Rotation speed discussion

madwren

Rotations are too fast and should be slowed down.

-Playing since creation
-Platinum
-Yes, Goblinpile
-Yes, every coalition event and some AX/TOTP. I largely skip the Legacy singleplayer events.
-I’m missing 5 or 6 rares in the game.

I am definitely glad rotation exists. I argued for it long, long ago. I think it’s absolutely necessary for the health of the game. Despite that, I do think the pace has been too fast so far, but also admit it’s probably due to our extremely erratic release schedule in 2018 after The Great Drought. It’ll probably be at the right speed going forward, but we’ll see. Really, I just want a consistent, predictable pace.

I particularly wasn’t a fan of rotating out half of a set, as I think that does short shrift to the shared mechanics of those sets. Mechanics have enough problems being playable as it is. With the new set model Wizards is using, I’m hopeful there won’t be the same level of dependencies between sets in the Ravnica block, which should facilitate the one-in-one-out method.

Primarily, though, my perception is that the frequency of rotation has acted as a hindrance for new player collection development.  Newer tend to have fewer cards in their collection, and fewer resources to invest in each incoming set, which means a larger percentage of their collections are obsoleted more quickly.

Conversely, veteran players (particularly those in higher-earning coalitions and tiers) have a much stronger entry point to each subsequent set.  They aren’t playing catch up. I’ll drop 4.5k crystals on Core 19 the day it releases, then I’ll stockpile until the next set is released. I don’t need to catch up because I acquire a critical mass of cards immediately.

Also, I am actively deterred from spending money on cards knowing that they won’t last as long in Standard as they once did.

Sarahschmara

Rotations are too fast and knowing too late when they will happen prevents me from planning my investments.

- How long have you been playing MTGPQ?* one week after launch. 
- What tier are you? (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) Platinum
- Are you in a coalition? Heck, yeah, I am!
- Do you participate in events? Yes, mostly. 
- Approximately how many rares (%) do you own from the new standard, M19 excluded? (ORI, IXN, RIX, DOM) ORI: 100% IXN: 39% RIX: 86% DOM: 56%

Brakkis

Rotations are too fast and should be slowed down.

DumasAG said:

Brakkis said:

I won't claim we don't get enough of a notification about new sets and with a new set, we always know another set will be leaving rotation. 

I've seen this pop up a few times, and I want to mention that we, the people on the forum, do get I think enough advance notice of new sets dropping. But as far as I can tell there has never been a notification in the application itself that M19 is coming. So while it's great we hear and can spread the world, why was there not a notification in the game's inbox three weeks ago that they would be releasing M19? Why was there not a notification last week that the update would be occurring this week, and to check the forum for more details?

If I'm wrong, and I missed the notification, I'm happy to own up to that. But as far as I can tell, the only reason my full coalition knows anything is coming this week is because I mentioned it in the chat to the rest of them. That isn't good communication.

Hrmm, that's a good point. I was basing my statement off the posts here on this site but they never put out any sort of notification in the game itself to notify the large majority of the player base. That needs to be done.,

Kinesia

Rotations are too fast and knowing too late when they will happen prevents me from planning my investments.

After Hours is gone it will _all_ be Oktagon's show.
They can't slow down adding new sets, it's part of the contract with Wizards.

What they _can_ do is that now Hours is gone, they do NOT have to get rid of Ixalan when the next set comes out and I suggest that they shouldn't... That Ixalan should go the next time after that, then there is a big enough pool for standard again.

Enygma6

Rotations happen frequent enough but we should be better informed about them.

- How long have you been playing MTGPQ?*
Just over one year (started about a week before HOU released)

- What tier are you? (bronze, silver, gold, platinum)
Platinum since December

- Are you in a coalition? 
Yes, joined up with Phoenix Family just under 2 months into the game

- Do you participate in events?
Just about everything, only one I regularly skip is TotP

- Approximately how many rares (%) do you own from the new standard, M19 excluded? (ORI, IXN, RIX, DOM)
94.7% - only missing 8 Rares from DOM
also at 86% of Mythics - missing 4 from XLN and 9 from DOM
100% of Plainswalkers, but nowhere close to level 60 on all of them.

I think the set rotation pace is okay (even if it feels a bit hectic after the HOU-era drought), but it would be nice for there to be some in-game notification that new sets were coming.  
Doesn't need to give an exact date, but at least a "New set X is coming in a few weeks!  Get ready for new cards and new Plainswalkers to challenge the upcoming Events in <insert setting here>!  See the official forums or Facebook for more details."

I vaguely recall there being some notice like that in the past (maybe not with a long lead time), but it's been so long that I don't remember which set(s) we were told about before the app updated to include them.

Bil

Rotations happen frequent enough but we should be better informed about them.

   Another part of the rotation issue is that the boosters earned from "daily" farm are not updated to follow the release of sets.
  AX booster rewards never changed when RIX or DOM came in, Totp rewards lasted very long before changing and RIX has never been available in daily events.
   Players can't rely on events to gather a collection of the newest set, they can only count on their saving plans. This is obviously particularly punishing for casual players as they get almost outdated cards when they play their daily event (AX) and they hardly have enough margin to save currencies.
 
  Totp rewarding dom boosters is fine (current set - 1), but i really hope they planned to change AX rewards for magic 2019 boosters ..
   
   Generally speaking, there should be a pattern for this too ... Something like :
- AX or equivalent : latest set (at least latest -1)
-Totp : latest set -1 (at least latest -2)

gogol666

Other...

I would rather have rotation closer to the paper version of the game: what is standard there, should be standard here.
Also, I would love to have restricted events and that, as a general rule events don't get their restriction changed: create a new event instead

TomB

Rotations are too fast and knowing too late when they will happen prevents me from planning my investments.

How long have you been playing MTGPQ?

- since OGW

What tier are you? (bronze, silver, gold, platinum)
- Platinum (finally)

Are you in a coalition? 
- Yes

Do you participate in events?
- Just about everything, only one I regularly skip is TotP though I tend to have spotty performances in non-coalition Legacy events

Approximately how many rares (%) do you own from the new standard, M19 excluded? (ORI, IXN, RIX, DOM)

- about 80%

I understand the bit about the need to catch up to paper Magic releases, and the obligation to include content from just about all Magic releases, but I think the could have spread it out a little better so as to not leave some of us feeling this overwhelmed. I guess now it will become more regulated, though we'll still have to deal with the Aftermath effect watching IXN/RIX rotate out more quickly than they would have if not for the great drought. Still, it feels like they just released DOM a few weeks ago, and now here comes ANOTHER new set.

The pace of the releases makes it feel like D3/Oktagon can't keep up either. As others have pointed out, reward cards/packs haven't typically been updated in a timely manner, and often not without our input. Cards are often released riddled with bugs that could have easily been discovered before release with only a little playtesting, or in some cases they're so underpowered/overpowered as to be unusable/must-include, and sometimes there's bugs in a powerful card that, because of the bugs also makes them frustratingly unusable.

I would suggest they implement some sort of a playtesting program, to eliminate some of the more egregious mistakes they've been releasing, and to plan their releases better by making sure all the little stuff aligns properly BEFORE we feel compelled to point out the inconsistencies. Taking a little more time to do these things right before the release I think is an idea we can all get behind.

A little heads up a couple weeks ahead of time with an EXACT release date for new content wouldn't hurt either...

HarryMason

Rotations are too fast and knowing too late when they will happen prevents me from planning my investments.

A rotation every new set is a bit obnoxious if you're f2p. I've gotten acquiring resources whilst being f2p down to a science at this point ,but I miss having a reprieve to relax and sort of catch up. I can keep up, but I would have to imagine being in lower tiers would be murder . I'm platinum ,and I've been playing since about OGW . I've got a solid coalition and I play AI and TOTP daily , so cards, jewels and orbs flow pretty freely . I just think that a bigger standard pool would yield more deck building opportunities. 

SinisterOne

Rotations happen frequent enough.

How long have I been playing MTGPQ?

I played for like a year or more on an old phone but quit shortly before Ixalan was released. I quit probably within a month after the announcement about Oktagon taking over. I just started playing again since just before the Dominaria release.

What Tier am I? (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum)

Currently Silver with Black and Green very close to Gold.

Am I in a Coalition? Yes, but it is a private one. (Reason is back before I quit I was in a Coalition that could hit Top 100 on occasion but often was Top 110 or 120. The pressure to do every event and every node combined with life issues led to my quitting . I really like the Coalition events but to avoid the "must play all nodes" "Can't skip an event because this game is more important than life" pressures I'm in my private coalition .

Am I in Events? Almost always for the ones that do not need Crystals to join. Never Trials, but a couple Across Ixalan each week.

I have one MP but sadly it is in HoD so it will be legacy soon. Mythic I have 10 currently standard legal (2 in HoD). Rare I have 60 currently standard legal (7 in HoD). 

I think the rotation is fine.