karonofborg13 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 20, 2022 4:46 pm
Thank you, Brian. While I can see your explained reason and do acknowledge the possible validity of it, it has always felt to me as the other side of that very coin…
that of a vocal minority of competitive players (who’ve lobbied the powers that be to maintain this policy) not wanting to have to adjust their decks and/or strategy to accommodate for the newest infusion of cards that could throw a monkey wrench into their works and offset their tried and true (read: tired old boring builds) to truly test their mettle as champion level players who prove they can adapt to the latest thing. Just my long held belief/perspective. Whether right or wrong, mind you.
So, then, it should be a matter of such…
Using The Menagerie as an example (conveniently so) , the set shouldn’t even be released until the 29th in your argument’s case.
And probably why MtG spoilers are finished the week before each respective prerelease weekend, in order for the public to consume and pore over the entire set if so desired.
Maybe spoiler season(s) for Trek should move up their timetables as that model seems to be working for the oldest and still commercially viable CCG on the market?
Look man, I don't claim to know the inner workings of the CC... As one of only an elite handful of people who managed to get myself nerd fired by the powers that be, I'm clearly not on their page (whether that's a good thing or not is an exercise that I'll leave to the reader).
However, even on the merits I'm not sure your approach is better. As one of the biggest proponents of the Hall of Fame format, I definitely sympathize with your desire to get old and busted out of the card pool and make people run something besides a 10-year-old time capsule deck. However, if we're being real, the players who do still play this game don't have the time/inclination/energy/etc. to build a new deck every week, and I unfortunately include myself in that statement.
Also, from a prep perspective, you can prep for a time capsule deck. If there are players who insist on bringing the same thing every time, make them pay by adjusting your deck and/or dilemma pile to better deal with their nonsense - it's not like you don't know what they're doing. Conversely, dropping in a new set and having your friendly local playtester show up at Continentals with a deck that they've been developing since Version B of the new set with tech you've never seen and had no way to prepare for doesn't strike me as being a good answer - you have no control over that, and if you don't have access to the same information, you're going in at a significant disadvantage not of your own making (as opposed to the time capsule player who is CHOOSING to GIVE their opponents an informational advantage by virtue of their decision to not change their deck).
Either way, it kind of is what it is at this point. A week to prep strikes me as a reasonable balance between mitigating insider advantage and having released cards sit unusable for too long after release.