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compiled by Urza
Well, you may have read the other article I wrote this month, "Letters". So I wouldn't be surprised if you looked at this now and wondered just what is going on in my mind. It's a perfectly legitimate question, with a very simple answer. I just felt that the other column should be left alone like it is, with any actual letters to print here. You may also be wondering why I have any letters at all, considering what I said in my excuse. Yet that's another simple answer, being that these were personally held by the author to which they were sent until very recently. Anyway, here goes the real introduction. Last issue, Da Sarge wrote an article which ended with a few questions he wanted readers to answer. He's forwarded them to me to print here, which is the entire reason for the article, as explained above. Anyway, here are the questions from last month, just to refresh your memory…
And now, on to the responses:
Response #1
1) If you could not use Power Cards in Type II, should you be allowed to use any cards you want? No. That's what Type I is for. If Type II allowed any card but the "Power Cards" (I assume you mean the Power 9) then all Type I would be is a format that allowed 9 more cards than Type II. What's the point? Type II was created to be an ever-changing environment. It encourages people to try new deck designs, experiment with the latest sets of cards. If every set stayed legal in Type II, you'd see significantly less inovation and creativity. And Type II is also supposed to be an environment in which the cards that can be used are in-print and not that difficult to obtain. Legends is out of print, and I sure can't afford to buy (or even trade for) Legends cards. So why would I play in an environment where people with lots of cards from that set might have an advantage over me? Let's face it, WotC is a business. Their entire purpose is to *make money.* By continually changing the environment most people play in, they encourage people to purchase the latest sets of cards, which is how they make money. Call it greedy, call it insiduous, call it rotten, call it whatever you want. To WotC, Magic is about money. To make money, they have to design a game people will want to play, and will enjoy playing. If you have a problem with their policies, stop buying cards. The rest of us will accept that this is how things are, and play on. 3) Do you feel that WOTC has made too many restrictions on the cards you can use in different tournaments? As a point of clarification, it's the DCI who make these restrictions, not WotC per se. I don't play in that many tournaments, but I have no problem with the restrictions up to now. 4) If you are a collector, would you try and collect Magic cards for any future monetary gain in the future? I'm a collector. I like to play more than I like to collect, but I still enjoy trying to complete sets, or obtain some of the older, out of print cards. I don't buy the cards because I think they'll be worth money. I collect them because in 20 years I'd like to look back and know that I can play Magic with any card from Mirage, or Visions, or Stronghold, etc. The cards themselves, save for some of the older cards, are not going to increase in value that much. Which is fine by me. I'm not in it for the money. I have no intention of going down to a hobby store in 5 or 10 years and hawking all my cards for whatever I can get. And I like the idea that in 5 yeas I'll be able to buy cards from the Mirage block or Tempest block for less than $20. 5) Should the colors start mixing with each other as suggested above or are the new abilities and effects good enough? Sometimes I wonder if you just completely miss the entire idea behind Magic. If the various characteristics of the colors get mixed together, what's the point of having colors at all? If every color had direct damage, what would be the point of playing red as opposed to green? Look at it this way, if you want to cast a "Fireball"-like spell, why not just put Fireballs into your deck? Playing green? Then just splash a little red and make a 2-color deck! Want a Drain Life in your white control deck? Splash a little black in. The *very basis* of Magic was that each color was to be unique, with its own personality, if you will. Blur the characteristics, and the colors become meaningless. Why not just print every card in all 5 colors, and let players just pick whatever color they like best when playing? Because that's not only not much fun, but it's not what the game was meant to be. Black was meant to be the color of death, red the color of fire, etc. There's already enough cross-over: black, red, and green all have land destruction, and white has Armageddon. That's just one example. The colors should be unique and identifiable. Start printing green fireballs (how dumb does that sound?) and pretty soon the notion of color is meaningless. Some day I hope you're able to look back at Magic and see something positive. Every column of yours that I've read has focused on what you hate about Magic, what you think WotC is doing wrong, what policy you detest or what restrictions you don't like. It's a wonder you even play the game, when you so rarely have anything worthwhile to say about it. Phil Wilson
Response #2
Hi Sarge, Just finished your latest editorial. I'm going to address things from the collecting point of view since we've already established that my player views need some seasoning. I started collecting magic cards last fall and have everything recent--I'm still deciding if I want to pony up the cash for alpha, beta, revised, legends, antiquties, and arabian nights. If I can actually get an opportunity to play the game I'll probably continue to collect just cause I need a hobby that is safe around small children. However, I have to admit the US News & World report article about Magic and how the black lotus was over $100 certainly got my attention and got me started. After 6-7 months of collecting I've come to the conclusion that the black lotus (or even the moxes) are not going to happen again. Simply the value of a card is some function of its rarity and playability. The black lotus and moxes (along with other T1 cards) have both. They are "broken" (powerful) and rare (only about 4500 black lotus's and moxes in alpha and beta combined). I do not see that in any of the in print cards that are out there now. In addition, it seems to me that the DCI tournament structure devalues the more recent out of print cards (Ice ages, alliances). They aren't powerful enough to compete in T1 or T1.5 and they are not TII legal, except for reprints. And most of the useful power cards from recent oops are being reprinted. So there really isn't anything in IA or AL to drive up the price of the cards. Rarity is also a problem. WotC no longer seems to release print run information, but it is clear that there are MANY more than 4500 diamond moxes floating around. And, their value is strictly dependent on being TII legal. Once they are rotated out to T1.5 their play value is reduced and there will be many, many of them floating around who is going to want to pay top value for them? I'm not sure what I want WotC to do about this. I guess they could just make every card a common card and let the collectors find something else to do. I do think that collectors might react well to limited runs of cards with new artwork. Wrath of God in black boarder with multiple pieces of art, in limited runs, could be collectable. For the player, it means that WoG would be around in TII for a while so maintaining your deck at reasonable cost would be reasonable. (I haven't really had a chance to think this through yet, so if it sucks, feel free to say so.) Cheers, Mike
Response #3
1) Who are you really punishing? The T1 area is dead to a large
degree, so for those people who have cards that old, for the most part
they are useless. I think the bigger question is what is a power card.
Take the hippie specter for example, unless I am wrong you can us it in
1.5 extended but not in T2. I don't think that is a power card.
Well, you can't use it in extended. And Hippie specter really is a
power card, and is definately one of the 5 best creatures ever printed.
There's definately a reason he's banned in extended and type 2.
If he was allowed in T2, it would be a completely different environ.
You'd have to re-add bolts, plows, and other first turn critter kill.
And then you wouldn't be playing T2 anymore, it'd be another 1.5.
Part of the draw of T2 is you don't have to stress about a first
turn specter, and the differences are the reason no one plays tradewinds
in Extended. Decks using them just don't work there.
My general opinion is if you're playing informally, everyone should
play 1.5 restrictions. This lets everyone use just about any card
they want, while not being completely unbalanced. Besides, if someone's
playing informally all the time, how many juzams and mana drains do
they probably have, anyway? If you do have all the power, just play
T1, and let your opponent use power cards in his deck. They rarely
complain.
2) I understand the reason for the different types of tourn, but with
such a massive amount of cards going over into different tourn. types
with every new release, at times that point seems moot and makes many
cards quite useless after only two or three years.
Well, many cards are quite useless from the moment they're printed.
However, more cards from each expansion are usable in the newer tourney
types than the old ones. I mean, in tempest alone, there are a bunch
of great cards that are very playable in T2, and even more in Tempest
only. But only 3-4 cards are actually usable in T1 - Cursed Scroll,
Interdict, Wasteland, and maybe a couple others in lesser quantities.
If there was only one tourney type, there would only be a few usable
cards, and a lot of deck diversity would die.
3) I agree fully
4) Good point, many of my friends fel the same way
I really did this when I recognized abeyance, and picked up a bunch
for $3 apiece. Sold them for $15 later at tourneys, and still had
my 4. I mean, when you see a way to make quick, easy money, you have
to think about it. Why do you think pyramid schemes are still around?
5) I agree, if this was to happen you would have to limit how many
cards and more importently what cards you would use. Whatever cards
they would use I would make them more expensive to use.
Yeah, along the lines of withering boon or phyrexian tribute. As long
as they're never as good as the original, or even close, I wouldn't
mind.
Chuckie
Well, there were some good responses to at least this one article this month. This is the kind of thing I'm looking for, readers (see the other Letters article), so keep sending your letters to r***e@m***i.com! [Disclaimer: Beyond Dominia cannot be held responsible for any spelling, grammatical, or factual errors these letters might contain. They are usually not pre-edited before printing, and appear as we received them. Anything sent to the Beyond Dominia Letters column becomes the property of Beyond Dominia unless prior arrangements are made.]
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