#Reasoning and Additional Notes

1. Why remove card exchange.

The constant influx of “free” cards into the market would cause continuous lowering of prices, leading to a fast decline in purchases of boosters and decks. Eventually, Wizards’ merchandise would be devalued into obsolescence. To keep microtransactions flowing, card value needs to be stable, and this will only be possible if they never change hands. Also, doing away with card exchange confers additional benefits:

It makes acquisition almost completely random (see #mechanical and #random), slowing down abuse of potent cards and copycatting of popular decks. Helps variety and prolongs the metagame.

It leads us (see next point) to opening up card acquisition in non-Standard sets, both through rewards for games, and through boosters and decks from Wizards. Players can now pay us for decades’ worth of Magic.

2. Why include old formats.

As a consequence of removal of card exchange, we have to open up acquisition of cards in old sets. Out-of-print cards can no longer change hands, but we still want players to be able to get them. Because cards now only come from Wizards, and because we’re relaxing print mimicking, the natural solution is everything for sale.

The entire history of Magic, this humongous stockpile of mechanics and flavor, is too rich a resource to be relegated to hardcore veterans or people willing to scour the market for select old cards. With these changes, the playerbase able to experience old content will be growing rather than dwindling. The promise to never reprint reserved cards doesn’t apply fully, because acquisition is now different.

Thanks to this and to the changes to Limited (see below), those unwilling or incapable of heavy preliminary investment of time or money will also have a way to play with old content, to cast a wide look at it.

This gives room for growth to overachievers who could otherwise cap out in Standard and have nowhere to expand to.

3. Why change Limited.

Despite its origin as a marriage between gameplay and card acquisition, born of limitations of paper Magic (boosters as the only vehicle for set-wide randomness), and its role as a stimulator for booster purchases, Limited has become its own format, unlike anything else in Magic. It provides a different experience: 1) forced deck building on-site from a random pool of cards; 2) different rarity distribution from Constructed; 3) different power level distribution and card variety from Constructed. This is important for further points.

In paper Magic, usage of boosters is what enables Limited and makes it fundamentally different, by providing a pool of cards randomized from the whole set. That’s why boosters are required. In digital Magic, there is no such technical necessity: the game itself can provide random cards. We can choose to drop this requirement when we’re not mimicking printed Magic.

Due to the relaxed availability of cards in the rest of the game, booster-based Limited would become a fringe format, ignored by most of the players we’re aiming to attract. This would be wasted potential, wasted gameplay. It should open up to provide unique and different experience and thus increase player engagement.

If Limited, or some version of it, is accessible only through payment, this would gate some unique content behind a paywall. This is against the core changes, which are aimed at opening up access to full Magic through a limited, pre-set payment (one-off or subscription). Furthermore, it might be seen by players as a transparent ploy, producing distaste.

Taking the open route results in increased player engagement and player retention, and allows to elegantly solve some additional problems:

Problem #1: Exploration of old content. We want players to have an easy way to explore old Magic content. In line with the general design, there needs to be a “free” way with an option to pay to quicken the process. Players get some starter decks for every block, and they can earn more cards by playing. We also offer to buy pre-constructed decks and boosters in every set. The problem here is that there’s SO many sets and cards, that given the intentionally slow acquisition rate, exploration would be too sluggish and players might lose interest. Increasing rate of card acquisition in old sets is also dangerous because this could distract many players out of Standard by enticing them with bigger rewards in the old sets, and we want players to be focused on Standard. So we have a problem here, and Limited can provide a good solution. By playing Limited in old blocks, players can quickly get exposed to huge breadth of cards, art, mechanics, that they would otherwise never experience due to unrealistic time requirements. Of course, brief possession of cards is not the same feel as having them in your collection, so to give players a longer lasting sense of those cards, we should include in the UI a special section for cards that the player had used in Limited games. Display them dimmed.

Problem #2: Fairer environment for newer players. The free Limited format becomes a platform for players to face off in an environment where skill and luck matter more than achievement. Lack of cost allows new players to participate without fear of being crushed by advanced decks, making the matchmaking more relaxed.

As a result of these changes, it becomes unnecessary to keep the “old” Limited format around. Most people would opt to avoid microtransactions and play free Limited, making this format unpopular. Playing a free Limited match and buying a bunch of boosters would provide the same number of cards. The old Limited format used to serve roughly the same function (random or half-random card acquisition as a result of a match) that is now core to the game, making it somewhat redundant overall.

4. Additional notes.

This set of changes allows us to do something new: errata more than just rules text on cards, but things like mana cost or other numbers. It couldn’t be done before, but it’s possible now. Could become a very last resort instead of banning the card. Reasons why possible now:

Digital medium and server-centric approach. Couldn’t be done in paper.

A shift away from mimicking printed Magic, a necessary change in philosophy.

Financial reasons. Players invest in cards based on the assumption they stay as-is. This targeted investment prevented serious errata. However, with the shift to mostly random acquisition, players no longer invest in particular cards, and thus, won’t get an investment devalued if a card they previously got randomly is nerfed.

This should be a very rarely used measure, the last resort, and only be considered after deciding to otherwise ban the card.

Bonus idea regarding old sets and multiple card editions: make all editions of each card available not outright when unlocking that card, but be unlocked on per-set basis by playing that particular set, with previews available. Make cards remember art choice, give it a sense of permanence.

When purchasing the game, players automatically receive some starter decks in every block (set?) they have access to. This includes old formats, which allows people to play block Constructed in old blocks and spurs the exploration of ancient content. For each block, the players receive several decks that nevertheless don’t cover the whole color wheel. This limitation allows them to discover something new about each block on their own, and may somewhat entice them to purchase pre-constructed decks from Wizards.