I seem to always find lots and lots of discourse about block sets. Two sides of the same argument every time.
Side 1 says something like:"I hate all these random sets, I miss block sets."
To which, Side 2 says; "Well block sets never sold as well at the end, players attention span's are better suited for one and done blocks."
My problem with this response is that it essentially ignores the initial statement. Rather than clarifying what they mean, they assume and answer.
Personally, I miss block sets, but ONLY from a story perspective.
Basically, do sets exactly the same as you're doing now. Draft is better now than blocks were, standard with Foundations sounds fantastic. The only thing I'd like to see is a set of setup, and a set of payoff.
MKM was a set based on a murder mystery with the big twist ending basically included in the release, as an example. It could've benefitted from a real, but delayed, payoff. Set up the consequences for each suspect, then reveal and give different consequences that were hinted at in other ways. Bam. Improved.
The last time we visited New Phyrexia, it was a block, I remember ubiquitous speculation over how the story would wrap up. There were factions events at local game stores, branded posters and packs for the factions at play, etc. I had a friend get the New Phyrexian emblem tattooed on themselves. The story felt *Important* and so much less divorced from magic than it does today.
Usually, in my experience, when someone asks for blocks, they're asking for the story to matter. There are lots of mechanically interesting card games out there, and mechanics are only part of what makes magic, magic!
All I would ask is that writers get the opportunity to do setups and payoffs with magic's evolving story with multiple sers, and that story related sets have *some* play synergies. They don't need to share mechanical themes just to share story themes, but it would be a nice little florish if they had mechanical synchronisets,
Hell, a REALLY good idea (in my opinion) would be to do these sets in a different order than the old method. Modern fantasy novels swap POV characters and follow different stories. Why not set up multiple stories in a row, then start to alternate resolving an older, established plot line, and then starting a new one or swapping to another established one. This really gives players time to get interested and speculate (and making the story FEEL present will likely also boost novels and comics numbers, etc., if you need a monetary reasoning.)
What do you think Mark?

We already do a lot of what you’re asking. Each Magic “year” does have a larger connected story, often with different POV characters.

People aren't understanding what a value booster is- it's a low price point impulse buy for grocery stores or pharmacies or toy aisles, not a thing that card shops (usually) would actively stock. These are more in the vein of "saved my treat money from lunch to buy boosters on the way home from school" or "was picking up prescriptions and decided to buy a pack instead of my usual candy bar. Opened a $4 uncommon!", not "cracked a case of these at the LGS"

Correct.

A player at my LGS argued against your want of Hybrid mana able to be in mono colored decks was Devotion. If you can count Devotion of a color that your commander doesn't control, it shouldn't be in your deck. Wdyt?

You can have permanents of colors not of your Commander. What’s the difference?

Hi Mark! I wanted to give my own thanks to you and the card game I love so dearly. When I was 16, friendless and hopelessly autistic without realising it, a friend of my sister saw me walking down the street and gave me a tupperware box of Magic cards that he was about to throw away (mostly goblins from 10th Edition).

I went to my LGS to learn how to play the game and found not only a love for the game, but a creative outlet, a great group of friends, and the confidence I needed to grow as a person.

I was hired to run their Magic events and eventually worked my way up to manager/"The Card Guy" and some of my happiest life moments, including finding an equal passion for reading DC comics, were made during my decade of working there.

I can only imagine where I would be if I hadn't gone to my LGS to learn Magic that day, but I know I can't imagine my life without it, so thank you to everyone who helped make, and continues to make, such a wonderful game.

P.S. the first booster I ever opened was Avaycn Restored and after being blown away by Vorstclaw I've been a Timmy ever since!

Thanks for sharing.

Happy birthday Mark! Magic has been a lot of things to me over the years. I started playing 22 years ago, a few months before Onslaught released, and fell in love with its fascinating mechanics and worlds. I drifted a way after a while, then came back in college to play Commander, where it became a way of regularly spending time with a group of friends. We couldn't keep meeting regularly after graduating, but after getting my current job, I started drafting every week at my LGS, and it quickly became my biggest reason to regularly go somewhere for social reasons rather than just home and work. Thanks for everything you've done for this game!

Thanks for sharing.

Mark, today, my LGS of 24 years announced that it is closing at the end of the month because it can no longer run a profit because of Play Boosters. Since Limited was its primary revenue driver, the increased cost of running a draft, combined with the USD/CAD exchange rate and a weak economy, running the LGS became financially untenable. Charging more for draft wasn't an option. There are many similar LGS outside the US facing the same problem. Regular draft boosters served an important role.

The market was driving away draft boosters. Not enough people were buying them to justify their existence. Play boosters was us doing something to keep limited play from going away.

More a note and I don't even know if there is a solution to my problem: I am a 100% limited player with a tight budget. With play boosters being more expensive then draft booster, due to budget, this just leads to me playing less. Also inflation is additional stress on my budget. I feel, that I'm getting less and less enfranchised and engaged because now I do less drafts. I fear loosing MTG as a hobby. I mostly play in my LGS and don't have a private playgroup, where we could play cheaper options like cube. I know WotC is a company and has to show growing revenue but it just sucks, that I may loose this great hobby and game because of monetary aspects.

I hear your frustration. The popularity of set boosters meant when we consolidated draft boosters and set boosters, they were crafted more to match set boosters. We essentially made set boosters draftable. I will note that the price of boosters didn’t go up. Play boosters cost the same as set boosters, and, like set boosters, you do get a higher amount of rares/mythic rares, on average, to match the higher price point. But yes, if all you do is draft, the individual drafts got more expensive. None of this change was done to somehow squeeze extra money out of people. We just took the most popular booster product and sold it at the same price, but with added value (more cards per booster and made it draftable).

Hi, Mark! I just had surgery, so I couldn't go to any events at my game store, but I just drafted on arena for the first time and went 7-1 with a super fun gruul big creature smashy deck. My MVP card was snakeskin veil- the biggest of high fives to the designer of that card! It's something I could see myself using in a lot of my constructed decks

I also got some cards delivered and got the signed oko art card, so I've been blessed with mtg luck today :)

Sorry you weren’t able to attend the prerelease, but happy you had a good time on Arena.

I'm a manager at an LGS and I just want to say that OTJ was one of our best prereleases ever in terms of attendance and sales, and we got great feedback from players on the way out. Big thanks to everyone who worked on it!

Happy to hear that!

I've been really enjoying MKM so far- my LGS even had a little murder mystery of their own to solve during prerelease! I have a question though: were you already planning MKM during Ravnica Allegiance? So many of the clues reference cards from that set!

We were not. We didn’t even know the murder mystery set was on Ravnica until about halfway through vision design.