Why Magic Why?

[Death Gaara]

Just when I think I can play the game again fetch lands go up in price. Honestly, both modern and magic are starting to become dead to me? Why has this game doubled in price the last few years? I want to play so badly, but this is just rediculus.

/rant thread go

[Mlerner12]

I feel you, and the only reason I don't do as well as I can is because I'd my parents have a price limit, and I can't get many cards... And I can't order singles, either!!!!

[DirtyMustachio]

Play draft,  block, or standard?

Cheapest time to start Stadard is beginning of rotation/new set

[Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth]

I know...a friend offered me a two binders for $400 dollars but I know my mom would kill me. Turns out, the owner of the LGS bought it for $550 and has already made 400

[Silent1236]

I know . With tuition, car payments, etc etc, it makes me really just want to hang on to me EDH decks and trade/sell my constructed stuff.

[Death Gaara]

Honestly, magic is becoming more of a joke to me in my opinion. Nothing has sparked the writing flare I once had, the game is expensive beyond belief, and each year the game gets simpler and simpler. Magic as a whole has been on a downward spiral. They took the easy way out and catered to the crowd who had the most money instead of looking at the importance of the game itself. WotC and Hasbro are businesses too; I get that as I am a man of business myself. However, the complete and utter lack of disregard they have for long time players or players who are on a budget just sickens me. Event decks have not been up to par since the Vamp deck, prerleases and other forms of organized play have turned into gimmick fests, and the shoehorned mythic rarity of every needed card makes the game just too much of a hassle to deal with. Modern Masters was a huge flop too. Yeah it slightly lowered the price of Finks and the like. But at the cost of Making Goyf cost $40 more and a small price hike in BoB. Any money saved by Modern Masters and reprinted Shocks is immediately undone by the price spike of Goyf and fetches. Combo is dead now and WotC has no intention of ever letting it live again in Modern. That joke of a format has deteriorated into nothing but 3 color goodstuff.deks and it annoys me so much. There was so much missed potential here. EDH is pointless for me too since my town is small and my playgroup is limited. I am always the first one targeted and it becomes 4v1 until I am out of the picture. Then I sit there and wait for 3 hours as everybody else has fun while I question why I still even bother playing this game. Control is only a shell of it's former self and aggro has been so simplified with the new rulings that it remains even less interesting than before. The depth that made magic great is slowly fading away. Yet fanboys will still cling to the game until its dying breath. Honestly, I could probably afford to play competitive Magic if I want to quit college and drop a few hobbies. But why should I make these sacrifices for a game that is only marginally fun anymore? Drafting is really the only thing left in this game for me but my local store never runs those events since we can barely get enough for one pod. They do not want people left out, so we always need multiples of 8 (we usually end up with around 10 on FNM days and 33 on prereleases).

I realize this may make me sound pretentious and I know that nobody is telling me to give up any hobbies for competitive magic. But why on earth should I even bother with it anymore? Prices have more than doubled since Zendikar for every format. I honestly just needed to get this off of my chest more than anything else. What does everybody else think of the current state of Magic? With Theros just around the corner and more gimmicks to come, what does all of this mean for Magic?

[Spikepit]

Does not sound pretentious at all buddy and I totally agree! The only reason I'm still into it is because I teach a thriving school group and if it wasn't for my little escapist, nerdy teens, I'd have turfed the game too.

I must say though, your articles have been missed champ.

[Birdbrain]

{scalding tarn} was at seventy a few months ago

[Wally]

I've only really being playing since 2010, and only competitively since late 2011 (FNM level) and I've really enjoyed it up till now.

But, to be honest, I've kind of lost some interest over this m14 set and I have no real interest to pursue into the next block.
The only times I get to play are on Fridays at Fnm since my housemate stopped playing and my mate from work moved away. At our Fnm we only ever play standard and occasionally we will do a draft as something different.
So no real option to move into modern or edh.

I am also at the point where a fair chunk of my cards and some almost complete decks will rotate upon the release of the next set and I am really considering pulling the pin at that point.
I will hold onto my cards in the event that I may ever want to play again, especially in any eternal format (where I'm not sure i have many cards that will play there anyway), my sets of full art lands can always be played, and shock lands will always be worth something I'd imagine.

I have really enjoyed this hobby up till now, and even though I don't mind spending some of my surplus income on it, I feel I'm at a point where I could easily put it aside, walk away and not miss it too much.

I do consider it such a shame, as this has been, and could still be the most amazing card game I've ever played, (and I play a ton of board and card games) yet it's lost my interest.
For me it hasn't really even been the cost. Like sure, if it was cheaper it would hurt less on a set rotation, (and it's even more expensive here in Australia!)

So anyway, when I say I understand where you are coming from, you know that I mean it.

[imthelolrus]

I know the price tag to enter modern looks absurd, and it some ways it is. If I didn't own a Playset of the modern legal fetches, I probably would not be so interested in it.

I have always thought of magic as an investment, and that's how you have to look at playing modern. Nothing leaves unless it's banned so the cards will only rise in price. I've made money by simply playing a format I enjoy.  {Horizon Canopy}  {Keen Sense}  {Mox Opal}  {Sowing Salt} are all cards that I purchased playsets of to put into decks that have either doubled or tripled.

The advantages of modern are worth it to me, but I can't speak for others. If you're dissatisfied with the direction of the game, sell some stuf that's rotating, keep any EDH decks, and hang onto the rest of your collection. I quit during kamigawa block because mirrodin was just broken and the game seem to lost its magic (pun intended) but I've always found there is something that will suck you back in, someday

[Death Gaara]

Articles may come again in the future if this game gives me the inspiration it once did. For me, the price of entry is not really the main problem. It is a rather large one, but not the main issue I have with modern, standard, and what not. I just do not like the formats anymore. Modern has not creativity and is just goodstuff.deks. Standard is just too low of a skill level required to appease my competitive nature. Standard is fine and all, but when you have played it as long as I or other old magic players have it become a really easy format with little innovation. Its purpose is to help guide newer players to a point where they can understand how to play this game well and to push sales of their latest sets. For me, Standard started becoming stale a long time ago. Extended was not bad, but now it is dead. Modern (the replacement) has a banlist that is keeping it from reaching its potential. Legacy's reserved list is killing it off. Nobody really plays vintage unless they like living off of eating cardboard. And EDH is almost never fun for me since it always evolves into 4v1's and I sit there for 2 hours watching everybody else have fun. The sad part is my EDH deck is not even that bad. But because the players I play with (newer players) do not know how to handle a situation that is put in front of them, they all just gang up and attack. That is what they learned from WotC. When I started playing, you learned to conserve your card, outwit your opponent, and find answers to the problem. Seriously, how overpowered is a deck that uses Varolz as a general? No infinite combos, no absurdly powerful broken cards. Just a deck that ramps/reanimates/draws cards to gain advantage. Seriously, if it is turn 30 and you have no answer to an unprotected Vorinclex, you deserve to lose to the Genisis Wave that comes next turn. I purposelessly nerf my EDH decks for the sake of the casual group. Even nerfing my decks still does not fix bad players and their mentality.

[Kaleo42]

I will share my thoughts. Some key points many of you don't know. I do have a team to play magic when I want. I have access to most cards but only with good management of trades does this collection continue to support our team (we don't really buy packs, we enter in prerelease events and win and trade for what we need). Every rotation we turn in a bunch of bulk rotating stuff that I can't justify holding onto into star city games and turn the credit into needed rares from the new set. I play standard, edh, and experiment in modern. Lastly, I focus a lot on game design and the decisions that go into it when judging a new set.

I have been super impressed by some things over the last year and super dissapointed by other decisions made by WotC. However over all I can see that they have made a very well refined machine though changes that have occurred in the last few years. This 'dumbing down' of magic every talks about as a bad thing actually really pisses me off. I played Yu-gi-oh before magic and am very well acquainted with what the alternative to an easy to understand game is. Yugioh is doomed to fail in the long run because their rules are so convoluted and written in between the lines that only those who already know them all can play at any competitive event. In magic we welcome players to join with the easiest game to learn for just how in depth it is. With all the billions of possibilities it is amazing the game can be learned enough to play at an fnm within an hour,

The whole no combos allowed thing is frustrating for us who love them, but again look at the alternative. Looking back at Yugioh, the average competitive match is over by turn two. You don't even get to play the game half the time. Who wants to play a game you don't get to play? It seems redundant but that is the alternative to banning turn 3 or earlier consistent combos.

This simplifying of the rules while maintaining complex interactions is the really marketing ploy. Remember wizards does not make money of a $30 spike in {voice of resurgence}, they make their money off of inviting and retaining new players. Star City Games, Abugames, TCG, they are the ones who see money from $30 spikes and mythics needed in 4 ofs.

DG this is not an attack on you, but you hit every major point that the average losing hope magic player complains about. Sometimes it just takes a different look at something to appreciate it, the difficulty is when people decide what they are looking at before they really take a look at it. You can all call me spoiled, but it was hard word, good planning, and social skills that got me to this point. To humble myself I regularly work with new players on the best thing they can build so I never forget what it was like when I had to work with a tight budget and little to no experience. I have more I could share, but I have to get to work and this is already pretty long. I hope it helps you see things for the better.

[Death Gaara]

I will share my thoughts. Some key points many of you don't know. I do have a team to play magic when I want. I have access to most cards but only with good management of trades does this collection continue to support our team (we don't really buy packs, we enter in prerelease events and win and trade for what we need). Every rotation we turn in a bunch of bulk rotating stuff that I can't justify holding onto into star city games and turn the credit into needed rares from the new set. I play standard, edh, and experiment in modern. Lastly, I focus a lot on game design and the decisions that go into it when judging a new set.

I have been super impressed by some things over the last year and super dissapointed by other decisions made by WotC. However over all I can see that they have made a very well refined machine though changes that have occurred in the last few years. This 'dumbing down' of magic every talks about as a bad thing actually really pisses me off. I played Yu-gi-oh before magic and am very well acquainted with what the alternative to an easy to understand game is. Yugioh is doomed to fail in the long run because their rules are so convoluted and written in between the lines that only those who already know them all can play at any competitive event. In magic we welcome players to join with the easiest game to learn for just how in depth it is. With all the billions of possibilities it is amazing the game can be learned enough to play at an fnm within an hour,

The whole no combos allowed thing is frustrating for us who love them, but again look at the alternative. Looking back at Yugioh, the average competitive match is over by turn two. You don't even get to play the game half the time. Who wants to play a game you don't get to play? It seems redundant but that is the alternative to banning turn 3 or earlier consistent combos.

This simplifying of the rules while maintaining complex interactions is the really marketing ploy. Remember wizards does not make money of a $30 spike in {voice of resurgence}, they make their money off of inviting and retaining new players. Star City Games, Abugames, TCG, they are the ones who see money from $30 spikes and mythics needed in 4 ofs.

DG this is not an attack on you, but you hit every major point that the average losing hope magic player complains about. Sometimes it just takes a different look at something to appreciate it, the difficulty is when people decide what they are looking at before they really take a look at it. You can all call me spoiled, but it was hard word, good planning, and social skills that got me to this point. To humble myself I regularly work with new players on the best thing they can build so I never forget what it was like when I had to work with a tight budget and little to no experience. I have more I could share, but I have to get to work and this is already pretty long. I hope it helps you see things for the better.

I am not sure why those key points are relevant, but whatever you think backs up your arguments. Quit looking at my points with face value. I am talking about the ideas. Consider the ideas I am trying to convey. Everything else I explained was just a contributing factor to one idea. This is not an attack on you either, but consider this. Why are so many players reiterating this idea? Could it be perhaps there is some truth to it? By the sounds of it you have only been playing for a few years (there is nothing wrong with this). My guess is you came into Magic during one of it's big booms (Zendikar, M10, Innistrad, etc.).  There is nothing wrong with that, but what you need to realize is the game is now catered to people in your shoes. Anybody who has started magic the past 4 or so years has the game catered to them and did not ever experience the way magic used to be. So honestly you cannot even begin to understand where I or others are coming from. Like I said, this is not an attack on you. I am just saying that you cannot hope to understand the "average losing hope mage player(s)" point of view because you have not been there. Maybe you have and I am just assuming too much. If that is the case I am sorry. However, by the way you present both your arguments and your past history with the game my guess is I am closer to correct than incorrect in my assessments. 

[Birdbrain]

Think wizards will ever go back to zenkidar? If they do, the fetch lands could go down

[Kaleo42]

Haha well played. You are exactly right about when I start but not about how. I was introduced to the game by long time players with old time rules, I have lived in both worlds and the flaws in design used to drive me crazy. That being said everything had a reason behind and I love that. The new clone rules are the first ones that I can think of that are strickly for eaaing game play without any concern for flavor, this does really bother me.

I like games like chess and Othello. Minutes to learn, life time to master. I personally like the slow shift in that direction.

On the point of cost...i do believe magic has grown way top expensive and something has to give. Some effort has been shown to put 4 ofs at rare like {scavenging ooze} while more niche powerhouses hold higher ratity. ...gotta work again