With MTG Arena getting its new format this week, there’s a LOT of discussion around the new format. One of the big complaints that people are having around the new cards is that it’s just another cash grab. This complaint was made a bit early because we didn’t have a full scope of the new cards that are coming. But with the new cards getting previewed, these complaints have some justification.
Too Many Rares
Now don’t get me wrong, the cards that are being previewed so far are very cool. There’s a lot of cards that look like they could be pretty competitive in the right decks. Here’s the big problem. The new cards are nearly entirely made up of rares and mythics. Now we don’t have ALL the cards previewed yet, but we have most of them, only missing 14 cards. Here’s the current distribution of cards that we have so far.
- 0 Commons
- 8 Uncommons
- 33 Rares
- 8 Mythics
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We’re seeing on average, 2 Mythics, and 2 Uncommons per color, and the rest rares. Why is this a problem? The wild card system. It’s been a pretty big concern within the community that the Wild Card system is very anti-consumer, and not conducive to a healthy ecosystem for free to play or low budget players. This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if there was an alternate way to acquire cards that wasn’t opening packs.
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There’s No Reason For It
Now let’s take a second to think, why would this be the case? These cards are digital only cards, and have zero real world value. They are most likely only going to see “competitive” tournament play in Historic, as we don’t know whether or not Alchemy will be supported for organized or higher level play. So the value is truly artificial, outside of however much each wild card translates to in dollars.
With this in mind, I cannot think of a single reason as to why the rarity distribution is the way that it is. If these are supposed to be in normal packs, are we getting multiple rares per pack? That would be the only way that I can see this being even remotely ok. If the amount of packs needed to obtain all the cards are relatively low, then this is ok, but if it’s 1 rare per pack, then this is definitely an egregious move. Rare wild cards are already at a premium, considering that lands are rares and are almost mandatory crafts each set.
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What do you think is the reason for this distribution? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, could there be a real reason for the influx of rares and mythics? Let us know what you think in the comments!
