There has been a lot of changes recently with Magic: The Gathering. MTGGoldfish's Saffron Olive joins us to talk about some of them.
One of the largest and most impactful changes as of late to the collectible card game has been the takeover by Wizards of the Coast of the game's Commander, or Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) format.
As part of the change, the format's fan-run all-volunteer Rules Committee and Commander Advisory Group have been replaced by a WotC-appointed board which will oversee the overall health and status of the format as well as provide feedback to the company as to how things seem to be going.
"It's kind of crazy when you think about it that this volunteer group was running the biggest format of a billion-dollar company," comments Seth (probably better known as Saffron Olive).
And, while Commander began as a homegrown fan format, it has evolved into (arguably) the game's largest and most wide-reaching format.
"But I think it's glass half-full," he shares. "There's positives and negatives I would say of the Commander changes and I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
WATCH: MTGGoldfish's Saffron Olive chats about the current state of Magic: The Gathering
Despite the changes at the "front office" level, the popular YouTuber and MTG streamer doesn't see it affecting Commander players at large as, in the end, how the format is ultimately played is up to those whom play it.
"Long term, I think the great thing about Commander is you can play [it] however you want to play it," he states. "That's what made the format so great is it's a playgroup format."
As for sets on the horizon for Magic: The Gathering, such as the upcoming multi-setting spanning vehicle race-inspired set, Aetherdrift, Seth seems rather intrigued.
"It's gonna be unique," he comments. "I don't think we've ever seen a set really like that before, but we've seen a lot recently where we're going to the old west or we're doing murder mysteries so I think it's gonna be a super cool plane."
He says he's also rather interested to see how the CCG's new Universes Beyond stuff will play out. And this includes third-party IPs such as Final Fantasy, Spongebob Squarepants, and the Marvel Comics universe. They're things that, not too long ago, Magic players like Seth were quite skeptical about.
"I've warmed up to it a bit," he confesses. "There's still things I don't really especially like about it -- I can still see the criticism."
He continues, saying that "the optimal thing for Magic would be if [the game]'s IP was so strong that other game were adding Jace to them because Magic is such a great IP -- I worry that that's less likely to happen if we focus more on these other really good IPs."
That stated, the content creator points to how well WotC executed Universes Beyond releases such as The Lord of the Rings - Tales of Middle Earth as an example of how that type of MTG release should be handled and executed.
"There's still some Universes Beyond sets where I'm kind of like ehh," he says, referring to releases such as Doctor Who as, in his mind, it just doesn't fit the game of Magic: The Gathering very well. "But a lot of them have been way better than I would have expected, so I'm warming up to it as we go along."
In the end, though, and looking forward, Seth says he doesn't see his enthusiasm for the game changing anytime soon.
"I love playing the game, I love playing all the formats, so I think I'm gonna keep doing kind of what I've always been doing," he says. "But I think we're gonna see a lot of new players coming in and that's something I'm really hyped for."
