Inevitable

Well, the 2025 lineup for Magic was released and...boy is it a lot of shit I don't care about. 

First; there are only three Magic sets. The rest are Universes Beyond sets. Universes Beyond was always something I was happy to let other people enjoy but they weren't for me. Aside from the occasional remarkably powerful cards (you know what I'm talking about) I felt happy to ignore them.

Well, starting April next year, all Universes Beyond sets will be Standard legal so...that is six sets a year that they are hoping we'll hook into. SIX. 

That is just too goddamn much for me. Magic is my hobby, not my personality and it already takes up a huge chunk of my brain. 

I get the reasoning; UB sets bring in a bunch of new players-and then the only sixty-card formats they can play with their shiny new cards is Modern, where they will be buttstomped by players who have been playing Modern for years. 

Standard is more newbie-friendly. More players buying those cards for that format may help de-centralize the Commander format which...has gotten far too much weight. In my opinion.

I get the reasoning: WotC has literal decades of designing cards for the lower power environment that in Standard, and making cards for Modern power levels and getting people to care about those is far more challenging. 

But I also don't like what this does to the game. 

From a story perspective; All of the work done to build up a distinct world--like the worlds being borrowed for UB--gets diminished. But it isn't just the story, the IP at large gets watered down. At what point does Magic cease to be a distinct game and become just a rulebook that you can fold anything you want into? Monopoly skins as Magic product.

How is that special? 

From a consumer perspective; For me this is just such a naked money grab that it is difficult for me to believe that people with the game's best interest at heart is there.     

Which dampens my enthusiasm for all of the product. And OK, I'm not the audience for some of that product but I am in the audience for most of it! Or I was. 

Now...well, I guess I'm the audience for about half.