A new take on prereleases and set spoilers
General forum
Posted on Aug. 10, 2015, 2:07 p.m. by HSF117
A Magic: the Gathering prerelease is one of if not the most important events that WotC delivers. Every year, currently, we have the opportunity to go to events for 4 new sets. But why are prereleases so important? It is my opinion, and maybe even the reason why prerelease events started, that they are set in place to attract new players to the game, and also i think that that is when the most new players arrive on the Magic scene. Prereleases are set up in such a way so that new players can feel comfortable and have fun and not feel overwhelmed by veteran players; a level playing field. But how level is that field? Not very. Luck is the only thing that attempts to level the field but fails because of one thing. Spoilers. New players won't know that these exist and veterans will have complete knowledge of the set before they even get their hands on the new product. So my reason for writing this is to bring you a few questions. What would happen if WotC did something risky? What would happen if for example they decided not to spoil any cards for BfZ until after its prereleases? Would that level the playing field? Would that make current players frustrated because they could not look at the colors and decide which color to choose or would they be excited because there is not much surprise or mystery? Would that drive a lot of players away and overall hurt the game itself? I have my own answers and opinions but I'm interested to hear what you think. Feel free to answer any of my stated, state your own questions regarding this topic, or whatever else you would like to comment.
WotC literally can't do a "no spoilers" preview. This is partly because of the fact cards from BFZ have probably already been decided where and when they will be previewed. But let's take this further and say that WotC did a "no spoilers" preview for "Tears", the 2016 spring large set.
First, anyone who has access to the cards can just leak them. We've seen that happen with Gatecrash, New Phyrexia, even as recently as Origins with Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh Flip being leaked before Dragons of Tarkir came out. This still puts players on an uneven playing ground. Because of this, Wizards wants to control when spoilers occur and not have them happen haphazardly.
Second, some sites rely on the traffic given to them by spoilers. I guarantee that there are mtg sites I've visited solely because of a spoiler card. And I'm not talking about the Spoiler Aggregators like mythicspoiler.com, I'm talking strategy websites getting format specific spoilers.
Third, Wizards wants us talking about the new set. If we knew 0 cards from the set, we wouldn't be as excited. Spoiler Season hypes a new release and encourages players, new and old, to look at the new set and say "I want to play with *that card!"
August 10, 2015 2:15 p.m.
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #4
so, with everything that you're saying, almost all of it is a player to player basis. if they dont want to ofr whatever, then they wont/shouldnt, but that doesnt mean it should be taken away as an option entirely
August 10, 2015 2:17 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #5
Hype sells cards/packs/boxes.
The fact that a new player might not look at the spoilers for a new set should not result in the planned retardation of current players. So sick of people trying to force equality onto situations without any practicality these days.
August 10, 2015 2:20 p.m.
I guess it is a player to player thing. I would rather personally be surprised whereas other players may not. DERPLINGSUPREME, not truly taken away just delayed.
August 10, 2015 2:24 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 I'm not trying to force change. I am simply looking for opinions on this subject because i have thought about it for a long time.
August 10, 2015 2:26 p.m.
weisemanjohn says... #8
I do not think a "no spoiler season" would drive players away, but it would frustrate them.
Not having spoilers I believe would give more advantage to veteran players I believe as many people join magic due to their friends rather than due to randomly deciding to start at a prerelease. What would happen is the new players wouldn't be able to have an opportunity to look at the new cards and therefore will be left mostly on their own in deck construction. With the spoilers, they can have discussions with others as to what cards may function well together and encourage a learning experience. The veteran players on the other hand would have more knowledge of the game and interactions to use in deck construction and would more likely construct superior decks.
As far as color selection, I personally have a preference toward 
whenever possible unless I go crazy and do 6 prerelease in a weekend... As is the color I am most comfortable playing. This is regardless of the "strength" of each color. I believe I am not the only one in this boat, who selects based on what color they perform best with rather than what they think may perform well.
August 10, 2015 2:28 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #9
HSF117 the driving point of your post was to create artificial equality through denial of information at pre-release events with no clear reasoning other than to retard skilled players and give new players a higher chance of winning.
August 10, 2015 2:30 p.m.
Correct. The post was made to see what other members of the community think about this, if something like this ever happened, but I can almost promise you that it will not. But I'm not calling for things to change.
August 10, 2015 2:41 p.m. Edited.
First of all you could have broken this post into at least 3 paragraphs, even some form of splitting that massive brick of white contrast with some space would have made it a much easier read.
Now as for if the spoiler free prerelease events would work to level the field it really would do little to no effect simply because with no information a veteran player in limited will know generally that mana open will likely mean a combat trick, especially if the opponent opted to play nothing on their turn to leave mana up.
Another issue is the fact that most stores hold at least 3 prerelease tournaments and there are many midnight ones being held so like it or not the main store prereleases (the ones new players often go to) will be impossible to be spoiler free and if wizards somehow keeps their cards off of the internet for the whole weekend being "spoiler free" will simply give the veteran players a massive advantage in their 2nd or more prereleases.
August 10, 2015 3:19 p.m.
With the new way they're doing prereleases (just 6 packs and a promo that can be any rare or mythic from the set) veteran players only have the advantage of being a more experienced player.
In ANY game a brand new player (even one that's been playing for a few months) cannot expect to just go into a tournament for the first time and just beat players that have been playing for years.
August 10, 2015 3:59 p.m.
But it doesn't matter because more experienced players will still play sealed better than new players even if they haven't seen the cards before. What you're enquiring about won't even work.
August 10, 2015 4:26 p.m.
NoPantsParade says... #14
You still have to consider experience. No new player can't play Magic all willy nilly and expect to beat veterans unless they get extremely lucky. Just because everyone goes in blind, it doesn't mean that there's a level playing field; experience is a big part of piloting a deck in Magic, even in Limited. The veteran is going to have more knowledge of the rules than the newer player, giving them a much greater advantage when it comes to the stack and stacking interactions as well as when to play certain spells.
Epochalyptik says... #2
Bad idea. Players are going to want to see the cards in the set before they decide if they want to play it in limited and if the want to order it (remember that preorders are taken well in advance).
August 10, 2015 2:14 p.m.