Spoiler Season

Spoiler season is upon us. Nearly every day we are getting to see at least one new card from the upcoming set. Sometimes, we are getting videos with the game developers at Fantasy Flight Games that show multiple spoilers at a time and discuss some of the design choices and theory that went into creating specific cards.

Ideas are swirling in many minds each day on which something new gets revealed, and loads of discussion starts as soon as the new cards are dropped through some type of social media. Is the card good? Does it fit into old decks, or would it mainly be for something new related to a set mechanic? Is the card even for Constructed Premier or would it mostly be something good in a Limited format?

This is a fun new change that builds anticipation for the new set. 

I remember looking forward to the day that a new set would drop. We would leave school as soon as possible, drive over to the mall, and get in line to buy a box. With boxes finally in hand, my friends and I would sit in the food court opening packs and ogling at each new card. This was often the first time we knew what was in the set. If there were any spoilers at all it was maybe a single card, maybe two, or basic lands that were going to be snow covered for some reason we had yet to learn.

It was also a bit of brain overload as we had to ingest nearly the entire batch of new cards in one sitting. We didn’t even necessarily get to see all of the cards on that first day as we were limited to the boxes we had in our hands and there would be new rare cards that we saw for the first time when somebody played them against us in the following days.

Eventually for some card game sets there would be leaks. Some or all of the cards would get out into the wild and passed around via email. It was generally just a text document with the stats and game text. Including art in the messages, if it was even available, probably would have broken the email servers at the time or at least taken way too long to download via dial up connections.

I remain torn on this one. On one hand the anticipation of getting to see a new card or cards each day over a longer period of time is quite fun. It certainly acts as a slow burn and build up to the crescendo of a prerelease event and ultimately the full set launch. Plus if you stay current on all the spoilers there is absolutely a leg up on the competition by having access to all the information ahead of time for deck speculation and even early play testing. However there was an amazing aspect to seeing cards for the first time when coming straight from a boost pack.

Do I avoid spoilers because I long for the old days of seeing totally unseen cards for the first time in a just opened pack? No, of course not. The spoilers are a fun component of the modern card game ecosystem. Fun being the whole point of a game. However, nostalgia would still say “Get off my lawn”.