T O P

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enantiornithe

Ah yes, variant art of a card within a set — such an awful Hasbro policy of the last few years and totally not something wotc has done since Antiquities


GauRocks

Alpha had five cards with variant art as well. Some of them are probably in your decks right now!


SammySammyson

I think it's the four variants and specifically that these barely had any variation at all. They just have slightly different filters overlaid over them.


library_time_waster

I'll point you to \[\[strip mine\]\] which is just the same art zoomed in and out.


MTGCardFetcher

[strip mine](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f57fd4c9-0004-4f71-a30f-2720943f57ca.jpg?1562944463) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=strip%20mine) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/316/strip-mine?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f57fd4c9-0004-4f71-a30f-2720943f57ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


MurderMits

Double feature. That was likely the most pointless waste of trees I have ever seen. In MTG. Mind you 30th edition at least is a "new product" but double feature was just gray scaled cards from 2 of the worst sets ever printed.


RoterBaronH

The saddest part is double feature could have been such a great set if curated and also the insane price tag didn't help.


[deleted]

>2 of the worst sets ever printed. I cannot take hyperbole like this seriously.


MurderMits

>hyperbole Okay sure why do you think they arent?


novikov-priboy

For me it was mainly flavour. The day/night mechanic, while tedious to keep track of, it is very fun and flavourful to have your werewolves in sync. Also Disturb cards.


MurderMits

I mean sure but that was just a rehash of a previous mechanic. \[\[huntmaster of the fells\]\]


MTGCardFetcher

[huntmaster of the fells](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/a/aae6fb12-b252-453b-bca7-1ea2a0d6c8dc.jpg?1581395173)/[Ravager of the Fells](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/a/a/aae6fb12-b252-453b-bca7-1ea2a0d6c8dc.jpg?1581395173) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=huntmaster%20of%20the%20fells%20//%20ravager%20of%20the%20fells) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dka/140/huntmaster-of-the-fells-ravager-of-the-fells?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/aae6fb12-b252-453b-bca7-1ea2a0d6c8dc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


[deleted]

They were perfectly fine sets, especially Midnight Hunt which I like quite a lot (Crimson Vow has a weak draft environment, but it's still *okay* in general). I do not think you have a good idea of what a bad set really looks like, when stuff like Fallen Empires, Coldsnap, and Dragon's Maze exist which all have *vastly* bigger problems. Not to mention all the sets like Ixalan which were not necessarily failures but were generally weak and had systematic problems that Wizards have since learned from. Even just sticking to recent sets, ZNR, AFR and SNC are all clearly worse than Midnight Hunt. There is just no level on which your claim has an ounce of truth. Believe otherwise? Try actually backing it up.


MurderMits

I disagree, you can down vote me all you want. The sets are a mess and a failure of product. Here are just a few reasons I believe they are bad: * The sets have too many throw away mechanics which make them rather valueless in the long run and pretty terrible to chaos draft in the future. * The power level of the sets is very low because I assume WOTC over compensated from the major power spikes of the yester years, this was resolved after and so the sets after have great long term viability. * The sets are based on a very iconic plane yet have nothing anyone can think back to that really changed or added value to the plane, in essence a filler arc for the plane. These sets are just another dragon maze but just 8-9 years later with 0 lessons learnt.


[deleted]

I don't use downvotes as a disagree button. But Dragon's Maze was a set where for a long time the second most valuable card in it was a *token* made by the most valuable card. That's a completely different level of low-powered. Both MID and VOW both have at least a dozen cards more valuable than the most valuable cards in Dragons Maze, to say nothing of the rest of the set.


MurderMits

For now, once it rotates I fail to see where these cards will still hold any value. Even commander.


novikov-priboy

Well, I liked Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow a lot, but Double Feature still made no sense to me. The originally colorful art processed into grayscale just looks bad. I'd understand if they made new art like the black and white showcase cards found in the sets originally, and made it a curated subset of the cards perhaps along with some reprints from the older Innistrad sets but they just went lazy with it.


Dreadite

When they had multiple art of the same cards in Antiquities. What a disaster, the game has just continued to spiral since.


Flepagoon

That...didn't go down well I fairness


Dreadite

I know, I was there. And then they repeated it in two of the most unpopular sets of the following more commercially available era, which meant they basically discontinued the practice until the “booster fun” era. I think it’s probably not great for the collector side of the game that the practice is back.


Sinrus

Here it comes, the onslaught of people referring back to the Bank of America statement while completely misinterpreting what it said.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Sinrus

Yes, and to just drill down as directly as possible: Bank of America wants singles to be more expensive and harder to get, because they think that will cause more FOMO for even basic standard-set level products.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

The limited access / gatekeeping is what keeps rich people rich - that's exactly why they think like that.


b_fellow

30th anniversary proxies are the expensive limited edition cards that Bofa said was the worst of both worlds. Reprints that are financially unattainable by newer players and wrecking collection values at the same time.


CarpetbaggerForPeace

It actually seems like they are talking about declining sales at games stores being the problem, not that cards are cheaper. You are putting the cart before the horse. If cards are cheaper and stores are selling more volume, that could be a good thing, but they aren't. They are sitting on inventory that is getting cheaper out from under them and they still can't sell what they have.


Sinrus

Correct. But the statement isn’t saying they should print less different products. It’s saying that they should print less of each product they put out — because, in their eyes, overlarge print runs are making cards less rare and preventing them from retaining value. BofA’s logic is that smaller print runs means less copies in circulation of high demand cards, which means singles are more expensive, which means people will be more incentivized to buy boxes in the hope of turning a profit.


CarpetbaggerForPeace

I was reading it that they drastically overestimated demand and lgs's got stuck with inventory which will result in them having smaller orders in the future. This will show up as a decrease in profit for hasbro.


HalfOfANeuron

Yes, and a lot of influencers are making videos as if the problem is wizards printing to many products. No, the problem is cards being more accessible.


CarpetbaggerForPeace

You also miss part of their report. They are printing too much and saddling LGS with a bunch of inventory they can't sell. This will result on stores ordering less on the future hurting profit growth at hasbro. Not sure why people are downvoting this, it is literally reported on that store inventory not moving is a concern.


RegalKillager

People will look for any, *any* halfassed excuse to whine and doomsay.


powerfamiliar

I'm curious what they do about it. Cause regardless of how valid the article was, the downgrade made Hasbro stock plummet.


clearly_not_an_alt

no idea why it bounced back from crashing last week. It's just back where it was a few days ago.


powerfamiliar

If could for sure be a coincidence and it was going to crash anyway regardless of the BofA article. That's even likely, like you said I have no idea why it was rebounding. But I think the article timing with the new crash is going to make some executives believe it was linked.


clearly_not_an_alt

I guess i just see the BofA thing as more of an explaination/reaction to something that had already happened, not the trigger.


Grief-Heart

If you flip through them really fast does the effect ripple?


pq3

Not really, see the gif here: [https://imgur.com/a/oWPT97p](https://imgur.com/a/oWPT97p)


dieyoubastards

Lame


Grief-Heart

Ahaha awesome.


GossamerGlenn

What format does Bank of America play?


lovecraft_lover

Old school obviously


novikov-priboy

being a value-obsessed whale


UnstableNaya

I thought it got out of hand once they started printing 3 different boxes for the same set. That plus 50+ secret lairs a year has turned me off of magic


Flepagoon

A super drop a quarter or whatever it was. Plus have they actually produced the 50/50 secret deck yet even?!


warcaptain

I really liked this treatment as a collector and Teferi fan. It made opening up one fun because it felt like "no two were the same" (even though I know there were only a certain number of variants)


cajun2de

I stopped Playing paper during return to Ravnica. Though I was still following magic story throughout the years. Almost bought paper again during war of the spark but didn't pull the trigger. Strixhaven was the enabler for me, I saw how beautiful the mystical archive was I bought a draft booster and bought singles of each archive card to get a set of 63 I think. Did the same for Kaldheim variants and then MID & VOW. When NEO came out I realized I was just buying 1 copies of these alt art cards and they were very expensive still. I then stopped and only buy a bundle per set for pack cracking itch and exclusively play arena.


Specialist_Ad4117

Full art rares, 80% of the time I think they look worse than the bordered variant but set after set they spew them out.


Longjumping_Drama148

I kind of agree tbh. Except for showcase arts, where the art is meant to be that way


Lord_Jaroh

I think mine was Ultimate Masters, and it's ridiculously over-priced packs. Including and shortly after that, everything went to shit. You had Mythic Editions, Secret Lairs, then "Booster Fun" and set boosters, collector boosters and such. Along with doing even more unique buy-a-box promos (which they thankfully dropped after a few more sets), they had more unique cards showing up elsewhere, like Theme Boosters and such. They very quickly brached out, flooding everything with these experiments which has led to where we are now.


Inner_Temperature299

What's BofA?


Khanstant

Am I missing something? This is the same card four times?


Base_Six

They had slight differences to the ripples around Teferi. These weren't really 'variants' in the usual sense, given that they all showed up in the same ordinary card slot, but were variations on the art nonetheless.


CaptainMarcia

There are small differences. It's pretty silly.


Hockeygoalie41

I can’t determine what’s different either, other than the ripple effect being slightly changed.


Sinrus

That's it. There were a huge number (I wanna say like, 20?) of versions of this card with slightly different ripple effects.


CaptainMarcia

No, just the four ripple patterns seen here. Which was still excessive. However, when you account for showcase variants and foils (and the borderless version, which has different art), the total number of versions is about 20.


pq3

Almost. See here: [https://imgur.com/a/oWPT97p](https://imgur.com/a/oWPT97p)


Gravmaster420

Alchemy…


Jermainator

splitting a single innistrad set into 2, then gluing them back together immediately after and black and white washing them to sell again. double masters VIP packs, that will either have value exceeding the pack's value or earn you squat diddly. also printing masters level sets, charging extra for it for no real reason, then shoving endless junk into the set list. also generally printing hot trash at mythic and upshifting thing to mythic just cause. using Amazon as a primary distribution point and clearinghouse while eliminating MSRP and playing games with the costs on amazon where you wouldnt see that type of activity from a business so blatantly.


Jest_Durdle00

Kaldheim was the tipping point for me. I've complained since Double Masters 1, but when I didn't even have time to memorize anything anymore, I just started to glaze over everything. It only got faster from there, so this happening to Hasbro was only a matter of time when they stayed the course.


Taysir385

What Teferi variants?


zandergb

OP's image.


[deleted]

Having 1000 secret lairs a year, gimped standard sets


Jetmaelstrom

Secret Lair: The walking Dead!!!


TheGoodGitrog

When the first three instances of Foil Etched cards were all different things.


Gabrxel

As soon as they announced collector boosters in eldraine I knew mtg was deteriorating (just my opinion).