Did you miss out previous episode about how Universes Beyond Will Continue Until Morale Improves? Check it out here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b61gdtiTtcnXlYk.html

Vince's accent work is a force to be reckoned with.

Prof: "I don't think capitalism is bad" Spice8Rack on the other side of the ocean: "oh no, my spicy senses are tingling"

“we’re not making a capitalism is bad episode” Well obviously, because spice8rack isn’t there.

Well, Prof predicted the content of the Arena economy stream perfectly. Not that it was much a surprise though!

Prof: “capitalism isn’t bad” Me: *breathes heavily in Spice 8 Rack*

It's funny, I can't really find a channel of this quality in other hobbies. One that consistently offers multifaceted analyses while properly discerning between fact and opinion; objective and subjective. I really hope MTG gets their shit together because currently, they do not deserve this guy.

Not going to lie, was sort of hoping Vince would do a full scar-face line of "not a drug" Halo powder before gunning down the other people at the table with some combo...

An episode with Professor Spice8rack would be amazing. The Arena stream has solidified my decision to avoid it entirely. I know it was more the community hyping up the stream than wizards was, but it definitely feels like it made things worse and killed a lot of people's trust. With walking dead I wish they'd finally tell us when the mtg versions are coming since they finally confirmed they will actually do them. So many problems with that lair, and coming just months after they acknowledged the buy a box problem and swapping those back to alt art.

Okay but let's get Vince to Chicago 🤣

Corporations' fascination with the concept of infinite growth is infuriating.

These skits are amazing I love you guys so much

To answer Prof's last question, I think unquestionable to continue to push towards Alchemy. Vince is right, the most recent set championship was Historic and Alchemy specifically. And it was recently pointed out to me that the latest update to the intro decks you get for free as part of the "New Player Experience" include Alchemy cards. So the decks you get when you start the game as a new player aren't even Standard legal. They're clearly trying to funnel people into Alchemy to save face.

Brian was correct to be skeptical of hedge fund execs. Sounds like they are looking to engineer their next GameStop moment.

I'm waiting for 5 years from now when Prof's skits are so elaborate they will be feature films.

This intro skit, more than makes up for last episode's lack of one. 🥰👏👏👏🥰

Great discussion. The intro was hilarious, Prof's timing is spot on. I can't get enough - keep it up! Please bring back Murray!

Really happy for Brian's kickstarter being such a huge success!

The "If Orson Wells came back as a starcraft player" line killed me.

I come for the " you have a KZfaq channel" meme and stay for the stellar content! Keep up the good work prof!

most of those business decisions arent even good for their business. WotC seems to constantly burn their long term credibility for short term gain (especially with regards to MTGA).

Historically, Vinnie Gibrone is nothing more than a glorified crew

The discussion was awesome as usual, but that opening skit was pure gold🤣

“Well if orson wells got reincarnated as a StarCraft player” god that’s a niche joke but I loved it so much my bang shot out my nose lol

"You don't have a daughter" he said. Well, I proved him wrong.

The crucial (but unstated) element of this is that they can only sell stuff people are buying. I stopped playing Arena when Alchemy came out. If that's their direction it's not worth my money (or time). And I haven't bought any Secret Lairs. But if I'm outvoted by people who want to pay it, then so be it. They're welcome to sell to people who want it. And apparently lots of them exist.

the real thing they could do to make magic better is focus on longterm growth vs. sudden growth 5, 10 yr goals. reinvesting in the firm and game.

I loved the Vinny Jabroni bit, tbh, I want to play a Commander game with Vince doing the voice/character the whole time.

I always think I need those chairs after seeing how comfortable you always seem to be in them.

I appreciate your integrity and consistency in your coverage of this side of Magic/Wizards. Also shout-out to Dan Olson!

"You guys get paid?" Awesome job with this one, guys.

QUESTION: does Vince fly back and forth to USA and UK a lot. Or does he crash with Brian for weeks at time or something?

I appreciate you two bringing up the conversation with Kibler. I had only seen info about it in passing on Twitter and was interested to see what came of it. To hear your side of it is refreshing.

Amazing discussion, as always! Love the series. Suggestion: a deep-dive, long-view browse of that beautiful bookshelf, item by item and the story behind it. 😊

Those final seconds. No words, just slowly getiing your arms down and staring at the void. Perfection.

Professor! You (and most of the people who will see this) are not a capitalist and that is a high compliment! You deal in commodities (in a general sense), not capital. You exchange Commodities for Money which you use to buy Commodities (C -> M -> C), while a capitalist exchanges Money for Commodities for more Money (M -> C -> M++)

Nooooo! Why is the episode over? GIVE ME MOAR!!!! But for real, I love Dies to Removal. I wish this was a daily talk show.

I agree with Vince that capitalism at its core is about unlimited growth which is ultimately destructive

Maybe Wizards should take a page from Riot and how they’ve expanded their universe through multimedia… I know if there was a series of hour long plus animated films of choice magic history, I’d watch it. It’d help give life to characters who don’t have their own cards or places never seen before…

as a super casual magic player last played in 2006, then 2012, the secret lair sets have actually got me back into magic. I love different worlds colliding and artwork of the latest set Neon Kamigawa is amazing.

Really like the editing in this one. Give my praise to the editor 🥰

Prof, love what you do. Keep up the good work!

The editing in this video is still masterclass two years later.

Vehicles are pretty good since creature board wipes don't affect them unless its at instant speed. Also lovely skit.

Alchemy is a scam for forcing players to use wildcards. Arena is now a pure drafting environment.

Thanks for the link to the Line goes up! Great video

Your intro was so good it should be a recurring series. I actually forgot it was just an intro

Very insightful discussion and one we definitely need more. There are many ways to generate profit and build/further the IP of the game we all love so much. Some of these options may not be as easy as printing singles but they could do the IP a lot more good and bring in a new generation of players (e.g. creating high quality MTG-related multimedia content which old and new fans can enjoy).

I've been waiting patiently for the next episode of Dies to Removal and it did not disappoint! Thanks Prof and Vince! Regarding this hedge fund play to spin off WOTC: this is really about value stock vs growth stock. Currently, Hasbro is regarded as more of a value stock. They take their profits and reinvest a portion back into the business but distribute a substantial chunk to shareholders as dividends. A growth stock, on the other hand, reinvests most profits back into the business to try to grow as quickly as possible rather than pay dividends to shareholders. This hedge fund believes that WOTC has a lot of untapped growth potential and that it is being hindered because Hasbro is more focused on paying dividends than trying to grow quickly. So their proposition is that WOTC should be spun off from Hasbro so that Hasbro could focus on dividends and an independent WOTC could focus on growth. What I find interesting about them trying to court player support is that generally it seems like the community has been hostile toward recent WOTC efforts to grow and expand the player base. I keep hearing spokespeople with WOTC saying things like, "well maybe this product isn't for you." If Twitter and Reddit are at all representative of the playerbase, enfranchised players despise hearing this. And yet, WOTC can't grow without getting new customers to buy their products or getting existing customers to buy more. Based on this, it would seem to me that the community would be completely against the idea of WOTC transitioning into a growth model because that would mean more of what they are already mad about. I sense a lot of concern from the community that there is a metaphorical gentrification happening where WOTC is catering to new players and existing players with deep pockets and that this is slowly pushing out the average enfranchised paper player. It is weird for me, because I have been aware of magic for many years but was only finally able to play after Arena was released. From my perspective, things like the reserved list and constant rotation make the game very expensive to play plus the requirement of needing to have a play group or LGS to play at (which is difficult for a dad with three little kids). Arena finally gave me a way that I could play magic without spending a bunch of money and needing to block off an entire weeknight or Saturday afternoon away from my kids. It has been so much fun that I started getting into online content (which was when I found this amazing video podcast!). It is a bid weird though, that so many people online are so mad at Arena when it has been such a great thing for me. I hope there is a future where we can all enjoy magic the way we want to play it and that enfranchised paper players won't be pushed out and new digital-only players like me won't be pushed out either.

"You have a KZfaq channel?!?" Is the best returning bit and I live for it

It's so cool seeing Dan Olson's video get so much attention, thanks for helping spread it

Thanks for standing up

Nice Dan Olsen folding ideas plug, but I've seen it already a few times. He's a great creator who gets into some serious deep dives.

Oh my gosh… the editing in this video was PERFECT. And this is not a scam :P

Loved the intro sketch, great performance, Vince.

That was an awesome and hysterical intro!

I love that you two are doing this in your socks.

Loved the editing in this one. Keep up the good work

Loved the intro and to see Crim! I saw you two sneak into the Goldfish trolling podcast today. Lol

Man what a great birthday present! Thanks Prof! :)

This video gives one a lot to ponder in regards to the direction of our game. Thank you, Prof.

damm nice sketch and quality ! sharper then other 4k video

Hah! Omg! At the start; “ you guys get payed?” I laughed so hard! Ahhhh I’m still laughing while writing this! Bravo!

Great 'Codex Angels of Death' T shirt Plesantkenobi!

I commented that you were doing an NFT, but only because the idea was so funny to me. It was just about the funniest (to me) prediction.

You have the best box because you fixed where if people wanted to buy two or more boxes you the best thanks for all of this

never noticed the D&D books until now. nice!

I will be so happy if I see you guys stack the board

Hooray! love these immensely.

lol when the ad roll started as vince said arena at 19:48 i got an arena ad

man, when are we getting the Spice8Rack x PleasantKenobi x TCC in person episode??? Go to the UK, Prof, make it happen!! (please lol) also, the cut on Vince's laugh on the last frame was TOO good lmao

I F-ing love this channel. And thats some strong language!

Really liked your honest discussion and PleasantKenobi's shirt. ^_^

Right there with you prof. BEEEEEEEEEEP

Asmodee buying WotC would be the worst thing that could happen. It would not remotely be good.

7:46 oh man, lol, that made me laugh way harder than it should have.

I have one random old copy of Inquest, and it happens to be one of the two on Prof's table in this video. That's kind of a crazy coincidence.

They definitely have different printers contributing to card quality. I can even often tell by feel differences between cards sold in different languages or from different sets.

The skits are just perfect

That intro was just...it was just...Magic!

I only just now realized that the 'broken record' bit in the intro music is poking fun at the name of the podcast, since "dies to removal" is like the skip of a broken record to anyone evaluating new cards for any amount of time.

00:56 This joke just got ten times better

The total urban population in the US is about 250,000,000. The total rural population is about 60,000,000.... But your point is well-taken. I live in an area with small towns and no WPN Pro stores; it's about 90 miles to my nearest WPN Pro Store, I believe.

I love the editing in this one

Last time I tried getting into Arena it was mindless grinding with crappy standard decks to get daily gold to do drafts. After the entire season I had enough wildcards for half of a decent standard deck.

an episode with spice8rack has to have super bowl levels of production considering how extra both are. edit: the only way spinning off wotc would be good for magic is that it went private later. that way you're not legally required to purely bring profits to shareholders.

Vince and Krim in the same video? Amazing. Love the skit

I like how Brian's toes wiggle in Vince's shots. Also check out Dan Olsen's video on Fortnight.

I notice that the Prof placed his copy of Disney's Villainous board game next to his MtG stuff. Is he trying to show a connection between the two? I wonder.

Interesting looking back at this one now.

loved the opening skit

I knew this pitchfork labeled MaRo would come in handy!

Great video! My only complaint is that yes, capitlism really is bad.

Preach comrade proffesor and Ken obi :)

I really enjoyed this episode!

“You have a KZfaq channel!?!?” Cracks me up every time.

To add to one point Vince was making here, you can't reach a stable point because of the competition too. Corporations are constantly in a state of grow or die. Corporations that try to just even out almost always end up getting priced out of the market by some competitor that is growing itself recklessly. It's a system of selection that favors unsustainable, exponential growth.

THE EDITOR A++++ 😂😂😂

Can we get a Vince Jabroni mug with “I _get_ paid!” on it? Great video gents!

playing the "guess the book on the bookshelf" game. that green bound hardback is a book on irish slash Celtic lore