Subject: Too Many Damn Expansions
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 16:17:54 GMT
From: bpocock@golden.net (Ben Pocock)
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

I've played Magic The Gathering a long time. I was in it, I made tons
of money on it, then I left the game. I remember the days when I had
decks with 4 time walks, 4 time twisters, 4 ancestral, 2 of each mox
and 2 Black Lotus. No one had heard about tournaments. I can even
remember paying $120 for 2 boxes of Fallen Empires when the expansion
first came out. It was a short time later when I stopped playing the
game, and Fallen Empires might have had something to do with that
(yeah, I'm still bitter).

You've heard this line before, but they are simply producing way too
many cards, and not enough that anyone would really play with. Most
cards, even if you do play with them, don't really effect the play
environment that much. It's hard for me to justify buying more
boosters of any set, although I usually buy a box of a new expansion
when it comes out. Sure, there are a few cards that actually are
worthy of play, and some good commons here and there. It's almost
worth it to simply buy the cards you need instead of buying boosters.

When it comes down to it, I really don't understand why WotC releases
three new expansions a year? Do they think they're making more money
than if they produce one large and more aggressive expansion that
people can buy and collect? The more cards they produce, the harder
collecting becomes. Honestly, how many people really try and collect a
complete set of every expansion? When Unlimited, Arabian Nights,
Antiquities, and Legends were out, I bet you about 40% of the people
collected. Now, maybe 1-2% are serious collectors.

OK, so I came back from retirement and started playing six months ago!
I didn't have any cards from the following expansions: The Dark,
Iceage, Homelands, Alliances, Visions, Mirage, or Weatherlight. I had
sold all my power cards (P9, OOPs, Legends, AN, etc). I still had
quite a few cards, over 200 rares, and four of every common and
uncommon in 4th. Oh yeah, I also had two complete sets of Fallen
Empires :-). People were showing me River Boa's, Q Rangers, Necro,
Firestorm, and other neat cards. Still, I was competing quite well and
having fun playing until I got the "I'm playing type 2" line.

This brings up a problem in that many gaming groups abide by Type 2
protocol in order to restrict the deadliness of the decks. I've seen
people complain about decks that aren't Type 2, and then flat out
refuse to play them. This is true even when the decks are just fun
decks. Many of the people who don't play strict Type 2 do so because
they are missing the key cards in the current expansions. On the flip
side of the coin, many other non-Type 2 players have these
death-machine "I'll obviously win or lose by turn 4" Extended format
decks or even T1 decks. I think most players are going to have to
learn moderation. Sure, it's cool to win all the time, but try
something different. It's also fine to be bitter that you can't play
all your cards in Type 2 constructed, but try buying a few cards if
you like the game; if you don't like the game, don't bother playing.

Another question that comes to my mind is what the hell is the point
of the 5th edition. When they first produced Revised and then 4th
edition, it was to remove some of the too powerful cards and sub in
some cards that you couldn't get anymore. You know, those really
shitty Arabian Nights, Antiquity and Legends cards. I guess all those
angry players, pissed off that they couldn't play with Bird Maidens,
Yawgmoth Demon or Aladdin, wrote WotC and complained. I think WotC
misinterpreted the mass's message. People wanted to play with the good
Arabian Nights cards such as Library of Alexander, Juzam Djinn,
Diamond Valley, and Ali from Cairo. We certainly did NOT want to play
with Bird Maidens. Still, I can see removing the P9 and other powerful
cards to balance the game. I can even see how WotC subbed in some
stupid and useless cards to replace them (WEAK).

So they produce 5th edition and reprint all those hard to get Ice Age
cards. Cause heck, no one sells Ice Age anymore! What the hell is the
point? The only card even remotely useful in 5th that I can't pick up
readily in other expansion sets is Ball Lightning. And 6th edition
should be even more a joke. Lets sub in cards from three expansions
that I will be easily able to get cards for in the next year or two.
Great. Thanks guys. The only reason for this is so that people can
play certain cards in Type 2. Is this some fucked up system or what?
Lets produce a few expansions that will be obsolete in a few months.
Then lets make another set that tells us what cards from the banned
expansions we can play. But, lets also produce so much that anyone can
buy cards from any set. This way, we can make as many cards useless as
possible as quickly as possible.

You might think that's enough cannibalism for any company. But no,
WotC decided they'd produce Chronicles. Yes, a reprinting of many
early cards that you can't play with in T2 constructed. To make
matters worse, I don't think there is a single card I'd play in
Extended or T2 with the exception of Nicol Bolas in a Buried Alive
deck. So, more useless cards in a useless expansion.

In October, Urza's Saga is going to rotate out everything up to
Weatherlight. Taking into consideration the number of sets being
produced, in October 1999 everything up to Exodus will be rotated out.
I have a job, I make some money, I can afford to buy a couple boxes of
cards. I'm not sure how to take this, because I like playing with new
cards and abilities. However, the diversity of decks will drop
substantially when you rotate out an entire block and bring only a few
cards in from the new basic edition, and a lot of people simply can't
or won't part with even more money to play with less cards.

It seems to me that MTG has become a sport instead of a game. I
realise it may sound harsh to some people, but you probably want to
dish out about $150 in cards a year to compete and have fun. This
really isn't too much money, but more often then not you end up
spending $500-600 despite your promise not to. You can probably play
cheaper, but that means simply buying a few power cards  and playing
with one or two prototype decks. This is always boring.

Oh well, I've complained enough. I won't even get into my conspiracy
theory that Tourney organisers are bribing high ranked officials at
WotC to make even deadlier red cards. This way the matches end quicker
allowing the organisers to be less organised... sorry... I won't get
into that.

Just my humble 0.02. This article will be on my web page at
http://www.golden.net/~bpocock.

Have a good day, and I hope to see some of you at the Exodus
Pre-release in Toronto.

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Ben Pocock
bpocock@golden.net
http://www.golden.net/~bpocock
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