What's everyone up to?

[Morganator 2.0]

The forums have gone quiet as of late. I know that the wallet fatigue and burnout have finally gotten to me, so I'm playing (and buying cards) a lot less. But I want to know what everyone else has been up to. I miss our little talks on the forum.

What magic games have you played recently? How are things going in your playgroup? Are there other card games or media you've taken an interest in (if we mostly talk about this part, I'll move this to off-topic)? Has the burnout and overload of products gotten to you?

Let's talk.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I am definitely experiencing product fatigue.  Have been for a couple years now.  It's a lot more work to keep up with product releases and cards that I need.


Sealed product prices continue to increase, thanks to the removal of MSRP.  With Brothers War, I plan to buy a lot less sealed product.  This past year I have also noticed a decline in singles prices.   I will simultaneously begin buying more singles with Brothers War.


My LGS still holds weekly Commander Night on Mondays.  I attend frequently.  There's a new (smaller) store that holds Commander Night on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I attend that one occasionally.


My LGS is currently remodeling.  They will be installing kiosks where you can browse their entire singles library digitally.  No more price checking at the checkout counter with staff.  I'm excited to see how that goes.


Edit:  P.S.  I do NOT like the sticker mechanic.  But I am enjoying asking the folks at my LGS if they have "Sassy Gremlin Blood"

[CleanBelwas]

Yea man, the fatigue is real.

My playgroup have all been friends for about 20 years, so we're still hanging out just as often, but we find ourselves less inclined to play Magic as much. We've been branching out into all sorts of other stuff from other games to other interests entirely.

We'll still sling some spells from time to time, but nothing like the twice weekly we used to.

I've been working on organising and documenting my collection too. Seriously considering selling all my cards worth more than a few quid and proxying them for games night. Seems pointless sitting on several thousand pounds worth of cards when I'm only playing kitchen table with my mates who wouldn't care remotely about me proxying whatever the hell I want. No real interest in breaking out into other sanctioned formats either so just seems a little pointless. Haven't fully decided yet. I figure if it still feels like a good idea by the time I've sorted everything out, then it might have legs. There is a part of me that knows that the prices of these things are generally increasing though, and the collector in me does like owning certain cards, so I may yet bide my time a little more.

My newfound love of Baseball is still going strong and I've been enjoying the off season (where my beloved Mariners even managed to not only attend, but put up a decent fight). Time zones are a bitch though and I've found myself awake half the night watching the games (the big 18 inning match last week ended around 4am local time, which was grim the next day).


ApothecaryGeist, with every new set and supplemental product, I feel more and more for your complete collection endeavour. How are you finding it? Is it still something you're excited for and passionate about? Or are you feeling it is more of a chore these days?

I've noticed the same about new singles prices. It seems like there is so much stock out there, especially with all the alternate versions and arts, that even relatively chase cards stay fairly low in price (for some less fancy versions at least, and obviously there are exceptions [Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Ledger Shredder etc.]). Interesting that you feel that the move to buy singles rather than sealed product is more cost effective these days.

[ApothecaryGeist]

ApothecaryGeist, with every new set and supplemental product, I feel more and more for your complete collection endeavour. How are you finding it? Is it still something you're excited for and passionate about? Or are you feeling it is more of a chore these days?

It is still a fun hobby.  I enjoy the escapism.  I have a stack of cards from the new set, checking off my checklist. 


It used to be that once I obtained the latest expansion set,  I would have a month or so to build decks with the cards and get to know the mechanics.


What I find now is that there is less time between releases.  I don't have as much time to build decks.  I used to build at least one new deck with each set.  And then update most of my existing decks.  Now I'm only building two or three new decks per year.  Never more than one with any given set release.  And I'm not updating decks anymore.  I play one as-originally-built until I tire of it, then disassemble for parts.


I actually kinda like the not updating decks.  I really get to know a decks strengths and weaknesses when it hasn't changed in over a year.


I don't like that I don't have time to really absorb one set before the next one comes out ... set on an entirely new plane ... with entirely new mechanics.  I still have to ask "How is blitz different from dash?"  And I never fully got the semantics of mutate ... Is the top the one with all the abilities?  Bottom?  I miss spending a whole year on one plane.


I do still have one of everything.  Uncertain how much longer that will maintain.  Going to go through at least Brothers War and Phyrexia United buying mostly singles and see how that goes.  I would periodically over the years assess my desire to continue collecting entire sets.  At one point I recall thinking that I might stop if they ever did to Magic like they do with Monopoly - having different versions of the same game with just different IPs as the skin.  We seem to be getting there.

[anjinsan]

There are definitely too many cards... but for me, honestly, I'm mostly just wondering if I even like Magic that much. 

I sometimes make the mistake of playing Standard on Arena and... it sucks? It sucks even worse now that they banned Meathook Massacre, which seems incredible.

It's very possible to derive some enjoyment from EDH but the format itself is way too fast and silly for me. Like many people I much prefer that ill-defined, not-quite-EDH that most people call EDH (i.e. not cEDH).

[mynameiscalled]

There are too many card's to keep up with, but it doesn't really bother me. If I'd want to keep up with everything, I'd probably go crazy too, but as it is - we are only playing casually each sunday, with occasional car trips to the next town over, where there are actual events happening (probably going once or twice per month).

I did decide to try and get into an actual cEDH a bit. I do have this Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite deck that can kinda compete with high power level, but this time I'm making an actual cEDH combo deck, just so I can have it ready, when the table calls for such deck. Where I live - everybody has like 10+ decks and at least 1 insane deck to whip out if the table calls for it, so I finally decided to make my own. The Git. The Frog. PepeLaugh.

[Landale]

Seeing that poison is going to be a big thing in the Phyrexia set has me suffering flashbacks to when infect came along and killed the group I had at the time because nobody wanted to deal with that trash, and by the time it was moved past nobody wanted to get back into things.
So I'm currently in "Wake me up when we're back to Eldraine" mode.

[Slyvester12]

Finishing up my grad degree, so not tons of time to go play with people. Also, I have practically no interest in anything but EDH at the moment and even that's on life support with how they're still pumping out new cards. It also feels like the quality of cards has just decreased. It used to be that I really appreciated the characterizations for cards, even for characters I didn't really like. I don't like slivers, and I could not care less about the Ravnica guilds (I like Ravnica mechanically, but the guilds always seemed a bit one-dimensional to me). But I always thought they had strong flavor and interesting designs.

That's changed. Even sets that have strong themes just blur together now. Everything's starting to feel generic to me, but I can't decide if that's due to too many products getting released, me turning into a crotchety old man complaining about the good old days, or some combination of both. I'll probably get back into magic once I graduate and have a steadier schedule with more free time, but right now it's just way too much of a time commitment.

On the other hand, I've been playing more CRPGs and tabletop recently. I've discovered that I love both the Pathfinder 2e AND Pathfinder 1e rules. Currently playing through the slightly janky Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous CRPG and writing a lot of notes for the next campaign I plan to run.

[The Golgari Guy]

Hi everyone! Lately, I haven't had much time to play. I moved and started a new job, and things have been pretty busy. I've been keeping up with MTG though (although as mentioned by others it gets harder and harder with the volume of releases ever increasing), and I've actually started playing a bit more 60 card formats in addition to EDH. I just resumed recently playing EDH with my friends on Spelltable, but I still have to find a new in-person playgroup in the place where I live now.

[Morganator 2.0]

To keep things fresh my friends and I are doing a rotisserie draft. Here's how that works.

• We're using all cards from the modern card pool (including the banned cards) minus the cards that are banned in commander.
• Each player takes a turn by naming a card. That card will become a part of that players draft pool.
• You are not allowed to name a card another player has named.
• You don't need to draft basic lands. You do need to draft basic snow lands.
• Of the 100 picks you make, one of them has to be your commander.

Even the draft itself is fun. My first pick was going to be Birds of Paradise , because I love my ramp. Someone else grabbed it for their first pick. So I chose Arcane Signet. They sent me a message. "That was going to be my second pick". For the first few picks we were worried that we were both playing the same deck. We almost did. They wanted to play Ziatora, the Incinerator and I was going for Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. They decided to switch. So now I'm adding Ziatora to my pool.

There's just a few picks left, and then we're gonna play.


I've unfortunately had less time to play and less fun games. When I'm with my friends I've known for years we all have a blast. But as of late I have not been liking games with randos. Poor pre-game discussions, games with salt miners, people not reading their cards, those same people repeatedly not being able to do basic addition. It's a bunch of small things, but they've been adding up. Fortunately there's only been a few major problems.

One saving grace to the constant push if product is that I'm seeing a bunch of cards for the first time. A few years back I could recognize most cards. Now there's so much new stuff that I occasionally see a card that surprises me. Games are also a discovery process.

[BoBWiz]

Hi,

from time to time my interests change or the focus changed - so to say. Got some more hobbies than MTG.

Since last year I'm hard in LARP again. This takes some time.

Also I dug out my classic battletech boardgame. It has become a classic car this year.  So I'm painting some mechs and playing some battles.
(In germany a car can be an oldtimer after 30 years.)

I also got some Pen and Paper groups.

And last but not least, my wife and child need some attention as well.

But today it will be FNM again!

I admit that I'm not the greatest discusser here, so maybe no one cares.

best