Ah, okay. That's fair. Feels so strange to have this much to keep track of, haha. But that's a totallt fair point. People are super excited for the FF set so it makes sense.
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Don't.
Hoping for an edible reprint of Siege Rhino
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
They are? I kinda hate it tbh. If I wanted anime art on my tcg, I would have switched to another card game by now.
I'm with you, but I've seen the comments around it and how all the Pre-Orders are sold out and everything is already getting scalped (somehow?).
I don’t know how much of a metric this is but “Final Fantasy mtg cards” came up as a trending Google search on my work computer today (where I am not in the habit of lurking on cube forums).
Lord of the Rings was reportedly the most popular set ever, and I don’t remember seeing anything like this.
Lord of the Rings was reportedly the most popular set ever, and I don’t remember seeing anything like this.
FF is an IP with (likely) huge overlap with the MTG community, similar to LOTR. This set also attracts the dozens of worldwide Standard players, so it sells more.
I suspect Spiderman is a far less popular IP. I also suspect that Standard looks like a joke to outsiders two years from now and Modern not long after that. You can't mash half a dozen different IPs together and expect to have a game that looks serious.
THAT SHORT TERM PROFIT THO BABY (there's no fire emoji)
I suspect Spiderman is a far less popular IP. I also suspect that Standard looks like a joke to outsiders two years from now and Modern not long after that. You can't mash half a dozen different IPs together and expect to have a game that looks serious.
THAT SHORT TERM PROFIT THO BABY (there's no fire emoji)
The Marvel sets being legal in Standard is a bit suspect to me. I feel like they would be better served with Commander decks or something along those lines.FF is an IP with (likely) huge overlap with the MTG community, similar to LOTR. This set also attracts the dozens of worldwide Standard players, so it sells more.
I suspect Spiderman is a far less popular IP. I also suspect that Standard looks like a joke to outsiders two years from now and Modern not long after that. You can't mash half a dozen different IPs together and expect to have a game that looks serious.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I’m uncertain that I like SciFi in the Magic multiverse, but I have to admit the art for that set looked stellar!
Also, it’s perfectly fine if you think the release calendar is too cramped (I would agree), but a big reveal day where you get a sneak peek at a number of upcoming releases is fine imho. That’s pretty much what companies like Nintendo do as well, and I hear no one complaining there.
For reference, the release schedule for the sets we got to look at is as follows
- Aetherdrift — February 14, 2025.
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm — April 11, 2025.
- Final Fantasy — June 13, 2025.
- Edge of Eternities — August 1, 2025.
PS. Personally, I preferred it when we got four sets a year, instead of six. I do feel sets don’t get enough time to breathe, and I don’t like how much time and money this forces people to invest to stay current, but capitalism is going to capitalism. The fact that we now get full Universes Beyond sets that are Standard legal means there is no longer a place where you are safe from looking at out of universe art either. The game hasn’t gotten worse, but the experience has got a lot of enfranchised players. It feels a bit like a hostile takeover of Magic’s own IP, and I think that Vorthoses are probably suffering.
You know, that's totally fair. I guess the thing that feels cramped is this release being a couple weeks after DFT released. It's like if Nintendo Directs happened right after BOTW came out. Maybe that's a bad comparison because new games never (unless it's a prequel) usurp the space for previous games the way it feels like a new MTG set pushes out the old one (no more online drafts, etc.). But I can see you point for sure.
Yes
And this is exactly why:
Spot on
6 Standard-legal sets each year + additional sets that are not legal in Standard like Modern Horizons. Each Standard set has an attached Commander set as well. Plus Secret Lairs of course. Those are luckily mostly skipping the news channels now since people don’t care anymore. I bet none of you can name 5 of the last 10 Secret Lair sets without checking. So that’s nice.
And the IP sets also known as Universes Beyond sets. They are hurting the game. Note that I didn’t say the income or profit but the actual game experience. Had they been strictly only skins, it would have been fair. Had they been strictly only for Commander sets it would have been survivable. The only good thing about them invading Standard is that the power level has to take a hit compared to before where they were legal in either Modern or eternal formats like Commander and Legacy.
I don't think this is a good comparison because a Nintendo Direct is showcasing multiple distinct products. If you tune in and see that they're making a game that you aren't interested in, you can ignore it and just move on with your day. For Magic, on the other hand, every single set is part of the same thing (especially now that UB sets are going to be Standard legal). You can't really opt out of a set in the same way that you can choose not to play the new Zelda game or whatever, unless you only play Cube or Limited.
Honestly, the shittiest part is that the decision to make UB cards Standard legal came shortly after they changed rotation to three years. Come to think of it, I wonder if those two decisions are related...
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
That's why I said that I get it when you hate the release cycle. But in and of itself, a Magic the Gathering Direct that showcases multiple upcoming products isn't a bad thing imo.
I’m going to be doing an interview with @Onderzeeboot on Cube Engineers to discuss his Heritage Cube. Are there any questions for him you would all like me to ask?
Do you have fear that someday after enough drafts the cube will be all "double modded" and so not more upgradable? Or, at least, that the density of modded cards will be too high? What are your plans for when that happen? Or is it so far in the future that you think you will not play the cube enough times to see this apocalypse?
A lot of legacy board games have finite campaigns with a story behind them and additional elements added to each chapter. Have you been tempted to build the cube to tell a story in this way? Brothers War legacy cube might be pretty cool, with cards added to depict the escalating arms race and story beats.
Another element common to legacy board games is that components may be permanently destroyed, as in ripped to pieces destroyed. I'm not suggesting that you go full Iron Man draft (my LGS used to run these as charity events) but could this be included in the Heritage Cube?
@Chris Taylor
Do you have any more frame-altered stable cards you’d like to share? Maybe in Custom Thread.
Do you have any more frame-altered stable cards you’d like to share? Maybe in Custom Thread.
For recent secret lair drops, the "generic" bonus card is one of several zombies, each from the modern era and in the retro frame for the first time. As a huge fan of the retro frame, this makes me very happy, but so far, none of these zombies was going to make it into my Cube as so many cards from Innistrad Remastered recently did. Until today:
Coldsnap was my very first set. Haakon was one of my favorite cards from the earliest days of Magic, and in addition to being the core of my first modern deck when the format debuted in 2011, Haakon would become a founding member of my Cube just a few months later.
He never really worked, though.
I tried! For years, I desperately looked for any knights that could cut the mustard. As recently as Elraine 1.0 I tried to give Haakon a home, but no amount of graveyard shenanigans was enough to convince any of my drafters from trying my nonsense self mill decks with the Stromgald Scourge and his BFF Knight of the Reliquary, even if I could one every few years get a reasonable deck together.
But now? Maybe. We've had some great knights printed recently, and I've been looking for an excuse to try out Riders of the Mark. While the relative power level between them shows exactly why he's not really suited for Cubes of higher power levels like mine, Haakon will be stoked to meet my beloved Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, and I'm sure the two of them will hit it off. Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick can return from the on-deck binder as well!
But most of all, Haakon is maybe most ready to fight shoulder-to-shoulder Wight of the Reliquary, a card that provides even more synergy than its predecessor who I sleeved up side-by-side in Modern all those years ago.
I'm in the process of purposely depowering my Cube to make synergy decks hold their weight. Is it possible Haakon can get there in 2025? I'm excited to find out, and this new printing gives me all the excuse I needed!!!!!
Coldsnap was my very first set. Haakon was one of my favorite cards from the earliest days of Magic, and in addition to being the core of my first modern deck when the format debuted in 2011, Haakon would become a founding member of my Cube just a few months later.
He never really worked, though.
I tried! For years, I desperately looked for any knights that could cut the mustard. As recently as Elraine 1.0 I tried to give Haakon a home, but no amount of graveyard shenanigans was enough to convince any of my drafters from trying my nonsense self mill decks with the Stromgald Scourge and his BFF Knight of the Reliquary, even if I could one every few years get a reasonable deck together.
But now? Maybe. We've had some great knights printed recently, and I've been looking for an excuse to try out Riders of the Mark. While the relative power level between them shows exactly why he's not really suited for Cubes of higher power levels like mine, Haakon will be stoked to meet my beloved Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, and I'm sure the two of them will hit it off. Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick can return from the on-deck binder as well!
But most of all, Haakon is maybe most ready to fight shoulder-to-shoulder Wight of the Reliquary, a card that provides even more synergy than its predecessor who I sleeved up side-by-side in Modern all those years ago.
I'm in the process of purposely depowering my Cube to make synergy decks hold their weight. Is it possible Haakon can get there in 2025? I'm excited to find out, and this new printing gives me all the excuse I needed!!!!!
Nice one! I was trying to make this one work
And I think it would mesh well with the GY centric knights Haakon needs.
How could I forget!!!! I was looking at it again in my recent Bits and Bobs update to better support Stridehangar Automaton!!!
It's a great card, and was a big improvement for me over Rapacious Guest. Definitely will resleeve that one.
The Cavalry/Haakon/Inti synergies are also pretty sweet.
(As a tangent, I've always kinda wanted to make Exsanguinator Cavalry + Call The Bloodline + Madness a thing, but I feel like the power band there is a bit too wide.)
(As a tangent, I've always kinda wanted to make Exsanguinator Cavalry + Call The Bloodline + Madness a thing, but I feel like the power band there is a bit too wide.)