A quick note on core sets
November 29th 2008 00:22
“The Magic: the Gathering core set presents the Magic game in its purest form. This painstakingly crafted compilation acts as a “greatest hits” collection, a foundation to start building your own collection, a reliable place to find some of the most powerful tournament-defining cards, and a practical guide to the fundamentals of the game.”
-- from the Core Set Tenth Edition player’s guide
With the Eleventh Edition of the core set due for release in a little over six months, speculation is already running wild about what will be included. From reading the relevant forums, it is apparent that there remains a little confusion over what exactly the purpose of Magic’s core set is; and in such a situation, what better resource do we have than the words of the ones who make it? The quote above appears on the first page of the player’s guide, and while I understand that not everyone has a copy of said guide, this point is so basic that anyone who was ever an entry-level player (which is to say, everyone) should know it.
As such, when deciding what we want and what we expect from the next core set, it is important to keep in mind that it has more than one purpose. It is all four of the things outlined on the first page of the Tenth Edition player’s guide – it is not solely the third thing. The core set is most certainly not a depository for every power card (and overpowered card) in the game’s history; or worse, every card from the Ravnica block.
While it is the case that hard-core Standard players pay a lot of attention to the core set because they need to know which staple cards are available this rotation, they are far from the only group that does. Some experienced players use simple constructed decks containing mostly or entirely core set cards for the purpose of teaching their friends and relatives to play. Contrary to popular belief, it is also of interest to many casual players; a few may have original versions of the reprinted cards, but some of those originals are from old sets and are not widely available; in such cases, the core set provides easy access to them for everyone. Finally, many cards in the core set are reprints only in a technical, or functional sense; many others have new art, and as such are different cards from the perspective of collectibility.
It’s true that the next core set is going to be significantly smaller than the last one, but there is no indication that its mission statement is any different; nothing else has the role of being the foundation of Standard and illustrating the color wheel and the fundamentals of the game, and nothing else can play that role.
Believe it or not, the reason I write this is not because I’m sick of hearing this kind of speculation (although it has happened 95,263 times as of this Thursday). I write this because it will be better for everyone involved if expectations remain within the realm of reason and possibility. Magic is deeper and appeals to a wider range of people than many other games, but even it has limits on what it can deliver, and if you expect otherwise, you are bound to be disappointed.
-- from the Core Set Tenth Edition player’s guide
With the Eleventh Edition of the core set due for release in a little over six months, speculation is already running wild about what will be included. From reading the relevant forums, it is apparent that there remains a little confusion over what exactly the purpose of Magic’s core set is; and in such a situation, what better resource do we have than the words of the ones who make it? The quote above appears on the first page of the player’s guide, and while I understand that not everyone has a copy of said guide, this point is so basic that anyone who was ever an entry-level player (which is to say, everyone) should know it.
As such, when deciding what we want and what we expect from the next core set, it is important to keep in mind that it has more than one purpose. It is all four of the things outlined on the first page of the Tenth Edition player’s guide – it is not solely the third thing. The core set is most certainly not a depository for every power card (and overpowered card) in the game’s history; or worse, every card from the Ravnica block.
Broken cards do not belong in the core set. Banned cards, even less.
While it is the case that hard-core Standard players pay a lot of attention to the core set because they need to know which staple cards are available this rotation, they are far from the only group that does. Some experienced players use simple constructed decks containing mostly or entirely core set cards for the purpose of teaching their friends and relatives to play. Contrary to popular belief, it is also of interest to many casual players; a few may have original versions of the reprinted cards, but some of those originals are from old sets and are not widely available; in such cases, the core set provides easy access to them for everyone. Finally, many cards in the core set are reprints only in a technical, or functional sense; many others have new art, and as such are different cards from the perspective of collectibility.
It’s true that the next core set is going to be significantly smaller than the last one, but there is no indication that its mission statement is any different; nothing else has the role of being the foundation of Standard and illustrating the color wheel and the fundamentals of the game, and nothing else can play that role.
Believe it or not, the reason I write this is not because I’m sick of hearing this kind of speculation (although it has happened 95,263 times as of this Thursday). I write this because it will be better for everyone involved if expectations remain within the realm of reason and possibility. Magic is deeper and appeals to a wider range of people than many other games, but even it has limits on what it can deliver, and if you expect otherwise, you are bound to be disappointed.
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