Subject: Shut Up!
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 13:56:44 -0400
From: Dave Matteson <dave.matteson@sdrc.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

This is to all the nay-sayers out there:

    I have been reading the issues forum and there is a string of posts
whining about Magic expansions coming out too frequently.  These are the
top 4 reasons they whine about this :

1. Money
2. Deluge of Chum (Crap)
3. Environment changing too quickly
4. R&D Running out of ideas

    So here are my responses to all of those arguments.  I didn't have
to think long and hard about this because it is a non-issue.

1. If you don't have the money, don't waste it.  It's that simple.
 Complaining that Magic expansions are coming out too quickly for your
budget is like me complaining that Ferraris are too good for my budget
so they should make shitty cars that I can afford.  If you don't have
the money, don't buy the cards.  Buy yourself a girlfriend (which it
seems what one poster was explaining, since when do you need money to
have a girlfriend?), buy yourself a car, save for college, buy food,
whatever.  Don't complain that WotC is actually keeping the game
interesting.

2. If all the crappy cards in TE/ST/EX are due to the expansions coming
out too quickly, then why were there so many incredibly bad cards in
Alpha?  Hello?  Onulet anyone?  Remember our good pall Mons
Goblin Raiders?  There will always be bad cards.  Why is this?  Because
WotCs standards for what cards they will print are too low.  That's all
there is to it.  Or maybe they actually think cards like AEther Tide are
good,  I don't know.

3. The environment seems rather stagnant to me.  How long has WW been
around?  Since the very beginning, that's how long.  Red burn?  Yep.
Black weenie?  Yep.  Control?  Yep.  Wow it's all still the same fucking
thing except some people's IDIOTIC combo decks that never ever work.
Maro + Pursuit of Knowledge!  Yes!! Whoo-hoo!!  Now for 3 turns I can do
NOTHING and then I will have a 7/7 Maro if he is still alive!  Hooray
hooray!  Sorry, it just annoys me.  I enjoy fun decks too, but this is a
completely invalid argument.  You still have your cards, you can still
build PoK/Maro decks to your heart's delight.  No one is stopping you.
 You just can't bring them to Sanctioned Type 2 events.

4. R&D will not run out of ideas.  If they do, they can hire me.
 I promise you, if every other person in the world cannot think up new
and interesting cards, I still will.  Maybe you have a limit to your
creativity, but a lot of us don't.  I think there are some pretty
talented people working in R&D, because some really cool cards have come
out lately.  So this is not something you have to worry about.  People
have been whining about this for a long time too, and many (including
myself) thought Fallen Empires and Homelands were evidence of this
coming to pass.  But, they got some new people, gave the old people some
kind bud to smoke and everything is all nice and happy now.

So, in conclusion: SHUT UP!  You're not saying anything new, and you're
wrong.
Have fun,
...dave