Why can't they print that in paper ffs
I get that there are some impracticalities to doing so, but I wish when they realized that, yes, if you make Magic cards, they should be available to players. Period! While I thought the outrage towards mechanically unique box toppers and Secret Lairs was silly, those aren't a fraction as anti-player as these. I'm not asking for legality in Legacy or Commander, I'm just asking for the Mystery Booster 2 treatment where there is a printing.
Who do Alchemy cards benefit? Arena players by-and-large prefer proper Magic cards and formats that have a 1:1 equivalent with real-life, as both the first-party data and that I'm able to suss out have represented time and time again. There's "novelty" in digital only cards, but it's fundamentally just self gratification for designers doing it because they can, which is fine I guess for the sake of exploring new areas of design, but they don't really do that any more. The digital-only mechanics that are hardest to capture in paper are the least compelling, and the designs have become closer and closer to what's printed in real-life every new expansion, as evidenced here.
I understand these are developed much later than the main set, and done so with the hindsight of the set's design to support them. Great! Print them a set or two later, exclusively in promo packs to encourage in-store play. Or make them a recurring Secret Lair that no one feels compelled to buy unless they're in for it. Or have them show up in Collector Boosters on rare occasion. Magic has so many product releases that I find it unfathomable that they can't find one to slip this in.
