Standardised standard.

Well we've all seen MaRo's announcement about the changes coming to standard. If you haven't, here's the link:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/metamorphosis

In short, no more Core Set, and instead we get two full sets a year, newly remade into a 1 Large, 1 Small expansion format. That's the same number of sets a year, but two stories, told quicker, more succinctly, with no Core Set. I don't know what will replace that, and they haven't said anything about it yet, but that's for another day I guess.

The Standard rotation also changes, meaning a new set will bump an older block out every 18 months. This used to happen once every 24 months, that is a new set would be around for two years. Yes, you get six months less time to play with your cards in Standard, but what Modern?

This decision was made to a fix a few things, the biggest two of which are the "third sets suck" stigma that has plagued Magic since forever, and the actual identity of the Core set. While MaRo put it best, I can offer my view on things for what it's worth.

The third set sucks stigma was true in a lot of ways, and I say it comes from my time spent writing and reading. A good idea is great, and then expanded upon, and then it's kind of time to RESOLVE the story, which is always a bore. Do you know what the most exciting Star Wars movie is? The Empire Strikes Back. It creates tension, Luke loses a hand as soon as he gains a father, everything goes crook for the good guys -- how are they going to fix it? Like wise which was the best Pirates of the Caribbean movie? If you said the first one I wont argue there, but my personal favourite was the second, because it did the same -- set up the worst situation for the heroes to content with. Jack is dead, whatever that means in a fantasy pirate Disney setting, Barbosa is revived but he's no Jack Sparrow, and the bad guys have the control of the Kraken, thanks to owning Bill Nighy! I mean, er, Davy Jones!

Likewise Magic and her own stories. Innistrad was great, horror theme! Monsters vs humans! Dark Ascension was sweet, the balance was REALLY thrown out, and elegantly (there's that word, MaRo!) threatened the planes eco system, killing first the humans (or food supply) and then the eaters (monsters eat what after humans? Each other/nothing!) Then Avacyn came along, and won the day. "Avacyn Restored" really blew the entire story out of the water, instantly. She returns, good wins. There isn't a story, that's a bottomline. That's how you SELL the story to your boss, not how you actually tell the story, or name it. "Fractured Sanctity" would've been a better name, and I came up with that on the spot. It gives an impression of something once sacred, but now returned. It's far less than it used to be, but we've still got a tool to use, and hopefully the good guys will win, right?

I should point out right now that I only really like stories where characters get killed in defense of their beliefs, and I really think the 'reward' for characters who save the entire universe (think Fry from Futurama, or Donna Noble from Doctor Who) should definitely be nothing at all, and an erasure of all memories involved. Surely being the only one to save the entirety of existence is prize enough, and to actually remember it destroys the ego of humble simpleton. Not only that, but it demands that characters should eventually go crazy, if they keep telling people "Hey, I saved existence" and no one believes them, etc.

Having said that, Magic shouldn't be without resolving it's stories, but certainly not in such an obvious, drawn out matter.

Second, we can actually see the workings of this in Magic's design over the years. The biggest pre-footprint of the this is the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block design. It was Big Small Big Small, two blocks connected by being on the same plane, only the flip side of one another. Where Lorwyn was considered a block Shadowmoor was likewise connected, and we had the start of experiments. Second we saw the Big Small Big of Zendikar block, where we were given a Land theme for two sets, then the plane remained the same, but the mechanics were overthrown as the Eldrazi rose from their earthern cages, irrevocably changing the plane (and likewise it's feel for adventure).

Two small notes here. I thought Zendikar being an "adventure theme" block was really stupid -- surely ALL of Magic is adventure by default, so what WAS the real flavour here? You can't say Indiana Jones, because he's from a very definite pulp era of comics, even though he has a lot of the usual dungeoneering feats. Saying Magic was having an adventure themed set was like saying we're going to go back to Mirrodin, and this time with robots!

Second I recall an article where MaRo discusses why the Lands theme was only present for two sets, basically to keep the theme from growing old too quickly. It made sense as a defense but I didn't believe, non Basic Lands are one of the funnest things in Magic, and all players love the things! If this was true however, that MaRo thought we wouldn't really be entertained by Lands as a Thing for three full sets then WHY ON EARTH were we given Enchantments as a theme for three full sets? I don't mean to attack Theros block, but surely Enchantments are ok, Auras are cool when you stumble upon a Std/Mdn playable one, but Enchantments that also attack and are Gods and someone's pants until the pants fall off and then they're someone themselves and THEY can wear likewise Magic enchantment-pants...

You get the point. Theros was great fun, with the Gods and their Weapons, Born of the Gods really felt like the entire Magic world felt the gravel shift under their feet (especially when Brimaz was IT for the cards to chase, and even then you didn't really need to) and Journey into Nyx was a pure overload of "just bash, or play enchantments." That was saturation to be sure, and everyone had Enchantments everywhere.

Also final grumble here: Journey into Nyx was the perfect set to reprint Nix, from Time Spiral block, and if we had Scry returning why can't we give blue Preordain? I think has suffered for a while without it's 1 mana cantrip, and it was a perfect opportunity. It'd give players a chance to use their beloved card of old, seeing it's not been welcome in Modern for so long, and the ability to flavour it with Theros' divination themes would've made it a really sweet card.

Eitherway, those are my thoughts and reactions to the news about the removal of the third set. As a really good tie up, that speaks volumes about how early this concept should really have been gotten onto, Sonic the Hedgehog came out in 1991, and had 6 zones to play through, all with 3 separate stages. The following year in 1992 Sonic 2 came out, and each zone was reduced to only 2 stages apiece, with more zones. There was one zone that still had 3 stages, but it was the Air Ship zone, the level that was literally the big bad bosses spaceship that the player had to fly to (stage 1 is played on the back of a biplane). At the end of this you get taken up into space for the final battle, against two Legendary Artifact Creatures (- Hedgehog and - Robotnik respectively) before the greatest ending sequence on any gaming system ever. The point here is that the change occurred as soon as possible, and stuck for Sonic 3, "& Knuckles" and had a much greater impact on the game, even being 'used' as a tool when a particular zone felt immense enough to warrant 3 stages.

As for the Core Sets goodbye, I really don't know how that will feel. I've always enjoyed the palette cleanser that was the Core set, because if you like or hate or love the flavoured/big sets, you could always get down to business, bashing with simple creatures, and killing with typical spells. After Theros I was looking forward to M15 MORE than I've looked forward to any other Core set!

Thanks for reading, Fox Murdoch.