Personally, I'm shocked it took so long for this to happen. The third set always felt tacked on, or the second set just came across as weak.

It obviously makes standard more expensive, but it will also avoid situations where a handful of decks just kind of dominate the field for the better part of a year.

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Originally posted by dfitzg88:
This is excellent for brewers. I hate that standard gets solved so quickly and I love having a wide open field to play with.

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How so? I tend to put some home brews together myself, and it usually takes me a long time to hone them. Up to a year to iron-out kinks isn't unusual for me.

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Originally posted by chaos021:
How so? I tend to put some home brews together myself, and it usually takes me a long time to hone them. Up to a year to iron-out kinks isn't unusual for me.

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Originally posted by dfitzg88:
If you're brewing a standard deck for a year then you're doing something wrong. I come to fnm with a different deck at least every other week. With 2 sets to a block it means the mechanics will be tighter and, if there's a big bad wolf" in the format, it won't last long. People who have the best deck won't be able to dominate with it for 2 years. Cards will be moving out every 6 months instead of every year. That rewards people who come into a new format swinging and cuts people who just build 1 deck from top 8s to last a while.

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I also play multiple decks, but that doesn't mean I just rip everything apart every week. Some things I keep and tune. Some get canned.

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Originally posted by Pail42:
I'm very happy for this change. Good riddance yearly core set. Good riddance crappy small sets.

Hello return to Kamigawa... I can hope.

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MaRo basically confirmed on Blagatog the Even with twice as many environments a return to Kamigawa was pretty unlikely.

Which i was instructed not to...

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Originally posted by chaos021:
Yea. I think I'm going to be done with Standard then. This makes it more expensive and come at players faster now. What's the point? ... It's as if they really want Standard changing every 6 months.

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That is one of the points. There are more in the article. You really should read it if you actually want to know "why".

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Originally posted by ryan2754:
How will limited, particularly draft, work with 2 sets. 1 pack small set and 2 big set or vice versa?

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Originally posted by Pail42:
That is one of the points. There are more in the article. You really should read it if you actually want to know "why".

This probably will make standard a bit more expensive, but I don't think by a huge margin. Two of the four releases per year are now rotating out faster (fall by 6 months and winter by 3 months), one is unchanged(spring), and one is staying longer (core by 3 months).

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I did read it. My problem is that without letting us know how this affects the tourney scene (or if it will be affected at all), I'm not exactly sure if I would agree with some of these changes. Personally, I felt if they just got rid of the core block and let the 3rd set in a block go longer, that would've been fine with me. I understand why they logistically made the changes they're making, but most of those reasons were for them. What about for us? One of the questions I sent him in an email was "What happens to the limited format? How do we draft with this?" Another was about how any of this affects the tourney scene. Both of these questions have already appeared here. I can't believe they didn't think about it either. Yet, there are no answers in that article. Maybe I missed something. He seemed more focused on how this may or may not burden R&D. I don't really care how it burdens them. That's their job.

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"Message to women worldwide: Girls....we're stupid. We don't like games. We don't know games. We can't read minds. Say it like you mean or STFU." -rockondon

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I did read it. My problem is that without letting us know how this affects the tourney scene (or if it will be affected at all), I'm not exactly sure if I would agree with some of these changes.

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I don't think anyone will know exactly how this effects the tourney scene until this plays out, but it seems clear there will be more deck archetypes (on average) per year.

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
More rotation? Not quite so awesome but then again it means overly pushed or non-interactive combos won't be around quite so often.

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Which is how I feel about that in particular. I just wonder what this will do to price of Mythics and other chase rares.

EDIT: I specifically wonder if this will make Standard pricing more spiky (or spikier?).

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Originally posted by Pail42:
It will be harder for a deck to remain dominant for 18 months when two blocks of strong mechanics arrive to challenge it instead of a halfhearted core set and one block. You also have stuff like Sphinx's rev only being around for 18 months instead of 24, so no single card/set/mechanic can define an archetype for as long as they currently can.

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That's great and all, but I feel like that stuff is a bit overblown. Just look at the top 8s for this past year. I'd say Sphinx's Revelation was far more dominant when RTR was the new block than it has been in this last year. It feels like there have just been a ton of Devotion to Blue/Black decks in top 8 since Theros was released. So are you saying just want 6 months less of stuff like Sphinx's Revelation or just no super awesome cards at all?

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I like having particular "super awesome" cards around for less time. I'm okay with there being "super awesome" cards at any given time.

What I would be concerned with is the constant changing of rotation. While this sounds great that a deck won't dominate for a longer period it also makes you the consumer have to buy more product to stay competitive. Also with rotation coming sooner, guess what your cards will be worth less money as people see the rotation and start to dump.

The question I would ask is why. Getting rid of say just the Core set and leaving everything else the same is one thing, but reducing the sets and speeding up the rotation is another. From a sales prospective you have to think that the company openly even states "Hey we are not making as much money with these core and third sets, How do we change this?"

To me you have two choices make a change to improve the quality of the cards in those sets or just Simply stop making them....

FWIW, I was pretty unhappy when "core" sets started including new cards. I'm glad that's done with, even though I'm pretty sure this change is far better for Hasbro's bottom line than it is for the game or players.

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Edit: Also, I will not miss the core set.

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I think you're wrong on certain decks being able to dominate. I think the ability to dominate will just be limited to a year instead of 2 years now, and if you think this helps cut down on netdecking, then I'd like to know what's in your Kool-Aid.

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Mono blue devotion, mono black devotion, and mono red aggro all hinge on cards in rtr block to work (pack rat, nighveil specter, burning tree emissary, ash zealot, etc). if the linchpin card in a deck rotates 6 months after the deck even becomes a deck, it means it usually won't last a year. it'll last 6 months. this means those older cards that turn a mechanic from a new block into a monster won't exist for the entire 2 year run of the mechanic (often only 6 months)

It will incentive brewing. Now, people generally take their existing standard deck to the first PTQ after the newest release and maybe add in a card or two. With a rotation happening every 6 months, it will make it impossible to just bring your last deck.