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The topic of UB is continuing to create controversy as the number of non-Magic IP products explodes. The Professor put out a recent video on the topic predicting a future Universes Within product to make up for all the unique UB cards being added to the mix, but looks like MaRo has quickly shut that idea down.
What are players who don't like UB supposed to do when there are no Magic versions of those cards? This is now just reality.
Maro is also taking into account draft chaff and random Commander filler, I imagine most of the actually popular UB cards will get reprints eventually. I'd expect it in a regular reprint set since I can't imagine there's that much demand for a solely UW set since a lot of the draw of these cards comes from the flavor of the original IP
What are players who don't like UB supposed to do when there are no Magic versions of those cards?
Just ignore them. They already release too many cards each year anyways, so it's not hard to skip them. Or play other games. Magic isn't worth your time or money if you're not enjoying it
They're intending for Magic to go the way of Lego. A bunch of different IPs in the mix and you'll only engage with the sets you choose. If that's only UW sets, they're ok with that. For every one person that says they're going to quit because of UB cards/sets, there's likely 3-5 people that are picking up the game for the same reason.
The unfortunate side of this is that you don't get left out of competitive Lego if you decide to not engage with a set.
It's a business first, so someone has done the math to make sure that this kind of risk is worth it. Starting with Secret Lairs (Walking Dead) was a genius way to test the idea. Same goes for everything else they've done recently, new foil types, serialized cards, etc. They wouldn't do that stuff if it didn't make them money.
I'm not advocating in favor of this kind of behavior, but it's the reality of how product development works. You ship, test, iterate and ship. As long as they project growth, even if it's at the expense of their most enfranchised players, they'll continue to do whatever is working. You just have to decide whether it's an environment you want to participate in.
What are players who don’t like UB supposed to do when there are no Magic versions of those cards?
If you're just playing with your friends you can just decide to not use them or make custom proxy versions for the cards you really want to play with. Or you can just play limited, either with a set that doesn't have any UB cards or with your own cube.
Otherwise I guess you can either learn to live with them or just stop playing. For me it's mostly the latter. Universes Beyond, along with absolutely insane power creep especially in Modern and an overwhelming flood of increasingly expensive products have really taken the fun out of the game for me.
I think the most worrying thing mentioned in the video is how many sets are planned to be released for the Marvel universe. We're looking at probably 2-3 years of continual Marvel-related releases, and I think the overall effect that will have is that the UB sets are really the first-class citizens and the regular in-universe sets are actually secondary. I think people will start to associate the game entirely to these UB sets given how much press and coverage and marketing they get. I think enfranchised players will start to look at other games in increasing numbers.
It's impossible to predict the effect this will have, and the effects could very a lot depending on the target market -- casual players may increase but competitive players may decrease for instance. However, one thing I believe for certain is that the way people think about Magic is already fundamentally different, and that UB sets will only continue to increase in total share of printed cards will further change the way people think about the game. At some point, you're not playing Magic anymore, and the players aren't really the same type of people/players as they once were.
Either suck it up or stop playing. It looks like this is where the money is.