What do you wish WotC would do with Magic in the future?

[Lurker101]

I think they should remove Fallen Empires and Homelands from the reserved list. It would have the effect of taking two low budget sets and boost the secondary market for some of the cards if they found a home in standard or extended right now if they were to be printed in the next core set.

They should legalize collector's edition as long as it is in opaque backed deck protectors. This could eliminate the amount of fraudulent cards on the market as well as give in to players who want legal proxies. They could also giveaway a promo version of an expensive spell for winning small tournaments. That wasn't my idea I saw it on here once and agreed though.

They should print more mercenaries. I really like the idea but the mechanic has been weak so far (look at rebels for comparison). I want good mercenaries.

Print a block that takes place in Ulgortha. Great flavor but bad set.

Keep on reprinting silver bordered cards with new names and black borders. Some of them would work really well (like Mise). They've done it before but I think they could use doing a few more. I'd love to see Mise (banned in Legacy and Restricted in Vintage), a better version of Once More With Feeling (sway of the stars is crap), World Bottling Kit (banned in standard and a rules change saying you cannot pick a core set), and Staying Power (probably done with lots of changes first).

Keep taking out needless errata and especially power errata. Cards like Zodiac Dragon would be busted if it played like it read. If unerrated cards make too big of an impact (flash) they can always be banned and restricted. I really would like to see Dream Halls at least get unrestricted.

   

[ELD]

Calling for Zodiac Dragon to have its "errata" removed is like calling for Grim Tutor to have it's "errata" removed. 

Grim Tutor
Search your library for a(any) card and put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library. You lose 3 life.

Zodiac Dragon
When Zodiac Dragon is put into your graveyard from play, you may return it(Zodiac Dragon) to your hand.

The bold text is added, while the text in parentheses has been removed.  The Starter cards work now as they were printed to work. 

That point aside, I think it is great for players to think about where they'd like to see Magic go.  I personally hope Wizards aims for a long term plan that maintains the integrity of both the collectible and game aspects of Magic.  I'd like to see the restricted list cleaned up quite a bit.  I'd like to see more support for TO's who are making Vintage and Legacy work in their stores.  I'd like to see FNM cards that are legal are not just extended legal, but Vintage/Legacy legal.  I would really like to see Wizards execute a solid plan for attracting new players to not only play casually, but get involved in tournaments. 

[Nefarias]

They should print more mercenaries. I really like the idea but the mechanic has been weak so far (look at rebels for comparison). I want good mercenaries.

Although I'll admit that Rebels in general have gotten more tools to work with (where's the Merc's Lin-Sivvi?), the big problem with Mercenaries was that they searched down, as opposed to searching up like the Rebels did. You have to pay a bunch of mana and tap down a big guy to find someone that's smaller and weaker than the guy you already have.

I'd like to see FNM cards that are legal are not just extended legal, but Vintage/Legacy legal.

I imagine you're implying cards like Rack and Ruin or Mystical Tutor and the like, but they haven't been doing a terrible job of making the FNM foils Eternal relevant recently. Since February, two of the seven months have been incredibly Vintage relevant (Tormod's Crypt and Tendrils of Agony), and next month is supposedly Thirst for Knowledge. So that's three of the last 8 months that have been very good to Vintage players. When you consider that (I can only assume) well less than 37.5% of FNMer's give a damn about Vintage, that's a pretty good showing. Oh, and that's not including Eternal Witness as a relevant card (it's certainly not Tier 1, but it's not entirely irrelevant.

As someone who has a relatively small amount invested in Magic monetarily, I'd like to see them reprint more Portal/Starter things to make them more available to the player base. I can totally understand why people that have Grim Tutors, Strategic Plannings, Imperial Seals, or Imperial Recruiters would feel otherwise, though. P3K's availability in particular upsets me.

I also wish they'd just released all the info on this new grassroots campaign they've been talking about.

[reaperbong]

These ideas may be kinda out there but...

I'd like to see the original Dual Lands reprinted. Seeing them as foil promos would be cool but i'd like to see them reprinted in a basic set with new artwork and foiled versions. This would keep the old ones collectable, i don't think it'd upset the market so much, and we'd get to see new artwork damnit because some of the old art sucks! (except for Underground Sea, i'd like to have that original piece foiled)

Clean-up the restricted and Banned list. There is no reason a card should be banned in Vintage, all banned cards can simply have an errata. For example they could replace the 'Ante' mechanic with something like 'remove the top 30 cards of your library from the game.' Sure Contract from Below would still kick ass and be restricted but it's not so powerful to warrant banning. Hell, reprint all the Ante cards in a new set with their new errata! Also if Mana Crypt is playable then Chaos Orb and Falling Star should be playable with some elaborate errata guidlines. Just put a time limit on Sharazad, why does it have to be banned? You should be able to play any card ever printed in Vintage, if they can so heavily errata cards like Time Vault then there is no excuse to not make the other banned cards playable.

I would NOT make CE editions playable. that would suck. as Proxies that is ok but if they were playable as real cards that would mean the P9 were reprinted and just for the sake of this game's legacy, P9 should NEVER be reprinted. However, they should be used to add to the mystery and legend of MTG. something like......

They should make a stand alone set like Coldsnap that plays with the mythos of the P9. there could be some theme where each color is seeking or protecting their Mox and there is some massive 5 way war over the lost Black Lotus. You'd have cards like 'Keepers of the Emerald', 'Sapphire's corruption' and 'poisoned Jet miners'. they could reprint all the 'wink wink' cards like Ancestral Vision in this set along with the two new moxes but in the set there could be mechanics that when used in combo would bring them closer to the originals (like cards that remove counters or say 'if this card is discarded to play a mox, return it from graveyard to your hand'). The story could create some elaborate mythos behind each of the P9 cards and why each color is bound to their specific mox. It'd be cool if there were cards about the guy in the Timetwister pic, stuff like that.. just an idea...

[Harlequin]

I'm easy to please... the way I see the restricted list is the wotc gives us a puzzle and we all try and solve it.  At the end of the day we all have the same list of cards, and we all are tring to build a with the highest win% we can get. 

All that said Here is my wotc wish-list:

- Sanction Proxies within Vintage Tourneys -
Over the past decade I would venture a guess that more Unsactioned Proxy Vintage tournements have been played than sanctioned vintage (by player even).  Certainly in the past 5 year this is true.  So no news here, any "price" damage done to exsisting power has already been slowly going on for years and years.  Any kneejerk price changes downward would be offset by the attendance increase of vintage players upward.  Who doesn't want to own power?  I've never played in a sactioned vintage event but I own power.  I don't care if wotc "reprint" proxies or whatever, it would be smart of them because that's free money.  We've already done the work for them, Proxies work.  200+ player tournements have been held with proxies.

- The LAST of the powerlevel clean up -
Parallax.  I actaully thought the errata was removed in the "Great whale" batch (sorry ppl MWS).  I see no agruable reason what-so-ever for these cards to be legitamatly errated to only work while still in play.  They arn't even -that- powerful without the errata and nearly unplayable with.  I would play legacy alot more in parallax tide was restored to it's ONLY printed text.  Tide-Statis would be crazy fun to play.
Lotus Vale -v- Dreadnaught; Flash -v- Transmute Artifact; Mana Vault -v- Timevault.  These are all debatable, and I don't care one way or the other.  But Parallax stuff just seems like it was forgotten.

- Creature Type -
It annoys me to no end that they change the creature type on card that have never been reprinted and never are going to be reprinted.  The creatures that were just "Legend" ok - I could see that.  They needed a little help.  ~maybe~ the artifact creatures by the same logic.  But really, what is the goal here?? to make me use gatherer.wizards.com more frequently? I know this is a lost cause but I figgured I'd put it up here.

[ReAnimator]

- Creature Type -
It annoys me to no end that they change the creature type on card that have never been reprinted and never are going to be reprinted.  The creatures that were just "Legend" ok - I could see that.  They needed a little help.  ~maybe~ the artifact creatures by the same logic.  But really, what is the goal here?? to make me use gatherer.wizards.com more frequently? I know this is a lost cause but I figgured I'd put it up here.

I'm actually really really happy about that. I play a lot of multiplayer and have some tribal decks as well. So being able to play old cards that are relevant only because of new creature types is really cool.

Khabal Ghoul = Zombie, Kick ass! Went right into my tombstone stairwell tribal zombie deck.
Waterfront Bouncer = Merfolk, woo hoo!
Mercenary Knight = Knight Mercenary, Great for my Haakon tribal knight deck.

I really like those changes a lot as they make more of my cards playable in certain situations.

[reaperbong]

I didn't know Khabal Ghoul was a zombie. That's damn cool!

and on that note, reprint Zombie Master because the artwork sucks!

[Hi-Val]

I want a thick magazine-paper book available at all hobby shops that contains the rules in easy-to-understand language and reprints all of the Magic Academy articles. Put a full visual spoiler of the latest sets in the back. Reprint some of the Flavor of Magic articles. Put in a fold-out poster of some badass card art. Have articles on how to make a mana curve, format variations, rules for drafting. Get some Devin Low magic development articles. Put in some Magic: The Puzzling games. Have it available for $10 at the gaming store with a coupon in it for a free starter deck from WOTC or a discount coupon.

The biggest problem with getting new players into the game is that most people suck at being teachers. Imagine kids playing at the lunch table. One of their friends comes over and asks how to play the game. My option has one reaching into their backpack, giving them this magazine with the rules and all the fun stuff about magic and pictures of the cards. The other option begins with "well, you have twenty life. These lands tap for mana, you can play one a turn. Oh, you're supposed to get the opponent to zero life but you can also make them lose if they run out of cards. Okay, so you can tap lands for mana, but the lands aren't the same color as the mana they make..."

Secondly, they need to find three bright, fun and charismatic magic players and fly them around the world to do coverage for events. The current commentators suck pretty hard. Get some young folks out there, writing about their experiences flying out the night before, getting acquainted with the new city, talking to people at the event. Get some video coverage up of man-on-the-street interviews. Basically, they should put a young, fun, smart face to magic with this group that specifically just goes to cover big events.

[Anusien]

FNM-style prizes at more events.  A guy locally said, "I want to move our Friday tournament since I resent the implication that we have nothing better to do on a Friday night."  I draft on Wednesday, have played T2 on Sundays, and have played Legacy on Wed as well.  I'd love cool/unique prizes like foils weekly; it would really encourage more players to come.

[zeus-online]

More good card-drawing - I know they've been nerfing it, but it's pretty annoying to have such a limited amount of playable card-draw in eternal formats.

Clean up the lists! Dream halls sucks, and so does a huge number of restricted cards.

/Zeus

[KnowmaD]

Hi-Val just smashed this ball out of the park.  WotC , get out the pen an pad.  You need to take notes.

Second.  I am sick of feeling like theres a birthday for two kids an vintage is the one in the corner neglected with no presents.  I know we have ways of making it profitable, right.  Maybe I am asking too much.

                                                                                     
                                                                                                                   Knowmad

[Smmenen]

I think they should remove Fallen Empires and Homelands from the reserved list. It would have the effect of taking two low budget sets and boost the secondary
market for some of the cards if they found a home in standard or extended right now if they were to be printed in the next core set.

That is quite ironic.

The purpose behind the reserved list is to preserve collectibility for those cards, which is done partially by helping them maintain their value through non-reprinting.  But you are saying that reprinting them would actually increase their original value.   

They should legalize collector's edition as long as it is in opaque backed deck protectors. This could eliminate the amount of fraudulent cards on the market as well as give in to players who want legal proxies. They could also giveaway a promo version of an expensive spell for winning small tournaments. That wasn't my idea I saw it on here once and agreed though.

   

Ben Bleiweiss actually recently made a call to legalize CE for tournament play.

Can anyone tell me, as a FACTUAL matter, whether one can tell whether a CE card or not is on the top of one's library through an opaque sleeve either a) by looking or b) by feel? 

Alpha cards are not distinguishable, yet they have more rounded corners.   

[Darkenslight]

Ben Bleiweiss actually recently made a call to legalize CE for tournament play.

Can anyone tell me, as a FACTUAL matter, whether one can tell whether a CE card or not is on the top of one's library through an opaque sleeve either a) by looking or b) by feel? 

Alpha cards are not distinguishable, yet they have more rounded corners.   

I understand that CE cards have a slightly different feel.  I've felt the difference on its own, but you have to know exactly what you're looking for.  As for in sleeves, I doubt it; maybe if the corners are different from the general cardpool.

Would you argue that giving a pack of three random cards from the Vintage Restricted list to PTQ Top 8's would be a bad thing (both from a collector's perspective and a secondary market view?)

[Myriad Games]

Interesting discussion. Wizards is reformatting their novels and the inserts included in their Fat Packs, so an intro book is not out of the question. The most effective way to introduce new players is to cultivate welcoming local communities that can introduce new players to the game and give a reason to continue playing on a regular basis. Having an economic incentive to have this done professionally is a necessity to long-term success.

I can definitely tell the difference between CE and regular cards, even within sleeves, both by the corner difference and the different colors on the back.

They could do functional reprints in a variety of ways including a special collector's edition of proxies like the 15th Anniversary Dragon Boxed Set they're releasing at the end of August.

[Darkenslight]

Shards of Alara Launch Party & Prerelease

I'm quietly concerned about this.  Whilst I understand that there could be an unusual method for introducing a particular block, this doesn't seem to me to be veluable to acquisition of new players.  Are there any other thoughts?

P.S.  Please note that each Shard is a single colour double-splash for the purposes of manabases.

[Hi-Val]

Interesting discussion. Wizards is reformatting their novels and the inserts included in their Fat Packs, so an intro book is not out of the question. The most effective way to introduce new players is to cultivate welcoming local communities that can introduce new players to the game and give a reason to continue playing on a regular basis. Having an economic incentive to have this done professionally is a necessity to long-term success.

The other advantages of the magazine thing would be that players could get a good sense of why cards are certain rarities, like MaRo's "sucky rares" article explains, and players could see why tournament decks rarely include Scaled Wurm, even though he's friggin' huge. I'd really want to help new players avoid getting screwed out of good cards by dishonest older players who will trade you this Shivan Dragon for that Pithing Needle and Crucible of Worlds. I think about the biggest barriers for getting new players in, and they're

-terrible way of actually learning the game
-no knowledge of the HUGE amount of writing and collecting and playing variations
-losing to better players all the time and then getting insulted for it

A full visual spoiler would give people a new interest in cracking packs to get a certain card. Articles on the fundamentals of draft and combat math could get people drafting on the first night they learn Magic.

Something like this would really invest a player in the game, because they'll have the comic book stories of the planeswalkers, behind the magic design articles, full-page card art to put up in their locker, commentary on the best decks of the past, showcases of Vintage decks, etc. We have 15+ years of Magic to draw on and get people invested in.

[Lurker101]

I think they should remove Fallen Empires and Homelands from the reserved list. It would have the effect of taking two low budget sets and boost the secondary
market for some of the cards if they found a home in standard or extended right now if they were to be printed in the next core set.

That is quite ironic.

The purpose behind the reserved list is to preserve collectibility for those cards, which is done partially by helping them maintain their value through non-reprinting.  But you are saying that reprinting them would actually increase their original value.   

That seems to be the only way to make most of those cards relevant. If they were legal in standard and extended again they may go up in price. The reserved list certainly fails as far as these 2 sets are concerned.

[ReAnimator]

The reserved list certainly fails.

FTFY

[Matt]

That seems to be the only way to make most of those cards relevant. If they were legal in standard and extended again they may go up in price. The reserved list certainly fails as far as these 2 sets are concerned.

What do you mean by 'relevant'? For the purposes of collecting, reprinting those sets will only hurt the already rock-bottom value of those cards, by increasing the supply without increasing the demand. There is almost nothing in either HL or FE that would see ANY tournament play. You might as well just ask them to reprint Hymn and High Tide, which would be a lot easier and have exactly the same effect.

The reserved list isn't actually preventing anyone from getting as many FE and HL cards as they want. The the demand for these cards is low enough that even with the current, restricted supply, the price of completed sets of each is under $40. No one wants these cards, anyone who does can get them for almost no money, and increasing the supply of them is only going to drive their price further down.

[zeus-online]

Reprinting the few good cards from those sets might increase the prize, but the rest is forever doomed to be worthless.

/Zeus

[Lurker101]

Reprinting the few good cards from those sets might increase the prize, but the rest is forever doomed to be worthless.

/Zeus

I at least would like to see these cards from those two sets get another round in standard and extended. Another thing they could do is print more cards that work well with some Homelands/Fallen Empires creature types and mechanics. Print more Minotaurs and make them good and put them in a set with Digiredoo. Print more good Thallids and put them in a standard set with Fungal Bloom (they sort of did that for time spiral). Faerie Noble could be in the next core set now that Faeries are a viable creature type. They should do the same with Thrulls and Thrull Champion. If they print more poison cards (which I wish they would do and think they are going to do), they could reprint Leeches in the same set. They should keep Baron Sengir on the list since he is actually doing OK on the secondary market. That could be great.
Conch Horn
Dwarven Armorer
Elvish Farmer
Hand of Justice
Implements of Sacrifice
River Merfolk
Thrull Champion
Vodalian War Machine
An-Zerrin Ruins
Aysen Crusader
Black Carriage
Chain Stasis
Faerie Noble
Rysorian Badger This card is actually a decent graveyard hoser.
Wall of Kelp
Willow Priestess

I also want to say I love the flavor of Homelands and would really like to see an Ulgortha block.

[TracerBullet]

I'm gonna shoot for the moon here and ask for my old cardface back.  Nothing killed the game more for me than playing MTG Vista.

[reaperbong]

I'm gonna shoot for the moon here and ask for my old cardface back.  Nothing killed the game more for me than playing MTG Vista.

WORD.

and we have a winner.

[vartemis]

Make more comics, and turn Arena into a movie (be it animated or live action).

j

[zeus-online]

I'm gonna shoot for the moon here and ask for my old cardface back.  Nothing killed the game more for me than playing MTG Vista.

WORD.

and we have a winner.

Definetly! bring back ye olde card-border.

/Zeus

[zimagic]

I'm gonna shoot for the moon here and ask for my old cardface back.  Nothing killed the game more for me than playing MTG Vista.

I just want artifacts to be brown again.

[Smmenen]

stop restricting cards in vintage.

[oneofchaos]

stop restricting cards in vintage.

Hail to the chief

[zeus-online]

stop restricting cards in vintage.

Urh no!

Although it would be nice if they unrestricted a few cards.

/Zeus

[diopter]

stop restricting cards in vintage.

Unrestrict Brainstorm. They can keep Scroll, Flash and Gush if they like, because Brainstorm hurt worse than any of those.