BTW, everyone. WotC does listen to what we have to say. Over the years, people on boards everyone have commented on little things that they don't like about the cards. Things like, "the names of white cards don't always stand out" and "power and toughness are really small in the corner for being such an important part of the game".
Granted, most magic players think status quo is the best thing that could happen.
I read through the boards and the comments made and you know what I see? A lot of short-sighted people complaning about change simply for the sake of complaining.
Anyway, from what I've heard, the card layout change allows them to do things with promos that they haven't done before. The foils with the new layout are supposedly spectacular. I'll try not to get my hopes up too high or nothing will be able to satisfy them. I'm assuming the foils will look nice. I know they won't be able to do things like they did with Volcanic Hammer, which is a shame, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do have.
As far as people who "hope this isn't permanent"...Of course this is permanent. 8th edition will be the first. When I heard about the card changes on Thursday (yes, I know it wasn't officially announced until Friday, but being a judge occasionally has to have a perk, right?), my biggest concern was that it would be a large change and that applying it to Scourge (which they are doing) would make block play tricky.
Then, I saw the new layout. The mana symbols are moved to...right where they used to be. Power and toughness were moved to...right where they used to be. In fact, everything on the card is right where it used to be.
Everything mechanically that could have caused a logistic issue for a player is right where it used to be. In other words, playing with old and new layout in the same deck is almost sure to cause no problems whatsoever.
That was my main concern and you no what I found out? Nothing to be concerned about. The layout is exactly the same. All that is changing is the look.
I think it is funny that this is getting almost as much critisism as changing the rules did back with 6th edition.
Anyway, I was in Chicago when the announcement was being made. You know what the WotC people said about the reaction from MTGNews? They were laughing about how long it was. They were almost bragging about how many pages of complaints they had received.
Is it because they don't care about feedback? No, it's because they knew a lot of people would complain. They also know that the same people will get over it. It's the same game we've been playing. I for one don't play the game because of the card layout. I play the game because I enjoy the strategy of it.
So, to people who complain, is this the worst thing going on in your life right now? Boy, do you have an easy life
