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[Mongrel]

Well, yeah. Their tournament attendance didn't suffer, ergo, nothing was wrong.

It did start suffering after that. Not at the big events, but attendance at smaller events, FNM's and the like went downhill fast.

As for MaRo's second twitter post above, about being beyond killing now...

I'd agree that we're nearly beyond the point where a single mistake could kill Magic (and it's now so old and established that it will have a life beyond WotC, no matter what happens), but that poor aggregate decisions over time can do serious damage.

For instance, I took our list elsewhere and built it up to this:

1) The "demented sex-cult culture in Wizards until 1995" (personally, I refer to that period as the time when WotC was still "run by gamers")
2) Black Summer (or Necro Summer)
3) Combo Winter (Urza's Saga fiasco)
4) Affinity
5) Caw-Blade
6) CoK Block's inbred and generally horrible execution
7) The overall long post-Ravnica decline due a long run of lackluster blocks (you can argue that maybe this is mostly just 4 & 6)
8) Jund
9) Fae (arguably Jund and Fae also set up Caw Blade, because Wizards got more used to one "good deck" dominating Standard)
10) Cutting States events

[jsnlxndrlv]

Seems like the organized play shakeup a while back that basically asked "who can go to the most events regardless of performance" to determine Pro Tour invitations was a pretty heinous time, but I guess that was actually already mentioned by MaRo, and they reversed that decision?

For me, #7 is entirely a product of Coldsnap trying to do limited, Time Spiral block catering to veterans, and Lorwyn failing to cater to Magic's lowest common denominator. Ravnica to Alara was actually the peak of my Magic-buying days, though. (Although that may say more about the intersection of the time of my employment, the era in which I had no relationship-based expenses, and the deferment period of my debts.)

[Mongrel]

The Unglued 2 cards that never made it into Unhinged

Some of these are amazing.



If I had a high-res version of this, it would be my new background.

[Mongrel]

This may be the weirdest alter I've ever seen:

[Büge]

I declare my Shaq Attack phase.

[Büge]

So they're reprinting Regrowth in the Heroes vs. Monsters Duel Decks.

That's cool.

[Büge]

Note to self: Build this deck

Creatures
Arbor Elf x4
Elvish Mystic x4
Elvish Pioneer x4
Heritage Druid x4
Llanowar Elves x4
Elvish Harbinger x4
Gilt Leaf Archdruid x4
Elvish Archdruid x4

Non Creature
Harmonize x4
Abundance x4

Land
Forest x20

[McDohl]

Nissa Revane/Chosens?

[Büge]

Are they Druids?

[Friday]

Funny, they don't look Druish.

[Cait]

Needs a proper win condition, though. It's fast, but if your opponent gets out a couple of decent creatures while you're building up, you've got no way to punch through. Gut feeling is to toss in a couple of copies of either Helix Pinnacle or Gelatinous Genesis, or maybe 1 each. Once you're active, you've got plenty of dig power.

[jsnlxndrlv]

Some talk about when we'll finally get our wedge block on MTGSalvation made me do some thinking. Crossposted:

Wedge is going to be big—it's one of the most asked-for themes—so I think they'll want it to be present from the beginning of the block. That means it's the next gold block. Let's look at historical precedent.

• Ravnica (2005) GOLD
  The start of MaRo's time as head designer with block planning and interblock synergy, and the first gold block since Invasion.
  
• Time Spiral (2006) NOSTALGIA
  They knew Time Spiral was going to be an experiment, so it helped to sandwich it between two known-quantity block themes like gold and tribal. "Nostalgia" didn't pan out as a theme on its own under this execution, but it was a valuable learning experience, as this is basically the reason New World Order exists.
  
• Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (2007) TRIBAL/HYBRID
  The first tribal block since Onslaught, but this wasn't such a smash hit. The execution undermined each of these themes.
  
• Shards of Alara (2008) GOLD
  During initial planning, R&D thought gold blocks could be much more frequent, but the (relatively) last-minute addition of the Hybrid theme as Shadowmoor became a block unto itself compounded Ravnica's recency, making for "too much, too soon" on the gold front. Gold blocks will be used more sparingly from now on.
  
• Zendikar (2009) LANDS/BATTLECRUISER
  The land theme was an unknown quantity at the time, but MaRo has since said that Zendikar was such a smash hit that it will likely return. Rise of the Eldrazi was reasonably successful, but its style of Magic is a major departure from the norm.
  
• Scars of Mirrodin (2010) PHYREXIAN WAR
  A sort-of prelude to the major advent of top-down block design, this was arguably an artifact block in the vein of Mirrodin before.
  
• Innistrad (2011) HORROR
  Top-down block design is hugely successful. There's a tribal theme at work here, but not to the degree that Lorwyn or Onslaught tried to do. MaRo has pointed out this was much more successful; I don't expect to see mechanical themes dominate the design the way they did in those sets again. (See also some of the problems suffered by Alara Reborn and Legions.
  
• Return to Ravnica (2012) GOLD
  Another bottom-up block design like the gold blocks of old. Maybe not as successful as Innistrad, so major mechanical themes will likely continue to be lessened in favor of contributing to an overarching flavor theme.
  
• Theros (2013) GREEK
  Enchantments have a lessened major theme like artifacts did in Scars and tribal did in Innistrad, and while it's too early to say, I think it's going well.
  

Based on this, I'd predict we'll get our wedge block in the fall of 2016—the sets codenamed "Lock", "Stock", and "Barrel". I'd imagine "Blood" in 2015 to use tribal components for whatever atmosphere it wants to create. Next year's "Huey" will probably have a minor artifact or land theme, since the enchantments of Theros were an unknown quantity. Either way, Huey will likely use one of Magic's established settings, factions, or villains—probably Nicol Bolas, but the Eldrazi might make an appearance instead.


On an unrelated subject, the "You Make The Card" winner, Waste Not, is one of my very favorite kinds of cards—a cheap, does-nothing enchantment that you'll need to run four of to get any benefit from, but which is a terrible late-game topdeck. On rereading that sentence, it sounds like sarcasm, but I'm serious: I loved Bloodchief's Ascension and the other cards from that cycle, I love enablers like Burning Vengeance, and I love this. It's terrible for competitive, but this card will make for some amazing games in my playgroup.

[Mongrel]

Actually, next year's block will be on a new plane. Wizards recently confirmed a trademark for next year's fall set, under the name Warlords of Khanar.

[Zaratustra]

Mongolian/Chinese mythology? I hope we see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_death_worm

[Zaratustra]

Also I doubt there will be a wedge block that soon, as Commander 2013 is just around the corner.

[Büge]

Speaking of which:

[McDohl]

That's a cheaty version of Flash!  That's adorable!

[Friday]

dies to remova --

wait

[Mongrel]

[Büge]

ohshi