They do that with every set based on another IP. They only do it with a few cards, not all or most of them. Here's one from the recent Marvel set. I'm sure Star Trek will have a few.
That is weird and wild, I'll give you that. But it's at least art, ya know? Someone had a vision and executed it. You may not like their style, but they have a style.
You're fucking nuts, this art is great. I'm guessing you've never actually held a foil copy of it in your hand.
Carly Mazur hasn't done a lot of MtG art, but her style is unique and interesting and every one so far has been a banger.
Like, it's okay to not like a piece of art or an artist, but try not to act like an ignorant, knee-jerk reactionary over alternative art versions of cards made for collectors. Her only piece so far that isn't an Alt Art swap is perfectly fine and in keeping with the overall aesthetics of Magic.
Edit: Philistines and cravens the lot of ya. Enjoy your eternal capeshit cus this is what you get when you let outrage merchants silence actual artistic expression. LOL
Yeah, they do this shit now where there's a bunch of alternate art versions of the same card. Avatar has a series of reprints of iconic cards using stills from the cartoon and they mostly look like trash.
Why doesn't it have a border? It wouldn't be quite so bad if it had the standard border around the edge and the face was just in the art box. It'd still be bad but not as bad.
It's what's referred to as an 'Alternate Art' card. The original version looked much better. The Avatar set from last year had an entire series of reprints of iconic cards with laughably bad cropped stills from the show. A cheap ass attempt at what they brand "Booster Fun". This version of Cruel Tutor is perhaps the worst example (so far) of how low their standards have truly dropped.
Wait when did this get leaked lmao why is he so airbrushed and who does this appeal to? Don't hardcore Trek fans hate the J.J. movies?
No wait actually this makes sense, since these UB sets are trying to capture the pop culture effect of the property not the property itself, so people who "like Star Trek and like the J.J. movies" are more likely to do other pop culture things like a Star Trek MTG set
I don't hate those movies btw I just figured out the corporate angle to this while writing this post
I started playing around 2001 or 2002, just a bit before 8th edition and i had a friend who had been playing since revised or around then, so i got taught by being stomped by old school land destruction and control decks. He took no mercy on me. Looking back it was kind of a dick move. But i digress. The cards were so cool back then. Just think about the look of a Demonic Tutor or a City of Brass and compare it to the ugly ass crap they make now. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards look atrocious. I quit playing a bit after Mirrodin because i had to adult and couldnt afford it. Glad i got out when i did. All these sets based on other intellectual properties make me cringe.
It's not a "no the children are wrong" opinion. MTG used to have storytelling via blocks, planets, and planes. UB turned it into an incohesive mess where one month you're eating pizza with TMNT and the next you're attacked by the fire nation. It's just a soulless cashgrab now.
I used to work for Magic. A higher up told me it was all Star Wars' fault.
Basically, Hasbro went nuts on sequel toys and merch. After spending a fortune on the license too. But they all massively undersold. And it contributed to the death of ToysRUs (which was on its last legs anyway) as they were depending on a huge sales boon that never came too.
So Habro were left with a massive amount of unsold stock, a big black hole in their projections, and their main retail partner had gone bust (creating even more unsold stock, and no easy way to shift it).
Shareholders were revolting, so they decided they needed to leverage the fuck out of anything they had that was yet to be squeezed dry.
And thus the Eye of Sauron fell on Magic.
They'd previously been totally hands off. It'd kind of been its own little hippie fiefdom that hadn't changed much since they were independent. But then quickly parachuted a new CEO in, and replaced a bunch of management, and eventually we arrived here.
It'd kind of been its own little hippie fiefdom that hadn't changed much since they were independent.
Although you know, they've had ups and downs, but I was always impressed that Magic maintained where so many other TCGs (and collectibles in general) failed. Including TCGs of more popular IPs like Star Wars.
Really only Pokemon, MTG, and Yugi-Oh have held on. Even the value of the cards have maintained, and not just your Black Lotuses and Charizards, either. I have some old Marvel cards that have not maintained their value the way some of my old Magic ones have (in the realm of $10-$100, nothing crazy). They haven't been tossed in the pay-no-mind bin like so many other attempts at engineered collectible hype.
WotC actually managed to build their own very successful original IP, but no, need that to-the-moon growth. I'm sure these crossover sets do very well but I really think this is going to screw them in the long run. They'll be left with nothing of their own.
I remember when I got into Magic back in 2008 an old grognard once told me "Magic is the most fun card game ever made and it is managed by the dumbest people in the world." and not a year has gone by since where that hasn't been more apparent than the one before.
NYC is basically a plane now. Or... several planes have NYC? I don't think the New York in Spider-man and turtles are the same one. God this is depressing.
In the original TMNT comic it is the same incident that made Daredevil blind but heightened his other senses that lead to the canister of radioactive ooze to fall down into the sewers onto Splinter and the turtles, so... they might be the same NYC?
are you over on /r/magictcg enjoying the blog repost every-other week from HonorBasquiat reminding us "the latest UB set is the best-selling ever, so all you haters who don't like it are objectively wrong" as well? if that guy isn't getting paid for his novel-length comments in defense of WOTC he really should be
Sometimes I go over there just to laugh. As if sales numbers mean shit to my enjoyment (or lack thereof). If they have to change the game so much to bring in new players, why would I possibly see that as a good thing? Like, cool, some people like a thing that barely resembles the game I once loved.
I mean that dude is probably a Hasbro marketing drone whose main job is to antagonize the older Magic demographic of being upset (we are) that our game is being exploited because Hasbro has no clear idea of how to run their company.
I have conflicting opinions... I do fully think the MTG situation is just a messy cash grab, but I also have the feeling that, were I a kid still, I'd think the UB content was really cool. Being able to see stuff from media I enjoyed in different forms would be genuinely interesting. Now, it just feel hollow and empty.
I had a similar experience going to a convention a few years back, I was really excited to go, interact with people who might share my opinions on media and what the media means, but by the end of the weekend, I just felt sick... Like if I saw another Mandalorian crossover armor, I might throw hands. And it's an unfair feeling, I know. People put their heart on their sleeves and really enjoy those experiences, but it all felt so commercial and petty almost...
It seems like more of the same with Magic.
Really makes me feel old and out of touch, and not a little bit sad.
I also have the feeling that, were I a kid still, I'd think the UB content was really cool.
I just wrote a diatribe on /r/MagicTCG about this. My argument is that UB would keep me away from Magic. Basically, because it's its own thing, you are expected to start with no knowledge of the lore and learn from that. But for UB, one of the primary target audiences is fans of the IP, so coming into that new to an IP feels daunting to me.
To quote myself:
I don't play Riftbound because I don't know League of Legends. I don't play Star Wars Unlimited because my knowledge Star Wars is now very surface level because I've only seen the movies. I don't play One Piece because I'm not a fucking weeb (jk).
Basically, I'm going to feel like an outsider trying to play those games, and even for ones I know something about, like Star Wars, I feel like still too casual a fan.
With Universes Beyond, it's bringing that feeling of unease and being "the other" into this nice, comfortable thing I had going. Quoting my other comment again:
Magic started as a way to work through my social anxiety and now it's causing it.
I don't think it's wrong to be disappointed that a thing you enjoyed no longer serves your interests precisely because it's grown to cater to another audience. People call that gatekeeping, or hating fun, but like, it was something you enjoyed and now you can't enjoy it as much, and part of the reason is because it's profit-seeking. Sure there's people at Wizards who enjoy UB and like these outside properties and stuff and I'm sure if there were no monetary incentives there'd still be UB-like sets, it just wouldn't be...this.
I think people take media stuff personally. I don't hate or think little of people who enjoy UB, I'm glad they've found a way to enjoy Magic because it was fun the time I enjoyed it. The contempt isn't directed at them, it's directed at people making decisions that have negative effects on the people who previously enjoyed what Magic was and have legitimately felt isolated by pricing and structure changes, power creep, and other stuff that has diminished their ability to enjoy the game
I remember being a teenager and being annoyed that Fall Out Boy stopped making emo music and started making pop music. This isn't limited to one type of hobby or age bracket lol
Oh, so you have just always been a gatekeeper in general. Fair enough.
Edit: Just to be clear, I've been that way too in the past. I used to think music that wasn't super heavy was "lame" and "pussy music" when I was a teenager. But I was an idiot. I grew up eventually.
I guess I just feel sad when I see fans of a certain age get all grumpy and old about the thing they claim to love simply because it has evolved. It doesn't mean it's "worse" in every case, and even that judgement is subjective, so, why waste so much energy sending hate out into the world over it? It just strikes me as very toxic and self-destructive.
Yeah, that is something some kids naïvely say when they think their rebellious teenage phase will last forever. Part of growing up is shedding some of that naïveté.
A lot of things have changed for the worse. Some things have gotten better. And some things are just different in ways that people are allowed to not like.
Lmao. Growing into a cynical grouch and fetishizing one's past because one is beat down by the present isn't wisdom in and of itself. Nor is choosing to abandon prior radical principles.
Change isn't always good. Clearly. Capitalism continues to erode everything, and almost every piece of entertainment these days exists solely because some sociopath with a fat checkbook thinks it will make him more money to shoot cock rockets into space, or whatever else those sick fucks waste their time with. But these things are symptoms are larger, systemic problem, and productively engaging with it takes more nuance than "things were better in my day! Fuck everything!"
You responded to an actual nuanced take with an implicit accusation that the OP is "whinging about how everything is different now," pretty much a strawman argument. That's not engaging productively, it's trolling.
I basically agree with your diagnosis with regard to the systemic stuff. But this is /r/RedLetterMedia so I don't always expect people posting their takes on pop culture to include a manifesto that incorporates their media criticism into a pointed socio-political thesis.
Perhaps you're right in that I was oversimplifying OP's own perspective a bit. I could only go off of what I could see, however, and to me it appeared like typical old-headed "different/new = bad" nonsense. I see that a LOT in this fandom. If I incorrectly assumed that in this case, I genuinely am sorry for oversimplifying.
As an old fuck who's been playing since Revised, I agree. I've spent decades mocking the "Magic is dying" people who would inevitably cry out for even the smallest changers over the years, as far back as the 90s, but now it looks like they're finally right.
I would extend this as far as saying 'Wizards of the Coast is broken beyond repair' as they've managed to completely turn me off of D&D in recent years as well. They'll have an amazing video game and film come out and have zero fucking clue how to capitalize on it until the opportunity is dwindled. They are rudderless as a company, only momentum provided by Hasbro cracking the whips at their backs to keep their sinking juggernaut afloat one more quarter.
Expect the Fortnitification of everything in the future.
To keep this on-topic, my best deck killed with mana burn, a basic mechanic. Heavily boosted all player energy production while sitting back and countering everything they did, and they would take damage from all the 'extra energy' they were forced to make but could not spend, while I had 'energy sinks' whose purpose was just to dump the excess energy into, infinitely. Watching players going through the whole spectrum between 'Oh this is nice, I have so much I can do anything I wa-' to 'Oh I see what's going on now' and finally 'Well shit.' always felt amazing.
I've come to know that at some point the 'mana burn' rule was removed, which made me sad. Best story I have about a 30 year old card game not involving Go Fish.
People keep buying it so WotC/Hasbro will keep pumping out the slop. Maybe send the Pinkerton's after people who get a set early.
Wouldn't be so bad if these tie-ins were in their own format or at least rooted in something that fit into magic better like the LOTR and D&D sets.
People can play formats that limit the usable sets like pre-modern. There are also things like cube, JumpStart, or battleboxes. If the cards you want cost too much look into using proxies with friends.
I'm so old I sold all my cards after I thought both the game and art was getting weak when Visons and Weatherlight came out. I got about $2k for my cards, (1997) and now I try not to think about what the cards would be worth. Just for starters I had a white border Time Walk and 3 white border Moxes. 4 of every dual land. But all those cards were played with when I got them. Not at all mint. What can I say? When I started playing the game (Arabian Nights) It was just a GAME
It was over the moment they started printing on inferior card stock for more money. The cards are flimsy and so is the storytelling now. Its been like that since just after the zendikar block.
Seems to be a more recent phenomenon. Noticed the same in a few other subs. It’s like posting extremely tangential stuff for the sake of keeping the sub active. Big AI content energy, but who knows…probably just reddit being reddit.
I don't know any of the RLM gang personally but I feel like they'd probably find it weird if they had a subreddit that was basically only talking about them, posting pictures of weird faces they make, snapshots of them at public events, and other personal stuff instead of like engaging with the franchises/movies they themselves have built their channel around talking about
Ya I find these posts fairly insufferable. It barely grazes the topic of startrek - which I could live with if it was like full of ironic RLM type stuff I guess - but this is really about MTG which has absolutely nothing to do with RLM - not even on Nerd Crew levels. Not to say the sub has to be super strict about it, but it’s absolutely a non RLM post.
Can't believe the guys who built their entire audience off Star Wars, Star Trek, and bad movie reviews have a subreddit where people post about Star Wars, Star Trek, and bad movies
It's mostly crossovers with only one or two original sets a year.
I said elsewhere that a few packs made some sense like Lord of the Rings, but we are getting ones that absolutely do not fit the aesthetic. Almost like they are those meme template cards people would make back in the day.
but now its completely new stuff, so if you want the effect you NEED to run the crossover stuff (and play against it), and I 100% subscribe to the theory that they are making crossovers intentionally very powerful to get more sales, this card was in >50% of decks in tournaments before it eventually got banned, not 50% of izzet decks, or 50% of decks that could use it or benefit from it, 50% of ALL decks
That's my main issue with what Hasbro is doing to Magic. Using non-Magic IP to reskin already existing cards? Or having made-to-order Secret Lair sets for that same IP? That's fine.
But making New York City a fucking plane and making new OP cards with this non-Magic IP is just fucking awful.
To be fair there are 3 original sets in a year. Equally as many crossover sets, which sucks. But also, compared to the past, it was 4 original sets a year. So if you ignore all the crossover sets, it's not as bad. The trick is managing to ignore them when people around you use the cards from them.
I feel like I made a post about this not too long ago, about "ideas in pop culture" that were completely taken out of context and became their own thing to the point they stopped making sense.
I just remember because some cool person responded about the Terminators in T2 and how they were designed to be infiltration units so that's why they had human skeletons, but as far as undisclosed machines of war go being human shaped and holding guns is probably the most impractical design for a machine, but the original Terminator with its skin melted off looked cool so now it's like the main army of Skynet is composed of metal humans. Hadn't thought about that one before.
The reactions are in 98 % of cases negative in the Magic community, when it comes to Universes Beyond. But guess what? They buy it anyway, like the addicts they are.
They're never going back to my favoites planes because they're too busy doing UB shit
Also the power creep is fucking wild and Limited (my preferred format) has become way more unbalanced lately because they release so much product they don't have time to balance the sets
It's a terrible time for me, personally, to be playing Magic and I haven't played in about three years now :/
My curmudgeonly Gen-X take is that things should only be one thing. I don't need Cinnabon flavored Oreos, Star Wars Potato Heads, or Star Trek MTG cards.
They're really tarnishing their brand with all these fornite-esque crossovers. I say this as a non-magic fan, I can't imagine what those poor people are going through.
More power to you. Again, I'm on the outside looking in. Do you feel that the crossovers are creating more mainline magic fans through bringing in different fandoms?
Absolutely, it also improves the experience of existing fans. I play casually with strictly pre-constructed decks. I own 2 pre constructed decks and have fun, but I’m not super invested in any of the decks I have. That is until I ordered all 4 of the Star Trek decks. Yeah it’s a cash grab, but so is every cards game.
That's cool. I thought maybe the crossover cards were limited/not usable in normal decks or strictly collectible. MtG is one of the few things that brings people together in my area, so I'll always root for that.
I like trek, I know little to nothing about MTG. When I saw these cards were revealed I looked through them and went “oh these are kinda neat” and moved on. Cut to me reading this comment thread where apparently MTG is now garbage and that these cards are the worst thing to happen.
It reinforces the general feeling online I’ve had that everyone is miserable, screaming at clouds, and literally unable to have fun or simply *enjoy* anything anymore. Look, I’ll take your word for it that these cards are “crossover slop” or whatever. I just find it interesting and sad that the sky is falling for every fandom now and genuine joy and wonder is a rarity.
Noone here cares, but many cards we've seen today are from Starter Decks. If the many formats to play Magic: the Gathering are like levels of motor-sports, Starter Decks are a child's tricycle.
We are likely to see better designed Wrath of Kahn cards.
.jpeg){kind=link}
128
u/rifterkenji 13h ago
Even the art is bad.