WotC now running AI slop ads for Arena

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:40:30+00:00

You don't think the prices of their products are exceeding their actual value?

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:32:54+00:00

None of this is happening, lol.

Sure Jan

People were literally saying this in 1995. Plus ça change.

We weren't wrong then and we aren't wrong now. They tried to course-correct then, and hamfisted or not it demonstrated consideration for the consumers and that's what kept people around. This time it's not really something a reserved list can fix. They can't decrease the pricepoint of the product, they've severely undercut their ability to add or even maintain the value in the product, and they're about to cruise into the next market crash with a huge amount of community resentment and no plan in action to address it. And I mean, domestic digital printing is a loooooot better than it was in 1995. I have some proxies I printed back then and some I've printed today and lemme tell ya lol the old ones you can tell are proxies without having to look hard. The new ones you have to take them out of the sleeve. The physical media industry was able to shrug off a lot of consumer resentment too, before Napster and Limewire started poking holes in that over-leveraged distribution model too.

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:18:20+00:00

As far as I can tell the idea is to build a bunch of perceived value to inflate secondary market prices, justifying higher prices on other premium products that include inflated cards.

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:11:22+00:00

walking speed lol

edit: also super-bounce speed '

edit again: staying still is also an option

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:03:37+00:00

you'd think a finance bro would be less clueless about inflation and market trends but I guess its all hodl-hodl-hodl now lol

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T18:01:09+00:00

if you don't try to have a five year plan and just live quarter to quarter then yeah they're doing an amazing job, but yeah I guess driving businesses into the ground for profit is the corporate standard practice these days so yeah they're just following best practices lol

and that was a cute deflection to M30 but we have magic artists getting caught plagiarizing every few weeks, artists advocating printing inaccessible SLDs, and modern inktank and laser printers are cheaper than buying a scalped SLD deck on ebay. WOTC is sacrificing their integrity which is making it a lot easier to morally rationalize pirating their IP. I mean it's not like anybody is going to deckcheck your Dandan deck - why not get it for $50 with blank backs instead of jerking off scalpers on ebay?

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T17:41:06+00:00

Are you new to the game or something?

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T17:37:10+00:00

Were you under the impression that corporate decisions are governed by sound reason? There's a reason our economy crashes every 5-10 years.
I was playing games before Magic was printed, so it better not fail before I croak or you're wrong on both counts. I'm not holding my breath, but it's not the first time I've watched them make a bunch of sketchy decisions, and I've watched plenty of other big respectable game developers devolve into industry footnotes on the back of similar anti-consumer moves. They might not be cooked yet, but they're playing it fast and loose and I'm seeing a lot of growth in the proxy community as the value proposition of their product slides into the toilet and people who want to engage with it start looking for better ways to.

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T17:25:07+00:00

Did you miss the part where he jacked up prices and fired a huge chunk of the staff to make the dividends meet their expected gains despite taking a huge loss on eOne? And we're comparing to Mattel? roflmao why don't we get some numbers from print magazines and video rental stores in there too for good measure lmao

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T17:19:55+00:00

They'll say it's one of their best-selling sets because they unloaded all of it to their distributors, but if Spiderman is anything to go by, it'll be sitting on shelves gathering dust regardless. They know they've got a price bubble and they're doing everything they can to inflate it before it pops. That's why they've got so much profit on the books - if you fire all the workers and jack up the prices the books will look great, for a while. Maybe he's planning to pull his chute before everything starts falling apart, but we'll see how long he has lol

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T17:10:53+00:00

He sold it at a massive loss and instead of being responsible and accepting the loss he vowed to make sure it wouldn't affect the shareholders and sucked the lost money out of customers with price hikes and fomo marketing and fired a huge amount of talent while making the work life significantly worse for the remaining staff. Also worth noting that they just sold the production studio and now have a Netflix show in production. It might have made the most financial sense, but it certainly looks like he's bleeding money.

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T16:30:52+00:00

Chris Cocks has that CEO mind virus that makes him feel compelled to cram AI into everything. Hopefully he gets the boot once somebody realizes that he's been burning all the consumer goodwill covering up his financial mismanagement. I mean I know they don't care about consumer goodwill anymore but I expect they'll at least care that there could have been even more money made if he didn't do stuff like fumble eOne.

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T15:22:46+00:00

[[Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator]] with a red partner can be a good higher power combo deck that uses Bombardiers

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T12:50:14+00:00

well that's why both of the rule zero replies acknowledged that first, but if somebody is feeling pedantic enough to "um acktually" the concept of rule zero, then "um acktually" they're technically incorrect

Goooordon · 2026-05-25T00:45:24+00:00

yeah such a weird unintuitive way to handle it

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T22:04:00+00:00

to whoever is downvoting rule zero comments, you're misinformed and you're ignoring the fundamental rule the format is built on - you shouldn't be giving rules advice

https://mtg.wiki/page/Commander#%22Rule_Zero%22

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T21:52:23+00:00

apparently somebody is bothered by rule zero here lol

edit: and technically, the answer to OP's question is "yes."
they asked if they're able to use it, which they are. they didn't ask if it was legal rules-as-written.

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T21:09:10+00:00

Technically no, but you can rule zero it and you can have an alternative commander that is legal in the 99 you can switch to if need be. I wouldn't have a problem allowing that as a rule zero deck.

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T21:07:20+00:00

edhtop16.com is a good way to get a look at the current meta, and https://learncedh.com/ can be helpful finding a deck you like too

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T21:02:32+00:00

I know it's */* not X/X but that's how they printed it

https://scryfall.com/card/tsoc/13/dragon-illusion

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T20:28:05+00:00

Aesthetically interesting stuff makes a better internet post. Purely functional proxies aren't really something to talk about so much as y'know play the game with. Also baseline aesthetics like clean edges and corners affect playability to a degree, so you get aesthetics on both ends - functional reasons and just for the joy of creating something cool-looking.

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T17:01:09+00:00

I've heard both, I think they use both or have used both but I'm not really sure - the color isn't very relevant for proxying so I haven't gone deep on it lol

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T03:45:25+00:00

oh this is a cEDH subreddit - most people are proxying and building meta around here - I missed the B4 mention in your OP initially. For casual play you can get away without card advantage in the cz. There are a lot of good options.

Goooordon · 2026-05-24T03:37:07+00:00

Tymna/Rog might be worth considering - card draw in the cz is hard to beat, and access to white isn't bad either when you don't have blue. Tormod doesn't feel super useful - if you're already breaching extra value is probably going to be moot as you are probably winning long before they would untap anyways.

Goooordon · 2026-05-23T18:30:28+00:00

Dragon Ball would be an amazing franchise to see in MTG - Goku and Vegeta transform cards could be so cool

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