“Things alter for the worst spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.”
Francis Bacon
Magic is an ever-changing game. Every three months, we get a new set of mostly new cards with which to tinker and play. Each set is meticulously examined by hundreds of thousands of players for potential in every format imaginable, be it Standard, Draft, Vintage, or EDH. Each format is similarly analyzed to try to find new trends, powerful new (or renewed) archetypes and other synergies. Our rules change, be they the tiny tweaks of a minor revision, the massive overhaul of 6th edition, or the middle ground of M10 rules changes.
Today, though, I want to talk about the formats we play, and their odd necessity.
There was much uproar across the internet about the recent change to Extended, with arguments on both sides as to why it was a Wonderful/ Terrible Idea (circle one).
But why do we have different formats? What is their purpose?
Let’s travel back to the beginnings of Magic, and the first split between Type I and Type II. The reason for splitting into multiple formats was based on demand from new players. In the case of Magic, there were a vast amount of new players who wanted to be able to play Magic competitively, but were unable to acquire certain necessary parts (Power 9, Duals, etc.)
Wizards of the Coast then looked at whether or not it was better to create two formats, or stick with just one. If you stick with one, you are setting a glass ceiling on your customer base, and even that number will stagnate as players move away from the game. However, by splitting into two or more formats, you will undoubtedly lose a portion of your existing customer base. Your game must be strong enough to survive the split, and subsequent loss of customers, while waiting for the new players to begin.
Now, many of you may think it’s obvious that, if you’re the company, you split, because that gives you the largest return over the long run. However, very few games actually survive the transition. As a few anecdotal examples:
Dungeons and Dragons Minis (DDM) was first released in the fall of 2003. It quickly acquired a solid customer base, with additional sales from D&D players looking to utilize the minis in their home RPG games. The game’s Organized Play support quickly grew, including National Championship Qualifiers with Blue Envelopes prizes (flight to the event, similar to PTQs) and multi-slot qualifications as well as cash prize National Championship, both Constructed and Limited. In early 2008, they overhauled the game, separating into Standard and Vintage formats, as well as refining the rules to be more in line with 4th Edition D&D. They believed that by doing so, they would gain far more customers who wanted to play, but were intimidated by the expense and scarcity of older pieces. The Skirmish game died shortly thereafter, when in October of 2008, after a poor summer qualifier season, they announced the move to Blister packs to better cater to RPG customers. They also announced the discontinuation of the skirmish game, stating they would no longer include skirmish game statistics in the packaging. While grassroots, community driven efforts exist to keep the skirmish game viable, they are significantly smaller than before.
Similarly, Mageknight, the first of the Clix based games, saw a similar end when Mageknight 2.0 was released. By trying to expand their customer base, WizKids instead spurned enough of their player base that the game was discontinued less than two years later.
HeroClix, another Clix based game, also began utilizing set rotation and multiple formats, and similarly saw a drastic decline in competitive play of that game as well.
As you can see, it is a rare game that can survive set rotation and format creation. So, how does Magic persist where others have failed? One was the enormous demand and cheap entry barrier. A booster of minis ranges from $8-$22, depending on game, and contained anywhere from 4-9 minis. By contrast, Magic costs $3.99, (often less) for a booster, and gives you 15 cards. Minis sets contained somewhere near 60 minis, making a 2 year block (at 3 sets a year) contain only 360 unique figures to use, making a Standard format very small. Magic has had many single sets larger than that. Further, the growth of Magic was unprecedented. No one could have possibly predicted the fervor of the masses for this new game, this new genre of game even. Those factors combined to give Magic the strength to overcome its original sin, massively powerful cards in the original set.
Why is this an original sin? If new cards aren’t at least as good as the previous ones, no one will buy them if they can play the old ones. If you could play Ancestral Recall, you wouldn’t play Thirst for Knowledge, or Brainstorm, or any of the many card draw spells instead. You may use them in addition to Ancestral, but only as additional attempts to get more draw.
This original sin is what caused the need for format creation. Imagine that Alpha through Unlimited never existed, and Revised had no Duals. Magic could likely still be a single Constructed format game, as many cards could then be reprinted. But the extreme power of those early cards, the cards that define Vintage and Legacy, they mandated a format split eventually.
Legacy came about largely as an unpowered Vintage, so players could play their older cards without needing the prohibitively expensive ones. But Extended, Extended came about to cater to the new players.
Let’s look at examples, and since I’m the writer, I’ll use myself. I started back into Magic, after two previous iterations, in January of 2006. Ravnica was the newest set on the shelves. I bought 9th Edition and Ravnica, and backfilled a few Kamigawa cards (largely Umezawa’s Jitte) to play Standard. I kept up with each new set coming out, and loved Coldsnap, as I had played during Ice Age. But when Lorwyn came out, I had nothing to do with my Ravnica Block cards. Standard was Time Spiral (with Coldsnap) and Lorwyn. Looking around, I found I could play Extended and still use my Ravnica cards. Except I couldn’t. I had no Mirrodin, no Onslaught, none of it. I couldn’t come even close to being competitive unless I backfilled in 4 years of Magic sets to make a competitive set of decks.
Legacy and Vintage were pipe dreams at the time (I had sold my entire collection of cards from previous stints playing) so even though I had cards, and a format in which they were supposedly viable, Extended wasn’t very realistic. I played a Zoo list out of necessity, scrounging a few fetch lands to make it work. It would have been 2012 or 2013 before I had actually stayed in Magic long enough to play Extended naturally.
Many new players have expressed similar sentiments about Extended. It’s basically Standard or Bust for them as well. Wizards even told us that, outside of PTQ season or other premier level events, Extended didn’t really exist. While Legacy and Vintage exist out of necessity for the older cards, and Standard out of necessity for new players, Extended didn’t have a natural audience. It wasn’t a favorite of the old school players, who naturally acclimated towards Vintage/Legacy. Newer players rarely dropped that kind of money on an initial investment.
The new Extended is a natural evolution for players once they have cards that they can’t use in Standard. There is a minimal mass of cards they must collect for Extended.
That being said, Magic will continue to have interesting situations as it grows older. When Magic is 25 (8 years away) will the options still be: Standard (2 years), Extended (4 years), Legacy & Vintage (25 years)? No other game has had to make the decision of formats for a 17 year old game. How about when Magic is 50? Eventually, Wizards of the Coast is just going to have to recognize that a large swath of cards will never be played again. You can’t have 15 formats, no matter how old the game is.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to something very cool. I want to announce a nice Launch Party related charity donation Wizards of the Coast is making.
M11 launch Parties are coming up this weekend, and Wizards of the coast is getting all charitable if attendance is high.
If 40,000 people attend M11 Launch Parties around the Globe, Wizards will donate $11,000 to the Child’s Play Charity, run by the fine folks over at Penny Arcade. For each additional 1,000 players that attend, Wizards of the Coast is donating an additional $1,100, up to a maximum of $22,000. So, if 50,000 nerds around the world attend M11 launch Parties, Child’s Play will get $22,000 from Wizards of the Coast. I gotta be honest, this makes me even more excited to go to the Launch Parties now. What a great opportunity to both draft the new set and know that you are helping out children’s hospitals.
I hope that each of you finds a way to make it to a Launch Party near you (hopefully 2 or 3, if you have the option throughout the weekend). The events will be running from July 16 through July 19, and you can find an event near you by visiting this page or just stopping by your local store and asking. I know I’ll be pushing hard to get our locals out for this fantastic event, and do our part to hit that goal. We may only be however many people, but each one of us counts.
Here’s hoping to see you at a Launch Party!
Until next time, this is Jeff Phillips, reminding you: Don’t Make the Loser Choice.
Teflon_Jeff AT Hotmail DOT com
Teflon_Jeff on Twitter.