WotC Hasbro CEO is going to have a Fireside Chat With Investors Over WotC

[bedir than]

They are proud of developing BG3 fully in house.

Did they buy Larian?

 

[Art Waring]

They touched on how "everything's fine and they are not overprinting, any accusations of the product not holding value come from a misunderstanding of the business model"

This is quite concerning, and risks coming off as tone deaf towards their mtg customers.

Claiming that the public simply "misunderstands their business model" is placing the blame on the customer for the m30 failure and recent declines in sales, when its the customers who have spoken with their wallets in protest of these very same business practices.

They have done this before, downplaying things to maintain the status quo, and the mtg side of the business is showing the public just how far removed they are from the ground floor (the players and the mtg community). Its a shame, because they could attempt to foster good will in the community by agreeing to slow down production, but as they say, everything's fine.

 

[Scribe]

Claiming that the public simply "misunderstands their business model" is placing the blame on the customer for the m30 failure and recent declines in sales, when its the customers who have spoken with their wallets in protest of these very same business practices.

Yes, this is hilarious to see honestly.

"You all just dont understand our genius." is never a good play.

 

[Charlaquin]

I personally wouldn't ban islands, because I like the hardest competition possible when I am playing competitively. I do however have years and years of unpleasant memories playing against mono blue control decks in standard and legacy.

The "mother may I" comes from the fact that I got so used to playing against x/U control, that I would literally go about my turn play by play, real slow like, looking the opponent in the eye after each move and wait for the nod that they are OK with what I have just cast on my turn before moving onto the next move.

I was a young competitive player that wanted to play fast because I knew the tournaments were on limited time, and I always ended up having to stay late to finish the tail end of tournaments (and the other players would get pissed at having to wait at the end for prizes, literally yelling at players to finish). I typically had my turn ready to go before it was even my turn, ready to draw, cast, and end in less than a minute (I was used to chess clocks back then).

But mono blue players always deliberately played the slow game, and i had to adapt to their preference because their counter control basically dictates any moves I can make. All in all it bogged the game down abysmally. Most local players wanted to go home on time, mono blue players just sat there spending 15 minutes on one turn, deliberating everything, casting nothing, and ending their turn. Again and again.

Magic is a very reactive game. It’s not just blue. Every color has access to instant-speed answers. It’s also a very complex game, which makes it easy to misplay, especially with a highly reactive deck, so you get a lot of slow, deliberate play at the higher levels of competition.

 

[Art Waring]

Magic is a very reactive game. It’s not just blue. Every color has access to instant-speed answers. It’s also a very complex game, which makes it easy to misplay, especially with a highly reactive deck, so you get a lot of slow, deliberate play at the higher levels of competition.

Sure sure. All true, but to put it in context I was talking about the Urza's Block meta, which included the three original urza sets (Urzas Saga, Legacy, & Destiny), and the meta back then was cutthroat in the extreme. The decks I made were always built to deal with mono blue control decks all running the same combos (heavy on counters, with both masticore and morphling in most decks), or some variation of Mind over matter -> time spiral -> Stroke of Genius types.

Here's a list of the top decks from that era, if you look at the builds they are all very similar, masticore present in 6 out of the top ten decks. Powder Keg in six out of ten decks. Morphling in four out of ten. Here is a deck I have seen and played against numerous times in different variations. Back then everyone knew exactly what to expect at a tournament, with several players all using variations on the same deck, because everyone knew what decks were used at the top tiers and copied the meta.

You don't even want to see these mono blue decks play against each other, it was so tedious.

Main Deck: 3 Masticore 4 Powder Keg 3 Scrying Glass 4 Annul 4 Miscalculation 2 Palinchron or Morphling depends 4 Power Sink 1 Quash 4 Rewind 1 Temporal Adept 4 Treachery 3 Blasted landscape 4 Faerie Conclave 3 Remote Isles 16 Islands

Sideboard: 2 Ticking Gnomes 4 Energy Field 3 Hibernation 2 Quash 1 Temporal Adept 3 Weatherseed Faeries

 

[Charlaquin]

Sure sure. All true, but to put it in context I was talking about the Urza's Block meta, which included the three original urza sets (Urzas Saga, Legacy, & Destiny), and the meta back then was cutthroat in the extreme. The decks I made were always built to deal with mono blue control decks all running the same combos (heavy on counters, with both masticore and morphling in most decks), or some variation of Mind over matter -> time spiral -> Stroke of Genius types.

Here's a list of the top decks from that era, if you look at the builds they are all very similar, masticore present in 6 out of the top ten decks. Powder Keg in six out of ten decks. Morphling in four out of ten. Here is a deck I have seen and played against numerous times in different variations. Back then everyone knew exactly what to expect at a tournament, with several players all using variations on the same deck, because everyone knew what decks were used at the top tiers and copied the meta.

I mean, that’s universal. The top level of competition, in any era of any format, is always dominated by a few top strategies, and a few strategies built to counter those top strategies. Usually the healthier a format, the more viable strategies exist in the top-tiers of the metagame, but there’s a limit, and usually you don’t see more than a handful of deck archetypes at the top.

You don't even want to see these mono blue decks play against each other, it was so tedious.

Main Deck: 3 Masticore 4 Powder Keg 3 Scrying Glass 4 Annul 4 Miscalculation 2 Palinchron or Morphling depends 4 Power Sink 1 Quash 4 Rewind 1 Temporal Adept 4 Treachery 3 Blasted landscape 4 Faerie Conclave 3 Remote Isles 16 Islands

Sideboard: 2 Ticking Gnomes 4 Energy Field 3 Hibernation 2 Quash 1 Temporal Adept 3 Weatherseed Faeries

I actually love the control mirror

 

[Zardnaar]

Be interesting to see some of those draw go decks vs newer cards and power creep on uncounterable critters.

Even goblin guide

 

[Charlaquin]

Be interesting to see some of those draw go decks vs newer cards and power creep on uncounterable critters.

Even goblin guide

Goblin guide? That’s not even really played anymore. I take it you haven’t seen Ragavan.

 

[Zardnaar]

Goblin guide? That’s not even really played anymore. I take it you haven’t seen Ragavan.

I have run both. Modern burn deck list I looked at ran both.

Back in the day always thought they should just print better uncounterable creatures.

 

[Scribe]

I actually love the control mirror

The most pure game's of magic possible.

 

[darjr]

I was referring to the MtG side of things. D&D side was just a puff piece for the investors.

Well the whole lot is a puff piece.

Unless the comments I've seen are misinterpreted, they had this chat to tell MtG players "sorry, not sorry, you just don't get it.".

That said, I'm still in meetings. I haven't heard it myself yet.

Among a lot of things they said there was a bit of a “yea we make mistakes and probably just have” but coached in business like language.

I think the recorded audio is up now if you want to listen for yourself.

 

[Art Waring]

I actually love the control mirror

fair enough

 

[MoonSong]

This is quite concerning, and risks coming off as tone deaf towards their mtg customers.

It's not a risk if it has a 100% chance of happening. It has already happened.

 

[Art Waring]

It's not a risk if it has a 100% chance of happening. It has already happened.

I think you misread my post, it says risk, as in it risks sounding a certain way, not a risk of percentage or chances of occurring.

 

[MoonSong]

I think you misread my post, it says risk, as in it risks sounding a certain way, not a risk of percentage or chances of occurring.

I meant that to the community, it sounded exactly like that.

 

[Art Waring]

I meant that to the community, it sounded exactly like that.

Gotcha. My preference is to try not to speak in absolutes, because not all things are locked into a binary state. If that means I sound less than 100% certain, its because I am trying to remain objective about it.

Not to mention, I don't like to make assumptions about what other people think or read into things.

 

[MockingBird]

I've been thinking a lot about this. Would it be healthy if MtG just did a hard reset? How do you hard reset a 30 yr old game? Have they ever tried a hard reset? I was 12 in 1994, I didn't even know what MtG was until 1997 with Portal, wished I could go back and get into the game at the ground level. Just seems overwhelming now and felt that way when I dipped my toe in it in 2014.

 

[Scribe]

I've been thinking a lot about this. Would it be healthy if MtG just did a hard reset? How do you hard reset a 30 yr old game? Have they ever tried a hard reset? I was 12 in 1994, I didn't even know what MtG was until 1997 with Portal, wished I could go back and get into the game at the ground level. Just seems overwhelming now and felt that way when I dipped my toe in it in 2014.

Every rotation of Standard, is a reset...

 

[Zardnaar]

Every rotation of Standard, is a reset...

Think they're talking about rotation of everything.

 

[Dausuul]

I've been thinking a lot about this. Would it be healthy if MtG just did a hard reset? How do you hard reset a 30 yr old game? Have they ever tried a hard reset? I was 12 in 1994, I didn't even know what MtG was until 1997 with Portal, wished I could go back and get into the game at the ground level. Just seems overwhelming now and felt that way when I dipped my toe in it in 2014.

A true hard reset -- like, Wizards declares all past sets null and void and starts printing new cards that are incompatible with old ones -- would kill Magic. There is a whole ecosystem built up around the game which would collapse overnight, taking thousands of FLGSes with it. People would lose their livelihoods. I honestly think you would see literal riots outside WotC's offices.

Furthermore, all the invested players would then ask themselves: Do I want to start over from scratch, or just walk away? An awful lot would pick door number 2. And those are the "whales" that have always driven Magic's profits. It would be like 4E, but a hundred times worse, and there's no OGL for Magic; there would be no Pathfinder to take in the players who walked away and keep them engaged with the game.

Now, that's for a hard reset. A softer reset, as @Scribe points out, happens with every Standard rotation... but that matters less and less as Standard dwindles. Wizards desperately needs to revive Standard or find another way to put card rotation back into the game.