Calling all nerds: Has Wizards of the Coast "jumped the shark"?

[mckitterick]

Yes, I'm a Magic player among other gaming interests. Last weekend, I played in the Time Spiral pre-release tournament and was surprised at the introduction of true "chase" cards in Magic. Chase cards are rarer-than-rare cards that require people to buy a lot of random packs to collect them all. The new chase cards are reprints of old, out-of-print cards. For a while, Magic has also had special "foils," which aren't really chase cards in that the cards are printed normally, too; I've found those irritating, because lots of kids want to have all the foils.

For the new chase cards, Wizards of the Coast introduced "purple" rarity for reprints in addition to the established black (common), silver (uncommon), and gold (rare), so it's clear this is a new rarity. Sigh. Fine for me, in that I have the old cards, but what about the new kids?

I guess we all saw it coming with the Hasbro buyout; we should be grateful it's taken this long.

What do you think of this?

Best,
Chris