The Rarity Carcel

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I8Piggo

Guest
Here's an article I wrote a few months ago, and didn't do anything with. It is still relevant, especially to Nemesis.

I often hear players angrily bringing up issues regarding banning, reprinting, new sets, etc. However, there is a major issue that often seems overlooked. That is the basis for commonality of cards.
It seems to me that the rarity system should be designed to limit the number of narrow cards in the environment, and make sure there is an adequate number of simple, playable cards which are easily available to all players. However, the principle is constantly contradicted. Most of the popular decks are based around hard-to-obtain cards. Look at Survival, Mono Blue, or just about anything else. True, some of these cards are narrow, and not useful to the beginning player. But, WOTC makes many useful, simple, versatile cards rare, while making crap common. Why should something like Ancient Silverback be rare? Almost everyone could use an Ancient Silverback. There is no potential for it to be broken. Why would WOTC print such a card if they wished to keep it out of the hands of thrifty players?
The reason Pro-Tour players and Magic writers don’t make a scene of this is simple. They already have the powerful cards, and the more players with powerful cards, the more competition for their prize money and sponsorship. There are plenty of potential world champions out there who can’t compete on a high level because they don’t have enough money to sink into cards.
In a limited environment, limiting the number of powerful cards makes sense. But in an environment where weak cards are useless, especially in quantity, this doesn’t make any sense. So why would WOTC make balanced useful cards such as Treachery, Morphling, and Birds of Paradise rare while making crap like Anaba Bodyguard and Scathe Zombies common? Once again, the answer is simple. More money for them. The new players read about these cards in magazines sponsored by WOTC, then go buy 8 packs of Masques, hoping for a Bribery. When they don’t get one, the only solution for them is to buy 8 more packs and hope for one.
Don’t believe me? The verification of my theory comes from a rule that most Magic players think of as fundamental: no proxies. If proxies were legal, then WOTC, who makes the tournament rules, and the upper crust players, who are responsible for the articles everyone reads, would lose money and status. The current system of Magic keeps the rich and experienced players in power, while forcing new players to spend tons of money or be consistently beaten.
Solving this problem is disgustingly simple. One way would be printing smaller sets, cutting out crap like Prodigal Sorcerer clones, so only the interesting cards are left. The rarity system could also be redone so versatile cards like Two-Headed Dragon were made common, while narrower or combo cards like Squee or Flailing Soldier were rare. In fact, all cards could be the same commonality, so the potential of every card is fully explored. The simplest answer is for the DCI to legalize proxies so that all players would have an equal chance, regardless of monetary status. Type I is for the collectors.
 
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krichaiushii

Guest
Well, I have always thought that WotC used the following rule to determine potential rarity:

If its really stupid or really cool, make it rare. ;)

Another thing to consider is that the initial concept for this game was what has become sealed deck and/or booster draft. Minus the draft part. Methinks that that concept is what drives the rarity, at least in part.

Besides, if the really cool cards were all common, the sealed decks/booster drafts would be boring as all get out, as half the fun of that format is to get the one cool card out of 10 players that everyone wants and noone can stop.

Lastly, WotC IS a business, and Magic IS profitable (when I get extra cash, I plan to buy Hasbro stock). Using your method of rarity would be bad for business. And personally, I enjoy the current rarity. When I do pull the current "tourney must-have" cards from packs, I can turn them into stacks of obscure cards that are "suboptimal" but useful to me in casual play.

Before I ramble more, I should go.
 
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I8Piggo

Guest
Actually I pretty much agree with what you said. What it comes down is that the tournaments rules are made by the same people who sell the cards. Thus, since allowing proxies, though it would allow poorer players to compete, is unprofitable and thus doesn't happen.
Hence, boycott tournaments, or set up your own with rules accomodating newbies. World Championship Decks are a great way to do this, or you can just make your own pirate cards. Why give them your money! Play casual!
 
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arhar

Guest
I'm sorry, but I think you're missing the point here entirely.

First of all, your assumption that pros have all the power cards already and that's why they don't care if a card is a rare or common is wrong. 90% of the pros don't own that many cards, they play with all-proxy decks or on Apprentice, and borrow all the cards before the tournament. Just read some of the tournament reports at New Wave. "After deciding that this is the deck I should play tomorrow, I realized I don't have any of the cards, so I went to the ..... and borrowed them all."

Now, imagine if Ancient Silverback was a common. First of all, everyone would be drafting green. And while you have five Flailing Soldiers, your opponent would have five Ancient Silverbacks. Sounds like fun?

My point is: the only people that care about rarity and that kinds of issues are casual players and collectors. All the people that play in the tourneys are way beyond the "Man, I'd hope to get my hands on a Morphling!" point. They simply don't care about things like that. And yes, money is the issue with WoTC. But it's a business! What did you expect? Magic is a "collectible card game" without a reason.
 
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FoundationOfRancor

Guest
I hope its occured to everyone that MBC is trying to stop waht the original article was saying. meaning, you can go out, by a cuople of cards, and actually have a hope with contending with a well "rich" deck.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I didn't know this was posted twice. Is there a way to merge articles or something? Oh well, what I wrote is on the other "Rarity Cartel" thread.
 
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I8Piggo

Guest
Yeah. They get points from me for making Blastoderm common. They are doing a lot better with this block than Urza's block. It was pretty evil to make Gaea's Cradle, a card just about every green deck needs, a rare.
 
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Hellion

Guest
I know what 18Piggo is saying. Carnival of Souls should have been a common! Rancor, uncommon!

Sometimes it's very hard for R&R to make the right rarities for a few cards. If all common, uncommon cards were as potent as Fireblast, Incinerate, W or B knight or Rancor, the Magic Enviorment will be very saturated with cheap and powerful decks that EVERYBODY will be playing.

Imagine playing against 6 Pooh Burn decks in one extended tourney! *Shudder* or worst 40 contestants, 30 Replenish decks that cost less than $30. I think you get the point.

Sometimes some crappy rares are not as bad as we think, it's just that we FEEL that they are so crappy that we totally ignore them and never try them out. Let me give you a few examples of TOTALLY ignored cards that later BURST into the "must-haves" list.

Cursed Scroll
Juzam Djinn
Moxes
Powder Keg
Tradewind Rider
and so on.....

and guess which is next on this list.....

Rath's Edge!

Yeah, you heard me. Do you see any serious MBC deck that doesn't run them? Just my 2 coins...
 
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I8Piggo

Guest
No no no! That's not what I'm saying at all! I think the usefulness of a card should be inversely proportional to how rare it is! Carnival of Souls and Rancor are perfect the way they are. And WoTC can't really be blamed for the likes of Cursed Scroll, as at the time, no one really knew how powerful it was. What I am saying is just the opposite, that card cost should not be a factor in deck construction.
And regarding Pros borrowing cards: The bottom line is THEY have access to the cards, while other people don't, so they can't compete. That sucks.
PS: In the title of the topic, carcel = cartel
 
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Dune Echo

Guest
Dude, I see what you're saying, but I think it's slightly impossible. What you want is for WotC to classify cards based on a power scale into the Rare, Uncommon, Common slots. Unfortunately, you're asking the impossible. Here's an example:

Pestilence used to be common. Now it's uncommon. Why?
Sealed: I've heard this was utterly broken in sealed. Don't know, never played yet.
Standard/Extended: Seen this used in the last few years? No, me neither.
Multiplayer: Thrashing Wumpus or Crypt Rats combo'd with Spirit Link is more often used, I'm sure.

That's just three variations of what type of game a card can be played in. Not to mention how many variations within those standards alone. To try to classify any single card correctly is impossible because you don't want to piss everyone off. So, you piss off the least amount of people possible. Pestilence is now uncommon in 6th, so in Sealed, you don't have a million people using it, and it's still relatively available to everyone buying Sixth for Standard and Multiplayer. If it were a rare, everyone would be so pissed off.

Dude, I really like what you're saying, but unfortunately, no one wants a million Carnival of Souls in Sealed or Multiplayer and it's not that accessible for Standard. Same with Masticore but for different reasons. Putting something as a rare also limits it's impact on any given environment. If it's in limited supply then people can't use it, right?
 
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