PleasantKenobi I keep telling people to not give a shit about the fetches dont ask for them dont buy them. Next step is to ban them as a community and mess with the data at tournaments. We need to send a message to Wizards that you print these lands effectively or we are going to move on and never use them again (effectively killing their reprint equity)
You gotta cut him some slack man. I feel like a resounding "don't even consider buying this" is probably as harsh as he can be if he wants wizards to take the criticism seriously.
@@Sturm64 I don't think the original comment was intended to mean the prof wasn't harsh enough in his criticism. It's just different ways to do it. This is the way my mom would do it. And her criticism really stings, man
"They will also be reprinted in an additional product this year" I'm calling it now, Secret Lair Ultimate Edition II, Fetchland Boogaloo. Contains all 10 fetchlands, costs "about" $500, comes with a decorative box inside of a decorative box.
See what gets me is they said that Fetchlands themselves would be reprinted later this year. It felt like it left the option that they could do another version of the same secret lair with the Ally fetchlands. And that's the crap that i expect to see.
no no no no no your thinking too small Secret lair fetchland: mystery edition plain black box of the cheapest cardboard, inside is one randomized fetchland. there are 40 boxes, enough for a playset of each. they will then be auctioned off to the highest bidder, bids starting at $1,000. Is it foil? that's part of the mystery! which card are you bidding on? Also part of the mystery! New art? Mystery! the sad part is I could see them raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars with that stunt.
My LGS it's selling 195€ only winning the % like in the other products... they don't want to steal from us. 165 it's the price for them + earning + taxes.
Yea. Imma go play a real game in which women are not boobless trans and reprints dont happen for 10 years+. Cardfight Vanguard. They literally have decent decks with 4x good cards for 3.99
Prof, It would be awesome if you interviewed the other MTG Prof (Dr. Richard Garfield) at some point if able. It would be awesome for you to interview him and hear his current take and impressions on the modern state of the game, the controversy around its financial cost to play, and design decisions looking back.
Sol Ring is such a great example of how to handle the reprinting of something that is as staple as staple gets. Countless precons in, and it still hold 'some value', it is NOT a bulk card. I can't go out and buy 50 of them for pennies, I'd be paying significantly more than that. Fetchlands are most definitely in the Sol Ring category, i.e. cards that even if reprinted into the ground will ALWAYS hold some value. They will never be bulk. The fact that Wizards is refusing to reprint them to this extent is flat out anti-consumer, and it is both sad and angering to see.
Yes, but I think it's interesting to point out - for the first couple times WOTC would reprint the fetchlands in precons or something similar? Those are going to sell out and pretty much only help people scoring off the secondary market. The greed of people flipping MTG singles for profit is just too great.
@@kereminde The solution to that is simple. Print the product into the ground, print so much of it that it never gets sold out unless a store doesn't want more to sell. Can't scalp things that are available everywhere at regular prices
@@kereminde One of the first Duel Decks was worth close to $60 and still sold for $20 at Wal Mart six months after release. They underprint on purpose to use scalpers as an excuse not to give us good cards for fair prices. You can't scalp a decent print run.
@@Stroggoii You can totally scalp a decent print run. Also, I remember those decks, and while they still sold for $20... I couldn't get one. I should clarify. The ones on the shelf had already been "raided" for the money cards - either returned "unopened" with things removed or visibly broken into. This, along with a couple other things WalMart does concerning Magic as a product, is why I won't buy cards there. Target is only marginally better. If there was, in fact, a site similar to "Secret Lair" to buy direct from Wizards for these things at the MSRP? Well, that would be the most helpful to make sure these products don't get screwed over. But that would cut out the middleman (distributors) and as a fine upstanding citizen once said: "Eliminating the middleman, never as simple as it sounds. Fifty percent of the human race is middleman, and they don't take kindly to being eliminated."
Their logic: -sol ring is reprinted every year. It is 1 card. -evolving wilds is reprinted every year. It is 1 card. They think we can be happy with just 1 fetchland in the 99. LOL
Congratulations, enjoy your 1 island per Switch console. The price of 5 pieces of colored cardboard being more expensive than a game console and a new game is egregious.
@@Bladius_ I bought a switch lite bundle from gamestop basically the only one I could find that wasn't scalped or at door pickup but they would have to order it on anyway. Came with minecraft not that I really care about that one. A screen protector a case and a memory card I mostly just wanted it so I could play animal crossing tho.
@@zztzgza yeah I saw that being an issue lol but I'm going to be the only one using this switch so no big deal to me honestly. But thanks I havent played an animal crossing game since the original ds and I loved that game.
Props to Prof for politely and professionally promoting this product when prompted by WOTC. They picked him to be the one who revealed it to the world, and he did so. And now with that video done, I’m glad we get to see him give this ‘product’ the thrashing it deserves.
@M B He was paid by WOTC to do so, and abided by the nondisclosure agreement he no doubt signed. Now that the NDA has expired, he (and Pleasant Kenobi) are speaking their minds regarding these products. It’s commendable because he did what he was contacted to do. Now he is doing what he WANTS to do. That takes a lot of professional integrity to hold off and not shoot the messenger who came to him on WOTC’s behalf.
Issue here is that them revealing an msrp would change nothing. Stores would still need to max profits, the incredibly low supply is to blame here. Rasmussen's "a bit more" statement was treated as msrp, same result.
@@bulletmonkey979 but that's the point - what was the reason to remove msrp is totally unclear since it's, firstly, Minimal Suggested - it doesn't set the price in stone, and secondly there will be a virtual msrp anyway because we have the Internet now and we can go and search online and compare prices and stores do just that to find out an average market price
@@krim7 scg is Sold out the demand seems to be high, even at this price point. This means if any retailer sold it for significantly less they would be bought out immediatly and the product flipped on eBay.
Having MSRP back would be nice... Keeps the original retailer price in check as well as curtails any gouging that would occur on the secondary market. Of course, limited print run product would likely still get sold through and flipped regardless so seems like a lose-lose situation no matter what.
I seriously hope no one buys this product other than to review it like this, and that instead they buy the singles they need from their LGS. This is ridiculous. “Just a little over $165” my arse.
@@peewee130946 right, and they also "don't know" the second market exist. Withholding a print on purpose in order to sell a product is artificial inflation of demand similar to what diamond companies do as the main distributors have a Monopoly on the products themselves. Wizards has no competition for printing these cards and therefore set the prices by setting the amount produced. It's really basic economics and after writing all this I'm just now realizing you may have been being sarcastic and in that case, I apologise for the long response.
"Fetchlands will also see a reprint this year (2020) in an additional product" I honestly heard this during the interview and took it as Wotc saying "Hey were going to make another secret lair latter in the year containing the other 5 fetch lands!"
"But the product still sold out, and we still made tons of money, so it's a great product. Also, we still have fetchlands in our back pocket to virtually print money whenever we may need it." -wizards
I'm actually pretty convinced that the price per cardboard, including manufacturing and shipping (as sold to stores) is worth more than it's equal in gold. Wizards board room super happy, thanks Hasboro 💚
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain Unfortunately, your points are too strong and too logical for them to be taken into consideration. It's a shame, since you're probably more passionate about MtG than WotC is at this point. As a game, at least.
The Commander Tavern no one here seems to realize that WOTC, like every other company in the world is only out to get as much money as possible. Of course this is a balancing act. Upset the community too much and you lose players, but more importantly you lose money. They aren’t our friend, their only purpose is to generate wealth.
I found Magic about two years ago at age 56. Never in my life have I seen a company that so consistently fails in fulfilling customer expectations. I've said before, I don't know what metric is used to promote people in there, but competency is not among them. BTW, I'm sort of the whale you speak of. I can afford pretty much any MtG products I wish to buy. I could afford this product if I wanted it, I don't. As a consumer I find it insulting. BTBTW, nice meeting you at Command Fest DC.
To be fair wizards became this thing just recently, much because of the hasbro and investor pressure, wizards was pretty good in correcting their mistakes, but these days it's like they make a mistake and make it again,again,again and again
@@nathanielreusser5723 I actually switched from Yugioh to Magic and it's so much nicer, especially now that I've discovered Commander for myself. Yes, there still are artificially scarce cards that should definitely be reprinted, and some of these are way too good/expensive at the same time, but still, only having to buy one of every card? Staples that easily work across Decks? Hell yes.
Doesn't work that way, sadly. This is a product aimed at whales, and it has sold out, meaning it was financially successful, at least short-term. The Professor's argument is that it is damaging in the long run. As someone that played some Magic twenty years ago, and was tempted to dive back a couple time, the most recent one being with the release of Magic Arena, but ultimately decided to never ever again play because of the absurd costs of some cards, I fully agree with his analysis. Magic is a great game, but it is not THAT great, not for me.
You are a great communicator. Not only do you share your points of view, but you do so in an an exccelent manner. You are clear, concise, reflect back on your message and summarize it very well. You remind me of one of my university professors wich i admired. Thank you!
Hilarious! I love the self deprecating humor you have. And I love your ethical backbone, Prof. You have a lot to teach us about things. Things that aren't math, lol.
Halfway through: Wow, WotC will never let the Professor reveal anything ever again. By the end: Why doesn't WotC have the Professor on staff as an outside consultant?
I'm pretty sure they heard all of this was going to come, it's not like they are ignorant to the facts, they are a successful multinational, they have the talent and the means to find a good consumer friendly way to launch a product. When they fail like this, its not incompetence, its greed, its them knowing this could happen, many people told them, and still taking the risk in order to try to milk us of more money, they are just pushing the product as far as they can. I'm out, been out for a year, I don't want to incentivise these business practices, they can bankrupt for all I care.
Love how Professor points out a card that is easily a better Whale opportunity for Commander players at the same price point as Ultimate Edition. Sol Ring. Beta Sol-ring, Black-bordered, original art Sol-ring is less than Secret Lair ultimate edition. Heck you've got twenty dollars left over to buy dinner with. At least that stays on the battlefield longer.
Bro, wizards should be paying you for holding together the community better than themselves. They have no idea how to run a company and satisfy customers, yet somehow a English professor outclasses them in just about every way.
The moment I saw Wizards was getting LGS's involved in this drop, I knew this would happen. They should have sold it direct to consumer online, or at events when those return, or not at all. They can't possibly tell LGS's what to price it at and enforce it. I'm all for supporting LGS's, but not under circumstances like this.
Can you really blame the LGS when they only got 3-5 of these? We get 20+ people showing up just for Commander night. That doesn't count the Standard/Modern/Pioneer players on other days (many of whom play multiple formats). When a store has that many regulars, how are they supposed to distribute 3-5 copies of a product that only contains singles, not a playset? If the supply were unlimited and the LGS could sell them to everyone, the price wouldn't go up. But when you can't sell to more than 1-5 of your dozens/hundreds of customers, of course the price will go up. Artificial scarcity jacks up the price, and then anyone selling for the regular price gets bought out by someone who's just going to flip it for the higher price. This is completely the fault of Wizards for strangling the supply line.
Wow some stores got 3 they didn't even get a play set of the lands... I remember being mad about this a while ago for $200. At this point I just don't care.
You know prof, I'm sending a pattern here. WOTC has a great idea that had some problems in terms of execution, you mention how much you like the idea, and then they do everything that they can to mess it up. Beautiful.
As always you could not present this in a better way. You eloquently laid everything out. With a little comedy thrown in. I do look forward to your videos. Thank you Professor for the work you do. It is appreciated.
How did we go from Expeditions, inventions, and Innovations which created some of the best selling standard environments into Secret Lairs? The equivalent of buying cards from TCGplayer at a higher more fancy price.
fuck secret lair, why didn't they put godpacks in Theros? Oh wait they did in the fucking PREMIUM BOOSTERS that contained roughly 20 mystics per Booster box...
I played Yugioh, Pokemon, Hearthstone and i can say that magic is the best card game, but but it's a damn shame the price of 5 pieces of cardboard, a lot of people can't spend that kind of money, and we're talking about basic cards in modern. I love this game but i dont go support this company whit these practices, customers aren't wallets, they are people.
Sure I have a lot of fun with magic. But I also have a lot of fun with pokemon. The fun to price ratio is considerably higher for me in pokemon simply because the game is affordable. This is coming from a salaried person who can afford to play both games but would rather buy other things instead of expensive decks. Having more fun isn't necessarily a better thing if the cost to achieve that fun is 5x-6x that of the other games. The fun better scale linearly and be that much fun. The subjectivity is how much fun does someone have compared to other games. I can say for myself that magic isn't even close to being 2x as fun as pokemon. In my opinion of course.
Isaac Strong not officially so they can still get away with this, and you still have whales buying this product up and trying to resell on the secondary market
Ah but if the base price is a disernable markup based off of market price it's like saying selling all your stock because a buddy who works at Enrron warned you, isn't insider trading.
The fact I can get a limited edition, never to be released again signed playmat of Misty Rainforest by Seb McKinnon for less than the card with his version of the art really says something about these fetchlands
Wow! What a great analysis! Providing a solution to the problem was masterful. I feel embarrassed for the employees at Wizards, they really need you on staff.
Many magic the gathering players asked the question: Can people who aren't rich get to play premium cards without having to sell their organs? And with premium cards i mean fetchlands, Liliana of the veil, Jace mind sculptor... I mean, i can craft a very tasty deck with the budget that a single copy of those cards would cost me, but even then i would love to try some decks with this kind of cards. Not today, probably not anytime in general. Welp.
Finally, strong and direct opinions! I absolutely love it! Thank you for being the voice of the masses, our voice, that is surely heard by Wotc. Great content.
When wizards does reprint the fetchlands, they are going to be in the collectors boosters for Zendikar. Because they need to find someway to continue to justify that worthless product while at the same time not giving the fetchlands the reprint volume they so desperately need.
@@Kattywagon29 I doubt it. Collectors boosters sold for $220 - $240 and it only comes with 12 packs. This is about the price range for modern masters sets which came with 24 packs. For the most part, card from standard sets don't have as high of a value when compared to modern cards. I could be wrong, but I don't see many people taking the big risk of buying up a whole bunch of collectors booster boxes in hopes of hitting enough value in fetches and bombs in Zendikar to turn a decent profit margin. Maybe if the price was dropped slightly then it may be something to consider; but as of right now, the collectors booster remains to be a bad product.
@@Bush_Striker_of_Towers I think anyone who is on the fence about whether or not to buy a collectors booster would be more willing to if there was a possibility of fetches in it. Collectors boosters come with mostly standard legal cards that may or may not have a value based on the meta. Fetches will always be high value until they are meaningfully reprinted.
If WoTC is going to sell these overpriced products you should have to get on a "whale list" to buy them. If people with too much money want to just give it away for cardboard then so be it. The people getting screwed over is the average MTG player that then feels the "need" to have them. They waste far too much of their income percentage on what is a fugazi cash grab from WoTC. They dont deserve a penny of it anymore.
Well said! I, for whatever reason, stopped my "get a playset of any halfway decent land" policy sometime just before Zendikar and so only ended up with about half a playset of these. I guess I was happy enough to have Simic and Golgari colors covered and didn't care enough about Izzet, Boros or Orzhov to make an attempt to round things out. I've been looking for times when I could try to fill those out without paying more for them than I paid for original revised duals. I don't think I'll ever be able to do so now. What a feel bad!
I'm a yugioh player but I enjoy watching MTG content to see how things run differently in other games. As bad as some of our products are, thank god none of our products are this expensive. We recently had a product come out that was basically a 40 dollar competitive starter kit, which included a myriad of cards ranging from staple to... questionable. But each box came with 5 alternate art copies of the "ghost girl" cards, most of which are always relevant and a few of are always needed. You got all of them in holo, plus several other in-demand staple cards for a tenth the asking price. I couldnt imagine a product that coat 400 bucks for 5 cards. Even if that box is really elegant.
All players I know think this, but having a youtuber calmly explaining this even though he was the one that showed this product is something that I absolutely love about this channel. Thanks for always helping the community. Subscribed many years ago and I hope many new players do the same.
u missed a great chance here to remind about the guy that makes those "luxury" wooden deck boxes... but maybe to compare them with secret lair's box was just kinda ridiculous
The number of copies is so stupidly low even at 165 $ it wouldn't have made the fetchlands more available on the secondary market for the community. Prices decrease when many copies get printed in affordable products.
WotC: "Fetch lands can't appear in standard because it slows down the game." Also WotC: creates multiple tutor-like cards in every set that search libraries and graveyards
Ikoria has 10 cards with the following words in it: "Search Library" Out of those, 1 is a land, 4 search for lands and are probably unplayable outside of commander, 1 searches for a copy of itself, 3 cost over 4 mana to cast (with 2 being tri-colored) and 1 is a 2 mana creature that can tutor, but requires sacrificing creatures and spending lots of mana to tutor. None of those will make tutoring near as prevalent as Fetchlands did. Your argument is plain wrong, they don't release many tutors these days. Moreover, Fetchlands also have the very real problem of greatly increasing the consistency of the manabase, making 5 color soup decks a bit too easy to make, which is not what they want in standard.
@Alice Shiki My point wasn’t tutors. My point was absurd complexity far beyond fetch lands would ever cause. Idunno, they took all the problems of the 4 color decks (having access to every part of the pie) and just gave it to UG, so... might as well have color soup.
@@aliceshiki8069 Oh, please. there are 63 cards in standard right now that search libraries and 24 that search graveyards. There are overlap, but in terms of time consumption that is even worse. Five color "soup" decks are only slightly worse that three color wedge decks. As if everyone would play a 5 color if given the choice...
@Hart Fetches in standard would also be fine if they weren’t in the same environments as lands with dual typings. I don’t think you’d end up with “Jeskai Black” if you were just fetching for basics.
I love this. You put a lot of thought into this, and it is like you thought exactly what I was trying to put into words. Make thee expensive baller cards like reskins of cards that have better artwork, but make them SO COOL and then reprint infinite of the same card in a cool but objectively less bling kinda way. Yeah it's like microtransactions, but in this day and age it would work.
The closing statement of this review is the single best piece of wisdom anyone has ever spoken. Some execs at Wizards/Hasbro shoud have it tattooed on their forehead so they can see it everytime they look into a mirror. Make the game affordable for the masses and at the same time exclusive for those who can afford it.
My guess what will happen: "look guys, the lgs is shilling you, and that's why, going forward, wotc specialty products will only be sold directly through wotc. It's for your own best".
I would love to see again Masterpiece/Expedition/Invocation premium cards. That is the best way to share old and new cards in a new form and everyone has that slow chance to get it from booster packs. Man, that feeling to get it like getting Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Factory 🙂.
"about the price of a Commander Anthologies" my arse
I like how this dude thinks. Does he have a TH-cam channel?
That's not very pleasant, now is it?
Reprint fetchlands, you COWARDS!
PleasantKenobi I keep telling people to not give a shit about the fetches dont ask for them dont buy them. Next step is to ban them as a community and mess with the data at tournaments. We need to send a message to Wizards that you print these lands effectively or we are going to move on and never use them again (effectively killing their reprint equity)
You and prof uploaded at almost the same time, I gotta ask if that was intentional?
This video feels like a “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed” talk.
You gotta cut him some slack man. I feel like a resounding "don't even consider buying this" is probably as harsh as he can be if he wants wizards to take the criticism seriously.
Bahaha!
I expect Prof to be PNG by the next 2 sets...
@@Sturm64 I don't think the original comment was intended to mean the prof wasn't harsh enough in his criticism. It's just different ways to do it. This is the way my mom would do it. And her criticism really stings, man
Dad: Talks longs slurps of vodka. I'm not angry im just disappointed
Me: That feels worse than the belt across my ass
Wizards: "We don't care about the secondary market"
Also Wizards: Using secondary market to value their product.
Holy shit. Hit the nail directly on the head there.
Wonderfully said
_Exactly._
Yup. There was nothing stopping them from printing these in massive quantities and charging $20 per set
That's especially funny considering that the sole reason the game is still around is because of the secondary market.
"Nissa + 80s Synth = Vivien"
This is the most savage read of all time and I'm loving it
Vivien is the Thor: Ragnarok of Green planeswalkers
@@MsMollieMac No wonder I love her so much.
"They will also be reprinted in an additional product this year"
I'm calling it now, Secret Lair Ultimate Edition II, Fetchland Boogaloo. Contains all 10 fetchlands, costs "about" $500, comes with a decorative box inside of a decorative box.
But only two per LGS and they will go for two grand by the time a person can buy it.
See what gets me is they said that Fetchlands themselves would be reprinted later this year. It felt like it left the option that they could do another version of the same secret lair with the Ally fetchlands. And that's the crap that i expect to see.
no no no no no your thinking too small Secret lair fetchland: mystery edition plain black box of the cheapest cardboard, inside is one randomized fetchland. there are 40 boxes, enough for a playset of each. they will then be auctioned off to the highest bidder, bids starting at $1,000. Is it foil? that's part of the mystery! which card are you bidding on? Also part of the mystery! New art? Mystery!
the sad part is I could see them raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars with that stunt.
Secret Lair Anthologies
@@nicholasbower17 "for about 400 dollars"
I love how the phrase, "A bit more than $165" is becoming a meme in the MTG community. 🤣
My LGS it's selling 195€ only winning the % like in the other products... they don't want to steal from us. 165 it's the price for them + earning + taxes.
Yea. Imma go play a real game in which women are not boobless trans and reprints dont happen for 10 years+.
Cardfight Vanguard. They literally have decent decks with 4x good cards for 3.99
@@YGOHermit Really really weird detail to lead your point on but you do you I guess lol
"The key is the reasonable reprint."
Put this on a shirt.
You know who else feels this way? Richard Garfield, PhD.
Pleasent Kenobi already did put it on a shirt
*Reprint fetchlands you cowards*
@@imperialphoenix1229 Amen!
Whoever wins the Omaze WotC Headquarters trip needs to wear that shirt there.
Prof, It would be awesome if you interviewed the other MTG Prof (Dr. Richard Garfield) at some point if able. It would be awesome for you to interview him and hear his current take and impressions on the modern state of the game, the controversy around its financial cost to play, and design decisions looking back.
@@ryandalton-qq YES
Sol Ring is such a great example of how to handle the reprinting of something that is as staple as staple gets. Countless precons in, and it still hold 'some value', it is NOT a bulk card. I can't go out and buy 50 of them for pennies, I'd be paying significantly more than that.
Fetchlands are most definitely in the Sol Ring category, i.e. cards that even if reprinted into the ground will ALWAYS hold some value. They will never be bulk.
The fact that Wizards is refusing to reprint them to this extent is flat out anti-consumer, and it is both sad and angering to see.
Yes, but I think it's interesting to point out - for the first couple times WOTC would reprint the fetchlands in precons or something similar? Those are going to sell out and pretty much only help people scoring off the secondary market. The greed of people flipping MTG singles for profit is just too great.
@@kereminde The solution to that is simple. Print the product into the ground, print so much of it that it never gets sold out unless a store doesn't want more to sell. Can't scalp things that are available everywhere at regular prices
@@kereminde One of the first Duel Decks was worth close to $60 and still sold for $20 at Wal Mart six months after release.
They underprint on purpose to use scalpers as an excuse not to give us good cards for fair prices. You can't scalp a decent print run.
@@Stroggoii You can totally scalp a decent print run. Also, I remember those decks, and while they still sold for $20... I couldn't get one.
I should clarify. The ones on the shelf had already been "raided" for the money cards - either returned "unopened" with things removed or visibly broken into. This, along with a couple other things WalMart does concerning Magic as a product, is why I won't buy cards there.
Target is only marginally better. If there was, in fact, a site similar to "Secret Lair" to buy direct from Wizards for these things at the MSRP? Well, that would be the most helpful to make sure these products don't get screwed over. But that would cut out the middleman (distributors) and as a fine upstanding citizen once said:
"Eliminating the middleman, never as simple as it sounds. Fifty percent of the human race is middleman, and they don't take kindly to being eliminated."
Their logic:
-sol ring is reprinted every year. It is 1 card.
-evolving wilds is reprinted every year. It is 1 card.
They think we can be happy with just 1 fetchland in the 99. LOL
I just bought a switch with animal crossing for $360 wayyyy better value.
And you still have 40 bucks left over to buy another game (or multiple games if you buy some cheap/on sale ones!)
HOW DID YOU GET A SWITCH?!
(seriously, since the lockdown I haven't been able to find one that isn't scalped to double the price.)
Congratulations, enjoy your 1 island per Switch console. The price of 5 pieces of colored cardboard being more expensive than a game console and a new game is egregious.
@@Bladius_ I bought a switch lite bundle from gamestop basically the only one I could find that wasn't scalped or at door pickup but they would have to order it on anyway. Came with minecraft not that I really care about that one. A screen protector a case and a memory card I mostly just wanted it so I could play animal crossing tho.
@@zztzgza yeah I saw that being an issue lol but I'm going to be the only one using this switch so no big deal to me honestly. But thanks I havent played an animal crossing game since the original ds and I loved that game.
Props to Prof for politely and professionally promoting this product when prompted by WOTC. They picked him to be the one who revealed it to the world, and he did so. And now with that video done, I’m glad we get to see him give this ‘product’ the thrashing it deserves.
Yes!! So true!
Wait, why does he get props for promoting a trash product?
@M B He was paid by WOTC to do so, and abided by the nondisclosure agreement he no doubt signed. Now that the NDA has expired, he (and Pleasant Kenobi) are speaking their minds regarding these products.
It’s commendable because he did what he was contacted to do. Now he is doing what he WANTS to do. That takes a lot of professional integrity to hold off and not shoot the messenger who came to him on WOTC’s behalf.
Nissa + 80's Synth = Vivian
Nice.
why is this so expensive
A very good gag.
@@YawgmothWasRight When I liked this it had 69 likes... nice.
Is he wrong though
@@fifthcanuck1128 He is not, though I hate Vivien slightly less than Nissa.
i love how this "no msrp" thing is going so great.
Yep I'm saving a lot of money not buying anything, fuck them.
Somebody in marketing must have thought "people can't complain to us about the price if we don't reveal it".
Issue here is that them revealing an msrp would change nothing. Stores would still need to max profits, the incredibly low supply is to blame here. Rasmussen's "a bit more" statement was treated as msrp, same result.
@@bulletmonkey979 but that's the point - what was the reason to remove msrp is totally unclear since it's, firstly, Minimal Suggested - it doesn't set the price in stone, and secondly there will be a virtual msrp anyway because we have the Internet now and we can go and search online and compare prices and stores do just that to find out an average market price
Remember that time blake said they want to discourage “bad behavior” with their products 🤣
The joke is on the stores. This price gouging will likely be used internally to justify not selling secret lairs in stores.
@@krim7 scg is Sold out the demand seems to be high, even at this price point. This means if any retailer sold it for significantly less they would be bought out immediatly and the product flipped on eBay.
@@SpektralJo it's not hard to be sold out when each store gets a max of 10
Having MSRP back would be nice... Keeps the original retailer price in check as well as curtails any gouging that would occur on the secondary market. Of course, limited print run product would likely still get sold through and flipped regardless so seems like a lose-lose situation no matter what.
@@krim7 They were already not going to sell Secret Lairs in stores. This feels more of a "see, we can theoretically give you stuff, stop complaining."
"customers are humans, not wallets!" - was a great comment made here.
Professor I just wrote an ethics paper on this whole situation and cited you're last video. Thanks for being great man!
Sorry, but i really need to have a read at that paper.
Pretty Please?
That sounds like an interesting read
Wait, the Tolarian Academy is an actual academy now?! (jk)
I would also like to read this paper.
I would also love to read this paper. I would love to see everyone on prof's channel mail a paper copy to WOTC.
I feel like the art on Smothering Tithe.
Don't be that guy
lol
Oof
I seriously hope no one buys this product other than to review it like this, and that instead they buy the singles they need from their LGS. This is ridiculous. “Just a little over $165” my arse.
This. Please do this.
Yeah. I was expecting like 250$ max after Wizards' said "a bit more".
Hope it fails and they learn. Doubt it but hope all the same.
Eli Luttrell wizards doesn’t decide the price the local game stores do
@@peewee130946 right, and they also "don't know" the second market exist.
Withholding a print on purpose in order to sell a product is artificial inflation of demand similar to what diamond companies do as the main distributors have a Monopoly on the products themselves. Wizards has no competition for printing these cards and therefore set the prices by setting the amount produced.
It's really basic economics and after writing all this I'm just now realizing you may have been being sarcastic and in that case, I apologise for the long response.
Unfortunately, they'll probably sell well. There's a lot of very stupid people with a lot of money out there.
Vince: "So Evolving Wild is in that sett?"
Professor: "No, it says no fetchland reprint."
Such good scripts.
Every magic the gather players asked the question.
Should i sell my kidney for some shiny cardboard?
Really?
It's not shiney tho...
@@wetzombie8491 it looks soooo cool though
@@wetzombie8491 it's overpriced though
Overpriced isn't the term I would use. Its full of avarice
And this is why there are now millions of fakes out there.
"Fetchlands will also see a reprint this year (2020) in an additional product"
I honestly heard this during the interview and took it as Wotc saying "Hey were going to make another secret lair latter in the year containing the other 5 fetch lands!"
Yay! Secret Layer Ultimate Edition II or commander precons that have fetches but cost $150.
Thanks kinda what I'm thinking as well
"But the product still sold out, and we still made tons of money, so it's a great product. Also, we still have fetchlands in our back pocket to virtually print money whenever we may need it." -wizards
Exactly.
That's the sad truth.
Pretty much :-/
I also have some snake oil I'm selling. Oops, sorry, sold out!... I only had one bottle, but I digress. Sold out!
capitalism!
Magic community: "Nooo you can't just make the game worse by making half-assed overpriced products"
Wizard's of the Coast: "haha money machine go brr"
That's some tough math, prof. You never know, the secret lair logo could be made of real 24k gold
I was laughing my ass off during that montage LMAO
I'm actually pretty convinced that the price per cardboard, including manufacturing and shipping (as sold to stores) is worth more than it's equal in gold.
Wizards board room super happy, thanks Hasboro 💚
Dude no it's that sweet box it's like 50 times the amount of cardboard that's why it costs so much.
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
― Mark Twain
Unfortunately, your points are too strong and too logical for them to be taken into consideration. It's a shame, since you're probably more passionate about MtG than WotC is at this point. As a game, at least.
The Commander Tavern Employees of Wotc are probably just trying to keep their jobs by pleasing daddy Hasbro.
The Commander Tavern no one here seems to realize that WOTC, like every other company in the world is only out to get as much money as possible. Of course this is a balancing act. Upset the community too much and you lose players, but more importantly you lose money. They aren’t our friend, their only purpose is to generate wealth.
You can see the disappointment on his face before the video even starts.
I found Magic about two years ago at age 56. Never in my life have I seen a company that so consistently fails in fulfilling customer expectations. I've said before, I don't know what metric is used to promote people in there, but competency is not among them. BTW, I'm sort of the whale you speak of. I can afford pretty much any MtG products I wish to buy. I could afford this product if I wanted it, I don't. As a consumer I find it insulting. BTBTW, nice meeting you at Command Fest DC.
To be fair wizards became this thing just recently, much because of the hasbro and investor pressure, wizards was pretty good in correcting their mistakes, but these days it's like they make a mistake and make it again,again,again and again
Yugioh is so much worse
@@nathanielreusser5723
Indeed it is. That's why I just proxy, and made a small business locally for proxying as a result.
@@nathanielreusser5723 I actually switched from Yugioh to Magic and it's so much nicer, especially now that I've discovered Commander for myself. Yes, there still are artificially scarce cards that should definitely be reprinted, and some of these are way too good/expensive at the same time, but still, only having to buy one of every card? Staples that easily work across Decks? Hell yes.
Many Magic players ask the question: Should I keep playing MTG: Corporate Greed?
*Cough**Cough*COVID*Cough**Cough*
Hehehe 😂
Yup left yugioh because of greed. And now with mtg getting more expensive and less players at my lgs not sure how much longer I’ll stay.
I started playing Magic 3 months ago. This is immediately not looking so good.
@@deinemam7115 I agree, I'm a girl who prefers to play EDH/commander, so much more fun and alot more deck building freedom!
“So, aside from Channelfireball...”
XD
It's simple, do NOT buy this scam. Force wizards to reprint them at reasonable prices and in a meaningful way.
Well if SCG isn't lying and they already sold out, it is too late.
All of the boxes are likely sold already.
i can almost guarantee investors (fucking cancer) took most of them to resell at $600
Doesn't work that way, sadly. This is a product aimed at whales, and it has sold out, meaning it was financially successful, at least short-term. The Professor's argument is that it is damaging in the long run. As someone that played some Magic twenty years ago, and was tempted to dive back a couple time, the most recent one being with the release of Magic Arena, but ultimately decided to never ever again play because of the absurd costs of some cards, I fully agree with his analysis. Magic is a great game, but it is not THAT great, not for me.
@@asacarmichael9724 they had maybe 20-40 no more. thats is so few it dosent matter
“Let them play pauper.” -Maro Antoinette
Navert Navert this is great
“It’s just ‘a little more than Commander Anthology’s MSRP’ Michael! How much could it cost, $235 more?”
I just hope that when blake wakes up in the morning he has a hard fall of the bed to start his day everyday. This man needs bad karma to teach him.
Sulaiman hyatt-butt the man was just the face, no point in blaming the messenger.
@@soren1803 well he is the closest thing to blame and he works for them so he should get the hate. Period
You are a great communicator. Not only do you share your points of view, but you do so in an an exccelent manner. You are clear, concise, reflect back on your message and summarize it very well. You remind me of one of my university professors wich i admired. Thank you!
Many Magic: the Gathering players would love a MEANINGFUL fetchland reprint. Cowards!
They really are Wizards of the "cost"!!!
Hilarious! I love the self deprecating humor you have. And I love your ethical backbone, Prof. You have a lot to teach us about things. Things that aren't math, lol.
As amusing as the basic math joke was, the well-assembled analysis that followed showed some real crunching and consideration. Well done, Professor.
"All right, let's do it" with a resigned expression. Prof. I felt that.
Halfway through: Wow, WotC will never let the Professor reveal anything ever again.
By the end: Why doesn't WotC have the Professor on staff as an outside consultant?
I'm pretty sure they heard all of this was going to come, it's not like they are ignorant to the facts, they are a successful multinational, they have the talent and the means to find a good consumer friendly way to launch a product.
When they fail like this, its not incompetence, its greed, its them knowing this could happen, many people told them, and still taking the risk in order to try to milk us of more money, they are just pushing the product as far as they can.
I'm out, been out for a year, I don't want to incentivise these business practices, they can bankrupt for all I care.
Boy that's just a bit over 165 ain't it.
Just a smidge.
how $165 to $400
“We want to sell it for a little over $165”
I'm still calculating. Please, no spoilers!
Just a hair over, oh just a skosh over 165. The tiniest lil bit over, isn't it?
Love how Professor points out a card that is easily a better Whale opportunity for Commander players at the same price point as Ultimate Edition.
Sol Ring. Beta Sol-ring, Black-bordered, original art Sol-ring is less than Secret Lair ultimate edition. Heck you've got twenty dollars left over to buy dinner with.
At least that stays on the battlefield longer.
Bro, wizards should be paying you for holding together the community better than themselves. They have no idea how to run a company and satisfy customers, yet somehow a English professor outclasses them in just about every way.
The analysis regarding Sol Ring was perfect! Great job as always!
That title is brutal af. It's not even a question of is it worth it. Many Magic the Gathering players know it isn't worth it
The moment I saw Wizards was getting LGS's involved in this drop, I knew this would happen. They should have sold it direct to consumer online, or at events when those return, or not at all. They can't possibly tell LGS's what to price it at and enforce it.
I'm all for supporting LGS's, but not under circumstances like this.
Can you really blame the LGS when they only got 3-5 of these? We get 20+ people showing up just for Commander night. That doesn't count the Standard/Modern/Pioneer players on other days (many of whom play multiple formats). When a store has that many regulars, how are they supposed to distribute 3-5 copies of a product that only contains singles, not a playset? If the supply were unlimited and the LGS could sell them to everyone, the price wouldn't go up. But when you can't sell to more than 1-5 of your dozens/hundreds of customers, of course the price will go up. Artificial scarcity jacks up the price, and then anyone selling for the regular price gets bought out by someone who's just going to flip it for the higher price. This is completely the fault of Wizards for strangling the supply line.
Things I took away from this:
- Wizards has fell and bumped their head.
- Prof's left handed! :D
Prof I love the fact that you helped preview this and will still go after it👍 I mean of course! But you did such a good job on both ends of it!
Wow some stores got 3 they didn't even get a play set of the lands... I remember being mad about this a while ago for $200. At this point I just don't care.
Great use of “Presence of the Master”
You know prof, I'm sending a pattern here. WOTC has a great idea that had some problems in terms of execution, you mention how much you like the idea, and then they do everything that they can to mess it up. Beautiful.
As always you could not present this in a better way. You eloquently laid everything out. With a little comedy thrown in. I do look forward to your videos. Thank you Professor for the work you do. It is appreciated.
The professor means business. Normally his title asks if the product is worth to buy. This time he just straight up destroys the product in the title.
This is truly the greatest video you've ever made. Honesty and truth within every second of this video. Nothing like a $150 box!!
How did we go from Expeditions, inventions, and Innovations which created some of the best selling standard environments into Secret Lairs? The equivalent of buying cards from TCGplayer at a higher more fancy price.
fuck secret lair, why didn't they put godpacks in Theros? Oh wait they did in the fucking PREMIUM BOOSTERS that contained roughly 20 mystics per Booster box...
I know Wizards watch your channel. I'm just hoping they can take your advice to heart
I played Yugioh, Pokemon, Hearthstone and i can say that magic is the best card game, but but it's a damn shame the price of 5 pieces of cardboard,
a lot of people can't spend that kind of money, and we're talking about basic cards in modern. I love this game but i dont go support this company whit these practices, customers aren't wallets, they are people.
But this product is not designed for the masses. It was designed for the whales.
MtG REALLY isn't that good of a card game anymore.
@@IMatchoNation Still the best one out there. I've tried playing them all just about.
I’ve been wanting to start playing MTG but haven’t because I value money too much and this company’s priorities are completely backwards.
Sure I have a lot of fun with magic. But I also have a lot of fun with pokemon. The fun to price ratio is considerably higher for me in pokemon simply because the game is affordable. This is coming from a salaried person who can afford to play both games but would rather buy other things instead of expensive decks.
Having more fun isn't necessarily a better thing if the cost to achieve that fun is 5x-6x that of the other games. The fun better scale linearly and be that much fun.
The subjectivity is how much fun does someone have compared to other games. I can say for myself that magic isn't even close to being 2x as fun as pokemon. In my opinion of course.
Wow, not even Konami has the gumption to sell five valuable Yugioh cards in a box for $300 + to their player base. And that is saying something.
No, konami just staggers releases and fiddles with rarities
Hey look at it this way, Wotc has acknowledged the secondary market
Isaac Strong not officially so they can still get away with this, and you still have whales buying this product up and trying to resell on the secondary market
Not officially. Of course, its hardly a leap to say that do... But they'll get away with whatever they want to at this point.
Ah but if the base price is a disernable markup based off of market price it's like saying selling all your stock because a buddy who works at Enrron warned you, isn't insider trading.
The fact I can get a limited edition, never to be released again signed playmat of Misty Rainforest by Seb McKinnon for less than the card with his version of the art really says something about these fetchlands
Remember when everyone was complaining even when we thought the product would be sold for about $200?
Wow! What a great analysis! Providing a solution to the problem was masterful. I feel embarrassed for the employees at Wizards, they really need you on staff.
This is me interacting for the algorithm.
This is me arguing with you, showing that this video provoke meaningfull debate.
This is me furthering interaction for Susan’s algorithm
I strongly disagree
I actually agree. There are many reasons to do so.
Strong disagree! Argument starter! Needlessly harsh language! Big mad! >:(
This video is fantastic like all of your videos are, and it always make me happy to see the Red Mars trilogy in the background
YES! I have been waiting for this video!!! Roast them, please!
Many magic the gathering players asked the question: Can people who aren't rich get to play premium cards without having to sell their organs?
And with premium cards i mean fetchlands, Liliana of the veil, Jace mind sculptor... I mean, i can craft a very tasty deck with the budget that a single copy of those cards would cost me, but even then i would love to try some decks with this kind of cards. Not today, probably not anytime in general. Welp.
Top 10 most evil betrayals in anime history.
Proud of you prof. You don't let the imperatives of capitalism destroy your ideals.
I really appreciate all the work you do prof. Keep up the good work.
Last time I was this early I could still play Oko in almost any format
Finally, strong and direct opinions! I absolutely love it! Thank you for being the voice of the masses, our voice, that is surely heard by Wotc. Great content.
When wizards does reprint the fetchlands, they are going to be in the collectors boosters for Zendikar. Because they need to find someway to continue to justify that worthless product while at the same time not giving the fetchlands the reprint volume they so desperately need.
Lots of people would buy the hell out of those collectors boosters if fetches were in there.
@@Kattywagon29 I doubt it. Collectors boosters sold for $220 - $240 and it only comes with 12 packs. This is about the price range for modern masters sets which came with 24 packs. For the most part, card from standard sets don't have as high of a value when compared to modern cards.
I could be wrong, but I don't see many people taking the big risk of buying up a whole bunch of collectors booster boxes in hopes of hitting enough value in fetches and bombs in Zendikar to turn a decent profit margin.
Maybe if the price was dropped slightly then it may be something to consider; but as of right now, the collectors booster remains to be a bad product.
@@Bush_Striker_of_Towers I think anyone who is on the fence about whether or not to buy a collectors booster would be more willing to if there was a possibility of fetches in it.
Collectors boosters come with mostly standard legal cards that may or may not have a value based on the meta. Fetches will always be high value until they are meaningfully reprinted.
If WoTC is going to sell these overpriced products you should have to get on a "whale list" to buy them. If people with too much money want to just give it away for cardboard then so be it.
The people getting screwed over is the average MTG player that then feels the "need" to have them. They waste far too much of their income percentage on what is a fugazi cash grab from WoTC. They dont deserve a penny of it anymore.
Well said! I, for whatever reason, stopped my "get a playset of any halfway decent land" policy sometime just before Zendikar and so only ended up with about half a playset of these. I guess I was happy enough to have Simic and Golgari colors covered and didn't care enough about Izzet, Boros or Orzhov to make an attempt to round things out. I've been looking for times when I could try to fill those out without paying more for them than I paid for original revised duals. I don't think I'll ever be able to do so now. What a feel bad!
I love how blunt and pissed he sounds in this. Yasssss Prof. Shred WotC over this garbage.
Thanks for keeping your critiques real and unbiased Professor 👍
I'm a yugioh player but I enjoy watching MTG content to see how things run differently in other games.
As bad as some of our products are, thank god none of our products are this expensive.
We recently had a product come out that was basically a 40 dollar competitive starter kit, which included a myriad of cards ranging from staple to... questionable.
But each box came with 5 alternate art copies of the "ghost girl" cards, most of which are always relevant and a few of are always needed.
You got all of them in holo, plus several other in-demand staple cards for a tenth the asking price.
I couldnt imagine a product that coat 400 bucks for 5 cards. Even if that box is really elegant.
Thanks for keeping this review straight despite them previewing with you. Much respect!
I'm calling that fetch lands get a reprint in an "Un" set
Yeah! The set will be called "Unprinted!"
That'd be a nice pull to be fair. Still kind of fucked up, but it'd draw in people to draft it.
I see no problem, cards in un-sets that are legal in other formats are printed with black borders (like steamflogger boss), so no problem there.
I would love that if they printed enough boxes.
The art would hopefully be pretty sweet.
You’re an unstoppable force for the player. Please keep doing what you’re doing.
I think the other product could be Secret Lair Ultimate: Ally Fetches. I'd hate it but wouldn't be surprised.
All players I know think this, but having a youtuber calmly explaining this even though he was the one that showed this product is something that I absolutely love about this channel. Thanks for always helping the community. Subscribed many years ago and I hope many new players do the same.
12:20 Nice prediction of Modern Horizons 2
Thank you for speaking ip for the player base, please keep up the great work
u missed a great chance here to remind about the guy that makes those "luxury" wooden deck boxes... but maybe to compare them with secret lair's box was just kinda ridiculous
Nissa + 80's Synth = Vivian
Never have my feelings towards a character been so succinctly described. Perfect.
When Wizards reprints fetch lands to lower the price and ends up increasing the price
Jackson Wald this wasn’t the reprint they are reprinting them in a set
When every major store on the secondary market charges more than double the expected price and then watches Wizards catch all the fire.
The number of copies is so stupidly low even at 165 $ it wouldn't have made the fetchlands more available on the secondary market for the community. Prices decrease when many copies get printed in affordable products.
Amazing analysis, as always. Keep up the good work.
Mystery booster 2.0 with fetchlands in the set.
The Professor is so thorough. Thank you!
WotC: "Fetch lands can't appear in standard because it slows down the game."
Also WotC: creates multiple tutor-like cards in every set that search libraries and graveyards
WotC: New players in standard won’t understand the complexity of playing with fetch lands.
Also WotC: *IKORIA*
Ikoria has 10 cards with the following words in it: "Search Library"
Out of those, 1 is a land, 4 search for lands and are probably unplayable outside of commander, 1 searches for a copy of itself, 3 cost over 4 mana to cast (with 2 being tri-colored) and 1 is a 2 mana creature that can tutor, but requires sacrificing creatures and spending lots of mana to tutor.
None of those will make tutoring near as prevalent as Fetchlands did. Your argument is plain wrong, they don't release many tutors these days.
Moreover, Fetchlands also have the very real problem of greatly increasing the consistency of the manabase, making 5 color soup decks a bit too easy to make, which is not what they want in standard.
@Alice Shiki
My point wasn’t tutors. My point was absurd complexity far beyond fetch lands would ever cause.
Idunno, they took all the problems of the 4 color decks (having access to every part of the pie) and just gave it to UG, so... might as well have color soup.
@@aliceshiki8069 Oh, please. there are 63 cards in standard right now that search libraries and 24 that search graveyards. There are overlap, but in terms of time consumption that is even worse.
Five color "soup" decks are only slightly worse that three color wedge decks. As if everyone would play a 5 color if given the choice...
@Hart
Fetches in standard would also be fine if they weren’t in the same environments as lands with dual typings. I don’t think you’d end up with “Jeskai Black” if you were just fetching for basics.
Professor, I would watch your hilarious skits all day every day. That math problem calculation was amazing.
Second! I was waiting for this vid prof!
me too
I love this. You put a lot of thought into this, and it is like you thought exactly what I was trying to put into words. Make thee expensive baller cards like reskins of cards that have better artwork, but make them SO COOL and then reprint infinite of the same card in a cool but objectively less bling kinda way. Yeah it's like microtransactions, but in this day and age it would work.
It's amazing how wizard's of the coast makes people stop playing the game they make 🤦♂️
"Game"? At this point WOTC is trying to turn it into a full collector product instead of a game.
Soon they will remove the game from Trading Card Game
You nailed it Prof! Sol Ring is the perfect example.
Fetchs will be reprinted in a master set as new type of card: ULTRA mythic expedition.
Rodrigo Fsc The question is what color would the symbol be?
@@soren1803 green
@@richardsalgado3696 only 4 sopies for each fetch in this rarity
@@pnyhmsmx nah there's only one in the whole set
Thank you for being precise and eloquent with your critique of WOTC. You are the voice we need right now.
WotC: we'll be sending a respectable allocation to stores
Players with expendable income: hippity hoppity, they'll never be your property
The closing statement of this review is the single best piece of wisdom anyone has ever spoken.
Some execs at Wizards/Hasbro shoud have it tattooed on their forehead so they can see it everytime they look into a mirror.
Make the game affordable for the masses and at the same time exclusive for those who can afford it.
My guess what will happen: "look guys, the lgs is shilling you, and that's why, going forward, wotc specialty products will only be sold directly through wotc. It's for your own best".
I would love to see again Masterpiece/Expedition/Invocation premium cards. That is the best way to share old and new cards in a new form and everyone has that slow chance to get it from booster packs. Man, that feeling to get it like getting Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Factory 🙂.
This video, if none other, proves pretty definitively that Wizards can't "buy" favorable reviews from the Prof.
I'm impressed with your honest review of this given the circumstances of its reveal, thanks Prof!