#23 - Magic's Attention Economy

Featuring a look at the contentsphere, two emojis that baffled me, and Secret Lair stuff for Kora.

I picked up Chris Hayes’ new book about the attention economy. It’s a very solid take on the modern information age we find ourselves in and I recommend it.¹ Our attention is harvested and commodified every time we pick up our devices. It’s literal currency that we’re psychologically manipulated out of and everyone is fighting to do it the most.

I worry we’re approaching the worst timeline of this with Magic.

A mea culpa:

With Aetherdrift about to release and me not having much to say about Modern before the US RC this weekend, it seems like a lot of roads are leading to #MTGFinance. What are people buying before the hype? Which card is suddenly $15? (Yes, it’s time to check your bulk for Tortured Existence)

This is not new or novel.

What I worry about is that our craven search for the next hit of dopamine is creating a new attention economy where we’ve Pawn Stars’d our hobby into entertainment sludge. The main Reddit is crawling with people dying to know if someone’s mother-in-law or a guy at a recycling plant just found Power 9 in an old box:

“Greetings”

This sentence makes me deeply uncomfortable. How do I figure out what’s worth money, the only thing this pile of living history is worth to me? How do I do it fast? Could I possibly sell them? Wink wink. Nudge nudge.

Say no more.

There are times when I have to log in to Facebook for business and absolutely not pleasure. It’s not a good place. There’s a Magic group with over 200,000 members and occasionally, something legitimately interesting floats to the surface like a mobster in a lake. But most of the time? Most of the time it’s this:

Pulls. The car crash—or, alternately, the guy who manages to outrun the cops—of Magic content, pure gawking, always with the guy who has the better pull or the person bemoaning their terrible luck in the comments. Rinse. Repeat.

This is “content” in its rawest form. Instantly digestible, nothing to process, choking out the world around it as we all fight for the sunlight of eyeballs. This is, to a degree, a zero sum game. The more we engage with Pull Culture, help someone price out their Arabian Nights commons, the less we engage with shit like I’m writing right now.

The final frontier seems to be WhatNot, where we gamble on our gambling. Some of the games are downright predatory, with awful odds at a “big hit” of a box that could contain a “big hit.” People spin giant prize wheels for us like we’re infants who can’t turn away from the keys. You hear your name on the screen, you are acknowledged, you get your dopamine. It’s all designed to separate you from your money over and over again.

The Professor has amassed over 130,000 followers after signing what I imagine was a lucrative deal with the app to lure over his fans. No knock on him. He’s worked hard to build his channel and does amazing charity work. He’s also sold over $40,000 worth of product over two streams, with several people buying at what I would call impulsive rates. rjslayer22 spent almost $300 on packs that were well above retail.

But maybe that’s the real rub, here. The man who has spent the last decade telling you to buy singles is now the man selling you packs:

I don’t know how to fix any of this. I’m going to talk about what Magic cards are worth a lot today. I guess I have to start with acknowledging I’m part of the problem and that this problem is only getting bigger by the day.

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Magic Rorschach Test

What do you see when I show you a 🪲 and a 🔗? Are you a literal person and see bug link? My best guess was Contagion Clasp, which SPOILER ALERT was absolutely wrong.

The part that blows my mind is how confidently Elenbogen asserted the following:

Answer in a little bit. Scryfall is your friend.

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Aged Like Milk

…SECRETS

(great bit)

If you’re not on X, I’m not exactly sure how you’re supposed to find out about these new Secret Lairs that are coming out. They get pushed to some corner of Bluesky undoubtedly, but ICYMI, here are the next three I’ve seen announced:

Not gonna lie, the Jesper one has me pretty excited. Same for the lightbox treatments, but that’s more for everyone else. No buying advice on this one. I’m staying away from Lairs for a while.

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Achievement Unlocked

Arena continues to create things while leaving big old holes in Arena. Next up are “Achievements” that you can unlock that are designed to give you a sense of, in their words, “self-expression.” I’ve never worried about my capacity to express myself via the optional cosmetics in the game. Have you? Do you fire up Arena with a sense of ennui because in the hundreds of avatars and stickers they’ve designed, you haven’t felt seen? Well, great news:

We’ve been given a number of feeders to push! Do the things, receive your pellets. They tout how these are “fun and novel challenges” like… spending orbs. Entering Midweek Magic. I’ll have more when this rolls out, but feels like a big ‘ol woof.

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Dockside Extortionist is under $10 (!!!)

Oh, how the mighty have been banned fallen. TCGplayer seller FullBloom has a NM Dockside for $8.88 with $0.99 shipping. That seems insane to me.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard a lot of people still play a lot of the bans in their group. Going to Chicago and looking to jam games in the zone? I think it’s a fair thing to talk about. Maybe have 101 cards in your deckbox so you can swap. But I think now is probably the best time in history to buy an Extortionist or ten. J-Lo has only lost ~70% of its value as people hold out hope for an unban. Dockside is down a full 86% and I don’t think there’s much further to fall.

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Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Digital Outrage

The official bonus card for the last Miku Lair has been spoiled² and the financial repercussions are myriad. First, the card is not great in terms of the reprint itself or the flavor according to most Miku fans that weighed in. Second, it’s not the card that people were expecting.

Earlier this year, people began pulling Encore Electromancer—FKA Snapcaster Mage—out of packs, but it seemed… off. Something about collector numbers. The speculation was that this would be a bonus in a later Lair, specifically the Winter edition that’s about to drop.

Nothing was confirmed by Wizards because it’s not their policy to really comment on Lair bonuses. People held out, they short sold, and now? It seems like the supply is much lower than anyone predicted.

TOA has a copy listed for $1,200, but from there, it’s a big jump up.

This is the official chase of the Miku series, a highly controversial cash grab. The best place you can be is holding one of the Digital Sensation Schrodinger’s Lairs.

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Odds and Endstep

NEO common. Always thought I’d have a fun second³ act as a DJ or Samurai.

Just… how?

Playing some non-Breach decks got me 🏆 5-0 with Tameshi Belcher or what I like to call "Good Ad Naus" I'm playing RC Charlotte in March and not Portland. I'll probably still play Breach, but it's distracting for me that this Lotus Bloom combo deck is reasonable - @stillman_steve

• Mr. Stillman, tear down this deck. The winner of last week’s giveaway (who did not claim it, shame) got me excited about Modern this week. I hate getting excited about Modern. Knock it off.

• RC Prague winner Alex Rohan also suggests Breach! 13,000 words, but are they any good?⁴ Well, good news:

• I love Minh. I recently covered the SB guide controversy and how to ask questions to make sure you’re buying what you need, but here he just went out and created a whole review platform. Bring solutions to things.

• It’s full on Breach Week, everyone. Corey Baumeister, one of the foremost Breachers, cannot stop contenting.

• Sebastian Pozzo talks a little bit about MTGO finance. I think it’s actually a decent place to spec because you can cash out so much easier than IRL. Maybe I’ll talk about it someday. There’s something less icky about trading digital assets versus cardboard. They’re like fish: they don’t have any feelings.

• MTG_DS is back with the best limited competition around that doesn’t involve cracking a pack. Pick what you think is going to be good in Aetherdrift. It’s that easy. I’ve been terrible at these in the past because I just scrawl a bunch of random cards in at the last second. I’m going to try this time. I promise you. You can fill it out here.

  

• Keep your eyes peeled for new perspectives grant applications. As always, I’m available for free editing and feedback for anyone who wants to submit theirs. A fresh set of eyes on your application is ALWAYS valuable. I promise you.

• 100 Thoughts on Limited Magic has been unwalled for the next week. Wanted to give people who are headed to a prerelease a chance to read what I had on sealed.

• I’m doing the Aetherdrift Early Access event at 10AM Pacific today and feel pretty damn good about my understanding of the draft environment. If you want to see some of the first streamed client drafts (WEE!) come hang out at twitch.tv/unclecardboard and tell me I sent you.

• I might be doing the MTGO event tomorrow? No one knows! Use this random combination of letters and numbers to get a free thing: CCGW-DSJS-OYFB-KIIL-EXB4 and say you claimed it in the comments. #AD

• ICYMI, I was on Sierko’s pod yesterday talking about draft skeletons (0-2 rares, 0-8 uncommons, the rest commons) for each archetype. My camera does a fun thing on podcasts where it just freezes every 30 or so seconds for about five seconds. I thought upgrading all my hardware would fix it. Changing browsers doesn’t fix it. Someone help me fix it or just find the worst frozen face from the video.

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Giveaway Update

Since Steve fumbled the bag, we’re rolling over whatever I promised you last week? A Mythic misprint. That’s it.

Stay tuned on Saturday to see what gets added. I might have the full column on Magic’s humor history and I’d love to do another mailbag. Send me your questions!

Thank you to the following paid subscribers: Casey, John Dale, Will, Alex, Connor, Joshua, Denis, Kyle, Ben, Patrick, Sam, and Tyler! Support what you love.

Passing the turn,

Jake

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Bonus Seymour of the Week

1. But read Postman first.

2. https://i.redd.it/fcmi3l1w50he1.jpeg - YIKES

3. Let’s be honest: I’m on my sixth act at minimum

4. I miss Forrest MacNeil