The Shock Land issue was something that hadn't occurred to me and blows my mind that they won't be in the same rotation.

I think Brian is talking about something of critical importance to the future of gaming when he discusses these crossovers and the IP/licensing issues. Helldivers 2 is a recent example where they integrated weapons from Halo as an acquirable weapon set. Players were requesting some tweaks and the devs said they weren't going to be tweaking these weapons in the future because there's too much paperwork involved (that's my abridged recollected summary of events, anyways.) Other commenters revealed that it seemed to be because any adjustments to these weapons had to be run by Halo's legal teams, since the IP holders wouldn't want these crossover weapons to become pea-shooters and some such. This begins to represent a real shift in how games are made, because now it's accountants and lawyers deciding core game elements, and that's simply not a future any of us looks forward to.

I dont mean to be a dog- piling negative Nancy, but I do take some comfort in knowing that a large chunk of the magic community has the same concerns. Themes and esthetic are a huge part of why I play magic.

"Ok, I will tap Gandalf to station my USS Enterprise and swing at you for 5....oh your blocking with Venom? Ok." - Magic 2026

I've become a cube truther. Basically, I feel like Cube, and specifically your own cube, is the only remaining way to decide which cards you want to interact with when playing Magic.

I’ve felt insanely gaslit by the amount of people being so casual about this UB issue, and it’s refreshing to see influencers in the game say something. Keep talking!!!

You touched on something that too many content creators have only briefly mentioned then mostly ignore -- the control WotC is allowing these license holders to have. Other than general stuff like release dates, WotC should not be giving any true control to license holders. Primary example being, if they couldn't get digital licensing included with Spiderman, they shouldn't have agreed to make the set, no matter what, period, end of story, no exception. Through the Omenpaths should not exist in any capacity and is nothing more than a sign of WotC's failure to control their own game.

Edit: Can't forget control over reprint styles. We already know that if they reprint any 40k cards we're getting new creature types which absolutely is BS. And to a much lesser extent, so is changing the rules and standards of creature types to appease Doctor Who owners.

I can feel Kibler's experiences with licenses he's worked with here in the latter half.

During Duskmourn, I was annoyed at the hate that an infinite multiverse had “contemporary” planes that were too similar to our world and not Magic enough. I apologize to all those who I got annoyed by because yeah this is ain’t Magic 😂

Australian here:
My store saw a total of 12 people attend the Spider-Man pre-release.
The store was left with heaps of pre-release boxes that no one wanted.
The other store also had similar or worse attendance with one store only having one person show up.
My store usually drafts the most recent set competitively every week (we run a ladder for the duration of the most recent set) we have all decided to draft cube or older sets instead because it feels like a rip-off and not a magic product.

Your not upset, underwhelmed, and disappointed because you don't like magic. You feel those ways because you grew up with magic and you love it. I feel you bro. I used to tour WOTC back when they where a little place by the south center mall. Preach!

I don't know if you realize this Brian but your the perfect spokesman for the average magic the gathering player! Your a retired pro player that's in the hall of fame. You have a successful Commander content channel, you have a history with other card games and you have a history in game development! Thank you for the articulate critiques.

Awesome balanced commentary, agree with literally everything you say. Great to see a video that is not just an endless complaint

I'm not surprised how well thought out this was, I appreciate your well put views without "getting upset". Thank you as always brother!

"I don't want to play my wizards and dragons card game and have to interact with a rent is due card"

YES!! THIS EXACTLY!!! WTF why is this such a hot take it seems like total common sense

I think this is my favorite criticism done on modern magic.

I really appreciate the "big names" in magic doing videos like this, because us random dudes on reddit just get downvoted for the same opinions. Unless it's said by a celebrity, people just don't take you seriously. The pros, content creators, etc are the community's biggest representatives for our voice to actually be heard.

Thank you for speaking out about some of the glaring issues with the current state of Magic and UB as a major creator!

Sometimes I get the feeling that many of the large creators embrace the positivity at all costs mindset, which I think is not going to help us in any way making things better.

What a great video. Taking on UB from a perspective of "I think plenty of this is good, but we can't ignore these serious downsides" is awesome.

You are addressing each one of my concerns and viewpoints. Design wise they are going to pressure themselves not even on licenses but also the fact you are going towards 7(!) sets a year. Design wise you can play it safe and pump out “meh” sets, power-creep any subsequent set, or just loose sight of game balance by sheer amount of mechanically unique cards you are pumping out.