blast playing it. Before long he was building a collection and tuning this precon deck and I did the same with my cards on hand. Even now my Preston Garvey commander deck still goes with me in my box to game nights and I still crack it out every now and then. That showed me the value these had in bringing new players to the game, and also showed me that I should be thinking about UB differently: it was a garnish--a spice that could be thrown in, to help stir things up and create a different way of playing the same game. And that change of heart has led me to actually use these sets as a recruitment tool for new players with great success. Replacing half of your existing recipe with a spice is going to make for a terrible overall meal.
The Professor has an incredibly professional and emotionally mature way of expressing his disappointment in a world of people who just react without thinking. This was a well crafted and articulated video! As a new player, I feel for you and agree with what you are saying.
@@creamsoda2392 They took all the wrong lessons from LotR set. That was a universally beloved IP that fits in with magic vibes pretty closely, was insanely well designed, and it still has caused a lot of issues. Instead of seeing it as a “oh this could be fun once a year as a special thing”, execs just saw $$$
@@creamsoda2392 You know, when you put it like that, it occurs to me that's how I've felt about it since it released. Bloomburrow feels fresh and true to character for the game as I perceive it. Bonus points for the set's noticeable effort to scale back the power creep.
@Pug8 true. We should all rally together and form #MAGICGATE as a reactionary movement against I am sure we can all band together and get twice as big and 10x as toxic as we got with the most recent commander bannings
I still remember altering Magic cards back in the day to make them look like Batman. I never thought that soon we’d be altering Spider-Man to make him look like he belongs in the Magic universe
Hell, fuck it. Reprint the ENTIRE reserved list in every Core set moving forward. Who cares? Just serialize some of the reprints so people can still have their precious chases that are high in price. Because, at this point? What more harm can honestly be done?
@@manicka111 Honestly, do you even need og duals anymore? There's so much good fixing, reprinting duals would be a moderate increase in power, depending on which formats they'd be reprinted in. I'd like a Time Walk and Ancestral Recall please.
It's actually already beyond YuGiOh, because YGO at least ties the whole nonsense neatly together, becauseit always was enjoying the nonsense. Magic was serious, but now is just a sad series of McDonalds promos, except you don't even get a Happy Meal when you try to pull for a toy.
Whatever unique, interesting, special interest you might have enjoyed, must become a homogenized sludge able to be "consumable by anyone and everyone".
Ironically, didn't MaRo once comment about how something that everybody likes but nobody loves is doomed to fail? It's honestly sad and pitiful seeing him (and WotC) turn back on what he said more and more. The only problem is that the casualty is our game.
@@Ellie-AngelaI’m sure he’s bothered by the new direction of the game but views himself as a moderating force that is saving the game from worse outcomes under a more sycophantic Hasbro stooge that would fill his position. That, or he just likes the money he’s getting.
@@Durgenheim Most likely one of those two, yes. But even if it's the first one, it's sadly there that the slippery slope begins of always just allowing a bit more.
“There is no plan for this to ever happen…” Yeah, you know, here in Germany we immediately compare such statements with, “Nobody has the intention of building a wall.”
@@maythesciencebewithyou The Berlin wall was meant to keep the GDR’s own population trapped in the country, not outsiders out. It’s not a Trumpian Mexico wall. Knowing some history helps. 😉
I wish Prof would stop apologizing for not liking Universes Beyond. There is nothing at all wrong with saying "I greatly dislike the thing you like" you do not need to add more, it's okay, if people are being honest with each other then that alone should be enough
I agree but you have to remember that as a dedicated content creator he has to choose between taking a principled stand and ensuring he doesn’t offend potential viewers.
Prof has bought his fair share of UB cards. More than the average player I'm 100% certain. He's stated himself in this video he has no issues with UB cards; only that they now take up half of all future sets, which anyone who's been playing MTG for the past 30 years should have an issue with. The future of MTG is concerning.
My table is a "No UB Allowed" table. Tell UB players they are destroying the game.This is why gatekeeping your hobbies is so important. Keep the general audience and corporations out. They destroy everything they touch. Capitalism is a cancer. Gate Keep your hobbies.
A lot of content creators try to anticipate potential misunderstandings by overexplaining the things people might be offended by, which feels like the intent of that
some moron at corporate thought they had a big brain moment and said "magic is just the mechanics lets monetize the mechanics to the greatest extent possible" and this is what we ended up with
and that "moron" in corporate actually made wizards a lot of money. The UB cards sell. Which makes you shudder to think about why in the world would people fall for such gimmicky "nerd culture" bait.
He adapted the fornite model "smashing action figures together" into a card game. It prints money. That moron is sitting peachy and garunteed on the golden parachute list if the bough finally breaks.
I definitely won't be picking up mtg again. I thought about it during bloomsborrow but this is the icing on the cake for me and I WILL not be playing again. I miss 7th edition days
Hasbro imagines they're in a HBO vs Netflix competition with Lorcana - that they need to become Lorcana before Lorcana has enough cards out to become MTG. That's lame.
I am late to this, but I would just like to take a minute to recognize how level-headed this response is. The Professor has clearly stated what is causing his sour emotions while still expressing happiness for those that are excited. This is a great little piece on change. Those people who have been there for years and are quite happy with the current direction are going to get upset about the a turn or twist in the heading. It's just how people work. They get comfortable with the thing and expect the thing to be steadfast. When it takes a drastic turn, those people feel betrayed, let down, or just plain angry. It's not quite often you see someone who makes a living off of a game be the same person showing the most maturity in response to something beloved changing, and I think The Professor deserves kudos for this. Kudos, kind sir. I hope you find that your enjoyment of MTG grows regardless of what happens.
Prof., you nailed it. It’s an advertisement product and not Magic anymore. Imagine this would happen to Star Wars. Suddenly Elza and Olaf run through the picture and are part of the rebels. Wotc makes magic ridiculous.
I feel like that only sort of works if what's being advertised is less known. Everyone on planet Earth knows what a Spiderman is, and I doubt they'll buy UB:Spiderman for one of the side-characters that show up in 1 comic from the 80's.
I remember when I first read someone say MTG is now "Cardboard funko pops". Man was that on the bullseye. I know the numbers don't support this, but it feels like desperation for WotC. Its like when IPs run out of steam in Hollywood- sometimes the short term solution is to fuse them together such as "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" or "Alien vs. Predator"
It isn't desperation. It is just line must go up. There is no way MtG doesn't make boatloads of money. The problem is the same as all for profit corporations. They have to make two boatloads next year, three the next, and so forth. It isn't enough to make a boatload of money year over year.
@@kmo9790 As I said; the numbers don't support it being desperation, but it does remind me of "IP losing voltage, what now?" thinking. I know its really "money-money-money!"
As someone who literally just started to get into magic the last few days and dnd the last few months I haven’t heard anyone say a good thing about that wotc or hasbo with my short time interacting with the fanbase. The dnd campaign I’m playing takes place in ravnica and we got a hint our big bad is a dragon named bolas and when I played magic the gathering arena for the first time Monday and say he was the finale challenger of the tutorial i instantly got excited and message my dm who’s a big magic fan and player. Only card game I played before magic was hearthstone for awhile as a kid I revisited it recently got bored and decided to try out magic arena since I don’t have anything getting my attention other then occasionally Diablo 4 I’ve spent the last couple days playing arena and it sucks to see a lot of these companies keep drifting farther away from their core fanbases im search for more money and sales tho with that said I have only been buying the lotr set in the game with the gold coins😂
I’m a sucker for theme. Ixalan and Innistrad were the planes that got me into the game in 2018. Love me zombies, pirates and eldritch horrors beyond man’s comprehension. Even the D&D stuff was welcome and fun. It matched the theme. Now, I hate that every time I brew a Zombie, Pirate, or Horror tribal deck, I’m encouraged to include cards from Doctor Who, Assasin’s Creed, Fallout etc. Reprints of cards with new art will always be welcome. Full sets of unique cards with no Magic version suck the identity out of the game. Sure it’s just a card game, but I cared about the themes. I liked the flavor of being a planeswalker gathering spells from different planes to use in your library. Game mechanics are important, but theme is what keeps me involved when the game gets frustrating or bland. So now, I play less and less.
I get you, but one thing is theme, another is turning the game into a billboard for other IPs. Imagine if Universes Beyond was like... Magic in a world of Japanese Yokai? Or South American folklore? There are SO MANY WAYS of doing this in an interesting, non-cash-grabbing way.
once upon a time, I'd suggest reskinning htem as proxies with an in-universe, or at least in theme. When I built a human typal commander deck, I did exactly this with Rick, making him an Odric instead. But now there's just so many cards that this is next to impossible to do for any card you might want to play
I am on the same page when ot comes to theme. But in Magic, theme is very strange. You never play as the characters, thematically you as a player incorporate a wizard who fights another wizards, and you conjure pieces of universes and lore that meet your ends the most. So why not conjure an army of goblins, timelords, giants, dragons, ghostbusters and superheroes? The game thematically made never much sense, because you do not play the lore, you use it in a fractured way to beat your oponent. I build limited decks, because I like them to be thematically coherent as a piece of flavor. But when it comes to gameplay and scenery, you were never part of the worlds you played, you made them part of yours. But what your world is seems blurry to me at best. And that is what makes Magic adaptable to many flavors and open to anything.
Hasbro bought wotc in 1999. They kept the brands relevant and popular for 25 years. It could've been much worse. The stuff lately is just the next stage of capitalism infection everything.
@@brennankeller3549 you are right, however, hasbro is been strugging to stay afloat only "recently", so the "it's been 25 years and it was fine" argument is not relevant anymore, hasbro is squeezing magic because is the only fruit that hasn't dried yet.
@@brennankeller3549 A fair point; I'll rephrase: Hasbro noticing how much money WotC makes compared to the rest of their portfolio is the worst thing to ever happen to both MtG and D&D. Doesn't flow nearly as well as a sentence, but is undoubtedly more accurate; things were (relatively) fine until the Hasbro C-suite noticed how well the WotC properties were doing and started looking for ways to hypermonetize them.
@tomdavis3878 I hate to break it to you my guy, but WOTC was going bankrupt in the 1990s. Hasbro SAVED Magic and DnD. Regardless of what you might think about how they’ve “ruined” these brands, the only reason they even EXIST and are culturally relevant today is because of Hasbro? Has Hasbro done a good job with these products? No, absolutely not, they’ve done a godawful job. However, at least they exist thanks to Hasbro. I’d rather played flawed Magic/DnD than no Magic/DnD.
@@tomdavis3878Ah okay, sorry, I didn’t see your second reply. Yes, I absolutely agree with that second comment. Their hypermonitization of WOTC has been egregious and disgusting.
I appreciate how you approached this video. You are taking a much higher road than most of the community is(myself, included). I hate this change but you did a great job summarizing your thoughts about the subject.
New words get skibidi made up all the fantom tax time gyatt rizzler. Who here is old enough to remember when people started saying "STATION!" because they did it in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey? Even the actors didn't know what it meant, and it turned out to be a literal typo by drunk script writers. "REPEATION!" There; now it's an English word. It means "repeating."
"I tap my travis scott for 3 red mana, i cast optimus prime-" "i interrupt with thanos snap and chose the e3 los angeles convention center as a secondary target." "a brilliant play...however you forgot the e3 los angeles convention center is affected by thomas the tank engine passive" "we're gonna have to call a ref" that's how stupid mtg sounds in 2024, glad i sold everything
I think this may actually be the video that pushes me to finally go into my local game store and try Magic for the first time. I've never played it, but enjoyed your videos (and CGB, who introduced me to the game via Hearthstone creator Rarran) but never really thought to give Magic a go. Seeing and hearing your genuine passion and joy for a card game as an experience brings me back mentally to being a kid and going to Pokémon league. I never thought about the card value (or else I would still have my holographic Charizard), just the joy of playing a card game with strangers who became friends. Thanks for the inspiration to give Magic -- as Magic -- a go. ❤
I would say, “stop buying the products and WOTC will learn their lesson.” But everyone will complain about it, then continue to buy case after case. And you’ll play the collector booster box game with every set and happily promote the sets while claiming you’re not happy. And I get it, it’s your livelihood at this point. But until we hit WOTC / Hasbro in their wallets, this won’t change.
Not everyone. I sold my collection and stopped buying with Walking Dead. Plenty of people are tapping out, and have been. Numbers are going up from out-of-towners and investors, and retention for those wont stick, the bubble will pop.
"Voting with your wallets" is a thing of the past when whales exist. FF fans or Marvel fans with tonnes of cash will dump huge amounts of money on boosters, more than filling the gaps made by old guard customers turned away who've spent their money already. Companies target whales and new fans over supporting old fans because new fans have a higher chance of spending money than old fans who have already bought their products.
That"s the problem. It's useless. UB are the most selling product bc they reach people outside the game. They don"t really care if old players drop the game, they are still winning money. If the fans of the tcg itself stop buying Magic, only UB will sell and we will get to +% of sets being UB. There is no escape from this. Crossovers sells too much becuase there is almost infinite potential costumers. Look at Fortnite.
Honestly, if Prof doesn't stick to his guns and not do a booster box game for the UB sets I'll have lost any respect I have for him. You can't tell your audience to boycott a product and then turn around a couple of months later and start promoting that product to said audience.
Lorwyn2 won't be Lorwyn anyway, it'll be Neon Dynasty again. I liked Neon Dynasty, I think it did a pretty solid job of making cyberpunk feel like MTG, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Kamigawa beyond having Japanese-inspired names in it.
I really appreciate the nuance and honesty here. I’m a new viewer and just got back into Magic after a brief fling 6 years ago. I liked hearing about whatever crazy UB sets came out from afar, but I can sympathize with a hobby you’ve spent so much time in becoming just an avenue for advertisers. I like the UB sets but I’ve only really played the LotR. Theme is so important when building decks, but there’s some line between thematic crossovers and funko pops and I know which side I’d rather land on. Good video!
I always say, as soon as a game starts doing cross-over products, that heralds the end of that game, because the creators sacrifice long-term health and cohesion for short-term excitement.
It wont die. But im impressed by how many people have stockholm syndrom over games. I started with a new tcg and it was the best decision. I hated being mad because of my hobby (mtg). So many fails in the last years
Who is evening buying this UB garbage? Surely there is not enough novelty for these products from Magic players to warrant the high number of releases we're seeing. Are new players creating this much demand for these products?
Damn. When prof said “I’m not happy and I’d like to talk about it” it hit me deep. Wish magic would realize how amazing of an IP they have and would just focus on that. Secret lairs were already starting to get annoying
I wish he’d actually talked about it and taken some kind of stand. It’s essentially a 15 minute video saying “I’m disappointed but not going to change anything about my behavior to show wotc that.”
@@tc5589-1 what good does him saying anything do? wotc hasnt listened to anything prof has said since the beginning. theres nothing he can do with his platform to change the direction of UB, otherwise believe me he would try.
I don’t understand you people, Magic is now a format. It has been for a while. I’ve been playing since the original innistrad, I’m not crying about having more UB. It has brought in friends who I thought would absolutely never play Magic. It’s turned into a constantly evolving board game for all of the friends of the group rather than the sweaty neck beards who have no life and hate on popcultute to seem edgy.
@ for plenty it’s disbanded their play groups or, in my experience, caused people to refuse to give it a try outright due to hatred of that ip crossover philosophy
Aside from the UB angle, don't overlook that they are on pace to push Standard to well over 6000 cards. If you're old-school you remember the infamous "Year of Living Changerously" article in which MaRo explained that 2100 cards was far too many for standard. (And assured us this was not just a trick to make Mythics seem more common by introducing them in smaller sets.)
@@FalseHerald I know. I hope for nuggets of actual design insight to sneak out but they are so few and far between these days. His article on "10 things every game needs" and speech on "20 years, 20 lessons" will always be classics though. RIP that Mark's demise to the one who says we have always been at war with Eastasia.
March of the machine was a real shift imo. The real “endgame” of mtg. All will be one was so flavorful, with MOM being the multiversal war they wrote themselves into. Now we have the next phase, and like marvel, it’s pretty ass.
I quit with the Walking Dead and this might be the final nail that makes me sell my collection. I played for over a decade, and I still miss those days, playing silly EDH decks with strangers hundreds of miles from home without any prizes or Spongebobs or caring about proxies or prices, and I could not update a deck for a year and not feel behind.
If you goal is to "keep up with magic" i hope you have a sponsor 😂😂 My method is: Buy cards you like because you like them. Then "keeping up" doesn't matter you just get creative with what you have. I buy Sets i like. I Like UB sets, they got me back into buying magic cards after 14 years of not playing at all. Not everyone wants to sit down and read about the entire history of magics universe just so the lore text makes sense. Someone us are highly involved with other IPs and the fact that they bring their story to magic and give us amazing cards to play a fantastic game is somthing no one should be salty about. As far as I can see it gives players more options, more outlets and more things to be excited about. Like I just fail to see how the existence of UB cards makes the "Traditional" magic cards less enjoyable? UB is taking off because POEPLE ARE BUYING THEM! They are freaking cool cards! If you've done absolutely anything other than live under a rock and play magic I think you'd get it. LOTR, Assassins Creed, Fallout, Dr Who it was soooo cool to see those in a game that has tons of players! :D If i saw "The New LOTR Trading Card Game". I'd think "good luck finding anyone to play that with, it probably super imba, i bet they're liquidating them in 3 months. ..." But because i saw LOTR Magic: The Gathering, Instantly i knew! I can find other people to play with! I can bust out my old cards and see how they fair against Sauron's army of orcs! :D I loved the IP and knew it was getting backed by a well known, well funded, highly played game. Idk... Just feels like someone complaining about different editions of Monopoly... Like dude if you enjoy classic no one is forcing you to play with the new cards... Just use the ones you like and get on with your life. I thinkthe only complainers would be Power Players cause there are now SO MANY MORE Cards combos to be on the look out for and so many more cards you'd have to buy to play at a professional level. But i'm pretty sure thats like 10% of the MTG player base... most people I know are casual, play home games, go to the LGS a couple times a year.
It hurts me deeply to see the game I used to love and play with my friends when I was 11 being now forcibly overwritten by outside IPs just so that millionaires can now profit even more while deleting decades of effort, world building, and talent put into crafting the incredible and nuanced universe that is Magic: The Gathering. The most incredible part is that I’ve known Magic for almost 15 years, and it only took the last few years to see one of my favorite thing ever to change drastically.
What fucking sucks for me personally, is that, back when UB Final Fantasy was first announced I was hype for it, but with the intervening time, and esp with UB just getting shoved into standard instead of Modern (AND INSTEAD OF JUST BEING IT'S OWN FUCKING FORMAT), my disgust for the corporate EVERYTHING just overrules my LOVE of FF as a series, and that just fucking sucks man :
Mood. FF is even one of the crossovers that doesn't feel like it would be a huge stretch either; it doesn't feel nearly as 'invasive' as say Marvel or Spongebob. But waiting so long and watching everything slip makes me hesitant to actually involve myself.
This right here. I don't like UB but I was willing to stomach it for Final Fantasy. Now that it's a Standard set in a world where we're expected to buy a Standard set every two months? It makes me reconsider buying any Magic products.
Same. I was very excited for it when it was announced years ago, but Universes Beyond is becoming too consistent a product and frankly doesn't really belong in the main formats (which didn't really affect me due to being a commander player first and foremost, which means a FF themed Commander deck was always the goal). I remember the old criticism of 'where does this end, Spongebob?' but it turns out they appear to have been absolutely right.
Theres an ACTUAL Final Fantasy Trading Card Game! Many crossover mechanics from magic but NO "land" issues like mana flooding or mana screwing. So if you like magic as a game but love FF, FFTCG is actually for you! Cheaper, awesome community. I would encourage you to try it out with your friends. I will NEVER go back to magic.
Theres an ACTUAL Final Fantasy Trading Card Game! Many crossover mechanics from magic but NO "land" issues like mana flooding or mana screwing. So if you like magic as a game but love FF, FFTCG is actually for you! Cheaper, awesome community. I would encourage you to try it out with your friends. I will NEVER go back to magic.
Watched your video for years. I finally stopped playing mtg after lotr set came out. Appreciate all your content and time spent over the years. Kinda dreaded this would happen back when walking dead came out. Sad that it happened. Sold off my collection except my merfolk commander deck, Squirrel deck, Dragon deck and enchantment deck. I except this end for me personally. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for the community over the years.
Man I was so stunned, once I read about the Nicol Bolas Scheme in war of the sparks (the set I joined) as well as reading up on what he did before then and seeing the new "hidden" Phyrexian in all the other upcoming. I found it amazing to have a game with such interesting lore and flavor. So yes, it is a sad to currently see that lost in favor of universes beyond and "funny" sets.
You joined during War? Thats when everything started going to shit lol We used to get to spend 2 to 3 sets in one location, so mechanics from the past sets worked with the new ones. We had a core group of characters and bad guys over multiple sets. Before War it was amazing.
Lucky you, Professor. These "Universe Beyond" definitely killed whatever love I had for this thing. "This product is not for me" is a mantra lately, lol.
In capitalist country we vote with our wallets. And these crazy corporate fools yearn for our money like a cancer. Go away horrible modern products lol
My boyfriend and I just started playing MTG today with buying a beginners box of foundations and it is a blast. I plan to buy some foundations and bloomsborrow boosters for Christmas 🎄 we will have some fun playing during the holidays 😊
8:16 I do sincerely believe this statement and is not a joke; SpongeBob has always been a harbinger of quality drop, regardless of what you think of the property itself his arrival is a downturn for most surrounding properties
IPs and crossovers are truly the poison of original worlds and storytelling, just like Fortnite and so many other forms of entertainment they slowly get more deluded and drowned out. Even tho the lord of the rings magic the gathering set was really cool it still had the feeling that it didn’t truly belong in the world of magic. I just want new original worlds and storytelling of magics world, I just hope for the future that magic stays magic.
LOTR is the way these crossover sets should be handled - reinterpret the original material in a new MTG-inspired way, instead of taking the most popular incarnation and putting it straight onto cards. LOTR worked because it wasn't just pictures of Viggo Mortensen and Ian Mckellen in their costumes, it was its own world with its own cast of characters, but paying homage to LOTR through names and key story elements.
To me that announcement was the most impactful change that's ever happened to Magic and I saw very little backlash online from creators. It's been a week, where is the backlash
It’s so strange that I feel so alone in this worry, but the overwhelming response to wizards has been positive, everywhere but online. In person people cheered, content creators seem to either be very positive on it or not care with the only two exceptions I can think of being Spice and Prof, spice having made a 2 hour video on this exact concern a year ago. It feels so strange to be so isolated on this hill watching a million other people stranded on their own isolated hills.
Maybe the people fearing the MTG sky is falling are just in the minority even though it may seem like the majority. Certainly not saying the concerns of the minority are invalid or anything like that.
Reading Homework:
The Foundation Is Rotten: rhysticstudies.substack.com/p/what-are-we-doing-really?
The Thermacline Principle: every.to/p/breaching-the-trust-thermocline-is-the-biggest-hidden-risk-in-business
and also nitter.poast.org/garius/status/1588115310124539904
Welp MAGIC is DEAD can't play in my city anymore anyway due to a store owner who has it out for me but to quote Grandpa Motto from Yugioh (In my day Monster cards used to be actual Monsters not this)
Please read geeks, MOPS, and sociopaths in subculture evolution. It's on the meaningness website. It perfectly explains why everything feels like it's losing its soul and why we get things like secret lairs and universes beyond.
Well they made them Cowboys with a circular saw train, they went to the Clue mansion and made a Clue game.... Probably better they just make MTG using other peoples IP's because they literally have no direction to take the actual stories in the game.
Bloomborrow was great, it should've been a 3 set release like -- "The good old days" instead of a single set that got run over by the next set 1.5 months later.
Will I buy singles from these sets? Of course but I'm not happy about it.
Maybe this is why I try harder and harder to use old cards from 30 years ago in my decks.
The "racing set" reminds me of Yugioh 5d's where they played cards while riding around a race track.... Pretty funny.
Great video Prof.
I believe it was the Lord of the rings set and the card The One Ring that brought this all forward. Look at how well that set sold and how the card The One Ring has dominated modern. Wizards wants that type of sales to continue. I get that people are mad with the beyond sets being in every format. You have to look at it from Wizards point of view, though. Lord of the Rings set sold very well, so they see that as a open letter to bring more sets like that into the game for every format now.
I appreciate the use of a nitter link, professor!
"Where ambition meets industry, passion is poisoned by greed."
- flavortext of Blackcleave Cliffs
Not matter how much you love MTG, if you still support Hasbro so much after all they have done to their IPs, you are part of the problem about Hasbro being a greedy and incompetent company. They're ruining their IPs and they don't care about it. They just care about profit. What about your dignity, hardcore MTG fans?
@@AxsorXI true and real, I am not paying money for this anymore, ever
well said magic of old
@@AxsorXI I am not paying anything for this shit
@@djinn.b9492 That text is from the ONE version tho
Cant wait to prevent my opponents removal spell 'hawk tuah' by using 'venting' to save my 'eminem the rap god' planeswalker
If you’re using Hawk Tua in drag queen tribal…you’re gonna have a bad time friend. 😂
@@GlassJ0e is that the new sans commander????
@@halfdecentstrange The new mechanic "spectrum shift" is awesome. "When a creature becomes untapped, choose any creature type and apply it to this creature. All opponents must verbally acknowledge the new creature type or they lose the game."
@@GlassJ0eI liked it better with the original mechanic name of "Identity Dysmorphia"
@@simongratsonbad move, costs to many life points
I've been saying since The Walking Dead that if MTG can find a way to sell cardboard Funko Pops, they would burn the game to the ground to do so.
Yoooo
And we have now crosses that threshold
Holy shit i used to watch you, never knew you played MTG
Your content is the cardboard Funko Pops of UA-cam videos.
we are in the 'milking' phase of a decades old game that will die to temporarily appease shareholders for this quarter's profits
Is Magic the Gathering there? "No, this is Patrick."
This hurts 😂😅
Looks like everyone was right about the Walking Dead, huh.
Crazy how all the people who were upset way back then were actually founded in their concerns and criticism. It leaves me smug about all the people who were fine with the UB stuff and moaned about all the complainers.
They said people complaining about Horse Armor were being hysterical and overreacting and that one piece of cosmetic armor won't actually be that bad
Nearly 20 years later, games a service is considered the default for major game developers, microtransactions are near in every game (including indie games) and games have to advertise that they aren't pay-to-win because of how pervasive that model is in modern day gaming
Idk why people think that companies won't tank any sort of integrity they have for potentially millions of extra dollars if they can do it. Of course WotC is expanding beyond the original fantasy/mediveal/folktale/mythology settings and into already existing IPs because that shit makes money.
Companies man, you give the finger, they want the arm
@@jakehr3 this, also now everyones fears of mobile game design infiltrating the territory of true gaming is going to come true now that genshin has opened pandoras box as alot of people dont classify it as mobile since it has console releases..
Please dont pretend there wasn't massive toxicity and harassment and death threats.
People called them out because of the toxicity primarily.
@Tristan-fz8jg
“How will Jace get out of this one? Find out next time after this Commercial set!”
Amazing comment.
No notes.
he will 10x mill for every mana spent LMFAO
This actually better encapsulates my thoughts than my other comments. Magic has turned into Saturday morning cartoons.
Well he will be a new spider man villain
He'll erase his memory of Universes Beyond. What a lucky guy.
“Mike how does it feel to live long enough to watch all the franchises you love die?” -a very old somewhat wise man.
I clapped
why do I suddenly want pizza rolls
ENDLESS TRAAAASH
Don't ask questions. Just consume product, and then get excited for next product.
The collapse of Magic's identity at the hands of Hasbro is borderline experimental.
Sets like Foundations and Bloomburrow are what reignited my partner's deep love for Magic and introduced me to this amazing game. It is admittedly a little disheartening to feel like we got into it just in time for everything to turn into Magic: Funko Pops, but there's no ignoring what he and I have already gotten out of playing Magic together. We'll see what the future holds. Thank you for this video!
Me too! I love both sets, especially bloomburrow. It reminded me so much of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. I got 2 booster boxes and bought all 4 of the commander precons for the set. This news about the UB stuff wont kill my love of magic but I do mirror the profs feelings. These IPs being brought in feel like cop outs on being creative. That being said I will be buying several boxes of Final Fantasy because I am a massive FF fan. Still things like spiderman and the walking dead while not crazy still dont make much sense. I am out on spongebob... thats just nonsense.
I don't have anything against any of the individual properties, including Spongebob Squarepants. But I do loathe this practice of turning absolutely everything into a cauldron of pop culture slop. Not slop because the components are worthless, but slop because that's what it turns into when it's all just blended together and shoved into whatever container someone is trying to sell.
I think the Lord of the rings actually fit the theme of Magic.
Marvel is such an ass pull considering how well they treat their products.
it's the fortnite effect, the first collabs where amazing because they were unexpected, now silly collabs are the default and not something special anymore
...and because Magic has its own world which will be destroyed by these additions.
sounds like somebody read Jim Sterling's review of Funko Fusion.
@@Kuuko Started literally decades before Fortnite. You're clearly 20.
I am so damn sick of having Marvel shoved in my face.
Marvel is Disney and Disney knowingly hires child predators. I don't support anything Disney.
I love Marvel and I also am sick of it everywhere. Less is more. Oversaturation comes at a cost of quality and anticipation.
I get this sentiment, but it's not the marvel cards for me. I draw the line at SpongeBob.
Isn't that Marvel's core identity though? Shoving itself into people's face with as much content as possible and wherever possible?
Are the movies even still relevant? Aren't they basically advertisements at this point?
But don't you get it?! Marvel is for everyone! You are part of everyone! Therefore marvel is for you!
Magic is for everyone too! Everything is for everyone! And to make sure that everyone can enjoy everything and no one feels left out, everything is watered down to the point of being completely tasteless! It's like drinking air! Isn't it great?! If no one can taste any flavor, no one will complain that it tastes bad! And Wizards can make a lot more m- I mean, MTG will have a lot more fans!
I used to joke that I'll be equipping Captain America with Darth Vaders lightsaber and using him to crew the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Scary how it's slowly but surely coming true.
1/3rd of that is here already.
Star wars coming next lol
In response I cast "Care Bear Stare" to exile your Captain America
I mean, Gandalf can equip Negan's bat and ride into battle in the Ecto 1 against Godzilla. And they only attacked because Chucky goaded them into it.
Reality that surpasses fiction 😢
I'll just leave a quote from my favorite band Rush. "One likes to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity."
A man of culture, I see. Excellent.
Looking forward to the Rush set.
Hasbro did the stupid corporate thing of "This rare and special version of a thing sells well, so lets make more of it until it's no longer special and degrades the foundation of the thing." Sets like Neon Dynasty did well, so we get Aetherdrift. UB products always sold out, so we get more of them.
No subtle understanding of why those things were special, just "this sells, so sell more".
Do the right thing. Don't support Hasbro. They're destroying MTG. They're destroying their IPs. Just because Hasbro is a greedy and incompetent company. Move on from Hasbro, people. They don't deserve support. Just support IPs owned by company which care. Please. Make it right. Do it for your own good. For your information, the MTG UA-cam channel deleted some comments about criticism for Hasbro. That's the Hasbro company for you all.
Welcome to corporate transparency everyone!
@@AxsorXI Which TCG do you recommend to scratch the Magic itch?
@@markusbiewer2756 Sorcery, Flesh and Blood has a rich World of Fantasy not affected by outside Big Company yet.
@@silikdo6514 Thank you very much!
I'm sure Nickelodeon will approve of me casting Murder on Spongebob.
I'd prefer an exile effect at this point
GooGoo Dolls starts playing
Sweet mother of god what if he has indestructible so you can’t do that. You can only just send him away ( exile )
And he returns with glove world attire 3 rounds later@@Axechief
You can get creative. I would have you sacrifice spongebob, then ressurect his corpse as a phyrexian or something. Compleat that square ass.
Prof, the most well-reasoned arguments for giving on up Magic followed by "but it's OK I still love it, will keep buying, and don't hold any ill will towards WotC" is exactly why they're getting away with this and will continue to do so.
I disagree, I understand your point for sure regarding continuing to give them money, but this is the direction; whether we like it or not and they don’t care about what the consumer wants but rather the ones in charge, making decisions in “our best interest” I’m new to MTG so maybe I don’t have much of a say, I do love the game, and I understand the old school guys frustrations, truly; but it won’t change anything so fuck it, beat some nerd at Friday night magic with a SpongeBob commander like wizard daddy told us 😂
This is exactly correct. With no consequences, the capitalistic company will continue to do capitalistic company things. The fans have to drop the game for their own health, and (hopefully) the health of the game. (The prior is guaranteed, but the latter isn't.)
@@ajaxtaur I guess I’m confused on what consequences those would be? People just giving up on it and not playing or buying anymore? Ideally; in a perfect world they would receive consequences for being greedy fucks, but it isn’t illegal so aside from everyone just not paying them any more money, effectively decimating the magic community; I guess my question is, what could be done, that wouldn’t result in us losing the game entirely
@@DFTRTITAN If the community doesn't turn screws and wield what leverage it has, they're going to kill the game anyway once it is hollowed out to nothing but whales and speculators. Now is not a time for some empty conciliatory messaging, it is the time to actually go "I cannot continue to support this" and follow through on that
@@DFTRTITAN even if wizards fucking exploded today, we wont 'lose the game entirely'. wotc is not the magic community, the most popular format (commander) was created by people who wanted to ESCAPE wotc. wotc fucking killed pro magic and largely nobody cared. the first post is right. i dont blame prof - this is his livelihood. but its still funny to have someone say 'i hate this, i hate the direction this is going, here's 200 dollars for the next booster box'. it is objectively hilarious.
This may be the most hopeful video I have seen since the announcement. Thank you. May your bulks be few and your mythical be many Professor
I reckon Universes Beyond should be its own format. Fixed 😎
Funky time!
WOTC would never do that because then everyone isn't forced to eat slop from the UB trough to be competitive.
Maybe Magic should be it's own format...
they said they didn't do it because it would be too confusing for players. mind you this is the same company that makes 20 different versions of the same card and releases cards alongside a standard set that for whatever reason are *NOT* standard playable.
That's in fact , a idea I love
I think a big part of the problem is that Hasbro learned the wrong lesson from LOTR's success. It was the best-selling set because it was Universes Beyond, it was the best-selling set because it was freaking Lord of the Rings.
And the One Ring lottery aspect of course
no... it was the best selling set because of the willy wonka gimmick they pulled with the one ring
They already knew from secret lairs how profitable Universes Beyond was. What they learned from Lord of the Rings is that printing full UB sets would go fine.
I feel like LOTR was a great example of how to do a universes beyond set since it still followed the themes of mtg. Once doctor who came out sure the sol ring was cool, but I much rather it be a secret lair with a different art and name of an existing card like the party tree and the great henge. I feel the new cards should be in mtgs standard sets, and secret lairs should be remakes of those cards in universes beyond.
LOTR is at least a fantasy setting
You know when the execs were saying they wanted to make MTG a lifestyle brand, I kinda laughed because it already was to me. MTG & D&D is how I spend most of my hobby time with my friends. The gutting of half of MTG's IP from MTG feels so wrong.
I kinda now get why Nintendo made crossovers the exceptions and not the rule. Smash bros was nice, but we didn't need smash kart, smash tennis, smash sports, smash rpg, smash strikers, etc. I get it.
Exactly this. Universes Beyond would have been cool, if it was an exception. I am personally really excited about the Final Fantasy set. Partly because I would love to finally have a FANTASY set in this card game again. Another reason, obviously, because I love Final Fantasy.
My excitement for the FF set is true for other universes beyond sets, of course. Still, turning MtG into a 50% advertisement for other non-MtG franchises saddens me.
Unlike WotC nintendo actually foster and value their IPs and do valuable things with them... wizards has dropped the ball on especially magic for 30 years because theyre morons. Management dont know what theyre doing. Its pathetic frankly
Marketing execs ruin everything good everywhere
@@ThorsShadow yeah like final fantasy actually fits! And sure some marvel series too even especially if based on the comics, like focussing on Thor's side of things with the norse gods... but spongebob nuh uh
@@veeeeeeeeee453 lol when i saw SpongeBob i rolled my eyes. it would makes sense if you added thor, doctor strange and black heart to magic because they fit in but SpongeBob?
We need to stop calling this Magic the Gathering and start calling the game Deckmaster.
Deckmaster was supposed to be exactly what MtG has become - a universal rules set to make a wide variety of themed games.
Pokémon, Yugioh, etc already exist
What is brutal to me is that instead of launching a separate card game, they decided to launch deckmaster through cannibalizing magic the gathering. There is no way that MTG and Deckmaster wouldn't make hasbro more money as separate entities.
So this is completely unnecessary.
Pls quit! A ton of new creative players will replace you! Magic owes you nothing!
@@Wild-Coma Creative? What are you trying to imply? That veteran players aren't creative? You realize the only people who will be playing with you are people who have no other way to socialize.
@ lol the boomers can always play historic ;)
I stopped buying magic a few years ago and every time I start thinking I might miss the game, I see something like this and realize that I don’t want to play modern magic at all.
Paradoxally, the standard has rarely been so good, so diversified, so competitive, so open to creativity.
I sold my entire collection to a friend this year. I've played one game since then, and it reminded me of all the reasons I stopped playing. The power creep, the lack of cohesion, etc.
Same… same 😢
Same, I only buy cards from Alpha to Modern Masters 2017. After that I kinda fell off the game and now its cooked.
It's become so fking complicated. I'm 53 and have MS. My brain can't comprehend have the rules
It's sad how we've gone from "This product isn't for you" to "This game isn't for you". If there's no format that offers an escape from these Universes Beyond sets, then the only escape is to quit the game entirely. I've lost count of how many times I've said this over the last few years, but I miss when Magic took itself seriously.
Yes. I thought the occasional joke/reference-to-something card was fun, but that doesn't mean I want all of that all the time.
I was in your shoes some years ago. Changed to Sorcery TCG and never looked back :)
@@olamoum3695 I love sorcery. Unfortunately I don't think it'll ever get too far off the ground. I only know 3 other people who play it and the lack of available sources to buy singles and even sealed product makes deckbuilding hard
Consider older formats, Old School 93/94, premodern, or hextended.
"Oh, you guys want to hide in your commander bunkers? Boy howdy, do we have news for you" 💀
I miss blocks. Back when they cared about the product. Pushing one major box set every month is too much. Eventually the bubble will pop and all the investors who push this .. As long as they keep doing this, it makes it harder not easier to get into magic. The block method allowed for synergy over sets.
The absolute irony of this situation is that we will 100% get a Universes Beyond block before we get an in universe block again
I started getting into magic right around the time of Guilds/Allegiance/War of the Spark so I never really got to experience what blocks were like but, yeah, returning to blocks would be great. I know some players back then had complaints about the block structure, especially the smaller sets, but, I don't know how much of a problem it was.
The most common complaint I've heard from magic players every single year since I started playing has been about product fatigue to the point that perpetual spoiler season went from being a meme to becoming reality. Blocks would fix that.
Frankly, I would be fine with Universes Beyond as standard sets if the release schedule were 1 standalone UB set (preferably IPs that are thematically consistent with core MTG) and a 3-set block per year. That would be a manageable number of releases with an acceptable, although not negligible, rate of introducing UB cards to the game.
Half of all sets being UB with a new release every 2 months is ludicrous.
I agree. My friend recently got me to jump on Arena and build a deck to play Standard with him. I looked over the card pool and it's utter chaos. No consistency, a million mechanics, just a total mess.
I've already stopped buying two or three sets with every new release, simply because it's too much AND there are too many silly IPs and ideas being forced upon us. I have lost interest in those cards specifically, but magic in general because of over saturation. I have ONLY bought singles for the last year, so instead of me spending thousands each year, I now will only spend a few hundred, at most, so good job WotC. You played yourself.
This is a money grab. Plain and simple.
These sets are easier for them to come up with, easier to illustrate, and have guaranteed customers and fans including customers OUTSIDE of Mtg. I’m sure the numbers reflect that.
Pls quit! A ton of new creative players will replace you! Magic owes you nothing!
It reminds me of how the only Hollywood movies we get these days are remakes and sequels due to built-in audience. It's risk adverse behavior for the shareholders at the cost of creativity and trying fresh new ideas. Why do that when an established IP has less risk and guaranteed audience to buy product? Lore and old timers be darned!
@@Wild-Coma this is such a weird reply to my comment lmfao. I never even said I disliked it, ima be the first niqqa wit a SpongeBob card 😂 I simply described a predatory business practice.
Go talk trash to actual non fans. I’m not the 1
@@ignskeletons that’s exactly what it is. There is also a phenomenon when brands get so big, they’re to big to fail. Then, they start collabing with everyone and everything (old example would be Mickey Mouse, new one would be fortnite) and it’s clearly hitting mtg hard lol
@@Wild-Comastop replying to everyone's comments you insufferable toxic positivist
Magic in 2026: "I tap the Sonic Screwdriver to play the Buster Sword, and equip it and Spongebob's Spatula to my Optimus Prime.
Oh God, I just threw up a little in my mouth after reading that
Lfg
That is so vile.
@@23345star "I Doom Blade Optimus"
"I pay 1 for Mirror Entity, making all my creatures all creature types. Since that makes my Optimus a Time Lord, I'm going to play Time Lord Regeneration. My Optimus regenerations into... The 10th Doctor!"
Just dont buy the stuff guys! The less people buying this shit, the more Hasbro will suffer.
It is the only power we have.
I got out of magic in 2018. You are the only creator I still follow and subscribe to. Today I've never been more glad that I got out when I did.
Yeah, it started sucking bad with Amonkhet in 2017 and became unbearable in 2018.
Same. It's just ridiculous now.
Same here… sad of what they made with the game
Likewise 😂 Guilds of RAV was the last time I played standard and every set after that was uhhhh either a reprint set or a failed and not fun packed full of gimmicks sets
@@John_Smith_ That's exactly when I stopped playing as well. Glad I'm not the only one. Its a shame to see this IP driven into the ground. No one cares about Magic anymore.
When I got into Magic the Tempest set was out. Each deck came with a book and a story about the cards… it felt otherworldy. Slivers were my jam!!
Oh boy I remember Slivers
One of my friends uses slivers and i use minotaurs. Its a pretty fun matchup
Same man, I haven't played in years. I was going to get back in a while back but the Lord of the Rings set was coming out and I thought, wow, that's weird. I don't like it but I guess it's a one off. I don't think I'll ever get back in now.
Started when Tempest had just came out. I really got into the story and lore, was original and fascinating.
*_Same. Still have my Tempest cards and the little books that came with them._*
Impressive how polite and respectful he is🙏🏻
Foundations is not a love letter. It is a send-off, a bidding of farewell.
Yeah, I feel like I'm pretty much done with magic. The return to Lorwyn was all I was looking forward to. Now, I have no real interest in anything.
Foundations is what they can point to as a temporary bandaid when anyone says anything bad about having to put the new spider man and final fantasy cards in their deck "Well just play with those instead" while everything else is power creeped to hell and back. "Oh you don't like aetherdrift and dont want cowboys riding motorcycles.... poor baby buy another pack of foundations then."
I see it more as a love letter and a last effort to put a ton of time, energy and effort into making the highest quality quintessential magic set possible in an effort to outsell UB sets.
If Foundations became the highest selling set of the year it'd maybe not change the planned releases for 2025 but it may make the suits at Hasbro rethink plans for 2026 onward by showing them that there is a real desire and enthusiasm for Magic sets which are quintessentially magic. I think Bloomburrow exceding their expectations in terms of how popular it was already shows this to some extent and the point needs to be driven home by embracing foundations
I'll be honest. I deeply hope this isn't true but I'll force myself to go the the pre-release. If nothing else it'll be a good memorial service for the game I once loved.
@@austinmorrissey3507hey, check out Star Wars unlimited?
For me the biggest turn-off is complete destruction of immersion into classic high fantasy setting.
That was over 12 years ago
Agreed! There is almost no classical fantasy setting in MtG anymore and I it is difficult to find it elsewhere. :(
For some people maybe, I've never been into the lore or anything. I just enjoy the game, so cards of another UB set that I also like is fine by me. I only play commander with friends too so its no big deal to me honestly (other than the facts that, yeah HALF of the sets ar UB is kinda ridiculous). But I can see why this would upset MTG players who are in it for immersion and lore and such. Also the fact that its legal in ALL formats feels kind of wrong.
@codymarcotte512 I also don't care about lore, what bothers me is when completely different IPs cross over. You have knights, cowboys, teenage cheerleaders, Tommy-guns, Transformers and soon Marvel heroes and Spongebob on the battlefield together. It's a mess IMO...
@@Afronoha Yeah, I get that. It's alot half UB is too much. Expecially the stupid ones like freakin' Spongebob
MTG is the Fortnite of TCG's.
OH BOY ANOTHER FORTNITE SECRET LAIR!
and they already have the secret lair lol
Now the flood gate of IP is open and will be flooding with IP set. Someone build Noah’s ark!!
Oh that makes it so different than Union Arena or Weiss Schwarz. 😂 you dweebs need to grow up. Everything isn't happening to you, it's just happening.
this is the saddest thing i've heard lol
I used to joke with friends when the walking dead sld came out how in the future I would “equip SpongeBob with Darth Vaders lightsaber and use Winnie the Poos activated ability to let him fight my opponents Gandalf” …. It was supposed to be a joke damnit
As a Yu-Gi-Oh fan whose played mtg from time to time, I'm so sorry to see your thing get bastardized this way. It's genuinely upsetting
Well, in YGO, we had Gradius and cards from other Konami titles. Also, we had that wannabe Star Wars archetype.
But this is hilarious, and I want to see how it plays out for MTG.
@@joseortega7815 Yugioh doesn't really have it's own lore though, and the lore it does have take place in different universes (the Abyss storyline happens in a completely different universe than the Visas Saga, allowing one to be Steampunk Fantasy and the other to be a Sci-Fi planet hopping adventure). That's the fun of Yugioh. A lot of Yugioh archetypes are also just knock-offs of other series, but it's still its own IP. Like Kozmo might be a weird mixture of Star Wars + The Wizard of Oz, but it still feels like its own thing that fits in with Yugioh because everything is disconnected anyways.
@@SeveNStarSeveN Yu-Gi-Oh not having its own lore is laughable. Even random, normal cards like Warrior Dai Grephr have insane amounts of backstory to them that weave with other cards alongside the established histories of cards like Dark Magician and the Blue Eyes White Dragon. You know both of them used to be people?
Nah, the reality is that Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh honestly had the same approach when it came to tying all these cards together in a narrative. They simply exist in the same multiverse together, and just like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic even had its own little "Gradius" cards that came from outside the narrative, but being based on myths and legends instead. Remember the fourth expansion was wholesale an adaptation of Arabian Nights.
I'm not a fan of a potential crossover-overdosed future, I'm just pointing out that Magic did historically have a few cards that existed outside its narrative the same Yu-Gi-Oh did.
it was a warning when they let the gays be on the cards, at that point someone has no principles
Sky strikers, Draco, Albaz, all of dual terminal, Centur-ions, vandread, and so many more have in card lore. Yugioh has card lore people just know it mostly for the anime though.
For some reason Prof's description of Foundations as this "Love Letter to Magic set" has put this horrible almost baseless fear in me that it's almost like a fond farewell, and WOTC is gonna use "Of course we care about the MTG IP, we have Foundations" as UB becomes 55% of total product, then 60% then 70% etc
Yeah, UB will grow and grow, and wotc will just claim Foundations is there so you have nothing to fear. Foundations is only meant as a way to offload actual Magic card creation so they could focus on UB, at least till 2029, or longer.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they did that, where MTG normal sets would go back to only 2 or 3 per year, and the rest can just be UB or other cash-grabbing sets that I have no problem just ignoring. Issue is that they are going to be legal in all formats, so once you get broken op cards in those sets, you will have to buy them...
To be honest, Bloomborrow feels more MTG love letter than Duskmorn and Foundations, combined.
@@mugthemagpie3001Bloomburrow feels like an old Magic set that somebody brainstormed in 2006 that got lost in a drawer at WOTC until now. Good theme, good flavor, fun mechanics, a decent story that's basically disconnected from their bootleg Avengers plotline going on in the background. Unfortunately I could throw money at them for Bloomburrow specifically and WOTC would think I want more Spongebob cards.
Foundations is weird. Gloss over the reasons core sets have been cancelled at least 3 times in the past. Never mind that this set targeted at stability for new players needed 133 new cards among 600 reprints. Why fix for 5 years?
Standard is already set for 3. Why would you want a different rotation on top of that? I don't even think they can go 5 years without announcing a change to their printing. And if the goal is that it exists for new players, how many stores are going to keep these packs stocked in 4 years when 20+ new sets have come out since then?
I predict Foundations will rotate before 2029. But I also don't care, because I won't be playing anymore.
I so want a "Happy Days" set so I can play a literal "Jump the Shark" card and quit it forever
this is the best possible comment that I've ever seen, on this topic or really any topic ever
Ayyyy
It does make me want to make a vampire deck with one single Morbius the Living Vampire in there as a joke.
Good one.
@@connorsol truly
“Hello is this Magic: The Gathering?”
“No, this is Patrick”
The fact that fucking SpongeBob may be more powerful than Nicol Bolas is a testament to how far the game has fallen.
15 squirrels can defeat emrakul, think about that
Starting to look like “Magic the Gathering of I.P.’s”
Profit: the Gathering of I.P.s
I.P The cluster fuck
Come on, it's not like magic IP has anything of Value since 2012 or whenever original innistrad block was out.
Okay, W comment 🤣
When all becomes one, the one becomes nothing.
"Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next product"
"What are next"
Magic: the Gathering has Aaaaaaaaaids
By the end of the video that is a summary of what prof is saying he will do.
AMAZING thumbnail to opening shot transition. Never seen that before. Really fantastic.
It absolutely breaks my heart hearing this. The Universes Beyond really pulls me out of the immersion and fantasy of the game. These cards will probably be filling landfills more than decks and collections. We're watching Magic become Funko Pop TCG.
Noooooo , Funko pop tcg 😅
I just like final fantasy and spider-man leave me alone man
It actually sells way more than the rest. So I'm pretty sure the collecting phenomena is going to increase. Even if I hate everything about the consequences on the original content.
Lol funko pop tcg, that's a way of putting why I couldn't get into Weiss Schwarz or the coming battle arena, I love the series that I'm into but that doesn't means I care that much about my opponents one to learn how to counter their cards xd
@@juanconstenla1171That and the weiss schwarz cards looks uninspired
I think you said it best when comparing UB to advertisements. It feels we are bombarded by ads from everywhere and MTG has been an escape from that (and pop culture). I play magic to “escape” and now I’ve got pop-up ads everywhere in our once “pure” world. BRANDO, it’s what plants crave.
Idk, I know how to play magic, I know how the game functions. I like that.
These let me play with Ip's that i love without having to learn new games, games that would probably be half baked, poorly balanced with a minimal player base.
Instead i get to play one of the most popular card games in the world with a bunch of cool cards from a bunch of stuff i already love. As someone who has never had a single interest in the "World of magic" or rather even knew there was a whole lore behind it... UB is the reason I am playing Magic today.
You can complain about the new sets all you like but the reality is WotC is printing them, because people are buying them.
Makning money isn't a bad thing... it's what makes them able to make new sets and continue printing cards year after year and pumping more money into the magic community.
I'd much rather have a pile of trash cards and people to play with then sit at home with my Perfect deck of "Traditional Magic Cards" wanking off...
@@GeneralHiro the thing is why cant we both be happy, we can have magic as it curently is and you can have the UB sets that are not legal in normal magic. you get to play with the sets you want to with other people who also want to and we get to play MTG with the lore accurat stuff. sure we can have crossover tornament that allow both sets but then we also have seperate sets so if you dont like just the lore acurate stuff or if we dont like the UB stuff you still have a choice. the problem is by making these sets legal in all formats we then have one of two options buy all this exstra stuff or dont be competative, its a cash grab forsing anyone who want to play certan formats to spend more money.
@@GeneralHiroWhy should we be miserable so you can be happy? When you don't even care enough about the game to begin to understand its storied almost 30 year old setting, older than you are probably? Why should we have our hobby degraded into funko pop slop just so Johnny Come Lately can be pulled in because they had the right brands flashed into their mindless consumer skull? You leave.
@@feihceht656cry about it.
@GeneralHiro I've recently taken up the Final Fantasy card game, as that game ironically has more respect for its own worlds than Magic does.
As someone who doesn't even play MtG this just makes me sad. Watching yet another beloved and venerable franchise get turned into corporate slop by transparent greed is just so depressing and demotivating.
I’ve been considering getting into MTG but after seeing this it’s really turned me off. Wokeism is destroying everything. IMO what makes MTG interesting is the fantasy aspect, I love Marvel but I don’t need that crap in Magic. Marvel can make their own TCG if people want it.
@@SpacemonkeymojoCorporation ruins franchise for profit. Then morons start claiming that its "wokism" like that word means anything other than "stuff you dont like"
@@byronholt2031dude you’re an absolute idiot if you can’t see how this isn’t woke. Marvel doesn’t belong in MTG just like how Aragorn in LoTR isn’t black. Instead of knee-jerking at the term “wokeism” maybe open your eyes a bit and see what is actually happening. Wolverine and Spider-Man and The Walking Dead are being shoehorned into Magic where they don’t belong, that is being woke no matter how much you want to deny it. People like you, who defend this crap, are the ones ruining society.
@@Spacemonkeymojo”wokeism” bro get off your couch your seeping into it
@@muffinlord1034 magic the gathering is high fantasy, it’s not Marvel you sucker.
While I've never actually played MtG, I do admire the cool lore and art from the game as well as the general influence it's had on every TCG ever made. Coming out with random real world IPs feels like a major greedy cash grab. It completely removes everything that made Magic unique for all these years and any original creative vision the early designers had.
“They have taken the Bridge and the Second Hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes... Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark... We cannot get out... They are coming”
Kind of ironic to use a lord of the rings quote considering it's already ub
@@BludMun i'd say a fantasy set with fitting archetypes, lore, creature types and aesthetics is extremely different from a modern-day set about quirky superheroes...
@@gronizherz3603 you're absolutely right
@@gronizherz3603 couldn't agree more. Lord of the Rings feels like magic, it's fantasy. My favorite fantasy. I hadn't played magic in a few years and the LOTR set was one of the things that brought me back if I'm being entirely transparent. But to me there is a huge difference between a UB set with elves/dwarves/dragons/etc and a UB set with effing Spongebob.
@@christopherschwarz1959 By this thought process would Berserk and A Song of Ice and Fire be acceptable? For argument's sake.
5:06 THANK YOU, I feel like this point has been drowned out by the bigger issues, but the fact that the main sets have been moving away from fantasy/fantasy interpretations of mythology, and into more contemporary or future settings is also a problem. In the Aetherdrift promo Chandra was riding motorbike doing an Akira slide, and these are the sets that are meant to be a blessed relief from UB??
Yeah, it's more like "Magic is 100% Universes Beyond" at this point.
I hate the World of Warcraftification of core MTG more than any of this, yeah.
I think we might have gone beyond that already. We’ve hit Fortnite levels of IP splicing.
Giant mechs in dominaria?
As best as I can recall we’ve had mechs more or less the whole time, they were just called golems and constructs, despite said constructs being effectively mechs and the stories being hilariously close to sci-fi, and honestly feeling a lot like stuff pulled from Dune. Unfortunate that upper level executives think that somehow doesn’t have as much “mass market appeal” as UB flavored products.
This move is the equivalent of a restaurant saying "Appetizers and drinks sell well and have high margins. Let's just eliminate the whole menu except appetizers and drinks".
I made a similar analogy. Like a restaurant analyzing that people love their long-cherished spaghetti, but also receiving incredible praise about a new chocolate cheesecake they brought in- and deciding to put chocolate sauce from the cheesecake into the spaghetti the restaurant is famous for.
Absolutely the best metaphor I have seen to describe this.
I was extremely salty towards Universes Beyond when I first saw them and avoided them like the plague. But then a long-time friend of mine who had never once played Magic asked me about the Fallout set. And we each ended up buying one of the Preconstructed decks, and he had a blast playing it. Before long he was building a collection and tuning this precon deck and I did the same with my cards on hand. Even now my Preston Garvey commander deck still goes with me in my box to game nights and I still crack it out every now and then.
That showed me the value these had in bringing new players to the game, and also showed me that I should be thinking about UB differently: it was a garnish--a spice that could be thrown in, to help stir things up and create a different way of playing the same game. And that change of heart has led me to actually use these sets as a recruitment tool for new players with great success.
Replacing half of your existing recipe with a spice is going to make for a terrible overall meal.
i grew up in a tourist trap, and saw a lot of restaurants get replaced with cafes, so unfortunately, it does happen.
I’m once again begging the internet to stop coming up with terrible analogies.
@@Feelosopher__ Don't you understand, if people can't use terrible analogies how can they justify hating change
The Professor has an incredibly professional and emotionally mature way of expressing his disappointment in a world of people who just react without thinking. This was a well crafted and articulated video! As a new player, I feel for you and agree with what you are saying.
Bloomburrow was the first set in years to really catch my attention and get me to buy new cards. It appears it will also be the last
I'm starting to think the thing I liked most about Bloomburrow was the originality and how well it fit as a Magic plane.
@@creamsoda2392 They took all the wrong lessons from LotR set. That was a universally beloved IP that fits in with magic vibes pretty closely, was insanely well designed, and it still has caused a lot of issues. Instead of seeing it as a “oh this could be fun once a year as a special thing”, execs just saw $$$
@@creamsoda2392
You know, when you put it like that, it occurs to me that's how I've felt about it since it released. Bloomburrow feels fresh and true to character for the game as I perceive it.
Bonus points for the set's noticeable effort to scale back the power creep.
@@creamsoda2392 Also how it dared to be self-contained in terms of story instead of being an excuse to move along the lackluster meta-narrative
@@electricnick260 but bloomburrow fucking sucked?
I don't care if they make more UB. I care that there's no longer a format without it.
come play pre-modern :D
The problem is everyone sits on the side lines and says this exact thing and does nothing, bystander effect.
@@Pug8 In this specific situation doing nothing (i.e. not buying cards) is probably the thing Wizards will notice the most.
@Pug8 true.
We should all rally together and form #MAGICGATE as a reactionary movement against
I am sure we can all band together and get twice as big and 10x as toxic as we got with the most recent commander bannings
@@fgckrion Unironic where do I do this? Also why ban Necropotence : (
I still remember altering Magic cards back in the day to make them look like Batman. I never thought that soon we’d be altering Spider-Man to make him look like he belongs in the Magic universe
Spider-Man Compleat
It’s over guys. Pack it up. I’m over here still playing my revised set for the past 30 years
If we breaking promises, reprint black lotus
Maybe more practically, reprint the OG duals.
Hell, fuck it. Reprint the ENTIRE reserved list in every Core set moving forward. Who cares? Just serialize some of the reprints so people can still have their precious chases that are high in price.
Because, at this point? What more harm can honestly be done?
they're only breaking promises that won't get them sued by "investors"
@@manicka111 Honestly, do you even need og duals anymore? There's so much good fixing, reprinting duals would be a moderate increase in power, depending on which formats they'd be reprinted in.
I'd like a Time Walk and Ancestral Recall please.
soon
PLANESWALKERS ON MOTORCYCLES!!! Congrats MTG you have caught up with Yugioh.
Almost there, a few more waifus later they will have arrived
It's actually already beyond YuGiOh, because YGO at least ties the whole nonsense neatly together, becauseit always was enjoying the nonsense. Magic was serious, but now is just a sad series of McDonalds promos, except you don't even get a Happy Meal when you try to pull for a toy.
Universes Beyond Secret Lair: Dark Magician Girl and Celtic Guardian as partner commanders
XD
We have bikes Since Khaladesh
Whatever unique, interesting, special interest you might have enjoyed, must become a homogenized sludge able to be "consumable by anyone and everyone".
Ironically, didn't MaRo once comment about how something that everybody likes but nobody loves is doomed to fail? It's honestly sad and pitiful seeing him (and WotC) turn back on what he said more and more. The only problem is that the casualty is our game.
Line must always go up! Up line good! Down line bad!
@@Ellie-AngelaI’m sure he’s bothered by the new direction of the game but views himself as a moderating force that is saving the game from worse outcomes under a more sycophantic Hasbro stooge that would fill his position.
That, or he just likes the money he’s getting.
@@Durgenheim Most likely one of those two, yes. But even if it's the first one, it's sadly there that the slippery slope begins of always just allowing a bit more.
Kid friendly*
The shifting of magic’s overton window is wild.
“There is no plan for this to ever happen…” Yeah, you know, here in Germany we immediately compare such statements with, “Nobody has the intention of building a wall.”
As a German I would think you'd use a slightly different example of telling a populace "we're not going to..." And then....
@@Sayquidnidly Oh god
Sounds like you want Magic to build a wall against outside IPs. Ironic.
@@maythesciencebewithyou The Berlin wall was meant to keep the GDR’s own population trapped in the country, not outsiders out. It’s not a Trumpian Mexico wall. Knowing some history helps. 😉
@@Sayquidnidly
Epic
I wish Prof would stop apologizing for not liking Universes Beyond. There is nothing at all wrong with saying "I greatly dislike the thing you like" you do not need to add more, it's okay, if people are being honest with each other then that alone should be enough
I agree but you have to remember that as a dedicated content creator he has to choose between taking a principled stand and ensuring he doesn’t offend potential viewers.
Prof has bought his fair share of UB cards. More than the average player I'm 100% certain. He's stated himself in this video he has no issues with UB cards; only that they now take up half of all future sets, which anyone who's been playing MTG for the past 30 years should have an issue with. The future of MTG is concerning.
My table is a "No UB Allowed" table. Tell UB players they are destroying the game.This is why gatekeeping your hobbies is so important. Keep the general audience and corporations out. They destroy everything they touch. Capitalism is a cancer.
Gate Keep your hobbies.
I hate UB with passion and am proud of it.
A lot of content creators try to anticipate potential misunderstandings by overexplaining the things people might be offended by, which feels like the intent of that
some moron at corporate thought they had a big brain moment and said "magic is just the mechanics lets monetize the mechanics to the greatest extent possible" and this is what we ended up with
I don't think they're a moron. I think they are three incredibly convincing raccoons in a business suit.
Weis Schwarz but somehow less complicated
It's just Uno... or Monopoly
and that "moron" in corporate actually made wizards a lot of money. The UB cards sell. Which makes you shudder to think about why in the world would people fall for such gimmicky "nerd culture" bait.
He adapted the fornite model "smashing action figures together" into a card game. It prints money. That moron is sitting peachy and garunteed on the golden parachute list if the bough finally breaks.
I definitely won't be picking up mtg again. I thought about it during bloomsborrow but this is the icing on the cake for me and I WILL not be playing again. I miss 7th edition days
I do at least recommend checking out Forge.
Funko Pops: The Gathering
That's a perfect take
Disney+ The Gathering
This comment needs more upvotes
@@charleshammel8541 Its Rhystic Study's after all, see first link in the description (a good - if a tad disheartening - read, check it out)
Suddenly it's not magic anymore. Ha ha ha
Hasbro imagines they're in a HBO vs Netflix competition with Lorcana - that they need to become Lorcana before Lorcana has enough cards out to become MTG. That's lame.
They are just doing what they did with monopoly. They were always good at getting licenses.
I doubt Hasbro gives a single fuck about Lorcana, they are way too ignorant to imagine it being a threat
Can't wait for the D&D crossover setting books
honestly the only thing that stops me playing lorcana instead is just how much disney it is.
but if that remains their point, that's fine by me.
"Ambition drove you to abandon everything you had... for everything you ever wanted." - Darkest Dungeon 2 narrator
I am late to this, but I would just like to take a minute to recognize how level-headed this response is. The Professor has clearly stated what is causing his sour emotions while still expressing happiness for those that are excited.
This is a great little piece on change. Those people who have been there for years and are quite happy with the current direction are going to get upset about the a turn or twist in the heading. It's just how people work. They get comfortable with the thing and expect the thing to be steadfast. When it takes a drastic turn, those people feel betrayed, let down, or just plain angry.
It's not quite often you see someone who makes a living off of a game be the same person showing the most maturity in response to something beloved changing, and I think The Professor deserves kudos for this.
Kudos, kind sir. I hope you find that your enjoyment of MTG grows regardless of what happens.
All I can say is I’m glad I quit playing. This is garbage. All of it.
You will never resurrect the magic of the original magic IP.
Prof., you nailed it. It’s an advertisement product and not Magic anymore. Imagine this would happen to Star Wars. Suddenly Elza and Olaf run through the picture and are part of the rebels. Wotc makes magic ridiculous.
Well said.
Or you’re just a fucking old head who tf cares what characters are in it as long as there cool go cry about less original characters by yourself
I feel like that only sort of works if what's being advertised is less known.
Everyone on planet Earth knows what a Spiderman is, and I doubt they'll buy UB:Spiderman for one of the side-characters that show up in 1 comic from the 80's.
Only the premise of star wars is not multiple universes and those who walk through planes of existence.
star wars already sucks though. who would even notice?
I remember when I first read someone say MTG is now "Cardboard funko pops". Man was that on the bullseye. I know the numbers don't support this, but it feels like desperation for WotC. Its like when IPs run out of steam in Hollywood- sometimes the short term solution is to fuse them together such as "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" or "Alien vs. Predator"
It isn't desperation. It is just line must go up. There is no way MtG doesn't make boatloads of money. The problem is the same as all for profit corporations. They have to make two boatloads next year, three the next, and so forth. It isn't enough to make a boatload of money year over year.
Alien vs Predator is awesome btw
It's easier to understand the situation if you stop saying WotC and more correctly call it Hasbro.
@@johnbono2384 Def better than I expected.
@@kmo9790 As I said; the numbers don't support it being desperation, but it does remind me of "IP losing voltage, what now?" thinking. I know its really "money-money-money!"
get ready for the "MtG x MtG Secret Lair" coming soon
That politician woman?
Please no! 🤮 @@TubbyBubbleLove42
@@TubbyBubbleLove42
"I tap 3 and play jewish space laser to end my turn"
This gave me a chuckle, and then sadness.
As someone who literally just started to get into magic the last few days and dnd the last few months I haven’t heard anyone say a good thing about that wotc or hasbo with my short time interacting with the fanbase. The dnd campaign I’m playing takes place in ravnica and we got a hint our big bad is a dragon named bolas and when I played magic the gathering arena for the first time Monday and say he was the finale challenger of the tutorial i instantly got excited and message my dm who’s a big magic fan and player. Only card game I played before magic was hearthstone for awhile as a kid I revisited it recently got bored and decided to try out magic arena since I don’t have anything getting my attention other then occasionally Diablo 4 I’ve spent the last couple days playing arena and it sucks to see a lot of these companies keep drifting farther away from their core fanbases im search for more money and sales tho with that said I have only been buying the lotr set in the game with the gold coins😂
I’m a sucker for theme. Ixalan and Innistrad were the planes that got me into the game in 2018. Love me zombies, pirates and eldritch horrors beyond man’s comprehension. Even the D&D stuff was welcome and fun. It matched the theme.
Now, I hate that every time I brew a Zombie, Pirate, or Horror tribal deck, I’m encouraged to include cards from Doctor Who, Assasin’s Creed, Fallout etc. Reprints of cards with new art will always be welcome. Full sets of unique cards with no Magic version suck the identity out of the game.
Sure it’s just a card game, but I cared about the themes. I liked the flavor of being a planeswalker gathering spells from different planes to use in your library.
Game mechanics are important, but theme is what keeps me involved when the game gets frustrating or bland. So now, I play less and less.
I think the same. The whole feel of it just felt right, it's getting muddled more now
I get you, but one thing is theme, another is turning the game into a billboard for other IPs. Imagine if Universes Beyond was like... Magic in a world of Japanese Yokai? Or South American folklore? There are SO MANY WAYS of doing this in an interesting, non-cash-grabbing way.
Here, here! Hear here!
once upon a time, I'd suggest reskinning htem as proxies with an in-universe, or at least in theme. When I built a human typal commander deck, I did exactly this with Rick, making him an Odric instead. But now there's just so many cards that this is next to impossible to do for any card you might want to play
I am on the same page when ot comes to theme. But in Magic, theme is very strange. You never play as the characters, thematically you as a player incorporate a wizard who fights another wizards, and you conjure pieces of universes and lore that meet your ends the most. So why not conjure an army of goblins, timelords, giants, dragons, ghostbusters and superheroes? The game thematically made never much sense, because you do not play the lore, you use it in a fractured way to beat your oponent. I build limited decks, because I like them to be thematically coherent as a piece of flavor. But when it comes to gameplay and scenery, you were never part of the worlds you played, you made them part of yours. But what your world is seems blurry to me at best. And that is what makes Magic adaptable to many flavors and open to anything.
Wotc in 2025:
“Henceforth Magic The Gathering will be called Hasbro Presents: Universes Beyond!”
Sounds about right
I think you mean Coca-Cola, EA Games, and Comcast present a Hasbro production: Universes Beyond: Return to Mountain Dew: Code Red.
Pretty much
It won’t be a game soon. Just pretty AI art on pretty foiling. No text. No rules. Just pictures.
Even more accurate, Wizards of the Coast will now be called Hasbro.
Hasbro buying Wizards of the Coast is the worst thing to ever happen to both MtG and D&D.
Hasbro bought wotc in 1999. They kept the brands relevant and popular for 25 years. It could've been much worse. The stuff lately is just the next stage of capitalism infection everything.
@@brennankeller3549 you are right, however, hasbro is been strugging to stay afloat only "recently", so the "it's been 25 years and it was fine" argument is not relevant anymore, hasbro is squeezing magic because is the only fruit that hasn't dried yet.
@@brennankeller3549 A fair point; I'll rephrase: Hasbro noticing how much money WotC makes compared to the rest of their portfolio is the worst thing to ever happen to both MtG and D&D. Doesn't flow nearly as well as a sentence, but is undoubtedly more accurate; things were (relatively) fine until the Hasbro C-suite noticed how well the WotC properties were doing and started looking for ways to hypermonetize them.
@tomdavis3878 I hate to break it to you my guy, but WOTC was going bankrupt in the 1990s. Hasbro SAVED Magic and DnD. Regardless of what you might think about how they’ve “ruined” these brands, the only reason they even EXIST and are culturally relevant today is because of Hasbro? Has Hasbro done a good job with these products? No, absolutely not, they’ve done a godawful job. However, at least they exist thanks to Hasbro. I’d rather played flawed Magic/DnD than no Magic/DnD.
@@tomdavis3878Ah okay, sorry, I didn’t see your second reply. Yes, I absolutely agree with that second comment. Their hypermonitization of WOTC has been egregious and disgusting.
I appreciate how you approached this video. You are taking a much higher road than most of the community is(myself, included). I hate this change but you did a great job summarizing your thoughts about the subject.
"It bears repetion" is proof the English Prof is exhausted by all of this
For an English prof, he gets English words wrong a startling number of times.
@@megabubfish humor is lost on you guys, huh?
It was on purpose shut up boomer
To be fair, the Bard is famously used in English classes and he made up words like “repetion” all the time!
New words get skibidi made up all the fantom tax time gyatt rizzler. Who here is old enough to remember when people started saying "STATION!" because they did it in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey? Even the actors didn't know what it meant, and it turned out to be a literal typo by drunk script writers. "REPEATION!" There; now it's an English word. It means "repeating."
the thing that pisses me off the most are the people calling anyone that wants Magic to have a shred of integrity a gatekeeper.
Yeah. That's one of the reasons I stopped caring.
Integrity of what? Mostly bad storytelling?
Yeah I want this game that was made primarily to make money to have (checks note) "integrity"
@@Rhavas theme and identity. It's not a crazy request
@@Rhavas Because Marvel is well known for it's great storytelling.
"I tap my travis scott for 3 red mana, i cast optimus prime-"
"i interrupt with thanos snap and chose the e3 los angeles convention center as a secondary target."
"a brilliant play...however you forgot the e3 los angeles convention center is affected by thomas the tank engine passive"
"we're gonna have to call a ref"
that's how stupid mtg sounds in 2024, glad i sold everything
😂😂😂
“I’m paying 3 mana to equip the Squidward’s Clarinet Artifact to this 2012 Toyota Camry I just untapped.”
@@TedCruzMissile331😂
It’s not even close to that. Maybe a in a couple years time but right now it’s nowhere near
i dunno that sounds like a fun time
You're upset you know the characters on the card beforehand?
I think this may actually be the video that pushes me to finally go into my local game store and try Magic for the first time. I've never played it, but enjoyed your videos (and CGB, who introduced me to the game via Hearthstone creator Rarran) but never really thought to give Magic a go. Seeing and hearing your genuine passion and joy for a card game as an experience brings me back mentally to being a kid and going to Pokémon league. I never thought about the card value (or else I would still have my holographic Charizard), just the joy of playing a card game with strangers who became friends. Thanks for the inspiration to give Magic -- as Magic -- a go. ❤
Thank you for being sincere, Prof!
I would say, “stop buying the products and WOTC will learn their lesson.” But everyone will complain about it, then continue to buy case after case. And you’ll play the collector booster box game with every set and happily promote the sets while claiming you’re not happy. And I get it, it’s your livelihood at this point. But until we hit WOTC / Hasbro in their wallets, this won’t change.
Not everyone. I sold my collection and stopped buying with Walking Dead. Plenty of people are tapping out, and have been. Numbers are going up from out-of-towners and investors, and retention for those wont stick, the bubble will pop.
"Voting with your wallets" is a thing of the past when whales exist. FF fans or Marvel fans with tonnes of cash will dump huge amounts of money on boosters, more than filling the gaps made by old guard customers turned away who've spent their money already. Companies target whales and new fans over supporting old fans because new fans have a higher chance of spending money than old fans who have already bought their products.
I stopped playing when this bupkis began. I just sometimes watch videos about it, to only see it's worse every day. Lol
That"s the problem. It's useless. UB are the most selling product bc they reach people outside the game. They don"t really care if old players drop the game, they are still winning money. If the fans of the tcg itself stop buying Magic, only UB will sell and we will get to +% of sets being UB.
There is no escape from this. Crossovers sells too much becuase there is almost infinite potential costumers. Look at Fortnite.
Honestly, if Prof doesn't stick to his guns and not do a booster box game for the UB sets I'll have lost any respect I have for him. You can't tell your audience to boycott a product and then turn around a couple of months later and start promoting that product to said audience.
I am SO PISSED they pushed back Lorwyn. It is my favorite plane and I was so looking forward to it.
I hear you. I'm Welsh also, so it's extra hurtful.
Lorwyn2 won't be Lorwyn anyway, it'll be Neon Dynasty again. I liked Neon Dynasty, I think it did a pretty solid job of making cyberpunk feel like MTG, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Kamigawa beyond having Japanese-inspired names in it.
@@yurisei6732Watch Lorwyn 2 be compleatly Phyrexianized by the time it actually drops. How's that for futuristic?
I really appreciate the nuance and honesty here. I’m a new viewer and just got back into Magic after a brief fling 6 years ago.
I liked hearing about whatever crazy UB sets came out from afar, but I can sympathize with a hobby you’ve spent so much time in becoming just an avenue for advertisers.
I like the UB sets but I’ve only really played the LotR. Theme is so important when building decks, but there’s some line between thematic crossovers and funko pops and I know which side I’d rather land on. Good video!
I always say, as soon as a game starts doing cross-over products, that heralds the end of that game, because the creators sacrifice long-term health and cohesion for short-term excitement.
It wont die. But im impressed by how many people have stockholm syndrom over games. I started with a new tcg and it was the best decision. I hated being mad because of my hobby (mtg). So many fails in the last years
@@SpecialOfficerHunk What TCG? I'd like a paper TCG to get into that's not yugioh (can't stand playing it), or mtg (ruining the aesthetic)
@@snowshow6207I personally play One Piece and Digimon but if you want a more traditional western fantasy spin theres Flesh & Blood and Sourcery
Who is evening buying this UB garbage? Surely there is not enough novelty for these products from Magic players to warrant the high number of releases we're seeing. Are new players creating this much demand for these products?
@@snowshow6207Look into One Piece, Digimon and Lorcana. We're in the golden TCG era
Damn. When prof said “I’m not happy and I’d like to talk about it” it hit me deep. Wish magic would realize how amazing of an IP they have and would just focus on that. Secret lairs were already starting to get annoying
I wish he’d actually talked about it and taken some kind of stand. It’s essentially a 15 minute video saying “I’m disappointed but not going to change anything about my behavior to show wotc that.”
@@tc5589-1 what good does him saying anything do? wotc hasnt listened to anything prof has said since the beginning. theres nothing he can do with his platform to change the direction of UB, otherwise believe me he would try.
I don’t understand you people, Magic is now a format. It has been for a while. I’ve been playing since the original innistrad, I’m not crying about having more UB. It has brought in friends who I thought would absolutely never play Magic. It’s turned into a constantly evolving board game for all of the friends of the group rather than the sweaty neck beards who have no life and hate on popcultute to seem edgy.
@ for plenty it’s disbanded their play groups or, in my experience, caused people to refuse to give it a try outright due to hatred of that ip crossover philosophy
@@tc5589-1 those people can cry me a river.
Aside from the UB angle, don't overlook that they are on pace to push Standard to well over 6000 cards. If you're old-school you remember the infamous "Year of Living Changerously" article in which MaRo explained that 2100 cards was far too many for standard. (And assured us this was not just a trick to make Mythics seem more common by introducing them in smaller sets.)
Maro says a lot of stuff. Money talks at the end of the day.
At some point you're going to have to acknowledge that MaRo's job is to sell you whatever the latest corporate nonsense is.
@@FalseHerald I know. I hope for nuggets of actual design insight to sneak out but they are so few and far between these days.
His article on "10 things every game needs" and speech on "20 years, 20 lessons" will always be classics though. RIP that Mark's demise to the one who says we have always been at war with Eastasia.
March of the machine was a real shift imo. The real “endgame” of mtg. All will be one was so flavorful, with MOM being the multiversal war they wrote themselves into.
Now we have the next phase, and like marvel, it’s pretty ass.
I quit with the Walking Dead and this might be the final nail that makes me sell my collection. I played for over a decade, and I still miss those days, playing silly EDH decks with strangers hundreds of miles from home without any prizes or Spongebobs or caring about proxies or prices, and I could not update a deck for a year and not feel behind.
If you goal is to "keep up with magic" i hope you have a sponsor 😂😂 My method is: Buy cards you like because you like them. Then "keeping up" doesn't matter you just get creative with what you have.
I buy Sets i like. I Like UB sets, they got me back into buying magic cards after 14 years of not playing at all.
Not everyone wants to sit down and read about the entire history of magics universe just so the lore text makes sense.
Someone us are highly involved with other IPs and the fact that they bring their story to magic and give us amazing cards to play a fantastic game is somthing no one should be salty about.
As far as I can see it gives players more options, more outlets and more things to be excited about.
Like I just fail to see how the existence of UB cards makes the "Traditional" magic cards less enjoyable?
UB is taking off because POEPLE ARE BUYING THEM! They are freaking cool cards! If you've done absolutely anything other than live under a rock and play magic I think you'd get it.
LOTR, Assassins Creed, Fallout, Dr Who it was soooo cool to see those in a game that has tons of players! :D
If i saw "The New LOTR Trading Card Game". I'd think "good luck finding anyone to play that with, it probably super imba, i bet they're liquidating them in 3 months. ..."
But because i saw LOTR Magic: The Gathering, Instantly i knew! I can find other people to play with! I can bust out my old cards and see how they fair against Sauron's army of orcs! :D I loved the IP and knew it was getting backed by a well known, well funded, highly played game.
Idk... Just feels like someone complaining about different editions of Monopoly... Like dude if you enjoy classic no one is forcing you to play with the new cards... Just use the ones you like and get on with your life.
I thinkthe only complainers would be Power Players cause there are now SO MANY MORE Cards combos to be on the look out for and so many more cards you'd have to buy to play at a professional level.
But i'm pretty sure thats like 10% of the MTG player base... most people I know are casual, play home games, go to the LGS a couple times a year.
Sold my collection this year, have yet to regret it. MtG just isn't fun to play for me anymore.
Good news.
This happened because Wizards stopped doing block sets. The last time we had a full 3 block set was Theros I want to say.
i know tarkhir was a three block set... it was beautiful...
Tarkir was the last 3 block set
I MISS BLOCKS SO MUCH
I think the inverse is true in that they specifically stopped block sets so they could do this instead.
@@dragonjo7550 I stand corrected but that set came out in 2014- 2015. It's been almost a decade since the last 3 block set
(7:10) yeah, still hard to imagine that MKM didn't trickle down from some executive initiative to insert CLUE somewhere.
Your videos are amazing, Sam. I really hope that you one day make the definitive documentary on Magic because there is nobody better suited to do it.
It hurts me deeply to see the game I used to love and play with my friends when I was 11 being now forcibly overwritten by outside IPs just so that millionaires can now profit even more while deleting decades of effort, world building, and talent put into crafting the incredible and nuanced universe that is Magic: The Gathering.
The most incredible part is that I’ve known Magic for almost 15 years, and it only took the last few years to see one of my favorite thing ever to change drastically.
0:28 squirdward is going to be the best card eeeeeeevvvveeeer
I block your Colossal Dreadmaw with my Patrick Star
Ill counterspell your timmy turner
In response i tap James Bond to draw a card
At your end step I’ll flash in the grinch, swing for lethal
I play my animaniacs wb water tower land tapped and pass my turn
@@cptnqusr ah, but i have the backyard from Plants vs. Zombies, and it's night, so there's fog, and i prevent combat damage
What fucking sucks for me personally, is that, back when UB Final Fantasy was first announced I was hype for it, but with the intervening time, and esp with UB just getting shoved into standard instead of Modern (AND INSTEAD OF JUST BEING IT'S OWN FUCKING FORMAT), my disgust for the corporate EVERYTHING just overrules my LOVE of FF as a series, and that just fucking sucks man :
Mood. FF is even one of the crossovers that doesn't feel like it would be a huge stretch either; it doesn't feel nearly as 'invasive' as say Marvel or Spongebob. But waiting so long and watching everything slip makes me hesitant to actually involve myself.
This right here. I don't like UB but I was willing to stomach it for Final Fantasy. Now that it's a Standard set in a world where we're expected to buy a Standard set every two months? It makes me reconsider buying any Magic products.
Same. I was very excited for it when it was announced years ago, but Universes Beyond is becoming too consistent a product and frankly doesn't really belong in the main formats (which didn't really affect me due to being a commander player first and foremost, which means a FF themed Commander deck was always the goal). I remember the old criticism of 'where does this end, Spongebob?' but it turns out they appear to have been absolutely right.
Theres an ACTUAL Final Fantasy Trading Card Game! Many crossover mechanics from magic but NO "land" issues like mana flooding or mana screwing. So if you like magic as a game but love FF, FFTCG is actually for you! Cheaper, awesome community. I would encourage you to try it out with your friends. I will NEVER go back to magic.
Theres an ACTUAL Final Fantasy Trading Card Game! Many crossover mechanics from magic but NO "land" issues like mana flooding or mana screwing. So if you like magic as a game but love FF, FFTCG is actually for you! Cheaper, awesome community. I would encourage you to try it out with your friends. I will NEVER go back to magic.
I get it..... it's about money but it really feels like jack slaying the golden goose because he forgot to buy gravy......this sux!!!!!!
Things can be about money without being about greed. They see MTG as a cash cow and they want to milk it even at the cost of it's reputation.
@@snarbloxoh yeah, because a fuckin Spongebob card is going to push people away, lmao.
@@snarblox What reputation? You know the reputation that card game nerds have right? It's not exactly a good one.
@@snarblox How is that anything other than greed? Lol
@@snarblox hasbro is a publicly traded company. It literally can't be about anything other than greed.
If Squidward is anything but a one drop (B) 0/1 sac outlet; I'll quit.
Watched your video for years. I finally stopped playing mtg after lotr set came out. Appreciate all your content and time spent over the years. Kinda dreaded this would happen back when walking dead came out. Sad that it happened. Sold off my collection except my merfolk commander deck, Squirrel deck, Dragon deck and enchantment deck. I except this end for me personally. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for the community over the years.
Man I was so stunned, once I read about the Nicol Bolas Scheme in war of the sparks (the set I joined) as well as reading up on what he did before then and seeing the new "hidden" Phyrexian in all the other upcoming. I found it amazing to have a game with such interesting lore and flavor.
So yes, it is a sad to currently see that lost in favor of universes beyond and "funny" sets.
You joined during War? Thats when everything started going to shit lol
We used to get to spend 2 to 3 sets in one location, so mechanics from the past sets worked with the new ones. We had a core group of characters and bad guys over multiple sets. Before War it was amazing.
Lucky you, Professor. These "Universe Beyond" definitely killed whatever love I had for this thing.
"This product is not for me" is a mantra lately, lol.
In capitalist country we vote with our wallets. And these crazy corporate fools yearn for our money like a cancer. Go away horrible modern products lol
My boyfriend and I just started playing MTG today with buying a beginners box of foundations and it is a blast. I plan to buy some foundations and bloomsborrow boosters for Christmas 🎄 we will have some fun playing during the holidays 😊
Good. It's a fun game
8:16 I do sincerely believe this statement and is not a joke; SpongeBob has always been a harbinger of quality drop, regardless of what you think of the property itself his arrival is a downturn for most surrounding properties
IPs and crossovers are truly the poison of original worlds and storytelling, just like Fortnite and so many other forms of entertainment they slowly get more deluded and drowned out. Even tho the lord of the rings magic the gathering set was really cool it still had the feeling that it didn’t truly belong in the world of magic. I just want new original worlds and storytelling of magics world, I just hope for the future that magic stays magic.
LOTR is the way these crossover sets should be handled - reinterpret the original material in a new MTG-inspired way, instead of taking the most popular incarnation and putting it straight onto cards. LOTR worked because it wasn't just pictures of Viggo Mortensen and Ian Mckellen in their costumes, it was its own world with its own cast of characters, but paying homage to LOTR through names and key story elements.
To me that announcement was the most impactful change that's ever happened to Magic and I saw very little backlash online from creators. It's been a week, where is the backlash
It's their livelihood so most will choose to ignore it unfortunately.
It’s so strange that I feel so alone in this worry, but the overwhelming response to wizards has been positive, everywhere but online. In person people cheered, content creators seem to either be very positive on it or not care with the only two exceptions I can think of being Spice and Prof, spice having made a 2 hour video on this exact concern a year ago. It feels so strange to be so isolated on this hill watching a million other people stranded on their own isolated hills.
@@Unknown-qj9smdo you have a ref for the spice video? Title or link? Not sure which one it is on their page
Maybe the people fearing the MTG sky is falling are just in the minority even though it may seem like the majority. Certainly not saying the concerns of the minority are invalid or anything like that.
@ Yeah it’s the this one. More recent than I thought.
ua-cam.com/video/m9AvT6mS0xE/v-deo.htmlsi=KmuZ-o1TAqq7Nhsg