On the last day of 2024, I think I have reached the sunset of my MtG playing days. I will be winding down buying cards as well as winding down playing the formats I prefer (see below). I'll continue as best as I can until it's clear that my lack of investment in new cards has made my decks obsolete. Given that sets will be coming out at breakneck speeds in the next 7 or 8 months, I think the demise will happen quickly. There are many reasons, but here are the main reasons why I am walking away from MtG:

1. My local game store focuses almost entirely on Commander, and it's 70 miles (113 km) to the next nearest game store (I live in a rural area). My favored format is Pioneer, and I have always been willing to play Standard, but there aren't opportunities to play either of these locally.

2. I strongly dislike playing Commander, so playing at my lgs is not a viable option. I appreciate and respect that others love Commander. I've tried it and it's just not my thing. I like the smaller card pools of Pioneer and Standard, I like that I have been able to ignore supplementary sets like all of the Modern Horizons and Lord of the Rings and Assassin's Creed, I like that there are only 2 players in in a match in these formats, I like that there are 60 card decks with up to 4 of each card, I like best of 3 with sideboards, and I like that combo isn't the main way to win as I too often see in Commander.

3. I loathe Arena and dislike MOTO. I like to play against an opponent in-person! I like the social interaction and that is what makes the game fun for me. Playing on a digital client just feels like grinding and I don't care for it. Further, the Arena economy is terrible, and MOTO requires actual money that I am not willing to spend on digital cards.

4. The main nail in the coffin is the move to 6 Standard legal sets per year starting in 2025. That's WotC asking me to up my MtG budget by 50% each year, and I just can't do it! I can't even try to justify that budget increase when the formats I prefer to play aren't even available to me (in-person; see #3, above) unless I want to spend significant money on gas to get to the next nearest game store (see #1, above).

5. Honestly, I could care less about Universes Beyond (UB). I care about the text on the cards, so UB is NOT a reason I am sunsetting my MtG playing. Do I like having Marvel, Spongebob, or other IPs in MtG? Not particularly, but I also dislike the themes in the MKM and OTJ sets. I still bought them because I cared about what the cards said, not about Jace in a cowboy hat. Sure, it seems silly to me, but as long as there are people who like it then it's fine.

The ultimate result is that I will be largely inactive on this site moving forward. I may pop in from time to time, but I expect myself to eventually just stop completely, or at least until either 1) my local scene gets at least a semi-competitive and sustainable weekly Pioneer or Standard event, and/or (most importantly) 2) WotC goes back to 4 Standard/Pioneer legal sets every year.

It's been a fun 9 years of playing this game, but I think the added expense of 2 additional sets each year and the lack of formats I play at my lgs have left me in a place where I feel that MtG is no longer a viable hobby for me.