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https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/what-happened-magic-showcase-2021-08-24

Thoughts:

1. I was just joking about Fortnite Magic. Why in Gods name they've done this is beyond me, especially considering these will be reprints with gakky game art on them. I wonder if one of them will be "I'm gonna feth your mom" as an instant speed counterspell?
2. Warhammer 40K decks. B E EG Y A W N especially since early rumors are it's only Space Marines.
3. CyberGawa: Get that gak out of Magic. This is a fantasy game. You want Cyber, go play netrunner. It's an especially big F-you to the fans because the Beautiful Shinto themed original set was a true work of art. Shame.
4. Capos, the Plane. Meh, I need more information.
5. Space Magic. Meh.
6. Street Fighter. Meh.
7. LoTR WHY?

5. Dominaria United. This is good, especially if it's on the same level as Dominaria 2018.
6. The Brother's War. Holy gak there is a God. This is amazing news, just need to see the execution done right!

So what is next on the corporate circlejerk? Fast Food Mascots? Cereal Mascots? Hololive Character packs? Acti-Blizz crossovers? Star Trek? Spaceballs the MTG Set? They're actively cheapening what used to be a truly uniquely and interesting game with all these needless crossovers. Magic the game will probably live forever, following in the footsteps of Call of Duty, but Magic the Idea is just about fully dead at this point. It's sad, but life will go on I guess.

I saw the list earlier. It's a packed fething year. Looks like the first UB content will be dropping too and someone from Wizards confirmed on Twitter earlier they'll be format legal.

So yeah. We not get to play advertisements in New Magic or feel like the donkey-cave for liking Magic Classic. Exactly the choice I hoped they wouldn't force on pick up players by setting things up with specific UB formats.

The next to OG planes actually look interesting to me. The Kamigawa is more of a dungeonpunk/cyperpunk fusion aesthetic from the art we've seen and that might be okay. I actually like the idea of a Magia plane and am curious what the factions will be like (but then I'm a sucker for the annual 'here's another Ravnica' setting).

I really wish they'd go back to the old block format though. It's hard to care too much about new settings when we might only see them once every 5-6 years or never again. Strixhaven was actually pretty slick for all the negativity about a 'Harry Potter' setting. I think they really managed to put that Magic feel on a general concept which is a good direction for the game. I'd have liked to see more but who knows if we'll ever see Strixhaven ever again. It's also doubly annoying (or maybe I could be more optimistic about it?) when Innistrad is getting a double set before the year ends when it's already a fairly well explored plane and they're realizing they can do another D&D bunch to round out the yearly core set with the stuff they skipped (some of which are seriously weird, like how the feth do you make a FR Magic set and not have cards for fething Elminster?)

I'm kind of wondering if this will ultimately pan out into a New Coke situation that eventually forces Hasbro to backtrack. I don't think the returns for these crossovers will last, and Magic's player base has always involved a heavy degree of people coming and going from the community. Giving people more reason to 'break' and then finding a completely different game space when the thought to come back occurs I suspect will have long term consequences that defeat the purpose of the effort. Sure Call of Duty is gak year to year, but it's still Call of Duty. You don't see Activision announcing that they'll cross Call of Duty with Warhammer and that'll be all Call of Duty games going forward. That decision makes no sense.

 LordofHats wrote:
I saw the list earlier. It's a packed fething year. Looks like the first UB content will be dropping too and someone from Wizards confirmed on Twitter earlier they'll be format legal.

So yeah. We not get to play advertisements in New Magic or feel like the donkey-cave for liking Magic Classic. Exactly the choice I hoped they wouldn't force on pick up players by setting things up with specific UB formats.

The next to OG planes actually look interesting to me. The Kamigawa is more of a dungeonpunk/cyperpunk fusion aesthetic from the art we've seen and that might be okay. I actually like the idea of a Magia plane and am curious what the factions will be like (but then I'm a sucker for the annual 'here's another Ravnica' setting).

I really wish they'd go back to the old block format though. It's hard to care too much about new settings when we might only see them once every 5-6 years or never again. Strixhaven was actually pretty slick for all the negativity about a 'Harry Potter' setting. I think they really managed to put that Magic feel on a general concept which is a good direction for the game. I'd have liked to see more but who knows if we'll ever see Strixhaven ever again. It's also doubly annoying (or maybe I could be more optimistic about it?) when Innistrad is getting a double set before the year ends when it's already a fairly well explored plane and they're realizing they can do another D&D bunch to round out the yearly core set with the stuff they skipped (some of which are seriously weird, like how the feth do you make a FR Magic set and not have cards for fething Elminster?)

I'm kind of wondering if this will ultimately pan out into a New Coke situation that eventually forces Hasbro to backtrack. I don't think the returns for these crossovers will last, and Magic's player base has always involved a heavy degree of people coming and going from the community. Giving people more reason to 'break' and then finding a completely different game space when the thought to come back occurs I suspect will have long term consequences that defeat the purpose of the effort. Sure Call of Duty is gak year to year, but it's still Call of Duty. You don't see Activision announcing that they'll cross Call of Duty with Warhammer and that'll be all Call of Duty games going forward. That decision makes no sense.

I really wish they'd go back to a three set block as well.

As for Kamigawa I'm slowly coming around. I found out that Magic Punk is a thing so it might be less GITS than I expect. I'll tolerate it.

For CoD I could see them going that route sooner or later. I'm not sure if they'd go so far as to do a blatant IP crossover, but I hear you. Mostly my comment there was about how bad those games have become. I remember playing WWII and just starting at a corpse on Normandy asking myself "Why does he have dress medals on his BDUs? And why is he carrying a Russian SMG?"

Having had a day to think it all over now, I think Kami will be okay. I really just don't have enough info to say about Cappena yet. The Two Dominaria sets will either be done right and be good, or they'll foul it up somehow. It'll be interesting to see. The rest of it, I just couldn't care less about it than I do.

I wonder when we will get the MTG/RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS crossover no one wants.

I think Kamigawa will be closer to Shadowrun than Cyberpunk 2077, which will make it much more inline with Magic's aesthetics. There's also some cool hints in the artwork they've shone, like the cityscape image where I bet you five bucks that tree there is Boseiju, Who Shelters All. if they're modeling the landscape of the setting off modern Tokyo, then it'll be a mix of magitech and tradition existing side-by-side which would be a very cool look.

The last time we went to a high magitech setting it was Kaladesh and Kaladesh was sweet. I liked that block a lot. It was more steamy on its side, but going more into the techy could still be cool.

I actually kind of resent the Dominaria sets. They chose now of all times to go back to not just Dominaria but to make a set about two of the most epic characters in Magic history and their battle? Yeah. Someone is expected to piss the fans and wants to bribe them hardcore. I mean, it'll work but I resent the clear bs they're peddling with the decision XD

Cyber Kamigawa? Are you kidding me

I'm pretty stoked about the Baldur's Gate Commander Legends set. I'm assuming that's why AFR was light on some of the Big Names.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I'm pretty stoked about the Baldur's Gate Commander Legends set. I'm assuming that's why AFR was light on some of the Big Names.

Me too.

If nothing else, it'll hopefully have enough stuff in it that a cube can be thrown together for TFR.

I also wouldn't be surprised if it came with references to the classic Baldur's Gate games. Some of those characters I assume were well remembered (I never played those games XD)

 LordofHats wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
I'm pretty stoked about the Baldur's Gate Commander Legends set. I'm assuming that's why AFR was light on some of the Big Names.

Me too.

If nothing else, it'll hopefully have enough stuff in it that a cube can be thrown together for TFR.

I also wouldn't be surprised if it came with references to the classic Baldur's Gate games. Some of those characters I assume were well remembered (I never played those games XD)

Commander Minsc with companion Boo, go for Wallet...

You know that Minsc+Boo are already out, right?

 Kanluwen wrote:
You know that Minsc+Boo are already out, right?

I did not know that, after the steaming puddle of Rosewater than was Kaladesh I largely gave up on Magic and only read the odd EDH thing, as said Block largely killed local magic

I've seen the cards (Minsc) in the TFR set. I didn't know the character was from Baldur's Gate.

So in news, apparently Mark Rosewater has confirmed that there won't be future premier sets that are non-Magic IP. I'm not entirely sure what that means but it seems to come down to Wizards shirking at how very polarizing reactions to the TFR set were.

It's not a statement that there will be no more crossover IPs, but the LOTR and Baldur's Gate sets might be the last box sets they release with crossover IP confining future such releases to other kinds of products (secret lairs and stuff like the 40k commander precons).

 LordofHats wrote:
So in news, apparently Mark Rosewater has confirmed that there won't be future premier sets that are non-Magic IP. I'm not entirely sure what that means but it seems to come down to Wizards shirking at how very polarizing reactions to the TFR set were.

It's not a statement that there will be no more crossover IPs, but the LOTR and Baldur's Gate sets might be the last box sets they release with crossover IP confining future such releases to other kinds of products (secret lairs and stuff like the 40k commander precons).

Well Mark said that two weeks before the announcement that LoTR will count for Modern. So a lot of people in the community were very pissed about the LoTR announcement, as they see it as them going back on what they said at the end of July.

 LordofHats wrote:
So in news, apparently Mark Rosewater has confirmed that there won't be future premier sets that are non-Magic IP. I'm not entirely sure what that means but it seems to come down to Wizards shirking at how very polarizing reactions to the TFR set were.

It's not a statement that there will be no more crossover IPs, but the LOTR and Baldur's Gate sets might be the last box sets they release with crossover IP confining future such releases to other kinds of products (secret lairs and stuff like the 40k commander precons).

Things will stay like that for five years at most. Back in the old days, Mark repeatedly declared that crossover sets would never be a thing at all, and that isn't even the most blatant example of these sorts of contradictions. It's not Rosewater's fault per se, but the fact is that Wizards cares much more about making a profit then upholding random promises one of their employees made on Tumblr a few months back.

well as with much of the dribble that comes out of him I suspect its our fault somehow...

Togusa wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
So in news, apparently Mark Rosewater has confirmed that there won't be future premier sets that are non-Magic IP. I'm not entirely sure what that means but it seems to come down to Wizards shirking at how very polarizing reactions to the TFR set were.

It's not a statement that there will be no more crossover IPs, but the LOTR and Baldur's Gate sets might be the last box sets they release with crossover IP confining future such releases to other kinds of products (secret lairs and stuff like the 40k commander precons).

Well Mark said that two weeks before the announcement that LoTR will count for Modern. So a lot of people in the community were very pissed about the LoTR announcement, as they see it as them going back on what they said at the end of July.

Those two statements aren't really contradictory. If nothing else, it indicates that at present proper Magic content won't be disrupted so those of us who want to play just OG Magic will keep getting it for the foreseeable future and we can just ignore all the crossover crap. I predict that players will rapidly adapt to making player formats that are OG Magic only and to a degree Wizards might be presuming that's exactly what people will do. Those special UB watermarks make it pretty simple. The biggest issue, and my main gripe, is how that doesn't work so well in pick-up play.

Me and my buds can agree to play "Zendikar only" for a weekend of goofy fun. We can't really do that in a store where everyone brings their stuff from home and wants to spend an afternoon stress free. My biggest peeve is how this arbitrary decisions to force crossover ads down our throats basically puts all the stress onto LGS players who now have to deal with the question of how they want to play the game. Wizards' decision to make UB cards legal to current supported formats is just passing the buck to players and saddling us with the problem.