There are now RARES in the Masterpiece Collection packs.

Vote with your $.

Spend your $ on something else.

Steeme said:

Kinesia said:

Ohboy said:

The problem with elite packs is people equating them to masterpieces for some reason. 

Literally no other long term pack available guarantees such a thing. 

Part of the problem is they show us the cards which changes the expectation game in our heads.
Instead of "A mystery bag of good stuff" it becomes "I might get this specific awesome card!". After that is set up in your head disappointment becomes far far more probable than anything else.

People equate them with masterpieces because we have no other way to reasonably get masterpieces. This is our sole (realistic) chance.

I'm not sure if you were around when Masterpieces were introduced, but they were never intended to be acquired reliably.  They were simply a set of "nice to have" chase cards.  They're not necessary at any level of play.

The Elite packs were introduced as a part of a redistribution of rewards:

1. Top X players no longer hoarded guaranteed Mythic prizes.

2. Those guaranteed Mythics were broken into "Jewels", then apportioned so that the prizes were spread out a bit more, allowing say 50th place to still get something of value.

3. Elite packs were created as a way to spend the Jewels and were intended to give players a better chance at "targeting" Mythics.  It was not intended to give a guaranteed non-dupe, and it was not intended to be an easy way to pick up Masterpieces either.  The responsibility of the player is to pick a rotation where a chance of a dupe is minimal, then roll the dice at a small selection.

There is argumentation and complaints all day long from players that "feel":

1. These packs should give a guaranteed non-dupe

2. Masterpieces should be easy to obtain

3. Players should be able to easily acquire all cards in a set

While I get that "players want it all, they want it now, and they want it for free" (just an expression), that's not how the game was designed.

There is absolutely no need to acquire all cards.  The whole point is to pick up some key cards and work with them.

When they first introduced Standard, I loved it, but I hated that I couldn't use all my cards in the PVE event.  While I know that was a typical knee-jerk reaction, I understand now that it's actually to our advantage.  Since all cards expire for any type of current event, it no longer matters if you pick up some of the nicer cards.  You won't be able to use them several months down the road, so who cares if you don't get Pact of Negation or whatever else dream card you've got your eyes on.

This is interesting but it's a starting point, not a place to stop.

Where the Elite packs came from makes sense but the things I talk about with disappointing your customer base still apply. All these things need addressing, the current implementation was a rough draft that now needs refinement. The minimum the customer should feel is "that wasn't bad" rather than "awww....".

You are coming from a longtimer persepctive. I completely agree that you cant get everything and shouldn't expect it. The thing is that I'm not even _close_. If I get a masterpiece it'll be my only one. I don't have to worry about dupes at all, we beginners do not. (I'm slightly past beginner but my family are all playing and are beginners)
What I want is to save up for something over time and _not_ be disappointed in what I get.

For people who only get 1 pink crystal here and there saving up to 400 is a huge deal, it should never ever cause disappointment.

The situation for people who get a bunch of pink crystals is totally different but the implementation doesn't reflect the differences.

Hmmm, they have items you can buy only once. As well as fixing the disappointment problem you could also have a purchase people can make with the pink crystals only once to excite them into collecting more.

(This is the thing. Every purchase should encourage more purchases through excitement, not through disappointment.)