As far as mythic rares…well, I’m a little intrigued. But given how out of balance some normal rares are like Oona, Queen of the Fae, well, as Scott says, mythic balance will most likely be painful at best.

I almost have the whole Pro Tour set!

>giggle<

The way I see it is sort of this weird attempt at legitimacy, basically the sort of legitimacy that is garnered by pro sports teams and sought by G4 and professional videogaming circuits.

The reason why it’s weird is that, in many respects, I don’t care - I think gamers (of our generation anyway) probably don’t care. Do I want Gary Wise to sign his rookie pro tour card? Nah.

However, non-gamer segments of our society might care, in the sense that establishing gaming as a legitimate activity next to professional sports might go a long way to changing attitudes toward gamers, and our pastime.

That kind of change is something to care about. How does it happen, and does the existence of pro Magic players make a difference? I don’t know. I do think that it is happening though, slowly, as more and more members of our society are found to play games - even if it’s just my mom playing something “lame” (by my standards) like Peggle. People are now carrying around game-capable cellphones everywhere and playing games in their web browsers. Plus the fact that generations of kids with home videogame consoles and personal computers are growing up to take part in adult society, where products are consumed and votes are cast (and I mean wallet and ballot). In a way, it’s only a matter of time.

On the other hand, I don’t think Wizards has shown an ability to make rare cards which are more unique/interesting/challenging/harder to use without also being just plain more powerful. Rarity equates to power in many cases. As such, mythic rares seem likely to continue the trend for the worse.

Still, Magic is FAR from the first TCG to employ this feature.

I do have to say the idea of ultra rares is mind bogglingly lame. On the one had you have the “I’m the only one in my play group with one!” concept that only works with the idea of Magic being a game where people have small card pools and then you have the fact that they are pushing the pro magic players. This comes across as contradictory to me.

Of course it’s 3:30 AM… so it might just be me…

I will ALWAYS love opening new decks! It’s like Christmas, or my birthday!