plakjekaas

I am aware of the original 5 but my comment, "story wise" is still accurate. The planeswalkers in Lorwyn were simply placed in the set because there was room. They had nothing to do with the story and were not mentioned in the books. It wasn't until Shards of Alara that they actually came into the lore.

His art doesn't quite match Lorwyn/Shadowmoore. So, they probably didn't have that baked in when he was created.

It was probably decided to move him there since the original blocks, story wise, didn't have planeswalkers.

Possibly cards like Confounding Conundrum and/or Price of Glory.

There is also Mana Barbs and several cards that operate like mana barbs to slow down how much mana you can comfortably use.

Also, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, but he's close to mana denial.

theNeroTurtle

Depends on how you say "fit." It fit the trope of fantasy. But it was no where near the mainline Magic lore.

It fit in a roundabout indirect way. MtG was based (probably more accurate to say inspired) in part, on D&D. D&D was based, in part, on LoTR.

Though the story/lore that Tolkien wrote and created is a world apart from Magic's. The similarity ends somewhere between elves and wizards.

Caerwyn

I would disagree with the argument that it doesn't or only negligible damage to the LGS.

Argument to your favor, SLs are not the only struggle for the LGS. Online only retailers, big box stores, proxies, MtG Arena, et cetera, all pose business struggles for the LGS.

I agree that WoTC doesn't want the LGS to die but I don't think their above bleeding the cow.

What's difficult is describing how damaging SLs are to game stores. I don't have internal sales numbers from WoTC and/or the thousands of LGSs. What would be nice to have is a survey of how Secrect Lair purchasers spend money on magic.

For myself and small group of friends I've talked with, we generally have magic budgets. If we splurge on SL, we generally cut back on other magic purchases and not outside purchases (coffee/movies/etc.) But a small sample isn't necessarily the magic community.

Edit: Fixed a typo.

More to OP's original gripe.

I personally don't like most UB. I especially don't enjoy paying a premium price for standard legal sets. Worst, I hate how UB is becoming more ubiquitous than MtG IPs.

However, I agree with others on this thread that UB helps to bring in other players. It helps to build excitement for existing magic players. I loved the LOTR UB (it's fantasy setting feels close to magic). I think overall UB is a good addition to the game, just wish they could dial it back a bit (I hope poor sales, thank you Spiderman, will pull them back.)

Caerwyn "There is no legitimate reason to be against secret lairs..."

Your LGS. You can be legitimately against Secret Lairs if you support your local game store.

There is a finite amount of money magic players have and how much they are willing to pay. The vast majority of SLs cut out the middleman (your LGS), which increases Hasbro profits at expense of most players favorite place to play.

On a side argument not against SLs directly (as in the product itself), Hasbro "sucks" at selling them. The limited print runs supports scalpers and often pushes SLs out of the price range and/or availability to a group of players that want them. This breeds resentment which can manifest itself in a multitude of negative ways for the game.

Both problems stem from Hasbro putting the business above the game. I believe this will lead to a long term net negative for MtG but maybe the Exectutives at Hasbro know better than I.