2024 was a huge year for MTG. It was a lot of things. Controversial, exciting, frustrating, promising, and refreshed. We saw some formats get ruined, then fixed, then ruined again. We saw some great changes to Standard that not everyone was fans of at first, but they seemed to quickly warm up to them. We saw Wizards effectively abandon a format in favor of propelling Standard into a more prominent position. We saw some great cards printed for Standard, and some promising things to come in the next year that were announced. Along with that, a fair amount of people were still bothered by the new trajectory of the format. Some are calling into question the longevity of MTG now with the heavy lean into Universes Beyond. A little bit of everything happened this year in the MTG world, and it was interesting if nothing else. On a personal level, it was also a hell of a year for me, as I took down two different events and grew a lot as a player. We are going to look at The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from this year!
The Good
I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that we have an infinite gain and drain combo in Standard right now. With Enduring Tenacity and Bloodthirsty Conqueror having made a lot of my dreams come true in my favorite format. Although the deck isn't the most viable in the format, it is incredibly fun to play, and I'm just happy that we had such exciting cards printed in the format. It leads to good card design going forward, and gives us promise for what's to come in the next year.
Keeping up the good, I had a heck of a year in competitive Magic. I qualified for my first Regional Championship, learned some new formats, and won a store championship with a deck that I cooked up on my own. The year was great for my development as a player, and I definitely learned and improved a lot.
Enough about me though, what else was good this year in MTG for everyone?
Something in recent memory that a lot of players were ecstatic about was the bans in Modern. People have been calling for The One Ring to be banned in Modern for over a year. Players got some unbans that they wanted too, and now the format is healing.
Many people were happy to see that Pioneer Masters came to Arena before the year ended. It is a fun set to draft, and it also brought some staples to the Explorer format as it progresses towards transforming into Pioneer. It will be nice to have almost every competitive format on Arena, as it is the better client. It follows what I figured Wizards wanted to do with Pioneer. It seemed like they abandoned it at first when they announced the competitive formats for 2025, but it appears that they are working on the format to both differentiate it from Standard, and also to get more people into it by following through with the implementations they promised on Arena.
The Bad
There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that the set releases got better as the year progressed. The bad news is that Murders At Karlov Manor was one of the worst Standard releases in recent memory. Product sat on the shelves at game stores for months, and they even lowered their prices because of it. There was another change that came with this release. It was the first set where we saw the new product in Play Boosters. A lot of people weren't too happy about this change, as set boosters and draft boosters had become such commonplace, and were honestly a really good way to separate products for people who wanted to crack packs, and people who wanted to do drafts or sealed events. I don't believe that the set flopped the way it did solely due to the product change, but I do not believe that it helped anything.
We got a couple of good things from MKM, but the set overall was underwhelming. It was not a good set to draft either. Let's check out some redeeming things:
Vein Ripper was such a fun card when it was announced, and it actually made Standard a lot of fun when the card was released. It was really hard to deal with, and having a bomb like that as a vampire that gains and drains was a dream come true for me. It also was a house in Pioneer for a bit.
The surveil lands were a great addition to MTG in general. They are played in almost every format, and they have retained good value in the market. We hate on MKM a lot, but it did give us a couple of good things that nobody complains about.
The Ugly
There was a card that came out this year that caused a ton of controversy. I'm sure you remember it. People called for it to be banned as soon as it was spoiled.
The card that was originally "designed" for commander ended up being a format-defining card in Modern, and it took over the format itself. It was impossible to play any competitive event without seeing a Nadu deck. It became unbearable, and the card saw a ban. Many will say that it took too long, and I don't disagree. What I found to be the worst part of all of it was Wizards openly admitting the fact that it was not playtested in constructed formats. It caused worry for the future focus of constructed formats, as many have started to worry that Wizards leans too far into Commander.
This is something that we will have to pay attention to as the year progresses. We have a lot of promise for the constructed formats, but we have to avoid any other blunders that allow for improper testing to effectively ruin a format until a card is banned. We all have our fingers crossed that Universes Beyond lives up to the hype, and that cards are properly tested before being released.
I had a great time writing articles for you all this year, and I look forward to doing it next year. I hope that your new year is prosperous, and that MTG gives you everything that you want to get out of the game! Cheers!
