Cardboard by the Numbers

Hey folks,

Back in early December, I made a ton of infographics to help me focus on my work (procrastinating with something productive is good at keeping me productive!). I got so into the groove of work that I never had time to publish any of them, but yesterday's news from Hasbro about their 2022 earnings forced me out of my slumber (and helped me feel less guilty about the $150 purchase of a website from December). I'll be subsequently adding my many other infographics I made about 2022 in Magic, and probably creating more in the meantime, but I wanted to share my posts here.

I imagine I'll be writing a lot about Cube, especially once CubeCobra has analytics to play with again, but since this first round-up of articles is not strictly Cube related, I'm putting the thread here in General, and will update as it becomes relevant.

Any feedback is helpful, and thanks so much for reading!

Article #1: Magic Hits $1 Billion
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Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The graphic says “oursized share” near the end of the first paragraph. I think that should be “outsized share”. Man, what ridiculous growth though o_O
 
Honestly, I'm very surprised Ikoria showed up so much on the cards in this set given how unimportant it was to the overall story of the set. I get the Companions in Multiversal Legends are inflating the numbers by quite a bit, but even then, I wouldn't expect 17(!) cards in the main set to be Ikorian. That's even more than the plot-relevant New Capenna!
 
Getting eviscerated on Reddit for this from people who think anything positive about Universes Beyond is a sin against all sins, but this is an article more trying to uncover the "why" of Doctor Who from a business POV when it doesn't seem to be a good choice for UB at first blush.

MtG and “Doctor Who” Have Little Overlap – But That’s a Good Thing

Lack of success aside, I'm pretty proud of this article! Should have called it something like "The Doctor Who x MtG Collab Doesn't Make Sense on Paper" to get the cynics to give it a click. I may not prefer UB to be a part of Magic (aside from LotR) but I've made my peace with it.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The State of Boros in Cube -- would love to hear your thoughts on this one, folks!
As someone with a heavily skewed cube, I am actually able to run 16 Boros cards, only 4 of which match the top 12 in your article! (Admittedly #1, #3, and #4 are three of them, with #11 Merry, Esquire of Rohan being the fourth one). Oh, I do run two Figures, because it's such an iconic one-drop, so there's that :)

As for the new cards, Boros has indeed received some great additions this year, and I run two that you haven't even talked about yet! Ash, Party Crasher has been a solid new addition, and celebration in general has been a very fun mechanic to explore in Boros. I did have to create a few white customs to make it on par in that color though, so there's that. Éowyn, Fearless Knight is also a pretty top-end, being able to permanently remove opposing fatties.

Of the old favorites, somehow Skyknight Vanguard keeps finding ways to impact my games in neat ways. You'ld think a measly 1/2 that makes a single token that immediately gets eaten would disappoint, but it never does! Pump effects, sacrifice outlets, or simply outnumbering your opponent's creatures, somehow it works!
 
I really like Loamcrafter Faun which I don't think I've seen many other people talk about. Obviously not a super high power card but it's simple, has a solid rate for mid and low power, has a super unique effect, and overlaps with a bunch of different synergies (blink stuff, lands stuff, discard stuff, graveyard stuff). And the art and flavor text are good. All around very nice card.
 
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