Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Magic is a great game. It's been around for 20 years, and it's had its ups and downs, but right now Magic is at the highest level of popularity it has ever been. Each set outsells the last one, more players are showing up to tournaments than ever before, and the community is getting larger and more active. This means, however, that there are a few growing pains that Wizards of the Coast needed to address, and this summer has been full of changes to address the growing popularity of the game.

The difference between this card and Magic's growth
is that Magic's growth is not just until end of turn. We hope.

First, the professional level. Now, a very small percentage of people who play Magic attend Pro Tours and Grand Prix tournaments. Many players who go to their local game store to play may not know a pro level of Magic exists, or have any interest in it. But Wizards really wants them to. They invest money in the professional level of the game because of the effects it has on the local game store level. There are professional level tournaments nearly every weekend, and they can all be watched online. This is a very recent change from when I started playing again almost 3 years ago, when there was only the World Championships annually, and a Pro Tour broadcast 3 times a year. Now they hold 4 Pro Tours, the World Championships, a Super Sunday Series, and over 50 Grand Prix that are all streamed on Twitch, on Magic's own channel.

Players who watch the professional tournaments get deck ideas from the players, and these decks are often what you will encounter at your local Friday Night Magic tournaments. If you tune in, you can hear drafting strategies and commentary on which cards and decks will likely be the ones to beat in the coming months. While this coverage is not for everyone, Wizards is doing their best to make it as compelling as possible for new and experienced players.

Coverage also leads to this guy being irritatingly
unbeatable everywhere, so there's that too, I suppose,

The way to attend a Pro Tour, until this summer, was to qualify through a Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) win or Grand Prix showing. With the increased player base now, Wizards announced last month that the PTQ system would be changing to a new system that requires you to win two tournaments to attend, but has the benefit of allowing all local game store to hold their own first tier qualifier. More casual players will now have the opportunity to try to get to the Pro Tour through these smaller and more frequent opportunities.

They've also released a dramatically new suite of products this summer aiming at players who want to play different formats and attend tournaments. A Modern Event deck aimed at people who don't have the cards needed to break into the format, a multiplayer draft set named Conspiracy that contains some Legacy staples newer players have never seen, and M15's Clash Pack to give you both the casual deck playing experience at home and the competitive deck to take to FNM. While the success of these individual products is varied, the focus is on bringing more players to the competitive side where they can take part in the tournaments that Magic's culture centers on.

I'm in Conspiracy, and I'm totally safe.
Not a broken card at all. Trust me!

I'm completely broke, and you really
want to play with me. Trust me, you do.

Wizards of the Coast also changed their website as well, giving it a redesign that supposedly works better with mobile devices and dramatically increases the amount of bugs you'll deal with. Okay, I may still be a little bitter about the website redesign, especially since the RSS feed is still broken, but the quality of the articles, particularly Mark Rosewater's weekly Making Magic article, is fantastic. If you ever finish my posts and still want more Magic info, head over there and consume to your heart's content.

Now, speaking of Making Magic... Mark Rosewater is the Head Designer of Magic, as well as the most vocal spokesman for the company, and this past Monday he wrote an article (that I will link to right here) that announces the biggest changes of all so far. For the past (quite a) few years, Magic has had 4 primary set releases each year, a Core Set aimed at new players made up largely of reprints and three sets comprising a "block" of expert-level expansions. For instance, M15 was this year's Core set release and Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx were the three sets that made up Theros Block. These divisions were important because of the format named Standard. 

Moving pictures? How DOES he DO that?

Standard is comprised of the most recent Core set, the last finished Block and the currently releasing Block. When the newest block of expert-level sets debuts, the previous block and past core set are removed from the format. So, Standard can contain anywhere from 5 to 8 sets in it, and rotates once a year. Standard is by far the most popular format for events at stores because it only contains the sets that are current. New players looking to get into tournaments usually have mostly Standard legal cards and decks. The constant rotation also keeps veterans who enjoy trying to find the "best" decks busy every time a new set comes out. It's been years since there were changes to how Standard works, until now.

This graphic was stolen directly from the article I linked to earlier. You should read it.

Mark Rosewater announced in his article that next year's yet to be named Core set will be the last one. Starting in the fall of 2016, Magic will now release two "blocks" per year, each block containing two sets. The number of sets released per year is still 4, but gone will be the set of reprints. An unannounced product will become the new recommended entry point for new players. In addition to this, Standard will begin to rotate more frequently, every six months. instead of a large fall set debuting and setting the tone for Standard for two years until it rotates, no set will be in Standard for longer than 18 months. It will always consist of 5 or 6 sets, and only of expert-level expansions. These changes have been largely accepted as a good thing by the Magic Community, with very little negative feedback. The reasons why are these: first, more variety in Standard; second, more new cards every year; and third, faster progression of the stories in the blocks. 

Hopefully these graphics explain it better than I did.

Standard right now consists of 8 sets: Return to Ravnica block, M14, Theros block, and M15. Two decks that were introduced in Theros, Mono-Blue Devotion and Mono-Black Devotion, have remained in top competitive standing for nearly a year. Standard has been stagnating under these decks for longer than players are comfortable with. Rotating cards out more frequently will help prevent this type of deck dominance and make more variety as people explore the format. 

More new cards is always a good thing for both veterans and new players alike, whether introducing new mechanics like heroic and devotion or exploring older, popular mechanics like scry or convoke. More unfamiliar cards means the games are more exciting, with new discoveries occurring more often. Reprints will still happen as they fit within the expert sets, but largely the amount of new cards will increase in the absence of a set built around reprints.

Story possibilities are also a plus, especially for players who read the novels and ebooks and want to know about the stories behind the cards. Until this change, it took us a year to see the story of a single block, like the fall of Mirrodin to the Phyrexians, or the heroic journey of Elspeth through Theros wrapped in love, loss, death and betrayal. In a change that doesn't have anything to do with formats or pro level play, twice as many stories can now be told. More new Planeswalkers can be seen, and more revisits to previous planes can occur as well. This last point is pure upside for everyone except Wizard's creative department, who now have their hands very full.

While Magic is an ever changing thing, I am very glad to be part of it. I've seen exponential growth since I last played, and am constantly surprised by the amount of people that I already know who are just getting in to Magic. I am glad to be chronicling the changing times, as well as playing during them. I'm excited to see what comes next!