notreallygoodatcommingupwithname asked: "No. A lot of people play Modern. We have no plans of eliminating the format." Then why are we seeing Wizards moving away from the format in regards to major events? Without this exposure competitive formats grow stale and people/shops lose interest. Extended followed a similar path, that is why people are worried.

We have zero high level Commander events and the format is thriving. The two aren’t necessarily linked. I’ve seen the numbers. Modern is doing just fine.

The high profile events are considered marketing. They are literally paid for with marketing dollars. So one of the responsibilities of say Pro Tour Aether Revolt is to get players excited for Aether Revolt. It’s a lot harder to do that playing a format where only a handful of Aether Revolt cards might show up. (Also, the Pros have told us they prefer formats with more opportunity to innovate which is harder with larger, less evolving formats.)

The reason we focused more on Modern for a while was to help get awareness for it as a new format, to help build it up and get it going. But it’s done that. It’s no longer a young, struggling format. It’s a mature format with many fans and a lot of play. It’s going to be just fine without a major spotlight on it.