alt Hacker NewsI just learned MTG this year because my 11 year old son got into it. I like it. How did it “go to shit”?
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If you don't care about competitive balance or the "identity" of magic it probably didn't.
Long answer: the introduction of non-magic sets like SpongeBob SquarePants, Deadpool, or Assassin's Creed are seen as tasteless money grabs that dilute the quality and theme of magic even further, but fans of those things will scoop them up.
The competitive scene has been pretty rough, but I haven't played constructed formats in a while so I'm not as keyed into this. I just know that there have been lots of cards released recently that have had to be banned for how powerful they were.
Personally, I love the game, but I hate the business model. It's ripe for abuse and people treat cards like stocks to invest in.
Don’t let my opinion affect you, MTG is still a fun game and you should do that if you find it enjoyable — especially if your son likes it. But here is why I had a falling out:
1. The number of sets per year increased too much, there are too many cards being printed to keep up
2. Cards from new sets are pushed to be very strong (FIRE design) which means that the new cards are frequently the best cards. Combine this with the high number of new sets means the pool of best cards is always churning and you have to constantly be buying new cards to keep up.
3. Artificial scarcity in print runs means that the best cards in the new sets are very expensive. We are talking about cardboard here, it isn’t hard to simply print more sheets of a set.
4. The erosion of the brand identity and universe. MTG used to have a really nicely curated fantasy universe and things meshed together well. Now we have spongebob, deadpool, and a bunch of others in the game. It like if you put spongebob in the star wars universe, it just ruins the texture of the game.
5. Print quality of cards went way down. Older cards actually have better card stock than the new stuff.
6. Canadians MTG players get shafted. When a new set is printed stores get allocations of boxes (due to the artificial scarcity) and due to the lower player count in Canada, usually Canadian stores get much lower allocations than their USA counterparts. Additionally, MTG cards get double tariffs as they get printed outside of the USA, imported into the USA and tariffed, and then imported into Canada and tariffed again. I think the cost of MTG cards when up like 30-40% since global trade war.
Overall it boils down to hasbro turning the screws on players to squeeze more money, and I am just not having it. I already spent obscene amounts of money on the game before this all happened.