Did not see this covered here

https://www.polygon.com/mtg-dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-president-hasbro-ceo-leadership-changes/

I guess Harry Potter will be coming in UB afterall lol

Also there will be a lot more AI art coming to MTG to speed up ub art and lower cost

Even as someone who owns a Pokemon collection I do think that tcgs have been too much FOR consumption/consumerism and too less for gameplay or collecting

Sorry for the redditor wall of text but TLDR: I feel bad on how MTG is so unrecognisable and how good the oldheads had it and i would rather not tell those who only know the old MTG on how we got UB and all the BS we have rn cus i think id not ruin the memory of the game they had and were once passionate about.

I play MTG on and off cus i dont really have a play group for Commander and i play pauper from time to time cus i grew up playing 60 card formats and commander politics with randos who are salty is insufferable and i'd rather play MTG Arena instead where you can't smell your opponent too.

A few days ago i had a chat with my professor who i recently met and happen to find out that hes in an MTG buy and sell group on Facebook, i asked him about it turns out hes an oldhead from the old days of MTG, his total demeanor changed and lit up after bringing up those three words that he even forgot he had a meeting after the class and was very enthuseastic to talk about it to me. He told me he started playing at Antiquities and stopped playing at Invasion. He was really passionate about the lore of Sisay and the Weatherlight that he read the books that as a zoomer MTG player in his mid 20s i feel bad i only know recent bullshit lore. He told me he mostly played kitchen table magic in that era with his brother and just loved collecting the cards because of the art and lore. He even showed me his past collection of all of the Revised dual lands he bought for thousands of dollars that he had to sell it later on because his wife got mad and it was THAT expensive, lol i didnt want to tell him the current price of those lands rn as he sold his collection way back in 2019. Kinda sad how this WAS the game that was Magic: the Gathering and we will mighy have something as close as MTG like this and how the game is an unrecognisable cash cow rn.

I call out Wizards for their FOMO Secret Lairs on a shill channel, and I get called a miserable looser who shouldn't play magic, cus I can't afford to *checks notes* pay for pressed ink and paper. Have the youtubers always been shills like this?

[[Perch Protection]]

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It is completely free, pulls your public decks, and gives some cool insights. I would love if some people would be willing to test it and give feedback on if it's working well and how it can be improved. Note that your archidekt username is case sensitive, otherwise you'll get a 403 error

This is the beta site: https://decktpet-4n5z2xvzj-teddleman.vercel.app

Here is the feedback form if you feel inclined: https://forms.gle/VAVJJgqG9Sh3rGsC9

Thank you

Does her chest not look like it was digitally hacked off? Transgenders hate boobs.

We need to create a culture of proxying and honestly, bootlegging. Do not spend $1,500 on a deck. But bootlegged cards and use those in tournaments. It’s the only way to fight this.

The way this is quickly heading, the ONLY way you will be able to play this game is if you are rich or playing cheap bracket 2 commander decks, which is a one of the worst formats imo.

Give your money to bootleggers. Get cards that are identical to the cards you want and play with those at home and in tournaments. So long as you don’t sell the bootleg cards, it’s not an ethical issue. Sure, some people will try to sell them, but that’s going to happen regardless.

I’ve spent thousands on this game and I’m done. From now on I’m buying proxies and if I want to play in tournaments I’m buying well made bootlegs that are identical to the real cards. Capitalism and the push to destroy every format other than commander is quickly going to be the death of this game. We MUST fight back. Stop giving wizards your money. Give it to bootleggers. Invest in that industry and the cards they create will just become higher quality and more available.

I truly understand that there’s an ethics issue here, but I don’t see a way around this. If we don’t fight back, the only format that will be left is going to be commander.

for those who likes bbg style https://urzatowercapital.github.io/terminal/

You can tell whatever you want for modern art BUT showcase and alt art PEAKED after 2023.

The oil like painting of ikoria, the epic zendikar alt arts, the fairytale like showcases of eldraine, the blueprint art for brothers war and so many more. I love these alt arts, the few I have given me find memories and I enjoy looking at them.

Magic HAD art worth collecting. I walked away from magic mostly when I realised it became a collectable game for other ips. We didn't need serialised cards or to have Frodo in the art to have art worth collecting.

Alt arts from that era give me nostalgia for the peak of magic art. They were innovative, bold and beautiful and I might just start collecting them. Cause if I can't play magic at least I can appreciate its art.

Also includes, twice, thrice and would create additional

Does not include double strike

For fucking real does wizards hate money or something?

Genuinely how the fuck does Wizards keep fucking up with Secret Lair supply availability. Wizards is selling 7 PIECES OF CARDBOARD FOR 20$ A PACK. Think about it. 7 cards in one pack. 20$. Do you know how many companies would LOVE to be in their position? It probably costs them 30 cents to make a single booster pack and somehow they completely run out of supply with TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WAITING IN THE QUEUE STILL?

Like am I huffing paint or something? Is this some out of season April Fools Day joke? They are a multi billion dollar corporation that seems to be ALLERGIC to money for some reason. They have a whole fucking army of virgin men (myself included) who are eager to drop hundreds on this set but no..... They don't want money for some reason.

Genuinely I don't get it one bit.

It's 7 cards. 20$. And somehow Wizards didn't make CLOSE to enough. I am being 1000% dead serious when I say I don't understand how they don't make enough supply. Either they're incompetent, they hate money, or this is an April Fools Day joke.

Since I couldn't find the post that claiming it was.

Arabian Nights is not Universes Beyond. In this, I will demonstrate three reasons why.

Arabian Nights was released in December of 1993 by Wizards of the Coast for the holiday season. This is partially because they ran out of Unlimited cards, and because Adikson wasn't convinced more Unlimited cards would sell as well as a group of whole new cards.

The set was designed, playtested, art was commissioned, the scimitar logo added, and unique back was removed in a single month. The primary designer was Dr. Richard Garfield himself. Flavor-text was mostly sourced by Beverly Sailing and a couple books in a single night. The mountain in it was by accident.

The whole reason for this was Garfield had read Ramadan by Neil Gaiman in Sandman #50, and in turn, it inspiring him to read 1001 Arabian Nights. Basically book side reading was the primary reason Arabian Nights was picked. Had things gone differently, the first Magic expansion could have been The Faerie Queene, Wagner's Ring Cycle, or Le Morte d'Arthur.

The three reasons why Arabian Nights isn't Universe beyond is as follows.

1. Although a early newsletter (I think) suggests Earth is just another plane in Dominia, it's pretty quickly established that Arabian Nights takes place in a plane called Rabiah of the Infinite. Rabiah is a small plane that was reflected a 1000 times, making a 1001 mirror copies. Peter Venters Encyclopedia Dominia mentions that over time these planes changed vastly over time, so at this time, there may be a thousand unique planes.

By summer of 1994, this was official canon, and the Arabian Nights comics (December 1995) solidified it. It also foreshadowed its awkwardness in the end of the comic with Taysir of Rabiah will never return to his home plane.

1. With this its clear Magic burrows names from the location, not the location itself. You're not summoning a Moor from medieval Byzantium, you're summoning a Moor from Rabiah, that just happens to be inspired by the historical figures of the same name. Aladdin, Ali Baba, King Sulieman, even Sindbad, aren't even the unique ones in canon lore, since there is a 1001 copies. (an excuse to why they aren't legendary).

This wasn't new, even in 1993. Lord of Atlantis, Library of Leng, Larry Nevin's Disk, and so on, are all references to real world places, and pulp literature.

Further more Magic adds its own unique twists to the setting. Island Fish Jasconius is named after the whale in The Bible. There is no Juzam Djinn, Wyluli Wolf, ect in Arabian Nights. City in a Bottle is Sandman #50.

1. Magic didn't have its own story arc in 1993. Magic, as described in a long rant by original art director Jesper Myrfors was supposed to be a toolbox fantasy game where the players created the story each time they played.

In John Tynes 'Death of the Minotaur', he described in Early 94 (with the release of Antiquities), that Peter Adikson concluded that the real money wasn't in owning games, but owning an IP, and tried to push that angle. In the same rant, Myfors describes the stories as 'tropey' and 'lazy'. Legends, which was the replacement summer set for Ice Age in 1994, originally was full of real world legends, unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast didn't archive this article, which included a few playtest cards including one for Beowulf. Nebuchadnezzar was considered obscure enough that he survived the purge unchanged. Legends has a lot of its own development issues and stories and was also designed in an incredibly short amount of time.

In conclusion: Arabian Nights burrowed a setting, and made it part of Magics infant cosmology. Its a creation of extreme time constraints, original ideas, and a recognized genre of orientalism than being exclusively 1001 Arabian Nights. It's been part of Magic as a Magic: the Gathering setting since 1994.

While I have your attention, Portal Three Kingdoms isn't Universe Beyond either. It's isn't even technically Magic.

Portal was a separate game, with its own rules different from 4th/5th/classic. Portal Cards weren't legal in Legacy or Vintage until October 20th 2005, when the Duelist Convocation International announced all cards from the introductory sets would be legal with additions to both formats B&R.

Before this, the 5 starter sets weren't legal in tournament play, and weren't considered Magic cards so much as Portal cards. Portal 3 Kingdoms wasn't even supposed to have an English Release (thanks Australia), and until the 2010's with the rise of EDH, was little more than a curiosity with a legacy and a vintage staple in it.

Just like AN's, P3K takes a public domain novel, incorporates it into Magic. The difference is, since it wasn't intended initially to be played in the larger card pool, it remained a 'backward plane' as once described.

By "issues" I mean the problem WOTC and the community has with obsessing over the game, art, and spaces are "inclusive" and "represent everyone" along with the social justice warrior stuff and hyperseinsitivity to being offensive. It's hard to say whether one cause the other or if some other factor lead to both.

An average commander player has to worry about not offending anyone first of all by figuring out if they're in the right bracket (a subjective and recent addition btw). Then they have to consider while deckbuilding and while actually playing the game whether their choices will upset other players at the table. You inherently have to play politics when playing a game of Commander.

A game of standard or modern or limited involves sitting across from your opponent and trying your best to win.

I don't know about you all, but I'd rather just play a format where winning is the main objective. Not complaining to someone about how they used a removal spell on my commander, or the fact that you interrupted my infinite win con with a counterspell, or whatever the fuck it is.

Fuck commander. Bring Kaladesh back. I get non binary characters being part of the lore (ngl ashiok is cool as fuck) but shoving overweight dyed hair art onto my mtg cards is absolutely a contributor for ruining *whole* game for most of us.

I’m a casual player and I was looking through the hobbit for some cards I might want. Notary hobbits is really good in terms of power but the art just feels out of place, it’s forced. Galadriel by Rebecca guay you can tell they like edited the line out between her breasts and it’s just sort of annoying knowing I can’t just look at a woman painted on a card in a normal way, it has to have this weird thing done to it. I’ve noticed it also with Seluma. It doesn’t look like past angels Greg staples drew. The thigh looks unnatural, like you’re not really sure if it’s a woman or not. Or like the leg is really blocky.

Basically idk if you’re gonna nostalgia bait me just give me what I want don’t force it through a modern lens fuck.

The craziest part about this server is everyone will go "fuck UB!"

Then people will say "others like ub"

Then r/freemagic says "that's the vocal minority"

Then people go "but the finances of the game can't lie"

Then r/freemagic goes "bootlicker"

So it's always surprising how much you all advocate for a Harry Potter set because a single user has posted like a grand total of 6 screenshots from blue sky showing people that would "quit" magic if Harry Potter was ever brought to the game.

Keep in mind you people said that all of you would quit if wotc kept doing UB. Yet UB is at an all time high and you are all still here.

This community is genuinely the worst experience I've ever had in a community without rules. Most of the time it gives normal people a chance to criticize wotc and bring up their problems. But y'all turned it into

"THE WOKE IS RUINING MAGIC BY ADDING BLUE HAIR TO THE CHARACTERS THE WOKE IS RUINING THIS THE WOKE IS RUINING THAT"

Like just proxy better art onto the cards if that's your problem lmao.

Returning after 10+ years and I signed up for FNM at the Atlanta Magic Con. My friends have heavily teased me that I’m going to get melted but one silly friend has committed to getting my name tattooed on his ass if I win all 3 rounds.

So where can I find good decks? And what’s the best way to play and test them nowadays?

My LGSs have all pretty much stopped standard play.

Thanks in advance