[Darkness Speaks by Kevin Macleod]
Back when I was in college, the EDH scene was popping.
There was an entire section of the student union that was just filled with several EDH pods.
For most of the day, there was at least one game going on at a given time.
During that time, a couple of players had potent decks they had blinged out.
Judge Promos. Foil versions of old cards.
They focused on their one or two decks; blinging them out to the nines.
There was also an imbalance in the power of decks within pods.
Part of this was the skill differential between players, but it was also in part due to (available) card selection and the deck budgets themselves.
Because of this there was a discussion going on about the increasing use of proxies.
Some players disdained the practice.
Some players used proxies that they had  printed at the university library to keep up with the changing meta without  tanking their wallets
And another guy was notorious for preferring a "deck of the week" approach that wasn't very consistent with actually buying the decks outright.
During one of these discussions, one of my very good friends expressed his opinion.
He has long held the mindset of an aspirant competitive player.
And as part of that mindset he felt that he was there to play against the other players and their skills at the game; not their wallets and not their deck budgets.
At the time, the discussion really didn't rouse much introspection or curiosity.
I knew what my opinion on the matter was but I hadn't really thought into the why I had that opinion.
However, I was recently reminded of this conversation out of the blue, many years after the fact.
I was poking around the internet during my lunch break,
and I came across two things that combined to remind me of this phrase. This Ethos.
The Player, Not the Wallet
First, I came across an episode of the Dies to Removal podcast, where Pleasant Kenobi and the Professor derided the concept of viewing
Magic the Gathering mainly as a vehicle of investment.
Kenobi: Yeah but isn't Magic still a game?
Professor (as "Investment" Guru): Listen Brah. What you do is you take 35% of your liquid cash flow and invest it into VIP boosters.
Professor (as "Investment" Guru): Sure, you're gonna open a few duds but in the long run you'll be seeing a 35% return on your investment
Professor (as Investment Guru): That's (a) better deal than the banks brah!
Kenobi: I don't know if economics is the metagame I want to chase, honestly.
Don't get me wrong.
I don't mind if someone plays a card and then later decides to sell it.
And if they make a profit on it, good for them.
And if someone wants your foil commons for their jank cube and you want something that's a little bit more competitive?
All power to the both of you.
However, the level of seriousness surrounding MTGfinance as a casual community,
as well as the more "serious" commercial efforts.
It's beginning to verge on parodic, in my opinion.
Now, I say this as someone who has spent way too much time within the past year or two trying to "play the market."
I've come to realize that that was getting in the way of my enjoyment of the hobby overall.
Second, I came across an older article penned by Saffron Olive titled "The Fake Card Problem."
I don't mind going on the record as saying that I do not support counterfeiting.
But the article was interesting. And the discussion of the issue and its underlying causes got me thinking of the topic in general.
And then like a bolt to the bird, I remembered the discussion I was in all those years ago, and the phrase
"The Player, Not the Wallet."
Back when I was a broke college student, I had limited funds but a deep thirst for creative deck building.
So the phrase "The Player, Not the Wallet" resonated with me, for a multitude of reasons to be quite honest.
i love the friendly but casual competition that EDH (Commander) represents.
It's just enough to make it fun, but not too much that people take it too seriously and spoil that fun.
And like my friend I agree that the fun ideally is in having roughly equal tools at your disposal to test your words, wit, and skill.
Now don't get me wrong. If someone wants to bring their chair tribal or mustache themed deck
That will be just as fun.
However, part of the point is playing with powerful cards from throughout Magic's history.
And what's the fun of letting budgets confound that?
I remember back in the day i enjoyed the shenanigans that the "flavor of the week" guy would come up with week after week.
But that would have been beyond his budget if he had done that without proxies.
Sometimes I'd watch him eagerly cut out his Magic the Gathering simulacra and that made me happy for him.
Just that earnest eagerness.
I also like to tinker with my deck.
Both to create the preliminary build and then to refine it over time.
With minor trifles like food and gasoline to worry about,
buying cards just to enjoy and test them wasn't exactly the best idea back in my college days.
So after thinking for a while on what was the peak of my engagement with the hobby,
I've thought of how it has changed since I started so long ago with my very casual 60 card constructed goblins deck.
How it has changed on a personal level.
On a meta-level.
And just regarding the hobby, community, and company that creates this game as a whole.
Lately, it seems like we are at an inflection point.
Where the philosophy of the company making this game could be taking the game in a new ill-fated direction
When multiple people with a variety of viewpoints and personal philosophies point out the similarity between the ill-fated marketing decisions of the
baseball card and comic book industry of the 90s and our beloved game...
*Sigh* Well that doesn't bode well.
Pleasant Kenobi: "This set, and future master sets if they continue like this, aren't gonna be for playing with.
PK: They are gonna be like stimulus or injection packages for traders, vendors, and extreme collectors and financers right?
PK: That's what this is.
Professor: And that's what they did in baseball cards and it destroyed baseball cards. That's what they did in comics.
And you know more about comics than me I know I've done a lot of reading on the baseball card collapse (Audio fade transition to Rudy)
Rudy: Like a booster box. It's like this big and they open it and there's like one silver pack in the middle and it's like $500 to $1000 dollars a pack.
Rudy: And I feel like Wizards (of the Coast) wants to go in that direction.
Rudy: Like Papa Hasbro (WotC's Parent Company) wants us to go in that direction. (Audio crossfade)
Rudy: While short term yeah it's the most I I *studders in sticker shock* mean I never thought there'd be a day where there's a hundred dollar pack of magic.
Rudy: But then again I never thought there'd be a day where there'd be a thousand dollar pack of baseball cards (audio fades out)
Personally, I think it's high time that Magic the Gathering Players, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro
take some time to introspect and determine whether we are putting enough emphasis on Magic the Gathering as
as a fun game that will thrive in the decades to come.
Thank you for staying until the end of the video.
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And uh, you guys have a great day!
