MTG: What Happened With Aftermath?
The war with Phyrexia is finally over…shouldn’t all us MTG players be a little more excited? Aftermath may arrive with a thud.
The latest set from Magic: the Gathering is officially out, and usually, I’d be very excited about this. The cards are fantastic, the story has reached an epic conclusion, and it means more tech for all my decks. But Aftermath…doesn’t do anything. That isn’t to say it isn’t a fun set, but it seems people are just over it. Much of the goodwill for MtG has been sapped recently, and Aftermath feels like a dangerous move by Wizards. The set has a lot of pitfalls previous sets lack, and I think that makes the set (and potentially the game as a whole) suffer.
Release Fatigue
Magic has always been driven by the hype for its next set. As exciting as a new set is, it’s in our nature to always look forward to the next exciting thing. Under normal circumstances, Magic delivers perfectly, but recently we’ve seen releases at record speed. We barely have time to enjoy our cards before a brand-new set is out, and that’s especially true with Aftermath. We got barely a month of gameplay before the new set was out. I understand that Wizards is a business that needs to generate products to keep its sales up. Still, Magic fans are getting slightly burned out by the rapid-fire releases, and Aftermath didn’t have the hype to warrant its accelerated release.
Cooler Stuff Coming Out
I don’t know about you, but I’m a lot more hyped about the upcoming Lord of the Rings set than I was about Aftermath. This is the first full set we’ve gotten in one of the Universes Beyond realms, and they picked one of the best. But even if you aren’t super into this set, Commander Masters, Eldraine, and Ixalan are on the way as well. It’s hard to be excited about what is essentially a mini-set when there are so many more interesting things just over the horizon.
The Products Aren’t Worth It
Aftermath’s biggest sin, of course, is its products. Charging the same about of money for a pack that contains only five cards is pretty insulting, and certainly doesn’t make consumers want to rush out and pick them up. Sure each pack could include more rares, but when we’re used to fifteen cards per pack, dropping the contents by two-thirds without changing the price is a poor move. Aftermath more than any other set is one you’ll just want to buy singles for rather than buying packs. You can’t even get the coveted Multiverse Legends, so better to just hold off.
