Are Magic Players Moving to Riftbound? - Brainstorm Buddies with Jim Davis

Comments · 262

• KE

  @keihndeth · 3 months ago

  This needs to be a weekly podcast. Fantastic episode. Two thumbs up!!

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• BL

  @blueberrydetective7323 · 2 months ago (edited)

  Riftbound got me back into regularly playing competitive tcgs. I&apos;ve completely given up on all magic except for my friend&apos;s monthly cube drafts. I can brew at golden age modern power levels and I meet a much more diverse crowd than I ever did with magic. Riot was able to give me what WoTC somehow lost, a fun competitive game that let&apos;s me meet all kinds of new people.<br><br>Edit: I love Jim&apos;s quote at the end &quot;Magic right now is a product&quot;, Magic really does just feel like a product first and maybe a game on occasion.

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• ST

  @STS-qi1qy · 2 months ago

  I definitely think the issue isn&apos;t competitive nor commander but, as Jim says, the drive to monetize. They&apos;ve shown that they don&apos;t have the ability to moderate. As soon as there&apos;s a flash of profit they drive fully in that direction without considering anything else. Hence why the pendulum keeps swinging wildly between &apos;normal&apos; competitive, e-sports, commander, etc.

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• MR

  @MrZelduck · 2 months ago

  Perfectly captures my experience. I&apos;ve fully switched from Magic to riftbound and playing nexus nights and rqs and buying a box for draft nights with my buddies is what we&apos;ve been missing from Magic. Fantastic game.

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• AZ

  @azurebalmung1143 · 2 months ago

  Thank you very much for doing this with Jim. I&apos;ve been playing magic since RTR/Theros standard days, and played a lot of modern. I used to watch th SCG &amp; CFB tournaments every weekend and see people like Jim, Cedric and tons of other recognizable names play on camera in these events. I used to go to my local GP whenever they were around, and would often drive out to some of these SCG and CFB events if they were within a 5ish hour drive. I&apos;ve met my best friends through competitive magic and casually competitive events. <br><br>2020 really did a number on the 60-card formats and the scene has never been the same. Now I only play legacy once a week because I have a dedicated old school community where I live, but what Jim and you expressed here really resonates with me: magic is no longer for players like me.<br><br>I recently switched to Riftbound since I found out I can&apos;t attend Eternal Weekend this year (which is the one event I attend now). Swapping to Riftbound reminded me of the excitement of watching the SCG tour and all the events. It&apos;s got the same excitement and actual support from the game&apos;s creator. Magic now feels like that meme where the kid is struggling to swim while the girl in the background is being lifted by an adult. WotC only cares about commander and about pushing cards to sell product, while their 60-card formats suffer. There are less tournaments, less support, and dwindling interest for competitive players. Meanwhile Riftbound is exciting and new, but also gives me that feeling I had when I started competing, with tournaments every weekend, familiar pro player faces, and some actual hope that a regular player could find themselves on stage with the likes of Prismaticism or Alanzq. WotC needs to do something to right the ship or more players will start to switch once they see what Riftbound has to offer.

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• MO

  @montanamuse3617 · 2 months ago

  I walked up and spoke to Jim at the riftbound hartford RQ he is great and very friendly.

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• RO

  @rossbalch · 2 months ago

  The funny thing is, designing the game around competitive play didn&apos;t seem to hurt the causal experience at all. But designing for casual certainly seems to hurt the experience of competitively minded players.

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• TA

  @targetplayer · 2 months ago

  Chris Cocks and friends need to listen to every minute of this.<br><br>As for me, I&apos;ll bookmark it for when I&apos;m having too good of a day and need to bring down the mood.<br><br>(Brainstorm Buddies, especially the NG + Jim episodes, is fantastic. &nbsp;It&apos;s the subject matter this time that&apos;s sobering.)

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• JE

  @jeremyrhwhite · 2 months ago

  Great episode, echoes a lot of what I have been feeling as someone who played and judged magic for many years and recently switched over to riftbound.

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• CO

  @coyotemoon722 · 2 months ago

  Dude I love Garfield! Thank you, Jim Davis!

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• MA

  @marvelnube · 2 months ago

  Fantastic episode and discussion, thank you for making this you two! Totally relatable and speaks out the pain of a MtG player seeing UBs with high pricetags just to stay competitive in standard. <br><br>As a player since 1999, I totally quit standard after FF came out. All the badgermore and super shredder shenanigans proved it was the right choice. Fully focused on Riftbound rite now and I&apos;m happy with it

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• KI

  @kirklandsignaturecaviar · 3 weeks ago

  I was that FNM player who no longer plays. Competitive but not pro tour level. I loved improving my game though and jamming.

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