Magic: The Gathering in 2024 and peeking at 2025 — The good, the bad, and the ugly

What a year for Magic: The Gathering. I kept trying to formulate my thoughts on this last year for Magic and eventually, I found myself rereading my own words from an editorial I wrote about the loss of draft boosters. In it, I wrote this: “Good, bad, or ugly 2024 is going to be an interesting year for Magic: The Gathering.” This is a broad statement, but as I kept thinking about 2024 Magic: The Gathering I was surprised that this summed up my thoughts. Of course, there’s good and bad, but ugly? Sadly, 2024 was a year we saw ugly behavior from parts of the Magic community that had consequences we’ve yet to see fully realized. My thoughts on 2024 are deeply medium. It feels like 2024 was a year of experimentation and transition. This seemed to be the case when Foundations was announced as a five-year Standard set. Wizards of the Coast calls 2025 and beyond the “Foundation Era.”

I don’t normally put disclaimers on things, but if you read my ramblings and think to yourself, “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Well, you may not be wrong. I mostly play limited and I otherwise observe the goings on for constructed formats. As Magic is such a large ecosystem I recognize that I’m not in tune with everything. I see banned and restricted announcements and I have opinions on them, but as I’m not active in a constructed format, I get to be insulated from the decisions around them.

The Ugly – Nadu, Winged Wisdom

I’m not going to rehash the entire story revolving around the Commander format bans in September. If you’re unaware of what happened I recommend this video by The Professor that better discusses the bans and community reaction. The short version is that the Commander Rules Committee banned four cards from Commander and parts of the Magic community reacted…poorly. The community volunteers that managed the Commander format had harassment and threats directed at them. It became clear that Commander, the most popular Magic format, could no longer be safely managed by community members. The management of the Commander format was handed off to Wizards.

No one wanted this, not even Wizards. Part of what made Commander special was that it was a community-created and managed format. It was something players had created and Wizards always embraced that. 2024 became the year Wizards of the Coast needed to take over managing the Commander format. This is just sad. There are times I’m proud to say I’m a Magic player, this was not one of them. There is a silver lining, the people at Wizards who now helm Commander are doing so with care and attention. From this point on, we have to trust Wizards with Commander.

The Bad – Blackcleave Cliffs

While there’s a lot to love with the game, 2024 felt more of the alleged influence of corporate overlords. To start with, Secret Lairs becoming limited print runs is a terrible choice for players. I believe this is a predatory change that targets people’s fear of missing out. The reason for this change was to ship the Secret Lairs quicker than before when they were print to demand. However, I would like to point out there were two Secret Lairs in 2024 that were print to demand and arrived in a timely manner: the charity Secret Lairs Sheldon’s Spellbook and Pixel Perfect | Extra Life 2024.

(I am using the charity Secret Lairs to bash the Secret Lair change, but I should take a moment to point out that both of these are amazing charity partnerships that Wizards does genuine good with. Wizards of the Coast does deserve praise when they do good .)

I cannot imagine the backlash if they ever change their charity Secret Lairs to a limited print run, but they are also evidence that Wizards can manage print to demand Secret Lairs. In addition, this change caused other new problems with Secret Lairs. If you want to buy a Secret Lair now, good luck. The last few Secret Lair drops turned into a roll of the dice as the Secret Lair website is overloaded with buyers. Simply put, this change feels anti-consumer.

While the mechanics of 2024 felt solid, the flavor and identity of Magic felt all over the place. The themes from 2024 were all ones that I enjoy: noir detectives, westerns, 80s horror. I liked the themes across 2024. However, there is a legitimate question about where the identity of Magic is going. Murders and Karlov Manor, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Duskmorne: House of Horror all felt like they were built from pieces of our world and not necessarily from Magic. I didn’t expect Bloomburrow to be my favorite of the year, and I think it is because that world felt like it was built from the ground up as a Magic plane. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Bloomburrow, Modern Horizons III, and Foundations are all fantastic representations of Magic. I don’t think Magic is losing its identity, but I can understand why people don’t like the flavor of some of the recent sets.

I’m going to put Play Boosters here, but I’m not sure that they’re bad. I am convinced they aren’t an improvement over draft boosters. So far these boosters haven’t impressed me, but I also feel like they haven’t been given a full opportunity yet. Murders at Karlov Manor wasn’t a set for me and Outlaws of Thunder Junction had too much going on. Play Boosters didn’t feel like they even started going until around Bloomburrown and at that point, Wizards removed The List slot from them.

These were older cards printed into new sets and I had hoped this would be an interesting way to inject older cards into current limited environments. I was strangely sad to see this happen as it meant a loss of design potential. (You could also argue that the Special Guest cards are just the new list cards.) Play Boosters are solving a problem Wizards created and the hybrid booster so far hasn’t done anything better for my gameplay. I hope Wizards continues to tweak them as I haven’t encountered any truly egregious sealed pools, but I do hear the discussion about how Play Boosters have increased the randomness of limited gameplay in negative ways.

The Good – Bene Supremo (Greater Good)

Let’s start with the most important part: how were the sets that came out in 2024? Overall, I liked the sets this year. I had a lot of fun with Magic in 2024. The highlight of the year for me was Bloomburrow, as this set felt the most fully realized. This was a world I just wanted to soak in. Duskmourn was a ton of fun and Modern Horizons III was a wild draft environment. We ended the year with Foundations and I am truly shocked at how good that set is. I’m sad that it’s going to be around for five years because it means we won’t get another “Foundations” set for a long time.

If someone is getting into Magic right now, this might be the easiest time to learn the game. Other sets I have varying opinions on, but mechanically everything in 2024 was solid. Most of it was great. This is the core of Magic, if the game isn’t fun to play then we have huge problems. I can’t emphasize enough that the core game of Magic is intact and thriving. The designers and artists of Magic are doing amazing work. Even as the cards become more complex the individual games still feel manageable.

I am an unabashed lover of the Magic storyline. This year I witnessed Kellan find his father…and learn he’s not a great dad. Jace and Vraska adopted a new mascot and I’m genuinely curious to see where they’re going with that. I do wish Valgavoth ate Loot though, that would have been funny. The story and artwork of Magic are big parts of why I love the game. 2024 felt…satisfactory for the lore of Magic. I’m happy with the stories we were given. Sure I’d love more, but I don’t know how much story Magic needs given that not all of the players engage with it. As Universes Beyond sets cut into the release schedule I would love to see the Magic story given more time to breathe and fleshed out more.

2024 also seemed like the year that constructed formats continued to get better. Everything I have observed seems like players are happy with the recent banning/unbannings across Modern, Pioneer, and Standard. Wizards seem to be actively managing the competitive constructive formats so these are some of the best play environments we’ve seen in a long time. I don’t play Modern so I can’t speak to how Modern Horizons III impacted Modern, but the overall management of the constructed formats seems better than ever. A thriving Standard is good for everyone as it helps drive the game forward. The One Ring was finally banned in December, proving that Wizards would ban chase Universes Beyond cards.

This seems like a weird thing to be happy about, but 2024 saw the return of MSRP for most Magic products. This just makes it clear what consumers should be paying. This decision is pro-consumer. I don’t know why Wizards did away with MSRP, but something made them bring it back. I will note though, MSRP returned for most, but not all products. At least a consumer now has better information about the value of Magic products when deciding what to purchase.

The “Foundations Era” of Magic – An Offer You Can’t Refuse

2025 sees significant changes to Magic that were announced in 2024. Starting in 2025 Universes Beyond sets will now be three of the new sets. I don’t have an opinion on this…which is odd. While it means I get fewer in-universe Magic sets, I understand why Wizards would follow the money.

In my corner of Magic, I’ve been able to lure in more people through Universes Beyond products than I ever have with in-universe products. In 2024 I’ve had more people than ever ask me about getting into Magic and it has almost always been through a Universes Beyond product. When the Final Fantasy set arrives, I even plan to attach a fishing line to a Final Fantasy booster and see which of my friends I reel in. My experience has been more people engaging with the game through Universes Beyond and these new players then continue into Magic “proper” from there.

As I played with Universes Beyond products like Doctor Who and Fallout my opinion of Universes Beyond shifted. I’ve had to admit I like seeing a Deathclaw on a Magic card and that these products bring new players in. I think I’ve just come to terms with the fact players might be casting Hero’s Downfall on Spider-Man in 2025.

The other major change is that all the mainline sets will be Standard legal. No more direct to Modern sets. Six sets will be passing through Standard every year. This seems like a lot of cards churning through the format each year. Whether it will be good or bad, we will have to find out as 2025 progresses. As Standard is so important to the game, this change does feel like the Universes Beyond cards will be on an even power level rather than creating another overpowered card like The One Ring. It became a needed inclusion across nearly all of Modern regardless of what deck you were playing.

As we begin the “Foundations Era” of Magic, it does feel odd that this fantastic set will be the basis for more Universes Beyond than ever. Foundations was made to be the quintessential Magic: The Gathering set and to showcase the many planes within Magic. As a drafter, I’m more interested in having a consistent outlet for the cards I send back into the Magic ecosystem. If everything is Standard legal, those cards may have value in constructed formats. The function of the cards seems to be taking priority over the form.

Final Thoughts – Caretaker’s Talent

Throughout this year people have asked me how to “get into” Magic. Every time that question comes up I’ve never had a great answer. Magic is just too big to engage with every part of it. My advice for anyone is to find the parts of the game that bring you joy and to pursue those pieces. Find the cards you like to cast. Find the formats you like to play. Most importantly, find the people you want to play with. As I reflect on a full year of covering Magic: The Gathering I don’t know what 2025 will bring to the game: more good, more bad, and hopefully no more ugly.

My faith in Wizards of the Coast waxes and wanes, as not every decision they make seems player-friendly. At the same time though, Wizards has shown that they’re willing to listen to players and make changes. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that the designers, the artists, and everyone who works on the game of Magic have my full faith they are making the game the best it can be.

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