Commander 2017, Ixalan, Worlds & Organized Play
Wizards released a slew of announcements today regarding upcoming products and changes to organized play. Here's a summary of the news:
Commander 2017
Commander 2017 releases August 25, 2017 featuring four tribal-themed 100-card decks, including 56 new cards. The decks are not color-based, so we are getting four instead of five, but more importantly, more tribal support!
Fall Set: Ixalan and Pushing Back the Pro Tour
The next fall set is named Ixalan, releasing September 29, 2017. It will debut at the 2017 World Championship. Pro Tour Ixalan will be November 3-5, 2017 (five weeks after set release). We've talked about Pro Tours solving metagame too quickly on the podcast, so it looks Wizards is testing how they promote new sets.
Nationals
The dates for Nationals has been announced. They will take place September 9-10, September 16-17, and October 14-15. They will be Standard and Booster Draft.
Regional Pro Tour Qualifiers
Wizards will allow organizers to charge for Regional Pro Tour Qualifiers starting with Ixalan. The number of events will increase to 37 from 32, and the number of invitations will awarded based on attendance.
Pro Tour Top 8
Wizards will be reverting back to the regular single-elimination Top 8 brackets at Pro Tours, instead of the recent seeding/byes format.
