In 2014, Wizards of the Coast published this article, announcing changes to their popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering - in this article, they promised changes to both block structure and set rotation, beginning with Battle for Zendikar (mentioned in article by its development codename "Blood"). There would be no more "Core" sets, blocks would be composed of one large set and one small set, and Standard rotations would happen twice as often as they did prior.
With the recent release of the Kaladesh set, players have voiced the concern that Standard rotation is happening too often and was challenging for more casual players to keep up with.
As of today, the Standard rotation schedule outlined in the "Metamorphosis" article has been discontinued. In this new article from Wizards of the Coast employee Aaron Forsythe, he outlines the problems players have had with the new Standard rotation, and discusses the solution Wizards of the Coast has created to help with the speed of rotation.
Beginning with Kaladesh, Standard rotation will only happen once a year, instead of twice, with an entire year's worth of sets rotating out at once. Additionally, the number of blocks that will be in Standard has been increased from three to four.
Under the previous Standard rotation that began with Battle for Zendikar, the release of Amonkhet in April 2017 would have caused both sets of the Battle for Zendikar block to rotate out. Under this new rotation schedule, there will be no rotations when Amonkhet releases, and blocks won't rotate out until the release of the first set in the block after Amonkhet (codenamed "Ham"). When "Ham" releases, both the Battle for Zendikar and Shadows Over Innistrad blocks will rotate out together.
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for further information on all things Magic: The Gathering.
What are your thoughts on this new Standard rotation? Do you think it successfully addresses the issues discussed in the article? Let us know in the comment section below.
