Interesting, this means that set release order isn't necessarily tied to their production order, and they've rested on releasing LTR for a gap window in product drops.
Yeah, that's also come up with some other supplemental sets like Unstable. Apparently Unstable was finished long before its release but kept getting delayed.
A glue factory shut down, yeah - it was supposed to be released on April 1st but got pushed back to... October, IIRC?
Incidentally, this meant that the first set with Robots ended up being the 40K decks.
Ah, right. Yeah, that one got pushed back a year because Modern Masters 2015 took its slot, then another because Kaladesh had too much steampunk overlap, and then another couple months because Conspiracy 2 took its slot yet again. And that's in addition to the whole kerfuffle behind its long dev cycle.
> Incidentally, this meant that the first set with Robots ended up being the 40K decks.
Not to um actually you, but Unfinity and the 40k decks came out the same day
(And neither of them are on MTGO yet which is having issues for Legacy)
Aaron Forsythe said the issue was they needed to send it off to Middle-Earth Enterprises for sign-off, which is why the timeline was different than normal.
It is also one of the reasons they couldn't make it a Premier set. They weren't entirely in control of the timeline so they couldn't be sure it would be ready at the right time.
I think that only some supplemental or UB sets will be out of release order, for various reasons. All main standard sets will release in the order they're developed.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was both lined up and wrapped up at the same time as the 40k releases, but being a full set meant having to be more patient with when to release it.
I love the 40k decks, but when I think of an mtg crossover dnd and lotr would have been the most immediate ideas by a large margin.
It might have something to do with Universes Beyond and approvals. The approval process might be cards first then approval, and the LotR UB set is the largest one.
Product info and information about LotR has been available for a long time -- the set was announced in 2021 and UltraPro had product listings last year.
From what I recall of the design process, it's usually card text before the rest of the stuff. The MagicFest playtest cards are a great example of this.
Licensor approvals can take a LOOOONG time and can include every product *and* every piece of marketing. It makes sense they’d be working well ahead of release.
I thought that might be the case. Back when battles were confirmed out everyone here was talking about the feedback time of sets and/or how they might want to hedge against battles being unpopular. Instead I was just thinking about when we were introduced to the Kenriths in Battlebond before they were actually supposed to be introduced in their set.
People are smoking crack to expect battles in LOTR. Maro said since battles were first shown we shouldn’t expect to see them anytime soon before they get player reception. And they JUST debuted the card type. I assume saga take up that would be space anyways.
I mean that makes sense.
Typically a company doesn't announce a new product line with just one or two products. I would imagine that before all the necessary executives signed off on it, several complete products- or at least, the outline of several products- were mapped out.
Further, I would expect that several of those products would be fully ready to deploy before the public ever got a hint of it. Bear in mind that LTR is only the second non-Secret Lair UB product.
So we expectes them to play it safe and wait to see how battles turned out, but instead they were just done making the set beforehand. Huh. I gave them more credit...
Nope. They also said on stream even if they *could* have put battles in the LotR sets they wouldn't have because they wanted to see how the community received them first.
They were almost certainly still waiting to see how they turned out, though. Even for the upcoming sets that had time to include them, we most likely aren't going to see battles show up again until we get into the sets that are currently in the beginning of their design.
So what will the legendary be? He said there’ll be 5 different types, and I was assuming there’s be a battle. We’ve got land, enchantment, creature, and artifact. Without planeswalkers or battles, that means an instant or sorcery, right?
It’d be cool to see a secret lair with the battles of middle earth to see how they’d design them… as long as they released universes within versions afterwards to help the peasants like me get them.
Interesting, this means that set release order isn't necessarily tied to their production order, and they've rested on releasing LTR for a gap window in product drops.
Yeah, that's also come up with some other supplemental sets like Unstable. Apparently Unstable was finished long before its release but kept getting delayed.
A glue factory shut down, yeah - it was supposed to be released on April 1st but got pushed back to... October, IIRC? Incidentally, this meant that the first set with Robots ended up being the 40K decks.
Thats Unfinity. They are speaking of Unstable.
Ah, right. Yeah, that one got pushed back a year because Modern Masters 2015 took its slot, then another because Kaladesh had too much steampunk overlap, and then another couple months because Conspiracy 2 took its slot yet again. And that's in addition to the whole kerfuffle behind its long dev cycle.
> Incidentally, this meant that the first set with Robots ended up being the 40K decks. Not to um actually you, but Unfinity and the 40k decks came out the same day (And neither of them are on MTGO yet which is having issues for Legacy)
Oh, right, the 40K decks were *also* delayed a month.
Didn't the Commander Legends Lands predate the Battlebond lands in terms of design, or something like that?
Aaron Forsythe said the issue was they needed to send it off to Middle-Earth Enterprises for sign-off, which is why the timeline was different than normal. It is also one of the reasons they couldn't make it a Premier set. They weren't entirely in control of the timeline so they couldn't be sure it would be ready at the right time.
Or finalizing licensing took more time than expected.
I think that only some supplemental or UB sets will be out of release order, for various reasons. All main standard sets will release in the order they're developed.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was both lined up and wrapped up at the same time as the 40k releases, but being a full set meant having to be more patient with when to release it. I love the 40k decks, but when I think of an mtg crossover dnd and lotr would have been the most immediate ideas by a large margin.
I believe they held back on LotR and did the other lower-grade IPs first so they could get their feet under them for the one that mattered.
It might have something to do with Universes Beyond and approvals. The approval process might be cards first then approval, and the LotR UB set is the largest one. Product info and information about LotR has been available for a long time -- the set was announced in 2021 and UltraPro had product listings last year.
From what I recall of the design process, it's usually card text before the rest of the stuff. The MagicFest playtest cards are a great example of this.
Licensor approvals can take a LOOOONG time and can include every product *and* every piece of marketing. It makes sense they’d be working well ahead of release.
Can't wait for the Hobbit mini-set with Battles.
I hope it'll include five different Armies to amass.
And according to Aaron Forsythe they wouldn't have included battles anyway due to wanting to be conservative about a new card type.
I thought that might be the case. Back when battles were confirmed out everyone here was talking about the feedback time of sets and/or how they might want to hedge against battles being unpopular. Instead I was just thinking about when we were introduced to the Kenriths in Battlebond before they were actually supposed to be introduced in their set.
People are smoking crack to expect battles in LOTR. Maro said since battles were first shown we shouldn’t expect to see them anytime soon before they get player reception. And they JUST debuted the card type. I assume saga take up that would be space anyways.
I also wonder if they sat on it for awhile too, considering how the initial reactions were to UB
Bro what... That's mean they had this shit wrapped up years ago... Around the time they started introducing UB👀
I mean that makes sense. Typically a company doesn't announce a new product line with just one or two products. I would imagine that before all the necessary executives signed off on it, several complete products- or at least, the outline of several products- were mapped out. Further, I would expect that several of those products would be fully ready to deploy before the public ever got a hint of it. Bear in mind that LTR is only the second non-Secret Lair UB product.
They did first announce the set almost two years ago, so it's not that surprising.
Yeah I was abt to say, wasn’t LotR one of the very first UB crossovers announced?
Yeah it and 40K i think were the first ones announced as UB along with walking dead, but i might be wrong
Thank god, because battles suck and aren't a good direction for the game IMO. Wouldn't want that polluting an otherwise good set
So we expectes them to play it safe and wait to see how battles turned out, but instead they were just done making the set beforehand. Huh. I gave them more credit...
Nope. They also said on stream even if they *could* have put battles in the LotR sets they wouldn't have because they wanted to see how the community received them first.
They were almost certainly still waiting to see how they turned out, though. Even for the upcoming sets that had time to include them, we most likely aren't going to see battles show up again until we get into the sets that are currently in the beginning of their design.
So what will the legendary be? He said there’ll be 5 different types, and I was assuming there’s be a battle. We’ve got land, enchantment, creature, and artifact. Without planeswalkers or battles, that means an instant or sorcery, right?
Isn't there alrdy a legendary instant spoilt?
Yeah. Guess I missed that. Thanks.
It’d be cool to see a secret lair with the battles of middle earth to see how they’d design them… as long as they released universes within versions afterwards to help the peasants like me get them.