Once upon a time, in the mystical realm of Wizards of the Coast, where the art of Magic: The Gathering was crafted, there existed a group of powerful wizards who held the fate of countless planes within their hands. These wizards were tasked with creating new sets, designing cards, and shaping the very fabric of the game.

One stormy day, the Wizards decided to offer up a sacrifice of Magic the Gathering to the god Hasbro to curry favor with the gods of financial gain, unknowing the storm the future would bring for their efforts. But, with this endeavor, the wizards could see no immediate storm on the “horizons”… Pun intended…

However, as with any creative endeavor, mistakes were sometimes made. Despite their best intentions, certain cards and sets didn’t quite meet the lofty standards of the wizards. Instead of acknowledging these shortcomings openly, they devised a cunning plan to cover them up.

It all began with whispers in the corridors of the Wizards’ Tower. Rumors spread of discontent among the players, murmurs of dissatisfaction with certain cards that fell short of expectations. The wizards convened in their secret chambers, cloaked in robes of secrecy, to address this growing concern.

“We must act swiftly,” declared Mark the Grand Archmage, his voice echoing through the chamber. “The balance of the game must be maintained, but we cannot allow our mistakes to tarnish its integrity.”

And so, with a wave of their wands and a flurry of incantations, the wizards began to weave a complex spell of rules changes. They crafted intricate ban lists and errata, subtly altering the very laws of the game to compensate for their missteps.

As players across the realms adapted to these changes, the whispers of discontent began to fade. The wizards watched from their lofty tower, satisfied that their plan had succeeded. But deep down, they knew that it was but a temporary solution.

For in the world of Magic: The Gathering, the truth could never be concealed for long. Players were perceptive, and they would inevitably uncover the flaws that lay beneath the surface. And so, the wizards continued their eternal struggle to balance creativity and perfection, knowing that even the most powerful spells could never truly hide the mistakes of the past…

Okay, realistically, it seems that over the last few years, the set design has been waning and cards have been added into formats that were designed for other eras of play, as well as functionally unique cards that are added to the game that should never have been made period… With the laundry list of bans over this period of time, it looks as though that they are trying to curb the sheer amount of bans by making rules changes to fix mechanics Wizards of the Coast made broken.

The issue with rules changes to fix a badly design card or cards, is that it changes the rules for every other card in the game, and the ripple effect is astronomical. Some have proven to eliminate deck archetypes off the face of the earth. Instead of admitting error, it is their MO to just make “little” rules wording changes for the betterment of the game, when in reality, that one word change, creates a whole basket of turd to deal with for the next year at every tournament. Sometimes it still ends up creating a card ban.

If we look through the laundry list of rules and card bans, many of them dont even make sense, yet none of these get revisited in any real shape way fashion or form. Maybe one day when they run out of ridiculous painfully overpowered cards and reprints, they will revisit the rules and ban list to help bring some stability back to this game. Who am I kidding though, they aren’t listening to this jerk…