Is there any possibility that wotc could make universes beyond-free format variants to formats that currently allow them, such as commander and such? My friends and I do not wish to take part in games that ruin our immersion in such a way, when it was the mild role play and “you are a planeswalker” theming that got us into the game, and it’s becoming increasingly harder to avoid universes beyond cards. As it stands there isn’t a way we can really avoid them at our local gaming stores, and we’re getting frustrated only being able to play amongst ourselves in a game that we used to be able to play with others. Can you please give us some hope?
We did some market research to see if there was an audience for Universe Beyond-less formats. Only 7% of respondents were interested. That’s too small a group for a format we’d officially create, but many formats (Commander being the most famous) have begun as things created by the players. Something having a groundswell of support will eventually get noticed.___
It’s kind of a weird question though right? Like I have a general disdain for UB, but I also don’t want a new format, buuut 10/10 times I’d prefer to join a pod where no one was playing with those cards so idk.
This comes from the same market research that showed “the vast majority of tabletop Magic players (over 75%) don’t know what a planewalker is, … don’t know what a format is”. Take that for what it’s worth. I personally cannot believe it, but if that’s what we’re dealing with it almost doesn’t matter what question they ask, they’ll get whatever answer they’re looking for.
https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/698478689008189440/a-mistake-folks-in-the-hyper-enfranchised
First thought I had when I read this was “I don’t remember being asked this question”. This feels like when a game or small business schmoozes a tabloid to give them a “best of” award. They are building echo chambers around their business to justify profitable decisions.