Final Fantasy May Break Me From Magic

I am a heavily lapsed Magic player. I haven't sold my collection or anything, but I haven't engaged with the hobby besides tuning into coverage of tournaments and keeping up with a small number of podcasts covering the competitive scene. I haven't bought a Magic product since before Lord of the Rings came out, and that might as well be a decade ago at this rate of releases. So in the sense of being a current customer, no my opinion doesn't "matter" but it is still the emotions I feel so fuck off.

It's also hard to know what I would even want to do if I were in the game. I'm kind of a Commander skeptic. It's the best way to play the same game with three friends but it is the worst goddamn way to play Magic. Just the pits. Magic was not built to be a four player game. So many bits of drama with the Commander community are because of the fact that the rules aren't made for this and people are taking something we shouldn't be doing too seriously. Like complaining that a old little two-seater pickup truck can't easily transport a family of six. If there were people I were friends with already and knew how they approached casual games I might join in Commander games, but I don't see myself joining randos, ever. And I am an even larger CEDH skeptic.

But if I were playing competitively, what would I be doing? Limited, perhaps, but lately there have been some format health and stagnation concerns with just the sheer power level of releases and how many cards they have to crank out in a year. Modern's somewhat unrecognizable now compared to when I last played. Gone from the unhealthy meta of The One Ring being in every deck, to the complete design mistake of Nadu, to the overwhelming amount of Energy because they put all the cards to break it in one set, to Underworld Breach being everywhere because the card was always borderline broken and one card away from being broken. Standard is just the same few decks and without tournaments on the horizon, Pioneer is also the same decks as Standard because power creep is such that you just play 90% new cards. Legacy doesn't feel like the breadth of Magic's history, it feels like 75% new cards and 25% the broken old stuff that feels worse now because it's enabling broken new stuff. Besides Limited, what would I play?

But really, Final Fantasy feels like it's the thing that's breaking me.

I was already wrestling with the fortnite-ification of Magic, the intrusion of other IPs through sets or secret lairs or special guests. I've played the game since 8th grade and I was never the biggest loremaster, but the universe and characters drew me in. The worldbuilding and craft drew me in, and keeping up with the stories engaged me further with the game. Even as I grew distant I knew the worldbuilding was there. I didn't read up on all the Duskmourn background, but in hearing from others I know it was there.

But that is going away because they are not working on it. There's no devoting half the releases into a year and spending years shortchanging Magic IP sets on design time because it all has to go into Final Fantasy and Marvel that doesn't result in withering the Magic IP.

The Commander only releases (Warhammer, Fallout, Dr. Who) were somewhat ignorable, because I don't play Commander. Assassin's Creed was an intrusion into the "real" game but a laughably failed one. Secret Lairs and special guests could be whatever. But 50% of a year's releases being non-Magic IP while the Magic IP itself has felt less like Magic with the explosion of hat sets is shaking me.

What's worse is that this is an unignorable intrusion that means nothing to me. The only Final Fantasy games I have played at all are two Crystal Chronicles games: Echoes of Time and Crystal Bearers. I have no connection to Final Fantasy as a franchise. I don't know who any of these people are unless it's through osmosis.

It just makes the issue one that I am feeling incredibly keenly because there is so much hype that I don't even begin to feel as I look at the cards. My brain does not get the reference and does not want to even start evaluating the card strictly on its gameplay merits. I feel nothing compared to everyone else's excitement and I know it's a joke that I'm not in on because I haven't played the gosh darned game.

And I genuinely don't want to be a wet blanket or sound like I'm trying to make others miserable which is why I'm posting this on my blog and not in Discord chats. But a chocobo doesn't mean anything to me except that Magic is less Magic now.

After Dr. Who I joked innocently about making a Cube that was all Universes Beyond cards so that I have a packaged experience that is 0% Magic at all. No names, no arts, nothing to tie you to the actual game you're playing. But that's just the whole game now! There's no dark joke about how Magic doesn't feel like Magic to be had because it's just the state of the game between Universes Beyond and these boring hat sets! Tarkir: Dragonstorm barely got to breathe before any enthusiasm for returning to one of the most iconic and ripe for reconciliation planes got drowned in the deluge of Final Fantasy previews!

Who gives a shit any more about Loot or the Omenpaths or if Jace is actually dead or if Bolas is released? It's not going to matter! We're not going to see any continuation on this story for a long time!

I was already looking at places to donate my bulk to that make learning decks for school clubs, I already wanted to downsize. Keep everything still playable in Modern, Legacy, and Pioneer. Hold onto my Commander decks and the auto-includes in anything I really, really love but don't have sleeved right now(e.g. Volrath the Shapestealer). But start downsizing the rest.

But right now the question I'm struggling with is: Do I even come back? What is left for me here? A hobby I have invested so much time, money and energy into. A hobby I have such memories from. A hobby that once represented an aspiration, not to be the best player in the world but to be the best I could be.

Is it still a hobby for me? Do I want to be a part of this again? I have spent so many years getting emotionally separated... Can I even return?