I've said it before and I'll say it again: they should just print UB cards concurrently with their in-universe reskins. I think UB is neat and they've done a great job with it so far, but it's also legit to dislike the tonal dissonance that comes with mechanically unique Spongebob cards or to be worried about when/how/if those cards will be able to be reprinted. Printing both at once solves both problems, plus wizards gets to keep making ungodly amounts of money. They already print 6 goddam versions of every card in a set these days, it shouldn't be that hard for them to print Cannon and UB at the same time

As someone that plays and collects since 2000, I never found another MTG story to be as immersive as the Weatherlight saga or sets like Odyssey (Novels were a thing then, a good thing...). Man, how I liked some of the characters... Tsabo, Gerrard, Seton, Kamahl, Urza, Ertai, Belbe, Yawgmoth, Sissay - It was an exciting, immersive fantasy setting that could offer the best strategic framework for a card game - ever! However these days it seems to be just that, a strategic gameplay framework where you can put anyhting in. Mechanics are for rent and the story went bankrupt. Apart from the cool Ixalan set, a lot of them seem like some hearthstone style gimmick. (Streets of new cappena - mean streets of Gadgetzan (almost the same set symbol), Murder at Karlov Manor - Murder at Castle Nathria (lol!), Showdown in the Badlands - Outlaws of thunder junction etc). It's "MTG meets the".... yeah, I dislike that. I dislike it a lot. Came to magic to meet magic. Stuff like that is cheap tricks in comparison. I get it, everything in MTG is inspired by something else, from folk tales to complex mythologies. I'm fine with inspiration, less fine the harder design leans in on it, and fully disinterested when there is no line between that which inspires and that which shows up on the card. If someone enjoys it and engages with it...power to them, I love them for it. Doesn't have to be me. Won't be me.

I don’t want to keep Universes Beyond out of eternal formats, but I do think it could be cool to have its own format, y’know?

Unless they're all Lord of the Rings I think they missed the point on why that sold so well.

This is the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny Good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see

4 Main Sets a Year, 1 every 3 Months, plus Precons, plus the Yearly Reprint Set, AND THAT IS IT. WE SHOULD NOT BE FLOODED WITH THIS MUCH PRODUCT.

My main concern is reprints. How are they handle the license expiring. Will univers within card basicly be reserve list cards in 5 years if they can't renew there contract.

I wouldn't really mind Universes Beyond if Wizards worked more on their own IP, The Pirexian invasion was handled really poorly imo, I want to see some of the care they put in LOTR in an actual magic set, I want a great story in universe, because it was magic what first got me into magic, don't neglect your own story in your quest for carboard fornite

Magic in a few years: "I will flash in Fluttershy to block your Sauron and then activate my Halo Ring at instant speed, destoying your army of Mary Sues.

Universes Beyond is really called "MtG: We're Kinda Out of Ideas"

I returned to Magic after not playing it since Lorwyn came out, mostly because I was burned out and sometimes hated the mana system. Getting mana screwed or mana flooded is probably the single most frustrating thing that can happen in a game. After playing Hearthstone and some other games where the resource is automatically given and then coming back, I have completely changed my perspective... The mana system is so good. Sometimes it fucks you up, but it adds so much more depth to decision-making while playing a game; deckbuilding is not the only thing that it touches. I've learned to love it.

To your point, Hasbro's earnings report highlights "Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming Segment operating profit declined 2% and operating profit margin of 36.1% due to higher royalty costs associated with Universes Beyond." That means even the huge sales numbers weren't enough to cover licensing. I hope that at least scares them out of UB premier sets.

"The beatings will continue until morale improves" - WOTC on universes beyond

Imagine trying to play a game of magic and your opponent plays Jonkler, Man, and Scarlet Johansen’s ass infinite life combo…

The first sign of any company going to shit is the milking of any pemmy their customers have.

While the one of one ring was a scummy business tactic it certainly brought attention to the set and contributed to the product. I don't see that happening with other intellectual properties

I just wish they had kept Universes Beyond as its own thing, like old Un- sets used to be. I finally picked up one of the Warhammer 40k sets after getting introduced to the setting, originally intending to use the deck as the basis for another Commander deck. But I found that the part of me that plays Magic for its own settings and "vibes" (for lack of a better word), I didn't actually *like* mixing the UB cards with "actual" Magic cards. The borders are different, and they just don't *feel* the same. I'm not sure I'll get as much enjoyment out of the Final Fantasy set (the one UB product I'm actually looking forward to as a lifelong fan) as I thought I would But I'm pretty much a Vorthos-minded player, so UB was never going to an easy sell for me. I do agree with you that this strategy on their part isn't going to work longterm (I honestly think Marvel's the only property with any potential at all to rival LotR, and even that's pretty shaky), so I'd imagine in 5 or so years time we'll see them back off on UB, sticking to smaller, Commander-focused releases for properties that don't cost nearly as much to license. And, eventually, they'll run out of properties, and go back to focusing on their own

I have no problem with ub but i think the cards shouldn't be legal in modern and legacy

It won’t be long before UB is standard legal. They already announced that assassins creed will be legal for “60-card formats”. If not that than marvel will be. Expect a LOT of marvel products. LotR will look like a splash release compared to marvel

Hot Pockets set coming!

Thank god now i dont have to worry about keeping up with as many new cards and sets

As popular as Marvel is, i just don't want to run spiderman in my Nekusar deck. Others might, which is fine.

The T pose cloud in the thumbnail has me wheezing from laughing so hard

If they make UB Discworld I will never complain about it again.

I tried getting back into magic but I just can't anymore. There's so little of what I loved left. I think the fact that you've been gradually introduced to all this shit is why you accept it.

I bought into Warhammer Commander out of FOMO, but in the aftermath of it, I regretted it, because the cards were extremely available on the secondary market for cheap. And so, I had no such fear about LotR or Dr. Who, didn't buy into either of them, on account of their excessive cost, and the cards are overwhelmingly extremely available for cheap.

If this means more D&D, I'm happy. If this means a Star Wars/MCU set, I'm quitting Magic lmao.

I think most people would wish for there to be an untainted MTG without any other IPs and also the one we have now, because both are good/cool/fun, but sadly we can only have one of them...

Sorry magic already doesn't feel like magic anymore. Adding more ips that don't feel like magic is only going to further dilute it.

LOTR is the literal inspiration for modern fantasy. So of course it sold so well. It could easily be a plane within the Magic Universe. These other IP’s, other than maybe Final Fantasy, don’t feel like they could be a part of the Magic Universe.

The seal is already broken, we can't get rid of it now so all i can do is buy even less product. If it would have stayed secret lair stuff i wouldn't really care but i feel all the universe beyond stuff kind of kills the flavor of magic.

I think you are spot on here. However, there is a risk that UB sell decently specifically because of their modern legality, if Modern Horizons 3 was balanced down due to power imbalance concerns, but the UB design team didn't get the memo, we could have Chris Cox asking why "we aren't making Marvel a mainstay, the sales numbers for Civil War are great".

9:54 is Where the video REALLY starts. More commentary like this please! Everyone just skip to that time stamp.

You know, if WOTC just plan announced "WE'RE RELEASING LESS PRODUCT THIS YEAR THAN BEFORE" i would pop off so happy. the unending spoiler season and new changes is too exhausting. mentally but especially finically I've had to quit magic because the competitive side was what was most fun to me and i simply could not afford to compete anymore. too many new broken cards to always buy to keep up with the meta.

These are honestly some of my more favorite videos you do: introspection on the hobby and even keeled response. I think you're bang on when it comes to what we can sort of expect from universes beyond too - a bit of cloud chasing bloat followed by a retraction when they realize not all fandoms have 200mil+ plus in them. That or there's going to be a lot more 001/001 prints in our future!

The only reason LotR and MH1/2 was such a big success is because of the artificially injected power creep.

I see this as Core Sets with a trade-off in the sense that Core Sets were unexciting, but reprints were important. Now we might get a few exciting stand-alone sets, but the need for reprints is worrying with external IPs. I'd be a lot more excited if they stuck with WotC IPs for that reason, but UB by itself is fine if they can find a way around it. Edit: ok the 12 Rick deck sounds horrifying, and I want to see that happen.

Man i just want to get the funny cowboy set

I think the biggest concern I have is that it shows even clearer what you stated and what we all know: Hasbro does not know how or why these products work. They are going to blindly throw resources at outside IPs hoping to get some quick cash. Meawhile, thought the Magic IP will certainly not die, as you stated no one really cares about Kellan. The current story, the standard enviroment, the community engagement, it's just not very strong. Devoting resources to fleshing these things out would help strenghten the game much more than whatever growth Universes Beyond is going to bring once they get past the 5 biggest outside IPs.

It's sad how many people flipped on secret lairs the second an IP they like got one. This does make me excited for standard, though. Formats are great when WotC ignore them

The 'is mana good' battle is even funnier after you totally changed how mana works with Party Box. Love party box by the way - it shot life into pretty much all the cards we haven't played in our collection as an accessable 'formatish of sorts

12:35 As long as Rick Astley is on the battlefield, you can’t surrender.

Sets are great but I rarely buy boxes of boosters anymore. Only the occasional loose pack to support my favorite LGS. The fiscal value is simply rarely there. The fun is.

With the idea that Hasbro only cares about what will make them money, I have wondered why they haven't taken steps to do away with the reserve list. I wish that they would. The idea that I need to spend $700+ to get a land that my deck needs to play at it's best is absurd. They could even protect the current collectors with a trade-in system. You could send in your OG duals or your Cradle for a special art foil version that they agree to not print again. That would give them freedom to reprint them with a standard art without ruining the "collectible value" of the old cards. It would probably even raise the value of the original prints as well because you know there are people that wouldn't trade them in for the new one.

Wizards has killed its own IP in favor of fan-service money from other IP's. It's sad to see and to all the "just don't buy it hurr durr" people out there, that's exactly what I'm doing. Doesn't mean I don't have a right to complain about the direction my ex-favorite game is heading lol

Honestly, I have been saying for about a year that by 2030 we'd have a Runeterra set (the League of Legends universe), and these news only makes me think it will come faster.

I can live with Universes Beyond to some degree, I kind of just wish it wasn't coming at the expense of Magic IP as they have now announced. This was a fear some people had from the start of Universes Beyond and now it's here.

Just give me the various Jim Henderson movie cards. Labyrinth & Dark Crystal especially.

Most of the people complain keep buying the product. Can’t really change anything if you’re not willing to speak with your wallets.

From the very beginning, when those fucking Walking Dead cards were revealed, I could tell that one day we would reach the point where all WotC does is churn out Universes Beyond shit. Maybe we haven't *quite* reached that point yet, but Magic the Gathering is slowly stopping being Magic the Gathering and instead becoming "hey look at this cool IP we managed to buy!"

I'm hoping I can be patient and wait for this to run its course.

They should just collaborate with nature channels like Nat Geo or Animal Planet for a change. Some of the most evocative cards are based on real life creatures and phenomena. It could be an interesting take on the MtG setting while staying consistent with its aesthetics. Who'd say no to Mt. Vesuvius as Valakut or a Shark Week Shark Typhoon?

Sir, this is the internet. How DARE you have such a balanced, nuanced take????

Me personally, I cringe at every UB but then for every Walking Dead or Stranger Things there’s a LotR, Dr Who or 40k. I find I love some of the cards in hindsight and I get less angry over time. I do hate the different border treatment though and it makes it look like a different game. My OCD can’t let this part go.

The other really easy thing to miss with great fun exciting products like dr who and lord of the rings is they let the design team work overtime to make fun thematic experiences for players. I'm glad dr who was dr who skinned but what made that product really shine was how much fun it was to play together and how well all the themes were represented. They could do that in *any* product it's just that design considerations usually get in the way. With universes beyond it feels like designers are allowed to do EVERYTHING while with other products they're constantly being asked how much they can cut back and still sell to players.

I don't like it because MTG has always had the great aspect of being able to take many different genres and settings, and tie them together with planes, and the mana system. We can have sentient robots, they're just mana powered constructs made using the magic of artifice. Same for flying motorbikes, and stargates. Universes Beyond breaks the lore of Magic in drastic ways that no retcon in Magic history has. Cybermen and Super Mutants could have lore friendly equivalents, but I'd rather have canon friendly planes that take inspiration from Dr Who and Fallout than actually have those IPs. Magic's direct story has never interested me, but I've always loved the world building. Ravnica as a place is so much more interesting than Jace as a character. Abandoning that worldbuilding for short term gains, massive licensing costs, and Marvel style mass appeal is a deal breaker for me. I feel like the better way to open up MTG for more people is to work on making sure the community, and product don't marginalize people. I've seen racism and sexism keeping people out of half a dozen local game stores in my area. There's also a massive onboarding problem. The brand new player experience for MTG is the worst of any major card game if you don't have a friend who is VERY good at onboarding people. I want the game be inclusive for everybody, rather than begging on its hands and knees with bribery for everyone to like it, without addressing the things keeping people out. "Buy our stuff! We have Street Figher! We have Dr Who! Please ignore the sexual harassment and racial slurs tossed around stores. Please!"

The one thing about Fallout I do not understand fully is that Bethesda already has a Fantasy setting IP in The Elder Scrolls. Why did they opt to Fallout which is a Sci-Fi rather than Elder Scrolls?

"become a Microsoft consultant" soo good...the dream...keep it up brother

They added the extra standard set release only a few years ago with midnight hunt/crimson vow, so that extra release window hasn’t even existed that long, so having it be a Beyond release instead isn’t that big of deal to me. That means there will be more time between standard releases to give it a bit more attention.

Man I'm a huge 40k fan and dr who fan, LotR, all that's great. I still 110% hate the universes beyond sets, for the immersion breaking nature of them. There is no argument in their favour you can throw at me that will get me to ignore how blatantly NOT magic the gathering it all is. I don't want to play spongebob attacking iron man equipped with a whopper, I wanna play magic :[ EDIT: you're not a shill, I don't hate you, you didn't offend me. You actually make very good points for UB, and arguably as long as WotC prospers it's good for magic. The immersion break is just my opinion, and now that the cat's outta the bag I think that the only compromise I'd be happy with personally is if EVERY single UB card gets a reskin, a in-canon mtg themed universes within version

I think LotR set was more impactfull than just Ring and Bowmasters. Landtype-cycle cycle legit changed all formats imo

My issue is fairly simple... I don't want to play Weiß Schwarz. I want to play Magic: The Gathering. For those that don't know: Weiß Schwarz, to put it simply, is THE CROSSOVER GAME™. Mechanically, they're different, but I mention this game because it has no inherent story. It is literally just "Wouldn't it be cool if X could fight Y?". That seems to be the direction the game is taking. I don't have a problem with all these other IPs getting their chocolate in MTG's metaphorical peanut butter. I have a problem with the MTG lore becoming an afterthought just so we can have Sauron fighting Thanos or whatever. Let's be honest, the stories for both Wilds of Eldraine and Lost Caverns of Ixalan were pretty scant and boring, and while Karlov Manor was better... it still had a ton of plot convenience and nonsense to actually tell the story, and was very groan inducing in parts. Point being, the more this goes on, the more likely that MTG's lore will get even worse as their focus turns more and more towards these crossovers. I personally hate that and hope it isn't the case... and it frustrates me to consider that I'm probably in the minority.

On one hand I hate the UB stuff that doesn't fit MTG, on the other hand Murders at Karlov Manor, Thunder Junction, the modern horror manor of duskmourne, and the interplanar racetrack of "tennis" all feel like a fever-dream magic nightmare consuming the soul of the game so I guess good ol' fantasy MTG is just a one set a year kinda thing now anyways. At least Bloomburrow and "Ultimate" return to Tarkir sounds great. Also i think Final Fantasy -mostly- fits MTG quite well. I just hope they don't exclude Tactics since it's basically the best one ever despite not being a numbered entry.

UB needs to be its own format.

People complaining about universes beyond forget that this was the intention at the beginning. Mtg as a game system for different worlds. Arabian Nights was suppose to have a different card back making it different from Alpha. This is just the modern spin of it because, if you say "I'm making a game system for a bunch of different original worlds making it different games", most people would go "why not just put everything together if it works as the same game". UB is the original idea but modernized, instead of original worlds, which we already have within Magic Universe, it's different franchises. It lets some IPs get a card game of their own for their fans and Mtg fans may get to learn about a franchise they've never heard off. I'm sure fans will eventually make a UB-only format, or if get several sets of a franchise, like Marvel, a Marvel-only format, which i'm down to try.

By end of 2025 WotC will be doing 3+ UB full sets per year, plus little Secret Layers and such, and drop down to exactly one "normal" MtG set per year. This is already guaranteed, purely based on the laws of economics. We didn't buy the non-UB as much as we bought absolute shit out the UB. Accept it or be mad, makes no difference. I'm all for it. Can't wait for Marvel MtG, been waiting for that exact thing since the late 90's. Dying to throw $1000 at collectors booster boxes of Marvel MtG. Doesn't even need more gimmicks. We will see more serialized, more fancy art treatments, more gimmicks, climbing prices, reprints that aren't supposed to happen that murder the value of our collections. Hasbro is bleeding cash. None of this is in question to those being honest about it all.

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about Universes Beyond. I think I'd rather it hadn't been introduced to begin with, but now that it's here, it's far from the worst thing going on with MTG and WotC at the moment. I've bought a few UB cards for commander decks (e.g Keeper of Secrets from Warhammer, Time Beetle from Doctor Who), but mostly creatures and spells that feel like they could just as easily fit into MTG canon. I'm not quite ready to put major characters like Frodo or the Tenth Doctor into any of my decks just yet, but maybe I'll get there eventually (and I'd have absolutely no problem playing against other people who do use such cards).

Hard to believe that Wizards is ever going to put any stock into their own IP ever again when they go to all the trouble of designing a second New Capenna set, only to panic at the last second when the first New Capenna set underperforms and quickly slop a Ravnica veneer all over it.

I for one am just glad that Wizards acknowledges they can only print a finite number of cards per year

Soon a turn of MTG is gonna sound like “I tap my Charmander to deal 1 damage to your Severus Snape, and that proc’s my Twilight Sparkle to make a treasure token, and I’ll use that one mana to cast Peter Parker’s camera, getting a picture token. I’ll pass the turn”

Franchises that would fit Magic that haven't been done yet: Dark Souls DC God of War James Bond Doom Transformers Mortal Kombat Resident Evil Alien Tekken

I love cross overs. I just prefer it to stick mostly to Commander though. It would also be nice to see a Pioneer Masters, but print cards that are intended to only be legal in Pioneer and reprint some good old Modern cards that aren’t playable in Modern anymore, like Tarmogyf and Dark Confidant. Pioneer would also be a great place for universes beyond to make new cards in a less broken format, by keeping them only legal there. I also would love to see more skins of old cards with the crossover art. Just over all keep down the power keep is all I care about. Also I hope to see the Affinity Stones as one of Soul Rings for each stone, with the Gauntlet being a one of Lightning Greaves.

As someone who came into magic because of the first D&D set it was surprising to me how defensive the community was about protecting the Magic feel. I thought the whole premise was all kinds of crazy wackadoo plains crossing over with each other.

Honestly, I appreciate this video a lot. My gut reaction was to hate this announcement because I love the magic story and the characters. The fact that a standard Magic IP set will be taken away for UB made me upset. But here we have Vince reminding us not to lose the forest for the trees

Honestly the sooner chris cox gets sacked the better. 🤷‍♂️ Universes beyond is such a weird product. Its the epitome of "Not all products are for evwryone." I was super hyped for Lord of the Rings and was Geeking out over the references in the doctor who sets as the cards were spoiled. But honestly i genuinely dont care about fallout or Assassin's creed short of having a laugh that the one WOTC employee who has an Etrata commander deck ought to be sneaking in a few good things for her. I don't know, if the cards are on the cards are fun. And thinking about how much joy the sets i loke brought me i cant really hate the line as a whole.

My problem with UB is the fact that they intentionally made them "loaded" products. They specifically designed a controversial (depending on who you ask) product to have a massive gimmick behind it to push sales. Like was pointed out in the vid, Secret Lair Walking Dead? Mechanically unique cards that at the time were set to never be printed again. LotR? The One Ring 1 of 1. It capitalized on FOMO and used it as a BS justification to say "See? The consumers LOVE this!" Without the hype of the chase these IPs wouldn't have been AS profitable, but the fans would still buy them anyway.

The novelty is what attracts people to universes beyond.

Don't care. I buy the products I like, I don't buy the products I don't like. Doctor Who bullshit made it in, anything else is fair game.

PK, I want to vote with my wallet but I don't know how I could do that while expressing what I want from the game. I'm mainly a competitive player and WotC have been putting competitive play on the backburner for years at this point. I want nationals back, I want at least the illusion of pro play to exist, I want certified judges, travelling, etc. How could I use my wallet to impact this? I am genuinely looking for ideas.

I just miss the day all cards only got one artwork that way it was easy to remember and even if you forgot. Just seeing the artwork would give you enough info to remember. That’s gone. It’s 10x harder to remember cards and even when you do some random set or SL is gonna come out and make a different art just so you get confused again in a match. I use to think looking over the table and seeing a bad foil was the worst of my problems. Now I’m having to look over and say “what’s that?” I got to pick it up and read it to remember it. After a while you just start to not care about remembering anymore cause you know you’re gonna have to pick up something at some point to read it.

You know those memes where it's like "hi, I'm a new here and want things changed. Don't like it? Well, perhaps this just isn't for you, huh?" That's magic now. I guess it's just not for magic players any more

However much I love WH40k, when playing Magic the Gathering, I wanna play Magic. Not just mechanically, but thematically. Out of the Tombs is the only WH40k card I own. The Eldest Reborn is just okay, but it's my personal staple and I'll play it more than is truly reasonable. There's still a whole lot of Magic-Magic, both past and future, so I'll be perfectly fine for the coming while, but it's still... unexciting news, let's say. One sneaky little pet peeve is borders. I genuinely love bordered cards, and consistency makes my brain happy.

To be fair I want those Final Fantasy cards as fast as possible. Then you can bury this card game forever.

My ONLY complaint about universes beyond has ever been the inclusion into modern. I can swear I remember reading an article that was posted by Wizards when Universes Beyond, the cards would have a triangle foil stamp and it meant it would not be legal outside of eternal formats. but now since we have modern legal UB, we can't just base legality by the triangle foil stamp and have to remember exceptions. I love LOTR and transformers (and can't wait for the final fantasy drop) but I wish they stayed to eternal formats. Overall though, I love having new IP's to play with and it does bring new people into this game that I love so dearly. I've not been in interested in most of the IP's and I'm not interested in the new fallout decks either, but that's fine. I'll get my all the final fantasy cards soon enough

Wizards (hasbro) has had the business strategy of make a thing people like, squeeze it as hard as they can, then move to the next thing. We will look back at these current fears and say, “wow, can you believe when we were super concerned about UB? I miss those days. I am so sick of turbo standard” unfortunately, the false spring of revenue has ended for the company and they are struggling to catch a market that just is not there for them anymore. And for those of us that remain, we have to just roll with it, or move on.

Love that I opened the video expecting to hear a WotC beatdown but after watching I leave with a new perspective to the situation surrounding the game! P.S. loved the content with the cardmarket team!! Hope you get to do it again!

Not everyone who doesn't like UB craps on proper Magic sets. I quite like what the recent sets have offered, and have begun to play Standard on Arena more because of it. I have also voted with my wallet by not buying any unnecessary LOTR product. I refuse. It would be one thing if these UB sets were draftable like Battlebond and contained to Commander only. However with each one of these injecting themselves into competitive formats and causing an arms race those formats are not fun anymore. They also tell the long time players that what they worked hard to collect is now worthless and to pick up only the new thing. Why can't we just get back to a time where we activated Aether Vial to cheat in Thalia, and slowly drain our opponents to 0?

My real concern here is cutting a Standard set when they've already extended rotation and people are already complaining about how stale Standard is. They've said they're trying to bring Standard back but they seem to be actively trying to kill it6

First off, not mad at what you say; I love hearing your take on things! It really makes me think. Second off, a perspective: I currently have sold most of my collection, and before you stop reading, hear me out. When I heard Marvel would be a tent-pole release, it made me sad. I love Marvel! Been reading the comic since the 90s! Why was I sad? Upon introspection, it was because these IPs felt out of place. I've been playing Magic for... Honestly, I can't remember how long, and it's had its own flair. From Titanic Mechs to monkeys crewing race cars, it all still was Magic. That was the charm of it. When DnD came to the set, it felt natural because they were birthed from the same source. LotR felt... Okay to me, but I didn't personally buy it because it still felt... Out of place. Like when you're reading Harry Potter and all the sudden you get to the climax and Ash Ketchum tells Pikachu to thunderbolt Voldemort. Harry Potter does some crazy shenanigans too with animals doing crazy things and magic allowing whatever they can imagine. But then a person with a Pokemon coming in feels out of place because you've spent so long associating that memory with another franchise. It's not the same. Like when TMNT came to Batman. Or when Power Rangers came to Justice League. I read those. They were great for what they were: tongue and cheek joke sets meant to illicit some good times. But that was it. A flash in the pan. What WotC is doing is permanently altering the previous game. Imagine the Power Rangers were forever now a part of the Justice League. Would it feel the same? Not at all. It fundamentally changes the IP. And that's what gets me. It's no longer Magic. It doesn't feel like Magic. It's Super Smash Bros. Which I also love, but not when I want to play Magic. If I go to a friend's house and want to play Street Fighter and they're like, "But Ryu is in Smash Bros, let's play that!" See how that feels? Two different games. And that's why I sold my collection and kept a few decks. When people want to play Magic, I'll play Magic. And when people want to play Super Smash Bros, I'll grab a Fallout deck when they came out just for that occasion. But I'm not buying any more WotC sets like I used to. It's not the same game anymore.

I’m happy that I’ve been playing and fostering a Flesh and Blood community in town

I am very happy I follow this channel, PK gives some good and well thought out arguments. He may be a little jarring at times but that is part of the appeal

I know the chances are incredibly low, but a Halo UB would be SO COOL with how the lore is setup.

The big issue with all of this...WotC is forced to make UB sets sell. Buying other copyrighted IP ain't cheap, so there's no other option. Which in turn forces design to power creep those sets. That's why LotR is printed into Modern, that's why these new 6/7 card boosters for Assassins Creed will be printed into Modern. If thy don't, the competitive side could just ignore it, and that would mean, WotC loses money on that set. THAT is the real issue. Putting the most powerful cards into UB, just to force it to sell. Also, Warhammer pre-cons sold well, because they were actually good pre-cons. If they want to make sure the Fallout pre-cons just sell like bread, they just need to include battlebond lands.

I think more than anything, my biggest concern is that they'll attempt more of 'the one ring' approaches, (beyond serialized cards, etc.) in order to push hype & sales, which will in turn give them more of a reason to raise (already ridiculous) pricing. I'm fine with most of the UB releases, because I'm still getting to play Magic, but these kind of decisions inspire me to invest fully in HP Masters, and proxy my cards instead of burning money just for the sake of keeping up.

So long as we don’t lose a standard set, more UB is fine. This is the age of cross promotion. It’s going to continue being great until it’s not. And when that happens, the core IP planes will hopefully get cartoons and movies and people will be drawn to the game not through cross promotion, but interest in the Vorthos.

I'm not gonna pay a premium for an IP I don't care about, but I will happily proxy mechanically unique cards. Edit: I'd buy a Pickle Rick precon...

Marvel is fucking *massive* and I have no doubt it will outsell LOTR easily

I mean man is speak true ice cold facts. Like Vince said I don't see big problems who is the card about. I care if there is a reasonable way to get hands on the card. I also think that most of us would be lying if we would say that we haven't theorycrafted let's say batman, spiderman, etc. You get the point. But when WotC does it is a big no no. You can have your Kiki-Jiki and his 1 000 000 cats and I'll have my Humans deck with Severina Reine. If that's too much for your immersion, I can play my artifact deck where Doomed Artisan makes me Sculpture tokens that will crew my vehicles. So for Vince, I don't think I need to tell you this, but I still will, you are right and those who will shout at you are not giving the topic a second thought before screetching. Also I hope you are right. I would love to see second and maybe third round of 40k commander decks.Orks deck and maybe dedicated deck for each chaos gods traitor legions? Sounds like automatic best sellers.

We need a game of thrones, alien predator, terminator, Kruger Jason Meyers, saw, South Park, Star Trek and Wars, x files, the boys, bioshock, god of war, legend of Zelda, and Kiss the band as their alter egos.

I, personally, would have preferred in game worlds that had the “skins” of other IPs like with Godzilla. And even if they don’t go the skin route, just build the world that later connects to these IPs.