Episode 303 - 2024-08-26 B&R Review

Explicit content warning

09/01/24 • 67 min

The long awaited August 26th Banned and Restricted announcement was delivered and touched a number of formats, as players expected. We gave it about a week, for MODO and paper results to roll in before diving in and discussing what we've seen, what people are saying, and how we feel about this particular announcement. https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/august-26-2024-banned-and-restricted-announcement https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wxR3iYna86qrdViwHjUPzHuw6bCNeMLb72M25hpUHYk/edit?gid=1611466830#gid=1611466830 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PxNYGMXaVrRqI0uyMQF46K7nDEG16WnDoKrFyI_qrvE/edit?gid=1611466830#gid=1611466830 https://twitter.com/karsten_frank/status/1829178288893505574

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Episode 302 - How the B&R Timing Has Impacted Trust

With a change in the Ban & Restricted announcement timings, WotC created a problem of their own design: A B&R shortly after a set release yields few, if any changes. This lead to two, lame duck, announcements in back to back months, allowing most contructed formats to start to fester. We discuss what the timing changes mean for players, for WotC, for the health of the game, and, importantly, for the trust that plays have in WotC to do right by them.

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Episode 304 - The Return of GPs

The Spotlight Series announcement was one that was received rather well. The return of a WotC sponsored competitive event series with a clear path to the Pro Tour, a clear prize structure, and a clear tournament structure is what players have been clamoring for, for years dating back to the GP era. But, as with everything, we take a look at some of the good things and some of the bad things within this announcement and what it means for various players around the world. https://magic.gg/news/announcing-the-magic-spotlight-series https://x.com/raff_sputin/status/1827748727844434320 https://commandersherald.com/organized-play-cant-exist-without-judges/