TL;DR: It's not only power creep we need to be on the lookout for, it's now expansion creep as well.
In the past, we've had smaller "second sets" that bolster cards from their main set. Battle for Zendikar had Oath of the Gatewatch, Shadows Over Innistrad had Eldritch Moon, Kaladesh had Aether Revolt, and now Amonkhet has Hour of Devastation. Previously, these second sets were smaller, but Hour of Devastation may exceed the size of Amonkhet.
When these second sets are released in MTGPQ, they are added to the pool of cards of the primary set. They are not sold separately, although they have been awarded separately as prizes or rewards. Due to the smaller number of cards in these second sets, their addition didn’t dilute the pool of possible pulls from their main sets too badly. This will change drastically by the addition of Hour of Devastation to Amonkhet.
OGW only added 53 cards to the existing pool of 238 BFZ cards, and EMN added 67 cards to the pool of 190 cards from SOI. But while AER only added 58 to the pool of 184 of KLD, HOU could add as many as 190 to the existing pool of 184 of AKH. While D3 has only officially previewed 156 HOU cards, their image directory has 190 cards (plus 10 new Masterpieces), although those last 44 are subject to change. D3 has always told us these things are subject to change, but the instances changing when it comes to preview cards can be counted on one hand. If things stay as they are, HOU (the second set) could have more cards than AKH (the primary set)!
[VIDEO BREAK]
What does this mean? This means that if you haven’t gotten the cards you wanted from Amonkhet, your chances of getting them after Hour of Devastation releases will be mightily reduced.
Just when I think D3 might have run out of ways to squeeze more money out of the players, they find a better grip and clamp down harder.
I’m not opposed to new cards, in fact, I love new cards. However, I’d like not to be taken advantage of as a player, and in this instance, I feel like I’m being exploited.
With the projected size of HOU, it would be in the player’s best interest to make these packs separate and not part of the overall AKH pool, but when is the last time D3 did something in the player’s best interest?
With AKH, we saw D3 try a new tactic, which was only releasing some of the cards at first, then releasing more into the wild in a second and third wave, while reducing the number of exclusives. I found this interesting, because unless you read the forums, you didn’t know that not all of the non-exclusive cards were being released when the set came out. I assume this resulted in an increase in mana crystal sales when wave 2 and wave 3 hit, because it’s already been confirmed that Hour of Devastation will see a similar release schedule. If you want to minimize your chances for duplicates, make sure you hoard your packs and crystals until after these release waves are finished. I won't be hoarding because I have no self-control and need instant gratification. I am ashamed.
I’m curious if there’s a reason other than money that D3 let Hibernum run wild and convert almost all of the HOU paper cards to digital this time.
Guess that Sandwurm Convergence will always be just out of my reach. Thanks D3!
Some numbers for those that are curious:
(Paper numbers taken from Gatherer [planeswalkers removed from counting] and digital numbers are taken from octal9's excellent website [masterpieces removed from counting])
Origins Paper - 273Origins Digital - 246Conversion of Paper to Digital – 90.1%
Battle for Zendikar Paper - 251Battle for Zendikar Digital - 238Conversion of Paper to Digital – 94.8%
Oath of the Gatewatch Paper - 181Oath of the Gatewatch Digital – 53Conversion of Paper to Digital – 29.3%
Shadows Over Innistrad Paper - 314Shadows Over Innistrad Digital – 190Conversion of Paper to Digital – 60.5%
Eldritch Moon Paper - 221Eldritch Moon Digital – 67Conversion of Paper to Digital – 30.3%
Kaladesh Paper - 258Kaladesh Digital – 184Conversion of Paper to Digital – 71.3%
Aether Revolt Paper - 190Aether Revolt Digital – 58Conversion of Paper to Digital – 30.5%
Amonkhet Paper - 282Amonkhet Digital – 184Conversion of Paper to Digital – 65.2%
Hour of Devastation Paper - 205Hour of Devastation Digital – 190Conversion of Paper to Digital – 92.7%
shteev said: I'm not sure this matters at the moment.If your goal is to win as many games as possible, then you can do that with a handful of cycling cards from either set.
Corn Noodles said: shteev said: I'm not sure this matters at the moment.If your goal is to win as many games as possible, then you can do that with a handful of cycling cards from either set. My goal is to have fun and cycling is not fun. How's that RSI? Is that fun?
madwren said: However, I'm not quite as upset as you are if they still merge them with AMK....I'm still amazed I don't have Anguished Unmaking
One thing that I have started to wonder is if they will remove KLD from standard now and just run with AER, AKH, and HOU?
Corn Noodles said: With the size of this set, I feel like it was designed with the idea that booster crafting was already finished. Since booster crafting was pushed back, it would be nice if they made HOU it's own set for purchase options until booster crafting is in place.
babar3355 said: One thing that I have started to wonder is if they will remove KLD from standard now and just run with AER, AKH, and HOU?