Wizards of the Coast is only about the Money
Standard, not being an eternal format, is very expensive. With the new block system, Wizards has decided that Standard is not the priority, and is focusing much more exclusively on modern, with the modern event deck and the reprinting of fetches. But what does that change mean for devoted Standard players like myself? It means that with the rising cost of standard, standard may become less popular, and with the changes to FNM coming, standard could stop seeing lots of play. Yes, at the highest level of magic, there will still be the Pro Tour, the GP's,which will most likely be standard, but for the other 99% of players, there will most likely be change. For instance, more limited, and maybe modern with staples going down in price. Would other eternal formats become more popular, and would Vintage start seeing play in GPs? If standard were to become less popular, wouldn't sales of booster boxes go down as well? Right now an Abzan Midrange deck is more expensive than an Affinity deck in modern. Even though modern is as fun as standard, it is not better than standard. Why doesn't Wizards think standard is good enough? I am not a fan of the new Block system, but I understand where Wizards is coming from on a financial basis. However, Magic is an expensive pastime, do you need to make it more expensive? Now I would like to make it clear that Wizards alone is not the sole decision maker in this matter; they are run by Hasbro, and as a shareholder of Hasbro I can't truthfully say that this is a terrible decision on their part. Yes they are a business and yes they need to pay their employees, but is this the way to do it?
Wizards of the Coast is a large company, owned by an even larger company, who need to make quite a bit of money to cover all of their expenses. But with the new block system, Wizards is making their fan base spend more to play, and if people stop playing the most popular format, that will leave the company lacking. Just take a look at this decklist and imagine buying that every three months.
