Digging into my mailbag, I find two questions of interest. That’s just enough of what I have time for; how convenient.
Oh man, I’m scared of the rotation. We’re going to lose the Vivid Lands, Reflecting Pool, Cryptic Command, Figure of Destiny. All the decks are going to suck now. What in the world should I do?
I’m assuming this is the first time you’ve experienced a rotation since you started playing Magic more competitively. If not, shame on you, it always happens this time of year. There’s no need to run around with your head cut off.
Will the new decks suck because we’re losing so many staple cards from the sets? Most likely not. Remember, for something to rotate out, something gets to rotate in. Even though we finally lose that mega block LorMoor, doesn’t mean the game is going to suck. Magic is a fluid game where cards come and go, as they should be.
If you pick up a regular deck of playing cards, you know it never changes (you know, unless you lose a card and use the joker for something). Everyone expects the cards to be the same. Likewise in Chess or almost any other game out there. But what make Magic so different is the constant changing of the available pieces you have to play with. This is why Limited is so popular; you don’t know what you could open and get passed to you, making each time you sit down and play a different experience.
Sure, there will be some good cards rotating out, but with the new cards seeing print, you’ll be able to build new decks. They won’t be the same (which is good) so different decks have to emerge from the new cards. And please don’t say something will be good post-rotation without knowing what is going to be printed. You don’t know what’s going to see print that could make that deck even better, or maybe obsolete.
As for the cards, you have some options. You can sell them to a dealer, trade them away, or keep them if you’re playing Extended/Legacy/EDH/Casual. It’s comepletely up to you.
Hey, a question from Twitter:
@mtgcolorpie Question: If Wizards did use celebs to pimp Magic who should they get? – bigguyinblack
Ah, yes, you must be talking about my wildly successful column: Magic Celebrity Commercial – You Like Fallen Empires? Of course, the title refers to a movie line (I named a deck I played for States “Do You Like Huey Lewis and The News?”) that doesn’t play too well if you’re not in on the joke. I didn’t want to spoil who the celebrity was just from the title as I feel that would take away from some of the fun. If you don’t think it will, tell me, I’m all ears (Yes that means there’s more commercials).
But if they were going to do this in real life, ala the World of Warcraft ads, who would I have? I introduced the idea of Magic icons (Flores, Chapin, Ruel, etc..) much like Poker websites use poker stars (Well, that and attractive women, something I’m not beneath doing. Hey, words over here!). But I don’t think that you need sexuality to sell Magic, right?
Here’s where market research comes in, something I don’t have any access to. But it all depends on what aspect you want to sell your game to people, and that’s the point of my commercials. If you use the celebrity route, you don’t really show the cards too much (less you’re making a parody). If you want to focus on the game, you don’t need celebrities.
But to finally get to your question, if he didn’t just pass away, I would have loved to have seen Billy Mays with Magic, like he did on ESPN360. Maybe a little later, when it doesn’t seem so tasteless, I’ll do a Billy Mays commerical for Magic.
(Here’s some great Billy Mays videos if you haven’t seen them (all at CollegeHumor.com). Billy Mays orders at a drive through, Billy Mays Kaboom Re-Dub (NSFW), Billy Mays Mighty Putty Re-Dub (NSFW))
As always, feel free to Tweet or e-mail me your questions for next month’s bag. Or, you can even find me on Wizards new community.
Site News: Another new feature you might notice down below is a rating system with stars. All of the articles now have ratings you have your input of you liked a certain post or not. It also helps me decide if you want more of those or get rid of that. You don’t have to register to vote, but you can only do it once. You’re already down here, you might as well vote. Thanks in advance.
MTG Color Pie 