Magic: The Gathering, is in a strange place right now. They’re in the middle of a culture where importing foreign intellectual property and “out of the box” concepts are considered a necessary business practice to produce revenue, amidst a customer base that is mostly split on whether it should be taking place within the game they love.

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And while Aetherdrift isn’t necessarily Spongebob or Wolverine, fans I’ve spoken to in Northeast Wisconsin aren’t happy with the direction the game is going.

Some early complaints I’ve heard throughout the release for Aetherdrift include..

“It’s just another gimmick deck”

“It continues throwing off the ‘vibe’ we enjoy.”

“It’s multiplying complexities with even more game mechanics.”

“These checker flag logos are going to be sneered at for years.”

Those are powerful words.

But there is a silver lining here for Magic, and that silver lining is parallel to the line that matters. The bottom line.

People are still buying the sets. And the players in the orbit of these remarks I’m publishing still went on to buy boxes.

That puts game makers in a precarious position. Do they keep producing these wild sets with the intention of drawing new players, if it alienates the old ones?

If the old players keep buying sets they don’t like, you bet they will.

As for my opinion of Aetherdrift, the verdict is still out. I haven’t played with it or against enough to give you a really strong take. Duskmourn was okay. Foundations didn’t lend itself out to criticism.

We’ll just have to see.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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