 Vol. 1, Issue 3 - 8/23/99
Am I In Charge of WotC?
By Jacob Montanez
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Recently, I went back and looked at an old article I had written around December 1998, which appeared in January's issue of Beyond Dominia, titled "If I Were in Charge of WotC." What I found there startled me, made me laugh, or just made me think "Hmm. I quit my job, but I bet I could definitely work at WotC!" What the hell am I talking about? Read on and find out. I'll follow the basic structure of the aforementioned article.
Card Reprint Policy: Due to none of my "suggestions" being implemented, I'll skip this part. :)
Difficulty Levels: When I wrote the original article, the then-rumored changes in 6th ed rules dealt with interrupts becoming instants, and mana sources going away. I commented at the time that I felt it was very good, very intuitive. And it lives up to everything I thought it should be. Portal was something, however, that I disliked greatly, as it was not a simple version of Magic, but another game altogether. I suggested that the best parts of Portal should narrow the basics of the game down, but use the same terminology and wordings used in the full game. I mentioned that the 5 colors and associated lands should be introduced, as well as creatures, instants, sorceries, flight, trample, and landwalk. Now, 2/3rds of a year later, we have a new Magic product on the market known as Starter. What's going on? It has the same wordings as normal magic cards, the same card types as suggested (no enchant X cards, no artifacts or gold cards), and in general the same types of abilities. Exactly what I asked for.
Green: The Support Color: Green has both remained under this and yet exceeded it. By remaining a support color, I mostly refer to the fact that green got shafted by having such abusive color-hosers reprinted against it in Classic, but received no similarly potent hosers in return. Choke, City of Solitude, anything. But River Boa and Warthog? Come on. Then again, green has single-handedly become one of the most potent colors available right now. Until Rath Block rotates out, it still has access to such power cards as Recycle, Overrun, Scragnoth, and Muscle Sliver. It's been bolstered recently with Gaea's Cradle, Treetop Village, Yavimaya Elder, Rancor, Might of Oaks, I could go on for a while. Overall, I'm very optimistic in the general trend that green has taken in the Urza block.
Color-coded rarity, numbered sets, and foil cards: My first question here was resolved neatly by something I had also suggested: "How do you address color-coded rarity in the basic set? Give the basic set an expansion symbol!" Imagine my surprise when Classic debuted the roman numerals VI for an expansion symbol, as well as color-coded rarity. Such strange coincidence. Sets are still numbered, but I have changed my tune a bit after collecting sets of Urza's Legacy and Destiny mainly by number. I admit the idea has some merit after all. Finally, foil cards. I warned that due to "production cost increases," booster pack prices would go up to something like $3.25. Recently, WotC announced a price increase for boosters of Mercadian Masques to go up to $3.29. Being 4 cents off means nothing.
These seemingly numerous coincidences begin to add up to one huge conspiracy theory against me. I have aired my concerns before, and the beginnings of this article seemingly offer proof that they read what I write and implement my ideas. I've had similar success in the past with cards/mechanics I've developed for my own expansion sets, posted on my own website. I had both shadow and cycling before any expansion set that debuted those abilities was even thought of. My cycling was a tad off: The wording was basically "Discard this card: Draw a card." Never mind that those cards had a casting cost 2 higher than similar cards.translating to Cycling: 2.
Now, I submit to you, my readers: Has my paranoia gotten out of hand? Do I come off as someone trying desperately to capitalize on something I think is mine? I don't know. They keep adding up, and adding up. I'll finish my expansion set soon (yes, the same one I mentioned in the first article), and post it on my website. Will Mercadian Masques or some subsequent expansion use some mechanics? If they do, I'll continue to conclude that they like my ideas, and enjoy using them. Maybe they'll hire me. It's still appropriate, and almost humorous, given the content of this article, to finish with the same paragraph I used before.
"I'm feeling horribly long-winded by now, so if anyone agrees with what I'm saying, or has opposing views on the matter, feel free to let me know. And maybe, just maybe, WotC will use some of these ideas. I'm positive now that they purposely scout my page to see if I have new ideas for them to pillage."
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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