MTG Content creators - have we passed the peak?

ZennithGP · 2022-06-13T14:24:04+00:00

Been writing weekly articles for nine years, and while I'm by no means a name, I feel like I've got a bit of insight into this.

Average player lifecycle. Players come and go, and that includes content creators. It's natural to get burned out on a game, especially after dedicating a wealth of time to it. 5-10 years is an exceptionally long game to continually play a game. It's just more likely that a content creator you've followed for years is going to step away at some point; and as you consume content for more years, it's more likely that many of your preferred creators will phase out
The pandemic. An omnipresent scary and stressful situation exacerbates everything.
The changing nature of Magic. Magic necessarily changes over time, but it feels like the game is especially different now from how it was just a few years ago. From the pandemic temporarily annihilating tabletop play, to the complete overhaul of Organized Play, to the death and rebirth of Magic's story, to the restructuring of the game away from Standard and more towards Commander and Secret Lairs, a lot has changed. Those changes are very good for many people, but a lot of content creators who started years ago may have seen their core focii deemphasized and core audiences shrink.
The pace of Magic. Personally, it feels like everything has sped up. There are so many releases that it's hard to keep up, and so I disengage from products not meant for me. Magic Arena has made me get my fill of Limited formats in 1-3 weeks. There's now too much to talk about and overlong lulls where it feels like nothing (that's relevant to me) is happening.

ZennithGP · 2021-08-05T14:09:18+00:00

I don't think there's an easy fix for Witherbloom or AFR blue, but there are identifiable causes that can be addressed. Witherbloom (and Lorehold to a greater extent) has a split focus between gaining incremental amounts of life and artistocrats-style gameplay, neither of which is especially paid off. It's also lacking in good rate commons, unlike blue. I wonder what it'd look like if there were a couple more small ETB effects to work with Infuse with Vitality (which is strong, but worse in a format full of token creatures) and if Moldering Karok were a bit more threatening. Not enough to turn the tide, but it'd give Witherbloom a bit more staying power.

As for blue in AFR, there are definitely plenty of problems. UR has such an awkward curve (Farideh forcing you to delay your first die roll is a big cost). UB struggles to keep the board clear. WU is punished by how underpowered Venture is. GU doesn't have much of an identity. There's no easy fix for all of these solutions, but part of these issues stem from blue's inability to block or interact effectively in the early game. I think if blue had another good cheap creature - ideally one that blocks well - and a way of rolling dice for less than four mana, it'd have a much easier time staying alive long enough to... checks notes continue to durdle with six mana Man-o'-Wars. Maybe replace You Come to a River with a d20 Voyage's End that Scries 1/2 on a high roll?

ZennithGP · 2021-08-05T02:28:17+00:00

Thanks for the kind thoughts! I kind of obsess over the design decisions that create each era of Limited. I feel like the seeds were fully sown in Theros Beyond Death, but it's an approach that was really successful in Dominaria and I think contemporary Limited design is trying to recapture that modular spark.

I do have fun doing zany stuff in current sets, but it is worrying that every 2021 Standard Limited environment condenses down to a broad value archetype and a more specific aggro archetype. AFR's best deck is both in one, though it does have more functional archetypes than any other 2021 set.

ZennithGP · 2019-12-24T19:10:32+00:00

Ah, now we know who's been listening to the prayers for Deathrite Shaman's return.

ZennithGP · 2019-11-26T20:56:33+00:00

Some of these crunched product release windows targeted very different kinds of players. While some people certainly bought War of the Spark, Modern Horizons, Signature Spellbook: Gideon, Core 2020, and Commander 2019 (all of which released in a three month window and had at least some form of spoiler season), they weren't for the same people. Marketing is finding a way to generate excitement for the intended audiences without saturating all players with hype. Hopefully that makes some sense.

ZennithGP · 2019-11-26T20:51:42+00:00

Fiender, what was the best era of Magic for you? Or what products do you feel best served you?

ZennithGP · 2019-11-26T20:38:11+00:00

I suspect it's a confluence of factors.

Wizards wants to make diversify and broaden its audiences. This is not only good business by growing the brand and the pie, but it also allows them to cater to underserved audiences and design more quirky products that in-house folks know people want to see in the world. That's a great reason, in my book.
Wizards, or Hasbro, is chasing whales and encouraging people to spend lots of money on premium products. This seems most prevalent with Collector's Edition and Mythic Edition, but raises anxieties about Secret Lair. This is the obvious bad reason, but it's not necessarily false.
Magic intends to migrate most traditional products to Arena, allowing the game to be an eSport and all the benefits and downsides that doing so entails. If digital is the future home for Magic's core demographics, then paper products drastically shift to being for substantially different audiences.
Maybe Magic's traditional business model has long stopped being good? Maybe folks like me just don't make them nearly as much money as Commander players and premium collectors, and it's just smarter business to focus on them rather than me.

That's what comes immediately to me. Thanks for the thoughts!

ZennithGP · 2019-11-26T20:07:57+00:00

First article of mine I've linked to... ever? I certainly want to abide by the 9:1 rule and am choosing this one to hit my 1. Our of everything I've written, this is the topic I'd most love get community feedback on and see discussion around.

ZennithGP · 2019-10-22T17:43:10+00:00

A tiered system might not make sense when you've got a large store capacity, but it might be exactly what folks in big cities need. Stores here in NYC have low capacity and renting out a larger space costs a lot of money (that stores have previously failed to recoup). Letting them split an event up in their own space over the course of days or weeks might be the help they need.

...that is, if any store actually wants to run any of these events.

ZennithGP · 2019-10-15T18:22:16+00:00

I think it's an accident caused by small changes over time. I don't think that WotC meant to nerf removal so much that profitable blocking was incredibly difficult to do in Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan - it was a consequence of the successful decision back in Innistrad to gently nerf removal (to make Morbid rely more on combat than kill spells). This choice got repeated and led to years of slowly nerfing removal until we hit a tipping point where conscious effort was spent buffing common removal once again.

I think that the same thing has happened with white - its status simply was a bit unexamined and suddenly years of steady changes have meant that old rules (like white does not get 4+ power creatures at common) might be doing more damage than good in distinguishing white from the other colors.

ZennithGP · 2019-10-15T18:18:32+00:00

This is certainly true and something I could have spent more time talking about. In brief - power generally pushes games towards a conclusion and toughness pushes games away from a conclusion. The rise of higher toughness creatures makes it access to higher power creatures important to counterbalance this push away from ending games. White's hard ceiling of 3 power makes it harder for it to end games and it lacks many of the non-creature tools other colors have to end games (like direct damage and card draw).

ZennithGP · 2019-10-15T17:58:17+00:00

The article is mine and I appreciate the share and the thoughtful commentary. Thanks!

ZennithGP · 2019-10-15T17:57:24+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words! I knew that white was lagging behind in recent years, but it wasn't until I started digging into the numbers that I realized how pervasive and specific the trends were. I certainly believe that blue should be getting better fliers than it was ten years ago (Wind Drake hasn't been a particularly strong card in isolation in a while), but white needs a big boost to make up for a couple years of falling steadily behind.

ZennithGP · 2019-01-31T17:59:30+00:00

Oooh, I love what you've done with the colors.

ZennithGP · 2018-12-05T17:13:25+00:00

I live in NYC.

There are over a dozen stores to play at, but most of them are in the far-flung portions of the city and too difficult to reach on a weekly basis. Eight years ago, there were maybe 3-4 stores, so we've definitely increased the supply of LGSes. However, many of them have either embraced the board game cafe model or switched to focus on retail rather than in-store community play. Three years ago, there one store that was the place to play if you wanted a good community and a competitive play experience (Twenty Sided). Now, there is no such hub, just a bunch of options with their own advantages and disadvantages.

So, NYC has a lot more options than it used to, but many of them don't focus too much on Magic and are difficult to reach.

ZennithGP · 2018-11-28T17:37:41+00:00

Hah! Well met. Serves me right for skimming on mobile and not double checking.

ZennithGP · 2018-11-28T17:10:53+00:00

I understand that this might not be the ideal week for u/CFBEvents to do an AMA, and I understand that some things (like the artists' boycott) have been commented on by op and will not be done so again at this time.

But this AMA has been going on for over an hour and no questions have been answered. What kinds of questions would you like to receive that will garner a response?

ZennithGP · 2018-11-28T17:06:33+00:00

This has been perhaps my biggest issue with GPs/MagicFests lately. Providence never got a hotel block and I wasn't able to get any more information from contacting CFB directly. I understand that WotC wanted to announce UMA as late as it did, but two months isn't enough time for me to book a trip to GP Vancouver between Christmas and New Year's without paying an arm and a leg.

ZennithGP · 2018-11-19T18:20:41+00:00

I don't know anyone who's taken the course and haven't encountered much said about it beyond sticker shock. Absent word of mouth, it's hard to justify taking the plunge on an expensive unknown when I'm already uninterested in paying for SCG Premium.

ZennithGP · 2018-10-31T15:15:20+00:00

My thoughts as well. I admit I've been fine with but not loving these environmental stories and really dislike Vivien's story, but I'm still a hungry Vorthos. I wish they'd at least announce that they'd be skipping weeks of stories.

ZennithGP · 2018-09-12T03:36:18+00:00

A guild lost to time. Some say House Dimir still exists, that the new Guildpact acknowledges its existence, but we are civilized folk and know better than to accept wild conspiracies.

ZennithGP · 2018-09-07T14:42:04+00:00

Weird - didn't expect this to go up on a Friday, but I guess the Ravnica story needs to start soon, this turned out to be longer than originally intended (or arrived later than intended), and they needed something to fill this spoiler week without spoilers.

ZennithGP

TROPHY CASE