MTG - It is not worth it to buy a Mystery Planeswalker Pack for Magic: The Gathering
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Check out my guide for building the best Sydri, Galvanic Genius Esper Commander Deck here: • MTG - A Guide to Sydri...
Magic The Gathering Lessons for New Players: Learn How to Draft Better! | Drafting for N00bs • Magic The Gathering Le...
Is it worth it to buy a Kaladesh Gift Box: • MTG - Is it worth it t...
Super Kuldotha Bros. $50.00 Budget Pauper: • MTG - Super Kuldotha B...
Tolarian Community College is brought to you by Card Kingdom! You can support The Professor just by checking out their store through this link: www.cardkingdom...
How To Keep You Foils From Curling: • MTG - How To Keep Your...
Advanced Modern Studies: How To Improve Your Magic: The Gathering Gameplay With A Deck Library • MTG - Advanced Modern ...
How To Netdeck And Why: • MTG - How To Netdeck: ...
TCC Shirts! Playmats! - www.tolariancom...
Or you can support me directly over at Patreon - / tolariancommunitycollege
Previous Review of the Pirate Lab Trays: • MTG - Deck Boxes 13 - ...
Twitter: / tolariancollege
FaceBook: / tolariancommunitycollege
Come hang out and play Magic with me on Twitch: / tolariancommunitycollege
Music Courtesy Of:
"Vintage Education" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
"Airport Lounge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
"Deliberate Thought" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
"I hope very much this video helps you more than Wizards of the Coast helps your local game store."
Hello, 911? I'd like to report a murder
Entire video was worth it for this Burn.
Motion to pin this comment. *heh!* XD
Burn just got more viable
Now we understand why he likes to play red.
That burn was even more OP than Lightning Bolt
"Ya just don't get it Gloria! Kids LOVE mystery stuff! Mystery sells! They'll eat those boxes up and want more!"
"You're selling jank, Murray! You're selling jank!"
"Nonsense! Next up, we'll make a Mystery Salsa Crate! We'll make millions!"
Eh, I'm sure there's people who are more excited about trying new foods than I am. Mystery salsa with different flavors and ingredient mixtures could be appealing to them, as an opportunity to find and try something new.
You're not thinking like a buisnessman. It would be much better to put bubblegum in the card packs? like it was with collectable cards back then. Everybody loves bubblegum.
"We'll make it cost 7$!"
Zeghart well make it cost 7!
Truly a work of Murray!
I'm honestly insulted Tibalt isn't in the pack. If you're gonna add insult to injury, go all the way
I think Tibalt might be worth more than a few of these...
Tolarian Community College
Yea last I checked tibalt is like 2.50, and there are somehow planeswalkers less played, and cheaper,
A foil Insult//Injury would be better.
Wait, isn't there a special Tibalt in that Sorin vs. Tibalt duel deck? Opening one there would just be the icing on the salty cake.
They used some planes walker deck guys but not tibalt? Lol he was my first mythic ever
*E X T R A M Y S T E R Y !*
ˡᵉˢˢ ᵐʸˢᵗᵉʳʸ
Hmm
"Professor is just a shill for Wizards!"
Yeah, totally dude. He's never once been critical of the company.
Uhm, the only comment he's pinned is a joke made at WoTC's expense? The icon that you might be confusing is the "liked" icon. To which I say... is he supposed to like comments that insult him?
To be clear, the joke is that there are very silly people who accuse The Professor of being a 'shill for Wizards' when he has ALWAYS been highly critical of just about every move Wizards makes, it's more reasonable to be upset with him for always nagging and complaining, but being a shill? The only reason to call him that is because you are jealous or angry that he has found success in being sincere, honest and hard working. Or cuz you think he's corny.
sounds like something Desolator would say.
Not that I've heard, though I could see him saying that off the cuff without thinking. Desolator is hardly a 'super nice dude' but I haven't seen him be morally repugnant.
You're right. Morally repugnant would reserved be for the sleeveless neck beard, Jeremy.
6/10, didn't calculate in the value of the sleeve.
That's just more... MYSTERY~
This is true
My "planeswalker card" was a sleeved foil Mindwrack Demon. In short, not worth it.
But that's my favorite planeswalker. It's from the shitty mythics versus other shitty mythics duel deck.
Is it sad that I'd actually pay for a Shitty Mythics vs Shitty Mythics duel deck? Just two decks full of sub-$2 mythics, 100% jank, would be somewhat fun for a laugh.
No, that actually does sound kinda fun.
I’ve heard that some people have found these boxes at $20-$25, so I assume that if I see it at those prices, (and have a gift card) I could take a look at..... something else.
FrankyTheImmortal At $20 it's an alright deal on the packs , 5 Standard packs would normally go for the same price and you get 2 random packs and the Planeswalker essentially for free. At $25 it's alrightish if you have like a gift card to pay for it or something but if it costs anything over $28 just don't buy it. Overall though booster packs are not a great way to get what you need so if you don't have a gift card to pay for it you're better off just buying the cards you want online or at your local gamestore
Can't get singles into the market without SOMEBODY opening booster packs. Even though the professor HATEs boosters due to the randomness. If you have no idea what kind of singles u want or just want to build from scratch, 2-3 booster packs are always a good place to start.
Is this box thing worth it though? No. Since it's a generic presorted Planeswalker you probably won't use anyways unless you playing role playing stuff and a bunch of packs.
TBH this is a product design to sell on a place where people who buy in there and don't actually know about the game. Like parents that buy this for their kids. This is a money-grab.
André Marques yeah to money grabs :D
/s
Yea Pretty much. A friend of mine kid was going to get into the game and he grabbed a box something like that at walmart and i said no you will want to get this one. Yes it is a preconstructed planeswalker deck but it is more bang for your buck. Plus i will give you a bunch of cards to add to it to make it even better. That you are picking up is worth half of what you are paying. do not buy it
You wanna know the worst part. As a joke a friend got me 2 of the mystery boxes and said we were gonna play sealed with them. But then we didn't, because my 2 booster packs from "modern history" was 2, 5 CARD BOOSTER PACKS OF GATECRASH. It was bad. It was also false marketing because I was promised 6 15 card booster packs. I only got 4
Michael Rossi Uggggh. That's pretty awful. Should have returned them as Walmart takes almost anything back.
That was literally the only value that I could think of for this product - basically Chaos Draft, but as Sealed instead. Something fun to do with friends maybe once, just for a laugh, but yeah - I'd be pissed in your position.
😂😂😂😂 gatecrash was so lame
Better to buy the booster fat packs if you wanna do that instead. At least you know what set you're getting and won't get fewer cards in a pack messing u up...
You should email wizards and probably also walmart, that's definitely unintentional and they would almost certainly help you out.
damn sick people and their sexy voices
looks like a rugged french lumberjack
I love it too if I would get it without the sour throat sign me up for my sexy deep voice. Hell even if it came with that better than my whimpy normal voice
Like that episode on Friends when Phoebe gets a cold and loves her new singing voice
RING ... THE ... BELL. :-) Good lord youtube, stop changing the notification mechanism in your user interface every week.
As someone who works at Target, these products are carried/provided by the vendor of the name, MJ Holding, which i assume is buying wholesale product and repurposes and RE-wholesales it to the Big Box stores.
It is listed on the WoTC website because MJ Holdings has a sales deal with both Walmart and WoTC. MJ Holdings serves as the 'middle man' for most of the big box stores. As a former General Merchandise Manager for a Shopko store, I witnessed the same things.
WerosTV I work at Walmart and can that MJ Holdings is our vendor for everything card related and they bring in the product and not Walmart
It's important to keep in mind they take unsold product back, so this is a means of reselling older product.
Same difference then. It is the wholesaler repacking damaged/unsellable/returned product for re-sale through the big boxes, rather than the big-box itself doing the re-packaging.
Probability MJ Holdings got WoTC in a airtight sales contract and it legally more feasible for WoTC to make MJ Holdings happy and not their actual customer base. Sad reality is most corporations obligations are to investors, distributors (like MJ Holdings) and industry partners first and not lets say their customers, community base or even their own employees.
It's one of the first things you learn in Business Management 101, the pecking order goes Investors > Board of Trustees > other contract holders (partner companies and distributor middle men) > Head of Company > Company by-laws > Customers > Employees. Extremely messed up but that is how our own capitalistic society is structured.
Fine beard, Professor! Keep it on.
mtg lootbox version
I'm honestly not even surprised anymore. Why are so many companies going down the rabbit hole?
@@sephyrias883 booster boxes are lootboxes though
Professor can't take a sick day or else the class would run rampant.
T4silly last time he took a sick day we went and banned four cards from standard. Any longer and we’ll force wizards to call it type 2 again
If they were to release this outside the US for a lower price, it could be worth it, since here in Bulgaria most LGS only have the latest couple sets.
MKM...
E X T R A M Y S T E R Y
The Professor has learned how to meme, and I’m proud
E X T R A M Y S T E R Y
I wish these would be cheaper. I love chaos drafts, and these are actually great for that - but not for the price, seriously.
At some targets they put together boxes like these where it's 6 packs plus a promo for $20
Walmart doesnt manager the TCG area of there stores. A 3rd party company deals with the stocking and inventory of these items.
You can't be too hard on Wizards, Walmart gets what they want. They're the biggest retailer in the world and they don't have any problems with strong arming manufacturers into doing what they want. Walmart is in the position to say, "Play by our rules and you can sell your product here, don't play by our rules and not only will you not sell your product here, but we'll take whatever steps we feel like to freeze you out of any distribution channels and markets we can." Walmart has been known to tell distributors to drop products by certain manufacturers (even if the distributor was distributing to some other retailer) or face the displeasure of Walmart. Walmart is not a happy fuzzy company, they are ruthless cutthroats.
I'm sure that Wizards dislikes doing this as much as you dislike them doing it, at least they dislike the bad press it gives them, but if they piss off Walmart, they lose big. And even if the Wizards product lines could survive without Walmart retail, their parent company Hasbro would lose an incredibly large chunk of their retail space by pissing off Walmart. It's a no win situation that Walmart puts every manufacturer and distributor into.
I'd have to agree with those saying this is a lot like lootboxing - except I'd say that it's more like lootbox-ception. Taking an already lootbox-y thing like a pack of cards, adding one extra card, and selling you a lootbox of lootboxes, to potentially save you a maximum of $6, as you said. I watched MatPat's Game Theory on lootboxes recently and a lot of it rings true here I feel.
Anyway, nice video Professor! I hope you feel better soon.
Daniel Kolb I got a JTMS from a ravnica pack
That'd be really awesome if you got JTMS in Ravnica - in which case you should take a picture and frame it or something and you can tell people you did the impossible lol. EXTRA MYSTERYYYY
This is so mysterious...
Another fine example of wotc spitting on its customer base.
Good on you for fighting through your cold prof. Ten points will be awarded to Tolarian Community College!
Deck Builder’s Society ten points to griffindor!
The tolarian academy is banned you must now join gaea cradle :p
First and again: hope you get well soon. I am impressed with how well you did in this vid, but you can still hear the roughness in your voice just under the professionalism. Take care of your self and take your time, your fan base cares about you. X3
Now, I will state here and now for a proper perspective that many products you have spoken of in the past that either barely or didn't clear the value proposition were still product I enjoyed getting. Sadly at this time I can't remember specific examples, I think maybe one or two of the gift boxes? Or something... All I can recall is that there were some things where, I agreed with you on the value monetarily, but I still enjoyed because of various other reasons.
I say this specifically because I enjoy cracking packs, especially with sets that I'm interested in but haven't opened much of. Packs from the present, packs from the past. Just the cracking alone can sometimes be a really nice little adventure (as well as a cool little buzz. aaaah, our delightful cardboard crack). In short, I could likely be the 'target audience' for this as well as the previous mystery box. I really really should be buying singles, but rarely do. Partly cause I love the gamble, partly cause I just love the adventure cracking a pack can bring. I love the smell, I love that moment of tension before you find the rare. Until I have saturated my collection with a set, I don't skip to the rares. Even with Kaladesh, my most open set so far (I love it so much), I STILL crack, and go commons, to uncommons, and to the rare.
I LOVE cracking packs.
That said: THIS PRODUCT GOES AGAINST THAT FEELING ENTIRELY
Now, I already have severe issues with Walmart itself (i find any magic product I have tempted to buy from them is overpriced, even by department store standards), but lets set that aside. How do I, as a casual, crack pack happy lady feel about a box that gives me seven different packs with a dual decks/pw deck walker?
I can almost literally smell the cynicism and greed of this box. It's gross feeling. Sure, if my aunt or someone unknowing of magic got me one, I would happily crack it, but I would not spend a dime on it myself. First, the walkers don't bring me at all. I adore the walkers, even the PW deck walkers. I have since they started it up and have almost always made it a part of my preorders with my LGS.
What about the 'some modern packs' thing? The older a set is, the more likely I'm just going to buy the singles out right.
Of course, I also like having more then a single pack of a set to crack, I enjoy opening several in succession. One pack of Kaladesh? Maybe if I'm walking past my LGS on the way home from work and feel like a random purchase. But if I'm buying something in a box, ESPECIALLY from somewhere NOT my LGS, then I want more bang for my buck. Even when I disagreed with your assessments in the past, that was always because of this feeling, this enjoyment. If I want to crack a bunch of packs, I'm going to, and i'm not going to get it at my LGS for one reason or another, I'm going to:
1) go to a place I know will not over charge me for the product (Walmart is right out already, Target and Barnes and Nobel are barely on the radar, Amazon tends to be the go to)
2) get something that will give me multiple packs (bundle, full box, pw decks with their additional two packs, etc)
3) crack and enjoy
But this and the mystery box? They stink in ways that turn me off of it: one of packs, a random card from product I likely already have or if not, will get more value of buying the actual full product of, and over priced.
If this product was a 20 a pop thing? You know what? .... sure. Seven packs at 20, with a random silly card might be a good laugh for a crack. A cent over that (not including tax) and I'm out.
Outside of maybe unknowing family members attempting to get you a gift for holiday or birthdays, I'm likely a solid target customer for this kind of product.
That walker card does not bring me to the table, and whether from amazon or from my LGS, OR EVEN TARGET, I can get 6+ packs at a better value proposition then is being offered her. I completely ingore that walker as a part of the value at this point, for two reasons: It's not from all of magic's history of walkers (which would at least be something), but also, as said by you and myself here: I would rather have the full decks they came from... In fact, for a while, target did have those kind of things. For the longest time, they did this repack thing where they took FOUR precon decks, packed them together in a clear box, sold them for 32 bucks. Sometimes it was intro packs, sometimes clash packs or dual decks, but always interesting to me.
This is not that. Over priced, likely loose packs they wanted to push out the door since they don't sell single packs (outside of the specially packaged, overpriced single packs, GUH... I only get those if I'm bored, need a lift me up, AND it's late night and only the Target is open AND AND I'm near there on the way home. Bleh). (i'm taking the ones in the cardboard sleeve for hanging, I only find those at target and the like, and at a solid buck overpriced)
BOTTOMLINE: Even if you are like me, love cracking packs, dumbly don't buy singles that often, and don't mind spending an extra buck or two now and then for a 'quick fix', this is STILL an insulting, garbage proposition and I absolutely, unequivocally agree with the Prof here.
This product is NOT WORTH ANYONE"S TIME.
Please, like the Prof here always says: Where you can, support your local LGS.
But if you aren't, then at least listen to this: Value proposition: your fun versus what you will actually get. there are so many many many many many other products, even at over priced cost, that are so much worth your time and money from any number of outlets some much more so then this naked cash grab. DO NOT BUY.
(sorry, prof friend for the rant... it's just that, even at my most forgiving, this product really flies in the face of what I'm willing to tolerate for my fix. This, the mystery box, and even the "starter" set are things I will not support. Also, sorry if my grammar is not great or I ramble too much. X3 )
I liked your rant :)
You sound unwell :P
I feel like WotC sees some imaginary writing on the wall because of Hearthstone, and is slowly giving up on physical product. More bad buys filling shelves, lower card stock quality, it's getting me worried.
Here let me save you the trouble of having to make videos.
WOTC product is not worth your money.
This makes the professor sick....literally
It's worth mentioning that the selling of ''mystery boxes'' is also happening in the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG scene right now. Seems like Walmart also made a deal with Konami to start selling old crappy inventory, repackaged in oversized boxes.
I feel ya there, man. But don't worry: there always that ''mystery item'' that might contain a BGS 9.5 Cyber Stein (which is probably not properly sealed inside the case, but whatever :P)
At least the ygo one is 15 bucks. For 2 packs and 1 legacy pacl and 5 battle packs. So there is at least more value compared to the magic mystery box
Uh Crap gotta make an early joke... I got it! Last time I was this early Murray wasn't sellin' jank.
It might be worth picking these up just to see how the cardstock quality has deteriorated over the last couple of years.
I was dissapointed to see the pringles effect is still in evidence on the new set, when my freshly-opened Rivals cards were clearly curled. It was hard to not turn the entire rest of the night into a rant about the issue, I had to focus on the play instead. Weak sauce, WotC
My video on the cardstock in case you missed it: ua-cam.com/video/0gEGyH89-qg/v-deo.html
Oh I didn't miss it - I'm phoning into the show today to tell you it's still an issue. Cards from both sets in the pre-release kit were exhibiting non-2-dimensional characteristics, if you know what I'm sayin'.
THEY WEREN'T FLAT!
...maybe they'll get a handle it by the next block printing.
I think these things are pretty much fine... except the price. Drop it to 20 bucks and it's a good buy.
You know what the worst part about a Mystery Box of any type is? You have a real chance of pulling a 6 card booster as one of the mystery boosters. Remember those? Horrible, horrible mini packs that sold for 1/3 the price of a regular booster, but then only had a one in three chance of even having a rare in it? Yeah, you could get one of those in a Mystery Box. Maybe MG Holdings corrected that travesty in the newer PW box, but even if they did this box should cost like $24.99, if not less. The walker in this box should have been 100% pure bonus.
But yeah, good video again prof.
It's actually a vendor that comes in and stocks and deals with our CCG and TCG products called MJ Holding. Walmart just deals with them. (I've worked at Walmart for the last 5 years is my source)
Still shitty of WotC to allow it though.
looks like hasbro and/or wizards of the coast wants to capitalize on the lootbox fetish but at the very wrong time lol this is basically their lootbox 2.0 because of course regular booster packs were not rng enough.
I’m sure most of the “valuable” cards were sold off and will not be found in these. One in 20,000 will get a value card and post about how they got great deal. One in 20,000
I think there's an even more sinister element that you aren't considering here, Professor. At the end you say this is ripping of players, but I doubt that Wizards is really hoping to do that. I think they're actually hoping to rip off the parents, relatives, and non-player friends of those players. With these being sold at Walmart, I have no doubt that their banking on some well-intentioned parent to pick this up for their kid as a birthday present.
They are lower price at walmart. We also dont control these. This is a third party vendor. They have nothing to do with walmart.
Who ever came up with this does not kno da wae.
And remember to support your local gaming store, because you can't play Magic at Target or Walmart - not that you would want to, because Walmart is trying to rip you off with this nonsense.
What if, you got a pack from Born of the Gods and got the GOD PACK!!! I wish I got that.. it is any pack right? Is that even the right set?
Even the packs you opened look like leftovers from some box mapping. Heck maybe this is a conspiracy to get rid of chaff packs after boxmapping!
The planeswalkers you can get in this have been reported by people who have bought them? I'm surprised you can find knight errant and Tezzeret the seeker in these
Love your videos, but would it be possible to see a review of the BCW Monster Box and other commonly used BCW Cardboard Storage boxes
But the packs might be more valuable than 4 dollars. The m11 pack costs at least 10 and I don’t know what the m15 one is. Also you never get boosters for msrp, that bothers me about all these videos. With tax they’re always near 5 dollars so any bundle is worth it.
For me
that sucks im sorry bro :( my LGS, ABU games, sells standard packs for 2.99$ before tax so usually barely above 3 dollars after tax for us here. making these bundles terrible value for anyone in my area
Kody Cox Interesting, I must have higher taxes here. These videos have never really made sense but I guess it works other places
This would be less gross if Walmart was the perpetrator, because then the easy fix would just to have someone at Walmart realize this and make a little loose pack area, sell them for say 2 dollars apiece as mispackaged goods. But if wizards is behind it, then Walmart is probably buying these more out of ignorance than malice.
Love your content
Shameful
This is awesome- simple question, no diversions, and above all, instead of clickbaiting us you put the answer in the title. Just for fun, let me put this through my UA-cam Clickbaitifier 2000 and see what lesser channels would have come up with...
PLANESWALKER PACKS ARE TOTAL GARBAGE!!!!
(Thumbnail: A foil Mind Sculptor, a useless red circle with a useless red arrow pointing at it, WORTHLESS!!! in huge red block letters across the bottom.)
Rule 1 of buying MTG: Never, ever buy anything with the words "Mystery" anywhere on the product.
Rule 2 of buying MTG: Never, ever buy MTG at wallmart
Rule 3 of buying MTG: Never, ever buy anything with the words "Mystery" anywhere on the product.
They're selling loose stuff, I pulled an Elspeth, Sun's Champion from the Elspeth vs Kiora duel deck. Which is a great pull, a powerful planeswalker as we all know. However I prefer the Theros art version better, and got the sneaking suspicion this was just unsold product, major back stock lying around
I'd say it's worth it if one happened to pull maybe a foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Liliana of the Veil, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon promo, or Karn.....
I found a plastic case at Target with six various boosters and foil promo Standard card (worth almost $3) for $20. $4x6+$3+plastic deck box=$27+. Figure I got a good deal. Anyone want to play Chaos Sealed deck?
I'm all for a thrifty random 6 packs + random planeswalker (or rare/mythic) in a bundle--if you price it around $20, I think that might make for a fun chaos sealed deck experience. But really, that's the only reason to buy booster packs: to play limited. And you don't want to pay a premium like this for what is usually going to be a worse value. I hope this product ends up unloved and dying on Walmart shelves (like that "gift box") until MJ Holdings is forced to take a loss on these.
As somebody who works at a Walmart here in Canada, I think I can explain how this kind of process works. So like you were saying, Professor we do get kids who wreck Magic/Pokémon products. Those products are brought in by a vendor (for our store and many others it's M J Holding Company). When I find one of these products (like if a kid stole a GX from a tin or two), I take it down to be claimed as unsellable. There's even a special bin for M J Holding Company. So I deposit said defective product into the bin and my guess is that someone from the company takes that stuff back to be repackaged into something like a Pokémon Cube. But even though I have access to Magic/Pokémon at Walmart, I still prefer to buy from my LGS. And heck, that's where I went for Rivals of Ixalan Prerelease! My prerelease story is also on my channel in case anyone wants to check it out.
Yeah but people will buy these because its still more exciting than any product WoTC offers themselves. What would you rather buy? This, or that stupid gift box? Also, until WoTC stops overcharging distributors, and thus forcing the LGS to charge more, people will continue to buy from places like Walmart and Target. Sorry, I love my LGS, but they are forced to overcharge for everything because WoTC just doesnt care about the LGS. I keep saying this, WoTC needs to take a look at what other games are doing (like Pokemon) and improve their product offerings.
You have the wrong MSRP. These are $28.98 at Wal-Mart. 7 packs at $4.18 is $29.26 so you're essentially getting the Planeswalker for free. You also said that you bought the Mystery Cache at Wal-Mart, but that item is exclusive to Target. I understand that you're trying to really convey how bad the item is and how bad retailers are to small businesses, but I think it's also important to get the facts right.
Im still salty that Wizard of the Coast pretty much killed my local LGS. It just revoked its licence because too few people were playing there :/. Im living atm here in a small/medium town and always were ~12+ people attending all events and from time to time new younger players joined us but now there is no support anymore on Wizards site and I would have to travel 100-150km per event to attend it wich I cannot afford (studying)....
If your local game store only does Magic: The Gathering, then it's probably not a great local game store. If your local game store's profit margin is substantially hurt by a decision Wizards of the Coast makes on one product, then it deserves to fail. My store for example does Yugioh, Pokemon, Warhammer, D&D, general board game night, Star Wars TCG, Magic: The Gathering, and a ton of other stuff. Within those games, it does multiple formats of each. You can really play whatever card or board game you want there. Every single day they are doing an awesome event. And there are always people for each event. The vast vast vast majority of players at my LGS are not dependent on Wizards of the Coast's new product at all.
Now let's compare this to my last local game store. My old local game store had unsanctioned Friday Night Magic events only for standard and two commander days. For the Friday Night Magic events, roughly 8 people would show up and they were always the same ones. There was absolutely no room for improvement. For commander, there were even less people and the bulk of them were also the same from the Friday Night Magic events. If standard sucks, there's only commander to play and it barely fires. I've been to commander events there where there were only 3-4 people the entire event. There was no pre-release, draft, modern, pauper, or legacy to be found.
I tried to defend the last one of these as potentially being some sort of third party repack using boiler-plate legalese or the like, but this is just inexcusable. There's just no reason something like this should exist, let alone at the price it does. Why would Hasbro (because you know it's someone in Hasbro corporate screwing over this branch) do something like this? The answer... is EXTRA MYSTERY!
(New player asking) Tolarian Community College
It seems like almost 70% of every Wotc product you do a "Is it worth" video on is clearly NOT?
Dont you guys just wanna give up as an mtg player? Just stop buying their crap and quit the game??
Who is this product even aimed for? The new players like me that dont know any better?
Why would I invest in a game when the company behind it just seems like they wanna rip me off?
(With all that said I still love watching your videos!) :D
This is hilarious! Thank you. I would never buy this. I did buy a "chaos draft" box from Wal-Mart for $20 which wasn't half bad. 6 packs "at random" for $20. It's like "Buy 5, get the 6th free!" 😒
This is why i quit magic. The past fews sets have been bad (to me) and they seem to not care about their players.
I have always played Pokemon and they seem to take care of their players. Tins, boxes, PINS, ETBS it makes me want to the buy the product. But with magic its like.
"Give me 40$ and all you get is a fancy D20."
Completely agree. I saw this product and said, this is just shameless. I will never pick this up, nor should any self-respecting planeswalker out there. When a planeswalker deck, like Ajani, Valiant Protector or the new Angrath Planeswalker deck exudes more value than this? You know it's bad. Great video, Prof, and I hope to still see you at GP Indy, you sound like you're still struggling, friend!
What is the most discouraging part about this type of product is NOT that it's ripping off Magic players, its that this product is ripping off potential new Magic players. I've never heard of or seen an existing player pick one of these products up. But I have heard several new players ask me where do I start with Magic. Once I give them a good jumping off point and direct them to one of our 3 local game stores they usually say, "Well I'm glad I asked because I was just going to pick up some packs at Walmart." And at that point this product would be front and center. I really wish WotC/Hasbro would re-think poor designed products such as these.
Great Video!
I assumed these were constructed by the distributor, like what MJ Holding does with the Pokemon Mystery Power Boxes. Which also are borderline scams, $25 for five packs and a 1:50 chance to get a "Vintage Pack" was the best value, yeah paying $5 for a booster pack was the best value they offered. Now they sell three $1 packs and 70 bulk cards worth about $2.50 total in a plastic box for $30! At least with those they print one the package that they are not affiliated for the manufactures of the cards in their products. I don't play Magic but it blows my mind that WoTC endorses or might even package this rip-off of a product themselves.
These kind of products that are target at parents or friends of players/collectors really bother me. Most players/collectors can see that this is a scam and just move on, but someone buying this for their child might not know any better, and this product takes advantage and tricks people who were already planning on buying your product into buying a box of garbage.
This feels like a Contractional Deal by Walmart and Hasbro, and yeah, this is a shitty thing. I think the head of WOTC, and everyone there who know how this game is played *knows* this is a shitty move. However, they can't necessarily avoid it, because the parent corporation has to a) move things, and b) work with *Wallmart*, who at this point is their major point of sale for a lot of their other product lines (THe Board games, the Transformers, and the MLP's, among others).
Walmart, netorious for pushing around distributors into selling more for less, and marking up enough so that they still make money when they 'rollback' prices is responsible for this cash grab. Hasbro is in control of this, here. THe Marketing team at WOTC probably knows better, but has to play along.
There probably is even a deeper monetary dance here (Returned Product saving vs making profits off of a minorly damaged product) that accounting somewhere.
Overall, yes, horrible product, it's a shame that WOTC is getting stuck in the Hasbro Distribution Dance with the other major retailers. It's not a shining moment for them.
You've missed the point completely prof. I don't think the average MTG player goes into Walmart to buy product. They know their LGS has packs at a better price and offers in-store events etc.
But what about mum or dad shopping, sees it on the shelf.. "Oh that's the game my son/daughter players" They've been decent, I'll buy them it as a gift. It's an impulse purchase.
It's not as disgusting in my opinion as you seem to think it is.
Random Planeswalker deck with extra mystery! Man, imagine if these could have actual useful/money planeswalkers, like Jace the Mind Sculptor, Karn Liberated etc. If it was $20 then it might be a better deal. But dude, you still sound sick, don't strain your voice too much.
This is actually a brilliant idea for the companies involved, although for my personal needs it is a ripoff. I’ve studied supply chain management for years, and making mystery boxes like this, if it is the case that they are repackaging “damaged goods” as you say, is a form of cheap “rework” or “reverse logistics”. In order for the distributors to stay profitable, they must have a high inventory “turnover ratio”, or the number of times they clear out inventory per fiscal period. If they cannot sell these packs in SOME WAY, they incur painful inventory holding costs in the form of unavailability in finished goods inventory space for new, better products that you WOULD approve of. So, they take these packs that they otherwise wouldn’t sell and repackage them for people who want a gambling-esque dopamine hit. Considering that there exist customers at every LGS who love a good dopamine hit from cracking packs, I don’t see why wizards and the other distribution companies wouldn’t allow the LGSs in their supply chain to buy and sell these too if they’re that desperate for inventory turnover. What else would they do with the cards? To do nothing and not sell these would ultimately be lost value for wizards. I know from experience that most corporations’ profit margins are made through supply chain and inventory management techniques; rework and refurbishing one of many. I won’t buy them because I don’t need them, but I can’t hate them for it.
Great analysis! But it's saddening, no matter where I look I see people counting the value from their cards. It's ok, I understand you want to know how much your collection is worth etc. From my view, WoTC no longer care about players or simply don't know what they're doing by making bad marketing/designing decisions, and there are still people protecting them not realizing that things could be much better. In conclusion - I believe somewhere along the way we lost the fun and joy from playing this game. And no, grinding a tournament full of learning youngsters is no fun for anyone. Been there, seen that... ;)
Hello, yes, hi? I work at Walmart. The mystery packs we get are controlled by a third party vendor. We, as a retail chain, do in fact, only get this stuff because of old, loose product that was either damaged or lost. I'm not 100% sure on the logistics of how our stock is determined, but I do know that our vendor is neither WoTC or on the behalf of Walmart, seeing as our vendor also is the person who stocks baseball, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Edit: The best I can surmise personally is that these mystery packs come from the third party vendor, who has lost and damaged goods that both Walmart and WoTC are expecting profit out of. We will also randomly get booster packs and precons from sets that existed *years* ago, such as Fate Reforged, furthering my guess.
All this being said. Walmart MTG products are only bargains in certain states and certain locations depending on local taxes and other things. Most of the time the only thing that we sell cheaper on avg than an LGS is standard packs for like 3 bucks.
My Walmart sells "Chaos Draft boxes" They have 6 random packs and a "Premium foil" card in it. I bought a couple and in both of the boxes there was a pack that was opened, rare removed and replaced with a common then horribly and obviously resealed. These boxes are ungodly bad and its disgusting that WOTC backs them.
Welp, yet one more reason why Walmart isn't a 'kind' company. They appear 'kind' to get what they really want: your money. WotC also is at fault here, for considering this kind of product. Personally, anything that says 'Mystery' and is a card game, is NOT worth my money... with the exception of Werewolf: One Night Only.
Love your videos, you are essential to the magic community! Thank you for the videos and the knowledge!
I have no idea what retail prices look like in other parts of the country/world, but where I am, I regularly see (and laugh at) individual boosters, blisterpacked and labelled $4.29. Perhaps it's the extra $0.29 that Wal-Mart et al are factoring into their pricing.
Happy to see you standing up for the consumer and LGS alike, Prof. Man, if they really need to get loose products out, they should just hold weekly chaos drafts for FNM! Just saying.
Thanks for the awesome video! Hope you're feeling a little better and continue to recover (though seeing those products nearly made me sick, you might want to dispose of them ;D)
Hold on a sec; the average price you listed of the Planeswalkers available is about 4.40$. So while this still is a bad product (buying Boosterpacks at full MSRP) it isn't really an unreasonable money grab. The packs are sold at MSRP and the Planeswalkers' value is commensurate to the price of the item.
Seeing these in Walmart, I always wondered if these products were even official Wizards products. Something about them made it look like they were just... “put together” by Walmart. I think YGO had something similar going on, where you’d had a few random cards packaged with a foil one.
As a player that's been on hiatus for just over four years, due to my local store closing and there not being another decent one within decent driving distance, I'm honestly not sure if I want to get back into the game now. Between the card stock problems, them getting rid of most promos, planeswalker decks, mystery junk packs, and more horribly overpriced "_ Masters" sets than was ever even needed, It just doesn't seem worth coming back anymore. It seems like there isn't anything worth looking forward to if I did.
Knowing that my prized, over $4k value pimped out, Karador commander deck is probably going to sit in it's box until I sell it is quite depressing.
It's been a long time since there has really been a positive review of product on this channel. The most recent being Merfolk vs Goblins and before that maybe battle decks last year. I know WoTC wants to get the most mileage (read currency) from their player base, but what products are even worth getting at this point? Single cards, drafting, and free welcome decks seem to be the only "good value" products anymore. I remember getting those bad 40 card intro decks from Alara and Shadowmoor, but why can't we have good versions of those style of decks? Maybe those are now just the bad planeswalker decks? Something with a theme, and some decent chance at some store events. Nothing that will break the bank, but not just 2x jank cards that are unplayable. Maybe I just miss event decks. Challenger decks are on the way and I hope those aren't a failure as well.
This product is awful for invested players and players who live near a game shop, but value-wise is better than buying packs individually at that store. With that said, the perpetuation that assorted random products at a big box retailer is somehow taking away business from or hurting local game stores - even Iconic and later Magic 25 Masters not being WPN exclusives - is false and the narrative needs to be put down. People that are going to bother to buy Magic at your local game store, are already going to buy there instead of at a big box retailer, to begin with. Do I occasionally buy a pack or two when going to the registers while shopping? On a whim, very rarely, yes, but 99% of the time it's at a game store nearby, for the exact reasons stated in the video - it's a better price; I know of a game store nearby; and, I support them. The only time I tend to purchase from big box stores is when a game store decides to be cute and mark up the Vampiric Bloodlust Commander 2017 precon or Draconic Rage by $20 just because there's a single inside that got people hyped or because sometimes a $20 re-pack has been put on shelves with a Commander deck that is out of print.
But, back to the point: What you're saying when you say that someone is going to hurt the LGS by buying Magic at Wal-Mart, is that in most cases someone (who has no idea that LGS exists) that plays casually at their table and doesn't think about a specialty store, is going to buy packs there instead of the LGS. But...people who go to a LGS or know of one are already buying there, as stated above, so this feels like a flimsy statement, at best. That leaves the people who aren't taking away business by buying these at Wal-Mart because... they already aren't going there. Where's the lost business or hurt this is causing that store? Also, as someone who grew up in the flyover state of Missouri in a very small, economically struggling town where the closest store to play Magic was an hour away, I appreciate the variety in products. Wal-Mart was our store - whether that was good or bad, the economic impact, etc is another story, but it's what we had. Believe it or not, in our cloistered online Community of people who assume everyone has access to the same resources as they have themselves, there are people out there who aren't super informed or even think to look for channels like this, even in the internet age.
Another point is that packs are regularly a little over $4 each at big box retailers. $4 * 7 is $28+ some change, and then a cool Planeswalker card, so you could be getting a Tezzeret, Venser, Nissa, or Elspeth for free. For people like me that started out not being savvy about the game, who was younger and didn't know some guy making a living off of informing people about Magic products is on the internet to tell me the dangers of random boxes and booster pack gambling that all those singles out their on the LGS shelves are opened from, this is actually not a bad product at all. Your crusade against big box retailer products is frankly a little self-righteous. Is it the best value? Are booster packs ever? But claiming it hurts retailers and Wizards is shady for this product, is frankly, shortsighted and assuming everyone has the opportunities you do, and I can tell you as someone who spent much of my life living in rural America that no, not everyone does. Is it Wizards giving preferential treatment to the boogieman, or are we being a bit assuming about the insidious nature implied here, while simultaneously overlooking the importance of these products to a portion of the Magic player who buys these as a means to play the game we all love because that is what they have available to them?
Edit: To be clear, I'm not debating your conclusion about this product in the context of this channel and who your range of viewers are, but the assumed narrative that has come attached with reviews on some of these similar products.
The same thing you said about the packs is true about the Planeswalkers themselves I bet. Since they get them from damaged/left over decks it's very unlikely you'll even get the Elspeth, or Venser, or any of the good ones. So it's basically buying the 7 boosters, a crappy planswalker, and paying the extra for the convenience, or because your LGS doesn't have any of that particular booster.
I love how this video title blatantly tells me that its NOT worth it right out the gate for the mystery boxes... I dont think ANY mystery item is worth what it costs, because the actual chances of getting something good is low... Ive gotten 5 of the old Pokemon mystery power boxes, never once got a good old pack..... (I know its 1 in 25 or something, but still).... Thanks Professor for always being honest!
Throw away packs from "damaged goods" or find a way to resell it, they've done this forever, I remember buying their blisters for 11 for 3 random packs and a jank foil I didn't mind, and I bought a cache and liked it as well, I'm sorry but I honestly don't care much for my local shops and you know sometimes, I'm at Walmart and may just want some chaos, I don't know why but I'm just not impressed with this review Brian and I've loved your work 😵 and yeah know Walmart never sells magic in general for cheap, to me this is saving packs from the trash this video to me fail
How come barely any of the big MTG youtubers haven't made videos about Unstable? I'd love to hear their views about it.. Mainly the profs but also boogie2988 even though he isn't really a "MTG UA-camr"
The only thing I got from this was to buy local instead of at Wal-Mart. Buying packs and not singles is risky, you never know if you're getting a good value. You can "lose" money at the local card shop just as easy. As he showed I'm the video, they can potentially have value. Making them large booster packs that you didn't get a dollar or two off, by going elsewhere.
I'm rather disappointed by the content of this channel more than anything. It has become click bait nonsense, instead of informative magic news/strategy.
Too bad each pack in that box from one of those shitty "friendly game stores" costs more like$5.30 a pack, not $4. and the Magic: The Gathering Mystery Box from walmart is only $24. not $34. so try again.
Honestly, while a little overpriced, this is still a good product for someone just looking to conveniently pick up some fun random Magic cards as a gift or for themselves, while shopping for other stuff at Walmart, especially if they don't have a LGS or know much about Magic.
I bought one of those Mystery Cache boxes against my better judgement at Target. The Amonkhet pack in that box was suspiciously wrapped (as in, it was wrinkled and clearly repackaged) and the cards were like upside down and turned around. Going through the cards, lo and behold, the rare was missing from the pack! Never buying one of those again!
Can you buy walmart out of all of these and make a buck? Short Answer: No.
Does having these packs in wal mart increase the chances the game finds its next reid duke? Short Answer: Yes.
End of Conversation.
Corporate greed. It's sad that WotC would allow this. Most LGS's I have been too couldn't even give away old pre release kits (From Theros / Origins era), and this is being sold at full price...
Wal-Mart sucks for sure, but I am convinced they are being played with these as well. WotC could be buying back product and reselling it to Wal-Mart for the same price inside a mystery box that Wal-Mart can't readily open to check.
Down here in Del Rio Texas, Walmart is pretty much all we've got. Not defending Walmart or Wizards, but the small mtg community down here either has to go out of town, buy online, or buy loose boosters. I personally like to gamble a little bit on packs and I'm going to admit; I've been lucky with products like these. Almost always get a foil rare or mythic rare. I'd be happier if they added some cool stuff like sleeves or even the old books to cover for that extra $4.
Well, they have to move that overprinted product somehow Prof. Well, the distributors do anyway...
How they will do so however is no... MYSTERY!
The thing a lot people don't know, is that most, if not all, of the tcg products carried by Walmart are vendor supplied and sold as pay-per-scan items. Damaged and unsold product is periodically returned to the vendor, where apparently these types of products are designed and repackaged.
These types of bundles, along with the mystery cubes, are produced by MJHoldings, then brought into the stores to be stocked by one of their sales reps. The mystery planeswalker pack may be a Walmart exclusive bundle, but it's not Walmart's item.
As a Walmart Claims Associate, I can tell you that we do get a lot of loose packs. Especially with the new sets, when kids come in and try to steal them.
However, Walmart doesn't repackage them or intend to have them sell in this manner. When the packs come back undamaged from a larger product (10-booster bundles, for instance), we return them to the distributor for partial credit (about $1.50/pack).
Later on, these sorts of products come in, and we sell them. I'm guessing that it's worth it for us to return the loose packs, since we otherwise pay for the product and eat the full loss.
Then they push us to sell these so they don't eat a loss on the returned product (since we have to purchase these products from our distributors as well). We then market the product at a price where we don't take any loss on MTG products (Otherwise we likely wouldn't carry them).
We definitely make more on the sale of a booster bundle than we do by returning the damaged parts of one, then re-purchasing this sort of product and selling it.
shameless unabashed racket. wait, a guaranteed planeswalker? well, maybe that is a deal. considering there is no walmart here to buy this I am kinda sad. I know the value is not high but considering I have only one planeswalker card I would like to buy them but not at market or insanely high overpriced card shop prices (yes, I support the LGS by buying bulk, packs and sleeves). for players like me this is okay in price but then again in the country I live in this is not an option because MTG is a luxury card game (yu-gi-oh and vanguard are everywhere but MtG is special). I guess I will have to find better card shops that sell cards for cheaper but I doubt that is going to happen. also planeswalker decks here are always $40+ and it is always the ones you say are garbage. the same goes for commander so I think these products are okay in my opinion because they keep the cost of playing down in my local mtg economy. not everyone has the US or Euro MtG economy where cards are better bought at card shops because cards hardly ever go down in price here.
I don't know for that I never opened one, but just from seeing you open a M14 and M15 booster, with "your bad luck", I feel like it's probably in majority unsold boosters from core sets....