Just over a year ago Mark Rosewater, the Head Designer of Magic the Gathering wrote this lengthy article on some upcoming changes to the game we love. While so-called Change #1 is very important to MTG fans, especially the standard format loving ones, Change #2 is the focus here. It has been one year since Mythic rarity was introduced to the Magic playing public and the result has been lackluster. The intended purpose of a new rarity was two-fold: make an impact in how players collected cards, and highlight very special cards. The results have been mixed, and looking at the list of Mythic rares released so far I am wondering if WotC should have bothered at all. Players and collectors are growing more jaded each set as Mythic cards like Sphinx Ambassador and Dragon Broodmother continue to lower our expectations. When Zendikar is released in October players will probably care less about the possible Mythics than possible dual-lands. Probably not what Mark Rosewater had in mind. The following is a look at what has gone wrong, and some easy solutions to the ‘Mythic problem’.
planeswalkers: the real reason for mythic rarity
One type of Mythic rare more than deserves the title. As detailed here Planeswalkers are the soul of Magic the Gathering now and for the foreseeable future. Each passing day WotC releases a tiny bit more about Sorin Markov and we all swoon. There is an excitement around these cards that makes them desirable and ‘epic’ to use the term Rosewater wrote in his piece. Disparities have always existed between rares, some cards are better than others and it is an accepted part of MTG. But it is obvious Ajani Goldmane in every facet is superior when compared to say, Howling Mine. More powerful, more alluring, and most importantly (at least to Wizards) more flavorful. I have no issues with making these valued above other MTG offerings, even the card style is unique. Planeswalkers meet all the criteria involved, and were probably the reason for a new level of rarity in the first place. Perhaps WotC should have kept the Mythic rarity right here instead of forcing it upon cards it doesn’t fit.
for many creatures mythic = unplayable
Huge creatures have always been a part of Magic and that is fine. Actually I love it. Giant green nasties grabbed my interest in the game and held it long enough to develop it into something slightly deeper. Only slightly mind you, because creatures like Baneslayer Angel still bring a joyous single tear to my eye. But do creatures ever deserve to be Mythic? Maybe, but WotC has a funny way of making the decisions regarding which earn the tag. The stated criteria of Mythic rarity per Rosewater: . . . “most legendary creatures, and epic-feeling creatures . . . They will not just be a list of each set’s most powerful tournament-level cards.” Sounds admirable, but how accurate are these guidelines in practice. Some legendary creatures like Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer and Rakka Mar were left off the Mythic bandwagon. Apparently in favor of more flavorful cards like Thornling, and Defiler of Souls. Stoic Angel does not have that ambiguous epic feel, but Jenara, Asura of War does? I can’t tell. Also, how was it decided that the Xathrid Demon is any more epic, or powerful than a card like Captain of the Watch that puts nine power on the table? Because allegedly this is not a list of each set’s most powerful tournament cards. That must explain why Noble Hierarch and Broodmate Dragon aren’t Mythic. Of course that doesn’t begin to tell us why Baneslayer Angel is. The seeming purpose of BA as to be simply the best creature in M10, tournament of otherwise. As long as Mythic exists, then obviously Baneslayer should be Mythic. However it barely hits one (epic feeling) of the three targets Mark Rosewater outlined. How is that possible? Because the stated criteria are clearly not how they decide Mythic status. At least not for creatures. So what about other spells?
not mythic. am i missing something?
Non-creature spells are held to the same lofty expectations that creatures are in relation to Mythic status. And for the most part these outrageous spells hit their marks much more accurately. They are almost always epic, both in feel and mana cost (I’m looking right at you Conflux). And they absolutely aren’t ‘only the most powerful tournament-level cards’. For the most part they are what WotC said they would be, and there are relatively few of of them (only four so far). However a new set of issues pop up here. Instead of the cards they made Mythic, the beef is with the ones they should have made Mythic. The best example of this would be the cycle of ultimatums. Awesome, game-changing spells full of flavor and large enough (seven colored mana) to meet any Mythic standard. Cruel Ultimatum is considered by some to be the most powerful non-creature spell ever printed. Perfect, Mythic rarity to the lot of them and everything is fine. Nope instead we are stuck with Lichs Mirror the only non-creature/non-planeswalker Mythic in Shards of Alara. A card that I have never seen played. Online or otherwise. This lack of action does not stem from the rarity either. My two closest MTG buddies each own at least one copy. If you suggest they include it in a deck you get laughed at. Literally. To conlude, the best non-creature spell in Alara or standard or maybe ever is regular old Rare, and the one Mythic in the set is laughable. This cannot be what Wizards imagined when the idea of Mythic rarity was born.
The way Mythic rarity has been used thus far has been, excluding planewalkers, a tragedy. Mythic creatures seem to be arbitrary and Mythic spells feel like missed opportunity. This wayward ship needs to be righted. And the options are not nearly as difficult as one might imagine. First option, Mythic rarity is reserved for the only cards that truly fit: planeswalkers. This would serve as a way to further separate and highlight them, and maintain the collectible aspect WotC desires. The second option is to do away with it entirely. The list of failed gimmicks related to MTG is actually rather short so one misstep can easily be forgiven. Finally, if Mythic is the path you want to walk WotC then walk it all the way. To clarify, if there is now a level of cards above Rare make them the best cards in Magic. Don’t hold back from making cards like Wrath of God, Cruel Ultimatum and Maelstrom Pulse Mythic. Especially not out of some pseudo-noble attempt to keep the really good cards accessible to everyone (the purpose of rarity in the first place was to make certain cards harder to get). Fans should be clamoring to find out about all the Mythics in each new set , not simply the new planeswalkers and lands. The Mythic tag should be a glowing showcase of a card’s over-all coolness. As of now all it represents is opportunity missed.
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No, DON’T make WoG or Pulse Mythic. Tournament playables shouldn’t be mythic; you think the $20+ tag on Pulse is crazy now?
But, yes you’re right, the Mythic rarity in Alara was a joke, as the rarity was new and they were feeling it out. The Ultimates should have been Mythic (and every one but Cruel and Titanic could’ve been pushed in power a little).
The Mythics in M10 are alot better. Platinum Angel? Preventing you from losing the game is a mythic feeling effect. Time Warp? Taking an extra turn with no drawback is mythic feeling. Same with Darksteel Colossus. Sure, not all of them make sense (the demon that I’ve pulled 4 copies of against 1 Glacial Fortress, WTF?)
I think we’ll have to see Zendikar’s Mythics (One non planeswaler has been released and it does have a mythic feeling) if Wizards is getting better at this rarity. Not all will be winners, but I’m just waiting for the “Why Magic Needs Bad Mythics” article from MaRo.
I have to agree on this one.. Pulse would be a horrible card to make mythic as I think its a bit too “utility” as Maro said.
Wrath of God might just work as a Mythic though.. it definitely feels mythic and does something mythic.
I think Leaf’s point in listing off cards like that was to say.. “by THEIR OWN LOGIC X and Y should be mythic.” Not that he necessarily WANTS it to be harder to get for himself personally or anyone else
I get the feeling from this article that Leaf doesn’t like the Mythic rarity at all.. so his suggestions for what SHOULD be mythic are more tongue in cheek.
Mythic. hmmm. I think the best route is this:
Obvious ones first:
1-5: The Planeswalkers of the block. Five per block, going 3-1-1 or 2-2-1 sounds good. This will let each color have a spot in the sun while the sets get released, then the colors will be rebalanced by the third set.
6, 7?: A really big BOOM! The spell that, if you play it, you will win. Cruel Ultimatum is a good one. Obliterate would make a great Mythic. Something that, instead of destroying anything, destroys EVERYTHING.
8-10: Demons Dragons and Angels oh my! I think wizards needs to lay low on the Hydras and Sphinxes until they figure them out. Can Green get a Flying type? Red doesn’t have many (any?) non-Dragon fliers…what if Flying was on some extra special MYTHIC green creature? It sucks when a Green player and a Blue player sit down with 2 creature decks and the Blue guy wins. Reach at common is nice, but only side-board viable. Reach AND something to make it playable might be too much. make Reach a French Vanilla power (nothing but reach) and make a Mythic Green Flying type
Green: Im supposed to be THE CREATURE COLOR!
Blue: I can fly. Deal with it.
11: WUBRG stuff. I dont know how much i like Gold blocks (Rav was great, Ala sucked, Inv?) but if a card casts 5 mana or more and you need every color, it should be strong. If it feels Mythic, it should Be Mythic. Conflux SHOULD have cost 3 less. Too Powerful? thats the IDEA!
Amazing Retro Cost System: One-drop and Two-drop Mythics are o.k. FTV: Exiled has great examples of cheap Mythics in all colors. Super Pump. Super Summon. Super Lock. Super Evil-Power-With-a-Cost.
Super Artifacts.
I am with you on this! I am not a fan of Mythic rares. When this was announced I was concerned – I already find it difficult to acquire key rares in my area but making key cards harder to find – yuck. So I am thankful that the best cards are not Mythic from a practical stand point but that kind of makes them pointless. I would be cool with only planes walkers and legends being mythic. My preference would be to just drop it.
As for Lich’s Mirror. Clearly that card is not for you – send them to me. My friend and I have been thinking about it for a while now. We have not designed a deck yet but if we had actual cards we would be more motivated:-)
I agree with everything you are saying here, but i really wonder why so many people think that Dragon Broodmother is a terrible card? I have pulled that card out and turned many games around with it much to my opponent’s surprise due to nobody playing it at even FNM because for some reason “it sucks”. The card is insane and the same converted cost as broodmate.
I am certainly not claiming Broodmother is a bad card, but most any MTG player would prefer Broodmate Dragon. So why is Broodmother mythic and Broodmate is only rare?
solution: switch the rarities?
I have a GREAT IDEA!!!!
do that with Jace 2.0 and Cruel xD
I dont think they wanted to make mythic rares in the first place. I mean, read Maro’s article.. most of it is like..”we have to do this because other games are and we dont want to be left in the dust”..
So they decided.. well we REALLY dont want to make utility cards mythic (even though theyre typically the best, most sought after cards..) so we’ll just MAKE UP some cards to BE mythic. Make some huge creatures that are impossible to play that aren’t even legendary or particularly flavorful.. and call them mythic. I get the feeling that some of those Alara Mythics were just so FORCED. 8-9 mana for a 6/6 flyer with a randomly powerful ability?.. not playable even in a casual setting. M10 had some good Mythic choices like Plat Ang and DS Collosus but cmon.. Borgadan Hellkite?.. Sphinx Ambassador?.. They don’t even feel epic. Anyway.. I’ll stop the rant now but my main point is that I think Wizards dev team probably agrees with you but was forced to make mythic rares by the promotion department and/or maro. Its obvious in their arbitrary card choices for the rarity that they’re not 100% on board with Mythic and aren’t quite sure what to do with it at this point. Mythics could be a great thing for the game but I think you’re right when you called it a “missed opportunity” that feels forced and arbitrary.
1. Don’t rag on Dragon Broodmother. “Dragonslut” is an awesome card, especially in multi-player games. My g/f has a deck that abuses her and Doubling Season for lots of 1/1 dragons… *gulp* It may not see T2 play, but the Broodmother is a casual bomb.
2. Agreed that the mythic rarity cards make a lot more sense in M10 than the Alara block. I would opine that a very few cards should be mythic, compared to the large number we have now. Most of the earlier mythics were crap.
The cards that should be mythic in M10: 5 Planeswalkers, Darksteel Colossus, Platinum Angel, 1 card of each colour. That would be 12.
3. Mythic hasn’t really necessary to keep up with the Jones’ (especially since MTG was already #1), but it has made Baneslayer Angel and the new Planeswalker a hell of a lot more expensive. WOTC wants people to crack more packs, and they will do so if the mythics are worth the cost. WOTC wanted to sell more packs and this is a way to do it. Success for them.
4. Be thankful that cards like Maelstrom Pulse aren’t mythic. T2 (Which I don’t play anymore) is already insanely expensive as it is.
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Overall, It would seem that WOTC screwed up with the mythic rarity at first, but did a better job with it in M10. It would be best to make fewer mythic rares in each set and make them very powerful and/or just planeswalkers. Make a mythic rare feel special.
I think that if they would have made the Planeswalkers mythic in Lorwyn and left it alone until the next big block, Shards, they would have been fine. There is no reason to make a designated percentage of mythics each set. Keep them special and only release them at special times.
If I had a vote, this would be mine: Keep mythic rarity to planeswalkes. That’s it. Everything else is just too convoluted.
I completely agree. When I first saw the Alara Mythics, my response was “bleh”. Planeswalker cards should be the only cards that fit. I wasn’t impressed with the Mythic rarity in the first place and Wizards missed out on the opportunity to impress me. There were many ways to make the mythics great.
First of all they could have actually been mythic(instead of 1 out of 8 packs they could’ve made it 1 out of 1000 and extremely powerful.) I have trouble being impressed by a card that everybody I know seems to have a playset or near playset of.
They could have been reprints of older cards such as the original dual lands (again really make them mythically rare). This would’ve not only brought up the price of mythics, but also the originals making them tournament legal.
They could’ve just made the cards Future Sight cards upcoming sets that aren’t nonlimited-tournament legal until the set comes up. Constructed players only buy online anyway.
Last, if they want to keep rarity at 1 out of 8 packs, they should just keep them as planeswalkers, dual lands, and alternate artworks of the rares.
Although, I never cared for the idea of mythic rares, any of these ideas could’ve made them matter more to me. Wizards really missed out and I hope they read these forums to get the advice you give. This site has the most sensible look at the game I have ever seen.
I could see saving mythic status for planeswalkers and legendary creatures. It makes sense.
Not even WotC can always tell what cards will take off and become really useful. Not always that is. But I’m sure they knew about most of them.
I’m still just so happy about regeneration being useful again.
Holy crap! We actually agree on something for once!
I think the best thing to do with Mythics is to keep them as planeswalkers. That’s it.
Rarity shouldn’t be the grounds for creating power because in constructed rarity doesn’t matter. Rarity is used to make drafts more interesting. The idea of super powerful rares is a mistake (looking at you, baneslayer. if she had cost 6 no one would care)
Very good article !
Although I would not care to see WoG / Pulse / Cruel become Mythic, I do agree with your message here.
I should very much like to receive from Wizards a document which provide rarity categories and a definition as to what characteristics allow (or deny) a card entry into a particular rarity.
Most Legendary critters are not worth mythic status but the PW’s certainly do.
I personally like the concept of having mythics, you have a level of rarity that you’re not garanteed in every pack, and that makes it much more special to get your hands on one.
Maybe they made some bad choices (I agree that Lich’s Mirror and Sphinx Ambassador shouldn’t have been mythics), but that’s life. They made tons of rares and uncommons that weren’t up to standard. I don’t think this has hurt the game in any way.
Mostly fine article, but making the best spells in a set mythic is a terrible idea.. Could you imagine the cost of constructed if tournament staples were mythic? Baneslayer is a good example: goes for $40au at the moment, was $55 at aus nationals.
If maelstrom pulse was mythic it would be pushing 50 easy.. Not good! If mutavaults were mythic, imagine lorwyn block, easily 80-90$ cards! In standard!! That’s totally unreasonable. Cryptic command at mythic. Jesus try 70 bucks
even wrath, that’s been printed sooooo many times, if that came back as mythic, it’d push 25, instead of the 12-15 it is now.
And I shudder to think how much tarmogoyfs would still be going for if they were mythic… Over 100 easy..
Bad times for magic would be certain if this happened. I frankly like that most of the shitty rares are mythic, because it means I won’t rip them when I’d rather open a playable normal rare..
“I frankly like that most of the sh***y rares are mythic, because it means I won’t rip them when I’d rather open a playable normal rare.”
This is exactly my point. WotC tried to create a marketing tool that changed how cards were collected, and failed.
Also, mythic is there for another reason: some creatures / spells are just limited BOMBS. Baneslayer Angel for example. If it was a rare, do you have any idea how often people would kick the crap out of other people with it in M10 Draft? It’d be “Who draws bomb X” even more than it is now.
Also, from a flavour perspective, a booster pack is like a day or a week on a certain plane for you, a planeswalker. Rather than meet a planeswalker as often as you would, say, an elemental lord, or a powerful treefolk, or a Champion card in Lorwyn, in Shards, planeswalkers are special. Because the bottom line is: you’re not meant to see them every day.
The same goes for legendary creatures and really powerful ones: They’re so rare a planeswalker is unlikely to see them on his travels unless he’s lucky: which you are to crack a mythic.
The problem I have with things like Baneslayer is that it seems like it just went along the lines of…
“We like Baneslayer, but it just feels too weak at this cost.”
“But the cost is fair as it is.”
“Can’t we shave off, say, 1W?”
“And put it at 3WW? That would be ridiculous! We’d have to get rid of two of its abilities, and lower its p/t besides.”
“What is we just made it mythic instead?”
“…BRILLIANT.”
In other words, it feels like they didn’t decide it was a well-designed card and then put it at mythic; they just used mythic as an excuse t make it ridiculous.
Although I agree with this article (most of it anyway – there’s absolutely no way things like WoG should be mythic), making only planeswalkers mythic is not a solution. Think about it. If they make three to five walkers in every large set, that means three to five mythics. And with that amount, there’s a much bigger chance of opening them. Which kind of defeats the purpose. The only other solution is to make 15 walkers instead, plus 10 every small set, which is obviously ridiculous.
If Wizards made mythic rarity exclusive to planeswalkers it wouldn’t be tough to implement. Make mythic rarity about 1:20 rares or even 1:25 instead of the current 1:8 ratio. Then they wouldn’t be any easier to pull and WotC could still only make four or five per set. Easy fix.
I agree with alot of what’s been said. I think Mythic rarity should be reserved for Planeswalkers, Legendary Creatures and the occasional multiplayer bomb creature or spell (Lord of Xathrid, The Ultimatums). That’s only if they choose to have mythic rarity. Truthfully I’d like a better chance of pulling a Planeswalker or Baneslayer and could care less about what it’s worth. Screw monetary value attached to cardboard. I am guilty of spending up to $10 per card on a few I’ve needed to complete decks but I really try to trade for anything that I can’t buy for $10 or less.
Other than the planeswalkers in M10, I don’t think we’ve yet seen a cycle in mythic? I guess they don’t want to ram up all the mythic slots with a cycle, especially as most cycles include a couple of duff ones (i’m looking at the esper and bant ultimatums, which I don’t even know the names of [actually, i don't think i know what the bant one even does?]).
It is something of an interesting exercise to go back to previous sets and wonder what would have been printed at mythic. The Guild-Leaders from Ravnica Block? The Epic Spells from Savious? Mindslaver? The Decrees? The Kamigawa dragons? I wonder how expensive Kokusho would be at mythic?
I was against mythic rarity when it was unveiled (reminded me too much of Yugioh, which has 1/32 packs and 1/64 packs level rarity). But if WotC is going to continue printing them then I think that printing fewer mythic would not solve the problem. With a large set like Shards or M10, your chances of getting a certain rare in a pack are about 1/50. Your chances of getting a certain mythic are about 1/120. If you only printed the planeswalkers then your chance of getting a certain mythic drops to about 1/40, which means it’s easier to find than a rare. Simply making mythic 1 to every 20 to 25 packs doesn’t help much either. It might be fun to open a pack with a super-rare, over-powered planeswalker in it, but doesn’t printing so few of them go against the game. If the mythics are so rare that no one has enough to use them then what is the point of printing them at all?
@W That would actually make Mythic worth something. If it was nearly impossible to get a hold of one, even Lich’s Mirror would be a chase card. Look at cards like Splendid Genesis and Fruitcake Elemental. Very few of these are in existence, Their abilities aren’t very good (and in many cases useless) But some of them run for thousands of dollars. If they severely limited the number of Mythics to where it would be hard to get a hold of one, cards with limited use would be worth it just to build a deck around it. Have you ever seen the Lich’s Mirror deck where you Donate it to your opponent with Rain of Gore in play? If you win the game under those conditions, your opponent loses the game an infinite number of times. Wouldn’t it be great to be the only person within five cities to do something like that as opposed to one out of five hundred in any major city? The biggest problem with mythic rares is that they aren’t mythically rare.
I agree with Salivanth and the flavor perspective. If these planes and cards were real, and we as players roamed these planes, the “mythic” creatures and spells would be very rarely seen. For example, if you are hanging out in the forests of Naya, it would be no big surprise to run into a thoctar or a band of elves. But coming across a Godsire rummaging around or meeting Mayael face to face is near impossible. Basically, I think mythic rarity has quite a bit to do with the actual storyline of the block, and not just a card that has a more powerful ability.
What you say is plain NUTS, man!! You say several Mythics are kickass cards with huge effects, wacky legends and overgimmicky cards, and that the real highlight goes for regular rares. Well: you know how much does any card cost in secondary market just for being Mythic? The lamest go over 6€ (dunno how many $), and the greatests go over 20€! If tournament staples like removal, sweepers, utility creatures and the like get Mythic rarity, most competitive decks would raise price like no tomorrow. The first thing WotC promised with Mythic rarity, is that no staple card should be Mythic (thus, no unnecesary costier tournament decks for anyone), and that a card must be Epic to be Mythic, and nothing fells more Epic than kickass effects, wacky legends (and powerful ones, of course) and gigantic creatures…
For better or worse, none of such cards are staple.
I have a balance rule! All mythic rares are legendary if they can be. Why? Because they clearly imagined they were legends when balancing them!
Actually that doesn’t solve it; baneslayer, stigma lasher, “double lackey”, would they be fair as legends? I’m not sure, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Also I’m not impressed with “storm trap” (I’m paraphrasing to avoid big spoilers), it’s an answer, and answers should not be mythics, especially if they are supposed to be balancing the format!
Focused answers work well as rares, like teferi’s response. Rares should amazing if you put the work in, with higher mana costs or pre-requisites. Mythics? Following on from planeswalkers, they should sit outside normal synergy and be good, or have serious pre-requisites on that synergy. They should be able to stand next to planeswalkers.
If they made all the tournament level cards Mythics, that would make Magic a very expensive game. Imagine if Lightning Bolt was remade as “Lightning” but it was a Mythic. That would make it at least a $20 card, and that would be another $80 I would have to spend on cards to play any deck with red in it.
Oh yeah, Magic is already expensive. So I guess it would be even worse.
Never, ever should dual lands be mythic. The fetches sell half of Zendikar almost; who would still play if the fetches triple in price?
In terms of power level, the fetches are comparable to, if not even more ubiquitous, than BSA and Bloodbraid Elf. A Standard competitive deck often needs BSA, but ABSOLUTELY needs fetch lands. Printing the overpowered BSA at mythic was a mistake, but printing the dual lands at mythic would be ruinous, and they didn’t do it for the same reason that they didn’t cost a booster pack at $10.
My only complaints about the mythic are BSA and Elspeth being overpowered (Nissa fixed Elsp though, so they’re learning), and the Ultimatum cycle not being mythic. The huge monsters certainly feel mythic, and should stay there, though I’d appreciate if they could see some play now, like how Angel of Despair saw play during Ravnica. But with decks playing 15+ Blightings running around, it’s not happening soon. (Damn you, Cascade!)
The only good reason I have ever heard for not making some cards mythic is price. But is price really what should be determining rarity? What is the point of Mythic cards if they are hard to get?
I agree dual lands should never be mythic (for various reasons). But BSA is a for sure, pricey or not. Either that, or do away with the mythic rarity all together.
You have missed one important point – mythic rares are no more rare than a rare in any other set – in fact a rare from alara is only a half rare. The proof:
In Alara there are 15 Mythic rares and 53 gold rares. ok so the ratio is about 3.5 : 1 Now the interesting thing is that the occurance is approx 1 in 8 packs for a mythic.
Now consider the standard sheet size of 121 cards. Lets lay out the sheet as 2 x each rare and 1 x each mythic. 53+53= 106 + 15 = 121. Note that that also gives the 1 in 8 pack ratio.
Looking at the small sets. 10 x Mythic and 35 x Rare = 80 cards for the 1 in 8 ratio.
WOW!!!
Nothing has changed – except that a Gold rare is only half as rare as it used to be – you still have to open the same number of packs to get the Mythics – you just get more duplicate gold rares.
However the big bonus is that you don’yt have the same number of filler rares, and limited becomes a lot more consistant with the 4 rarity levels.
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Think they could spice up the mythic thing a bit if they made some format where you could either only use mythic cards from any set or have the mythics gain some special power over other cards depending how many you had in play or something.
(in response to almost everyone) IMO be glad the cards you like to use are not MR. This way you can get a hold of them much more easily and for much cheaper than if they were. Maybe wizards just sticks a mythic rare symbol on cards to mess with us, to make us actually look at the card and how it will function in a particular deck. As we all know, you can make many game winning decks without utilizing one MR. Just my 2 cents.
Any super rare card is a bad idea as it drives up the cost through the roof. Instead then of having a balanced game that everyone can enjoy, those with more money to spend on the game will have an advantage. Simple as that. If the game would be BETTER if everyone was free in their deck design. And this wouldn’t make Wizards go out of buiness either. Just don’t make needed cards UBER rare and hence EXPENSIVE.