I've been lurking for a while, but I finally have a topic to talk about.
Recently, Mtg has been burning down for the past couple of days due to the new Secret Lair. Usually it was just reprints with a new wacky twist, but is now actually new cards that are NOT from Mtg, but from The Walking Dead. Everyone's pissed, from it being new cards in a limited product to the addition of non-Mtg properties to Magic. This isn't the first time there were non-Mtg cards made, but those were silver-border(non legal cards made for fun times).
That sucked, but what really made me post was reading a post about how some PlayEDH group banned the Negan card not for its stupid concept, but because it depicted a rapist in the artwork. A fictional rapist in the artwork. They were near on the mark and they missed it by a mile. Considering this is Mtg, there are plenty of characters that have done way worse things than rape that are depicted on cards. This reminds of when WOTC did the "racist" card bans in June.
Here's the post I saw: https://archive.vn/LVTYV
What I'm trying to say is that everything is boring and broken now. I've played this game for 7 years now, and the first 6 were pretty alright. Now it feels like the game sucks, the story sucks, and the players sucks. Maybe I spent too much time on the subreddit, maybe I though that I could weather WOTC being woke, maybe I got too attached to a bad portion of the game. All this seems like something fun just got ruined, even if the ruin started years ago.
What I came here for is to look for an avenue to talk to other people about something I cherish, or cherished, very deep in my heart. What are other Mtg players' thoughts about all this? If there are no players here, then what are the general observances of the people here?
I'd wager it's just about money.
There seems to be the "whales" (essentially anybody who buys whatever the company throws out) who eats this stuff up, then there is the social justice minded or manchild people who, while possibly just a minority, are very vocal and thus get listened to. The whales buy, the normal people throw out questions of why this is needed, the company soothes them, or at least the vocal minority, with specific products to their tastes, and then everythings okay. At least that's how I see it.
That, and the fact that WOTC thinks that the Commander/EDH format is the new hot thing, so there has been a push towards cards that can go well in EDH. In this case for Secret Lair, people will do anything to pimp out their decks. This can also apply to any format that's not Standard, like Modern or Legacy, maybe even Pauper. The limit now seems to be new cards, not reprints, featured in this product.