From The Vault: Rath, Rarity n R&D

[Gizmo]

has anyone else noticed that you need more rares now than ever before in order to make a competitive deck?

It has always taken a few rares to make a good deck, and throw in a couple of uncommons to round it out - but now, it seems like the entire deck is made up of rares and uncommons.....

- Jame Wakefield, August 10th, 1998

What would Jamie say if he had seen IBC?
http://web.archive.org/web/20010123173500/www.thedojo.com/b984/bo.980810jwa.txt

The cheapest deck I have seen from States is the awful Rice Snax decks, which are clocking up at around $150 because they dont have any painlands in. Most decks are $250-$350.
And it seems people are accepting it unquestioningly.

 

[Zadok001]

Nice pull, Giz. I think people HAVE noticed it. And it's really rather depressing.