moonsliceman

[moonsliceman]

Limited gameplay drives sales. Precious few TCGs offer the kind of gameplay that enables games from just a handful of packs, and Magic is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of quality and variability. Homebrews, or "cube" as we call it here, creates perpetual interest in your game, and that is possible in Magic because of the intentional design of the game and of cards released to make them open to users creating their own experiences beyond the possibilities that you could imagine. This Nintendo style weakness is why Pokemon will always be a stock market bolstering a strategically mediocre game and not the other way around. YuGiOh struggles here due to its resource system and railroaded archetype-based gameplay.

The Magic rules system is one of the best in the game business. Note, I didn't say "the TCG business." Not "the board game business." The game business. The consistency and robustness of the rules are unparalleled, both in terms of actual gameplay and the communication surrounding updates. The NFL's rules are shorter, less detailed, and more open to interpretation than Magic's. YuGiOh has two companies maintaining ban lists and rules that disagree. Pokemon blanket changes rules and references every few years.

Database resources for discussion. Gatherer could use a face lift, but Scryfall is the standard by which other APIs are measured. Fully featured search language, add-ons and bots for chat programs, sections and listing for categories and tags of cards, etc. I'm sure that team has been approached numerous times to talk about being bought out. It makes the online discussion around Magic simple and easy to reference. MTGJSON is stellar as well for different technical reasons. Pokemon's database is serviceable, but different websites offering card data use different set codes to reference cards, which is frankly inexcusable but also completely to blame on the Pokemon company. YuGiOh hosts their card information on a wiki.

I bring up YGO and PKMN not just to roast them, but because they're the most well known in the US right now. It's notable that 2 and 3 are completely doable by either brand, they just haven't done it.

You talk about Magic's golden trifecta which was very innovative at the time, to the point that two of those (trading card game, color pie) are a given for almost any TCG after it. But what do you think are Magic's biggest strengths against its competitors now? Like, if you had to condense it to 2 or 3 things.

We have a stellar, and very large, design and creative team. And having iterated over thirty plus years, we are well versed in making Magic sets.

First mover advantage (aka we're already established as the dominant TCG) is huge.

[moonsliceman]

A Magic: the Gathering Movie: the Game of the Movie

First, start with the idea yesterday. It's set on Dominaria, there's enough lore there that you can just build anything.

Second, sketch the plot. Maybe Marit Lage is back, and our heroes have to face it down? A coming-of-age story about trusting your home and not relying on others. Or, it's about Liliana losing it and reviving Gideon, and having to fight off Bolas. Jace follows the clues to her, maybe Loot is involved, I don't know. Whatever.

Third, engage the timeline. There are no Dominaria sets on the roadmap for the next few years, and UB sets taking up half the slots means there's an extra buffer. It could take up to two years to get a movie from script to screen; one for post, half for filming, and another half for pre. The earliest slot could be spring 2028.

Fourth, make the set. The timeline means you can start late, but the challenge would be making the set resonate without stepping on the movie's toes or making too many creative decisions that would have been locked in with the script. I think this is the toughest part, because R&D would be tempted to make a Movie Game rather than a Game and a Movie. Remember, the set is going to stick in people's memory far longer than the film.

Fifth, line it up. Both products would be Parachute until they're fully done, up to two months ahead of release. This would be easy, tons of studios have held onto films, and we've already had a Parachute pulled in Magic.

It's completely doable.

[moonsliceman]

Fuck the USB group in particular for being purposefully inconsistent. Don't call it USB4 2.0 or USB4 Gen 4x2. It's referring to the same fucking product, a product which is definitely not USB4. Just call it USB5. I don't care if we count to USB100 in the next ten years, just increment the fucking number that consumers will recognize and call it a day.

Newsflash to Product Owners

Nobody has ever read a CPU or GPU or mobo or USB or HDMI's product name and thought, "Wow! I understand what this machine is and what it does relative to its peers."

Intel Core i9-13980HX, Intel Core i9-9900KS, Raptor Lake (which doesn't appear in the name of the product), HDMI 1.4b, HDMI 2.1a, USB4 2.0, USB4 Gen 3x2, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, ROG Strix B550-A Gaming, MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi AM5 AMD X870E SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboard

Barely any of those numbers or words mean anything to the consumer. It's always been arbitrary and annoying to read.

IN A PERFECT WORLD:

Minecraft 1.21.3, Minecraft 1.2.5, Minecraft Beta 1.8, Minecraft Snapshot 12w24a

2004 Toyota Camry STD, 2024 Mustang GT Premium Convertible

iOS 18, iPhone 5S, iPhone 12 Pro Max

Refer to WHEN the product was released. Refer to the TIER of product you are offering. That is all.

AMD Ryzen 2024Q4 9X3D (The architecture Ryzen, year 2024 and quarter of release Q4, performance tier 9, and special feature X3D.)

USB3-A (The spec 3, connector A) USB2-Am (The spec 2, connector A, size mini) USB4-C (Spec 4, connector C)

[moonsliceman]

Newsflash to Product Owners

Nobody has ever read a CPU or GPU or mobo or USB or HDMI's product name and thought, "Wow! I understand what this machine is and what it does relative to its peers."

Intel Core i9-13980HX, Intel Core i9-9900KS, Raptor Lake (which doesn't appear in the name of the product), HDMI 1.4b, HDMI 2.1a, USB4 2.0, USB4 Gen 3x2, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, ROG Strix B550-A Gaming, MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi AM5 AMD X870E SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboard

Barely any of those numbers or words mean anything to the consumer. It's always been arbitrary and annoying to read.

IN A PERFECT WORLD:

Minecraft 1.21.3, Minecraft 1.2.5, Minecraft Beta 1.8, Minecraft Snapshot 12w24a

2004 Toyota Camry STD, 2024 Mustang GT Premium Convertible

iOS 18, iPhone 5S, iPhone 12 Pro Max

Refer to WHEN the product was released. Refer to the TIER of product you are offering. That is all.

AMD Ryzen 2024Q4 9X3D (The architecture Ryzen, year 2024 and quarter of release Q4, performance tier 9, and special feature X3D.)

USB3-A (The spec 3, connector A) USB2-Am (The spec 2, connector A, size mini) USB4-C (Spec 4, connector C)

[moonsliceman]

Commander Bans Should Not Be By Power Level

The format is warped primarily by its additional rules. Cards like Fastbond, Channel, Griselbrand, and Yawgmoth's Bargain are warped by having 40 life over 20. Prophet of Kruphix, Trade Secrets, Hullbreacher, Leovold, Balance, Erayo, and Dockside are warped by the number of opponents. Karakas, Iona, and Lutri are warped by deckbuilding rules.

The format is also warped by its perception as casual. Sway of the Stars, Sundering Titan, Limited Resources, and Braids are punishing cards that break or bend the resources of opponents. The power 9, Tolarian Academy, Rofellos, Mana Crypt, Golos, Library of Alexandria, and Jeweled Lotus are all banned for producing too many resources. Nadu, Panoptic Mirror, Paradox Engine, Flash, Time Vault, Tinker, Upheaval, Coalition Victory, and Biorhythm are banned for being combo pieces.

The difference between these two categories is that the second batch is completely arbitrary. If the format is casual, what does it matter that there are strong cards? Yes, some cards are stronger than others, and some people want to step off the beaten path. But who said that power is a problem for non-tournament play? How can we assume that non-tournament players exclusively enjoy low power and hate fast games?

In the same vein, are we unable to name dozens more cards that are incredibly powerful? Why isn't Dark Confidant banned, given the higher life total? Why isn't Felidar Sovereign banned? Mana Vault? Ancient Tomb? Doomsday? Is Time Vault the only infinite turn combo out there? Really?

For this reason, the ban list should not be filled with power level bans, it should be focused against cards that are problems in Commander games. Not by virtue of being too fast or too popular for someone's opinion, but by virtue of directly attacking the format's weaknesses as a multiplayer and high life total environment. Nadu causes problems. Iona causes problems. Erayo causes problems. Trade Secrets causes problems. Karakas causes problems. Drannith Magistrate causes problems. Divine Intervention causes problems.

For other cards that poke at opinions, make recommendations. As a very simple idea, it's not impossible to take a snapshot of powerful, popular, or abuse-able cards and codify them into power levels, many people write articles doing exactly that all the time. Ancestral Recall? Top tier. Horobi? Watch out. Thraximundar? Relaxed. Directly communicate how speedy or powerfully players can choose to play in the same way that tournament oriented formats expect playing to win.

This won't solve the problem of some jerk flat out lying about their deck in an LGS, but neither will banning even a few dozen cards each year. The problem is social, so the challenge is catching the lie, or even just a miscommunication, and cutting off a bad game before it starts. That takes real policy and real effort beyond the banal skill of naming infamous cards.

[moonsliceman]

Equipment and Sagas are the best two subtypes, hands down. Boast absolutely blew me away, it surpassed Raid to the maximum degree. Please, more Boast. Foretell was a bit lacking, but maybe I didn’t play with it enough. The special frame was cool.

What did you like and dislike about Kaldheim?

[moonsliceman]

Lessons are brilliant, and the Mystical Archive is fun, but the distinction between STX and Ravnica is incredible, bravo. Lots of hope for the future of color pair centered worlds. The disappointing part was the MDFCs not playing a larger or more interesting role, and that they had the maximum amount of complexity via two distinct sides.

What did you like and dislike about Strixhaven?

[moonsliceman]

Liked that MH2 did its share of mix-and-match cards, some pushed versions of cards, and that it featured Dakkon Blackblade’s story. I didn’t like that there was much more control over power level. There were many cards like Rain of Revelation that could have easily been printed into Standard the same way RoR did, which is antithetical to being in the MH series.

What did you like and dislike about Modern Horizons 2?

[moonsliceman]

This is the single dumbest thing I’ve read all year. After *one* Oko goes up to 6, how are you going to deal with the *second* Oko going to 6, a problem you’d previously have an entire extra turn cycle to handle? Fated Retribution on turn 8? Elderspell for no value?

Counterpoint to another questioner... multiple Teferi, Time Ravelers in play would NOT terrorize any formats. Of all cards, a second copy in play adds very little incremental value. Teferi+Oko in play is far more useful than Teferi+Teferi or Oko+Oko. There are very few instances in which having two of the same really good Legend is meaningfully better than having two distinct really good Legends.

There are a few that do, but I agree the list is shorter than most players think it is.

[moonsliceman]

I am utterly vindicated by this post’s notes. Complain about the frame? Okay. We’ll remove it.

How has the secondary name bar worked out so far? I hope we see it again, either with other franchises or in-house themes. It has a lot of potential for crazy promo cards.

I’m curious with all your thoughts on it. The example is the Godzilla series cards.

[moonsliceman]

Counterspell reminder text

does not exist, change my mind.

“You may cast this spell when another spell is cast. When this one resolves, the other is put into the graveyard.”

“You may cast this spell in response to another spell. Then, they resolve in reverse order. Countered spells are put into the graveyard.”

“Nonland cards and abilities are put onto the stack when they are played. Then, they resolve in reverse order. Countered cards are put directly into the graveyard.”

[moonsliceman]

Ravnica needs a break, and a big one at that. I’d wait at least two years longer than the previous in-between time. It’s starting to become played out, as crazy as that sounds. Ravnica was great because it focused so much on multicolor combinations, but since multicolor is in every set now, its not as special. We need more monocolor or tricolor themes, or duocolor themes that break the Ravnican mold, before it can wow the players as much as it did.

Which will we see next in a standard-legal set, Dominaria, Ravnica, or Innistrad?

Which would you all prefer seeing next of the three?

[moonsliceman]

Further, if counterspells were able to fit in white in a set, whether without messing with cohesion or with the idea of making the best game, then they would have done so in the last 10 years. Clearly, Lapse of Certainty and Dawn Charm pushed too far, and weren’t fun in some metric. Ergo, white doesn’t have counterspells in its slice.

RE: White counterspells; if a color doesn't get an effect in its slice for almost 10 years, is it really in that color's slice? Counterspells haven't been put into white's commons or uncommons since Alara block, so one could say for practicality that it's not something white does at all. In theory it can do X, but it doesn't and likely won't because it hasn't, so realistically it can't actually do X.

There is a difference between potential and execution. I’m explaining what white is allowed to do, not what we choose to do with it. Our goal is not to maximize color pie potential, but make the best game we can. There are plenty of spaces we could explore that we currently choose not to.

[moonsliceman]

Not gonna bother him again on the topic, so I’ll go further here. Rebuttal: If you always choose not to do X, then it’s not something the color will do, so the color doesn’t have the potential for X. Additionally, if slice is a measure of potential, then anything can be in any color’s slice, since you could feasibly convert any effect into another color via flavor, caring about something, or set cohesion. Source: Adanto Vanguard, Mangara the Diplomat, Murder of Crows.

RE: White counterspells; if a color doesn't get an effect in its slice for almost 10 years, is it really in that color's slice? Counterspells haven't been put into white's commons or uncommons since Alara block, so one could say for practicality that it's not something white does at all. In theory it can do X, but it doesn't and likely won't because it hasn't, so realistically it can't actually do X.

There is a difference between potential and execution. I’m explaining what white is allowed to do, not what we choose to do with it. Our goal is not to maximize color pie potential, but make the best game we can. There are plenty of spaces we could explore that we currently choose not to.

[moonsliceman]

i found how to post

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[moonsliceman]

Absolutely. Historic matters was fun, legendary matters is fun, and it’s a huge opportunity to cash in on Dominaria’s absurdly extensive lore.

Having the treasure hunt going meant that we kinda missed out on a world tour. We only heard about Vampire Island because it’s part of the Vampire plot line. I think the Pirate setting is a good foothold for a road trip set of sorts.

Would a return to Dominaria have a historic/legendary matters theme? Could we visit another part of Ixalan on a return?

I’ll ask these questions of all of you:

Should a return to Dominaria have a historic/legendary matters theme?

Should we visit another part of Ixalan on a return?

[moonsliceman]

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