General Other News

Velrun

Velrun

This isn't specifically news news.. But it is sort of semi confirmed leaks.

1. Wizards will focus more on lore in the future. They have hired an entire lore team. They have also restarted their old lore podcast and are starting up some more lore content on The Mothership website. Specifically about sets that are alread in the past and future sets (So basically all sets but we might not see the difference for another 1.5 year or so)

2. Wizards will focus less on planeswalkers and more on legendary creatures in the future. This leak is only semi confirmed but the evidence is strong. They recently announced that more than 75 % of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is. And as Commander gains more and more terrain it is only logical to focus more on legendary creatures are the heroes and villains of our stories. Furthermore some upcoming cards and part of cards has been spoiled for March of the Machines. We have a picture of an un-Phyrexian Nissa that no longer has a planeswalker spark. We also have a legendary instant. This unconfirmed leak could be a temporary situation in Magic. I believe the rumour to be true and legendary creatures will take up more screen time in lore and on cards due to Commander.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Flavorwise, Planeswalkers were always akward. "No, you can't directly attack that guy, he's a creature. I know, he might be a super powerful leader of something, but he's just a minion, like the ohers. Oh, that girl, fighting for me over there? Well, her you can attack directly. You know, she can also space travel. Yeah, she lost her brother or something ... don't ask."
 
ravnic

ravnic

Not to mention how much damage the card type has done to the game play. With planeswalkers, free, snowballing value became the new normal and creatures had to be pushed like crazy to compete. I guess that damage is impossible to fix thanks to the "eternal world" we're living in.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
Not to mention how much damage the card type has done to the game play. With planeswalkers, free, snowballing value became the new normal and creatures had to be pushed like crazy to compete. I guess that damage is impossible to fix thanks to the "eternal world" we're living in.
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what.gif
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Velrun said:
This isn't specifically news news.. But it is sort of semi confirmed leaks.

1. Wizards will focus more on lore in the future. They have hired an entire lore team. They have also restarted their old lore podcast and are starting up some more lore content on The Mothership website. Specifically about sets that are alread in the past and future sets (So basically all sets but we might not see the difference for another 1.5 year or so)

2. Wizards will focus less on planeswalkers and more on legendary creatures in the future. This leak is only semi confirmed but the evidence is strong. They recently announced that more than 75 % of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is. And as Commander gains more and more terrain it is only logical to focus more on legendary creatures are the heroes and villains of our stories. Furthermore some upcoming cards and part of cards has been spoiled for March of the Machines. We have a picture of an un-Phyrexian Nissa that no longer has a planeswalker spark. We also have a legendary instant. This unconfirmed leak could be a temporary situation in Magic. I believe the rumour to be true and legendary creatures will take up more screen time in lore and on cards due to Commander.
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Bigger lore focus is good! The best part of Ixalan block (and the only reason I have a somewhat positive view of it retrospectively) was the story. The writing was good, and the character development was perfect. It was an all-around good story. When I compare Ixalan to the writing quality of All Will be One and Brother's War stories, I can't help but feel something has been lost.

I do think it's weird that "more than 75 % of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is." I'm guessing they mean from a lore perspective because Planeswalker cards are pretty much everywhere at this point. I think there's at least one in every Commander precon now, and we did just have a set with a Planeswalker in every pack a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth, the Nissa leak doesn't necessarily show her without a Spark; she's just on a card that says "enchant legendary creature." It could be a Grasp of the Hieromancer situation where the card has a Planeswalker in the art, but it affects a different subset of permanents.
 
Rusje

Rusje

TrainmasterGT said:
Bigger lore focus is good! The best part of Ixalan block (and the only reason I have a somewhat positive view of it retrospectively) was the story. The writing was good, and the character development was perfect. It was an all-around good story. When I compare Ixalan to the writing quality of All Will be One and Brother's War stories, I can't help but feel something has been lost.

I do think it's weird that "more than 75 % of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is." I'm guessing they mean from a lore perspective because Planeswalker cards are pretty much everywhere at this point. I think there's at least one in every Commander precon now, and we did just have a set with a Planeswalker in every pack a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth, the Nissa leak doesn't necessarily show her without a Spark; she's just on a card that says "enchant legendary creature." It could be a Grasp of the Hieromancer situation where the card has a Planeswalker in the art, but it affects a different subset of permanents.
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I know what a planeswalker used to be before the nonsense of the mending. After the mending they did there best to make big bad bolas as strong as pre-mending…
Seriously, before the mending planeswalkers were very strong, almost godlike, wizards. Afterwards, they were really weak.
Comparing the story of the weathertight to the superteam of jace I found that they compare to gears of war 1 to the rest of the franchise. With this I mean the bleak outlook for everyone as opposed to the slightly boring superhero trope.
Also, in the pre-mending the storyline was mostly about the non-planeswalkers…
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

Given that this leak amounts to "literal scraps of cards left over from a shredded recycling bundle", I'm not sure how much stock I put in the various theories of what this all means about the future of the game.

(A part of me finds it absolutely hilarious how we've gone from "the leak is a garbage picture of some cards that got sent out early by accident" to "the leak is a picture of literal garbage", though. C'mon people, maybe wait a week for WotC to tell us themselves?)
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

LadyMapi said:
Given that this leak amounts to "literal scraps of cards left over from a shredded recycling bundle", I'm not sure how much stock I put in the various theories of what this all means about the future of the game.

(A part of me finds it absolutely hilarious how we've gone from "the leak is a garbage picture of some cards that got sent out early by accident" to "the leak is a picture of literal garbage", though. C'mon people, maybe wait a week for WotC to tell us themselves?)
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Oh, I totally agree; it's like a combined total of less than half a card with no significant rules text is being treated as some bombshell reveal.

Social media hype factory bad.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

Seeker said:
You got a source for this? Because I'd love to tell people I know but I don't want to just repeat etc.
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From Hasbro's Fireside Chat in December. The only place I see that's using the stat specifically is Wargamer...not really my favorite source, but that's what I've got for ya. It's also in my notes from the call, and I'm sure the call is saved somewhere (though they expired it on the Hasbro site by now I believe).
 
TekLazar

TekLazar

Yeah and Mark Rosewater used the statistic too on his blog, as seen here.
I am pretty sure that this statistic probably means more of the lore side of magic, don't think that he's saying that 75% of players do not understand how to play with and against walkers. (I am being a bit generous even though I understand that in casual play they are likely pretty rare.) But it is definitely food for thought and Hasbro is always looking to appeal to the majority, and obviously the majority probably understands creatures more.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
TekLazar said:
Yeah and Mark Rosewater used the statistic too on his blog, as seen here.
I am pretty sure that this statistic probably means more of the lore side of magic, don't think that he's saying that 75% of players do not understand how to play with and against walkers. (I am being a bit generous even though I understand that in casual play they are likely pretty rare.) But it is definitely food for thought and Hasbro is always looking to appeal to the majority, and obviously the majority probably understands creatures more.
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Reading MaRo's blog post, I'm pretty sure he's not only talking about the lore side. He's talking about players that don't even know what a format is, after all.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I don't know, when my wife started playing even her starter deck had a Planeswalker in it. I doubt the card type is very rare in this day and age, they've even printed Planeswalkers at uncommon.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

As someone who does market research in the nerd space professionally (and around Magic for fun), I can attest that it is shocking how little people know about so much of the content they consume/engage with/build their identity around....and yet I am very much doubtful of that statistic all the same.

If they mean the lore I explain whenever I teach the game to a new player of "YOU ARE A PLANESWALKER" as the first words I utter, maybe? Sure. But not of the concept of Planeswalkers in general, particularly when it comes to the card type.
 
Seeker

Seeker

Jason Waddell said:
I don't know, when my wife started playing even her starter deck had a Planeswalker in it. I doubt the card type is very rare in this day and age, they've even printed Planeswalkers at uncommon.
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They've only done that twice, though - the single Chandra in M20 and the twenty in War of the Spark. (Wanna feel old? Those were all from 2019. Holy shit.)
 
Velrun

Velrun

Seeker said:
They've only done that twice, though - the single Chandra in M20 and the twenty in War of the Spark. (Wanna feel old? Those were all from 2019. Holy shit.)
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It’s such a weird thing to think about but: War of the Spark was before all the altered card frame and art versions that all sets have now. They began with Throne of Eldraine one set later.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
"Before the framening" is a weird way to make someone feel old :p

Also fun fact: BRO and ONE didn't introduce new frames. BRO showcase cards just use the old-frame-but-not-really thing they do occasionally, and ONE showcase cards are just the default borderless frame (occasionally with the phyrexian phi foil treatment)

They even had a ready made phyrexian frame they didn't use! :p
Eg:
uJopFRq.png
 
TekLazar

TekLazar

MilesOfficial said:
As someone who does market research in the nerd space professionally (and around Magic for fun), I can attest that it is shocking how little people know about so much of the content they consume/engage with/build their identity around....and yet I am very much doubtful of that statistic all the same.

If they mean the lore I explain whenever I teach the game to a new player of "YOU ARE A PLANESWALKER" as the first words I utter, maybe? Sure. But not of the concept of Planeswalkers in general, particularly when it comes to the card type.
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Yeah, all of the other ones that Maro quoted I am fully on board for, but a somewhat essential game piece that you and your friends can open in a pack? Sounds odd, especially considering the fact that un-enfranchised players probably are at least friends with an enfranchised player. Now, companions, mutate, horsemanship, banding, battle cry, cascade, and flanking? Absolutely.
 
Velrun

Velrun

But they’re nothing alike?
The ONE frame is see-through and colorless with art that almost isn’t there. If those are the same frame treatments then they can reuse many of them if you ask me. Good job Wizards.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

Chris Taylor said:
"Before the framening" is a weird way to make someone feel old :p

Also fun fact: BRO and ONE didn't introduce new frames. BRO showcase cards just use the old-frame-but-not-really thing they do occasionally, and ONE showcase cards are just the default borderless frame (occasionally with the phyrexian phi foil treatment)

They even had a ready made phyrexian frame they didn't use! :p
Eg:
uJopFRq.png
Click to expand...
this frame makes it look like a legendary creature, glad they didn't use it.
 
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