The End of Duel Decks
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Dec. 19, 2017, 10:37 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
WotC recently announced that the Duel Decks series will be ending, with its final installment to be released in April of 2018, but there are currently no plans to replace it with a similar product. They did not give their reason for doing this, but I imagine that it is because they could not conceive of any further ideas, despite the fact that I believe that there are still plenty of ideas to explore.
I am very displeased by that, since the Duel Decks were a great way to reprint cards without affecting standard or modern, but, now, there is one fewer set series to provide such reprints, with some others being Conspiracy, Commander, From the Vault, and the Masters series; those are all (usually) great series, so there is still support for formats outside of standard, but I still am worried about WotC's support for non-rotating formats.
What does everyone else have to say about this? How do you feel about the Duel Decks series ending?
Wait, aren't the Challenger decks basicly replacing it? Duel decks always seemed like a huge waste of money to me, same with the planeswalker decks. In my opinion if you want to introduce someone to the game in a duel setting just sell 6 booster packs, basic lands and 2-player draft instructions for 20 bucks.
December 20, 2017 12:04 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #4
I think duel decks could've been great but they were a golden opportunity squandered. They were the perfect product outside of the commander decks for meaningful reprints. People can't argue that it's unreasonable to print a $50 card in a $20 product because each commander deck has $90+ in value for a $35 price tag. By including chase reprints in duel decks, WOTC would've sold more sealed product and made more money. The players would have access to cheaper cards, win-win. I understand the main focuses of the duel decks was game play and getting new players into the game. My question is why include "bad" rares and uncommons/commons instead of meaningful cards that people actually want to play with? Personally, playing with underwhelming cards and badly built decks isn't by any means fun, and it wasn't when I first started. That leads me to my next point, the duel decks and into decks alike don't show new players how to properly build decks. I still see new players including 14 1-ofs in their decks. We know this is bad deck building and these products don't help new players become better.
I personally think WOTC releases too many products a year. By doing this they are taking away the sentimental value players gain from certain products. If you look at players who've been playing for a long time vs. newer players that have been playing for 1-5 years, the older players care about sentimental value about as much (sometimes more than) winning. We don't have time to enjoy the new sets and create lasting memories.
Sorry for the rant! My personal opinion is that I'm happy to see them go and I hope WOTC doesn't replace them with anything. We have too much product as is.
December 20, 2017 12:58 a.m.
I can't hear you, i'm still crying for the loss of event decks.
December 20, 2017 8:39 a.m.
I am a huge fan of duel decks, and own a considerable number of them. Yes, I understand they are a bit of a waste of money, and the decks themselves are marginal, and their inconsistency frustrates me a bit.
That said, I find myself using them far more often than most of my constructed decks. I often have people over for board game nights, and MTG is one of the many games we will play. Most of my friends, however, are super casual players, and do not enjoy playing the more Johnny-esq decks I prefer to build. My friends really enjoy the eclectic mix of cards in these decks, and how their inconsistency helps even the playing field between the strong and mediocre players.
Further, the decks are fairly consistent in their relative power. Heroes and Monsters are, of course, match competitively against one another, but I could easily pit Heroes against Cunning and not feel one player drew a short straw.
I will be sad to see them go. These decks are an important part of many a fun night.
December 20, 2017 1:23 p.m.
Since the first set I ever played was Zendikar vs Eldrazi, I do feel sad that they are doing away with the duel decks. I also agree that they are/were great avenues for re-releasing older cards, however, I think that Wizards is starting to focus more and more on the Commander style of playing. The last few sets that have been released have been focused on cards that would be good in Commander and not as much in Modern or Standard. I do agree that the duel decks were a great deal and idea for new players, but I think Wizards thinks it can make more money by releasing more Commander sets in the future.
I will forever keep my Avenger of Zendikar I received in my first set.
December 20, 2017 5:18 p.m.
So much the better. They only ever print garbage cards in those sets anyway. They just throw one decent rare in the list to convince you it's worth it to buy.
December 20, 2017 11:41 p.m.
ticked-off-squirrel says... #9
since they are doing away with duel decks and focusing more on commander why not make a mini Planeschase Anthology set where instead of four commander decks in a big box for like $150 they only make two commander deck (could be rival legendaries to spice it up) and put them into a box and sell it for $80. it has the feel of a duel deck so new players can understand how to play commander and have the feel of an anthology box so veteran players have more cards to add to their existing arsenal of decks.
December 21, 2017 2:21 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
Razulghul, no, the Challenger Decks will be intended for standard, which really bothers me, as it is a further suggestion that WotC cares more about standard than they do about any other format.
December 21, 2017 8:59 p.m.
I'm definitely in agreement with you, DDJ. They need to understand that the standard community isn't their only source of income.
December 22, 2017 3:11 p.m.
They cleearly realise standard is not the only communitytheyve released the masterpiece series cards, packs like Modern Masters, a new commander set each year, a new in-set, and sets like Conspiracy. Weve seen the release of old anthologies for odd game styles, including the very fun and unique Planechase.
But, all of those aside, you are forgetting one simple factstandard players are not Wizards customer. Nor are modern, commander, legacy, etc. Game stores and big box stores are. (Wizards itself shut down its own stores in 2003which is a shame. Those stores were fantastic).
Ready-made standard decks will probably sell better at game stores, as most run standard FNMs. It will help game stores by encouraging people to get involved in FNM, and thus spend more money. Keeping these packs in standard means they can print somewhat better cards, without hurting the established prices on older, modern/legacy legal cardsprice reductions which would harm local game stores.
Im still sad to see duel decks go, but the choice makes sense. Places like TCG player are making it really hard for local game stores.
EmblemMan says... #2
Duel decks added nothing other than to help teach new players the game. I am sure they will replace it with something but who knows if it will be better. My guess is it will be kind of worse like the planeswalker decks.
December 19, 2017 11:43 p.m.