Stu's article will let you scan over only the few articles he feels are worth mentioning.

The other article will, every other week, give you access to someone elses opinion of what is worth reading.

So, VsSystem.com is working to at least filter the blogs to some extent.

Cynicism decreases alternative perspectives, and therefore dampens intelligence. I always understand his titles, even if it takes me a while to decode the poetic puzzle.

One man's meat is another man's poison, and mental allergies can be alleviated by an open mind. Or something.

I kind of agree with what Dave is saying. If a new player wants to get into VS, it's going to be very difficult or even impossible for him to get any new product at all. He's going to be relegated to buying DSM etc and he's gonna get his ### kicked every time he plays. I know it might have seemed like a good idea to UDE at the time to cut down on production but I think it's going to hurt them a lot in the long run, especially with the huge layoff between sets this time around.

It is not "only the few". The first one took me 4000 words to cover just the current crunchy goodness. And there are six or eight new blogs since Friday. I will highlight, but there are way too many good writers to be called "few". This party is HUGE.

I think we all agree with that, the only positive is the fact that the secondary market for singles and boxes has skyrocketed.

It is what it is, and I'm sure they are looking at the numbers as they move forward.

Positive for sellers sure, if people are actually willing to spend the ridiculous prices for boxes and rares that they're charging. When the cheapest possible price you can find for a box, online or otherwise is $85, there's a problem. I'd be more than happy to spend that much on a box to support my LGS but, at least in Houston, there's not a single pack of DCL to be found.

Not to mention, medium quality rares are now going for old Savage Beatdown prices now. I mean Metropolis Marvel for $20? Come on.

For the millionth time... this was not totally UDE's fault.

They produced according to forecasts by distributors and retailers. Blame the market for not pre-ordering more VS than they have in the past.

Think about it... before Legends, how many retailers/distros were saying that they need to order MORE VS?

Since when has it been smart business to produce MORE of a product when the consumers are buying LESS?

I'm sorry if I keep repeating this but as long as people keep thinking it's UDE's fault for the short supply... just remember how much I kept saying that everyone needs to pre-order as much Legends as possible last year.

That does seem good; do you give a general rating and/or target audience (Casual, Tournament, etc) for the blogs, or mention them as a large group? How many will you highlight per week?

To Eric: I mean, I don't preorder. I buy my product by drafting. Tony tried to order more than a case; he was restricted to only ordering a case from UDE. So unless you're telling me Tony had more access than he thought to boxes, it is UDE's fault. And I (and the rest of us) are more than happy to pay retail (which may explain why our store owner will go out of his way to try to accomodate us).

And why did just about every stoe get out of the singles market?

Because until the Legend sets nearly every rare other than one or two would be worth about a buck each.

While the secondary market doesn't IMMEDIATELY help things out for EVERYONE, it does have a lasting effect. The lack of a secondary market has hurt things in the past, so it's a good sign.

Ultimately, with only 2 sets a year, it's less likely that they will follow a set that is underprinted [MVL] with ANOTHER one [DCL] since they should have enough time to gague how well one set does before having to decide what the print run will be for the next one, and hopefully get closer to the actual demand.

Selling out is good for UDE ... it means they are making a profit at least on the printing. Hopefully, they are making enough to cover the overhead costs and advertising costs and other miscellany ... otherwise they are doomed to failure no matter how well they sell.

Just finished the first one, it is sort of a gushing introduction. Somehow I was able to fit in 15 blogs. It will morph and materialize as it goes along, and I am not comfortable with any sort of rating system, but you will be able to sample the wares all in one place without wearing out your clicking finger.

By the time UDE put out the UDE Direct solicitation to the retailers, the distribution forecasts where already made and the production numbers were already set.

As any company would, UDE gives priority to distributors which is why stores should also order UDE product from them. Their solicitations were not limited to 1 case.

But because the numbers from distros for DCL was low (DC sets are traditionally lower than Marvel), UDE's allocation for direct accounts were also lower (a "percentage overrun" of lower production numbers means less product set aside for purposes such as Direct Store accounts). Also, to note, there was a re-order for most Direct accounts to acquire a 2nd case directly.

I was able to get 2 more cases from other distributors but it should be noted that I've never had to get more than 4 cases of VS product in the past. Just from our in-store sales alone... the buying pattern has been totally different from previous sets and that's not something UDE or anyone else could have predicted.

One thing I forgot to emphasize...

The Ben Seck will be writing the Vs. System Blog of the Month article, and it seems like that would provide a sort of ultimate rating guide.

(Three more blogs were added to the batch in the last two hours. Very exciting times.)

I think an important question that's being ignored: What can be done about these problems, and who can do them?

-MVL needs a reprinting: UDE needs to man up and do it, I agree. Unfortuantely players can't, so posting gripes about that is beating a dead horse. It's been made fully aware to those who need to know. Argument over.
-VsSystem.com content is minimized: I think the community has turned this into a remarkable positive.
-No ProTour: I can't say I think of this as a bad thing.

What am I missing? Everything that WE can fix has been fixed or is getting fixed. Anything UDE has to fix has been brought to their attention, and I'm disinclined to worry any further about it. Not my lane.

I freaking love playing this game and building decks so so much. Sorry if I'm cynical when it seems like I care about the product more than the company that is.... I don't know.... Selling it to make a profit. Sure its all fine to enjoy playing the game with friends but its rediculous when I buy 4 boxes of a set when it comes out and I still can't even trade to build the decks I want to play with full playsets. The cost to play this game now is rediculous considering the lack of support on UDE's behalf for the player to compensate for the cost of playing.

When teams are still being designed around having access to Mobilize (Still $30 a pop) combined with the rediculous prices of Legends rares I can't justify the investment in this TCG when I can buy 4-5 new video games for the cost of a single deck. It used to be I could justify VS as a good investment because of the OP I could travel to and prepare for with buddies. (This has nothing to do with prize money) Those factors helped compensate the card expenditure with more fun from the traveling and talking. The only tournament I have to go to this year is going to be MegaWeekend Chicago. Without the fun from traveling to OP with friends. I have to compare the cost of playing the game as a pure fun expenditure in comparison to other outlets for fun. The amount of other fun you can get for the cost of playing VS right now is rediculous.

For Example

Basic X-men Wheenie Deck (estimated costs)

3-4X Domino $10-12 each
3-4X Shadowcat $10-12 each
4X Mobilize $30 each
3-4X Xavier's School $10 each
4X Savage Beatdown $8 each

Low End = $242
High End = $272

Thats just the chase rares. Not to mention any extra cheaper rares like Cerebro and Children of the Atom and the cost of the common/uncommon singles. Don't even let me begin breaking down a decent JLA deck.

I could buy a Wii and a game or that X-men deck. I could buy a 360 (maybe a PS3) for the cost of a JLA deck. I don't see how any good deck being built from a Legend set costing around $200 is good for the game. If I could actually buy product and draft this game, I would probably be ok with the cutback of articles. The combination of all these cutbacks at the expense of me the player is just getting frustrating to deal with. The issue is the lack of support (and the cutting back of articles being further lack of support) for a game thats getting more and more expensive to play with every new set that comes out and this is being done intentionally by UDE.

They knew that increasing the rare count would skyrocket singles. They also knew that limited print runs would skyrocket box prices. Thats simple supply and demand. They made 2 completly calculated (increasing demand and lowering waste cost) moves that would increase their profits by charging the players more to play their game, and then proceeded to continually cutback their support for this game and further place the cost of supporting the game on the playerbase.

I don't know how anyone cannot be at least slightly frustrated in this entire situation. How many changes do they have to make at the expense of the player before I'm "allowed" to vent my frustration on an internet forum which is created for people to post their opinions and feelings.

Edit: I spent a while typing this verbose rant thing so many posts were created while I was typing this mess that I seem to be ignoring. Thats only because I didn't know they were made. Not because I'm ignoring the other posters.

I do find it somewhat ironic the change from comlpaining about no secondary market to the complaining about too much of a secondary market :).

The secondary market is the one thing I approve of; it shows strength in the community. And it makes trading feel more important. I have no complaints about the increase of rares, as long as they make packs more readily available to stores wanting to run drafts.