What's been going on with MTG since Covid?

[Spiderman]

So.... as people might have guessed, COVID threw my attendence here for a loop. I was also separated at the time and didn't have a home computer and I hate looking at forums on my phone and once I started teleworking, work blocked all "non work" sites so I couldn't get on here from my work computer. So I pretty much gave up coming here. I got a home computer in 2021 but kind of felt I was away too much so.... never really came back to catch up on stuff.

I started playing D&D with my gf, my daughter, her fiance, and another daughter and we met at a card shop to play and saw all of the MTG stuff and memories came flooding back. Besides looking up card prices for the heck of it (like my Arabian Nights Library of Alexandria and Mox Diamond), I wondered how MTG was doing and was told that they've been licensing from other IPs and currently it's Fortnite. So I guess my question is, how is that all going? How has that kind of thing been received in the community? And now I saw Oversoul's post about Spidermen in a set so I guessed I missed out on those....

Also, I hope everyone has been doing well for all this time.

 

[Oversoul]

So.... as people might have guessed, COVID threw my attendence here for a loop. I was also separated at the time and didn't have a home computer and I hate looking at forums on my phone and once I started teleworking, work blocked all "non work" sites so I couldn't get on here from my work computer. So I pretty much gave up coming here. I got a home computer in 2021 but kind of felt I was away too much so.... never really came back to catch up on stuff.

Ah. I'd seen you popping up on the Fantasy Football threads enough that I figured maybe you were just lurking on the rest of the site. Welcome back?

I started playing D&D with my gf, my daughter, her fiance, and another daughter and we met at a card shop to play and saw all of the MTG stuff and memories came flooding back. Besides looking up card prices for the heck of it (like my Arabian Nights Library of Alexandria and Mox Diamond), I wondered how MTG was doing and was told that they've been licensing from other IPs and currently it's Fortnite. So I guess my question is, how is that all going? How has that kind of thing been received in the community? And now I saw Oversoul's post about Spidermen in a set so I guessed I missed out on those....

I guess I should say, as someone who has generally been rather vocally critical of what WotC call "Universes Beyond", that the community reception has been mixed. You've got folks who love it and ones who hate it, but there are also some more specific takes. Some players complained about the Fortnite stuff, but responded positively to the Lord of the Rings set. Some players are fine with Universes Beyond set releases, but vehemently opposed to mechanically unique Secret Lairs (WotC has done limited availability online sales of boxes containing a specific handful of new cards associated with some licensed intellectual property, with the assumption that once it was sold out, no one else could ever get those cards again). Some players don't mind Universes Beyond, but cried out about the change to make those sets Standard-legal.

It's complicated.

Also, I hope everyone has been doing well for all this time.

You too!