March of the Machines: "Afterthought" ;)
General forum
Posted on May 16, 2023, 9:19 p.m. by TypicalTimmy
What is the purpose of releasing a 50 card set? It doesn't even appear draftable?
I am genuinely confused here. I understand it is a continuation of events to show what happened, story-wise, after the events of the invasion and subsequent defeat of the Phyrexians but...
And yes, it functioned as an excuse to bring back Planeswalkers who died in the story, be it directly or outside of the story itself. But they didn't bring everyone back. I can list three off the top of my head who were not returned, although I won't for the purposes of spoilers to either the story or set.
So I'm perplexed. It isn't big enough to draft, it doesn't really do anything story-wise other then act as an afterthought for retconning something that probably should have had a permanent impact to the world, and it doesn't add any value in terms of card power and dynamic that we haven't already seen elsewhere.
So like, what is even the point? Sure money but... Is that all? Because if so, well that didn't go over so well, now did it? Lol
plakjekaas says... #3
I wish it was to shake up Standard a bit, to keep it fresh until Eldraine drops in October, but it's released too close to the main set for that, imo. They actually did the opposite, keeping Standard stale for another year by changing the rotation, but that's probably not a subject for this topic.
So it's probably because the community still isn't playing enough commander, to supply even more build-around legendaries /rolleyes
May 16, 2023 11:27 p.m.
From a storytelling perspective, it can be rather hard to have a good closing action scene when the primary focus of a set is the battle. Every card in a set that focuses on the aftermath is a card which isn’t telling the primary story - and you can’t really design a whole set’s worth of “and here’s us rebuilding” since a protracted story without conflict is rather difficult to pull off.
Aftermath solves that problem - it let them focus on the war for the main set and still tell what happened next, without wasting precious space in any full sets. It is a pretty neat idea which can fix two common complaints about Magic’s lore - cards spoiling the end of the story and the ending of the stories feeling rushed since they don’t have much card support.
The execution had problems, but that’s because Wizards’ lore team did an awful job with the pacing of their Phyrexian storyline. But that’s not really Aftermath’s fault - you can’t blame a useful new tool just because it was in the hands of someone who hasn’t figured out how to use it yet.
May 17, 2023 1:02 a.m.
I think if the Pinkerton thing hadn't happened the hate wouldn't be as strong, that being said yeah a 50 card set with cheaper yes but still only slightly packs are lame. I'm only in it for tyvar and nissa. The rest is just a gamble to see if it's worth it for the inverters after the hate and no one buying it
May 18, 2023 1:25 a.m.
Daveslab2022 says... #6
I liked the concept at first but the implementation of it was just meh. It honestly just feels like a bonus sheet that they forgot to put into the regular boosters.
wallisface says... #2
It’s just Wotc trying something new and see how it works. It may be a hit, it may be a flop - but they’re seeing what the public think of the concept.
The cards themselves are meant to act as a direction for the story going forwards, now that the current arc is over. Its designed to (attempt to) keep people involved and interested in the magic story despite the ending of an arc spanning multiple years.
As far as card appeal, they’re pretty obviously mostly geared towards commander, though there are a few small nods to Standard/Pioneer/Modern.
Personally, i also feel like the set is a bit silly, bit i’m largely indifferent to it. I think it allowed them to remove some baggage from MoM, so overall that set may be a lot more cohesive because of Aftermath.
May 16, 2023 10:19 p.m.