2017 Review!

Today on the worlds most excellent Magic the Gathering Blog in the Multiverse!

What up sexy MF'ers!

So yeah, New Years and all, so I thought I would try and keep this year in review thing going.

http://dogonsiereht-mtg.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-review.html

Looking back at what I wrote I was close on some things, but wrong on a lot of what was supposed to come this year.

(TLDR: What happened in 2017, what I accomplished, and what is going to happen in 2018)

"2017 - 4 Exp, 2 DD, 1 FTV, 5 CMD, 1 MM, 2 Gift, 1 SDCC, 1 Ant, 4 Masterpiece, 1 Archenemy"

Set Releases

What we did see were the 4 Expansion sets of Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, and Ixalan like advertised.  The funny thing is that WoTC saw their mistake in Masterpiece sets and stopped releasing them with Ixalan.  And as you know, I love that idea.  The thought of having to spend $4000 more per block was just a headache and the quality of the cards just went down hill.  The final Masterpiece set is sitting around $2,251 as of the end of the year, and yes I spent well above that price to finish out my set.

Master Releases
Modern Masters 2017 was a hit, and I really enjoyed that set.  I picked up more than my normal share and also grabbed some playsets of cards from the set.  Shitty thing, they decided to release Iconic Masters which was not Iconic at all.  Some folks said they should call it Commander Masters and I really like that name considering the cards in the set. 

I still don't understand the reasoning of putting out 2 Master sets in a year, and I think with the lack of sales in Iconic Master it proves the lack of demand in the market.  Lets just hope that this is true and they will go back to a single Masters set in a year at most.

**Tin Foil Hat**
I almost wish there was some type of internal fight at WotC and Hasbro.  There were reports that Iconic Masters was released at Hascon (months before the public release) because someone was threatening to spoil all the cards, and it was the only way to get in front of it.  But my hope is that folks at WotC are leaking these things in order to get control of the release of products from Hasbro.  Almost like it a an internal fight to slow things down because Hasbro sees Magic the Gathering as a cash cow, but WotC can see the distain in the player base and they are intentionally leaking things to make sure products don't sell as well.  That would bring the new release cycle to the attention of Hasbro and they decide to slow things down.

Commander

We also saw 1 Anthology set for Commander, but we did not get 5 Commander decks.  Instead we only saw 4, and WoTC said that will be the norm moving forward, but who the hell knows what the norm is anymore considering they change the release of products way too much.  The hope is that with the next 4 years there will be more Anthology sets containing 4 decks in each and the price point for those sets will be around $169 each.

Gift Box change up

There were no old Gift boxes, but instead they changed that as well to some Pokeman type product that pretty much sucked.  Don't get me wrong, I picked up a couple.  One to open and one to keep sealed, but who cares when the land promo's you could get from the Gift box was flush in the MTG system and are all over the place.  They decided to put the lands in the Buy-a-Box promo for Black Friday, so yeah that means the Gift boxes were even more of a waste of money.

Promo Packs

Speaking of promo packs, in 2016 they did these packs to sell Kaladesh and then at the end of the year used the same type of packs for prize support for some Saturday tournament held at your LGS.  Then when they released Ixalan they switched out the Buy-a-Box promo with these Buy-a-Box promo packs with the Buy-a-Box promo in it along with other rares and foils.  And then they decided to jump in with two feet and release more of these packs along with Black Friday so if you bought a box of Standard.  Only thing to really pick up on this subject is that they are giving the loyal LGS's these packs to sell more stuff.

I did end up picking up some sealed booster boxes on Black Friday for these packs, but I also went and picked up a ton of packs on their own through eBay.  If this was truly a special release then I see that these packs / cards will increase in price.  If we see another release of the promo cards, then I just lost that bet.

Supplemental sets 

We did get 2 Duel Decks, From the Vault: Transform, the Archenemy: Nicol Bolas, and a SDCC promo set.  But here is where they added some more product with the Hascon Promo set, Explores of Ixalan, and Unstable.

Hascon promo is a waste of money, but it does seem like the rarity of these sets is not going to be as sparse as it was with the first SDCC sets.  Almost like they are just opening up the hose and printing enough to meet demand.  Right now you can get the SDCC set for $165, and Hascon promo set for $29 on the Hasbro site.  Yup, right in the goat ass for me on that considering I spent $199 on the SDCC set and $92 on the Hascon promo set.  Lesson learned and just going to wait for Hasbro site to pick up these sets.

Explores of Ixalan is not a new type of product, but it is a new product.  It is a non-Standard approved set, but it is a game in a box.  It comes with 4 decks and is supposed to be contained as a game of itself.  Just like Archenemy or Planechase.  It is supposed to be just something you would buy, sit down with friends, and play.  For one, I hope they do more of these sets and I really like this idea.  Just seems fun and simple for the casual player.

Unstable was the third release of an Un-set.  It did go off really well, and people really enjoyed it.  Like Conspiracy it is just a draft-able set that you can play on it's own, which was different than the other Un-sets.  Honestly I think the only reason people liked it as much as they do was for the Lands and Tokens.  It was like they could play this one off game of Magic, and it was fun, but they got these really cool full art lands and tokens.  WotC will most likely mess this up and start putting lands like this in every set, and it will no longer be special.  Everyone wants something special.

So yeah, in 2017 we ended up getting
Aether Revolt
Amonkhet
Hour of Devastation
Ixalan
Modern Masters
Iconic Masters
Commander 2017
Commander Anthology
Mind vs Might
Merfolk vs Goblins
From the Vault: Transform
Archenemy: Nicol Bolas
Explores of Ixalan
SDCC 2017
Hascon 2017
Unstable
Gift Box

Let's just say that it was another expensive year, but I did over buy and speculate on a couple things.  I picked up a ton of Ixalan because I have learned that any set with special lands are always a good bet, and seeing that they added some good Uncommon lands, it was a no brainer.  I also went way back and picked up more boxes of Kaladesh and Aether Revolt.  I really like the Energy resource and put it on par with Phyrexian Mana.  I should have grabbed more New Phyrexia when I could have, so I did not want to make that same mistake with the Kaladesh block.

I also grabbed more Modern Masters 2017 but that was mainly to open.  Again, it is all about the fetch lands.  I did not really go for the Iconic Masters in sealed product but did pick up a lot of playsets, and moving forward that is going to be the goal.  6 Booster boxes with opening 4 of them and keeping 2.  I do think that there will be some Master sets that I will pick up more than 6 boxes, but it will be rare.  Unlike the first release, there seems to be a much larger supply and I have a longer runway to pick up that product.

One item that I did more speculation then I normally would, From the Vault.  One year after the release of FTV: Lore and it is already around $55 sold on eBay.  Lore was not that good of a set, and did not really have a ton of big hitters.  List prices for the cards alone sits around $82 right now, while the Transform prices are closer to $102.  So seeing that $35 go up to $70 is not too far of a stretch.

This was also the year when I picked up more Commander product than the 2 sets I normally get.  I went with 4 sealed sets just incase I wanted a play set of all the cards.  There were a couple of cards that I really liked from the set, so that was the main reason, and who can go wrong with tribal commander decks!  If you recall, the main reason I bought so much of 2016 were for the Partner Commanders.

I also picked up a large amount of older product to fill out my sealed collection.
Magic 2011 - Fat Pack
Magic 2012 - Fat Pack
Urza's Saga - Booster Box
Worldwake - Booster Box
Rise of Eldrazi - Booster Box
Conflux - Booster Box
Eventide - Booster Box
Shadowmoor - Booster Box
FTV: Angels
FTV: Exiled
FTV: Realms
FTV: Twenty

Most of these were picked up at the Grand Prix: Minneapolis and were completed with trades.  Trying to use some of those older boxes I have sitting around to get things I am missing.  I can honestly say that 2018 will be more of this, and I will be spending more of my reserves on older sealed product.

Accomplishments
- Ball of poop
Well you all know what I am going to start out with.  Yup that is right, I am not shooting blanks!  With the addition of my son, it brings a nice warm thought of going to GP's with him.  Teaching him Standard / Commander and all the other variants of this game we love.  I just hope he likes Magic.

- CardSphere
I found CardSphere which is just amazing.  There was no way I was going to use PucaTrade because of those damn points, but considering that CS runs on the US dollar and I can cash out anytime I want for the 10% fee, I just see a long drawn out relationship with this site.  It was just so hard to get any trades done through Deckbox, and I still love the site, but if you don't have a lot on your wish list trades are few and far between.  With CS I can just send and send and send while building up that balance.  I just hope they get more sealed product on there so I can maybe see about sending some of my extra on there.  The price cuts I see from other stores is just too great.  I can take a 10% hit rather than a 50% hit.

It is also just nice to put up speculations on the site.  When people send me cards from the site it feels like I am getting cards for free.  I am basically trading my trash for cards I am looking for.  But yeah, the best thing is I can just keep sending out everything I can and liquidate my extra inventory to either get cards I need or enough to pull out cash to buy sealed product.

Honestly, this site only encourages me to buy collections and opened new sealed product.  The amount of trash cards I have been able to get rid of on the site is just wonderful.  The fear of overwhelming myself with bulk is not as much as it was with Deckbox.  Here I know I can get rid of cards to folks that are looking for them.  With Deckbox I was literally trying to push trades on folks and getting no where.  With CS, I just send out cards and I know people want them.

- Collection
That is right, we finished Phase 1 of the collection.  We were able to get a playset of every card in every set from The Dark to Eldritch Moon, and every Core set from Revised to Magic Origins.  We were also able to complete a single set from Arabian Nights to Legends.

We also finished Phase 2 with the completion of any supplemental set.  We got playsets for Chronicles, Portal, Portal Second Age, and Unglued.  Then we got full sets for Unhinged, the Starter sets, and ever Masters set.  We also were able to pick up full sets of every Masterpiece set too!

We are now deep into Phase 3 and Phase 4.  Phase 3 consisting of all the sealed product and Phase 4 being the ABU sets, and I am highly considering adding Portal Three Kingdoms to that list.  With the sealed product I am looking for close to $14,000 in sealed booster boxes.  We are only looking for Core and Expansion sets for Phase 3 and I don't count any of the ABU or AAL sets.  I might try for that Dark booster box, but highly unlikely considering the prices.

With everything, I will most likely tackle the high priced boxes first, and then go down from there.  Considering the lack of demand for the Legacy sets after the Urza's block I will try and get those last.  I am pretty lucky though, with the price drop in Tarmogoyf, Future Sight is a lot less expensive now.

What is going to happen in 2018?!

2018 - 3 Expansion, Core 2019, 1 Masters 25, 1 other Masters set, 1 Conspiracy, 1 Duel Deck, 8 Challenger Decks, 4 Commander Decks, 1 Commander Anthology, 1 Gift Box, 1 FTV, 2 Explores of Ixalan type sets.

- Standard
So with all the mistakes in the last 3 years we are going back to the way it was.  Going back to Core sets, and leaving the Masterpiece sets in the dust.  Yes, the return of the Core set is a big one.  This will bring back Standard playable reprints and hopefully bring some stability to that deck type. 

- Arena
With the release of Magic the Gathering: Arena I can also see that inserts into packs with Dominaria that will get you digital packs in the Arena game will happen.  These inserts will get you the ability to put in codes into Arena to get digital packs.  But with this, I also see an increase in MSRP of the packs.  Let's wait and see.  It could be per pack, or it could be Buy-a-Box packs.  I hope it is packs, that way it will increase the demand to crack packs, but it will also pull folks into playing Arena.

- Masterpieces
Removing the Masterpiece's is an added bonus, it was a great experiment and I am happy they are just correcting that mistake.  What I can see that happened, it did lower the cost of Standard with the increase of packs being opened, but that started to cause deflation within the MTG economy.  Masterpieces were the high value targets, Standard staples were hit heavy in value, and the economy went down like they wanted. 

The issue was, and the beauty of Magic the Gathering shown through, the demand for those Masterpiece cards was unsustainable.  WotC could not create enough reprint value within the Masterpiece sets to make it something they could do every set.  It might have sold more packs in the short run, but it damaged the game in the long run.  They could not find enough high valued reprints to make as Masterpieces, and those reprints damaged the value of the newer Standard cards where it would only be negative returns in the long run.

Lets face it, everyone wants to be able to open packs knowing they have a chance at a high end item, but the problem was WotC was artificially creating that value before the packs were opened.  Once those cards were added to the economy the value of the cards went down, which brought the entire Standard environment down.  You could no longer pull a card that would increase in value, and most cards pulled were deprecating the more the packs were opened.

- Masters
I know Masters 25 is going to be coming out, and I do plan on picking my normal 6 boxes, and then playsets of what I want, but my hope is that they only do the single Masters set.  I have the feeling that they will release another Masters set, and it will do poorly, but I really hope they don't.  I just don't think WotC has learned their lesson yet.  I also think they will be moving Masterpiece cards into the Masters sets, but that won't happen until 2019.

- Conspiracy
I have said it before, and I will say it again; I am going to puke if they make another Conspiracy set, and I have the feeling I am going to be puking this fall.  What I wish WotC would do is figure out the release cycle.  I don't think there is a lack of demand for the draft multiplayer type set, but it needs to have a longer runway, longer than every other year.  I hope I am wrong with the new Conspiracy set, but lets wait and see.

- Duel Decks / Challenger
We are also seeing the last Duel Deck and I know that WotC said not it is not a replacement product for Duel Decks, but it is.  I can see them releasing these Challenger decks twice a year, and it will be replace the release dates as Duel Decks.  There is going to be more decks than Duel Decks, but that is just what WotC wants to do.  They are basically X4 their sales with putting out more decks. 

Honestly I do not see this product staying around.  They stopped releasing the pre-constructed decks per each Standard set a while back because they would print highly valued Standard cards and only specific sets would sell out.  I can see that these are Standard pre-con decks, and not Expansion pre-con decks, but I just don't see that making a difference.

If, and I say if with a large helping of caution, they release just a single release of these decks each year, and copy the Commander release cycle with the same type of value in the decks, I could see these as working.  This way WotC can also add Standard reprints a year, bring the cost of Standard down, but also keep the value of the newer sets at release time.  You could almost see a smaller Standard print cycle, less product being put into the environment, but also selling more product with these decks.  That way they could lower the cost of Standard, but also selling more product without deflating the Standard economy.

- Commander
Commander is set, and they will not mess with this product.  I could only see them trying to add some special promo type card, but I don't see them messing with the release dates or quantity.  With the releases of Commander Anthology, people are able to get the older cards they could not get before.  What I do hope WotC figures out, they can do limited print cycles of sets and then do more reprint sets of the same product later, with the Anthology product.  That way, the buyers of the first product will get their value they are trying to get, but newer players can get the reprints when these Anthology sets are released.

- Gift Boxes
I think WotC is going to do something different with the failure of 2017 Gift Boxes.  I really think they are going to go back to the older Gift Boxes, but they are going to be adding different items in the boxes.  Packs will be included, along with the return of those separators with the stickers, but I can really see them adding more promo packs.  I really think the demand for those inventory boxes will show WotC what a good thing they did have, and stop trying to copy Pokeman and keep going with Magic the Gathering product.

- New Products
I really think that there will be non-Standard playable games, like the Explorers of Ixalan product, will get released with each Standard block.  Almost like each Plane will get a product like this, to build on the other releases, creating and expanding the uses of MTG cards.  I could also see the addition of these cards within D&D somehow.  Like being able to create yourself as a Planeswalker, and using MTG cards to build your character.  Who wouldn't love to attach an equipment onto yourself as you dungeon crawl through an adventure.

- From the Vault
Oh yeah, calling it now.  From the Vault: Commander