4.0 Packs Changes

Magic:PQ Support Team
Magic:PQ Support Team ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 3,444 Chairperson of the Boards
edited January 2020 in MtGPQ General Discussion

Packs Changes

Booster Pack Crafting Changes

Cards from the newest set will become available for crafting only after the release of the next set.

  • Cards from the newest set will become available for crafting only after the release of the next set. Starting from Theros Beyond Death, the cards from a new set will only become craftable after the release of the next set. This means that, as long as Theros Beyond Death is the newest set released in Standard, the cards from THB will not be available for crafting, until the release of the next collection.

VIP Booster Packs Changes

Once received, VIP Packs will only provide cards of that set.

  • Once received, VIP Packs will only provide cards of that set. VIP packs acquired during a current set will only contain cards from that given set. For example: if you receive a VIP pack while Theros Beyond Death is the newest set in Standard, that pack will only (and always) contain cards from THB. That pack content will not be updated with cards from the next set, when this is released. Instead, each set will have its own VIP packs.

Standard Packs Changes

Standard Packs will have the cards defined once given, and won't update when new collections are released.

  • Standard Packs will have the cards defined once given, and won't update when new collections are released. Standard packs will only contain cards from the Standard configuration of when they were received. For example: if you receive a Standard pack while GRN, RNA, WAR, M20 and ELD are the only sets in Standard, that pack will keep having cards only from those sets, even after the release of other collections, such as THB.


*UPDATE*

Hey Everyone,

Thank you for all your feedback. We are sorry about putting unnecessary pressure on the player community at this point. We agree that the announcement was rather on short notice and we apologize for creating discomfort.

VIP/Standard Booster

We have decided to postpone the change to the VIP/Standard Boosters to the 4.x release, when the next set after THB will be released.

This should give especially the veteran subscribers enough time to adapt to this change.

Thus cards from the upcoming set Theros Beyond Death will be part of the accumulated Boosters.

Starting from the release of the set after THB, newly acquired VIP/Standard Boosters will help your collection building efforts as usual. In other words, nothing changes as far as the Booster itself goes; just the timing window in which a collection will start showing up in them.

Booster Crafting

We will however maintain the change for when the former newest set is entering Booster Crafting.

This means THB will become available for crafting when the next set will be released. The price in Mana Orbs will be the same as any other Standard set.


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Comments

  • Mooninja
    Mooninja Posts: 19 Just Dropped In
    So what will be our recompense for these highly restrictive new changes? The packs are already incredibly underwhelming and useless once the lion's share of Common/Uncommons have been collected. Will a pity timer be in place? Maybe some decent rewards to shepard in some semblance that we are getting anything for or time and money invest in this "game"? $30 a month, for what 2VIP packs, 4 Standards... which will now be tied to a specific set and filled with lower rarity cards due to the change to crafting? This change past muster, how?

    You've given the vinegar, time for the honey. 
  • Mooninja
    Mooninja Posts: 19 Just Dropped In
    Klep said:
    Well I'm glad I kept the top-tier VIP status for the past several months to save up a bunch of packs that are now worthless.  

    It really feels dirty to have the contents of these packs changed for this set when we've been operating under the assumption that they would work for this set as they have for every set since VIP was introduced.  This lowers my opinion of both the company and the game, and damages my trust in them.  If this change had been announced a set out, that would have been one thing. This feels like a sudden bait & switch.
    I would entertain requesting refunds from Android/iOS if the changes go live.
  • Klep
    Klep Posts: 52 Match Maker
    I have a great deal of patience and tolerance for changes and bugs and the like.  But this is something that could legitimately make me quit.  I have plenty of things to do that don't involve me feeling ripped off and disrespected.
  • Matthew
    Matthew Posts: 605 Critical Contributor
    jtwood said:
    I think Klep and Matthew are trying to say that there should have been more advance notice about this - and maybe some deference to people with a stockpile who need a chance to get something from what they saved up. Like a grace period or something.
    This is accurate, thank you for clarifying the intent behind my knee-jerk reaction of pure frustration. People have been spending money on this game. This move seems aimed at not only trying to increase spending, but to do so at the expense of those who have already been paying on the regular. That's an awful feeling. I'll be sure to make note of this sort of predatory behavior in some reviews.
  • Tremayne
    Tremayne Posts: 1,673 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2020
    Well I have cancelled my subscription. Why would I want more packs that will only contain dupes?!?

    I’ll wait and see what happens with my current hoard, which was payed for in good faith.

    Retroactively changing this is a very poor decision from the devs. and feels deceitful, considering that it is such a radical change from previous procedure.

    @Oktagon_Support - could you elaborate why you didn’t communicate that there was discussion internally about this change? If you knew it would be unpopular (a fair assumption given you the wording in announcement) why would you spring the announcement like this? 
  • Bil
    Bil Posts: 831 Critical Contributor
    Is it even legal to change the content of a pack or product after it has been purchased for cash already?
  • DragonSorcerer
    DragonSorcerer Posts: 182 Tile Toppler
    @Oktagon_Support I assume the crafting costs will be decreased since there will no longer be a "newest set" (it will now be a "standard set") ?
  • Matthew
    Matthew Posts: 605 Critical Contributor
    edited January 2020
    There is some deep irony in this decision. As my coalitionmate put it: "They are literally burying their own game while trying to dig themselves out of the hole they made. VIP costs way too much, it was added at the same time event rewards were generally nerfed, coaliton events and coalitions as a whole are less appealing because of nerfed rewards... now they are hosing the very same VIPs and trying to squeeze all the non-payers"
  • boopers
    boopers Posts: 175 Tile Toppler
    Let’s not over react folks. Give them a chance to respond. 

    Also, they aren’t saying the new system will give dups... they are just saying that you will only earn non dup packs for a certain set. All this effectively does is move the point where your non dup packs can be most valuable from the release day to about 3 months later. 

    On release day of the next set, use orbs to fill in your rare and mythic gaps until your number of missing standard cards equals the number of cards in stored packs. Then use your stored VIP and standard packs to fill in and you are caught up. 

    The change is that the most recent set is just harder to accumulate until the next set. That’s it. This is probably a good thing for creating a more level competitive field for players with smaller collections.
  • Quantius
    Quantius Posts: 228 Tile Toppler
    I'm not giving them a pass on this one. $30/mo is already a large subscription fee for a game, and then tack on exclusives and it's $400+ by the time each expansion rolls around. Sure, I don't "have" to buy everything, but I am trying to support the game and not eat dupes for my efforts.

    This isn't okay. This game is already way overpriced.
  • Mooninja
    Mooninja Posts: 19 Just Dropped In
    boopers said:
    Let’s not over react folks. Give them a chance to respond. 

    Also, they aren’t saying the new system will give dups... they are just saying that you will only earn non dup packs for a certain set. All this effectively does is move the point where your non dup packs can be most valuable from the release day to about 3 months later. 

    On release day of the next set, use orbs to fill in your rare and mythic gaps until your number of missing standard cards equals the number of cards in stored packs. Then use your stored VIP and standard packs to fill in and you are caught up. 

    The change is that the most recent set is just harder to accumulate until the next set. That’s it. This is probably a good thing for creating a more level competitive field for players with smaller collections.
    So for $90 I can wait three months to open 6 VIP packs that, if I invest orbs correctly, would have mostly Mythics/MPs...IF I have accumulated enough orbs to buy down the 1,500 a piece rares.

    This is in NO way good for the game. The current packs system is already unacceptable, but to add this caveat is to just make the entire game unacceptable.

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