This Product is Not For You

https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2019/11/this-product-isnt-for-you/

While I have not spoken about Magic: the Gathering in a while and the pandemic has prevented me from playing at my local card shop recently, this article sums up a lot of what I dislike about the game’s recent direction. The “whales” for MtG’s sales model means that the game is becoming increasingly more expensive to play, to the point where it’s even beginning to effect set design — more recent mythics seem deliberately designed to be as pushed as possible to sell packs, without regard for game balance. (This is most notable with the recent disasters that were Oko and Companions, but hardly exclusive to it. Cards like Kinnan heavily push the boundaries of what creatures are capable of to a degree that I would argue have never been seen before in the game.)

While this is unsurprising given that MtG is ultimately a corporate product, I am very concerned for where the game will go from here and I hope to some degree that it’s not indicative of a longer-lasting trend.

Comments

[SilentStroll]

Yeah, Hasbro has seen how successful monetizing Arena is and want the same ideas applied in paper.

[Csquared08]

Cards like Kinnan heavily push the boundaries of what creatures are capable of to a degree that I would argue have never been seen before in the game.

I understand everything else, but Kinnan seems pretty far from heinous and par for the course for what I'd expect from the average mythic. He's an okay body with a cool static and an expensive activated ability that work well together.