It seems strange to me that they're reverting this so quickly; there's only ever been 1 Spring rotation to date; basically 3 rotations in the New format. I guess the numbers must be looking really bad to go back to Classic Rotation so quickly.
It also means we'll have a Long block and a Short block now.
The Fall/Winter blocks will have a 24 and 21 month period in standard, while the Spring/Summer blocks will only get 18 and 15 months. Old rotation this didn't matter as much since the Summer block was usually the "Reprint" block (M10, Origins). Now it is the second half of a story block; but I'm not sure if there is anything that could be done with it. I wonder if they considered staying with 2 rotations, but nudging it so every block has 24/21 months? So no rotation in the Spring 2017, but Fall only rotates Zendikar, then Spring 2018 rotates Innistrad and so on?
This "idea" of a faster rotation schedule killed off any hope of maintaining Extended as a format. They might have blamed it on Modern, but the reality was that people always preferred a slower rotation cycle for Extended, slightly faster for Standard, and a non existent one for an eternal they play.
In essence what we have today is:
A. Commander has replaced Vintage
B. Modern has replaced Extended and Legacy(from the perspective of a newer player)
C. Standard has returned to normal
D. 60 card is the entry level for Magic
Because of the pre-con situation Commander and Standard are excellent entry level formats for player. The next stage is to offer up preconstructed decks for Modern.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Life is a beautiful engineer, yet a brutal scientist.
@Downdala About cheaper/more expensive; I wish you to also consider the "non cutthroat competitive player" when making statements;
I myself have found this fast moving to be utterly annoying: I can only play at FNM less than once every month; Now this means that building an expensive standard deck is always kind of a waste of money (other than for bragging to friends); So I opt for the less expensive ones I can manage to make after drafting a few times and going to the prerelease (I always have time to play magic at saturday/sunday) - maybe by adding another batch of 50 euro on cards. When a new set is released I try to keep the deck and adding another small set of cards to replace a few.
However with the fast format I had my deck finished after 6 months: that meant I could only play it at most for 12 months before the core of my deck wouldn't be possible anymore.
I don't really care about having the most cutthroat deck: I just wish to play my creation for a bit longer than ~10 times.
Now for the the biggest wonder is: "why are they always making new rare lands instead of just reprinting shocks/scry/tango/other old lands". I really wish they would consider reprinting the manabase more: than I would have no problem spending "1 time 100+ euros" on a highly priced playset of a lands. Now I constantly have to spend a lot of money on the "boring" part of a deck, yet the new types of lands are not that refreshing they actually give a feeling that they introduce new playstyles. (I'm in standard to see new playstyles every once in a while - the lands hardly influence this).
You're the kind of player that is the midline player. The person who spends more than the guy with one Portal Second Age deck, but not as much as the other person who plays at every chance each week. I feel that you are the core of Magic. The person that might not be there all the time, but you're the guy that shows up in enough numbers that allows an event to launch.
Hasbro is trying to push as much product out the door and provide a better play experience. Their goal is for us to spend more money on product each year, but the issue is this.
A. There is too much totally new product
B. Reprint sets are helping to drop prices
C. "Too powerful for Standard" the power level problem is something that needs to undulate more, we need to expect that we will Doom Blade at some point.
D. Pushing limited too much in design, neglecting the need for level 5 commons for Standard.
Standard is the litmus test for Magic health, not Limited. This means that having a mega-rotation cycle of lands designed well for Standard and you can transition into Modern after 2 years of playing Standard and playing at drafts. Limited->Standard/Commander->Modern+Cube is the key gateways for competitive players who play multiple formats.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Life is a beautiful engineer, yet a brutal scientist.
While I personally have long given up on Standard, I'm glad for this change for those of you who still play. The 18 month rotation was a pretty repugnant idea. I don't like the term "blatant cash grab" like others on this site do, but you have to call a spade a spade. It was a short sighted money grubbing move by Hasbro.
I currently don't have time to devote to Modern AND Standard anymore, but even if I had the time for both, the quicker rotation REALLY turned me off to getting back into it. Rotating once a year was bad enough, rotating twice a year means my deck becomes irrelevant twice as quickly. Kaladesh Standard seems AMAZING, but totally not worth buying into if we see another rotation in just a few months. This is definitely a reversal of poor decision making which resulted in making the format better. Now if only they could admit and fix another mistake they made last January...
"We now believe that The Official Reprint Policy (known colloquially as the "reserved list") has resulted in a barrier to players new and old for various formats, and, as such, we will be repealing it, effective immediately. The original intention of the list was for some early printed cards to retain their resale value, but all it is doing at this point is preventing us from reprinting many old cards for nostalgia value, as most of the cards on the list have little monetary value despite the policy, and we feel the cards that currently have a high value would be unaffected by newer printings as the originals would still retain their value with collectors due to the cards limited print numbers."
This "idea" of a faster rotation schedule killed off any hope of maintaining Extended as a format. They might have blamed it on Modern, but the reality was that people always preferred a slower rotation cycle for Extended, slightly faster for Standard, and a non existent one for an eternal they play.
In essence what we have today is:
A. Commander has replaced Vintage
B. Modern has replaced Extended and Legacy(from the perspective of a newer player)
C. Standard has returned to normal
D. 60 card is the entry level for Magic
Because of the pre-con situation Commander and Standard are excellent entry level formats for player. The next stage is to offer up preconstructed decks for Modern.
Modern
Commander
Cube
<a href="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/588020-unpowered-themed-enchantment-an-enchanted-evening">An Enchanted Evening Cube </a>
You're the kind of player that is the midline player. The person who spends more than the guy with one Portal Second Age deck, but not as much as the other person who plays at every chance each week. I feel that you are the core of Magic. The person that might not be there all the time, but you're the guy that shows up in enough numbers that allows an event to launch.
Hasbro is trying to push as much product out the door and provide a better play experience. Their goal is for us to spend more money on product each year, but the issue is this.
A. There is too much totally new product
B. Reprint sets are helping to drop prices
C. "Too powerful for Standard" the power level problem is something that needs to undulate more, we need to expect that we will Doom Blade at some point.
D. Pushing limited too much in design, neglecting the need for level 5 commons for Standard.
Standard is the litmus test for Magic health, not Limited. This means that having a mega-rotation cycle of lands designed well for Standard and you can transition into Modern after 2 years of playing Standard and playing at drafts. Limited->Standard/Commander->Modern+Cube is the key gateways for competitive players who play multiple formats.
Modern
Commander
Cube
<a href="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/588020-unpowered-themed-enchantment-an-enchanted-evening">An Enchanted Evening Cube </a>
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Wizards of the Coast...should say this.