Not getting the Magic set you want next year? Make it yourself!
by Bones
Wizards of the Coast no longer makes the power level of Magic: The Gathering set that I fell in love with. My earliest loves were Raging Goblin and Spark Elemental, misevaluating the importance of being the first player to damage the other. In Alara, I grew to love the tricolor Uncommons with a single cool trigger, good stats and a keyword, or just amazing stats. A few years later, my combined love of 1-drop attacker and tricolor payoff, [[Wild Nacatl]], would get banned in Modern. Even later, I would get my thrills from a Domri Rade sticking around after making creatures fight, or landing a [[Pia and Kiran Nalaar]] on turn 4.
In my estimation, power began ticking up noticeably in 2018, as Dominaria was born from the ashes of the multi-set-block model. In 2019, we received War of the Spark, Throne of Eldraine, and the first Modern Horizons. 2020 brought us [[Thassa’s Oracle]], [[Jeweled Lotus]], and Ikoria’s infamous Companion mechanic. MH2 in 2021 doubled the number of banned or restricted cards introduced by MH1, and Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate in 2022 introduced The Initiative to 20-life Magic, warping Eternal formats forever. These were all prior to full Universes Beyond sets and MH3’s astonishing, format-redefining card file. [[Ajani, Nacatl Pariah]] makes my 2015 adoration of [[Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh]] look downright ridiculous.