The new ‘Magic the Gathering’ Standard looks like a live service

At its “Foundations of Magic’s Next Era” MagicCon panel this weekend, Wizards of the Coast outlined some drastic changes to Magic the Gathering Standard format. Some of these changes are great; for instance MSRP is back, hooray! However, WOTC also radically changed the way cards will be legal going forward. As a result, the way all players engage with future Magic releases will change, for better and worse. The result may have the effect of turning Magic into less of a card game and more of a live service game.

Changing the Standard

As its name implies, “Standard” is the baseline Magic experience. If you’ve only started playing Magic in recent years, you may be surprised that it isn’t the multiplayer “Commander” format. Unlike that mode, Magic the Gathering Standard uses a much smaller card pool that stays small due to rotating booster sets out over time. Most releases are Standard-legal sets; but as the game has grown, some sets and products (such as sealed Commander decks) skip this entry format. This keeps Standard’s power level relatively in balance while WOTC prints cards as they want.

It’s in this gap that the controversial Universes Beyond line appears. I’ve written at length about the IP crossover before, but it rears its head again here. Going forward, future Universes Beyond sets will be Standard legal. As two of these (spoilers, they tack on a third one) were already planned for 2025, this has changed the release calendar. Previously, Standard got four sets a year. Now, there will be six. Three are set in Magic the Gathering canon, the other three are Universes Beyond. In 2025, this will include Final Fantasy and Spider-Man.

Putting aside the actual details of the sets for now, these changes could have a chilling effect. Wizards already releases a deluge of products. In fact, this piece disregards the reprint set also on track next year. This does streamline things a bit. Modern will get a reprieve from direct inserting of cards and newer players will be on an easier onboarding track. However, while WOTC says this will also reduce product fatigue, I’d argue the opposite. Before, the Standard player only saw influxes of cards every quarter of the year. That time now gets cut in half. This cadence runs the risk of devaluing individual releases and reducing enthusiasm.

Content Fatigue

We can demonstrate the problem right now with the two most recent releases: Bloomburrow, a set focused on a Redwall style animal world, released with high praise in early August. By the end of that month the next set, the 80’s horror themed Duskmourn, released its story and began previews of cards. Sure, Duskmourn would not be released until late September, but the conversation had already moved on. The tonal shift only exacerbates the situation. Players drawn in by Bloomburrow‘s pleasant aesthetic barely got to savor that flavor before it was replaced by nightmares. Even WOTC ran into issues with overlap, having to theme MagicCon Vegas with both of these clashing styles.

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This new plan of releases now makes this example the norm. Instead of each release being a period of time to explore new cards and the worlds they represent, all players will be jumping from release to release at break-neck speed. Imagine a Final Fantasy fan does give Magic a try, are two of the weekly Standard Showdown events really enough to hook them before everyone around them looks to the next release? Even if all six sets were canon Magic sets, this would still be an issue. How does interest stay alive for any one release under this method?

The live service vibe

The more I think about it, the more this cadence resembles the crunch encouraging schedules of live service video games. In games like Fortnite, a key to their success is the near constant release of content. Each of these strive to be notable, but you don’t see many Fortnite die hards refer back to patch version 4.578 as their favorite.Yet, this really does seem to be WOTC’s plan; try to make Magic as close to a live service experience as they can — complete with regular branded crossovers.

Chasing a live service model is dubious at best. It’s easy to look at the situation and think of Overwatch. Once upon a time, Overwatch was such a big dog that games trying to chase it are still being released this year. But in the years those copycats were in development, Overwatch became a shadow of itself. Various decisions over the game’s life alienated different player groups, culminating in the release of Overwatch 2 completely overwriting the original game. 

The game is not “dead,” it still has players and content. However what was once an unavoidable force, with players comparing its designs to Pixar, now is forced to do anime crossovers and walk back its most bold changes. Magic has had its fair share of controversies that it has ultimately survived, but this new shift carries a sense that this is a point of no return. It might be cynical to say, but Magic‘s future could be one like Overwatch 2‘s: populated primarily by its remaining sunk cost players that cannot be truly satisfied.

The Universes Beyond of it all

Much of this is the fault of Universes Beyond. Even as someone genuinely excited to see how Magic‘s skilled designers adapt Peter Parker, I can easily see that WOTC would not make this change without this line. Parent company Hasbro had already indicated they intend to replicate and double the success of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth. Now, we see how they intend to do that. Except, the returns will eventually diminish. Square Enix itself can barely make money off Final Fantasy, after all. How many brands really can make it through design before it really becomes phoned in?

Judging from enfranchised players online, some already think we’re at that point. It is inarguable that Universes Beyond brings in new players. However, that is now more likely to come with the cost of enfranchised player churn. It won’t happen right away, but there’s now no reasonable alternative for these players who had begrudgingly accepted where the game was prior to the panel besides disconnecting. Even some of the game’s strongest advocates have choice words about the state of the situation. That will likely increase as other content creators return home from MagicCon. To these players, this is their worst fear manifest.

Player trust is about respect

In retrospect, closing the panel with the announcement of a (ironically not Standard legal) Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lair drop is a cold response to these players. Whatever else one can say about Wizards of the Coast, it is full of people who care enough to want feedback. Which means they’re definitely seen this comic:

Magic players, like all gamers, can often center themselves as the default experience. Still, something like this could also be a very specific taunt to folks who just want more of what they enjoy — the game Wizards already makes. Is exponential growth worth alienating the most passionate? Does Hasbro just expect everyone to stick around like Blizzard figured when they wrote over a game people paid for? This kind of behavior sours my own excitement for what is coming — what’s the point if the people who brought me into the game all leave?

Ultimately, only time can tell what’s going to happen. These changes aren’t the only things coming. Magic the Gathering Foundations looks to be the ideal introduction to Magic, both as a game and world. Standard rotation is being streamlined, and the format is the best it’s been in years. Modern will get a cooling period that could be a refuge for the enfranchised. Even so, all success and failures come from the same place: stewardship. Even if catastrophe is avoided, Wizards stewardship of Magic looks a bit worse now.