The Death of Magic

[Daenen]

That's right everyone, you heard me. Magic is Dying. Not by minutes, but by months. When Magic the Gathering first came out, there were five cards, each of which was the personification of that color.
Red: Lightning Bolt (can you top it?)
Blue: Counterspell (how many decks were built around this card?)
Green: Llanowar Elf (The green decks that don't have this card usually suck)
Black: Dark Ritual (duh)
White: Savana Lions (the personification of White Weenie)
Two of these cards are lost to us, possibly for ever. I vow that if WotC ever stops printing the remaining three cards, I will heap all of my cards in a pile and set them on fire. (That't over $10,000 right there.)

Power does not corrupt. Power attracts the Corruptable.
-Bene Geserit teaching

 

[Ferret]

I don't think Magic is dying - I just think it's outgrowing the great game we knew many years ago. It's gotten very complicated w/ the number of cards increasing too fast. I figure the set still has a couple of years left before Hasbro/WotC is forced to remember where the game started and what they're going to need to do to fix it. The game is still attracting new players and eventually the Poke-craze will end and the children will start playing the "adult" version (aka Magic).

The game of Magic that we all enjoyed playing durring the days of Revised and Fourth Edition is dying, yes, but the game is stronger than ever.

-ferret

"...think of it as 'The New Coke' from the 80's..."

 

[TomB]

Uh, Ferret?

New Coke bombed dude.

Nobody liked it, and it made the company bring back the old one. Are you suggesting a new format where you can only use, say, pre-5th ed. cards? That's actually not a bad idea.

TomB
CPA Member

 

[Dune Echo]

Heck, that isn't a bad idea. I would remove some broken cards from Type 1.

 

[Ferret]

I like to think that New Coke was either a big humility lesson for the Coca-Cola Company or a way to change the flavour of original Coke so that no one would notice.

People think that Magic sucks for now, but lots of new players are coming in anyway...if they return to their previous state the game will be great again and people may not care about the absense of the old 'power' cards...

-ferret

"...learning from history..."

 

[Waubers]

A comment on the "Death of Magic". I'm seeing a very powerful trend. Urza's Saga is currently out selling Pokemon: Fossil. This alarmed me and I spoke with my local card shop owner on the issue and he confirmed my suspicions. Pokemon is fading and magic is taking its place. The Parents of the kids who only collect the cards IMO got plain sick of Pokemon w/ the christmas season and aren't willing to spend more money on cards. Also alot of the Schools are banning pokemon cards. Hence the kids need something else to entertain with. Back to my dealer he said that Magic Packs are outselling pokemon almost 2 to 1. Thats a flip from 6 months ago. He can't keep Saga in stock and he's having a hard time keeping destiny in too. I think magic is far from dead its just bubbling and brewing as more fire gets added until it blows. Once summer rolls around and alot of the kids who have graduated from pokemon get summer jobs I predict their money will be going into Magic. All you seasoned vets hang on to the boxes of commons you have and that big vat o'crap I call my uncommon box you might be able to get $10 from a kid for a deck made out of commons.

Waubers

"Back with a vengence and he doesn't shut up"

 

[Waubers]

Oh check this website out for some proof to my clain Magic is outselling Pokemon.

http://store.wizards.com/Product/World.asp?CatId=319

Waubers

 

[Ihsans Shade]

Ah, but you must remember that if we were runing things we wouldn't have even started the blasted P-game.

I am...
Ihsan's Shade
Course if we were runing things we'd be broke, and WotC would bye it.

 

[TomB]

I'm glad to hear that Magic, especially something like the much maligned Urza's Saga, is doing well, though I think a word of caution is in order.

Firstly, I'm surprised/not surprised Saga is still outselling MM (or Mercadian Empires, if you prefer). I realize they needed to slow the game down a bit, and make cards like Wrath of God have SOME meaning, but have you really looked at that set as far as constructed play is concerned? It's horrible, and since we're less than a year away from the cycling out of Saga block (no pun intended) what happens when it's gone?

Will the next stand-alone have to be just as broken as Saga just to keep sales up, and save the game?

And if they do that, will it continue the good set/bad set cycle that has so many of us disgusted? Will we be set up for another round of bannings "for the good of the game"?

Secondly, I wouldn't discount the Pocketmonster Menace just yet. There would naturally be a decline in sales after the buying frenzy this past Christmas. I don't think slow Fossil sales indicate a lack of interest in Pokemon.

In fact, more and more I think that what's happened is that parents have finally woke up to the market manipulation being practiced by WotC concerning availability of Pokemon's Basic set. I think we're tired of paying $4.-$5. dollars a pack (yes, I have 2 Poke-brats at home ) for 11 cards that MSRP for $3.29. I'm personally disgusted that I can't seem to touch a box of the stuff for less than $100., and that's if you can find it to buy it!

But you can get Fossil no problem. All you want. Boxes of it even.

I think that, just like when Revised was in short supply during the Fallen era, WotC will suddenly find a treasure trove of Basic set cards, and the market will return to normal, once sales have dropped sufficiently. I feel this is a deliberate strategy of theirs.

History does indeed repeat itself.

That said, I do think that the kids will grow up and discover Magic. I believe that's one of the reasons we're fighting to preserve this game.

At least, that's one of the reasons why I'm here.

TomB
CPA Member

[Edited by TomB (01-11-2000 at 02:18 AM).]

 

[Dune Echo]

TomB, you're an intelligent and persuasive writer. WHY AREN'T YOU PUTTING UP ARTICLES?! My God man, you're good at getting your point across. Put up some articles, please!

I really feel that this site is going to be made or broken by it's support. And so far, I think the support is good. I just wish poor ol' Mikey had more support. I know he's busting his ass between school and the site and a personal life.

 

[Ferret]

I really don't think that WotC should worry about putting out great Expansions/Stand Alones. They should really worry about making that BASIC SET more playable. This is the one people are going to buy to get into the game. The others are supposed to be the "Expert" sets. As casual players we don't have to worry about which sets or more "broken" than others since most of us have been playing long enough to have a nice collection of black-bordered power cards.

What they should do is create a basic set w/ lots of fan favourite cards to get people interested. Stick w/ the principle of leaving out fancy things like Protection from, Trample, or Banding but still have balanced creatures like the ones that we've all mentionned countless times...

They've finally got the bugs out of most of the rules (VIth Edition). Now, let's get some great cards worth playing with (VIIth Edition) and the little kiddies will put away their little yellow rats and come play w/ our big black rats!

-ferret

"...rats are yummy in the morning!"

 

[TomB]

Well thank you Dune.

I'll see what I can come up with this week.

TomB
CPA Member

 

[theorgg]

ummm...
this is off the topic by a bit, but waubers, please don't sell newbies a 60 card common deck for $10. trust me. sell it with a few decent uncommons for about $5. make it pretty good. if they like it, they'll come back. let them pick the colors they use. allow them to make choises based on quanity...

see where I'm going? you'll make about $25-30 from the decks and spend about an hour teaching some basics to a beginner.

that is good.

just some friendly (off topic) advice from your internet latin flunky and big, smelly slob,



[Edited by theorgg (01-11-2000 at 12:56 PM).]

 

[Killer Joe]

Since the Poke' craze really took off this past fall, I've always thought that these kids would grow out of the simplistic game mechanics of Pokemon and graduate to Magic. At my local store there is a PokeLeague right after school on Tue and Thurs., if I can I will show up towards the end of the time (usually around 5:30 p.m.) and play casual Pokemon with my fellow M:TGers and let the kids see us play (because we're adults older than 25) and then watch us switch to Magic.
Silent "oooo's" and "ahhh's" come across some of their faces when we plop down cool creatures like Two-Headed Dragon (certainly way cooler graphics than Charzard) or some other awe inspiring creature.
..eh, who knows, maybe they will switch over or not. I do have a commons deck of each color ready to distribute to any of those kids who want to play (or switch) to M:TG. I'm not sure I would sell them but I do know that if you're willing to pay for something you're probably willing to take more interest in it.

Yellowjacket

 

[Ihsans Shade]

Let's just hope that there are more Yellowjackets out there spreading the good word about magic, and converting the misguided ones.

I am...
Ihsan's Shade
Keep up the good work man.

 

[Ferret]

Hear here! Way to help subvert the Pokewhatevers to a better game. I'm sure it's almost outlived its usefulness and WotC will probably drop it like a bad habbit in six months or so...

-ferret

"...anyone remember Netrunner?"

 

[theorgg]

Yea I remember netrunner.

they are suppose to have another expantion for it this year, I think...

 

[The Magic Jackal]

I don't really know what's going on with pokemon. I recently went to a card shop that used to hold a lot of magic tournies. I asked when their next one would be and they said they wouldn't be having any for awhile, "Pokemon is hot now". I went over to buy some cards and found out they they were sold out of Saga, Destiny, and Legacy. I simply said, "Looks like your not having any trouble selling the Magic Cards".