If you're interested in having fun, don't play competitive Magic (though I suppose this reasoning applies to any other recreational activity that has slowly become refined enough to warrant a competitive domain). 'Kitchen table' Magic is becoming less and less common, and I find that Limited and EDH are essentially the only formats remaining that have 'fun' at their forefront while still being competitive.

Playing Standard has little to do with having a good time, lately.

And yes, the original founder of Magic has expressed quite a strong degree of dissatisfaction with the direction the game has taken. When he originally designed it nearly 20 years ago, he never wished for a card's value to exceed 10 dollars, thus making all competitive deck designs accessible to all levels of players. Now, most tier 1 builds run anywhere from 450 to 750 dollars, mainly due to the recent addition of 'Mythic Rares' and Planeswalkers.

Look at the obscene price of this recent first place UW Control deck:

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=819715

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He traded sands for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand. Afari, Tales

Last edited by Paradox Lost on Apr-17-2011 at 05:51

Its really nothing new its been that way from the start. The game is designed to drive people into addictive buying. They keep releasing new sets and cards that obsolete previous ones.

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Originally posted by igottaknow Its really nothing new its been that way from the start. The game is designed to drive people into addictive buying. They keep releasing new sets and cards that obsolete previous ones.

The thing about various Magic formats is that cards never really go obsolete, as they simply rotate to a different format after a certain period of time (and EDH has finally given people a use for their otherwise junk rares). The rotation of these cards dramatically affects the state of the metagame within those formats, and the overall value of those cards. Right now, Jace, the Mindsculpter is the dominant card in Standard, which currently consists of six sets. Eventually, it's going to rotate to Extended (unless they decide to reprint it), and when it does, it's going to create new card interactions, and ultimately new deck designs; and the value is going to tank, dramatically. Several years from now, it will rotate to Legacy.

Wizards have always attempted to foster frequent purchasing habits, but the problem now is that there's an additional scarcity that's been created through the inclusion of Mythic Rares (which are included in only one in eight packs). These cards are generally potent enough to see serious play, and this, combined with their scarcity, results in a dramatic inflation in price. It's absurd.

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He traded sands for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand. Afari, Tales

a good friend of mine plays magic professionally, actually. or at least he used to (haven't been in contact with him in a year or so..) but he plays on the pro tour. he won an event like 2 years ago for 50grand. un-fuckin-believable. I think that he won it in a really crazy fashion too (with a strategy that nobody put any stock in...annihilated the top seeded players with his strategy though). Now, as far as I know, he still plays, and even writes for various magazines relating to it.

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Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights a good friend of mine plays magic professionally, actually. or at least he used to (haven't been in contact with him in a year or so..) but he plays on the pro tour. he won an event like 2 years ago for 50grand. un-fuckin-believable. I think that he won it in a really crazy fashion too (with a strategy that nobody put any stock in...annihilated the top seeded players with his strategy though). Now, as far as I know, he still plays, and even writes for various magazines relating to it.

Fuck, that's pretty cool. $50K

I should have been nerdier, perhaps.

A friend of mine used to be a ninja gamer, and would win about $30K a year from playing CS (I think?) tournaments. The first prize in one of the tournaments he went in (with his "team") was a brand new Ferarri. They came third and won like $12K each or something.

Tough life

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Eh. It seems like a lot of money, and it is, but what opportunity for advancement does it really offer?
That's how I've always looked at it...My friend was lucky in that he's educated and, having won in what was a 'revolutionary' fashion his insights into the game were respected so he was offered writing positions. He makes a little bit of extra money doing that.

I think that a lot of the people who possess the intelligence and ethic to be successful at games like that are truly wasting their intelligence and drive, though. That's not to say that I look down on them --whatever makes you happy in life, well good for you. Just don't tell me that you're making great money playing monopoly and couldn't ever see yourself doing anything else because you don't think you could do better..

You couldn't do better playing a game that you love for a living and making great money at it?

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

I used to be one of the top players in Guild Wars and made several thousand dollars off it several years ago, before I quit to concentrate on stuff like, you know, real life. I went back a couple months ago to catch up with people and when we were talking about what we were up to now it got a bit awkward.

Me: Oh, I'm at university studying international relations and philosophy, planning on going to law school after I graduate. What have you guys been up to?

Friend 1: Oh, well my parents kicked me out of the house so I play poker online to pay my rent. Between poker and Starcraft I get about 30,000 a year so it's good.

Friend 2: Similar depressing story.

Me:

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Quarantine Classics Brunello di Montalcino (In Transit) Edition [Progressive Classics] (August 2020)
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My bf has a black and blue Magic deck, full of rare cards. Prolly worth a few hundred bucks or more.

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Originally posted by Lews I get about 30,000 a year so it's good.

Does not compute.

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