This is something that I have been talking to my friends about for a while, and I wanted some outside opinions. I wasn’t going to post this because I don’t think it would work well in the basic community, but now that I can put it in the community forum I think it might work. Here it is…
Does anyone here wonder if Wizards has already found a solution to the "Type 1" problem?
If the problem is
1) Players leave after 3 yrs avg from normal magic. And also realizing that
2) Vintage seems to have become a player supported viable option for those who don’t want to leave after three years. But also realizing that vintage format has a problem consisting of
3) High cost of entry to vintage + eventual critical mass + availability of cards and secondary market value 4) And coming to the conclusion that Wizards will never make reprints or sanction proxies Solution:
Eventualy weed out official support for Type I, and focus their efforts on the new 1.5 -Players still get to play with a vast majority of their old cards (look at the gap between 1.5 and extended) helping to keep their interest for 3+ years.
-New players have a much reduced entrance fee (no P9, drains, workshops, etc.), less of those geometrically broken cards (Yawgs Will, Academy, etc.), and the oldest needed set of cards (duals) have the bonus of being mass-produced in unlimited.
This of course isn't an end all solution, but it is "better" then what we have now (at least for Wizards). At the very least it buys them considerable more time to find a new solution until 1.5 hits the same problems that type I already has.
Part II
Or my Long View of the Format
Don't get me wrong, I love this format but I do accept it for what it is. It's a monstrosity that was never meant to exist, and may have too many problems to fix in the long term. Type I has been a flawed format from the start, which in turn has lead to what we are having to deal with now.
For reference, just look at any of the numerous topics about crucible and trinisphere and the restricted list. We play a format that is known to contain horribly broken cards, but at the same time we want to "balance" the format.
Wizards may take advantage of its popularity by printing cards that work well in the format, see chalice of the void, because it does increase their bottom line, but overall I think it may be a losing battle to try and convince them to keep type I around.
I see myself playing for another 2 years at most. I'm almost 22 years old, and prepping to go to grad school. I'm thinking about things like engagements, car loans, rent, and other things otherwise known as real life. I'm not being pessimistic, just realistic. I have had a lot of fun, but eventually I will have to move on and let go. In short, I’m too old to really get into Type 1.5. I think that there is a quote that PTW said floating about that sums it up nicely. “Damn it, don’t you realize Type I is for adults". It is, and we are.
However, I don’t think it’s me (or really you, the hardcore Type I player) that they are after. They are after the new generation of magic players that just started, players that have never played with a mox and most likely never will. They don’t know what they are missing, and therefore will never care that it’s gone. They will however (if Wizards gets its way) transfer over into Extended, and Type 1.5 (the new, better, more controllable, and therefore more profitable Type I), as they grow older.
This is something my friends and me have been talking about for a while. I decided to post this after reading Ric Flair’s post about the long view of Type I.
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20634&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 so, what do you think, is the new Type 1.5 Wizard's "solution"?
