I read a very cool article by Reinhart over at Gathering Magic. It reminded me of a key part of the original design of the game: ante. Richard Garfield anticipated the current 'rich kid syndrome' and figured the best solution was to make it possible for the poor kid to take the rich kid's cards. To that end, ante was a part of the original Magic rulebook. Before drawing, each player would shuffle, then cut the others deck and remove a card: the ante. The winner of the game got to keep both cards. It added a little excitement, and it made a deck into a less static entity. Cards came and went. You might lose one of your Lightning Bolts and have to settle for a Mons' Goblin raiders in its place. Then, you might win a Shivan Dragon and put the goblins back on the bench until you lose something else.
How does ante counter rich kid syndrome? If you have a deck full of expensive cards, and I have a deck full of gumballs, even if I win only a fifth of our games, I can probably trade back what I won for what you won, plus maybe something extra. Or I could keep the Taiga I won and let you keep my three goblins and a Fireball. It was an excellent way to balance the power level between decks. Of course, what Richard Garfield DIDN'T anticipate was that people would be pulling cards worth $50 from packs. It made them a little more resistant to playing for ante. Also, some parents became concerned it was a form of gambling. I suppose it was in its way, but I liked the healthy perspective it granted. The cards were just cards, and they came and went from your deck.
Is ante the answer to today's Magic environment of chase mythics costing over $30? Most likely no, even if Wizards did start pushing it, all it would do is piss off their buyers even more. "You want me to shell out hundreds of dollars for cards that I might LOSE!?" Pussies. I agree with the solution Reinhart suggested: make mythics just a little 'less mythic' by increasing the frequency that they replace the rare in your pack. Wizards might be seeing a boost in sales right now, and that MAY be correlated with mythics (it may also be correlated with people choosing to spend their money on reusable entertainment, like magic cards, over one-shots like going out to the movies.) In the long run, players are going to get tired of trying to track down a card that you have a 1/120 chance of pulling from a pack (such as Baneslayer: 1/8 chance of getting a mythic, times 1/15 chance of it being a Baneslayer). That is ridiculous. You could easily open a case and not see one. They could move the replacement rate to 1/6 or even 1/5, and mythics would still be rarer than rares.
Ante is still fun. Try it! I won a Volcanic Island off a buddy recently. He was pissed.
