GoingMadlem

So let's take a hypothetical to the extreme here. Reserved list is abolished. They reprint dual lands. Standard dies. Modern dies. We all play legacy & Commander. You can pretend otherwise, but this it. Wizards still wants to sell packs, so they design to Legacy power level

Oh so you mean what I have been saying for a while: they won’t reprint duals so legacy dies, standard does, vintage dies and we all play fucking modern? Yeah that’s exactly what has happened.

Pumping Modern was also a massive mistake

I think Wizards is critically aware of their mistake with Modern, but they are a slave to their past earnings

Doesn't make any sense to me. Not every decision makes me happy but they can sell $10 packs thanks to modern. Standard, EDH, and Modern all make them tons of money. Wizards is doing fine.

They make money every year. They will lose autonomy if they make less money than previous years. Each subsequent "Masters" set sells less than previous releases, Standard set releases are selling less and less, & ancillary sets are a mixed bag.

I haven't seen any data about "Less and Less" magic has gone through many growth, level, and contraction phases. MM17 was a great success., Unstable and CMD17 were good successes. People have been saying "The Sky is Falling" since chronicles. This is not then.

As a store operator and through discussions with other operators / distribution, I can say with high confidence that Magic is softening. Additionally Wizards is releasing more ancillary products to make up earnings. And they also removed "magic growth" brags from stock reports