Ep. 37 - 2025 Was a Year

A discussion and explanation about my break/time off and a recap of the year 2025 for myself and Magic: The Gathering. See you again in 2026. Thank you and you're cool.😎

Editor's Note: We are, indeed, happy for the work.

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Credits
Written and performed by Daniel Wagner, aka CovertGoBlue
Edited by Roman Milan
Logo design by HolyMTG - [e-mail] Twitter @HolyMTG
© CovertGoBlue Entertainment, LLC

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The cover Go podcast is now on iHeartRadio, Spotify, and
Apple Podcasts, and is proudly sponsored by cool Stuff Inc.
Dot Com. Use the promo code cgb pod at check
out to get a discount and show your love for
the audio version of the show. Do Do Do You
Doody Doody dowty dudey covoboo podcast whoa great intro. I know,

(00:32):
I know, And now everybody's bracing for what the heck
is going on? And I like to put the newsy
news right up front. The news is it's break time.
I've got to have a break. I'm going to talk
all about how long that will last, what will be
going on here on the channel while I'm on a break,
which on its own is kind of counterintuitive, but you

(00:55):
might want to know it. And I'm going to look
back at the year and talk a bit about this
year and what it's been for me, and look forward
to next year a little bit in kind of a
one man solo yapfest podcast thing, and I hope that
some of you will come along for the ride as
we get ready to celebrate the holidays. The day I'm

(01:17):
recording this Christmas Eve, this is probably releasing Christmas Day,
which a lot of you hopefully are spending time with
family and on a break of your own and enjoying
it and rest assured. I'm taking a little break myself.
But what does that mean for the channel and the
releases on the channel. I'll do that part first, but

(01:38):
then after that we're going to get into all kinds
of yappy things about this year to make this a
proper length YouTube video. So you wanted the short version
there it is, So what is going to happen? Well,
first big question for me, how did this come about?
I'm very much at work through Christmas. Guy. You can
look back at the channel and over the years, there

(01:59):
was only one time I took a break, and it
was part of a kind of a planned gimmick thing
where we did the crow Qui's Battle and then I
took a month plus off and I swore I'd never
do that again because behind the scenes, the channel analytics
and the monetization analytics, they never recovered from that. It

(02:21):
was a huge drop off, and then when they came back,
nothing was where it was before it, And that might
be the hype that was built up, and plenty of
viewers might have decided that's where their journey with CGB ends.
But from a monetization standpoint, like it didn't explain why
the monetization never reached the rates it was before, and
that might have just been the timing. I think this

(02:41):
was the end of twenty twenty two, beginning of twenty
twenty three, something like that. So obviously pandemic ad rates
and such. But I've always looked back at that as like, Ooh,
I should have kept working because it never it was
never that good again and hasn't been ever since. And
that might just be a generational thing. It might be
a weird association my brain, but my brain can't stop saying, oh,

(03:03):
you took a break and it hurt your algorithm forever,
you know what I mean. So anyway, I swear i'd
never just take a full section off. But then I
was with my family recently a few days ago, and
one of them asked when my next trip would be
that didn't have anything to do with Magic, And I

(03:25):
looked at the release calendar, and I looked at the
Magic on calendar for twenty twenty six, and I was
just sitting there like, Okay, not there, oh yep, nope,
not there. Nope, there's a release there. Nope, there's a
magic on there. Nope, there's another release there. Nope, that's
a Magic con. And I had to look at them
and say, next December. Maybe next December, I can actually

(03:49):
take a trip with my wife that has nothing to
do with magic or something like that. And they looked
at me like, oh Jesus, it gave me this, gave
me this look. I'll probably never forget it. So yeah,
it's in a lot of ways, it's now or never, guys,

(04:10):
or at least not until next December, which is a
long time. The idea of another year before my next
break is a bit scary, so we got to recharge
the battery. So with that in mind, looking at the
release schedule for next year and just the timing and
the layout of everything, holy crap. Assuming I still have
content to make around Magic the Gathering, which don't get

(04:32):
me wrong, it's a great life and I'm grateful for it,
and I swore I do the hustle, and hustle we
have and hustle we will. But this is break time
and I need to recognize that. Regardless of like YouTube's
ad rate fluctuations or whatever, this is breaky break time,
and we're going to take that break. But on that note,
like what's going to happen on this channel, I actually

(04:53):
am lining up content for you while I'm on a break,
which I know sounds crazy, but it's going to be
remastered at the pisodes from the past that I think
will have good entertainment value in present day. So you'll
see posts on this channel that might be like the
when CGV played Urian for the first time. So like

(05:15):
videos my origin my editor Libby did not get to
work on in the past. She's going to grab them,
do some remastering of them, maybe change the order of
the games in it, pull the best games and make
videos around like the first time CGB saw Oko Thief
of Crowns or you know, these are just ideas, just
some of the best and most popular videos I've done
in the past. She's going to take a spin on them,

(05:37):
put those on the channel, and you guys can enjoy
some flashback videos for the next couple of months. And
you can leave me comments about how I used to
be so young and full of energy in life before
three year Standard attacked it, or you could leave nice
comments that would be cool. You could say Mary Christmas,
Happy Holidays. That would be cool. So that's what's going

(05:59):
to be on the chain, and I'm going to encourage
the shorts editor to do the same and maybe make
some great moments out of those past videos. So for
a few weeks, probably into early January, that is the
kind of posting you can expect here. And if you're
totally not into going back to the past and watching

(06:19):
some cool moments, you can just wait till I return January.
But I hope you guys will enjoy it. I think
it will be better than nothing. Hopefully. It also does
not destroy the algorithm, but hey, if you click on
the videos and watch them, then that of course ensures
algorithm no destroy e. So watch for those coming out
over the next few weeks. But rest assured, I'm on

(06:40):
a break. I'm chilling and the editors. To be clear,
the editors want the work, and if they don't like
it's somebody's gonna leave a comment that I'm a terrible person,
a terrible boss for making them work over the holidays.
If they don't want the work, they can also take
a break, but I do I'm confident they want the work.

(07:01):
If editor, you're hearing this. If you want a break,
I get it. You just let me know. It's not
not Manda Jari. Anyway, Moving along, Commander, we will probably
have a game worst Possible Commander show game in early
January for the lore Win release. We've been on a

(07:21):
break and it's been actually a very nice break. It's
been very good, I think for my love of throwing
down in Commander. Like I said, I was very burnt
out on building decks and just playing the game for
a little bit there. And the deck building spark is
back in the gameplay spark. I believe it is soon
to come and it'll be back in full swing and

(07:42):
lor Win. So what a year. We're gonna move into
the reflecting part of the video here for those of
you riding along. What a year. I got to do
so many things this year. I committed at the beginning
of well kind of two years ago, I committed that
I was going to try to get out there through

(08:04):
other channels as much as I could. I was going
to be in as many episodes of other things on
other channels as often as I could. I basically made
myself available. Like you know, you got a seat and
a Commander table you want me, I'll find a way
to be there. And what a year. And we were
on Game Nights as a guest for the first time

(08:24):
for Spider Man, one of my longtime goals, very long
time goals. I've wanted to do that for years and
now that's happened. It's pretty surreal. But I got to
play Gwen Stacy on Game Nights and got knighted, sir
Go Blue whatever you want to say, cover go nighted.

(08:46):
But yeah, that meant a lot. I hope you guys
have watched that episode. I believe we did four shuffle
up in plays with the prof that thank you, Proft
sent me this hoodie. It's hilarian community college hoodie. If
you have a watch those, I encourage it. Lots of
fun memories. They're the most recent one I did with

(09:06):
Voxy Josh Lee Kuhi was one of my favorite games
to ever play. Commander at Home. I believe I was
in three Commander at Homes. One just came out yesterday.
I think it was Zach the Bold and what a
wild game. If you haven't seen somewhere out there, I
hope the folks of the Goldfish podcast are proud of me.

(09:28):
I have settled the wreckaged myself on turn four to
ramp like six lands, and I used a surveyor's scope
and a go go master of mimicry and a fable
passage to ramp something like what was that like nine lands? No,
it was six lands there as well. In my Mono
Blue Deck, I definitely rewrote the rules of ramp on
Commander at Home. You should check out those episodes are

(09:50):
always a lot of fun. It's good to be there.
And I was on Pack It Up with Ben Bateman.
Talia Ves was there and it was a heck of
an experience. So if you want to see me play
Chaos Draft, check out Pack It Up. Chaost Draft with
every set ever made in magic is a little Insane,
The Little Insane skill Check. I did four episodes of

(10:10):
skill Check, including Shock Collar Commander. I still wake up
with a little like It is a very scary episode.
It was a ton of fun and thank you very
much the Skill Check for having me. He got to
meet Charlie moist Critical as well as his crew, very
awesome team. I don't know how many things I did

(10:31):
with Raren and Cimo. It might be it's probably over fifty.
It's probably not over one hundred, but almost every week
we were hitting each other up to do videos. Simo,
particularly despite his battles with chemo throughout the year, we
still made a lot of videos and always fun those guys.
I owe those guys a lot. They really helped my channel.

(10:55):
They helped me believe in the power of YAP that
like an audience wasn't tune out the second I didn't
have magic arena in front of me, and anybody watching
this video is like, you're a testament to that. Thank
you very much for that. But I don't know if
I could have done it without Raren Encmo. Raren in particular,
you know, making me do the Heartstone rating videos and
getting me out of my individual private shell a bit

(11:17):
really has helped the channel means a lot, so thanks
thanks to both of them. I know I was on
the MTG Goldfish podcast. I think that was twice this year.
Maybe maybe it was only once. Maybe I'm thinking of
a time last year. Love those guys, love MTG Goldfish's channel,
listen to them regularly, so that was kind of a
big hit for me. Strongly recommend the MTG Goldfish podcast,

(11:40):
and then we got to promote other games, which is crazy.
Aside from the occasional like one off sponsored video and such,
I got to do some more major recording sessions. Most recently,
the Godzilla card game sponsored a box opening episode and
a one v one gameplay episode that you can find
on the channel or I got to I've been a
Godzilla fan since before I can remember. It's one of

(12:04):
the first properties I remember latching onto as a kid,
and blew my mind that I got to play a
card game around one of my favorite properties, and that
they sponsored the channel. That was amazing. Blizzard Hearthstone stepped
up and sponsored like that big event Rearrence Rumble. Those
videos were insane to make. That was one of the

(12:26):
most fun weekends I got to have. And then Riftbound
the first Riftbound Shuffle Up and Play hopefully not the last,
but currently the only one at the time I record this,
I got to be a guest there, So thank you
Riot for having me as an approved member of the
Riftbound Gaming Club. That was really cool to make, and

(12:48):
thanks to prof for having me involved in that as well.
So actually getting to work in other games for the
first time really like I've done it, like I've messed around.
We did Attavers video last year, and I don't want
to diminish that that was a lot of fun too.
We had krim out for that. But just getting to
do like sponsored work around these other games has really

(13:10):
helped support the studio where we record Worst Possible Commander
Show Lantern games in Traverse City, Michigan and just running
that and it's allowed me to keep making paper content.
So thanks to everybody who watches those and checks those out.
What what will next year bring as far as sponsored
content like that, I really don't know. I really don't know,

(13:31):
but let me know in the comments if there's a
game you really want me to play for the channel.
I know we've Simo has talked about making me actually
play yu Gi Oh. I'm a little scared, can you tell?
But really it's it's I won't say it's like Mega

(13:51):
branching out because most of these games I play them
a little bit and then I come back to them
when they have a new set release. But I'm still
playing Magic almost every day, so it doesn't feel like
I'm locked into those games. I'm touristing a bit. But
it does help to have more tools in the toolbox,
more in the arsenal right, And it always feels like
a nice, like one or two week breakaway from magic

(14:13):
when I'm trying to lock in and figure out a
new game. So that was cool. And then of course
Magic the Gathering. Oh my gosh, what a year we
had in Magic the Gathering. So reflecting on the magic
this year, I like to look at it by sets.
You can look at each individual set. As a collector
of magic. I try to collect every single set, and

(14:36):
I try to get at least one copy of each card,
usually in the regular frame, because those are the cheapest
and the ones I like to play the most because
I know what they look like. I still love the
look of a classic magic card, and I don't always
want all the other bizarre like treatments and such. Sometimes

(14:56):
they get crazy, you guys know this. Sometimes they're beautiful,
sometimes they're crazy. I still just try to collect the
original card in the original frame, at least one of
each from each set. So I follow the sets pretty closely.
This year Star with inn A strawderymastered. That's got to
be one of the tamer remastered sets they've done. It

(15:18):
Just it feels like we were just there. It feels
like Midnight Hunt is not old, and Crimson Vow is
not old. And I know it's actually been a few
years in Magic Land, like we didn't always go back
to these like quote popular sets every two to three
years like we've it seems like we've started doing with
Ravenica and such eighteen years to go back with Lorwin.

(15:41):
I can't tell you how many times now we've done
Dominaria and in Astrode and Ravnica, but it's a lot,
so it doesn't feel special. So whether they did Dominaria Remastered,
Ravnica Remastered and now in Astradery Mastered, I think they
really wore themselves out on remastered sets, and that's probably

(16:02):
why an astrad Remastered will be the last remastered set
for a while. Also because of all the ips that
they're doing, we'll get into that Universes Beyond is probably
just taking the place of remastered indefinitely. But that's good.
I think there was not meant I think it just
wasn't meant to be every year, guys. A remastered set
every year is too much, especially focused on a plane

(16:24):
the way that Dominaria and now in Astrade and Ravniko were.
You just run out of planes, You run out of Action,
you know what I mean. So in Austrade was proof
of That wasn't a very exciting remastered set. To be honest,
it was fine. It wasn't great. Man. This year started
a little cold, did in it? Because the first standard
set of the year was Ether Drift Ether Drift. Oh wow.

(16:53):
The term hat set came around with like I think
Outlaws of thunder Junction started with at karlov manor of like, Okay, well,
it's all your favorite characters, but we just now we
make them detectives. Now we make them cowboys, now we
make them race car drivers. I think eighth A Drift

(17:13):
was by far the most disliked set in the Magic Universe,
at least because this was the hat set taken too far,
Like this was the official like Jumping of the Shark,
because now instead of getting sets that revisited the planes

(17:36):
that we liked, Like I'm still gonna say, Kyla Desh,
I haven't learned the other one name Avish. They changed
it and I'm still working on it. Don't be mad
at me. It's it's hard to keep up with everything
when you've locked it in up here in you're my age.
I'll work on it. I think it's Avish car. I'm

(17:58):
not positive, so we move on Amankeet. I think people
were interested to see what happened to Amanhet after Bolus
absolutely destroyed and ravaged that plane, and instead we got
to race through it literally, and then we did get
a new world, a Magandha, which appears to have like

(18:19):
dinosaurs and cool animals. And I think plenty of people
would be down for prehistoric Ikoria two point zero, but
once again we have raced right through it, all to
highlight themes of race cars and race cars and more
race cars, homages to Akira, jokes about fast and the

(18:41):
furious uh Mad Max. It just it wasn't there, guys,
it wasn't there. And even the frames, like that yellow frame.
I told everybody after I saw the cards it looked
better in person, and it did, but that doesn't fix that.
You can't make it look good online. You can't make

(19:02):
it look good on camera. That's a huge problem. That
kind of thing I think has to be avoided at
all costs in twenty twenty five and forward. It's got
to look good on the internet, it's got to look
good on camera, and the yellow frames just couldn't. Is
the butt of a lot of jokes. I am curious
how like ether Drift actually sold. But you know, you

(19:26):
can't look at that and think it's great next to
a bunch of other magic products. And it feels bad, man,
because this is what's representing the Magic IP in twenty
twenty five. This is why executives are looking at sales
figures and saying universes beyond is a guaranteed sale, a
guaranteed selling point. And we'll get to that because maybe

(19:47):
now they're not. We'll see. But I do like ask
yourself honestly as we go through this list, did Spider
Man outseell ether Drift? I think one hundred thousand percent. Yes.
My opinion is one hundred thousand percent. Yes. It's too
bad because I want Magic IP to succeed. Eh Drift
was not It is not it man. But we go

(20:10):
on to something that's a little more it Tarkier Dragonstorm.
Tark Your Dragonstorm takes us back to a plane that
many people absolutely love and I've been waiting to revisit.
It gives us a pretty cool story and lore if
you follow that kind of thing based in the Magic universe,
The maybe death of Jason, the maybe return of Bullets,

(20:33):
the return of Ougan. It's like they're getting the band
back together a little bit so that we can have
some of those classic characters in our magic world once again,
because they know that's what magic players like to see.
And I was optimistic. I said many times, Hey, maybe
all this universe is beyond that they do. Gives them
more time to make good story for magic, and maybe
they can make these magic sets that are magic ip

(20:56):
absolute bangers and a drift either. Drift definitely made stalled
that out for a minute, but then Tarkia Dragonstorm in
a lot of ways brought it back. It's a very
good set. It's a solid set for Commander, it was
a solid set for Standard with a few outliers that
had to be banned. Corey steel Cutter comes to mind.

(21:16):
How did that card? What was that card even have
to do with tark Here what but they had to
do it. I guess you got to push the set,
you gotta sell the set. Here's the biggest problem with
Tarkia Dragonstorm. It could have this could have been set
of the year. I think if it one had had
more Standard impact. They needed cards in the three color

(21:41):
pairs like Siege Rhino that pushed a color combination so
hard that you played that color combination. It did not
feel like you came out of Tarkia dragon Storm Standard
with an Abzen deck with a Jess Guy deck. Not really,
it didn't. It didn't feel tied to the clans. I
think that was a missed on their part and probably

(22:01):
the biggest problem with Tarkia Dragonstorm. I think we all
wanted to come out of there remembering the days of
like Mantis Rider, Jess Guy and Siege Rhino abs and
with a deck. We got homages to those cards, but
we didn't get good enough cards to actually make a
dent and standard, and therefore Tarkia Dragonstorm is a bit
of an afterthought other than Corey steel Cutter, and I

(22:23):
think that is a big problem. That was an oopsie.
But it was a fun set, happy to see it,
loved it. And here was the other problem with Tarkia Dragonstorm.
The elephant in the room, the Siege Rhino in the room.
It was in the shadow for the entire period of
its release. It was in the shadow of Final Fantasy.

(22:43):
At this point, Final Fantasy pre orders had already begun.
The pre order prices on the collector booster boxes were
absolutely stealing every bit of thunder from the dragonstorm. Everything,
everything in the discourse was around Final Fantasy and how
huge it was going to be, and it lived up
to that. It did it. It was the best selling

(23:04):
Universes Beyond set of all time by a number of metrics.
It was the best selling magic set of all time
by a number of metrics, and it probably always will be.
I do think this is a what do you call this?
This is an anomaly, This is a unicorn. This is
an ip that was just enough magic and provided exactly

(23:27):
the type of collectible this audience wanted. That it got
combined with speculation and investors and it just all went
through the roof. It all went to the moon. And
it's going to be interesting to look back at Final
Fantasy as is this the top of the mountain? And
if so, like like, how do they beat it? Is?

(23:49):
The question I keep asking myself is how do you
get back there? Wizard seems confident they can, at least well, Hasbro,
Hasbro board members, Hasbro Ceo seems confident they can. I'm
not so sure. This honestly looks like a full a
full anomaly. An absolute perfect storm, perfect dragon storm, not

(24:11):
so much that was the last set, but a perfect
storm of these things coming together to create this pure
monster of a set which was Final Fantasy, and it
was executed in so many ways, a home run on
so many senses. I know, people loved it and limited
it had impact and standard Just look at VV, although
it was kind of limp. It was like there's a

(24:33):
handful of cards here and there from Final Fantasy that
still see play. But VV was a majority of its
impact in that power outlier. But then in Commander, so
many powerful cards, so many legends, and and you just
look at the way the products sold. It's like, what
can you say? It was the absolute juggernaut that hit

(24:55):
everybody over the head with the power of Universes Beyond,
and it's undeniable. Nobody can point now and say Universes
Beyond doesn't work. We know it works. Now we can
just be like, well, you can be frustrated with it,
or you can deal with it, or you can try
to understand it. Like all of these things. I'm all
of these things at once in a lot of ways,

(25:16):
because it is like a great Universes Beyond set is
incredible there's no other way to put it. I felt
that way about Lord of the Rings. I feel that
way about Final Fantasy, and I do think these are anomalies.
I just don't think that you can do that every time,
And the more you do it, I think the less

(25:37):
likely you are to make that happen every time. But anyway,
Final Fantasy probably by far the set of the year,
maybe even the set of the decade. When it comes
down to it. For magic, we will see there's so
much to be learned from Final Fantasy, and see the
results going forward, and even the results later in the
year are so interesting. In the shadow of My Fantasy,

(26:00):
we'll talk about it. But then we get to the
last magic set of the year, Edge of Eternities, released
in July, which still blows my mind and released one
hundred percent in the shadow of Spider Man, and I
believe even some Avatar the Last Airbender previews were already
out at the time. Edge of Eternities also had the
misfortune of looking like a hat set again. Another Eighth Drift,

(26:23):
another Outlaws of thunder Junction, another Murders at carlov Manor.
This was going to be the set where everybody had
astronauts space helmets on, and that was it. It's magic
in space, right, that's the vibe here. And I'm happy
to say we were wrong about that. I was wrong
about that. Edge of Eternities is a really good magic set.

(26:47):
They really fleshed out a number of worlds, a number
of different types, like what does green mean in space?
I think they nailed it. I read in space and
their terraforming behaviors. I think they nailed it as well
as like black and White as the Sephora. So the
lore was really good. That's another thing about it. They

(27:09):
actually got a very talented sci fi writer to write
the story, and it was a very readable, enjoyable story.
I listened to it on audio on a train in
Austria on a trip that I took with my wife
through Austria and Germany, and I listened to the whole
story on the train and was like, you know what,
that's an upgrade, that's an improvement. That's a good story.

(27:32):
The lore on Edge of Eternities was deep and treated well.
That was cool to see. And the cards are good,
like I Still Explore is a very amazing magic card
in a number of formats, and it does a lot
of great things, and I think we're still kind of
finding little cards here and there from Edge of Eternities
that are making a difference in standard, like Lumbering World Wagon.

(27:55):
That card is an absolute killer. Mike Form Harvester just
started hitting Stack and it's hitting it very hard. And
of course Quantum Riddler hell of a card from the set.
So Edge of Eternities I think is the best Magic
the Gathering set of twenty twenty five Magic the Gathering
IP set of twenty twenty five beating Tarkiar Dragonstorm, and

(28:17):
I would consider that a big upset. I mentioned the
issues of Tarkier Dragonstorm. The shadow of Final Fantasy was massive,
the shadow of Spider Man and Avatar was over Edge
of Eternities, and I think that's why in the early
days of Edge of Attorneys it felt like the hype
was not there. As a content creator, you saw it
like the video views were down, the interaction was down.

(28:38):
Part of that might be standard being all vv Cauldron
for this period with the knowledge that wasn't going to change,
and that's a ramp for a different video. But I
give a lot of credit to Edge of Eternities as
a rock solid set. People are still finding the cards
in it that work, which is kind of amazing considering
it's been months and it was you know, ignore the

(29:00):
set at your own peril. It might actually turn out
to have the most playable cards in it for Standard
and maybe even for Commander. Honestly, when you look at
the way that this is shaping out, I also want
to talk about this pre cons. This was a weird
year for pre cons in Magic the gathering and as
a Commander player, playing with the pre cons is a

(29:21):
big part of what I do. It's a big part
of The Worst Possible Commander show, It's a big part
of other Commander shows. Following the pre cons is a
lot more, I think than people realize if they don't
play much Commander or only play like upgraded pre con
or like Bracket four Bracket five Commander. But the pre
cons are important products. And when look over the year,

(29:44):
the tark Here, dragonstorem precons were fine, but I don't
think any of them like it was really sad because
I feel like the jess Sky one and the abs
and one in particular were very ment bait. Betor was
not the face Commander most people grabbed Bator out of
the Abzan one and played Betor a bunch on the side,

(30:08):
and that was a voice of the ancestors. I think
it's called anyway not a bad card. But most people
didn't play the pre coon. They just nabbed the betor
the Jetski pri con with narst was it just felt
like a very mid generic Jeests guy. It didn't feel
like a Tarkier Jests guy. And then you had Tevel

(30:29):
which is amazing card, awesome card, great pre coon and
Uremi which the tar that it was the most dragony
of the pre cons excellent, and the Mardu one was
Zergo was very good, so good, like I would say
three out of five good in Tarki dragon Storm and
providing very powerful cards. Final Fantasy with its four precons

(30:51):
designed around the different games, were low powered but high flavor.
Low powered, high flavor. If you love Final Fantasy, you
probably love those pre cons. They are some rock solid commanders.
Yeshtola Knights Blessed is amazing, the Cloud is a great
Voltron commander. It's fine. Tara actually not as exciting, but

(31:15):
probably one of the best, actually sneakily out of that group.
That said, if you didn't love the individual games. It
struggled to make a lot of sense, Like a bunch
of legendaries were crammed into these decks that didn't feel right,
like the Cephroth in the Cloud deck. But it's Final

(31:35):
Fantasy seven, so they had to have a Sephroth, and
that Severroth had to be Boris, even though the like
Black is the Cephroth that's in the main set, right,
So some of that stuff was weird. It's just weird,
is especially if you damn play Final Fantasy. It's just weird.
Then you get to Edge of Eternities, and I preface
this by talking about we want to talk about these

(31:57):
pre cons for Edge of Eternities because oh my god,
the Eighth Drift precons took the approach of one of
them being set completely on Amankeet and the other being
set completely on Khaladesh, and they were so bad. Like
Energy had nothing to do with the set. They did
a great job with the art and flavor in a
number of the cards and the reprints. They chose to

(32:18):
call back to previous standards and build those into like
the Energy deck, for example, but that didn't make the
Energy deck good. These were very underpowered pre cons. Same
thing for the zombies of Amankeet incredibly underpowered pre cons.
Very sad to see that in a set that really
needed a power boost EH or drift that needed a

(32:40):
reason to sell these set because it already had these
headwinds against it of being a weird take on the
IP and anyway not good edge of Eternity's different approach,
insanely powerful precons. Hearthhole is nuts. I have never lost
a game with this deck. I retired it. I need

(33:04):
to bring it out of retirement just to see if
anyone can beat it. And yeah, I know you're out
there with your CDH deck saying Arthill's not good in CDH.
But remember this is a pre con, all right. Pre
cons don't play against CDH decks very often. Okay, so yeah,
I haven't lost in bracket two three. I would say
somebody played a Bracket four against me, hearth All hasn't lost. Okay.

(33:26):
The deck is an absolute monster, and in a lot
of the games I did on camera, I purposely slowed
myself down. I was like, I'm gonna end this game
on turn four and that's not a good video. So oops, Wow,
somehow forgot to cast my scape shift this turn with
the man I had floating, Wow, weird your turn. Please
do something about me. Maybe we've all been there, maybe

(33:49):
none of you have been there. Maybe that just blew
your mind. I don't know. Hearth All is an insane
commander and insane deck. And then on the other hand,
Kylo is like the pre con isn't as powerful, not
even close, but the upgraded version with just a few
more cards and it suddenly goes infinite with everything. And

(34:10):
so two insane pre cons that actually felt perfectly at
home in the world of Edge of Eternities, I think
is a home run best precons of the year, both
in power level and in how they fit into the
world and represent that world a plus on those loved them.
So in that sense, I think Edge of Attorneys is

(34:33):
the best Magic eyep set of the year. And I'm
surprised to say that because I had written it off
as a hat set in my mind quite a while ago.
When the set was revealed and I was just like, ugh, space, now,
we gotta do Space no wrong. And it gives me
hope that there are things that have been announced in
the future and that will continue to be announced in

(34:55):
the future from Magic that that creative team can still
surprise me, and still we'll take my expectations and thwart them.
And I think some of us we want to jump
to conclusions and we want to make posts online about
a feeling so much that we just assume we already
know how everything goes. And while you and I may
have been right about Eighth or Drift being, we were wrong.

(35:18):
I think we were wrong about Edge of Eternities. To
everybody out there who posted who wasn't enthused about Edge
of Eternities, I think people are still learning how good
this set is, and it might be one of those
that even a year from now, we're finding out how
good some of these cards are in Commander, and they
might break things in Standard down the line as well.
So Edge of Eternities awesome. Let's talk about Spider Man.

(35:43):
I don't think I've ever made a video talking about
Spider Man. I was behind the scenes working on the
Spider Man for Game Nights and of course on my
own content, and saw all the discourse around Spider Man
I've everybody has at this point. I'm so late to
this party, almost intentionally because I didn't feel I had

(36:03):
much to add. I agree with the majority of the
sentiment out there. This was an undercook set and it
under delivered on the promise of the IP and I
think it's I think it was amplified, Like the quote
downfall of Spider Man was amplified for two reasons. One,
nobody likes scalpers, like, like, you just don't win in

(36:24):
the arena of public opinion if you're going to try
to buy collector boxes near MSRP and resell them for thousands.
And that was a huge part of what went down
with Final Fantasy. So the finance bros of Magic the
Gathering got hurt with Spider Man because those collector booster
box prices inflated to like one thousand dollars and then

(36:46):
when people found out this that wasn't that good and
people didn't want it. Those prices have of course plummeted
back down too close to MSRP in the four hundred
to five hundred range, and every you know, big w
you know, for everybody out there just trying to get
their magic cards at MSRP, who hate that, Uh, these
this side of the community inflates things this way. So yeah,

(37:09):
they're gonna they're gonna crow about it. And that's just
what you sign up for. If you scalp, you will
never be the good guy. That's just the fact. And
when you take when you take an l they will cheer.
You have to be comfortable with being a villain. It's
like being a bloom age every day, quite honestly. And
that was a big reason for like a lot of
Spider Man discourse. That's a big part of it. The

(37:30):
other part of it is that it's universes beyond, and
that it's universes beyond that doesn't look like it comfortably
fits in the high fantasy world of Magic the Gathering.
This is what people have been skeptical for a while.
People didn't think Doctor Who fit very well, but they
could ignore it because it was a Commander product. But
here we are so off and on through. This universe

(37:53):
is beyond experiment. These early days of it, there have
been things revealed that are like Magic the Gathering, but
with this universe is beyond property and people have been skeptical,
like can they pull it off? And this was the
first time they really didn't. Like you could say what
you want about things like Doctor Who, but I think

(38:16):
the Doctor Who fan base would say they were happy
enough with the product the Warhammer decks. I think the
Warhammer community and Magic Warhammer crossover community would say that
was a home run, right, like they pulled it off.
And even for people who don't participate much in some
of these ips, like I don't participate in Final Fantasy
at all, didn't know anything about Final Fantasy. The only

(38:37):
one I played was one because I'm old. I couldn't.
I couldn't say they didn't pull it off because look
at the Final Fantasy cards. It was like, Okay, I
think I get the Final Fantasy story. I think I
get what people like about this very exciting stuff to
get into Spider Man. Spider Man was a dud. There's
no other way to put it. It didn't hit the

(39:01):
like I think you would have to be an all
in Spider Man fan to be absolutely one hundred percent
excited by the set. Just the amount of Spider Man
cards on an already smaller than expected set was deflating.
This would be a great time for Libby to just
cover the screen and all the Spider Man cards you

(39:24):
can find. There's something about that that is such a turnoff.
Couple that with the modern setting in New York City, right,
that is so hard to digest as a collector, and
I collected the entire Spider Man set because I collect
every magic set, and I stuck with it and I

(39:45):
got myself every single Spider Man and yep, that's a
binder I have. Now it's more of a laughable situation.
And here's the thing about it, though, for all the
ls like this gave people who have been hating on
Universes Beyond since The Walking Dead, this gave them the

(40:06):
ammo to say, c C. It doesn't always work. See
this can be a problem. Here's the problem for them.
I am still one hundred percent confident this outsold Ether Drift.
I am still confident this sold as much or more
than Edge of Eternities. That should be terrifying to those

(40:27):
of you who don't want Universes Beyond to be a
major part of this game. That's the fact now. So
I don't think you should be dancing in the street
about this being a w because Spider Man wasn't a
great set. I am confident. I don't know this. I
don't I can't prove it. And that's the thing. You
guys can leave me in the comments if you found

(40:48):
proof for whatever. I can't prove that Spider Man outsold
these things. It's a feeling I get. It's a feeling
I get as a lifelong Magic player in the content
creator space, who has access to behind the scenes stuff,
who works on a lot of projects, who kind of
sees the ebbs and flows of prices and trends online.
I collect every set, I play every set. Even with

(41:10):
the through the Omen Paths, problems on Arena and all that,
I still think this out sold Eighth or Drift for sure.
Maybe Edge of Eternities and that is that tells you
the power of universes beyond here, that their dud sets
can be so powerful, and that's obviously why what we
see coming down the line is coming down the line.

(41:31):
So ah, there's not a lot more to say about
Spider Man. I think they know they messed it up.
I think they know they have to do better with
the Marvel sets in the future. I think they will.
I think the I think the set, the Marvel set
next year will outsell Spider Man. I think it will
be a better overall set, and I'm very interested to
see how it does. It's but if you you have

(41:54):
to also see this just a little from a business
and branding perspective. As much as you guys can point
and say Spider Man was in a great set, does
that really matter is a question. You have to consider.
Magic the Gathering has a marvel ip, a Disney Marvel

(42:15):
ip on the box with Magic the Gathering on it. Like,
that's an insane amount of exposure. That's an insane amount
of new recognizability. Like from a brand perspective, that is
a w And it's so anecdotal. I know it's anecdotal,
but like I think it's a good example. Was I

(42:37):
was talking to a middle school here in my hometown
of Traverse City, Michigan. I was talking to a cafeteria
middle school students about what I do for a living,
and I was telling them about Magic the Gathering and
somebody had one kid, you know, it's probably like six
or seventh grader, I brought their Final Fantasy deck to
school to have me sign their titis from Final Fane

(43:00):
and like I was like, okay, so like big fan
of that. And then when I was like when I
started explaining what Magic the Gathering was, and I said,
they started to do some crossovers with other sets, you know,
like you guys know Fortnite, right, they're also doing crossovers
like Fortnite does. And a kid straight up says, there
are Spider Man cards. This kid was probably in sixth grade.

(43:22):
Like this little kid just goes there are Spider Man cards.
I did this same thing about three years ago, two
years ago, something like that to a completely different group
of middle schoolers around the same age. None of them
had any idea what magic the gathering was. They didn't.

(43:44):
I had to explain the whole thing, and most of
it came down to it's like Pokemon, and they're like, oh,
this time a kid had a deck, a kid knew
that there was Spider Man in the game. A different kid,
and a bunch of kids already knew who I was
when I walked in the cafeteria. Last time, I walked
into a classroom and everybody was like, who's this. This time,

(44:05):
I walked into a cafeteria and a bunch of kids
were already like clapping, and some of them were doing
them rather uncomfortable like bowing thing I magic. The part
of this could be that I got myself out there
more like we talked about earlier in the video, But
I don't think that is nearly as impactful as like
these ips. The fact that they know about Spider Man,

(44:30):
like every kid knows who Spider Man is, and none
of them knew who magic was. But now they see
that there are magic cards with Spider Man, they know
what magic is. That recognizability alone is something corporation's paying
millions for. I am tangenting. I know hopefully you find
some of this perspective interesting. Let's move on, but I
just can't. I can't look at Spider Man as an
l even though I know I know all the valid

(44:52):
criticisms of the set and the big w that is
seeing the scalpers get scalped. But Spider Man was not
an OL. Well it really wasn't for Wizards of the Coast,
and that is that is that reality I think is
going to define how much universe is beyond we will
see in the future. For the foreseeable future, the answer

(45:14):
is a lot. It is Avatar the Last Airbender ends
the year. I think this set would have been an
absolute hype set if not for the Spider Man kind
of let down, because it really popped the balloon on
the speculation, which is good for you guys, good for me.
We got our Avatar Last Airbender collector boosters and singles
at lower prices than we did our Final Fantasy collect

(45:37):
the boosties and singles by a mile. So that's a
w in its own way. And Avatar is a good set.
It feels right in Magic. I had not watched Avatar.
I was a little old for it when it came out,
because I'm very old, but my wife and I went
and we watched the whole Avatar thing. Rare In's a
huge Avatar fan. He told us to watch it. We

(45:57):
did in preparation for the set. It's a good show,
solid show, absolutely excellent and as they say, a kids
show that has adult themes, Yep, it grows along with
the kids. Yep. Like Naruto if it were shrunk down
to just four seasons, yep. Love it. Absolutely appreciate Avatar
as an IP and it worked in Magic the Gathering,

(46:20):
and I don't see a lot of hate out there
for it. It's kind of a wholesome ip in that way.
It's kind of a bulletproof good set. It just the
Magic fatigue definitely set in by November when Avatar was released,
or was it October? It was one of those at
this point it was like there were so many sets

(46:40):
and the roller coaster from Final Fantasy Peaks down to
Spider Man Valleys was vibe. The vibe was a bit exhausted,
and they did ban some cards. They made some huge
ban ban announcements before Avatar came out. And then Avatar
comes out and the sets pushed. It's powerful. It's got
really good, good cards and decks built into it, and

(47:02):
we got to see it in action at Worlds and
that did give Standard, I think, a little bit of
a good note to go out on on the end
of the year. And in Commander you have a ton
of powerful commanders from the set, so Avatar the Last
Airbender is a hit. It also, even though we're several
months removed, lives in the shadow of Final Fantasy, while

(47:23):
also oddly in the shadow of the Spider Man let
down that came after Final Fantasy. It lands somewhere in
the middle, which makes it less memorable and special, which
I don't think is fair because if this had been
the only Universes Beyond set of the year, I think
people would have a completely different opinion of Universes Beyond.

(47:44):
It would have been a slammed on home run as
it is. It was one of many, and it feels
like something very meant in the middle, which does add
to the diminishing returns of Universes Beyond. It's like if
everything special, nothing is special. If every things a Blockbusters
sell out, nothing is And it does feel like Universes

(48:05):
Beyond is trying to hit these home runs every time,
leading to these really like like, seriously, guys, we're excited
about only paying like fifty two one hundred dollars over
MSRP for Spider Man as if like we won something.
It's really bizarre the world that we live in from
that standpoint, and I do think that one of the

(48:28):
I would say threats to Universes Beyond and magic, because
Universe is Beyond is such a big part of magic
is the if everything's hype, nothing is hype issue. So
we'll see as we go into next year. That's the year,
that's the year in review. It's hard not to give
final fantasy said of the year. Obviously it blew the

(48:50):
doors off a number of things. It's hard, but like
from a magic standpoint, I think it's edge of Eternities.
To be honest, I'm surprised. I thought tark here Dragonstorm
would win that handily, but I think Edge is where
it's at. Avatar is probably my favorite set of the year.
I just really wish we had done it. I wish
it weren't the last set of the year because going

(49:11):
into it, I was pretty burnt out on Standard and
Commander deck building and playing, and I don't feel like
I gave it all the hype and love I wanted to.
And hopefully it's something I can do into the future.
But you don't get a lot of time to breathe
in this business, do you, Because next year is coming
Baby Lower When Eclipsed, this set is really has got

(49:33):
a very short previous season that's coming very soon. Lor
When Eclipsed is a It is very different from I
would say El Draine. It is not the same, very
different from Bloomboro, different from their takes on these like
fantasy worlds, and I think it will hit some people

(49:56):
right in the it will hit the sweet spot for
some people. I don't know about the mass appeal of
low Win Eclipse and if it can rise above like
the kind of shell that Magic set seems stuck in
where they don't get out of their own like Bloomboro,
I would say broke out right Bloomboro was appealing to everybody,

(50:17):
and I think it probably appealed to people who were
here from Universes Beyond. I think lower Win Eclipse might
do that. Can it rise above an edge of eternities
or a tarkier dragonstorm that seems stuck in specifically the
range of classic magic players and also appeal to the
new players. Maybe. I'm sure that's their goal. We'll see
if more Win Eclipse can do it. It is an

(50:39):
exciting set. It is a useful set. I believe it's
a powerful set in multiple formats, and I'm excited to
play with it in the near future. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Now we get into like, how do we approach this?
How do we approach this is Beyond? First of all

(51:01):
seven sets, four of which are Universes Beyond in twenty
twenty seven, that or twenty twenty six. That is a
talking point of its own that people have beaten to death.
I don't have a lot to add to it. It's
a lot. It's intimidating to think about, especially when you
see some of them and you're not sure how that
works in magic. I was I grew up on teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, the cartoon, the first movie. I remember

(51:25):
them very clearly, huge part of my childhood. They have
to surprise me because I have no hype for Ninja
Turtles in Magic right now, and I have to remember
that good creativity and well made product can still surprise me,
and all that skepticism can and does get beaten out

(51:47):
of me when they execute on something incredibly well. That
is like edge of eternity. This is what I keep
coming back to, like, I did not expect anything from
that set. That set is turned out to be amazing.
I also didn't expect anything from Warhammer because I never
played it, didn't really follow the lore, and that turned
out to be awesome. Will Ninja Turtles be awesome? I
have there is a chance I'm going into it with

(52:09):
very low expectations. Secrets of Strixan Uh, first, Strick Saven
was good, but you like, guys, do you remember where
we were when Strixaving came out? It was like everybody
was like, uh, everything in magic is derivative of something else,

(52:30):
and this was their Harry Potter knockoff, right, That's what
everybody called it. And when Strick Saving came out, its
impact on Standard was pretty limited to like divide by zero.
That was about it, because it came out in a
called tim still el drain shadowed like like they had find.
They had banned OMNAF, but Rogues was still around like

(52:53):
gold Span Dragon was a big card. Baseless Haven had
to get banned. Like do we remember when strick Saving
came out, It was considered pretty low power for the time,
and while it went on to have some impact here
and there in Standard, it wasn't like a mega set.
It didn't. I don't think strix Haven was a huge

(53:15):
success from that standpoint. And in terms of Commander it
had those commander decks. Well, the first commander deck pre
con I ever played was from Strixhaven. It was the
Conductor is it one? And it was fine. I don't
know where. Like the hype for Strixaven, I think is
like looking back rose colored glasses, and I would have

(53:38):
been more excited to explore more of the school and
world of Strixaven. But the preview panel they announced that
the story is going to take us outside of strix
Haven to explore the plane of Arcadius more. And what
I remember from that was reading the story from Strixhaven
that every time we stepped out of the school and
explored whatever was going on with Luca, and it was

(54:01):
pretty lame. That's what I remember. I maybe you guys
read the Lord differently. I I'm not that excited to
explore arcadios. I'm not gonna lie. I was kind of like, wait,
why are we leaving the school? The school's the most
interesting part of this. So yeah, Secrets of Strixan has

(54:21):
to edge of eternities me because at first look, I'm like,
this could be another pretty vanilla like take on this plane.
And if they go back to it in a similar
sense of Tarkier dragon Storm and they don't fully execute
on the themes of the set that transform into cards,
that transform into playable ability and standard, I think this

(54:42):
will be another very like forgettable set, just like the
original Strixaven was for me. Now, maybe I'm wrong, you guys,
let me know. With Strixhaven, your jam was learning lessons
the greatest thing for you. I enjoyed building my Divide
by Zero sideboards until it got banned. But I just
I don't remember the set itself being that hype or
that good, So this doesn't on its own evoke hype

(55:05):
from me. Then we have Marvel Superheroes, which has more
cards revealed for it right now than any of the
other three sets I announced, which is insane. And I
do think Marvel Superheroes will eclipse Spider Man by a lot,
and it might bring that speculative money back into the market,
which I'm concerned about. This is pure speculation on my part.

(55:29):
I think this will be a well executed set. I
don't think they will mess this up twice. In terms
of Spider Man. I think Spider Man had a lot
of headwinds against it from a design standpoint. I think
it was probably supposed to be a secret layer or
supposed to be a very tiny assassin's creed set, and
they said acts that were never doing that again, fill
the set, and so they filled it with every Spider
Man they could find in what was almost certainly a short,

(55:52):
deadline rush job by people just doing their best. I
think Marvel Superheroes will not have that issue. I think
it will have been under construction for many years by
people who really want this to work and take their
jobs quite seriously. And I think the Marvel fan base
will show up for this set in a way they
probably didn't for Spider Man. So I think this will

(56:14):
be a big hit. I think it might be the
best selling set of the year, and I am you
know what that means for magic? I don't know, but
if you've listened to me yap for this hour, I
should probably be a little more concise on some of
these things. I think that my speculation for Marvel is
it will overperform and be a very very popular magic set.

(56:36):
It also falls in the exact same spot on the
calendar as the fourth release of the year, like Final
Fantasy did, and that might just turn out to be
the money spot, the time when people have their tax
refunds lined up and in they go. That's where the
money goes. Next, we have the Hobbit. Hobbit's going to

(56:56):
be a very important set. It It was my original
pick or what would be the best selling and most
successful set of the year, but I am concerned about
diminishing returns. I think the Lord of the Rings fan
base will show up for the Hobbit. I think they
will buy it, but I don't think it will be
as successful as Lord of the Rings because honestly, I
think that Peter Jackson trilogy of the Hobbit took some

(57:18):
of the casual hype out of that franchise. I think
that a lot of people were bored by those movies.
It wasn't as special, and I think that that will
subconsciously infiltrate the mindset going into The Hobbit, and it shouldn't.
The Hobbit was a hugely successful book and it will
probably make a very excellent set to tell that story

(57:39):
with plenty of legendary creatures that we already know and love.
There is just a part of me that really wish
the Hobbit had come first to break that potential cycle
of Okay, well, it's the sequel to the Lord of
the Rings, just like the movies were. The Hobbit movies
were the sequel to the Lord of the Rings because
Lord of the Rings was so successful, so it became
just a thing they had to do, which became a

(58:01):
bit of a chore and a cash grab on the
movie side. And I think people will unnecessarily prescribe that
to the Hobbit in Magic the Gathering because it feels
similar because of the sequencing. But for me, as a
kid like I watched the Hobbit animated movie first, I
read The Hobbit book first, and then I watched The
Lord of the Rings animated Return of the King specifically

(58:21):
animated movie. Well before I watched the New Line Cinema
Peter Jackson trilogy, and I read The Lord of the
Rings after that, and it you know, that sequence was amazing.
And maybe I'm just talking all anecdotally, but I do
think the Hobbit, Like, let me know in the comments,
do you think the Hobbit will sell better than Marvel Superheroes?
Because this is the tough one for me, of which

(58:42):
one will be the bigger hit, Marvel Superheroes or the Hobbit.
I think the Hobbit has a better match for Magic
the Gathering and a better IP. But I'm worried about
like just the let down, so to speak. I guess
it depends. Will there be a one of one Ring
two point zero? I will see Reality Fracture is the

(59:02):
next Magic the Gathering set, the second to last set
of the year set in a Magic IP with some
things that they want to try doing. The initial vibe
on this. If any of you got to the end
of a lore Win Eclipsed story, I'm going to spoil
it so you have three two one seconds to skip

(59:23):
ahead or turn this off. But at the very end
of a lore Win eclipsed lore A, Liliana shows up
who's all in white and appears to be Lilyana the
White as opposed to her longtime color identity that is black,
which implies to me that reality fracture could be going
the route of alternate universes, alternate timelines, and those things

(59:47):
coming together. Part of me wants this very much in Magic,
I really do. That could be fun, And a part
of me says, every eyepiece done this, and I don't
need more alternate timelines clashing together in magic because it
feels so derivative of the Avengers multiverse and everything has

(01:00:12):
a multiverse, and I don't know, So I'll say what
I said before. They have to edge of eternities this.
They have to. My expectations are being weighed down by
fear and exhaustion from this being done in other ips
in pop culture, and they have to get they have

(01:00:32):
to break through that with amazing design. It could be
that I'm so excited to see how Liliana translates into
a white Plaines Walker card that I'm excited to play
with the card that could destroy these like false that
could destroy this anxiety in my head that I have
for this. This is like creeping dread right, that could

(01:00:53):
do it. So this is going to lean on card design.
The card design has to be amazing, the playability has
to be amazing, and reality fracture could be a huge success.
I hope it is. Star Trek. I watched the original
series and Next Generation. Spent a lot of time as
a young person watching these with my dad. He loved

(01:01:13):
to teach me lessons with sci fi films. I've shared
some of that on the Channel before. I can't remember
where last, but like he loved, he loved sci fi.
We would watch sci fi and he would take the
lessons learned in an episode of Star Trek or in
a movie like Aliens or Predator and teach young CGV
lessons life lessons using this and Star Trek had a

(01:01:36):
lot of those life lessons. A very excellent show that
I really enjoy. That said, magic, I can't get excited
to see William Shatner on a magic card. It seems
too strange, it seems too fan altery to get excited.

(01:02:01):
And it's another case where it's going to take creative
design and a lot of love to get it there.
I asked myself, did Doctor Who work? I believe Doctor
Who worked? I didn't. I enjoyed some things about playing
those decks, and I still enjoy owning those cards, like
collecting the Doctor Who Sat felt good as a Doctor

(01:02:23):
Who fan, so I think Star Trek can do that too.
But I still have so much apprehension about playing these
cards in standard. I still have so much apprehension after
Spider Man. That apprehension has to be defeated by good

(01:02:44):
card design and playability and collectibility. They could do it,
but I am not excited for this the way that
I want to be, the way that I'd like to be.
For a universe's beyond set, I am still to be clear.
I for the Hobbit, love Middle Earth. Can't wait to
visit there again, even in a magic form one hundred percent,

(01:03:07):
and I am curious to see Marvel superheroes. My hype
for that is medium. My Ninja Turtle hype is very low,
even though I enjoyed those as a kid, and my
Star Trek hype is very low, even though I consider
myself a fan of the series. They don't match Magic
to me and I look at these like it could
have been a magic set. It also could have been

(01:03:27):
Game of Thrones or various other ips that match the
magic esthetic of fantasy in like, that's really what I want.
I don't know why I'm still hyped about Marvel, but
I think it's just because it's Marvel. I can't get
there with Star Trek and TMNT in the tier list

(01:03:49):
of ips that exist in the world and what has
been the most meaningful, impactful and fun to me over
the years, these are very much in kind of a
childhood range, and Marvel and The Hobbit are above them.
So they've got to do it with card design. They've
got to prove it. But I do look at Star
Trek and TMNT as the proving ground for universes beyond.

(01:04:12):
Can they make these hit standard sets that don't feel weird?
Can they make it not feel weird? I don't know
if they can. It's a high bar to clear, and
they certainly didn't clear it with Spider Man. They did
it with Avatar, and they did it with Final Fantasy.
Those work, but I don't know if they can do
it with these kind of sets. I think it's gonna

(01:04:33):
feel weird. That's my fear. Bring it on. If you're
a Wizard of the Coast watching this, it's time to
step up on design, on every aspect of execution. And
I know you guys are probably really overworked, because I
know I am, because the amount of sets being released
and the pressure on each one just keeps getting higher.

(01:04:54):
But you guys have to follow up a year that
included Final Fantasy and was probably the biggest year for
Magic ever. That's a lot of pressure and you got
to deliver because we are out there watching. There are
a lot of people who don't like universes beyond hoping
that you fail, and they don't see how you can succeed,
and you know what, good luck. I do, at my

(01:05:16):
core want Magic to succeed, but I also really want
a balance with a love for the things that go
right with the game. And they haven't shown me yet
that they can make something like a TMNT or a
Star Trek fit seamlessly in the universe. I think they
had it perfect, perfect when they add like things like

(01:05:37):
doctor Who in Command or Fallout in Commander. Commander is
a place where those things can exist in their own bubble.
You can play all universes beyond against each other, or
you can build four fallout decks and only play the
man's other fallout decks. Right. I think that was perfect.
Now that you have to cross pollinate these things into standard,
it gets uglier. They have to show that they can

(01:05:59):
execute on a Star Trek set that feels like it
fits in the Magic Universe. An edge of Eternity's worked.
This is gonna be tough. Good luck on that note,
I'm gonna toe. I'm gonna top it off with a
little extra for you on my way out the door
from Secret Layers. This was the year I gave up

(01:06:22):
on Secret Layer. I as a magic collector, have enjoyed
so many Secret Layers over the years. I really have.
I enjoyed them a lot. This was the year that
cooked me for Secret Layer. Let me go over some
of the IPS and Secret Layer. Not even the total
releases it was over twenty, but the IPS and Secret Layer, Jaws,

(01:06:44):
The Office, SpongeBob, Final Fantasy, Iron Maiden, Ferby, Last of Us, Uncharted,
God of War goes to Tushima, playtoh Avatar. And there's
probably things I'm missing. You can leave them in the comments.
And this was the year that the wait times got crazy.
This was the year that the amount of releases got crazy,

(01:07:07):
and some of the product did get lazy. I mean,
SpongeBob knocked out of the park. I didn't mention Deadpool
that was a secret Layer, Jeezo Petez, what am I
doing here? Deadpool was a secret Layer? Oh my gosh,
like insanely powerful design. SpongeBob beloved. Secret Layer sold probably
better than anything else, and yeah, look at the resale

(01:07:30):
prices on that. But by the time we got to
the end of the year, I'm like a Last of
Us fan. I like God of War and Uncharted too,
and I just I couldn't do it anymore like I used.
I couldn't go make sure that you know I had
I didn't even I even I had a luxury most

(01:07:50):
people do not have. I had a person on my
team who logged in on the early morning on those Mondays,
waited in line, tried to get in the queue and
try to order them for me. I didn't even have
to sit in these cues for the most part. But
I got exhausted of just like, wait, that's coming out
this week, Wait that's coming out next week. Wait, And

(01:08:10):
then I could tell it was wearing also on them
because several times, even though they were there early in
the queue doing their best, they didn't get what we wanted.
And it was like, I don't worry about it, dude,
I feel bad even asking you to do this job.
I will just buy it on the secondary market later.
And that never happened. I just didn't get around to

(01:08:31):
go into the secondary market to buy it because there
was another release to there was another set to collect.
I was pretty good up until this year on collecting
Secret Layers and I gave up completely. And I think
that if they can wear me out on Secret Layers,
I am a huge Magic fan. I am fully invested
in Magic. I even enjoy these other ips. I like

(01:08:52):
making contact with these Sonic I didn't mention Sonic. I
still haven't recorded the worst possible episode of Sonic. I've
got the decks just sitting there in the room, and
every week I'm like, yeah, I don't feel like I can't.
I can't right now. I can't play this right now.
And I like Sonic. Like the Secret Layer train wore

(01:09:12):
me down. It really did. And I think that that
it's anecdotal. But let me know in the comments if
you got exhausted if you were a Secret Layer fan,
not somebody who just hates on Secret Layer all the time.
I want to hear from the Secret Layer of fans,
did you fall off the train this year and like,
could you get back on it? Or do you just

(01:09:32):
tune in for like one Secret Layer a year now?
And that's it? Like, because that's how I feel. I
feel like both me and my producer huge Secret Layer
of fans who tried to get every like one that
had any appeal to us or had a card or
an art that we liked, and definitely every crossover ip

(01:09:53):
we tried to pick up for the show, we just
fell off and we're like, not anymore, that happened. That's
I think that that's a bit of important anecdotal evidence.
I'm sure I'm not the only one let me know
in the comments if you fell off the Secret Layer
train this year, it might mean that we've met peak
Secret Layer. We will see there are always some big

(01:10:13):
ip hits away from probably setting records with Secret Layer again,
but I just I don't think I'll ever sit in
that queue again. I'm gonna say, hey, if I really
want it, I'll get it on secondary market. Later, but
I'm not sitting in that queue anymore. That's how I
feel about Secret Layer. So as we head into twenty
twenty six, what can you expect on this channel. Well,

(01:10:35):
I'm gonna keep playing Magic Arena. It is still, in
my opinion, one of the greatest ways ever created to
play magic. And if you had told me I could
have Magic the Gathering on my iPad or phone when
I was a kid, like take it everywhere with me, man,
that would have blown my mind as a kid, because
the biggest problem I had was finding somebody to play with.
Not a problem anymore. With Arena, Baby, I can beat

(01:10:57):
down some other opposition and mythic anytime I need to.
So more Magic Arena on the Channel one hundred percent
coming in twenty twenty six and Worre's Possible Commander show.
I'm taking it one project at a time. We'll see
how it goes. It's hard to keep that show up.

(01:11:17):
It is expensive to produce, but hey, as long as
it has some support and as long as you guys
enjoy it, and as long as the people want to
do it, I'm taking it one project at a time
and we'll see what happens. We'll also see if we
get projects from other card games, if Godzilla card game returns,
if Heartstone needs any new content, if Riffbound wants to
make some content, they know where to find me. Happy

(01:11:38):
to do it, And of course, to all of those
who had me as a guest on their channels this year,
you know how to reach me. I'm always down for
a game. I hope I get to do even half
of the cool things I got to do this year
with all of those other channels next year as well.
The release lineup looks like an adventure. What a wild ride.

(01:11:59):
But as there wherever, if you are a content creator,
wouldn't you rather have more projects than less? Even if
I don't get a vacation until next December. And speaking
of that, i gotta take my vacation now, so I'm
out of here until I've got some more win stuff
to release for you. Enjoy the reruns the remasterings of
some of my what I would call my greatest hits

(01:12:20):
here on the channel in the meantime. I think they'll
be a lot of fun and I hope that some
of you enjoy them. And to those of you listening
to the podcast, the podcast will be back with more videos.
I'm sure in the new year when Cimo and Raren
are down to record some more, or I can find
some other guests, or I just do solo yapp sessions
about various items. Thank you to everybody who listens on
the podcast platforms. By the way, if you're on YouTube

(01:12:42):
here you can go check that out. There are links
to Spotify in the description and Apple Music, and I've
honestly been amazed by how much those have blown up
on Apple and Spotify. Thank you everybody listening there. You
guys made me a podcaster this year. Bravo. It's good
to be back, and thank you for watching this video.
I will see you, not in the next video because

(01:13:05):
those are remastered. I will see you in twenty twenty six.
Happy holidays to all, Happy New Year. You're cool.