An Open Letter to Wizards of the Coast.

 

 

"Her name is Serra Angel honey...."

 

 

 

It was Gen Con 2008, it was Friday afternoon, and I sat on the top hallway, admiring the above art piece and statue sitting in the hallway, with an image of the card in front. There, a star-y eyed little girl no older then 8 stared up at it, when I heard the mother say those words. I had built a deck for the Standard grand melee event, a red/white vigilance deck, designed for the long haul. I was entering to win, and naturally, the deck graced two Serra Angels, who I hoped would be able to help end possible ground stalls.  Due to a personal issue (a sick horse) I was too late to enter the melee, and had no intention of playing the deck elsewhere (I actually played it for the welcome event that year, challenge people who were brand new to Magic with it). I dug into my pocket, and gave that little girl two foil Serra Angels (remember, Tenth was brand new, and foil Serra's weren't exactly common), with that current art. The mother thanked me, and they walked together into the hotel.

It was a minor kind gesture at the time, but upon further thought, realized she would probably get into Magic, and play it for life, and I smiled. In my 20+ years of playing Magic, I've played against legends (I own a deck box signed by Johnny Magic himself), I've taught and mentored future tournament winners, rubbed elbows with designers, lived through some of the best formats I've ever had, as well as some of the worst tournament experiences ever. I invested in mono-black control during the reign of Caw-blade, seen Raffinity/faeries/even rebels. I was at one of the very first modern events, and played it loyally until 2014, when other commitments kept me from enjoying it (I did miss all of Eldrazi Winter).

I never toured the PT, never entered a GP proper. Either due to cost, or enthusiasm, I'm a local Magic junky. I'm the guy everyone knows the face of. I never wanted to be in the camera, but instead be the man next to it. I wanted to be the legend, the guy the community knew, for his merits, for his commitment to the community itself. I've always believed that Magic needs to survive on a local level, as well as a global one. Me, I'm one of the components that allow it to survive locally. I introduce people to stores (and their owners), I go from circle to circle connecting people, passing gossip, giving idea's. It's what I do, and it leaves a mark. I've lived the last seven years of my life in a small city in the Midwest, before that, I was from Upstate. Some friends occasionally tell me that tall tales of me irritating judges and winning with jank is told among judges and store owners alike, and while I can't verify these claims, I do have one story I can tell.

I was entering a modern event, originally with goblin beatdown, when after lending the deck to a friend, signed up last minute with a Tron brew designed around the proliferate mechanic. It was a pet project that I started before modern even existed, and is at the time of typing this, the longest deck together I currently own. Well a deck check error that required me to go to the back happened (I wrote x2 Everflowing Chalice twice), and while that was being sorted, I overheard 'X? He's here?'. There, a level one ran up, and enthusiastically shook my hand. "I've heard so many stories I can't believe about you, I didn't think you existed". In a gaze of awe and confusion I ensured him I existed and went on with my business. Later that night, someone sent me a screencap from the local judge FB page that said his highlight of the day was explaining to my opponent how Timestop worked, and why he wasn't getting his free turn, or his Emrakul back.

What I'm saying is, I've been in this game a long time, and while I certainly wasn't opening backs in the fall of '93, I've certainly spent the majority of my life playing Magic: the Gathering, in one form or another, and can claim, at one point, I've played every sanctioned format available. I've taught more people to play then I can count, and spent a small fortune on sealed product, as many before and after me have.

While tournament Magic and the scene around it has always been on some level seedy, it's always had a veneer of merit to it. Sure, sometimes people cheat, but the best, earned their position in that station. They've grinded harder, learned the ropes, learned the cards. I believed that, for many years. While fame wasn't what I was after, respect was, and if I played hard enough, I'd end up being just as good as the best. I studied the rules, and discovered corner cases, I learned about layers, the stack, corner cases and glitches involving the stack. I studied cards, memorizing thousands of relevant cards simply by the name/art. Even mundane details like Flavortext and Artists name. WotC, you slapped me in the face today.


Sometime last year, WotC decided to change the tournament racket, and make it less of a game about prestige, and more like a con. If I was more well versed in tournament Magic as a whole, I could probably write a long winded wordy article about that, but I know it went from events held in Hotels and con floors, to large stand alone events that could take up entire convention halls, to well, Magicfest (how's that lawsuit coming by the way?). You marketed for two decades how they wanted Magic to be a game about intellectual skill and merit, to be on the likes of Go and Chess, just for them to decide to change that.

Instead you sign shady contracts with a number of 'pro-players', and set up the MPL (Magic Pro League), which is honestly just a new version of the pro-players club. However, it is considerably more restrictive then it ever was before, and according to a one Gerry Thompson "sign or walk".

"Our contract “negotiations” involved WotC officials purposefully not answering our questions and telling us to either sign or walk. Overall, not the best way to start a new business relationship."--Gerry Thompson, Why I quit the Magic Pro League.

 

 

There was already a well known fact that you picked up invitations for the Mythic Championships not based on merit, but on popularity. The argument from some fans was 'it's not a real tournament, it's an advertisement, they naturally pick up popular online streamers to showcase the new platform'. Yet, you didn't pick up Pewdiepie, which throws that narrative into the toilet (you know, having the largest YouTube channel in history and all).

 

Now I won't go into conspiracy theories (did Autumn win the event because Duke threw the game? I don't care, I didn't watch it). I will go with the fact numerous people, many whom's skill in the game is questionable, was invited to this event, with the grand prize being a million dollaridoos. Fucking hell, you had this big fucking commercial over it, and everything, and changed your entire marketing strategy for it.

 

Now combined this with the fact you've kicked not one, but two players out of the MPL, one for nothing more than a chinese whisper, and the other, for obviously cheating, but unpersoning him as well, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised about that after what you did to Za....

 

Whoa, almost got my 10 DCI numbers deleted, didn't I? Don't want that to happen, now do I?

 

 

"To further this goal, the MPL is adding sixteen discretionary slots to each of the MTG Arena Mythic Championships for the 2019 season. These discretionary slots will be used to invite a broader representation of the Magic competitive community to high-level play. These sixteen slots are in addition to the existing MPL, prior performance, and direct qualification slots."--Elaine Chase, MPL adds Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen and Jessica Estephan

 

 

Wait a minute, WotC, are you saying you are willing to give out special treatment to someone based on factors beyond their control? Ten years ago, I was pretty sure this was called racism, however, in this brave new world, I'm sure it's just the cost of business isn't it? So much for those ethics you preach so much.

 

I'm not even sure why I'm typing this, I don't play digital MtG (and never will, outside Shandalar). I never was dumb enough to buy e-credits for MtG:O, and I don't have any interest in dabbling with Arena either (which all the local hang outs are starting to feel the burn over, even if they don't realize it).

 

Look, either the tournaments are an elaborate marketing scheme, to sell a product, in which case, that's what it exists for, or they are an intellectual game of bluff and skill, which that's what it is. It can't be both, because it will not succeed at either.

 

You can say what you want about Konami, but they have the integrity to laugh in the face of grinders and say 'good for work, here's shiny card' when they win with a 4 digit deck. They openly call the game nothing more than that, and treat it as such. They have the business smarts to unannounced the reprint of a 50 dollar card as a common in pre-constructed deck, and send that deck to every box store in the western hemisphere, leaving speculators and investors high and dry. Hell, for all their short comings, backwords ass game rules, and split second ruling changes, they have a decently functioning tournament structure, and while they might have the worst player base in the world, their is some broken sense of unity among the often maligned and ridiculed YGO players. It's sort of like being in the mafia, they will invite you to dinner, make sure you don't get shaked down, and grab your wallet the moment you let your guard down. I wish I could say the same for the Magic player base, which has become so fractured, I can't even walk into a new shop without carry a dozen different decks, of an equal amount of formats, because I'm not sure what's going to be thrown down infront of me, at any given moment.

 

Ok it's EDH, is it cEDH, RC, or French? Wait, I was wrong, you're playing brawl? Oh just kidding, no one's played brawl. It's pauper, yeah sure, I have a dec... wait you're playing modern pauper? Why? Old School, awesome! Is it Sweden, EC, CF, or Atlantic? I could go on, but you get the idea. It wasn't always like this though.

 

Magic can no longer survive on the integrity of it's design. It's clear packs exist to be sold, and low value, but high reward packs are the most profitable. It can no longer survive on it's 'complexity'. Despite that recent article, Magic is more streamlined and simplified than ever, it will get only worse from here. Magic only has it's tournament scene left, and the recent banning of the Tron player almost gives it some credibility, but it's always been not about accomplishment, not about prestige, not even about the integrity of the game, but about profit, and the moment you saw a more profitable avenue, you dropped the previous system like an unwanted puppy.

 

It's been a long twenty years of Magic. I've changed a lot, I went from a older child buying packs from the local emporium, hobby shops, and flea markets, to a young man building a house. I've played through four major relationships, seven cars, and my entire educational career. In that time, I've written you two open letters, one on a site that no longer exists (about the 8th edition card frames), and one on your own website about the change in the Legends rule, and how it would snowball into a mess of a game ('muh edh' isn't a response, though that wasn't from you). I never got a proper response from either, after all, I'm just a voice in a sea of voices. I never expected a response. However, I need to ask this, why should I continue buying this product? Why should I continue to play outside of drunk nights at kitchen tables? It can't be for integrity of the higher functions of the game, you showed that isn't in the equation. It can't be for the small hope of one day being on the pro-tour, that soon  won't exist in any form in analog (for better or worse).

 

I recently helped my twin alphabetize and pack away his YGO cards, a game of pride and joy to him. He told me he won't sell them, now, instead, he doesn't need to play anymore (and honestly, with links and other cancer, who can blame him?), but he doesn't have the heart to peddle them off for pennies on the dollar. I imagine doing the same thing with Magic wouldn't be that much more difficult, at least for the formats you support.

 

 

---Gunnarson.