The end of Magic the Gathering?

 There is a terrible terrible stain on my soul - As a long-time player of Magic the Gathering. I moved from standard and settled into Commander due to the ever-rotating legal cards in standard. It's the quick rotation of Standard that has made a lot of players and game stores cease their regular games of the Standard format. Whilst other formats have found little success outside of a few smaller communities, Commander became the main face of Magic the Gathering's community. Unfortunately, since the parent company of Magic the Gathering (MTG), Wizards of the Coast (WotC), have failed to sell their newest sets due to the failure of the standard format, their greed has destroyed what I'd argue as the last great format Magic has left - Commander.

It all began with the concept of MTG Universes Beyond, a frantic cash grab to sell more products to fans of other series. MTG universes beyond introduces cards specific to fan bases like The Walking Dead, and Warhammer 40,000 and will soon include Doctor Who and The Lord of The Rings. How has this killed Commander? As someone who loves the lore and core spirit of the game - spell slingers and planeswalkers. If I'm playing a normal magic deck and find myself forced to verse space marines with guns or a creature with Lucille, the very weapon that made me resent and stop watching The Walking Dead tv show... I'm not going to want to keep playing. 

To WotC's credit, they did rerelease cards from the universes beyond using traditional MTG styling with their Stranger Things release, however, when an entire set is released focusing on Lord of the Rings, I somehow doubt they will rebrand and reprint the entire set.

One obvious solution is to just play against people who don't play universes beyond... fair enough, this issue has become unavoidable with the forcible inclusion of the newest "Un" set. Unfinity, recently removed the silver borders of cards that aren't legal in other formats, replacing them instead with a tiny acorn symbol that is easily missed. In WotC's unfinite wisdom, decided that half the newest set is legal in commander - making silly new mechanics like rolling dice for planeswalker abilities, opening attractions with a new side deck and STICKERS (you read that right), mechanics that will blur over into commander.

As a long-time MTG Player, I'm sad to say that if I'm forced to verse decks and cards that remove what makes the game fun for me. I will only be playing Commander at home with my friends.

Why is that such a problem? Because I work in a game store and know for a full-blown fact that other patrons have similar issues. Game Stores are going to see a lot less of some of their regulars. 

Now there is a flip side to this coin - I know of people who have had zero interest in playing Magic the Gathering say to my face they want to learn to play because they love Doctor Who and want to play with their Doctor Who cards. It is my hope that the new players that are brought in by the silly new mechanics and Universes Beyond vastly outweigh the number of players that will leave the game because of it.

Your Friend and disappointed MTG player,

Lachy