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Another expansion

quozl

quozl

Not just a rat but a rat with a gun!
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Looks like we have another coming next fall:

http://www.universaldist.com/p-228501-mtg-arena-of-the-planeswalkers-tears-and-fears-exp-4.aspx

Looking around on the site, we see the 1st expansion is called (by the site) Blood & Sweat and this ones is called Tears & Fears. Looking at Magic's release schedule:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_sets

We see that Blood and Sweat are the codenames for the Battle for Zendikar block releasing in 9/2015 and 1/2016 and Tears and Fears are codenames for the next Magic set releasing in 4/2016 and 7/2016. If they keep to this release schedule, we should be seeing expansions come out twice a year.
 
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That's art from the most recent Mirrodin set, which suggests the next Magic set is New Phyrexia. Could make for some cool units, the Phyrexians are classic.
 
· Stand-Alone & Expandable Play
· Item #: B7410
· Dims: 10.5” H X 15.75” W

If that website is to be trusted then we are getting a box the same size as the original and able to be played stand alone. It looks like less of an expansion and more of another "Master set".

Perhaps it will be a 2 army box with 2 multi color Planes walkers, and a few common squads. If they keep releasing Planeswalkers they will have to start recycling since their are only so many in the lore.
 
johnny139 said:
That's art from the most recent Mirrodin set, which suggests the next Magic set is New Phyrexia. Could make for some cool units, the Phyrexians are classic.
Click to expand...

If this expansion is good for both stand-alone and expandable play, that would suggest that it is likely to contain new base map pieces. Being the same size box would also support that idea. The map pieces in the original are sand color with a bit of water. Any guesses as to what color a Mirrodin map might be? If a different color of base map is provided, tiles of a different color would also be a possibility.
 
By the way, they just announced the next Magic Block (for next Spring) - Shadows over Innistrad. It's another "Return" block, and since it's REALLY unlikely they'd do three of them in a row, that's likely just placeholder art in the first post - unless they start releasing expansions completely unrelated to the new sets.

On the other hand, we'll likely be getting zombies and vampires and werewolves next Summer, which is exciting. :D
 
Somewhat off-topic but it would be amazing if they released the older Planeswalkers from the mythos like Urza, or his later robotic counter part Karn. (still like Urza way better)
 
Liliana's going to get some new buddies now. I think they're trying to play it safe with the game and offer sets with well-respected Magic names to appeal to the fanbase. Zendikar followed by Innistrad, which Magic fanboys would be all over. This instead of Kamigawa, or (Gasp!) Homelands. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't know, but I think it means this game could last for some time.

Secondly, I don't think we'll see multicolored Planeswalkers extremely often. Few planeswalkers are known for being multicolored, and only one has been on Innistrad. I do think this set could give us The Chain Veil and some artifacts. (Or are they saving it for return-return to Mirrodin?)
 
Thanks @quozl for starting this thread and supplying the links. I haven't been keeping up with the MtG news, since I've never played it and no one near me plays Atop.
 
PeasantDave said:
I wonder if we'll get any common squads as filler.
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@PeasantDave - I'm glad to see that you're still active on the Forums. Sometimes I think that I'm the last HeroScapeR remaining in New Jersey. There's a game group that meets in a church off Hope Road, TF, near Exit #105 on Tuesday evenings. I try to visit them about once a month and could meet you there. Look for their Guild called: "Exit 105 Gamers," on BoardGameGeek. I could meet you there to 'Scape, M:TG-AotP, or any other Euro.
G1shark said:
Metallic most likely for a Mirrodin set.
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"METALLIC" terrain board and/or terrain pieces, really? WOW, that sounds awesome, but I just can't visualize it, since I am totally ignorant of the M:tG universe.
Marro_Warlord said:
Liliana's going to get some new buddies now. I think they're trying to play it safe with the game and offer sets with well-respected Magic names to appeal to the fanbase. Zendikar followed by Innistrad, which Magic fanboys would be all over. This instead of Kamigawa, or (Gasp!) Homelands. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't know, but I think it means this game could last for some time.
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I certainly hope that this new AotP game does "last for some time," with a couple if not several expansions, but I'm not sure that this Board Game with miniatures is appealing to the original M:tG Fan Base. I don't see any one playing it here where I am in south Jersey.


From a corporate business perspective, it's survival and longevity will solely depend upon how well it sells. It doesn't matter how much the fans love it and want it, there has to be enough people BUYING it to warrant it's continuation. Look at what happened to HeroScape. Any way, keep you eye on the store shelves. If you begin to see any of these products marked down for Clearance, them that's a harbinger that project is in financial trouble and may get cancelled.
 
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Yeah there was a good hit as the 1st wave of AotP sold out here , but wave 2 is kinda sitting and we still haven't gotten the 1st expansion set yet, Also oddly enough the MtG players are not the ones who bought everything I didn't...From what I can tell Montana sales look good.
 
wriggz said:
· Stand-Alone & Expandable Play
· Item #: B7410
· Dims: 10.5” H X 15.75” W

If that website is to be trusted then we are getting a box the same size as the original and able to be played stand alone. It looks like less of an expansion and more of another "Master set".

Perhaps it will be a 2 army box with 2 multi color Planes walkers, and a few common squads. If they keep releasing Planeswalkers they will have to start recycling since their are only so many in the lore.
Click to expand...

Seems to me that every year we get a set similar to the core and a set like Zendikar. I'm looking forward to WotC releasing blisters, like the Heroscape ones. Don't know if it'll happen, but Hasbro can shut up and take my money if they do!
 
NinjaFossil said:
wriggz said:
· Stand-Alone & Expandable Play
· Item #: B7410
· Dims: 10.5” H X 15.75” W

If that website is to be trusted then we are getting a box the same size as the original and able to be played stand alone. It looks like less of an expansion and more of another "Master set".

Perhaps it will be a 2 army box with 2 multi color Planes walkers, and a few common squads. If they keep releasing Planeswalkers they will have to start recycling since their are only so many in the lore.
Click to expand...

Seems to me that every year we get a set similar to the core and a set like Zendikar. I'm looking forward to WotC releasing blisters, like the Heroscape ones. Don't know if it'll happen, but Hasbro can shut up and take my money if they do!
Click to expand...

Seems like they could have a home run if they do some combo of the following:

- keep releasing large sets each year
- sell blister packs of commons, we will all buy way too many
- sell spell card packs. preferable in an LCG style.
- introduce terrain packs (I suspect mfg costs make this hard)

On the last one this seems like a no-brainer. This is a company that has card manufacturing down to an art form. How can this not be easy money for them? Perhaps it just isn't at the scale they want.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I think it is a matter of resource management. I'm sure each product takes up X amount of time, staff and mfg resources. How much money do you want tied up in a single brand at any given time?

Sure they could go balls in, but that is high risk, high reward. Whereas putting out a few "Christmas" gift games is low risk, low reward. Creating and Printing AotP cards takes away resources from creating and printing MTG cards. Hasbro seems to be about making lots of different games and filling up the shelves of walmart, not making one game and filling a wall in a game store. Each AotP expansion is one lest copy of Monopoly (which continues to sell).

I'm very happy with my AotP game as it stands, augmented by my vast heroscape collection. I may turn out a Large hero custom pack for personal use at some point, and maybe lift a few cards off other custom creators. That said I wouldn't mind seeing a yearly or bi-yearly expansion. I wouldn't go out of my way for a card pack, but would buy it if I saw it in stores.
 
wriggz said:
I think it is a matter of resource management. I'm sure each product takes up X amount of time, staff and mfg resources. How much money do you want tied up in a single brand at any given time?

Sure they could go balls in, but that is high risk, high reward. Whereas putting out a few "Christmas" gift games is low risk, low reward. Creating and Printing AotP cards takes away resources from creating and printing MTG cards. Hasbro seems to be about making lots of different games and filling up the shelves of walmart, not making one game and filling a wall in a game store. Each AotP expansion is one lest copy of Monopoly (which continues to sell).

I'm very happy with my AotP game as it stands, augmented by my vast heroscape collection. I may turn out a Large hero custom pack for personal use at some point, and maybe lift a few cards off other custom creators. That said I wouldn't mind seeing a yearly or bi-yearly expansion. I wouldn't go out of my way for a card pack, but would buy it if I saw it in stores.
Click to expand...

It seems reasonable that they prefer to play it safe as you described. And to be fair we have enough now that the game is a lot of fun and has just enough diversity to not feel like the same thing over and over.

Perhaps the slow pace is good, it keeps me out of trouble with the wife :)
 
I agree, the pace they are going seems to keep the game viable and interesting enough. With the last set using multi colored planeswalkers it has people wanting a second set of each to card deck build for multiple players, and it also adds enough units to make variations so you don't have to use the same army for each color every time. 1 to 2 expansions a year is fine by me. I find plenty of other things to spend my money on anyway.
 
mcmeeple said:
- introduce terrain packs (I suspect mfg costs make this hard)

On the last one this seems like a no-brainer. This is a company that has card manufacturing down to an art form. How can this not be easy money for them? Perhaps it just isn't at the scale they want.
Click to expand...


Depends on what the 'terrain' is. Take the existing AotP map plate format; new terrain is Art department work to draw the map, then printing and cutting onto the cardboard backing; with a colorful top sheet (or a booklet with terrain rules if they introduce new terrain), these could be flat-packed in cello bags to hang from a pegboard display.


Releasing new injection-molded 'Heroscape' tiles represents more of an investment; it's inherently slower than the printing and lamination that AotP-style boards would be. Painting the hex face is an additional step that adds time and cost, but molding tiles in plastic colored for the terrain type (i.e., green, grey, and khaki for grass, rock, and sand, etc.) avoids that. And the potential market for terrain tiles is bigger than just the AotP purchasers; I'd be willing to bet that if they released a box with the RotV terrain block, the demand from people facing eBay prices for the remaining HS terrain would be significant. But given that Heroscape production was shut down years ago, I suspect that the population of gamers still wanting HS tiles wouldn't be considered in their cost/benefit analysis; I don't know how much that would tip the decision.
 
I've looked into it, and people on the actual AotP forum seem to think the next set will come out around April, and could contain artefacts. The only problem is, we don't know how artefacts are meant to work! My speculation is that Artefacts will either be treasure glyphs or be colourless like the Eldrazi were
 
NinjaFossil said:
I've looked into it, and people on the actual AotP forum seem to think the next set will come out around April, and could contain artefacts. The only problem is, we don't know how artefacts are meant to work! My speculation is that Artefacts will either be treasure glyphs or be colourless like the Eldrazi were
Click to expand...


Do we have any real indications that something is coming or is it wishful thinking. There have been a lot of toy and game shows since the last release and they pretty much skipped the holiday season without a peep of news. I had pretty much given up on it and figured Hasbro had canned it.
 
The last magic set Kaledesh was largely based around artifacts. And we passed both that set and the next with no news. I think this game is done :(
 
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