September, 1999. Hasbro buys WOTC, but runs it as a subsidiary. Nobody really notices anything in the community, nothing seemed amiss.
Then in 2003, with the release of 8th edition, my favorite hobby (read, obsession) changed.
The border went from this...
to this.
Ok, I thought. This is it. Hasbro and their corporate big-wigs have finally managed to do it. This is the end of M:TG. This is where I bow out. This is where I stop giving WOTC my money.
I was wrong, I lied to myself. I kept hammering my hard earned money into this game and continued to enjoy everything about it, except for maybe some groans and moans about the new aesthetic. The world went on, and so did I, and now with the need for a new way to organize an ever growing collection.
I took a short break from the game for a while. Gotta take a little break from this beast or you will run out of room REALLY QUICKLY. And be subject to burn-out and all other host of nasty afflictions.
And then this happened.
There I was, just taking in a M10 draft at my local LGS, and I cracked this son of a bitch. I had no clue what it was or how it was played and I swore, again, that this was it. This is the straw breaking the camel's back. Hasbro has finally screwed the pooch with their backwards market research and forced a huge change that would cripple and destroy my game. Wrong again.
Little did I know that Planeswalkers were changing the face of M:TG henceforth. Pretty big deal, actually. People loved em (not me, I was a purist...hell I still wanted the old frames back!) The game continues to blossom and flourish.
The game continued to go through many such changes, but nothing that really rocked the foundation of what it was.
Until Hasbro got greedy.
First, they removed the MSRP from pack prices. Then they introduced Set boosters along side Draft boosters. They cost slightly more, but had better cards in them. And then Collector boosters. 30 bucks USD a pack and filled with all sorts of goodies. Then Secret Lair. Cards from Magic's past with new art only available at a very exaggerated price, with some of them being very steep indeed (150 USD+), and only available from WOTC directly.
And now Universes Beyond. Thus idea takes other fun, nerdy obsessions people have (2020: Secret Lair Drop Series, The Walking Dead, I am looking at you) and integrate them into the game. I am sure that this was designed to bring fans of these other great sci-fi, fantasy, what have you genres and introduce them to the world of Magic. In come cases, this isn't too far of a jump. D&D, Lord of the Rings? Sure man, those fit right in to what a Magic player would conceivably like to see represented in their game.
Transformers? Really?
Street Fighter? Fortnite? FORTNITE???!?! What the actual F***? Doctor Who? Are you serious? These brands are so far removed from MTG that it is unfathomable. Get the hell out of my universe!
And now, with dollar signs all up in their eyes by way of emptying the customer's wallets, Hasbro has announced that they are bringing the world of Marvel into the universe of Magic: The Gathering. This...this is too much for me. I love comics, I love the MCU, a good story, a good hero and a dastardly villain. I have since I picked up my first issue of the Infinity Gauntlet in 1991.
I love slinging spells across the kitchen table to drop a guy's health to 0 as well, building decks, playing in draft and sealed tournaments, shooting for some big prizes and high level of play by competing at big ticket events with the hopes of making the Pro-Tour! Hell, I love(d) watching my card boxes in my bedroom, living room, and hallway (all over the house, really) fill with more and more cards to be sorted...later.
But I don't want to have my perfectly cooked steak smothered with my favorite dessert.
Seriously, what the hell is this?
And this? What the hell is this?
And now with Marvel...I am done. And this time, I mean it. I want to read about Spider Man and watch him do his thing in HIS WORLD, not in mine.