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[Angry Grimace]

Will include this in the next OP.

STANDARD CHANGES
As announced in this article, Standard will use the new "three-and-one model" starting from the spring 2018 set. What does this mean? Well:
* No more small sets. Starting from the spring 2018 set, every Standard set will be large and drafted by itself.
* That also means no more blocks. Or rather, the block structure is allowed to be very fluid now. One world might get only one set, while another might get two or even three. Sets that take place on the same world might not be mechanically connected, even if they are right after each other.
* Core sets are back, in their old summer slot, starting 2018. Compared to before, where they tried to appeal to both beginners and experts and thus muddled the message, they will err on the side of appealing to beginners. Still, there is appeal to experienced players in that they will act as places to print relevant Standard cards without too much concern for fitting them into a world or set theme.
* The Masterpiece rarity has been downgraded from evergreen to only a sometimes thing. Masterpiece cards are exciting reprints printed at a higher rarity than mythic rare, and they did very well at first, but they had diminishing returns, and caused all kinds of problems with card prices. The fall 2017 set Ixalor will not have Masterpieces.

Standard rotation will remain the same as it is now, with the oldest four sets leaving every fall release.

It's "Ixalan." I think you're confusing it with Ixidor, the morph guy lol

 

[Angry Grimace]

The fact they're already conceding the core set will be for beginners (e.g. suck like the core set always sucked) is lame, though.

 

[SigmasonicX]

It's "Ixalan." I think you're confusing it with Ixidor, the morph guy lol

Noted. I don't think I wrote Ixalor because of him, but because it just seems to flow better.

 

[bigkrev]

Core sets should be the exclusive home of constructed level dual land reprints. Allows them to easily reprint any plane-specific cycle due to the lack of overall theme.

 

[red13th]

I think it's okay that they aim the Core Set at beginners if they have the spicier releases such as Masters Sets/Conspiracy close to them. Conspiracy 2 got caught up in a terrible schedule with Kaladesh and was relevant only for a very short period.

 

[ThLunarian]

Outside of time travel shenanigans, they aren't going to bring back Urza. And I really hope they never do. Leave that early, early lore dead and buried, aside from Karn and Terferi and the Phyrexians and Bolas.

Probably around 90% of the player base has barely even heard of Urza, and has never experienced him as part of the ongoing storyline. This reasoning doesn't fly.

They should treat it like a comic book or a soap opera and bring him back, with huge fanfare.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

the only PW that deserves to be resurrected is Venser.
For being the OG nuWalker alone.

 

[bigkrev]

Probably around 90% of the player base has barely even heard of Urza, and has never experienced him as part of the ongoing storyline. This reasoning doesn't fly.

They should treat it like a comic book or a soap opera and bring him back, with huge fanfare.

What?

 

[Ashodin]

Aside from nostalgia for the old shitty (shitty, yes, I had it, it's shitty) PC game, why do people want this so bad?

I wish they'd just blow it up in a Bolas scheme or something so we didn't have to hear about it anymore lol

It's never a good strategy to make marquee cards from a booster set shitty.



It's a relatively bright, core fantasy world that isn't encumbered by too much relevant continuity or some super weird secondary theme.

Exactly. Shandalar has some fond nostalgia for old players (I recently played the modded version for PC that adds new cards to it) and they have new lore there with the Onakke and the Chain Veil, plus they can add more to it.

Oh man I'm excited for what kinds of planes we can go to as one-ofs.

looking through twitter

seems a lot of people are clamoring for a quick one-of return to Kamigawa from this change.

 

[OnPoint]

What?

Yeah. I was just gonna ignore it haha

 

[ThLunarian]

What?

Yeah. I was just gonna ignore it haha

All they would have to do is hype the return of a legend from Magic's earliest era and they'd be golden.

"Barely heard of" is an exaggeration. People have heard of him, but they've never experienced him as a character in a story. There is a rich history there to be explored.

I don't think they're actually going to do this, but it'd be sweet if they did.

 

[Ashodin]

I mean we still have the B&R tomorrow, and the whole slew of announcements on Wednesday. Shit is going to be LIT this week.

 

[OnPoint]

I do not agree.

Urza's tale is told.

I hope their thinking is 'Let's move forward.'

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

barely heard of sounds about right.

He's the obscure name of a very old block. Would never have seen the semblance to Raven man.

I mostly knew him as Mishra's snobby brother until a friend of mine read the books and recounted them to me over the last few years.

 

[SigmasonicX]

All they would have to do is hype the return of a legend from Magic's earliest era and they'd be golden.

"Barely heard of" is an exaggeration. People have heard of him, but they've never experienced him as a character in a story. There is a rich history there to be explored.

I don't think they're actually going to do this, but it'd be sweet if they did.

A card in Commander 2018 would be more than enough. I see little point in bringing him back for a present day story.

 

[Ashodin]

I'm still down for Time Spiral - alternate universe shifted evil Urza Raven Man. It's a way to bring back Urza that's not Urza.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I mean we still have the B&R tomorrow, and the whole slew of announcements on Wednesday. Shit is going to be LIT this week.

No changes.

 

[MoxManiac]

Could you imagine the crowd reaction if they revealed a set named Dominaria at some big event? It'd be epic.

 

[Infinite Stars]

The only way to bring Urza back is to riff on the trope of "Person Comes in telling hero something". Like the batshit ending of Conduit 2:

Phyrexians are running rampant across Dominaria, with a new portal being set straight for Ravnica, when a temporal portal opens behind the Gatewatch. Out steps the crew of the Weatherlight+Urza

Liliana: No, you're

Urza: Here to Help

 

[Daedardus]

Is Ixalan actually a renamed Atlazan from the earlier leaks? Or was that just a placeholder?

 

[Ashodin]

Could you imagine the crowd reaction if they revealed a set named Dominaria at some big event? It'd be epic.

I made a quick simple set logo lol

super duper fake

Is Ixalan actually a renamed Atlazan from the earlier leaks? Or was that just a placeholder?

yes Atlazan was renamed to Ixalan.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Is Ixalan actually a renamed Atlazan from the earlier leaks? Or was that just a placeholder?

Current assumption is that they are the very same.

Amonkhet made the leak look legit.

we can now also criss reference the Bolas art and it turns out once again as legit.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Is Ixalan actually a renamed Atlazan from the earlier leaks? Or was that just a placeholder?

Atlazan seems to have been real, Ixalan is in the slot it would have been in, and the names are similar, so they are probably one and the same.

Ixalan is the final name, revealed early because of Pro Tour scheduling, I believe.

 

[Crocodile]

I don't have a strong opinion on the block changes. I'll just see what happens and hope WOTC continues to make good cards/sets. If the chances of Lorwyn/Kamigawa 2 are stronger now then all the better.

 

[ultron87]

I started playing in Innistrad. I have literally no idea what something being on Dominaria would mean either in terms of mechanical identity or flavor. Just that it's a plane from the early days. They'd have to figure out a good way to present it to players like me to get us interested in it, because there are a lot of us.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Here's where Ixalan was announced, with few details. Angry Grimace, you really should have just included a link. #pointlesslyrevivingoldarguments

 

[charlequin]

I can see your point. My question then is how do you keep these from flying off shelves and into scalping hands if they're accidentally too good?

I'm maybe confused what we're talking about. I meant that it would be a bad call to have "bad" planeswalkers taking up spots in a core set, which is part of why I would say just leave 'em out completely.

As for Shandalar, is it relatively bright? I remember the game being positively drab and ugly. I felt like the Shandalar they used in whatever Core set they did it in lacked an identity.

The fact they're already conceding the core set will be for beginners (e.g. suck like the core set always sucked) is lame, though.

I think the point is to get it out of their standard marketing cycle so people don't feel let down every time it's kind of lame.

Core sets should be the exclusive home of constructed level dual land reprints. Allows them to easily reprint any plane-specific cycle due to the lack of overall theme.

Given the things that have happened in the brief period without the core set this has gotta be high on their list of benefits. This is also presumably where they'll start printing the taplands every year.

 

[OnPoint]

I'm maybe confused what we're talking about. I meant that it would be a bad call to have "bad" planeswalkers taking up spots in a core set, which is part of why I would say just leave 'em out completely.

Oh I was talking about the intro packs or whatever they're called now.

 

[Violet_0]

I started playing in Innistrad. I have literally no idea what something being on Dominaria would mean either in terms of mechanical identity or flavor. Just that it's a plane from the early days. They'd have to figure out a good way to present it to players like me to get us interested in it, because there are a lot of us.

it's the plane where half of Magic's banned cards come from. If Urza were alive today, he would play Marvel

 

[Ashodin]

Dominaria is THE plane gents

The OG

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

isn't dominaria the centre of the multiverse

 

[Angry Grimace]

isn't dominaria the centre of the multiverse

It's the Nexus of the Multiverse, whatever that means.

 

[SigmasonicX]

isn't dominaria the centre of the multiverse

Yes, which is why time fractures and such there threatened the entire Multiverse.

Fun fact, the story of Return to Ravnica was originally meant to make Ravnica the new center of the Multiverse. I'm glad they didn't, because it would have been completely irrelevant and would only serve to poke at Dominaria fans.

 

[charlequin]

Probably around 90% of the player base has barely even heard of Urza, and has never experienced him as part of the ongoing storyline. This reasoning doesn't fly.

They should treat it like a comic book or a soap opera and bring him back, with huge fanfare.

This first part (which is exaggerated but not really wrong) is exactly why they shouldn't do that second part. They control their brand completely, they don't have to ruin it with universally reviled storytelling choices. The number of times this has ever been worthwhile is countable on one hand, and none of those were with characters who've already absorbed as much screen time as Urza.

A card in Commander 2018 would be more than enough. I see little point in bringing him back for a present day story.

If you want to do an Urza card you don't put him in a Standard expansion, and you don't burn him off in a typical Commander product; you build a supplemental product about one of his under-covered story beats (basically stuff from the Brothers' War or Thran novels) and make him share top billing with one of his major rivals. You could do him as a legend -> planeswalker flip card, and either Mishra or Yawgmoth as a creature -> creature to reflect their own transformations in the story.

No changes.

Again, why would they bother moving this to its own day but not pushing it back to next week if there were nothing?

I started playing in Innistrad. I have literally no idea what something being on Dominaria would mean either in terms of mechanical identity or flavor.

It's the post-apocalypse, ancient history plane. Thematically/mechanically it'll probably be people living amongst the ruins of grand history, finding strange remnants of days gone by, etc.

(I only just now realized while typing this out that it's probably one factor in wanting to stay away from the archaeology aspect of Egypt.)

 

[Angry Grimace]

Yes, which is why time fractures and such there threatened the entire Multiverse.

Fun fact, the story of Return to Ravnica was originally meant to make Ravnica the new center of the Multiverse. I'm glad they didn't, because it would have been completely irrelevant and would only serve to poke at Dominaria fans.

Maro even claimed it happened off screen, but I don't think that held up.

http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/120748594848/maybe-something-you-can-forward-ahead-to-creative

Again, why would they bother moving this to its own day but not pushing it back to next week if there were nothing?

Because it literally doesn't matter what it says, some number of people will get upset by it and they want to move that off of a day where they're going to announce fun things.

 

[OnPoint]

I understand WHY they wanted to center the multiverse in Ravnica. It's their most popular plane and I feel like they want its importance to the brand to be reflected in the story. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Aren't most people on ravnica unaware of the multiverse at large?

People on dominaria saw some shit. Like dimension shattering stuff.

Heck even the most remote regions had shit like Karona or the mirari happening every other generation or so.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I don't know what's dumber: the fact they printed Marvel and didn't know it was busted, or that they didn't figure they could just print Pithing Needle.

I mean, the actual reason they don't print Pithing Needle is pretty obvious: because they overpush the "story" cards, aka Planeswalkers, so they took out anything that effectively deals with them.

 

[Repgnar]

Starting with Amonkhet I really have no idea how these changes affect the game except from what I read. As a newer player I understandably am not upset about the core set being tilted towards new players as all of the reprints will be new for me in a draft format at the very least. Is tomorrow just the B&R announcement or is there something else as well since that was originally suppose to be Wednesday?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I don't know what's dumber: the fact they printed Marvel and didn't know it was busted, or that they didn't figure they could just print Pithing Needle.

I mean, the actual reason they don't print Pithing Needle is pretty obvious: because they overpush the "story" cards, aka Planeswalkers, so they took out anything that effectively deals with them.

Pithing needle would have been the perfect mechanical fit as well.
You see improvise decks popping up every now and then but then they get smashed by Mardu or turn 4 Ulamog because all the artifacts that aren't aggro or marvel are trash

 

[Angry Grimace]

Starting with Amonkhet I really have no idea how these changes affect the game except from what I read. As a newer player I understandably am not upset about the core set being tilted towards new players as all of the reprints will be new for me in a draft format at the very least. Is tomorrow just the B&R announcement or is there something else as well since that was originally suppose to be Wednesday?

I think it's just the B&R.

I mean, I kind of think it will be nothing but I'm not going to bet my shirt on it because they did in fact, move it in a way that sort of suggested something, but again, I think the announcement would upset people in some way, regardless.

Wednesday is supposed to be some kind of big grand reveal.

 

[Tunoku]

Hey, what if they gave the Gatewatch guns and made them team up with the Rabbids in a SRPG.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I mean, the existence of Pithing Needle would shake the meta up by a lot, but I think Marvel would just start running 4 copies of Dissenter's Deliverance.

 

[Imperfected]

Starting with Amonkhet I really have no idea how these changes affect the game except from what I read. As a newer player I understandably am not upset about the core set being tilted towards new players as all of the reprints will be new for me in a draft format at the very least. Is tomorrow just the B&R announcement or is there something else as well since that was originally suppose to be Wednesday?

Don't feel bad, I don't think even most long-time players actually care that much about the announcements so far (regarding structure of sets and releases), which is why I said it was going to be a nothingburger.

If you're inside baseball enough to care about these changes, you saw most of them coming. If you aren't, they just aren't substantial until you see actual product that's been influenced by the production changes. It was a mistake to talk this week up so much.

Hopefully they at least have the good sense to blitz the spoiler sites with "leaks" at some point during the week.

 

[charlequin]

Because it literally doesn't matter what it says, some number of people will get upset by it and they want to move that off of a day where they're going to announce fun things.

If it's nothing they just move it to next week though, I think. They specifically made a point of having an announcement each day this week.

If you're inside baseball enough to care about these changes, you saw most of them coming. If you aren't, they just aren't substantial until you see actual product that's been influenced by the production changes. It was a mistake to talk this week up so much.

The last time they changed the set release schedule it was the most talked-about story in years in every online MTG community, and the most directly relevant part of the week (i.e. 8+ product announcements) hasn't happened yet, so, uh, what on earth are you talking about?

 

[Angry Grimace]

If it's nothing they just move it to next week though, I think. They specifically made a point of having an announcement each day this week.

I'm gonna laugh when its Jace, the Mind Sculptor being unbanned.

 

[Firemind]

I started playing in Innistrad. I have literally no idea what something being on Dominaria would mean either in terms of mechanical identity or flavor. Just that it's a plane from the early days. They'd have to figure out a good way to present it to players like me to get us interested in it, because there are a lot of us.

Draft Time Spiral block. It's one of the best limited formats of all time. And I'm not saying that
because it
has a
lot of

timmies.

 

[SigmasonicX]

There are also MTGO announcements tomorrow.

 

[Maledict]

I understand WHY they wanted to center the multiverse in Ravnica. It's their most popular plane and I feel like they want its importance to the brand to be reflected in the story. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

They also need to make Ravnica the centre of the Universe because that's what Sigil is, and Ravnica needs to keep on being a cheap knock off version of Sigil... ;-)

 

[Imperfected]

The last time they changed the set release schedule it was the most talked-about story in years in every online MTG community, and the most directly relevant part of the week (i.e. 8+ product announcements) hasn't happened yet, so, uh, what on earth are you talking about?

You don't think there might be a nearly 1-to-1 relationship between people who are members of online MTG communities and those would be described as "inside baseball" (ie, not reflective of the average LGS consumer) in terms of their interest in Wizards employees, business structure, production schedule, etc.?

The average player cares about when a set comes out and what cards are in it. Until those things spill over into influencing that, it's a non-issue for them.