WotC selling Magic on Amazon

the only way that Magic works is if there is a common area to play in that draws people. Card stores and comic stores are the last bastions of this. if people are buying on Amazon (and they will), there is no where for them to play together in an organized fashion so people will stop buying cards.

I don't get it.

I doubt that there is a significant amount of kitchen table Magic happening these days. When a game lasts maybe 15 minutes, you aren't going to drive over to somebody's house and play the same person over and over again for hours. You will want a variety of opponents, and the easiest way to get that is by showing up at a local game shop that has tables and regular times set aside for Magic players.

Shellhead wrote: I doubt that there is a significant amount of kitchen table Magic happening these days. When a game lasts maybe 15 minutes, you aren't going to drive over to somebody's house and play the same person over and over again for hours. You will want a variety of opponents, and the easiest way to get that is by showing up at a local game shop that has tables and regular times set aside for Magic players.

Commander (Elder Dragon Highlander for older players) has become pretty popular. It is generally a casual multiplayer format that works best with friends who all agree on how nasty to be with the decks. It can take quite a while to finish a game.

I think that the local tournaments are a big part of the draw of Magic, and why people spend so much money playing it. If the local scene disappears, I think a lot of the tournament players will generally turn to online card games, and Magic's online system is just not as good as its competitors.

The Commander format mentioned above only requires 1 copy of each card for a deck, so players don't buys boxes of cards to make their decks.

I'm not really sure what the issue is. OLGSs have been undercutting FLGSs on booster boxes for ages now. I can preorder a box of the newest set for $92 on Miniature Market right now.

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/wocc45850-box.html

It seems to me that people coming in to pay MSRP on a booster box at an FLGS would already be a rare occurrence. Most drafts are
a group of people essentially doing just that but they're getting a place to play and a judge. I would think most FLGS make their Magic money on selling singles to tournament players and the occasional impulse buy booster pack.

Sagrilarus wrote: I'm not sure that's the case for Magic. There is a lot of casual play, and I don't think Wizards of the Coast is giving up on competition play. They're just giving up on MSRP sales at third party vendors being the primary delivery channel for cards.[/quot€]
What I mean is that casual play needs organized play to exist.

By nature, Magic needs a community of players to, well, be playable. You need people to trade with, you need regular opponents and you need a place to do both of these things. Most people don't just play with their friends, they have a local metagame, centered on a shop and they play casual games there or "Friday Night Magic" pr Cp,,amder. Because it's important to keep in mind, "casual" Magic: The Gathering is still a lifestyle game. It's not something people play from time to time, but something they play every single week.

Competitive play and the like are also important because they are a value proposition. Wizards has to convince people that spending 20 bucks on a single piece of cardboard is something worthwhile and if they are just playing alone with their friends and Amazon-bought cards, well, that's probably not worth it, is it?