MTG

I was ambivalent to the play boosters change because it was just the culmination of what we had seen coming for years... increasing the cost of the game for us players.

'Project booster fun' was always about asking the question "how fast and far can we push the price-point up for boosters?" They threw a bunch of options out, tested the water, and ultimately decided enough players would pay the higher price-point for the same cost to print. Pure, unfettered greed.

Magic was already expensive enough as it is. I won't be forking out for in-person drafts at the new price. Bootleg cards serve my playgroups needs at a fraction of the costs. Greedy WotC execs don't respect players? We shouldn't respect them.

The good:

• My LGS doesn't have to order 3 different types of boosters and guess how much everyone wants of each. They have run out of draft boosters before, and they're stuck with a bunch of extra boosters from sets that didn't sell so well. This is partially just a reality of running a store, but only having 2 types of boosters with vastly different audiences is better.

The bad:

• Sometimes there just isn't a pick 1 in your colors in packs 2 and 3 (on Arena). This is especially obvious in MH3 with the colorless theme, but it's also possible in normal sets. I don't know if this is different in arena vs. in paper.

• Everything costs more. I'm in Canada, so draft prices were going up well before the switch, but this made it even more expensive.

• Sealed is swingier. With a chance at opening up to 4 rares in a pack, those that do will have more bombs and more powerful cards in general. OTJ was very bomb heavy, so sealed was even more lopsided. This also affects drafts somewhat, but I think that can be fixed with design balancing once they get used to the changes. I don't think sealed can be fixed with card design.

Ultimately, I think this is worse for players and better for businesses and way better for WotC. They can fix most of the problems, but price isn't something they're interested in fixing (and, to be fair, the price of a booster has stayed well below inflation). Unfortunately, this means that some people just can't draft anymore or as often.

My initial reaction to Play Boosters was "okay, whatever" and I guess I still feel that way. OTJ was a fun draft format (even though I didn't care much for the Wild West setting). Was it better or worse than sets designed with the old rarity distribution? Hard to say.

My buying habits are that I'm F2P on Arena and I buy one box of each Standard set from my LGS, which sits in my basement until hopefully I'll draft it with friends some day. Prices on Arena didn't change. I noticed that the price of the booster box went up, but not by enough to put me off buying.

So overall, seems like I'm fine with it.