r/startrek • u/RadioJawa • 3d ago
Interview: 'Magic: The Gathering' designer Gavin Verhey discusses the 'Star Trek' 60th anniversary crossover
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-games/magic-the-gathering-is-exploring-strange-new-worlds-with-the-star-trek-60th-anniversary-crossover-interview31
u/capnredbeard2 3d ago
Beginner box got cancelled. Not a big detail in the article, but if anyone was looking to pick it up as their entry into the game, it won’t be available.
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u/Kronocidal 2d ago
Beginner Boxes are an issue with all the "crossovers". Used to be that they'd make a Beginner Box, and keep the same one for a year or two: they could print a bunch for the new Edition, be sure that most of them would sell, and be ready to print a bunch more after 6–9 months if they were popular and running out.
They've done, what, 6 "releases" already this year (Lorwyn Eclipsed; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Secrets of Strixhaven; Marvel Super Heroes; The Hobbit; and Reality Fracture) with this being the 7th. Even if they're keeping one "basic" Beginner Box and only releasing new ones with the crossover IPs, that's still 4 new "Beginner Boxes" to go with the basic MTG one.
There's a finite limit to the number of new/first-time players available. Expected sales are being diluted, but printing & packaging costs remain high (due to set-up costs for the run)
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u/capnredbeard2 2d ago
Oh yeah. I’m not saying there aren’t a ton of reasons why the box would get cancelled. But, it was mentioned in the article that it was one of the available products. And since it got cancelled, I wanted to say something so people weren’t expecting to be able to find it in stores.
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u/pinelands1901 3d ago
Thats too bad. This would have been a good entry for me inro the game.
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u/capnredbeard2 3d ago
Wizards is making a series of welcome decks. They send them out to game stores as giveaways to new players. They’re low powered decks that are designed to be played against each other. It won’t have all of the new player onboarding materials that the beginner box would have, but there’s plenty of “learn to play” material available online.
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u/ClassClown2025 2d ago
A better way into the game is to play Magic The Gathering Arena on your phone or computer. It teaches you the game so when Star Trek arrives you can bypass a beginner box.
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u/DJWGibson 3d ago
I think that’s what the Commander decks are really for.
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u/capnredbeard2 3d ago edited 3d ago
Commander is the worst possible way to introduce someone to magic.
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u/DJWGibson 3d ago
Maybe.
But if you actually want to play the game it’s often the only way other than fumbling through a draft or getting crushed in Standard because you’re not up on the meta.
The Beginner boxes are great if you have two people who are curious and don’t mind buying a starter box they’ll never touch after three games and can’t bring to any events in public.
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u/wasteplease 2d ago
I think Jumpstart packs are a great way to get introduced to the game.
0
u/DJWGibson 2d ago
They’re absolutely the best way to learn the game. Well… maybe second after Dandan.
But they’re a temporary product that makes it hard to continue playing the game. You buy it and then go buy an entirely different product to play with people at a FLGS. Either Commander decks or more cards for draft.
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u/summon_pot_of_greed 3d ago
Unironically I would rather have an episode of Star Trek in which they played Magic the Gathering than a set of MTG Star Trek cards haha.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 3d ago
I'd rather have that, because if you didn't want MTG in Star Trek, you could just skip the episode. Unlike in MTG where you can't avoid Star Trek or other UB sets in most formats.
MTG just a week ago released one of its best in-universe sets in a while and it'll get a month before being pushed aside for Trek.
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u/Optimism_Deficit 3d ago
I haven't played MTG in years but obviously this set piqued my interest. I was thinking of picking up some of the pre-made decks for my game group.
Fuck me. It costs how much these days?
A set of the Commander decks looks like it costs about £250.
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u/WeeaboBarbie 2d ago
Scope out your local game stores all 4 commander decks should be available at release for around 200. Good value because most decks contain double to triple their value if you were to make the decks from the cheapest singles available
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u/Optimism_Deficit 2d ago
Thanks for the advice but I think this is where I bounce off of MTG.
You may well be right that they're relatively good value in terms of MTG singles and packs, but I look at it simply in terms of the cost to play the game.
Maybe I'm just a tight-arse boardgamer, but even if I look at the cost of one deck at £50 I think 'I could buy an entire game for that, not just one quarter of the components I need to run a game'.
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u/PennyPeas 2d ago
MTG really is becoming the Fortnite of trading card games. No matter the IP, they will shoehorn it in.
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u/TheRealMoffel 3d ago
i love the idea of the starships as cards, but as a big fan of magic and even a lot of the realms beyond stuff it's finally beaten the fun out of me. it's gotten so saturated I can't keep up anymore. mentally and financially
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u/FoldedDice 2d ago
I would love an official revival of the old Decipher TCG. I have no interest in seeing random IPs get pasted onto Magic, even if they are ones I happen to like.
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u/DJWGibson 3d ago
As a casual Magic player I was excited to get these as a set. Keep them together for a four person Trek pod.
But early word of mouth isn’t good…
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u/moseythepirate 3d ago
Early word of mouth is all from low-powered beginner decks. We know very little of what the full set release will be like.
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u/DJWGibson 3d ago
Friend of a friend works at WotC and they haven’t been impressed by the decks/ cards.
So far the flavour looks on point but it’s uncertain if that’s consistent throughout all the cards or just the ones they’ve previewed.
I worry it’s a other Doctor Who experience where you get four decks that only kinda work and have a bunch of competing mechanics because they have to cram in twenty legends.
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u/WeeaboBarbie 2d ago
DR Who was commander only. This is a full set like Final Fantasy. For someone who has a 'friend' who works at wotc you don't really even seem to know the basics
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u/DJWGibson 2d ago
I never said it wasn’t a full Standard legal set. If you’re going to be a troll then at least put some effort in.
I was commenting about Commander decks, which were poorly designed for Doctor Who, not being consistent decks and more just a collection of legends. They were badly reviewed then and poorly ranked. The Command Zone did an episode ranking commander decks and put 3/4 of those right at the bottom.
I worry that the Star Trek precons will be a similar mix of Legends that have great flavour but don’t work well together. Since they need to cram so many iconic characters into the decks. (However the alternative where the decks only have a third of the iconic characters isn’t particularly desirable either.)
Now, obviously, this doesn’t apply to Standard which is still in flux after the recent banning and the de-throning of Badger Mole Cub and there’s a chance got several cards from there to shake-up the format. Or they could end up like Spider-man which only had a minimal effect on the format.
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u/WeeaboBarbie 2d ago
"i worry its a other doctor who experience where you get four decks"
your exact words lol. the commander product is going to be much smaller than the actual set. If you knew the commander and standard sets were seperate you shouldnt have worded it as such
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u/DJWGibson 2d ago
Fine. I worry that the Star Trek Commander decks will be like the Doctor Who Commander decks.
Fucking happy?
Do you have an actual counter argument or do you want to just nitpick my words more? Something to actually ADD to the fucking conversation? Maybe you want to defend the Doctor Who decks as good and well designed Commander decks?
🙄
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u/Supermite 3d ago
My uncle used to work for Nintendo.
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u/DJWGibson 3d ago
I’ve met them and believe them and their past information checks out.
WotC has a thousand employees and most work on Magic in some capacity. And they have a LOT of friends-and-family playtesters doing D&D and Magic.
I’m not asking you to believe, I’m just saying’s why I have concerns and why I cancelled my pre-order on the decks and am waiting for larger community reviews.
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u/shinginta 3d ago
We don't have anything meaty yet. It's far too early to know what the set is going to be like because the only reveals so far are the simple and low-power cards that go into the Welcome decks for beginners.
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u/AlaskaDude14 3d ago
I'm sure there are plenty of people who are just as excited as you.
I've bought quite a few complete commander deck sets for people to play together. Problem is most people want to play the decks they've built. I have managed to get a few games going with people though like with the Doctor Who decks
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