Is there any possibility that wotc could make universes beyond-free format variants to formats that currently allow them, such as commander and such? My friends and I do not wish to take part in games that ruin our immersion in such a way, when it was the mild role play and “you are a planeswalker” theming that got us into the game, and it’s becoming increasingly harder to avoid universes beyond cards. As it stands there isn’t a way we can really avoid them at our local gaming stores, and we’re getting frustrated only being able to play amongst ourselves in a game that we used to be able to play with others. Can you please give us some hope?
We did some market research to see if there was an audience for Universe Beyond-less formats. Only 7% of respondents were interested. That’s too small a group for a format we’d officially create, but many formats (Commander being the most famous) have begun as things created by the players. Something having a groundswell of support will eventually get noticed.___
It’s kind of a weird question though right? Like I have a general disdain for UB, but I also don’t want a new format, buuut 10/10 times I’d prefer to join a pod where no one was playing with those cards so idk.
This comes from the same market research that showed “the vast majority of tabletop Magic players (over 75%) don’t know what a planewalker is, … don’t know what a format is”. Take that for what it’s worth. I personally cannot believe it, but if that’s what we’re dealing with it almost doesn’t matter what question they ask, they’ll get whatever answer they’re looking for.
https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/698478689008189440/a-mistake-folks-in-the-hyper-enfranchised
First thought I had when I read this was “I don’t remember being asked this question”. This feels like when a game or small business schmoozes a tabloid to give them a “best of” award. They are building echo chambers around their business to justify profitable decisions.
Anyone who can’t make an educated guess as to what a Planeswalker is really needs to try and use a smidgen more of their brain. 😮💨
Edit: or maybe it’s less literally the name in every other language.
@Semjaza @mike no, what they mean is 75% of magic players have never played with a planeswalker card. Most magic players don’t buy boxes or singles, they just pick up a pack at Target sometimes. They’ve probably got enough cards to build a couple decks if they use all their commons. Many use old cards, from before Planeswalkers were invented. Many are kids. Planeswalkers don’t come with all their rules text written on the card, so many set them aside because they don’t know what to do.
@Semjaza @mike take my cousin. He got a perfect score in the ACT and got full ride scholarships to basically anywhere in the country. To him, magic is the same as any other board game on the shelf. He pulls out some decks when he has friends over, and then puts them away, and maybe gets out Catan next time. Most of his cards are from Legions block, and he’s never played in a store in his life.
It’s not brains, it’s priorities.That statistic, that 75% have never played with/seen a Planeswalker card I find much more believable.
I misinterpreted the “75% don’t know what a Planeswalker is” as meaning lore wise they didn’t get the concept.
@Semjaza ah sorry for the long posts then
Nae probs. I know I’ve given far more than my fair share of long replies to misunderstandings before now.
Isn’t that Standard?
The question was about adding universes beyond-less versions of formats that currently allow for universes beyond cards (such as modern and commander)
This makes sense. Those formats barely fire at any shops near me, splintering them into even more niche formats would be terrible
Yeah, I mean, I play Standard for a variety of reasons, but “avoiding Universes Beyond cards” is definitely one of them.
I wonder how different the answer could be if they’d asked the question in a different way.
I’d like Modern better if it didn’t have UB cards, but banning UB cards alone wouldn’t be enough to get me to start playing Modern. So am I interested in a UB-free Modern? No, but that’s not approval of the current state of affairs.
Standard does get crossover sets (AFR, MKM, even the IKO Godzilla styles), but I don’t think people are really asking for standard without these sets, only the eternal formats.
Edit: while IKO and MKM are technically in-universe and not really Universes Beyond, AFR was Universes Beyond in all but name. The reason it’s not classified as such, as far as I can tell, is because WOTC also owns D&D. The set itself was not in-universe and did not feature any characters of MTG.
