T w e n t y S i d e d
Magic the Gathering’s newest set is a Universes Beyond release based around Avatar: The Last Airbender. Prior to the full retail release of a new set in Magic there’s events called “prereleases” that allow you to play with the new cards early. My wife, myself, Bay, and Izzy will be heading out to a local event tonight.
The way prerelease events work is that everyone gets 6 packs and as many basic lands as they want to build a 40 card deck. Then you play 3 matches of best of 3 against other attendees with your deck. Winning gets you extra packs to open and sometimes other goodies. You keep the cards from the packs you open to build your deck as well so participation is already worth its cost the majority of the time.
I coached everyone on the new keywords as well as returning and evergreen ones. Bay and my wife have been to a couple prereleases and drafts so they had a decent idea of what to expect. They are still inexperienced overall, though, so a refresher was worthwhile. Izzy is borderline brand new but has already picked up the game pretty fast. And if I’m honest it never hurts me to have several looks over every new mechanic so I don’t end up getting the rules on them wrong.
We all ended up getting our butts kicked but we had fun. We’ll be heading to our favorite shop again tomorrow for another go around. Hopefully there’s some more success this time but the fun is in getting a chance to play with the new cards of the set, not being the supreme nerd in the room. It was worth the trip and the money just to have some fun with cards that will likely spend the rest of their existence in a box on a shelf.
If you’ve never played Magic and are interested in giving it a try, I would recommend against your first experience as a prerelease if you’re going solo. Lots of people online say it’s a great way to dip your toes in and I can’t disagree more. Deck building can be difficult even for veterans and to play prerelease you have to deck build under a time limit. However, if you have a friend to join you to help guide your build and allowing you to focus on playing, it can be really fun. There are events specifically to learn the game at many LGSs (local game stores). If you want to see what Magic events are being hosted near you, go to this site and type in your location. https://locator.wizards.com
The set was a lot of fun, but I have lots of feelings regarding WotC watering down their IP to try to bring in new players. I’ll have a whole article about that and similar issues in video games coming soon.
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I don’t have a problem with the non-magic-verse cards, but I do have a problem with how many of them don’t do anything even remotely appropriate for what the card supposedly is, and the general power creep and text complexity overdrive. But then, I basically haven’t played since Zendikar block anyway, just check in every so often and go jeeze they’re printing *that* !?
I don’t play magic, but this combination of facts (if I understand them right) seem strange to me.
Outside IPs are meant to expand the target market and bring in new players, yes?
While increased card/text complexity is meant to increase the challenge for veteran players, as I am given to understand.
This seems like a difficult balancing act. If the cards get too complex, the new players you hand them to may get intimidated and not jump onboard.
I imagine there are a lot of well experienced game designers behind Magic these days to try and make this work.
Card complexity increase and trigger overload was one of the coffin nails of X-wing (besides design team/philosophy changes, the pandemic, corporate meddling, sequel disappointment, and in all honestly, just running out of steam a little). There were enough differences to Magic that this is probably not an effective cross analysis, though.
At the end of the day, what’s good for a game as a game and what’s good for a game as a product don’t align. There are not a lot of games that can boast a constant level of such commercial success for so long like Magic can. It’s probably just Magic, 40k and Pokemon. Even DnD comes and goes in waves, I believe.
The official products extending into fan originated formats (commander), and the online play platforms being able to do complicated things automatically, both incentivize/ reduce dis-incentives for complicated stuff. As for bringing in new people, well some might say that WotC has decided to start killing the golden goose because they want more eggs right now (because they’re owned by a toy company and toys are failing). So less attracting lifetime players to continue printing money, and more squeezing people for as many nostalgia dollars as possible.
I think there’s also an element of ludo narrative dissonance too. The cards have to be balanced for the game to work, but the things they are referencing might not be balanced in the source IP for plot reasons.