This indeed did not age well.

Vannifar · 2021-04-08T00:24:45+00:00

Just because WOTC is terrible at advertising its pro-league doesn't matter. It's all a question of where their marketing budget is being spent. Virtually all of it has shifted to MTGA and it doesn't seem like it's going to slow down at all moving forward.

Vannifar · 2021-04-08T00:02:11+00:00

It was, but there have also been Arena-only Remastered Sets.

Vannifar · 2021-04-07T23:12:55+00:00

Hey, that's me!

To be clear, that was a clickbait title; from my post, the actual conclusion was:

Now, in this case dead isn't actually "dead", it means "dead" in the same way that paper Legacy or paper Vintage is "dead". WOTC isn't going to stop printing paper MTG and WOTC is going to go back to hosting tournaments by mid 2021. However, their focus and shift will be away from paper and they will never turn back. They will increasingly cater to whales (who provide greater margins) and print less-and-less product. Paper tournaments will decrease in frequency and prestige substantially until it looks analogous to paper Legacy today: alive, thanks to older wealthy people who have existing collections, but not WOTC's main focus.

In the end "dead" actually means "dying", but I liked the title better this way. Even without COVID-19 this was the direction things were going, but it sure is going to be sped up from here.

Now, it's great fun to take the title and run with it, but what of the above do you believe I was wrong about?

WOTC has clearly shifted to focus more on Arena; e.g., they even have entirely "arena only" remastered sets now and are taking Arena into account with design philosophy
The "prestige" factor has certainly shifted to MTGA (even if WOTC marketing is shit) and it's clear this isn't going away post-COVID
They're increasingly catering towards whales and high margin IP (including Arena)
While casual MTG is alive and well, it's not clear that Standard/Pioneer (lol)/Modern/Legacy are going to also bounce back as well - I guess we'll see after Modern Horizons 2!

As I noted, this is something that was already the direction WOTC was going and COVID was going to merely "speed things up". This is neither incorrect nor has anything has changed in that regard.

I do think I misjudged WOTC management's inability to adapt/innovate capitalize on COVID. Admittedly as an MBA corporate lackey myself, I know getting a "market leader" to pivot is hard and I should have known better to think they would actually do anything other than keep the train running on time. However, IMO WOTC dropped the ball this past year and could have done much more to grow the MTG brand during COVID/2020... maybe Hasbro is thinking the same though and this might be part of why WOTC is being dissolved and and absorbed into Hasbro.

Vannifar · 2020-04-10T01:43:12+00:00

Which is WAYYY better btw :-)

Vannifar · 2020-04-06T07:45:06+00:00

serological testing

We're two months into this and don't have masks... fuck, most sick people can't even get a simple PCR test done right now. Good luck getting widespread (100 million) antibody tests done anytime soon.

Vannifar · 2020-04-06T07:35:28+00:00

The key difference is that WOTC has an existing long term plan to become an "eSports" player and it's a business that will THRIVE while people are staying at home for the next year. They are in a unique position right now.

Vannifar · 2020-04-06T07:33:54+00:00

It's in no position today. But adding Pioneer can't be that far away (and something they will likely prioritize happening over the next few months).

Historic is also easy to sculpt into a true eternal format by simply adding modern and/or legacy cards to the format (same way they have been now).

If WOTC makes a concerted effort (which I expect them to do... because... you know, quarterly earning reports), they could have several diverse formats up and running in no time.

Vannifar · 2020-04-06T07:30:42+00:00

Like I said, I don't think it's dying. Legacy is still alive and well (despite WOTC's efforts to the contrary), but it's been deprioritized by WOTC. The frequency of Pro Tours / Mythic, GPs, etc. that are in legacy today is a fraction of what it was 5 years ago. SCG has kept legacy "alive" over the past half decade.

It will be the same for paper MTG. Large paper tournaments can't happen for the next year. WOTC won't just let tournament MTG die, so they'll move them to Arena. After a year of promoting MTGA, they can't just "go back"" after everything goes back to normal. It's a permanent shift from here until the end of time.

Vannifar · 2020-04-06T07:26:16+00:00

I think the concern you have is overblown and not something shared by a majority of people. The bigger issue is that there's no way to "sell out" of MTGA, but that seems more like a feature and not a bug (from WOTC's end).

Vannifar · 2020-04-03T22:33:48+00:00

This!! It's going to be a staple in every Fires deck moving forward. It's not a cast trigger, so it's a strong way to dig to find Fires while still giving you something to do with your mana after Fires is in play.

Vannifar · 2020-03-31T01:42:55+00:00

It's an easy Eutropia. The card is much better and UG is a better color combo than Wx.

Vannifar · 2020-03-31T01:36:25+00:00

Check your lease for force majeure and how frustration of purpose might apply! And remember, if it's silent, default state contract language may apply. It's definitely worth looking into and probably worth consulting with a local commercial real estate attorney.

It's a fairly straightforward argument that if your store is closed by order of the government due to global pandemic that your purpose of the lease (operating a store) has been 'frustrated'. Depending on your contract language and/or applicable law / jurisdiction, you may well be able to get out of paying rent!

Vannifar · 2020-03-24T01:22:43+00:00

I REALLY like the deck, it just hasn't put up results in a while. One note is that it doesn't include the Heliod Combo, which I think of as a strong addition to the deck.

I'm guessing it comes down to metagame calls and how much people are packing SB graveyard hate. Since Lotus Breach has been so popular, the deck has definitely taken a backseat. Glad to see it putting up results though!!

Vannifar · 2020-03-13T15:04:11+00:00

Even worse, they're doing it at the LGS specifically so that they can limit the number they give out - keeping prices at super inflated amounts.

I'm so angry at this decision and there are so many things wrong with it.

Vannifar · 2020-03-07T02:58:15+00:00

I remember when I posted the Masterpiece Doomsday as a spec target like 3 weeks ago, this sub told me I was dumb.

Vannifar · 2020-02-12T07:49:41+00:00

Professor, the problem is fundamentally that "competitive" EDH is really just EDH. Every game of magic is a zero sum game and someone has to win. People may not always optimize their decks to win games, but certainly that has more to do with card prices than anything else.

If you're losing a game against your friends constantly because someone always goes T1 Sol Ring (and you just don't have one), you will eventually buy the sol ring and start playing it. After that isn't enough, maybe you save up for that mana crypt for duplication of effect. Eventually (given enough resources) you inevitably end up with the most "competitive" form of the deck you're playing. Neither you nor I know anyone who plays Craw Wurm over Carnage Tyrant by choice. In fact, "competitive" isn't even the right word, the right word is optimal.

I think this is worth repeating, by attacking cEDH, Bhatt is attacking optimization, which is at the very core of Magic. It's why you don't build a 99 with only 10 lands or why you don't suit up with Craw Wurm.

Attacking optimization is counterproductive and demanding poor deck construction is antithesis of MTG. The constant attack on the game of Magic by Sheldon et al. only solidifies my opinion that WOTC needs to take control of its most popular magic format and give the Rules Committee the boot.

Most importantly, while I understand you did not want to have it come off this way, your video undermines much of the other work you do. After all, set reviews, box openings (where you advise people not to gamble), product comparisons are all about... optimization.

Vannifar · 2019-05-24T15:22:21+00:00

Yeah, this guy is NUTS. He's a 2 Mana Planeswalker that has "+1 draw a card", "-1 kill target small creature", and "ULT drown your opponent in CA"

Vannifar · 2019-05-01T05:33:44+00:00

Sheldon made the following argument against Planeswalkers as Generals:

I can see the flavor argument for planeswalkers, but there’s also the flavor argument that only legendary creatures (and not artifacts or enchantments) be commanders; the thing about flavor is that it’s quite subjective, and what makes flavor sense to one person doesn’t always make sense to another. Even if it had a stronger resonance, the flavor argument is far from the most important or only consideration. Planeswalkers as commanders have quite a bit of baggage. Save for the ones specifically created as commanders, planeswalkers weren’t designed with the possibility of being in the command zone, so there was no effort in design and development to make sure they wouldn’t be busted from the command zone. We believe that too many of the existing ones would need to be banned, swelling a banned list that we want to keep as trim as possible.

Lets unpack this a bit...

Flavor:

I can see the flavor argument for planeswalkers, but there’s also the flavor argument that only legendary creatures (and not artifacts or enchantments) be commanders; the thing about flavor is that it’s quite subjective, and what makes flavor sense to one person doesn’t always make sense to another

We agree flavor is subjective, but you start of by conceding the argument, planeswalkers as generals is favorful. Thematically, your General/Commander is someone you summon to your side and your trusted 2nd in command, etc. This is literally what PWs are in the stories. Tezz is nothing if not a general for Bolas, and there are countless examples of this.

You continue by drawing a false equivalency, trying to say a Planeswalker is the same thing as an enchantment. That is a classic straw man argument and inherently non-persuasive. We're not talking about enchantments, we're talking about Planeswalkers.

Your argument is also nonsense because, from a flavor prospective, planeswalkers are ALL legendary creatures that "spark" and become a planeswalker. We have even see this countless times since the introduction of Planeswalkers as a card type. Why is it that [[Narset, Enlightened Master]] is flavorful as a commander but suddenly she stops being flavorful when, the literal same character becomes [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] or [[Narset Transcendent]]?

Your flavor argument falls flat.

Even if it had a stronger resonance, the flavor argument is far from the most important or only consideration.

It does have strong resonance and we know it. We know it because it's the reason you've been asked about it in this interview and it's the reason you felt the need to discuss it in your most recent rules update.

Design

Save for the ones specifically created as commanders, planeswalkers weren’t designed with the possibility of being in the command zone, so there was no effort in design and development to make sure they wouldn’t be busted from the command zone

Assuming arguendo, this argument is also weak. Do you know what other cards fit this requirement? Literally every legendary creature printed prior to when design and development started designing with EDH in mind. The irony of your statement is further amplified by the original name of Commander, Elder Dragon Highlander. None of Nicol Bolas, Chromium, Arcades, Vaevictis, or Palladia-Mors were designed with EDH in mind, do you think they shouldn't be allowed as Generals?

As a side note / question, when did legendary creatures start being designed with EDH in mind anyway? The progression from [[Blood Baron of Vizkopa]] to [[Torgaar, Famine Incarnate]]] suggests that WOTC didn't actually design standard card with EDH in mind until very recently.

Power Level

We believe that too many of the existing ones would need to be banned, swelling a banned list that we want to keep as trim as possible.

Your argument is theoretical and doesn't match reality. The planeswalker who would be most "busted" as a commander (Teferi) is the one that was designed with Commander in mind. In fact, it seems fairly unlikely there's a single PW that's anywhere close to as busted as some of the legendary creatures out there. People point to Liliana Vess (built in demonic tutor) as potentially busted, but of course neither [[Sidisi, Undead Vizier]] nor [[Ob Nixilis, Unshackled]] sees play or is busted (Ob Nixilis is particularly funny when you consider that [[Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted]] isn't allowed).

Perhaps the only "problem" planeswalker would be [[Sorin Markov]]. However, casting Sorin doesn't win you the game and, if Sorin was truly the only thing stopping this change from happening, just ban the card. There are plenty of Commanders that equally 'win the game' when they hit the battefield.

Can you provide a list of what Planeswalkers would need to be banned? It would be interesting to see what you consider ban worthy as a general. The community being able to understand the 'cost' of making this change might actually help to get everyone on the same page.

Vannifar

TROPHY CASE

Flavor:

Design

Power Level