What a disappointing year… it’s so sad to see magic just become an advertising platform for other franchises. Maybe bloomburrow will be interesting, as it’s the only original thought in the line-up?
Redwall, Guardians of Gahoole, Warrior Cats, Secrets of Nimh, An American Tale, Zootopia Rango...
The "Talking Animal setting" has been done a bunch.
Which is fine. There hasn't been a single "original" set concept in magic. Even the most out there settings like Mercadia or Phyrexia are made by mixing other pre existing tropes and concepts. Same as all art.
I dunno, aside from the UB stuff, everything seems pretty interesting to me. I'm a bit wary of the murder mystery set, but I'm not gonna judge anything without knowing more.
And Magic has been "MTG set in X theme" for a long time now. If that's your bar, I'm not sure what you have to enjoy about the game, tbh. Heck, even Bloomburrow is parallel to Redwall, and I don't see that as a bad thing, imo.
Everyone is different I guess. The modern era of MTG is clearly popular among some types of players, they are making record profit. However success measured by ‘packs sold’, and success measured by ‘unique and interesting game” are two different things, despite what WotC execs say.
My lament I guess is that magic used to be a game which wasn’t afraid of creating new and interesting creative ideas, and making them uniquely their own. While there is still an element of that in some sets, they are taking a back seat to the current stale design model of “A trope + B gimmick”. It just feels lazy and inspired, and who wants to play a game that is now just a platform for pop culture references?
It is a very sad financial and creative sellout. Compare it to all the old Urza sets, the time spiral blocks for example. They are really killing mtg for me
Oh wait but it will be like this:
Karen's of Tarkir: top down set playing inside a fast food restaurant about a fist fight there because of a cancelled marriage. Coming with McDonald's universe Beyond featuring a worldwide one exclusive copy printed of Ronald McDonald in a special MrPringle Holoynovaspectral foil treatment.
Llorwyn: Dieselpunk Typals. 2000 years have passed and humans have since invaded llorwyn and there is a war and many Planeswalkers form an alliance to win the war on the same introduced set. Also the phyrexians invade but somehow lose very quickly. Elves are not racist anymore but somehow extremely inclusive, so that nobody feels uncomfortable anymore playing with them. Also faeries use Diesel engines now to fly. All in one Set. There will be two aftermath sets with each 5 new cards, showing random Dieselpunk stuff, in 3 card boosters for 20€ each, with a chance of a Toyota UB treatment card.