11mo ago

For the limited players out there - how'd your opinion on Play Boosters settle out?

I've been taking a break from Magic since the beginning of Caves of Ixalan for a number of reasons, but am wanting to check out Bloomburrow. Since part of the reason I stepped away was the Play Booster changeup for drafting, I was wondering how people are feeling about it. I'd be particularly interested in reading your thoughts on it if you were a hater that has ultimately come around to the change.

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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.
- Yeah, irl drafting is questionable now for me too. Looking around, the options seem to have increased by at least 25-50% since the last time I remember going to an FNM. Probably not going to be looking to shell out for that any time soon, which is a shame as I really miss in-person drafting.
  How about Arena? Have you played with the new packs digitally at all?
  
  Arena is even worse value in my opinion. At least with in-person drafts you get some money back in the cards you get (sell anything of value). I can't justify paying the high cost they charge for *digital *drafts.
  It's a real shame too, I love drafting, but there's no way I'm going to pay AU$20 for a single digital draft. I can't believe anyone else does tbh.
  
  @ech @Fluid some of the 50% is that most places had kept prices flat for too long, the jump in pack prices from draft to play boosters came at the same time they needed to reset prices anyway.
  That then gets conflated with drafts (and especially sealed) now be in ng a less good experience.
  So the numbers are much worse, it still might be worth it, but I can't see anyone doing the 4 drafts a week I did in my 20's and I'm sad for today's kids in that situation.

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.
- That's unfortunate to hear, though it tracks with my expectations. How was MKM in regards to swinginess?
  
  MKM was less bomb-heavy than OTJ, so at least drafts seemed better. I missed the prerelease, so I don't know how swingy it was in limited. I suspect quite a lot anyway - prereleases have always been swingy, and as long as rares are more powerful than commons, more rares in a pack will always make it swingier.
- @prodigalsorcerer @ech Except WotC keep replacing the empty booster slot with more new types of booster, so the less SKUs aspect is failing.
  
  If you're talking about the "Value" booster, your LGS probably won't (and shouldn't) stock those. That's for grandmas to buy at dollar stores and Walmart checkout aisles. It's an absolutely scummy product, but it shouldn't cause SKU issues at your LGS.

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.

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