MagicCon 2025 Review: Epic Games, Awful Setup - Error Code Show

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mine to Magic Con in Atlanta. I had never been

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to a Magic Con. I've been to a bunch of different

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cons in the con circuit. Over the last 10, 11

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years, I've been to a lot of conventions. But

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it had been a while since I took a vacation,

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so I went out to Magic Con. So we're going to

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talk real quick about Magic Con, what some of

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the cool magic -y stuff we learned there, and

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some other stuff about that. Let's talk about

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Magic Con. So first off, bottom line up front,

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like my buddy asked me, because he'd been to

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many Magic Cons before, he goes, where does this

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rate as a con? I said, it's a good, it's a solid

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seven out of 10. It's a seven out of 10. And

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I think he was initially, because he loves Magic

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Con very much, he was very disappointed. He was

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like, but why? And I was like, okay, first off,

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let's start with the easy one, the venue. So

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Magic on Atlanta is held at the World Congress

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Center, which is right next to Mercedes -Benz

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Stadium. It's like a whole big complex. The venue

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is terrible. It's a bad venue for this type of

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con. It is. It is just once you even get to the

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front doors of the con and Jay, you'll appreciate

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this because you go to a lot of like ECC and

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stuff like that. Imagine if you got to the front

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door of ECC, but to actually get anywhere in

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the conu to walk another 10 minutes. Yeah. To

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get to the show floor. Yeah. Yeah, at all. The

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whole convention center is really long. And it's

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laid out really weird to get to it. And it's

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like a series of like, walk here, go down, walk

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here, go down, walk here, go down. It's really

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funky. And I just I didn't like the venue. I

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don't. I talked to some of these at all. Is it

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all just one floor? No, it's four floors that

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kind of like shift down as you go. Oh, so kind

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of like Emerald City. But where Emerald City

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is stacked, it's like one floor. One floor. Oh,

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it's it's really weird. And I don't as weird.

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It's not built for fandom type conventions. Which

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brings me to the show floor. Not. Not surprisingly

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to me, this is where it gets dinged a little

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bit. The show floor is lackluster. OK. It's a

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magic on so the primary vendors there are all

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magic related I was hoping to see more like Accessories

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and the people that sell other stuff the dragon

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shield booth was really bad. Some of the other

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booze were really bad. I I didn't I Didn't like

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the show floor was just pretty lackluster My

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suggestion to wizards is do what ECC did add

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a tattoo section because I think that would be

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dope Okay, because people would love to get like

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little magic tattoos while they're there The

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show floor is mostly just buy sell cards buy

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sell singles buy sell singles and it's just it's

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not very fun You can like again ecc You can kind

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of get a sense of the show floor in one day But

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you can get a sense of the show. You can do a

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full turn on the show floor at magic on in about

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two hours That's it it doesn't take long Wow,

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okay, it's not it's not very good So that's that's

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the two areas where they really get dinged in

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my mind is that Here's the good stuff Okay, and

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we're gonna talk about some of the other the

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other magical and stuff One of the things that

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had confused the crap out of my play group and

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a lot of people is Magic had built this whole

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bracket system for commander to make it make

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more sense to everybody to do power levels and

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we for a long time We're like this there's missing

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piece here to do and it wasn't working They have

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this whole big commander area set up there and

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the matchmaking they did you could be by yourself

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You could be with a small group looking for other

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players the match me I every time I walked into

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the command zone the Wizards of the Coast staff

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who was matching people up by power level I Never

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waited more than five minutes for a game not

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once right and They did it in a way where I now

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understand the power levels better, right? I'm

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like, oh That's what we were missing, right?

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It's structured so well and again for a con to

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get you match made into Atlanta or sorry into

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Into games and I did not have one unpleasant

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experience. Everybody there was super chill It

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was a fun, fun time playing Magic with people

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who really just wanted to have fun. And the bracket

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system that they set up, the way they've got

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it, the way they've set it out at Magic Con,

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A, makes it make more sense, but B, really does

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make sure that you're within people that are

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playing at the same power level you are with

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your decks. So you're not going to sit down.

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I didn't sit down at a table the whole weekend

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and just get completely curb stomped. Right?

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which we've all had happen. I did do a couple

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of sealed events at the con for the Spider -Man

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release. Yay. The Spider -Man uterus is beyond

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came out. It's not good. It's not. Oh, no. It's.

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It's OK. It's not terrible. But it's not good.

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They should have done with spider -man what they

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did with the sass has created made it a mini

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set but because you're trying to make all the

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universes beyond standard legal they didn't and

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It's it's pretty weak It's not good It's not

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terrible but it's not great and I think because

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it's the primary set that magic on was You know

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built around because it's the most recent release

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I think that hurt it hurt the con a little bit.

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I think it was like a really hype set, like something

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really, really cool. I think it would have been

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better. Right. But the fact that Spider -Man

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is just not it's not great, guys, like. It's

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not great. And actually somebody in the chat

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saying magic nurses stay in their lanes. I've

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seen this for years. And in fact, this person

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in the chat. Oh boy, you're about to find out

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something funny, Dog Dad. You're about to find

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out something funny, because also at Magic Con

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this year, we got the 2026 slate. And I'm gonna

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start with the last one. In honor of Dog Dad,

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in November of 2026, well, let's start with this.

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Usually they alternate, like standard set, universe

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is beyond. Standard set, universe is beyond.

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this is the first year where they're going universes

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beyond universes beyond with spider -man released

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now and avatar the last airbender releases next

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next year we're in a similar situation we have

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four universes beyond sets coming to magic full

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sets right but we're going to start with the

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last one of the year and that's star trek And

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we were talking about this at the pre -show Jay

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and you kind of got that same look that you've

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got on your face right now So I want you to start

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I've been talking for a minute now What is your

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like? I Love that look. That's great. What is

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your thoughts on Star Trek as a magic the gathering

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universes be on set? I just like don't like it

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overall in general like dog dad like I think

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you're right like stay in your lane like it I

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don't want. I find it like just kind of weird

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when so I have. A cracking duck right I don't

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want to be freaking fighting the enterprise like

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what that's stupid that doesn't make sense to

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me I'm. But then also, I was trying to think

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of like, so I'm assuming you would have the ship

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or a like series of ships. Well, and with the

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last standard release, the last in universe was

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Edge of Eternity, which was a very sci fi e but

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in magic lore. Right. Yeah. And they added ships

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specifically like stations. And they also made

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it so that legendary vehicles can be commanders

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now. So now I think you're going to get about

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nine enterprises in that set. And all of them

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will be legendary vehicles and all of the enterprises

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can be your commander. Yeah, I. This is like,

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honestly. The stuff that has really turned me

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off of magic, so I used to used to stay like

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late at work and we would play magic at work

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with like a group of friends. And it just gets

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kind of insane with them constantly like releasing

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new cards, new decks, new whatever. And some

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of them are really cool. I will say I'm like

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I have bought secret lair sets before love them.

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Very beautiful card sometimes I am but I just

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get tired of this like endless like having to

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learn new mechanics and Stuff like Star Trek

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just doesn't make sense to me. Like, it's just

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a complete cash grab. Yeah. Well, and so that

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brings you to August's release, The Hobbit. Now,

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when they did the Lord of the Rings release,

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it was very, very popular. It was a very popular

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universe, as Beyoncé said. And a lot of people

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were really OK with it because as far as magic

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lore and magic kind of like theming, Lord of

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the Rings kind of fits. So the Hobbit kind of

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fits. But in June. We're getting another Marvel

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set, Marvel Super Heroes. That's June. So, let's

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go through the whole thing. January is Lorwin

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Eclipse, so they're going back to the Lorwin

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plane. They've started to do some releases, like

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some light stuff about what this is going to

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be. That looks like it's going to be a really

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good in -universe set. Then we have an unannounced

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Universe is Beyond, which is strange to me because

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we know what ones are coming out in June, August,

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and November. Why aren't you telling us what's

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coming out in March? Right? So there's a lot

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of people who are wondering what's going to come

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of that. April, we have Secrets of Strixhaven.

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Everybody likes Strixhaven as a plane. The previous

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Strixhaven set was very, very popular. I think

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that's going to be a really good popular set.

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And then we have another in -universe set. This

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is not a universe beyond called Reality Fracture,

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which they have said basically nothing about.

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That's all it's called is Reality Fracture. But

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that is an in -universe set. So, yeah, I take

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it you're on the bandwagon of people who are

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like, we've we've overdone it with the outside

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of magic magic. Yeah, I like. Pokemon had and

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I am like really just one fifty one guy, but

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Pokemon like. They would have some weird cards

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every now and then. Right. But it was still always

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in the Pokemon universe. You never saw a freaking

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the fortification. Yeah. Like they just kept

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it Pokemon. And I think, you know, that's what

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makes it great. You know, I think that's maybe

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one of the things I like has kept Pokemon alive

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for, you know, forever. because they just don't

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sell out in that way. I'm sure they've sold out

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in many ways, but they haven't sold out in that

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way. Like you you. You make your fans happy.

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You're just you don't bombard them with stuff

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that just doesn't make sense. Yeah. There's definitely

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arguments you made about bringing new fans into

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the hobby by using these universes beyond sets

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because there's their fandoms like Doctor Who,

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you know, that they've done and Assassin's Creed

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and Final Fantasy obviously was a massive hit

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for Magic this year. So. But yeah, so anyway.

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That's Magikonikon, all the things we know about

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the world of Magic. I'm really going to be curious

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when they release their their Q3 10k, which should

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be here shortly, what we see as far as as Wizards

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numbers go for this year. The rumors on how much

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they made on Final Fantasy is kind of ridiculous,

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but we're going to find out. Anyway, let us know

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what you think down in the comments below.