[proc66]

as a casual newbie i'd like to have my voice heard loud and clear to the MTG community about SOME of the proposed changes due this coming fall. 

so i am reposting my reply from the MTG.com Alara Changes thread  (sorry for the repost, just want to save some time.)

pete rock

where to begin with these proposed changes.  several, NOT ALL, seem to be cost cutting changes and as many have said before me here in the thread i don't really see a benefit.   

to start let me begin with a little personal info.  i am a casual magic player who was recently re-introduced to the game.  i have had the "Magic Fever" now for about for about 5 months.  In that time i have purchased around 20 plus theme decks to get my collection up to speed.  i have gone both forward and backward in block chronology, starting with the complete TS block and then back to 5th Dawn, Mirrodin and now onto Shadowmoor.  I have filled in with some decks from Onslaught, Morningtide, Lorwyn, Planar Chaos & Coldsnap.  I think this illustrates that i like theme decks.  I have also obtained many many boosters from these blocks as well.   

what i have noticed is that in the TS & earlier decks that each deck had it's own individual insert.  now all the decks have one generic set insert (COST CUTTING)
i do not, however want to go back to individual inserts at the cost of getting less cards in a theme deck (especially less land cards)!!!

so someone at WoTC needs to explain to me how i won't be getting less while spending the same amount of cash in the future???? !!!!!

LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR -  i am not happy and would say that these particular changes will help cure my "MTG Fever".  so in that sense perhaps i should say thank you Mark & all you other cost cutters at the Coast.   

KEEP BOOSTERS AT 11 COMMONS - NO LANDS
KEEP THEME DECKS THE WAY THEY ARE. 
PLEASE!!!

pete rock 

[Lythand]

I am with you here brother. Especially the thing about the Precons. If you read over Mark Rosewarters article, which I am sure you did, he mentions we will no longer get the 61 card precon, but a 41 card precon with a boosterpack making the total 56. So if a new player wants to play FNM, which was created as a starting point for new players to experience the tournament scene, he has to buy this starter pack, and another pack to make a full 60 card deck. Mark's rational to the 5 card less decks is you get an extra rare thats foil, which is cool as a collector, but when you want to jump right in, you can't. You need to spend more money. One of the comments he made previous in the article is the fact that earlier boosters had no lands. A new player had to be directed to buy lands as well. So a new player has just purchased an incomplete product, and has to buy more of the product to be able to play. So they solved this issue by removing a common and adding a land. Well they solved one problem with lands, but essentially moved the problem of an incomplete deck to the starter sets, and now a new player again has to buy more product for an incomplete initial product.

Hope that makes sence to read 

[Trick]

Did he mention pricing of the intro pack?

[Lythand]

This is from the Shards of Alar announcement article posted the same day.

There will be five different intro packs released with each set. A display box of intro packs will include one of each different intro pack for that set, for five packs total. Suggested retail price for the intro packs will be $12.29 USD, which is the same price as the currently available theme decks. As with theme decks, intro packs may not be available in all local languages and pricing may vary by market.

[Trick]

Hmmm. Well I don't have a huge issue with the theme decks turning into intro packs, it makes sense with their plan for acquisition. No, the deck is no longer something you can pick up and enter FNM with, but it is something more geared towards teaching the game and bringing new people into it. And if we're honest, you're not likely to pick up a pre-constructed deck, change a single booster pack and enter the FNM. You're probably going to play casually and then enter the tournaments, so you'll have the cards by then.

[imachampion]

My problem lies with the Mythical Rares. This is not going to be pretty. I also don't buy the idea that since the set is smaller that it will be easier to get them. WOTC is becoming money hungry and I for one am tired of it. Tarmogoyf was in a small set and wasn't a Mythical Rare and look at its price. Supply and Demand are what sets a markets price...taking away the supply while maintaining a high demand is certain to drive the price up of tournament staples. At the same time that this is happening...they are trying to bring newer players into the game. It seems like WOTC has its priorities in the wrong place. Its ok for a business to want to make money...but highway robbery is almost never right.

I don't like the idea of Intro packs either. They aren't even tournament legal. How is offering a product to a newer player that isn't tournament legal...while simultaneously trying to bring newer players to the game...productive? Its doubtful that a precon would ever win an FNM but...at least its legal and teaches a newer player the basic rule of 60 card decks. I am not for any of the changes that they have listed.

/rant

I really wish they would dump R&D and rehire them because I seem to hate all of their recent decsions, then again maybe I am just in a bad mood.

[Lythand]

My problem lies with the Mythical Rares. This is not going to be pretty. I also don't buy the idea that since the set is smaller that it will be easier to get them. WOTC is becoming money hungry and I for one am tired of it. Tarmogoyf was in a small set and wasn't a Mythical Rare and look at its price. Supply and Demand are what sets a markets price...taking away the supply while maintaining a high demand is certain to drive the price up of tournament staples. At the same time that this is happening...they are trying to bring newer players into the game. It seems like WOTC has its priorities in the wrong place. Its ok for a business to want to make money...but highway robbery is almost never right.

There whole idea here is, well let me give an example.

Lets say there are 400 cards in a set. I buy 4 boxes. Out of those 4 boxes I get roughly 2-4 of each rare. If they changed the set to 100 cards, and I still buy 4 boxes, my chances of getting 4+ rares has increased. My chances of completing a set with 2 boxes has increased. There is a chance of more of the same rares to be in one box since there are fewer of them. Thats the way they are seeing it. The damand will still be there, and the amount of the supply isn't changing, its the difference in what is in the supply. Meaning more consistant supply.

[UnityAlex]

I don't like the idea of Intro packs either. They aren't even tournament legal. How is offering a product to a newer player that isn't tournament legal...while simultaneously trying to bring newer players to the game...productive?

Tournament Packs are legal and more suitable to be used in FNM than intro packs in my honest opinion.  Their retail price is also $12.99 if i recall.

Its doubtful that a precon would ever win an FNM but...at least its legal and teaches a newer player the basic rule of 60 card decks. I am not for any of the changes that they have listed.

They're also changing the name from theme deck to intro pack for a reason.  They're great for teaching someone how to get into the game.  I would argue that FNM the way to teach someone how to get into Organized Play, not into the game.  Not only can you enjoy a quick game but you also get a sealed booster pack to boot.  I approve.

[imachampion]

There whole idea here is, well let me give an example.

Lets say there are 400 cards in a set. I buy 4 boxes. Out of those 4 boxes I get roughly 2-4 of each rare. If they changed the set to 100 cards, and I still buy 4 boxes, my chances of getting 4+ rares has increased. My chances of completing a set with 2 boxes has increased. There is a chance of more of the same rares to be in one box since there are fewer of them. Thats the way they are seeing it. The damand will still be there, and the amount of the supply isn't changing, its the difference in what is in the supply. Meaning more consistant supply.

You are missing my point. The distribution of Mythical Rares is by pack. The amount of cards in a set has very little to do with the distribution of Mythical Rares. They could have this setup:

SOA = 50 Cards
5 Mythical Rares
10 Rares
15 Uncommons
20 Commons

The fact remains that your odds of getting a Mythical rare in a pack is ~1 in 8. It doesn't matter how many cards are in a set. It only matters that the disbursement of the Mythical Rare is 1 out of 8 packs. Lets use Shards of Alara specs here with your example:

Commons – 101
Uncommons – 60
Rares – 53
Mythic Rares – 15

If you open 4 boxes which is 144 Packs. This means that you will get ~18 Mythical Rares. My point remains that it doesn't matter how many cards are in any given set. Its based on getting 1 Mythical Rare out of ~8 Packs. Looking at the fact that we would get 18 Mythical Rares out of the 4 boxes that we opened...how many do you think will be duplicate? Because of this the rarity of these cards is going to be insane. The cost is going to be through the roof.

You are correct that you will receive an increased chance of popping that Rare that you want but the Mythical Rares are going to have hefty price tags on them. I guess its WOTCs plan to have a card in each set at the value of Tarmogoyf and Bitterblossom.

[BigFiber]

I don't understand why you think WotC like Goyf prices, Champion? If anything this hurts their bottom line. Goyf was the perfect storm. Amazing unility cheap beater in a small set at the end of it's draft cycle=fewer opened, thusly, fewer in the secondary Market. And MaRo told us that it was a last minute addition and it had not been tested enough. People/retailers don't rip packs looking for 1 card. That is a money losing stratagy. Retailers buy them from Limited players like me and mark them up and sell them to constructed tourny players.

Could there be 4 or 5 Tourny worthy Mythics? Sure, but with the smaller set 229 (non-land) Mythics will be opened with the same frequency as regular rares in most other sets and "regular" rares will be opened even more frequently. So that means that even if there is some insane Mythic cheap utility constructed worthy card that fits 80% of the decks in Standard/Ext/Legacy/Whatever...it won't reach much over $35.

Now having said all that, MaRo went out of his way to explain that Mythic is being saved for heavy flavor cards. Like Legendary (whatever) cards. Could some be awesome? Prolly, but at Legendary they will most likely not be cards that are auto 4 of in each deck. They do learn from mistakes from the past. How long has it been since they had to ban a card in Standard? Like 4 years? That's a long time. I'm pretty confident that R&D is going to flesh out the new Mythics (15 of em) and make sure they aren't crazy busted.

Now the extra land bugs me a good bit. But again, with the smaller set (but not too small) drafting a solid deck should not be a problem. His explanation for the extra land is poor at best. Now maybe there is some sort of "coldsnap" style land that would be part of the stratagy of the set (that would be fine, cool even) but the way he explained it was just silly. Who doesn't have enough lands? I still don't get it.

I like the new starters as that was kinda how I learned to play. Simple, easy to play and understand the game. Really, new players should not be jumping into FNM for a couple of months as the compitition at FNM is about 10 times that of the kitchen table.

And as long as the fat pack has a spin down...I'm fine.

[Alicabob]

I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet but if you think the Mythic rares will be costly wait till you see their shiny counterparts.

[UnityAlex]

I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet but if you think the Mythic rares will be costly wait till you see their shiny counterparts.

I think someone mentioned (and i firmly believe this is true) that most of the "mythic rares" will be cards that highlight the flavor of the game world similar to the way planeswalkers did.  It does NOT necessarily mean that each of the 12 mythic rares will be uber-bomb omgiwinthegamenow rares.  Not only would that turn the game into YuGiOh with out of a pack only 2 cards being playable and the rest garbage but would degrade the overall health of the game.

[Skyblast2]

You're trying to appeal to new players with it, good, but you have to compisate you have to appeal to older players at the same time

[UnityAlex]

You're trying to appeal to new players with it, good, but you have to compisate you have to appeal to older players at the same time

I'd have to say they've been appealing to older players for quite some time now with the current OP network.  They've been giving out some decent foils at FNM and other grass roots level of organized play.  Also the Wizards Play Network is beginning to come online which should offer people more opportunities to get into Organized Play.

Realistically the only way I can see to appeal to older players (which is what I hear ALL THE TIME) is to give out more free stuff, lower pack prices, make more overpowered cards which all of these in my opinion are not only illogical from a business standpoint but not feesible or healthy for the game.

[fmfisdead]

Something that I've found out about Mythic Rares is not that they are 1 in every 8 packs but there is a 1 in 8 chance of getting them. So its not on a per pack basis. I heard this on MTGCast when he spoke with someone representing WoTC. Just thought I'd throw this in.

Sup first post.