This week I was planning on showcasing a budget-friendly version of a popular standard deck. The newest rotation has changed the meta significantly, and I often spend some time on Arena after a new set releases. One of the ways I challenge myself is to build Arena decks with paper prices as a guide. I was excited to show off a janky control deck in my favorite colors, but that will have to wait. I feel it’s necessary to instead comment on the abhorrence of greed from the sole supplier of Magic: The Gathering™ products. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many positive things to say right now about greed in Magic.
If you haven’t heard about WOTC’s newest Secret Lair product, it’s an advertisement partnership with AMC to deliver eternal format legal cards that are only available for 8 days in a premium product. Some other content creators in the Magic space have provided excellent discussions about this and other similar situations. If you have the time, you might find their contributions interesting to review. Please click through to their platforms of choice and provide them the support they deserve.
Not the first and won’t be the last
Michonne, Ruthless Survivor: When Michonne enters the battlefield, create two Walker tokens. As long as Michonne is equipped, she must be blocked if able. Whenever Michonne and at least two Zombies attack, she gains indestructible until end of turn.
Negan, the Cold-Blooded: When Negan enters the battlefield, you and target opponent each secretly choose a creature that player controls. Then those choices are revealed, and that player sacrifices those creatures. Whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature, you create a Treasure token.
Glenn, the Voice of Calm: Skulk (This creature can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.) Whenever Glenn deals combat damage to a player, draw cards equal to his power.
Daryl, Hunter of Walkers: At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent creates three Walker tokens. Tap Daryl, Hunter of Walkers: Daryl deals 2 damage to target creature. Whenever a Zombie an opponent controls dies, draw a card.
These are black-bordered, eternal, legendary creatures that are printed in a premium product, that cannot be purchased outside of an 8-day window, directly through WOTC. It doesn’t matter if their abilities are good, or if they’ll be reprinted later. These cards are a precedent that has been set and reaffirmed with this product. This isn’t the first, or the last time, that WOTC will test the waters to increase their profitability at the detriment to the players who support their game.
Nexus of Fate: Take an extra turn after this one. If Nexus of Fate would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Nexus of Fate and shuffle it into its owner’s library instead.
Yes, when I talk about WOTC testing the waters previously, I am talking about Nexus of Fate, but not just. Nexus of Fate was released as a limited box-topper reward for players who purchased sealed boxes of Core Set 2019. When Nexus of Fate was released, it too was released as a black-bordered card and as a legal and powerful option in both Standard and Pioneer. The choice to release this product was immediately met with criticism, but the impact it left was limited. Extra turn effects are some of the best spells in this game, but there are so many better options than Nexus of Fate in eternal formats. Outside of Standard, which is a rotating format with a short memory, and Pioneer, which is a non-rotating format with cards from Return to Ravnica and forward, Nexus of Fate just isn’t unique. After the bans, the general understanding was that this promotion was a mistake, it had been corrected, WOTC had learned their lesson, and it wouldn’t happen again.
WOTC banning Nexus of Fate everywhere is just them delivering on their promise that box toppers wouldn't be constructed playable in a way. pic.twitter.com/oJci2W1jwG
— Jeff Hoogland (@JeffHoogland) July 17, 2020
In truth, Nexus of Fate was just another test to see what they could get away with, and they were incredibly successful with Rin and Seri, Inseparable.
Rin and Seri, Inseparable: Whenever you cast a Dog spell, create a 1/1 green Cat creature token. Whenever you cast a Cat spell, create a 1/1 white Dog creature token. 1 Red Mana + 1 Green Mana + 1 White Mana + Tap Rin and Seri: Rin and Seri, Inseparable deals damage to any target equal to the number of Dogs you control. You gain life equal to the number of Cats you control.
Like Nexus of Fate, Rin and Seri received backlash, but it was diminished because it was primarily a card for Tribal commander; where purchasing a single card is less impactful financially, and because the card itself isn’t particularly effective outside of commander formats. Tribal decks in Standard, and other eternal formats, have a long history of being less effective over decks that take advantage of cohesive game plans centered around value engines and momentum. Like four-color Omnath. Ultimately WOTC got away with this because they printed something that was only interesting to a select few Commander players, and outside of that, had little impact. The outrage wasn’t quite there, but this only emboldened WOTC to push harder.
What about black and white borders?
Rarity: Rare and mythic rare spells you cast cost 1 Colorless Mana less to cast. 1 Colorless Mana + Tap Rarity, Reveal a My Little Pony® toy you own: Until end of turn, another target creature gains protection from each color in that toy’s coat, mane, and outfit.
There is a legitimate claim that WOTC partnering with other franchises, like My Little Pony, Transformers, Dungeons and Dragons, and Godzilla, diminish the overall Magic story and dilute suspension of disbelief. I wholeheartedly agree, but honestly, it’s been dealt with appropriately in the past. In order to exist in this capitalistic world, WOTC needs to be constantly profitable quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. The only way to do that is to encourage people outside of the game to join, and encourage existing players to purchase and collect sealed product.
With the My Little Pony release, WOTC ensured that the cards they printed wouldn’t affect the game by releasing them with a silver border. Traditionally, gold and silver bordered cards are not legal outside of specific circumstances. This was also the case with their Transformer and DND releases. Utilizing silver and gold borders is an appropriate way to deal with partnerships, because the cards can remain premium product that only appeals to collectors, without affecting the game at large.
For Godzilla, WOTC released their Godzilla-themed cards as alternate arts. This appealed to Magic players and was an overall success. WOTC preserved the game through Ikoria, which did not require an investment in the Godzilla franchise to play. They also provided Godzilla fans, and collectors, a way to seek out premium product and pad WOTC’s coffers. That’s a win-win.
Releasing premium product in silver and gold-bordered cards, and alternate arts, tells players that even if they can’t afford premium product, they are not required to be whales to play; that they can still explore their hobby at their own financial pace.
Releasing unique premium product cards with limited print runs in black or white borders completely diminishes these brilliant strategies to preserve player freedom, and instead, punishes players who fail to meet the barriers of entry that WOTC is pushing today.
While the Secret Lair is the one chance to get the Walking Dead versions of these cards, we have the ability to print the Magic versions of these cards in future products. 1/2 #WotCStaff
— Mark Rosewater (@maro254) September 28, 2020
Just because Mark says that they might print the cards later on if they become popular, does not detract from the fact that today they are only available in this print run.
This has been ongoing for quite some time, hasn’t it?
I’ve talked about it before, but this kind of behavior only reminds me of the costs of lands, the most crucial element to any deck, and the reserved list. Admittedly, I am not super familiar with the reserved list and all of the arguments for and against its creation, but anything that creates a barrier of entry for players to become interested in this hobby is not acceptable. I am, however, very familiar with more modern lands, and their prices.
Polluted Delta: Tap Polluted Delta, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Polluted Delta: Search your library for an Island or Swamp card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Fetchlands allow players to search their deck for any of two land types from the pool of five: island, swamp, forest, mountain, and plains. Because fetchlands pair the land types in two, they are incredibly effective at providing mana fixing in multi-color decks. Furthermore, since they do not specify the basic land type, a large number of dual lands become available as targets for retrieval.
Breeding Pool: As Breeding Pool enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, it enters the battlefield tapped.
With this knowledge on hand, we now understand that Polluted Delta could search up a blue/black shockland, like Watery Grave, or a battleland, like Sunken Hollow, but it could also search up Breeding Pool, because of the island land type. Introducing: one of the most important aspects of deck building. This interaction allows the player to both include additional fetchlands outside of their expected colors to increase efficiency, and to be able to search for numerous color combinations which can allow a three, four, or even five color deck to become more viable. Truthfully, because of this advantage and the nature of the game, fetchlands, and cards like them, as well as the dual lands they search for, become not only helpful, but a necessity when it comes to fast and efficient mana fixing.
As you can imagine, fetchlands can get pricey. They go anywhere from $16 to $75 or more for a single card, and most dual lands, excluding true duals, hover around $20-40. That means that for a given semi-competitive Modern deck, players are looking at hundreds of dollars investing in just lands. In fact, even the top burn deck at the time of this article’s writing, spends more on lands than spells. Almost every sanctioned format in Magic requires a heavy investment in lands, and even at the kitchen table, a top tier casual deck can be stomped if it doesn’t have the lands necessary to compete.
But what does WOTC do when their players are faced with such a higher barrier of entry? They exploit the situation and ensure that sealed product gets sold above all else.
- All semi-efficient lands are printed at rare, including comparatively mediocre lands such as Fabled Passage, or Prismatic Vista.
- Fetchlands and powerful typed dual lands, like shocklands, will not be printed in the same standard rotation.
- When fetchlands are reprinted, they are done so as premium product.
- If dual lands are printed (as we’ve seen with this last rotation) because of their rarity and price memory, they maintain the barrier of entry.
Taking advantage of players in this way doesn’t make the game better, it makes it harder to find new players and support the local community. As we’ve seen with the continuous bans in Standard as of late, lands aren’t the problem with game design.
This situation expands beyond lands, and affects all cards of value. It’s just more apparent with lands, which are almost always a necessity no matter the deck archetype or format. This problem has been going on longer than I’ve been playing regularly, but it’s certainly coming to a head.
Protest
There are numerous solutions WOTC could employ to eliminate this barrier of entry completely. Off the top of my head, they could simply print highly sought after lands at a lower rarity without affecting formats like Pauper. Or, they could simply sell land-only sets for people to bolster their collections. I’m sure there are better ideas from more qualified individuals, but the fact that WOTC continues to maintain this barrier shows their true intentions.
The secondary market allows WOTC to see what is going to make them the most amount of money when they devise product. As long as they can fulfill player expectations enough to justify the appearance of action, while simultaneously ensuring that the market keeps their price levels intact, they can market and sell additional product.
So WOTC isn’t going to fix this problem, what exactly can we do to mitigate this level of greed?
Some content contributors are saying that WOTC is dead to them, or that the game is no longer justifiable to support. This is a dangerous slope to start on, because abandoning a game that we love harms not only the greedy party but ourselves and our relationships built from it. Ignoring WOTC doesn’t force them to reflect on their actions so much as it begs them to dangle distractions instead.
It’s not feasible to introduce competition directly into this game, because it’s a corporate intellectual property owned by a single organization and allowing others to contribute to the space would ultimately undermine the overall design of the game (potentially worse than what is being done by WOTC on their own.)
Contributing to other direct competitors of Magic is appropriate, but taking this outside of the game doesn’t really deal with the problem at hand; it only encourages WOTC to figure it out on their own, and I just don’t see that happening.
Personally, I believe a targeted protest is the only solution to this problem.
First, we should collectively signal boost content creators that call out this type of behavior and reinforce their message directly to WOTC. As long as media is reporting on these unscrupulous decisions, and we are vocal in our dissent, WOTC is pressured to act accordingly.
Second, we should no longer purchase sealed product directly from WOTC. They should not be rewarded for behavior we disagree with. We can’t abandon our local game stores, so we should continue to purchase resold singles from them in support. I am well aware and understand that WOTC controls the fate of various game stores. As long as they continue to sell sealed product, they can acquire that product, and in turn, stay afloat. We must find and maintain the balance that allows our local game stores to succeed without allowing WOTC to profit too heavily off of the decisions we disagree with. There are other ways to support our local game stores in the interim.
Finally, instead of spending with our dollar, we should depend on our communities. Trading liberally with other players eliminates the financial burden placed on this game, and if players are more willing to make trades simply to help each other, we may find that everyone is able to play the game with less financial resources available to them.
I know this article was a little bit more serious than the usual fare, but I believe it is necessary for a hobby I truly adore.