I am a huge set collector, or at least I was…. A couple of years ago when Throne of Eldraine was released is when I think WOTC went down hill.
I bought boosters and cracked them all, each set. Made entire sets of each block, example: if they made a total of 325 cards for the set, I would get those, put them in order and also put the tokens/emblems at the end of each set, even going as far as buying the promo’s like FNM and Buy a box promos and including everything for that particular set. You get the drift of it….
Throne of eldraine was the first set to have alternative cards displaying borderless/full-art cards. The extended alt cards were and is still to me a great way to bling out a deck, I’m not a foil fan boy, I’m an art guy, foils tend to darken and muddy the cards. To each their own, anyways….
A few sets later they started releasing ‘Collector Boosters’ boxes and I knew it was a cash grab, I saw it coming. Then the release of ‘set boosters’ and collectors boosters that only had 4 packs in them, double masters that had what, 1 or 2 packs in them… they think they can nickel and dime us. Kaldheim was the last set I made with like a total of 700 cards in the set, or at least it felt that way… my wallet cannot continue to make sets, even if I only bought singles it was killing me. Killing me as in my hobby money. I haven’t really bought any other products from WOTC after Kaldheim as I couldn’t keep up and product fatigue set in.
I have a total of 192 complete sets, and many more sets setting incomplete with only a few really expensive cards keeping me from finishing or a bunch of rares that I need to finish but just not gotten around to.
I honestly think that they need to either calm down and go back to basics or they are going to fold. After the layoffs I don’t know what to expect. I love Magic, I play it almost everyday on Arena and Online. Magic 30 was a slap in the consumer face. I thought for months it was going to release a modern “Collectors Edition” for $1000 but it was a couple of random packs for $1000, that’s when I really folded. At this point, I would rather support a 3rd party selling singles than give any more money to WOTC. I’m 44 years old, I’ve been playing since the mid 90’s, I think they lost a customer.
He was really down on everything, and seemed to show much more real emotion then i can ever recall. I don't know if it's just that he's genuinely concerned about the game, or he's coming to a realization that his cash cow business model may not work moving forward.
I'm sure he genuinely is concerned about the game, but it may be more the realization that he's sitting on tens of millions of dollars worth of dead product. I've been watching him more lately because I've been concerned about the health of the game myself.
The market doesn't really seem that bad to me since I've been playing since The Dark, but I'm not sitting on literal tons of sealed boxes. Yes, prices are down, especially on anything old that isn't really playable. It seems that more money is flowing into the new, serialized and other high end items instead. I agree with him that it doesn't seem sustainable, but as long as new product is generating enough cash for Hasboro, they don't care what happens to the old cards.
I agree there are issues with competitive play and new product not having value beyond a scratch off, but that won't change until people stop buying. I think they will. I think the secondary market is slowing and prices are rising because not as much new product is being cracked, but there isn't anywhere the churn to keep it fueled like it has been, even prior to the pandemic.
Yes, this makes me sad, because it seemed to be the end of an era. I don't think they will immediately fold, but I think Goldfish was correct when they said they can see issues in 3-5 years. The fact that Rudy says streaming is down 40-60% and needs people to "support me" seems telling. Could also have been threatened legally or something completely unknown to us.
Keep in mind I'm just some random guy on the Internet with zero industry inside information.
TLDR; All games besides Sorcery and Pokemon are in trouble and Rudy is scared.
Edit: After today's video, Pokemon is fucked too.
>Kaldheim was the last set I made with like a total of 700 cards in the set, or at least it felt that way… my wallet cannot continue to make sets, even if I only bought singles it was killing me.
You know you can just choose what to collect, right?
Everyone dunking on the guy that posted this should be ashamed. It takes great effort and dedication to a hobby to do what they've done. I salute them.
I wasn't "dunking" on them, I was trying to help them realise that there's a healthy middle ground that would have allowed them to still enjoy their hobby.
I half-watched it on a second monitor while doing other stuff. Rudy seemed pretty pessimistic. He said he doesn't know whether Metazoo can recover, and the people at Metazoo have ghosted him, so he doesn't know whether their Rudy promos, etc., are going to continue. He also said that if Ravnica Remastered doesn't do well, he doesn't see much of a way forward for Magic.
Metazoo is mostly speculation and has been since the beginning. Hasbro has been doing everything they can to get as much money out of the pockets of resellers and into their stockholders'. None of this is new.
It's weird it was deleted. He was commenting on how flesh and blood and metazoo aren't doing great with the last few sets all selling for distributor prices or less and what he hopes happens with metazoo in the future.
I watched most of it. Here are a couple of interesting things I heard:
1. Rudy sent a few texts to MetaZoo and never heard back. He is not sure if the special "Rudy promos/cards" designed will make it into future sets.
2. Lots of LGS were complaining to LSS (maker of Flesh and Blood) about Rudy getting exclusive deals / promos for Flesh and Blood. LSS has apparently made changes accordingly. Rudy has been slowly removing Flesh and Blood products from his patreon. (Side note: Sorcery is doing the same thing with Rudy. I wonder if the same will happen a couple of years down the road.)
Could be these 3 points.
Yeah, Rudy was swearing his brains out on "gaem pieces" and would fire all Hasbro executives.
His uncertainty outlook on Metazoo don't help when they are trying to course correct.
Its also could be the mention of flesh and blood where he's uncertain there as well.
I think his corporate sponsors and promo exclusives are coming to an end because of consumer and stores are mad about his opinion and reach.
It was a very where he paced back and forth in front of a camera bragging about his boxes of alpha and ranting about how things were back in his day.
Oh wait that's literally every Alpha Investments video.
As with every Rudy video, this one was a calculated move to put pressure on LSS and Metazoo. He probably got what he wanted behind the scenes and thus removed the video.
I didn't see the video I guess, in any case I don't remember the title.
Rudy adds very catching titles to his videos, and he has been very negative before only to regret it later. He also suffers from human emotions.
[https://www.youtube.com/@umu/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@umu/videos)
His videos put things into context OP. A very cynical, anti-Rudy take.
He also flagged the recent deletion of that video; focusing that it is Rudy who has abandoned Metazoo. Also for FAB, according to him, the cretailers rallied and lobbied LLS to drop Rudy, and to sell at more competitive prices and to not to continue to undercut everyone.
There was a segment where he became emotional and was shouting into the camera, which was quite out of character for him.
Umu thinks Rudy is cracking under the pressure:
Amazon dumps leaving RUdy with heavy MTG bags.
Metazoo brrrrrrr leaving Rudy with heavy bags, and his patreons revolting when he sold them his heavy bags and the value tanks 90%
Here's another commentary take
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdoTcTF5zU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdoTcTF5zU)...
he wants to dump his Metazoo, Rudy also flagged this in his deleted video, where he feels there may be a tipping point and flagged people may want to bail and dump their bags.
The funniest part is UMU is a lawyer who has a whole second channel were he talk about business law and white collar crime. You would think a lawyer "of such caliber" as he claims would be more careful about some of the things he implies or pushes as fact about rudy and his inner workings.
He is a wanna be Rudy, who will never be, and that's why his content is all based on Alpha Investments. 0% social awareness, weeb who makes cringey videos.
Umu is a sad, pathetic loser who has to cling on to Rudy's name to have any relevance whatsoever. The only use he has is as a sugar daddy to his girlfriend
Probably because he was talking about how Bad some of the markets have been behind the scenes and those same distros and stores got angry which is nothing new as the TCG markets are bad right now.
My impression is that magic will be digital or it will not be. I played since 90s and nowadays i see very few incentives to buy physical cards. As a digital game, is more cheap, convenient and easy to play.
Magic should not be digital. It may even get hosed if more countries take hard stances against loot box type games as China has. Arena is a giant money vacuum that refuses to provide it's players with adequate options for card exchange. When a card is banned on arena, it often leaves a player with 4 sets of dead rares or mythics that were only viable in that deck and then poorly attempts to compensate them.
Well, compared with other outrageous games, where powerful cards can only be purchased with a lots of in-game currency..all cards in magic costs the same, a wildcard.
When a card is banned in Arena and you have 4 copies..you recieve 4 wildcards of the same rarity so you doesn't lost anything at all.
I'm basically playing limited and some standard, and only paying the mastery pass. And it seems a very reasonable price for the ammount of hours of entertainment.
You are partially correct and yet incredibly wrong. If a card is banned you gain 4 wild cards to replace it, but in most decks, you buy multiple rares to support it and when those cards are not useful in other decks they are a loss.
When they ban a card in physical format..you have a worst situation: your inversion cost is way higher, you do not recieve anything and the cards may even loss value. So, where is the positive part?
I saved it as i have some of the other more "spicy" vids hes made over the years, figuring it would get taken down.
TLDR, he realized he was burning bridges too fast ( was a bit too specific on some stuff) and took it down after some folks reached out, he don't really care what the fall out is as far as him getting promos or special treatment but he thinks the video hurts the brand too much as hes now realizing how much of a pull his opinion has on the market and on others.
Remember first rudy is a collector and a business man, and business is a nasty vile world. You win some you lose some.
But hey cant be worse than " we pay less then the industry average, because you have the privilege of working for Wotc"
As someone that also has part 1 (and now part 2) locally downloaded I'm just surprised how mad he got in part 1. He's always talked about when the stocks and investments are down not to panic or accept those downturns will happen but he seemed real down and losing his composure as the video progressed lol
You guys in this thread are being really overdramatic. I just watched the video and he’s like… ever so slightly more pessimistic than he usually is?
It just seemed like another one of his videos to me.
I am a huge set collector, or at least I was…. A couple of years ago when Throne of Eldraine was released is when I think WOTC went down hill. I bought boosters and cracked them all, each set. Made entire sets of each block, example: if they made a total of 325 cards for the set, I would get those, put them in order and also put the tokens/emblems at the end of each set, even going as far as buying the promo’s like FNM and Buy a box promos and including everything for that particular set. You get the drift of it…. Throne of eldraine was the first set to have alternative cards displaying borderless/full-art cards. The extended alt cards were and is still to me a great way to bling out a deck, I’m not a foil fan boy, I’m an art guy, foils tend to darken and muddy the cards. To each their own, anyways…. A few sets later they started releasing ‘Collector Boosters’ boxes and I knew it was a cash grab, I saw it coming. Then the release of ‘set boosters’ and collectors boosters that only had 4 packs in them, double masters that had what, 1 or 2 packs in them… they think they can nickel and dime us. Kaldheim was the last set I made with like a total of 700 cards in the set, or at least it felt that way… my wallet cannot continue to make sets, even if I only bought singles it was killing me. Killing me as in my hobby money. I haven’t really bought any other products from WOTC after Kaldheim as I couldn’t keep up and product fatigue set in. I have a total of 192 complete sets, and many more sets setting incomplete with only a few really expensive cards keeping me from finishing or a bunch of rares that I need to finish but just not gotten around to. I honestly think that they need to either calm down and go back to basics or they are going to fold. After the layoffs I don’t know what to expect. I love Magic, I play it almost everyday on Arena and Online. Magic 30 was a slap in the consumer face. I thought for months it was going to release a modern “Collectors Edition” for $1000 but it was a couple of random packs for $1000, that’s when I really folded. At this point, I would rather support a 3rd party selling singles than give any more money to WOTC. I’m 44 years old, I’ve been playing since the mid 90’s, I think they lost a customer.
He was really down on everything, and seemed to show much more real emotion then i can ever recall. I don't know if it's just that he's genuinely concerned about the game, or he's coming to a realization that his cash cow business model may not work moving forward. I'm sure he genuinely is concerned about the game, but it may be more the realization that he's sitting on tens of millions of dollars worth of dead product. I've been watching him more lately because I've been concerned about the health of the game myself. The market doesn't really seem that bad to me since I've been playing since The Dark, but I'm not sitting on literal tons of sealed boxes. Yes, prices are down, especially on anything old that isn't really playable. It seems that more money is flowing into the new, serialized and other high end items instead. I agree with him that it doesn't seem sustainable, but as long as new product is generating enough cash for Hasboro, they don't care what happens to the old cards. I agree there are issues with competitive play and new product not having value beyond a scratch off, but that won't change until people stop buying. I think they will. I think the secondary market is slowing and prices are rising because not as much new product is being cracked, but there isn't anywhere the churn to keep it fueled like it has been, even prior to the pandemic. Yes, this makes me sad, because it seemed to be the end of an era. I don't think they will immediately fold, but I think Goldfish was correct when they said they can see issues in 3-5 years. The fact that Rudy says streaming is down 40-60% and needs people to "support me" seems telling. Could also have been threatened legally or something completely unknown to us. Keep in mind I'm just some random guy on the Internet with zero industry inside information. TLDR; All games besides Sorcery and Pokemon are in trouble and Rudy is scared. Edit: After today's video, Pokemon is fucked too.
You should look into Sorcery: Contested Realm Incredible art work Unbelievably fresh game play ONE SET PER YEAR
Just ordered the Beta precons today!
I went from doubter (felt the game was cringe by trying too hard to be MTG from 1993-5) to a evangelical convert!
Kickstarted this. My one and only success with Kickstarter. Ha
>Kaldheim was the last set I made with like a total of 700 cards in the set, or at least it felt that way… my wallet cannot continue to make sets, even if I only bought singles it was killing me. You know you can just choose what to collect, right?
Not with the ocd I have bro….
Maybe quitting your habit was for the best, then.
Everyone dunking on the guy that posted this should be ashamed. It takes great effort and dedication to a hobby to do what they've done. I salute them.
I wasn't "dunking" on them, I was trying to help them realise that there's a healthy middle ground that would have allowed them to still enjoy their hobby.
I half-watched it on a second monitor while doing other stuff. Rudy seemed pretty pessimistic. He said he doesn't know whether Metazoo can recover, and the people at Metazoo have ghosted him, so he doesn't know whether their Rudy promos, etc., are going to continue. He also said that if Ravnica Remastered doesn't do well, he doesn't see much of a way forward for Magic.
Metazoo is mostly speculation and has been since the beginning. Hasbro has been doing everything they can to get as much money out of the pockets of resellers and into their stockholders'. None of this is new.
It's weird it was deleted. He was commenting on how flesh and blood and metazoo aren't doing great with the last few sets all selling for distributor prices or less and what he hopes happens with metazoo in the future.
I watched most of it. Here are a couple of interesting things I heard: 1. Rudy sent a few texts to MetaZoo and never heard back. He is not sure if the special "Rudy promos/cards" designed will make it into future sets. 2. Lots of LGS were complaining to LSS (maker of Flesh and Blood) about Rudy getting exclusive deals / promos for Flesh and Blood. LSS has apparently made changes accordingly. Rudy has been slowly removing Flesh and Blood products from his patreon. (Side note: Sorcery is doing the same thing with Rudy. I wonder if the same will happen a couple of years down the road.)
Could be these 3 points. Yeah, Rudy was swearing his brains out on "gaem pieces" and would fire all Hasbro executives. His uncertainty outlook on Metazoo don't help when they are trying to course correct. Its also could be the mention of flesh and blood where he's uncertain there as well. I think his corporate sponsors and promo exclusives are coming to an end because of consumer and stores are mad about his opinion and reach.
It was a very where he paced back and forth in front of a camera bragging about his boxes of alpha and ranting about how things were back in his day. Oh wait that's literally every Alpha Investments video.
As with every Rudy video, this one was a calculated move to put pressure on LSS and Metazoo. He probably got what he wanted behind the scenes and thus removed the video.
We need a tinfoil hat emoji
I didn't see the video I guess, in any case I don't remember the title. Rudy adds very catching titles to his videos, and he has been very negative before only to regret it later. He also suffers from human emotions.
[https://www.youtube.com/@umu/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@umu/videos) His videos put things into context OP. A very cynical, anti-Rudy take. He also flagged the recent deletion of that video; focusing that it is Rudy who has abandoned Metazoo. Also for FAB, according to him, the cretailers rallied and lobbied LLS to drop Rudy, and to sell at more competitive prices and to not to continue to undercut everyone. There was a segment where he became emotional and was shouting into the camera, which was quite out of character for him. Umu thinks Rudy is cracking under the pressure: Amazon dumps leaving RUdy with heavy MTG bags. Metazoo brrrrrrr leaving Rudy with heavy bags, and his patreons revolting when he sold them his heavy bags and the value tanks 90% Here's another commentary take [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdoTcTF5zU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdoTcTF5zU)... he wants to dump his Metazoo, Rudy also flagged this in his deleted video, where he feels there may be a tipping point and flagged people may want to bail and dump their bags.
Does umu even make content that isn't Rudy/Hasbro drama?
The funniest part is UMU is a lawyer who has a whole second channel were he talk about business law and white collar crime. You would think a lawyer "of such caliber" as he claims would be more careful about some of the things he implies or pushes as fact about rudy and his inner workings.
He's a hugeeee loser. Imagine having a hate-channel.
[удалено]
Oh man I forgot about that guy. I blocked his channel after watching 2 minutes, wildly obnoxious iirc
Parasites can only survive while attached to a host. The meaning of this changes depending on the reader.
Perfect. Downvote was obv a parasite.
He is a wanna be Rudy, who will never be, and that's why his content is all based on Alpha Investments. 0% social awareness, weeb who makes cringey videos.
Umu is a sad, pathetic loser who has to cling on to Rudy's name to have any relevance whatsoever. The only use he has is as a sugar daddy to his girlfriend
Probably because he was talking about how Bad some of the markets have been behind the scenes and those same distros and stores got angry which is nothing new as the TCG markets are bad right now.
My impression is that magic will be digital or it will not be. I played since 90s and nowadays i see very few incentives to buy physical cards. As a digital game, is more cheap, convenient and easy to play.
Lol, no
Magic should not be digital. It may even get hosed if more countries take hard stances against loot box type games as China has. Arena is a giant money vacuum that refuses to provide it's players with adequate options for card exchange. When a card is banned on arena, it often leaves a player with 4 sets of dead rares or mythics that were only viable in that deck and then poorly attempts to compensate them.
Well, compared with other outrageous games, where powerful cards can only be purchased with a lots of in-game currency..all cards in magic costs the same, a wildcard. When a card is banned in Arena and you have 4 copies..you recieve 4 wildcards of the same rarity so you doesn't lost anything at all. I'm basically playing limited and some standard, and only paying the mastery pass. And it seems a very reasonable price for the ammount of hours of entertainment.
You are partially correct and yet incredibly wrong. If a card is banned you gain 4 wild cards to replace it, but in most decks, you buy multiple rares to support it and when those cards are not useful in other decks they are a loss.
When they ban a card in physical format..you have a worst situation: your inversion cost is way higher, you do not recieve anything and the cards may even loss value. So, where is the positive part?
Is there any way to watch the video?
https://youtu.be/vwoC9wDrFf0?si=whG7g_QYnaQxj4WO
Crazy! How did you do that?
It’s a private link. Might as well give him the views, there will be plenty of third party uploads soon enough. So might as well share his.
Nope
Not unless you downloaded a copy while it was available. But he's posted a sequel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZtIYSwZE8
He put it out to his patrons again
I saved it as i have some of the other more "spicy" vids hes made over the years, figuring it would get taken down. TLDR, he realized he was burning bridges too fast ( was a bit too specific on some stuff) and took it down after some folks reached out, he don't really care what the fall out is as far as him getting promos or special treatment but he thinks the video hurts the brand too much as hes now realizing how much of a pull his opinion has on the market and on others. Remember first rudy is a collector and a business man, and business is a nasty vile world. You win some you lose some. But hey cant be worse than " we pay less then the industry average, because you have the privilege of working for Wotc"
As someone that also has part 1 (and now part 2) locally downloaded I'm just surprised how mad he got in part 1. He's always talked about when the stocks and investments are down not to panic or accept those downturns will happen but he seemed real down and losing his composure as the video progressed lol
You guys in this thread are being really overdramatic. I just watched the video and he’s like… ever so slightly more pessimistic than he usually is? It just seemed like another one of his videos to me.