The Magic community is rocked by a crisis

[ad_1]

For a week, the community Orderthe most popular format of the collectible card game Magicis powered on. We explain why.

It all starts on September 23, 2024, very precisely. In fact, it was on this date that the “ Commander Rules Committee » announces the banning of four cards with immediate effect.

This announcement quickly had the effect of a bomb within the community. Card prices are collapsing, voices are being raised on both sides, death threats are even being made…

But actually, what is the format? Order ? What is the role of Rules Committee? And why does this announcement provoke so many reactions? We explain everything to you.

What is the format? Order?

Magicis not a game strictly speaking. To put it simply, let’s say that it is rather a set of rules which are shared by different variants of the same game. Each of these variants is a “format”, with its own characteristics.

THE Orderis one of these formats, with several particularities of its own: it is played with several people, and no longer only in duels like most other formats, and allows almost all cards printed since the birth of the game, there are more 30 years old (i.e. several tens of thousands of different cards).

To go further

Source: Wizards of the Coast

It is also, and above all, the most popular format of Magic largely because it is more about the social aspect than the competition. This is the preferred format of players of “ kitchen table », these players who play with friends, at home, for fun rather than to win tournaments.

If you want to get an idea of ​​what part of Order we invite you to watch SolRingthe excellent show dedicated to the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

What is it? Commander Rules Committee ?

Like all formats of MagicTHE Order has seen some cards get banned over time. Because they are too powerful, because they make the game unplayable, because they are racist… The causes are diverse and varied. It may even happen that a card is authorized again after some time.

This is the whole role ofCommander Rules Committee : decide which cards to ban from the format Order— an arduous task if ever there was one, given the number of cards that must be taken into account. Especially since this committee is only made up of a handful of volunteers, and it is the only official format not to be directly governed by Wizards of the Coast, the game’s publisher.

The least we can say is that the committee has been rather measured so far, with less than fifty cards banned in around twenty years.

This September 23, therefore, four cards were banned at once. The first ( Nadu, winged wisdom ), everyone expected it, even hoped for it, as it makes the games terribly boring. However, it has only existed for a few months.

But it is the three others, present for much longer, who are controversial. We even wonder if their banishment is not linked to that of Nadu(why now?)… It’s about Mana Crypt , Lotus Jeweler AndDock Extortionist :

Three of the banned cards. // Source: Wizards of the CoastThree of the banned cards. // Source: Wizards of the Coast
Three of the banned cards. // Source: Wizards of the Coast

The three have one thing in common: they allow cheating on resources. In a “normal” game of Magicwe place a land in the first round, to play a card costing a resource. Then we place a second land the next turn, to play a card requiring two resources, etc. The increase in power is gradual.

The problem mainly comes from the first two cards ( Mana CryptAnd Lotus jeweler): they are free to play and immediately provide two and three resources respectively. Having or not having one of these cards in your starting hand has a huge influence on the rest of the game.

Very strong cards, therefore widely played, published in the highest rarity of the game, and rarely reprinted by the publisher. This is the winning cocktail that drives up the price of a card.

Why this controversy?

Overnight, the price of these cards on the secondary market collapsed. Different editions of Mana Cryptfor example went from $200 to $50, from $270 to $115, or even from $950 to $500 for the rarest version. The basic version of Lotus jeweler went from $100 to $50. The glossy, textured version went from $500 to $300. Compared to the number of these cards in circulation, the loss is estimated at several million dollars. A real Black Monday! The Reddit thread r/mtgfinance rose to the list of the site’s most active over the week. We are far from the niche phenomenon.

However, let’s not kid ourselves: if these were common cards, worth only a few cents, the controversy would certainly have been much less. But beyond this economic aspect, the decision divides even within the players.

Half of them are delighted, and agree with the committee. They advocate a social experience, where everyone has time to settle in, to enjoy playing, without being run over by an opponent unrolling their cards too quickly because of such acceleration.

The other camp, on the contrary, advocates the freedom to play as one wishes, the Order being a format funwe must allow as many possibilities as possible. It is up to different groups of players to regulate themselves, according to their preferences and their way of playing.

Both voices can be heard, but one of them has expressed itself more strongly, more violently than the other. The committee, which does not derive any financial gain from its choices, and which has always been keen to work for the good of the format, was harassed on social networks by its opponents. Its members were victims of doxingand were even threatened with death.

The cup is full for the five members of the committee. They then decide to throw in the towel, because of the threats weighing on them. One of them explains about X: “[…] my inability to protect myself and the people I care about sheds a different light on the situation […]”.

We can hardly blame them. To go further, one could even imagine that the members of the committee “took advantage” of this incident to relieve themselves of a task far too titanic for their shoulders: regulating, voluntarily, in their free time, the flagship format of a license having generated more than a billion dollars in 2023.

Wizards of the Coast takes over

Sensing the controversy growing, the game publisher decided to take matters in hand. The format Ordermanaged by the community and on a voluntary basis for around twenty years, has come under its wing, with the support of the committee, since Monday, September 30.

Here again, the reactions were not long in coming. And for good reason. With very few exceptions, the editor does a very good job of game designbalancing and perfectly manages the list of banned cards in the different formats. But many players fear that his future decisions regarding their favorite format, the most popular of Magic(therefore the one that sells the most cards, and brings in the most money), are based more on financial perspectives than fun. Because let’s not forget that the publisher belongs to the toy giant Hasbro, in economic difficulties for several years, and which only owes its salvation to two licenses:MagicAndDungeons & Dragonss — both under the tutelage of Wizards of the Coast.

While waiting for things to calm down and become clearer, some opportunists are taking advantage of price drops to empty sellers’ stocks… hoping to pocket the jackpot if the rumors of the cancellation of the bans prove true. The misfortune of one could make the happiness of others.


[ad_2]

Source link -100