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by Kevin McLaughlin, Senior Editor
The "Whys" of the DCI Whew! It has been a stormy six months, but the seas seem to be calming down now. I've been hearing from a lot of people who are having a hard time understanding the DCI's changes to the Type 2 tourney environment. While I'm not the DCI, mind you, I have a pretty good grasp of what is happening with Type 2, so I'll give some explainations and some suggestions for dealing with the changes. Back in December, we were told that all the T2 "power cards" were going away January 1st. Ouch! To make matters worse, we were losing Ice Age, Fallen Empires, and Homelands as well?!? All at once? It was a VERY big change. A lot of decks died December 31st. But a lot of new ones were born, too. Well, the whys of this one are easy. Fallen Empires was supposed to have "fallen" out of T2 ages before it did. Actually, FE was supposed to rotate out when Ice Age came in! And Homelands was to vanish when Alliances came in. In response to overwhelming player and retailer requests, the DCI extended the lifespan of these sets. But they had been in play a long time; T2 was supposed to be a slowly rotating format, and it was time for a change. The foulup was that they changed too much all at once. The banning of the restricted list was also at player request! There was a vast number of tourney players who wanted these cards OUT of play. They were swing cards, like Balance or Zorb, or they were cards everyone played with, like Stripmine or Tax. But it is important to remember, this was not just a shot in the dark by the DCI. The DCI did this in response to player request. How to deal with this? Well, the restricted list is gone. It isn't coming back, folks. Feel secure, you will never lose to Balance/Zorb in T2 again. But Ice Age and Homelands, on the other hand... On May 1st, the DCI announced a new rotation policy. Once again, we have complained about rotation, and once again, they listened. On July 1st, Ice Age and Homelands will rotate back into T2. Alliances will NOT rotate out with the release of Weatherlight. All three of these sets (HM, IA, and AL) will rotate out when Tempest comes into play this fall (Oct-Nov 97). From then on, sets will rotate out in groups of three when each new standalone set comes out. So when the '98 standalone comes out, Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight will be out. This gives each set 2 years of play time. Which brings us to the next question. Why is WOTC releasing so many sets!?! Well, it isn't. ;) WOTC will release 3 sets per year. One will be a standalone, released in the Fall (Oct-Nov), with two expansions the following Febuary and June. That's it. No extras. Three a year. But what about 5th Edition and Portals? Well, the release schedule doesn't count new editions of the basic set. The theory is, if you're a new Magic player, you were going to buy 4th Edition anyway, so 5th coming out is no hardship for you. If you were an old-timer, you already had all the cards anyway, and weren't buying any 4th Edition. Why should WOTC care if you buy no 5th Edition? Remember - the basic set serves two purposes. First, to get newer players a start, and give all players the "foundation cards" neccessary to build most decks. Second, to set the guide for what cards will be allowed in tourney play. So how do we deal with this? If you don't want 5th, don't buy it. Trade for any of those cool new pictures you want. Ditch the now out-of-print cards, or save them for Type 1.5. If you were buying 4th to build up your basic set collection, buy 5th instead. But it isn't a new set, per se, in that most current players just won't have to buy any of it to play. Portals is NOT Magic:the Gathering. That's the first thing everyone needs to understand. It is a NEW game. Just like V:TES, Netrunner, and Battletech. It is based around the M:TG rules, but the rules in Portals are different. Simpler, basically. Also, Portals is unique in all CCGs. It was not designed for the "gamers". You know, those pizza-slurping ex-AD&Ders who now play M:TG until all hours... No, Portals is not for you. Portals is designed for the Monopoly crowd. For the Trivial Pursuit players. For the average Joe off the street who has never played a fantasy ANYTHING game before. WOTC plans to market this game via TV and Magazine ads in a Nationwide campaign - the largest the industry has ever seen - as part of their goal to make games a part of standard American entertainment. Portals will for the most part NOT be tourney legal. A very small percentage of the cards are exact reprints from some current set (ArchAngel, Armageddon, a few others...) with new art. These will be tourney legal (the Portals backs are identical to M:TG cards). But the rest of the set will not be. So... If you have extra money to blow, buy some Portals! If you are like most of us, and broke 90% of the time, save your money for Weatherlight - which looks like it'll be really good, by the way. So really, we had one release in October - Mirage - one in February - Visions - and one coming in June - Weatherlight. Then we'll have another in October - Tempest, and an unnamed one next February. Not bad. At about $75 a box, most fanatics can afford to drop $225 a year on their hobby. Those who cannot buy, trade; but that's a whole 'nother article. ;)
Kevin McLaughlin
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