Printing variations

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SquirrelToken
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Post by SquirrelToken » 4 years ago

CalebLost wrote:
4 years ago
[*]The Showcase/Foil Showcase slots (that included constellations and borderless) was what really hit the spot this time, having a small pool of constellations meant having a good chance to hit something good. I got all 3 borderless PW, constellation Thassa, foil constellation Heliod and Purhoros and 2x foil of each demigod.
So in the foil showcase slot you got 2 mythics and 10 uncommons? I was really hoping that the ratio would be better. That's a bummer.

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CalebLost
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Post by CalebLost » 4 years ago

SquirrelToken wrote:
4 years ago
CalebLost wrote:
4 years ago
[*]The Showcase/Foil Showcase slots (that included constellations and borderless) was what really hit the spot this time, having a small pool of constellations meant having a good chance to hit something good. I got all 3 borderless PW, constellation Thassa, foil constellation Heliod and Purhoros and 2x foil of each demigod.
So in the foil showcase slot you got 2 mythics and 10 uncommons? I was really hoping that the ratio would be better. That's a bummer.
For the foil one I was hoping a little better myself, but considering that the non foil slot got me 4 mythics (3 borderless pw and 1 constellation god) I think that evens out
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SquirrelToken
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Post by SquirrelToken » 4 years ago

I ended up opening my box and yeah, 10 uncommons and 2 mythics in the foil showcase slot (Ashiok and Thassa). I did a lot worse than you in the nonfoil slot; only got Thassa and Elspeth.

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Post by SpeedGrapher » 3 years ago

Promo pack nonfoil
Promo pack foil
I had to look up online what this was. There is a sliver planeswalker symbol on the picture. That's all that tells you it's from a promo pack. Watched a youtube video quick and some of them don't even have the sticker. So I don't care about this version of the card. It's the same picture with a sticker.

(These are all the same cards)
Pack nonfoil
Pack foil (Lost it's value due to the showcase cards)
Prerelease foil (Lost it's value due to the showcase cards, also the same as a pack foil. Usually worth less than a pack foil.)
Promo pack nonfoil (same as normal packs with a sticker)
Promo pack foil (same as normal packs with a sticker)

These are your two separate categories those above which are variations but they are all the same thing. The below have alternate art.

(Alternate art)
Extended/borderless/showcase nonfoil (If you want to pay up some of them have cool alternate art)
Extended/borderless/showcase foil
Secret Lair Drop (This is the newest variation. They are going to print a large amount of these. Demand is high, margin is high, they cut out all of the middle men.)

Your rankings are correct. The only difference is trade value of the alternate art vs the normal art. Sometimes the normal art is better sometimes not. Purely subjective. But I think that are using worse art on purpose as a business tactic for the normal art cards.
I will say that having 5 versions of the exact same art card in the first category is meaningless.

They are running into a problem of making cards less special. I'd much rather have a lottery system where each booster box has 1 alternate art.
I get why they created collectors boosters. Makes a lot of business sense. You make more money selling less products. That even helps cut down on massive paper waste. Before these showcase cards existed I've seen guys open entire booster boxes. Pull the rares and just give away everything else. Which is actually a good thing for new players. Here's some free cards have fun.
If we reach a point where rares/mythics are not special they will need to revert to the lottery system. I doubt we are there yet.

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Post by SquirrelToken » 3 years ago

SpeedGrapher wrote:
3 years ago
Secret Lair Drop (This is the newest variation. They are going to print a large amount of these. Demand is high, margin is high, they cut out all of the middle men.)
I'll nitpick this - we've really only seen a couple new cards in Secret Lair drops - Vraska and Gilded Goose. It's mostly been middle-age stuff (can't really say "older", because "older" stuff is from 25 years ago). Secret Lairs are basically WOTC selling singles, and they seem to be trying to pin the values and the costs together. It's quite art-dependent on whether the OG or the Lair is better. So I don't think that it's fair to roll them into the rankings simply because the vast majority of the new cards don't have a Lair printing.

Six months later, though, it seems like a lot of the nonfoil extended cards aren't holding up too well. I feel like they're the new rare cards. Remember when rares, even bad rares used to be a buck or two? Yeah, these are they. Then the foil EAs are the new pack foils, back when you got one foil rare per box, maybe, and you liked it.

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Post by SpeedGrapher » 3 years ago

I think this warrants a small update since it's later into this mass printing of standard cards and non-standard cards. They are coming out with 2 masters sets this year. So the reprinting and card variations are way over the top. I think we are at Chronicles level reprinting or higher. I couldn't believe how hard non-reserve list cards dropped.

I think they need to drop a few of a printing variations from standard. While the alternate extended art is cool. It has had the negative effect of making normal printing worthless. They also need to drop some of their products skews down. The massive bulk they are pumping out is over whelming.

I was looking back at variations in printing.
Promo Pack: Zendikar Rising
Zendikar Rising
Zendikar Rising: Commander Decks
Zendikar Rising ExpeditionsZendikar Rising: Extras

That's from one set. The category of Extras in all forms needs to go away. It's ruining the financial end of the game for players, collectors and business owners. This needs to be cut back heavily.
I would like to see a booster box normal, normal foils. Then nothing else for a few sets. That would balance standard.
Alternate art has become a problem. They are also reprinting cards too often now. Which makes the cards not special. Sure many people have argued that for years we need more reprints and we did. But now it has gone too far. We need to get back to a point where opening a booster box is worth it. It's very feel bad when you open a standard pack get the best rare in the set but it's worth way less than it's alternate art version. Stores are not making the extra money off of these premium packs. Only Wizards is.

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Post by SquirrelToken » 3 years ago

SpeedGrapher wrote:
3 years ago
I think they need to drop a few of a printing variations from standard. While the alternate extended art is cool. It has had the negative effect of making normal printing worthless. They also need to drop some of their products skews down. The massive bulk they are pumping out is over whelming.
Personally, I think that the planeswalker-stamped promo cards should just be regular foils/nonfoils. And the prerelease cards should go back to being "Here's a special date-stamped alt art card that you can play with later" instead of "any rare or mythic can be your prerelease card, and you can play with it NOW!" Change one or more of the draft boosters in a prerelease kit to be a set booster, and now you've got more rares. Make basic lands be the prerelease promos if they don't want to flood the market with a million copies of one card.

I agree that draft booster packs have felt bad for a while, and while I love to draft I just can't justify the cost anymore, since there's no chance I'll open anything anywhere close to the price of admission.

While I'd like to agree that they should slow down the product onslaught, I don't think that that's a feasible ask.

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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

So I'm gonna put my two mana in.
I actually appreciate alot of these promos, but not in the sense of a collector. Actually I appreciate them in the sense of the player that is trying to get cheaper cards overall for their decks and that collectors that want to bling out said decks with extended art and foil extended art have actually driven down certain prices on cards from these newer sets. People buying cards that normally would boost the price by seeking said bling in the styles of plain foils are using the new pack experience and newer draft boosters to get their fix. Which is great for those of us that care less about said card art and foils.

Masterpieces are another card type that while if I ever bought boxes of any type anymore might interest me in a quick turnaround buck are not something I actually need. The availability of cards in new art styles and frames do excite me but as I have played in games other than MTG that have higher than mythic rarity cards before, the acquisition of them on a feasible monetary scale to get enough value to buy the cards I desire is largely nill.

This isn't to say I will never buy a newer foil nor will I not buy full art, but as somebody that had no particular desire to bling a deck out with the best new shiny/full art, are not impacting the base standard booster more trying to get their foils. This of course has the downside that if a set is particularly meh or not as popular it will sit on the LGS shelf taking up space.

I do see the downside for those that play the speculation game to create their cardpool and the fact that you have to put more money into the vending machine to speculate isn't a non trivial thing. But it does separate the two pools of players enough that what is on one side of the wall is at drastically different prices than the other.

My biggest complaint is that the quality control on MTG has been horrible this last 2 years. As stated I normally do not do foil cards but in one of my orders I forgot to turn the non foil tic box on and received a card I wanted but not in foil. I put it in the middle of a set of cards to keep them from curling and when I went back months later it had developed MAJOR curling. Now I know that most curling is cause by humidity and heat basically shrinking the foil layer of the card. But as I put it in the middle of a set of cards and it was pretty well nowhere near a direct heat source the curling should NOT have been as bad as it got to. That scares me since other than the foil etched cards I've heard that this is a universal constant with the current product line of cards foiling. This means that later on when people that have actually took the time to pay money for their bling and its ruined by a small amount of heat and humidity to that extent and for higher level play which means that the pendulum will swing back around to coveting the non specialty cards long term this will boom pricing. When your product creates a environment that it cannot be played with in a tournament setting because the curl could denote marked cards thats a major issue.

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Post by The N82O Molecule » 2 years ago

yeah ill add a update also.

I just opened strixhaven and man were the mystical archive awesome to open. unfortunately it fell under the thumb of "the man" and you get multiple copies of the same card and the variation isn't there.

I liked opening Kaldheim also, the alt arts within the set are fun. the one complaint I have I guess is that I like just a good old fashioned magic card. the o g card, not foil no special arts just the original, like I got 2 niko full arts but not a o g print. to pretentious?

I do think they are really making the pack fun to open, but im getting more and more unimpressed with the mythic and rare level of cards. and the down side to that is I don't care how many alt arts you make, if I don't want the card.

in regards to the secret drop series I really thought the Thraximundar rock and roll drop was super cool and the cards are crazy cool though hard to read (not complaining). the new secret drop with "our show is on Friday". . .is right on point. . .my only problem is there is only 1 card in it that anyone would want to play and I get lost at why they pick the cards they pick.

I think the sum up of this gibberish is that they are starting to just make extra printings to make up for the lack of awesome.

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