SET ROTATION!!: The Seven Deadly Sins of TCG Design Part 1

Many a card game believes themselves to be on the cusp of greatness when they put on their big-boy pants and announce that they are rotating out their base set, only to be shocked and astonished that, when they eliminated their base set, they eliminated their player base, as well.
Set Rotation is one of the most phenomenally misunderstood concepts in TCG design, a monetization scheme normalized by time and perhaps an outdated gimmick. Perhaps, unless you understand how the games most famous for rotation tend to operate, as well as the games that don't.
Part 1 of a 7 part series on common TCG pratfalls, formed from over two decades and over 100 different games'-worth of experience and observation
Follow me on Twitter!: kohdok
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[@Kohdok]

I've actually been ruminating a bit about Eternal Formats. Recently, Magic the Gathering has shown the sinister harm that Eternal Formats can inadvertently cause. When magic puts out a new set, there will be a not insignificant number of players who only care about what cards in the new set are viable in the already radioactive Eternal environment, so a number of cards in each set are sharply above curve to appeal specifically to those players. Cards which turn out to be so OP they get banned in Standard, so Standard suffers as a result. Eternal Formats need the same sort of temperance, it seems...

[@MyOffDay]

Follow up video???

[@pika-azurill2465]

This would be an awesome topic to talk about in a future video! Thank you for making this series btw, it's so enjoyable and I learned a lot about TCG Design!

[@Ellio123]

That is what happens in yugioh. The power level of chase cards in New sets has to be absurdly high in order to be enticing to the competitive player base, which creates an issue where the game either creeps too fast in power or stagnates as power cards aren't printed.

[@projectcancelled2190]

Yea the logic behind rotation IS NOT “That’s just what card games do.” It’s an element that any HEALTHY game uses. And yugioh is not healthy.

[@kylenguyen7371]

Errata Text video soon-ish?

[@AllHailToTypeSun]

Set rotation is not a problem in Yugioh because it's limited to 1.

[@trostfall1043]

Ayyyyy

[@shadic.d-_-b6752]

Aaaayyyyy xD

[@Silentstaraptor]

But remember when it wasn’t!

[@niklasstg6957]

Okay, that was a good joke

[@irrespondible]

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[@Cimoooooooo]

There are definitely pros and cons to both sides of the argument. As a Yu-Gi-Oh! player, I love that cards from 2002 are still playable, and the fact that sometimes an obscure gem becomes a key piece of a devastating new meta strategy. However, one could also argue that if old cards suddenly become playable, due to their lack of reprints, they are easily susceptible to buyouts and become exorbitantly overpriced and out of reach for a lot of players. One area this video didn't cover was the forbidden & limited list that Yu-Gi-Oh! abides by in place of set rotation. One of the benefits of set rotation is that you know exactly when certain cards will be rotated out, and what those cards are. With the forbidden & limited list, we not only receive an ambiguous timeframe of when we should expect to see the list (i.e. "no sooner than June 1st"), but there is also a large degree of uncertainty as to what cards will be banned, limited, or unlimited. This typically creates mass hysteria around the time a list is expected to drop, and people lose faith in their investment and don't want to lose money, so they panic sell their valuable cards (usually for a steal to most buyers). There are a myriad of instances where new cards have resulted in Tier 1 strategies costing $500+, and then an update to the list making those decks unplayable only a few weeks later (due to power creep). TL;DR: Ultimately, there isn't a "best" solution; different models work for different games with different sets of pros and cons. Those models make their respective games unique and part of the reason that game appeals to a certain type of player.

[@handtrap8868]

@@nolchannel4950 a ban list is much better then set rotation as it lets you use your face strats while stoping harmful cards that ruin the fun

[@handtrap8868]

@@nolchannel4950 true they would need to set up mock torements with well known players in the community all using a different popular archetype to play test the game if there is to be a perfect banist

[@AztecCroc]

@@nolchannel4950 That was more an issue with how Link mechanics worked during MR4 than anything, where Link Monsters were basically required and thus cards that could spam them out were much more valuable. If they functioned like how they do now in MR5 from the start it probably wouldn't have been such an issue.

[@Flashofblades]

i love the fact i randomly saw your comment cimo. a pure gem.

[@guydude5109]

@@nolchannel4950 You bring up valid points, but it's far too late for Konami to implement set rotation. One of the main reasons people like ygo so much is because there is no set rotation. It'd completely massacre the playerbase and Konami know this.

[@ShadowEclipex]

And then you had Chaotic who died because it was too successful so 4Kids tried to sue for complete ownership, the creator counter sued, and thus all sales were banned until the case was settled... And the case took about 3-5 years to settle...

[@platinumorange1034]

It still exists

[@ShadowEclipex]

@@platinumorange1034 Not still exists as much as died and is slow returning from dead.

[@platinumorange1034]

@@ShadowEclipex do we get a new show

[@ShadowEclipex]

@@platinumorange1034 their plan is to continue the show from where they left off.

[@platinumorange1034]

@@ShadowEclipex that's interesting

[@ConnorLockhartYGO]

4:25 "More powerful and effective cards." *Shows Disaster Leo* Bruh

[@IsaiahBuchanan175]

Give the puppets more support

[@kwayke9]

Could've shown Shock Master (very cancer card, banned for good reason), but noooooo

[@mini-conlongarm8021]

@@kwayke9 Could have also shown any of the Kaijus.

[@John_1-1_in_Japanese]

@@kwayke9 I want Cock Master back, damnit, that was my homie

[@allovertheworld5048]

I think it refers to the anime version of disaster leo. cannot be destroyed in battle except by a number, unaffected by monster effects, destach 1 material to deal 4000lp burn to your opponent and if dont have materials during your end phase you win the duel

[@hip2besquare632]

we dont speak of the “viability” of dark magician

[@williamehrhardt918]

My dark magician deck had a 100% win rate against full power spyral. And nows the part where I dont mention it has a 0% win rate against trickstar

[@xolotltolox7626]

@@williamehrhardt918 How tf? SPYRAL-Format Trickstar can't out an Attack Position Mechanical Chaser

[@TheLVJ]

Using "Judgement, the Dragon of Heaven" to represent Lightsworns was an insult.

[@Ramsey276one]

Well, it IS the final evolution of Judgement Dragon...

[@TheLVJ]

@@Ramsey276one It's neither a "Lightsworn" or "Judgement Dragon" card. Its effects do not promote the deck's mechanics; it's generic dragon support.

[@Ramsey276one]

@@TheLVJ that was the point, like Time Thief Redoer and Perpetua have Generic requirements. You know they're an archetype from sight Remember SPYGAL Misty?

[@alexryu2632]

@@Ramsey276one Except Judgment doesn't support what Lightsworns WANT to do, as the effect only lets you summon dragons after use, requires you have at least four TUNERS in your GY, and the end of turn banish 4 is moreso Twilightsworn support... Who are all Dark and lack a Tuner of their own, with all the Lightsworn Tuners being Light, preventing it from being made in the side of Lightsworns which it actually supports. If anything, Judgment (Who, again, makes no reference to Lightsworns at al,l beyond being based on JD who required them) is supposed to support the implication that Chaos Dragon Rulers will be a thing at some point, alongside fellow retrains of banlist dragons such as Trishula (Whose limitations give Ice Barriers a big middle finger and isn't a member of the archetype to begin with), Chaos Emperor, Dark Armed and Darkness Metal (Who is no longer even a Red-Eyes card, either); At least Misty does support both what SPYRAL want to do, both mechanically by looking at the top of the opponent's deck, and by actively naming Super Agent himself.

[@Ramsey276one]

@@alexryu2632 YIKES also the Misty thing STILL PISSES ME OFF ...

[@pablomadrid6962]

>mentions powercreep >shows one of the most pointless Yugioh Xyz monsters

[@ayngrand3212]

As a Gimmick Puppet player, I can confirm.

[@bimaakhmadi9466]

XYZ era is the first massive powercreep for YGO tho... Idk, synchro era feels more "alive" than XYZ imo

[@ayngrand3212]

@@bimaakhmadi9466 lol no. The first massive powercreep was around 2003 when they introduced all those broken staple cards that used to be or still are banned. Think of the handlooping trio (Confiscation, Forceful Sentry, Delinquent Duo) or Chaos Emperor Dragon, who was the main reason for the introduction of the banlist in the first place. Then the GX era had decks like Glad Beasts, Diamond Dude turbo and Air Blade turbo, which barely saw the light of day because the cards involved got hit on the banlist that fast. Then the early Synchro era had TeleDAD, one of the most dominant decks of all time thanks to (at the time) broken cards like Dark Armed Dragon, E-Tele and pre-errata Dark Strike Fighter. Compared to that, the introduction of XYZ made a negligible impact at first. Sure, every deck now had access to the extra deck, but most of the early XYZ monsters were just beatsticks with minor effect. It's the cards that make the powercreep, not the mechanics. People also thought that pendulum would break the game, but then almost every pendulum monster until Qliphorts was complete garbage.

[@phoenixgemini42]

@@ayngrand3212 yeah. People always complained about the wrong aspect of pendulum too. They were like, "I can special summon a bunch of monsters in 1 turn! How ludicrous!" as if the current decks werent already summoning every monster in their hand turn 1, or that solemn strike didnt negate all of their summons. The only issue with Pendulum is that everything went to the extra deck and could be resummoned. That meant they always had a monster to play which was problematic. That has pretty much been fixed now.

[@eavyeavy2864]

Not 4chan. > Doesnt work here

[@sagecolvard9644]

"Yes, worse than Jace, the Mind Sculptor". I can't decide if that was a clever attempt to keep this video relevant in the future by back-dating your references, or just a missed opportunity for an Oko joke. And I will never know, as my sense of humor is now a 3/3 elk.

[@starmangalaxy2001]

Wait was Oko out when this video was made?

[@sagecolvard9644]

@@starmangalaxy2001 This video came out in 2020, Oko happened in 2019.

[@starmangalaxy2001]

@@sagecolvard9644Oof, I only ever play Draft, and haven't even played it since 2018, so while I've heard of Oko in passing I barely knew anything other than it being a problem.

[@sagecolvard9644]

@@starmangalaxy2001 It just got banned in Legacy. Turns out 3-cost recurring creature/artifact removal that gets around indestructible is really good.

[@seangoldman6833]

11:00 Birds of Paradise (one of the best mana dorks in mtg) has been printed in 15 sets without counting supplementary sets and promos and can be picked up for about $6-$7. Original Alpha Birds of Paradise are selling for thousands on dollars right now.

[@clayxros576]

Long story short, as long as the game is alive, there will be money in the old cards as long as you don't print the numbers into the ground. Which is kinda hilarious, since it's the opposite of what you'd expect to happen. Truth is stranger than fiction.

[@Cinomod6066]

@@clayxros576 I think alot of that has to do with how old the game is as well. When your hitting 20+ years on a game people will usually want the old cards to show off or collect just because even if they have been reprinted into usable amounts in the case of birds. I like what pokemon does especially in the recent sets. I think pokemon is the most collectable out of the bigger card games just because of how they make their sets. You'll have the basic version of a card and if its playable will be a couple dollars no matter what because its playable but then usually theres a secret rare version and hyper rare version of the same card. Does the same thing withing the game but is usually full art or rainbow or gold or something that's what collectors go for and players go for the basic version to play with and if your a collector also get a fancy version. I think magic and wizards shits the bed on that quite a bit honestly they dont understand the need to print basic needed cards to play the game to reasonable availability i.e. fetchlands and so you have the bare bones basic versions of cards still he close to a hundred dollars for a single copy and then they will release something like the secret lair and sell people a "premium" version for hundreds of dollars which to be honest pale in comparison to the effort put into making pokemon cards look amazing. And that just leads to a pissed player base. Not to mention wizards "chase cards" honestly are extremely basic the foil has been essentially the same boring foil for years and the quality of the is trash looking like pringles sadly.

[@xolotltolox7626]

6-7 Dollars is still a ridiculous pricetag for such a staple card In yugioh for exanole, some versions of Pot of Desires go for under $1 and it is arguably the best legal generic card draw

[@thisisobviouslybait]

@@xolotltolox7626 yea but then you have to play yugioh instead of another game. It's not worth the savings.

[@Lapran3]

7:25 This is hilarious given how in actual YGO anime lore there’s only three legit copies of the card in existence (there WAS a fourth, but Kaiba straight pulls a Heero Yuy and rips it in half without batting an eye)

[@Rambrus0]

they never stated that every car dhas only 3 copis. They stated that the blue eyes only has 3 copies. Big dofference

[@Lapran3]

@@Rambrus0 Context, the comment was on something in the video

[@-AirKat-]

In Duel Links Kaiba allowed (digital) reprints just to prove that he’s the best wielder of Blue-Eyes

[@solusaldrain]

"Important, iconic, and staple cards" Huh, that sounds like fetch lands. Wouldn't it be nice to see fetch lands in a core set.

[@Robert-vk7je]

Aren't you happy with your evolving wilds?! You can buy the ultimate vip fancy shmancy secret lair edition, if you have the money! ;) ... It would be funny, if it weren't so sad...

[@solusaldrain]

@@Robert-vk7je it's sad to hear this guy praise wizards while wizards steers their game into the dirt in (the current year).

[@flaetsbnort]

@@solusaldrain to hear Magic fans, Magic has been steered into the dirt for so long that it's come up on the other side on 2002

[@solusaldrain]

@@flaetsbnort yes. Wizards has recently been ramping up standard's power level so they can sell standard while also offering more powerful formats (although we are reaching an indistinguishable Grand Convergence in power level) singles to appeal to their power level. In addition wizards has made the Secret Lair product line to capitalize on the Secondary Market prices (i.e $35 single copy Bitterblossom reprint or $500 five card fetch land reprint). This is risky because they've had legal trouble in the past with their packs. With the current witch hunt against "loot box mechanics," arguably random products like booster packs could put WotC in legal hell. They also do not have a single source of information release to the public, which leads to conflicting information. They also tend to go back on their word. They also refuse to acknowledge any mistakes made in card design if standard goes sideways because of a untested card combo or pushed power level card. They also don't ban anything when rotation is close to happening, because "just wait 3 weeks." A standard rotation lasts 1.5 - 2 years... They don't ban anything during that period either, unless a single deck dominates the meta (Copy Cat Combo was their most recent transgression). They are perfectly okay with only 2 decks (or deck strategies; right now, Green/Blue decks are dominating but WOTC wont ban the one card holding these 5 separate but equal decks together.) dominating the format. Last rotation had 2 decks: win turn 4 before you could play anything OR win turn 40 after I have countered or removed everything you've played. Oh and WOTC is becoming woke, which we all know is a death knell for any company. Making a good product should prioritize virtue signaling.

[@flaetsbnort]

@@solusaldrain At first I thought your comment was complete bullshit, but I stopped thinking that when I read your last paragraph At that point I became certain your comment was complete bullshit (OK, not complete because you got two things right. One, Wizards is a bad company and Magic is a shit game, but for reasons nearly orthogonal to what you state. Two, Secret Lair is an unexcusable cash grab, but I have very shallow reservoirs of pity for the kind of folks it targets.)

[@solsystem1342]

Power creep is an increase of power of the best cards, items, etc in a game. It can be done intentionally to sell more product but, it also just naturally happens as you add more stuff to a game. Synergies get more support and occasionally designers slip up and let a card through that turns out to be more powerful than expected.

[@VestedUTuber]

Difference between accidental power creep and intentional power creep is that accidental power creep doesn't happen on a constant basis and can generally be corrected. A good example of this is Neo Genesis Slowking from Pokemon. Slowking forced your opponent to flip a coin whenever they played a trainer card, and on tails, the card does nothing and gets topdecked. This was modern Yu-Gi-Oh tier bullshit in a relatively early Pokemon card (Neo Genesis was the 8th set ever released and meant to be the base set for gen 2), and the game got centralized around it until it was banned in 2002. It was the last Pokemon TCG card to be banned from an event, excluding exclusive tournament prize cards and other weird cards, up until Wormadam Sandy Cloak in 2008 from the Professor Cup, and then Lysandre all the way in 2015.

[@monomanamaniac]

Jace the mind sculpture is legal in all the sets he's legal in.

[@monomanamaniac]

@@nonyabidness8676 I meant he's legal in the sets he can be ie modern, pioneer, vintage, legacy, commander.

[@darkdave1998]

Yeah but he was banned in modern until very recently

[@MrHappyPariah]

@@darkdave1998 If two years ago is "very recently", I guess

[@irrespondible]

@@monomanamaniac WTF IS THE MIND SCULPTOR UNBANNED??!!

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

Richard Surraco Because Hero of Dominaria is better.

[@hughmortyproductions8562]

One thing that often seems to be ignored when discussing set rotation is that there can be a non-rotating format in addition to the rotating format - like Legacy in Magic or Wild in Hearthstone - where you can play all your old cards (except maybe a few banned ones).

[@mutedknght]

Or that a combination of both (like with magic) is also perfectly acceptable. Its ok to have a ban list and have rotating cards. Especially if you care about the health of your competitive scene and secondary market.

[@progulator3207]

I agree, but we also have to keep in mind that again can't actually get to the point where they maintain both a rotating and non-rotating format until the game is popular enough to have a large and consistent enough player base for both formats to be successful without just splintering the player base and creating a scenario where there aren't really enough people to get sufficiently fire off events in either format.

[@smonkk8556]

yup! as long as you make sure to appease those legacy format players, its a really good idea. a lot of the cards in the new scholomance academy expansion for hearthstone seem to be specifically made to appease wild players, with combo tools, ways to order your deck, etc

[@Lyth13]

Or something like what Vanguard is doing now, there’s an eternal format (called premium) a format for the era after the rework (called V premium) and then the format for the current set (currently called Standard or D standard) Another thing that could work is the block number system that Bandai Namco does, where a few sets each have a block number and then tournaments can choose which blocks are or aren’t useable for that particular event (barring of course limited or banned cards)

[@egoalter1276]

The way you do it is you kepp the first 2-4 years as a single format, and start introducing rotation incrementally. You wont need to maintain your eternal format much because it will be nearly identical to your rotating one for the next year, at which point you will have been running for upwards of 5 years, and are either succesful enough to maintain both, or you have already failed.

[@jinxhijinx1768]

"a lot of card games try to be just like magic" *shows duel masters, the game made by wizards of the coast to be a simpler, more kid friendly version of magic that they could plaster to an anime* I w o n d e r w h y .

[@williamwinder5011]

Anime came first

[@rawknrole67]

And Kaijudo, which is just a rebooted duel masters.

[@biggiechee5e2000]

Magic for kids is just magic. I don't understand wizards tbh.

[@sarthakarora3212]

Duel masters is japanese version of magic now... Duel master is the most complex card game ever and is the no.1, SO.

[@duelmastershideout278]

@@rawknrole67 actually it’s a western version of Dm wow the original Dm continue in Japan!

[@ghoulofmetal]

I feel the problem with set rotations is that you need to be established before a rotation can be implemented, Hearthstone is a good example of this.

[@gameprose4293]

I've ran a Destiny Hero deck in Yu-Gi-Oh since the first set of D-Heroes first came out. I've always found myself returning to tournaments whenever D-Heroes or Heroes in general got new support.

[@imagimilan866]

I think a big part of people accepting standard rotation in MTG is that people who don't want it can just play the many popular non-rotating formats such as legacy and commander.

[@pepperypeppers2755]

Legacy decks cost at least $3000 and the player base is stagnant. Commander is cool, but not a competitive format. Competitive commander decks cost thousands of dollars.

[@arglebargle5531]

Yeah and most people don't care about whether Commander is a competitive format, because they're playing for fun. But pauper, modern, and pioneer also all exist as non-rotating formats beyond that. ​@@pepperypeppers2755

[@kylenguyen7371]

4:56 The example of a mechanic that worked too well being Phyrexian mana costs was absolutely hilarious, and I missed it the first watch through.

[@LilMunchlax]

As a big fan and long time player of MTG, I was really speculative going into this video based on the title. I’ve always really appreciated the natural shake-up and feeling of “moving on” that comes with the yearly rotation, and I have heard too many bad faith arguments from both Magic players and other TCG players as to why rotation is just a scheme to get players to spend more money (not saying that isn’t part of it, but that is also not the only reason obviously) After watching your video though I was relieved to see you had a very honest and well researched case got set rotation, and while it can be executed poorly and ruin a new game, it also can be an important tool in helping a game stay fresh and experiment with wild new designs. Good stuff man and I’m excited to watch more of your more recent content

[@redwolfmatt]

bad idea: reprinting an old card with a new name commander players: am i joke to you?

[@feritperliare2890]

Let's face it those whole video doesn't care about commander because we dont have rotation

[@craig3536]

On the plus side is we don't have to worry about rotations. Only the occasional ban.

[@tudoroltean3183]

No, excellent idea, you get more consistency in your deck while obeying the singleton rule.

[@The5lacker]

@@tudoroltean3183 "Excellent idea, subvert the entire purpose of the singleton rule while still technically abiding by it."

[@fightingleaf]

Yeah, kinda.

[@AdamissZERO]

Wait !!!!! Was that a 1st edition ultimate effect veiler? “Nice”.

[@baconsir1159]

Saw one for $10 once. Didn't pick it up. I will die with this regret

[@Chemrmnce1234]

The only thing I disagree with is "Reprinting a card with a different name" - This is an ESSENTIAL part of my favorite Magic Variant - Commander

[@RotatingMagnetGuy]

How many versions of Llanowar Elves do you want in one deck? Isn't twelve mana dorks for one green enough?

[@thelasttrueblade6684]

Function reprints are the best.

[@joeyhamilton6854]

RotatingMagnetGuy but not all mana dorks are made equal. The colors they tap for and their tribe make a huge difference. Some go in elemental decks some go in elfball. A few can’t tap for green but will tap for another color so they can’t be run in your decks.

[@TheMangakid1995]

@@RotatingMagnetGuy No, never. I need all the ramp I can have. Literally all my decks are basically Ramp Matters. Don't take my ramp away from me Timmy! (sorry that got out of hand lol)

[@Monkeylordz88]

Functional reprints almost never happen for rare+ cards in MTG, they are usually only for 25 cent commons and uncommons, so I don't think this is an issue there. I can't speak for other card games though.

[@MrLeolb2]

Phyrexian charizard, what a marvelous thing

[@jeffthomas9768]

For Bakugan, it actually makes sense to reprint the card with a different name cause if it's a good card, and you can only have a playset of it but run more of that card, then you're still staying within the rules of TCG. It's not a playset of the action but a playset with the same name. Same thing with the different Hero cards.

[@z3Carlos]

The reason I appreciate set rotation is because it allows me to enter a new game and get cards to make an alright deck without spending way more than i need for a deck i want to play because a card i need is no longer in print and has skyrocketed in price...

[@nathanstrife8877]

First time here, as a yugioh player i like these videos so much. Man, you really put effort making this, good commentary and nice editing. Quality content!

[@CalastantNight]

Not sure why this channel came up on my recommended videos list, but awesome. Subscribed. As someone who is making a physical boxed card game attempting to deviate from the TCG sales model, your perspective on it is invaluable and addresses things I've thought about.

[@hirumaredx]

These videos are a gem

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

This was a really good encapsulation of the love/hate relationship between TCGs and set rotation.

[@shermuhammadkhan3383]

This video is so well made and thought out ! I just found this scrolling KZbin, and it gave me a second persons perspective on my idea of making my own card game ! Thank you for this ! This video deserves so many more likes and views, I'm going to watch the whole series now !

[@n0ame1u1]

I still find it funny the Yugioh doesn't have set rotation, but it does have a card called "Set Rotation"

[@kal-el-fornia2479]

I did not expect a video of this quality. This is great! I love the insightful perspective on what straight up kills new tcgs. Hopefully up and coming tcg designers see this video.

[@richardpankow4714]

I like when new cards makes old obscure cards suddenly relevant like when qliphort came out the really old card summoner's art became an instant search for qliphort scout which is the card that gets the deck going

[@Alphabeta824]

Just found your channel and I love your reasoning and perspective. As a lover of the connection and friendships that TCGs forge, I want the games to be the best they can be. Thanks for the lovely discourse.

[@MSPaynt]

very nice, love the examples used from different tcgs to make your points

[@KeeganMcKinney]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Magic the Gathering bumping their rotation from 2 years to 3 years and because of that, we'll have a uniquely bigger Standard card pool until next year's rotation.

[@kiledamgaardasmussen5222]

A little maxim from the world of software: If you do what other companies do, you can expect to do about as well as the average company similar to yours. Big software companies tend to grow by 10% per year. If you are a big software company and you do what your competitors are doing, you can expect 10% annual growth. 90% of software startups fail. If you do what other software startups do, you will, on average, fail. Applying that to TCGs: if you do what MTG does, and you are NOT a 20+ year long-running trend-making TCG, then you cannot reasonably expect to do as well as MTG does.

[@Johnhamsta]

How are you not more popular? This is incredibly well-made and well-said!

[@demonicbunny3po]

This series interests me and got me to subscribe to you. We will see if your other content keeps me coming back, but I do enjoy the discussion of the meta of the design and consideration behind games.

[@swagonballd8087]

Samsara Lotus didn't actually do anything bad for the meta, it just happened to summon itself from grave. Lotus was never the problem cannon soldier was the problem, its always been the problem but Konami won't ever ban it

[@TheGoodOne1998]

It was a preemptive hit due to a FTK with Topologic Bomber Dragon, Trickstar Black Catbat and Knightmare Cerberus.

[@michaelrosenfeld3941]

Leave it to Konami to make card like Samsara Lotus (not really) and fucking Grinder Golem broken. Any memories of bouncing him back with Security Dragon to get 4 tokens for free?

[@SephonDK]

Magic has the best solution: why not both. The game is so old that having all cards available means the game would not be for everyone. The Vintage format is the epitome of "you can play all cards available" and while it is a deep and fun format, the brokenness of some of the cards is just not for everyone. The game is so big that there will always be a game for you that is rotating or not. But if you ever want to make a new game... don't start out with set rotation. Why the hell would you do that. You are not Magic. You can't achieve the same with a 20th of the card pool.

[@flaetsbnort]

Yeah, pretty much. Magic pretty much segments its player base to the point that, unless you are playing competitively, you can always find a format in which your favourite cards (or the cards you happen to have) are relevant. Of course, if only reached that point after decades of attempts and false starts, not to mention millions in player research and marketing. The core point, though, is valid: don't start doing set rotations until you know what the game demands.

[@AnonYmous-mc5zx]

EDH solved the problem for WOTC pretty handily, and they HAAAAAAAAAATE that... They just barely begrudgingly decided to acknowledge the EDH crowd to sell product meant specifically for Commander aside from the half assed once a year commander deck set.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

Thats what i hate about magic, it segments the player base, and people who play more obscure formats cant find anyone. And also lack of events or tournaments for anything other than the standard most popular formats

[@SephonDK]

@@NeostormXLMAX standard, modern, legacy, pauper, casual 2 or more and commander are all incredibly easy to find players for. More obscure, sure, hard to find. The point here is more that games like Yu Gi Oh are incredibly restrictive in what is allowed as formats, while games with smaller player bases shouldn't worry about rotation or multiple formats at all. If I don't want to play Vintage in Magic or Yu Gi Oh in Yu Gi Oh (the two formats are reasonably similar), there are in Magic enough people and a large enough card pool to play other things while in Yu Gi Oh, you're doomed. The fact that it's tough in Magic to find events for Standard peasant emperor is a problem of luxury because they have so diverse an array of popular options to begin with.

[@l.p.7585]

@@NeostormXLMAX I disagree that it's bad. Lgs tend to develop their own local scenes, and more dedicated scenes can even have non-sanctioned formats. Almost every store ive ever been to with play space had its weekly format is never played before with 16+ player turnouts. Not every format will have player support at every store, but that's also fine

[@Raytion]

As a man working on his on tcg I have thank you for this series. It's really making me thinking the longevity of my game and rethink some mechanics.

[@GaminSnake]

I love yugioh for the lack of set rotation. Because a card like 15 to 18 years ago can be meta because someone realized that card doesn’t have a hard once per turn on its effect

[@GaminSnake]

@jocaguz18 but it’s usually fixed 9 times out of 10 by slapping a hard “once per turn” in the text

[@kotkafer2292]

Yeah i can still use my old Chaos Emperror Dragon and kill my op- oh wait its unplayable..... why didnt Konami Just make its requirements Harder or Just send the field to the GY or Something other than "yOu CaNt AcTiVaTe CarDs Or EfFeCtS tHiS tUrN"

[@GaminSnake]

@@kotkafer2292 look I’ll take erratas over being told I can’t play the card period due to a set rotation

[@kotkafer2292]

@@GaminSnake Its better than Set Rotation dont get me and im all for errata-ing cards, in *a reasonable capacity* . Im only complaining about Chaos Emperrors Errata Like Bitch the Card isnt "fixed" its unplayable

[@dmfyre]

There’s so much effort and quality in these videos, that I’m genuinely surprised that you aren’t more popular!

[@schuylerschmadtke1250]

You forgot how messing with the usual two-ish year lifespan based on a single annual rotation makes the profit aspect even more egregious and transparent. I'm a little dissapointed that the infamous singular attempt of a bi annual standard rotation for mtg back in the spring of 2016 has been forgotten already even though its one of the most greedy moves modern wotc has tried pulling even when compared to the bullcrap in 2017 and this past year of standard. I still laugh at some of those sponsored youtube channels and websites that desperately tried to convince people that it was even remotely a good idea even after it was scrapped

[@emmakristoffersen8550]

To be fair, the twice a year rotation was a thing that many players (or at the very least a vocal minority of players) were asking for. It was a response to the two set blocks, people wanted each block to have the same amount of time in standard. it turned out to be an idea that sounded better than it worked in practice tho, in theory it was more "fair" to the blocks (humans will pack bond with anything), but players got tired of constant rotation.

[@jacobblanton5179]

"Most card games only last about 2 years" Is this a video about Fire Emblem Cipher?

[@macroscopics]

Didn't Fire Emblem Cipher last 5 years as of...this month, the month of its final Main Series release

[@benpepin7872]

Ah, that pain. After AGES of learning and suffering and getting my butt whooped in UFS, I made a deck effective enough to take THIRD in a regional out of nowhere. Next week...half said deck was rotated out. I never performed so well again.

[@zaidbenyacoub9391]

"Powerful cards" "Number c88" Pick one

[@whistlerdan7718]

6:20 Hearthstone "fixed" this problem by allowing players to buy rotated Packs in the in-game store using in-game currency. This made Wild (game mode where you can play cards irregardless of what year they're from) more accessible to players. You couldn't do it before and had to spend exorbitant amounts of real life money and/or resources to get rotated cards. However the fix was too late and by the time it was implemented (which was recently), most of the players already got rid half of their collection from previous sets. So thanks Blizzard for this fix right after making me disenchant an entire year of collection.

[@mawillix2018]

Oh wow, I asked for that when they first started rotating cards. Cost of rotated cards went up by ~400-500% (gold price compared to dust price) Value of those cards dropped significantly. This was a quite necessary change, years ago.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

Why the fuck would you dust all your collection for dumbass.

[@ironichoodies]

@@NeostormXLMAX He's talking about when Wild wasn't a thing in Hearthstone yet. Dusting cards gives you, well, dust, so you can craft specific cards you want/need. Since Wild wasn't a thing back then, cards from old expansions were basically useless, so might as well dust them.

[@mellowcorpsep6665]

@@NeostormXLMAX why would i keep a rotated dr boom when im on a budget and theres fun new cards in a new set?

[@GrayGriffonKnight]

First video of yours I've watched and I'm loving it

[@Drachnyn95]

Set Rotation doesnt protect from mechanics going wrong either. Either they still ruin the format until they rotate out, which is still horrible, or they have to change the mechanic anyway, like MTG did with the companion mechanic.

[@Groundlord]

"Reprinting an old card under a new name" I'm looking at you, Towering Indrik! Get out of here, you're no Giant Spider!

[@magicalpro]

This series is GREAT. Ps: so good i insta-subbed, 10/10 recommended

[@CalebWrightfunkofilming]

Thank you. I’m working on making a card game digitally and this is super helpful.

[@frankwest5388]

Maybe a “semi set rotation” might be the best model. Have a list of cards that will always be playable and constantly rotate a new set in. Then if a card of theme ends up being popular or fair, you can promote it to the permanent list. Like this you can get rid of bad ideas and control power creep in a way that stays comfortable. Might be a big difficult for new players to know, what is legal or not, but it’s an idea

[@williamdrum9899]

Works better in digital games imo

[@eyflfla]

That is discussed in the video.

[@Artster900]

OK, I'd argue Duel Masters trying to be just like magic is a product of Wizards essentially making a TCG that is more appealing to the Japanese audience while retaining the charm of Magic. Heck, I'm pretty sure the original DM manga revolved around Magic at first rather than DM.

[@aurafox1]

Duel Masters is literally just a spinoff of Magic: The Gathering

[@adiiud123]

Actually duel masters is magic but better since you don't encounter situations like, I got an op hand but no mana and stuff like that that's why it's so popular in Asia and keeps on going, it's such a shame that it didn't continue in tcg too, I know a lot of magic players that play magic bc they "don't like other card games and duel masters doesn't exist anymore" but all of them agreed that if duel masters comes back, the og one not kaijudo, they'll change to dm without any regret

[@Artster900]

@jvalex18 I'd say it's just different. Their minor differences (lack of mana screw in dm/times when you can cast some spells, as well as general mana management in mtg) end up with two very fun games that are able to differentiate themselves from one another.

[@aurafox1]

@jvalex18 Duel Masters failed in the west because it was handled terribly. I can't remember what the story was but I seem to recall them being actively against banning cards or something and there was some OP card or deck that just ruined the game.

[@Yanhime97]

@@aurafox1 Not to mention promoting what's essentially an tweaked, localized MTG to a region that already enjoyed MTG is kinda pointless. It'd be like taking a popular movie, making another cut with all the pandering they use for Chinese audiences, then re-releasing the Chinese cut in the west hoping it'd draw people in.

[@jozzyalthefool9273]

People seem to forget that quite a number of sets were made for Magic the Gathering before Standard and rset rotation were even introduced, and there was still a format where you can play with all cards printed even before Standard or Type 2 as it was known then.

[@ShadowNerd92]

This was me when it came to Star Wars Destiny. Around the time the fourth or fifth set came out within a year and a half, and I actually finally found a store to play at, the majority of my cards the first TWO sets, were rotated out before I even had a chance to play them. I like collecting cards so I have what I bought, but I also have an unopened Third starter set cause it was just about to die in less than six months.

[@task_failer8223]

I love how he uses the Yugioh card set rotation to represent set rotation

[@goon5665]

I played Force of Will at some point and yes, set rotation is a huge problem there

[@SamGarcia]

I don't really play TCGs that much, but I am a game dev, and I would like to do a deckbuilding game eventually. So this was a nice video.

[@WatermelonEnthusiast9]

The best way to avoid having to deal with overpowered cards (through set rotation, errata, or ban lists) is to STOP MAKING OVERPOWERED CARDS!

[@natanmaia3575]

"Why do my players dont want to buy new, worse cards and instead keep holding onto their old, better cards?" MTG very rarely prints Lightning Bolt because it makes Standard burn decks really powerful, but if you play any other format you only need one playset of bolt and that's it. As a Pauper burn player I don't buy any boosters because they make one good common red card every 2 years or so.

[@CartoonTriper]

Let me guess one of the next Trading cards games sins: just using screenshots of the series it is based, rather than original art

[@Kohdok]

Nope. Naruto, Panini DBZ, and loads of other games did just fine despite using screenshots and stock assets.

[@lunarlegend8924]

It's the worst sin. Fuck games that do this

[@StarkMaximum]

That's not a sign that will make your game fail. I sure don't like it much tho.

[@kainhighwind2]

Depends on the quality. Sometimes you can catch just the perfect frame, in the highest quality possible, and the card just looks amazing, perfectly showcasing why the moment depicted was so iconic. IF you cheap out, though, your card can look like the in-between frames from a Naruto action scene.

[@throwbackblackcat]

It’s been a year since I’ve touched the Final Fantasy TCG and I seriously hope that they still don’t do this

[@aussakagamine8862]

Set rotation is why I can't enjoy pkmn tcg even tho I love the game. Cuz the moment when my deck has to contend with older decks/combos that get boosted by the rotated stuff it becomes almost impossible to play said deck unless uve stuck with something like the dark deck.

[@RealCoolstriker64]

I saw a magic ad that had a reprinted JACE THE MINDSCULPTER the other day. I’m currently sending this while tucking in my deck into a bunker to keep it safe from his sculpting

[@exe_]

I stopped playing TCGs a while ago, but your video is so entertaining.

[@HiroZeroVirus]

the use of Magic: the gathering in conversations about set rotation is a bit of a misnomer in this day and age, where there are 11, non-limited, game formats acknowledged by WoTC and only 2 of them rotate (and almost no one plays Brawl anyway). this becomes problematic when you incorporate the argument that "they get to try weird stuff because it will just go away and never be talked about again" because that means 81% of your format base has access to the "weird stuff" so no, doing something that is inherently broken doesn't just go away. and although core sets to drop the general power rating down a tad, it would be absurd to say that as a whole the game does not suffer from power creep. i know that standard makes up a large and vocal part of the player base, but more an more formats like commander are getting as much attention and product.

[@gamma-bv6ty]

I actually think a huge part of implementing set rotation properly is having an "eternal format" (or in the case of Magic, several of them) that cards don't rotate out of. That way you can have all the benefits of a rotating format while not making players feel like their collection becomes worthless every 2 years. Plus, it's just cool to see the crazy decks and combos people can come up with when they have access to every cards from across a game's history.

[@HiroZeroVirus]

I agree completely that rotation and eternal need to exist together in order for either of them to be effective. but i do not agree with the video stating that rotation will sweep "mistakes" under the rug when they are no longer standard. especially when there are so many eternal formats. i instead feel like that should make designers more cautious about what they release, as to not disrupt both rotation and eternal too much at the same time.

[@Alikaoz]

Yeah, but commander is sillier vintage, modern players overstate their importance and legacy players have a decade long record of being sure WotC aims to kill them this time for sure, so I wouldn't care all that much about it. Besides, the escalating nature of the non-rotating formats makes them pretty much pre-rotated formats.

[@HiroZeroVirus]

there is absolutely 0 way i would play MTG without an eternal format, and i know i am not the only one who feels that way. Booster packs are built for the Draft environment, which isnt for everyone, which then leaves buying singles as the primary way for deck construction, and without eternal, that is a recipe for wasted money as those cards would loose functionality and thus value. and it is kind of a moot point anyway, because as long as players feel that way, they will create their own formats, which financially makes sense for WoTC to show support for.

[@lotoex]

I think standard is 100% necessary. There are something like 40-50 different MTG formats, but only about 5 of them any significant amount of the player base still actually play. I just don't like the idea of turn 0, 1 or 2 format.

[@anvi7572]

Was getting "Yu Gi Oh good, Magic bad" vibes when you started off with the rotation vs banlist bit. Glad I stuck it out to find out I was wrong. Insightful video, thanks!

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@@polocatfan Yes.

[@e-tan3911]

@@Ninjamanhammer half correct. Yugioh good, but so is magic. I just prefer yugioh, but magic is also fun

[@hockeycrafter6086]

There was something so magical about watching my old UA deck get new cards after four years, dusting off the old list, beefing it up, and Dunking on any Dante in def mode who dare opposes me like it’s 2014 all over again.

[@beanstheclown]

Set rotation being added was literally the only reason I stopped playing Hearthstone. I will not play a game where I can't use the cards I payed good money for.

[@cutecommie]

What is that Japanese movie called with MTG product placement? I need it as soon as possible.

[@maris4137]

It's an ad. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaLSmX-ljbuHh7M

[@houstonthedishwasher6625]

Maris lies

[@crotair1089]

One and a half "Shocks." That's a 'like,' sir.

[@WilltheReaper]

One of the main reasons I play YuGiOh and Vanguard is that they don't use set rotation. I've attempted to get into MTG 13 times, and at the same time I've quit 13 times. You take a little break and you realize that the cards will no longer be viable.

[@nonenone4560]

Pokemon is a halfway point between "print old card with new name". Pokemon themselves almost never get brought back into the format due to power creep. Instead, they'll bring back old mechanics on new cards (usually with higher stats to keep up with power creep). Like Base Blastoise's Pokemon Power tends to pop at on something at least once per generation. Once in a while they mix things up by adding a drawback or deciding it's Fire's turn to get Rain Dance, but the mechanic's pretty much always around in some form. The same goes for Trainer Lock and Safeguard Pokemon.

[@expc1798]

This was a really good vid

[@Wildstorm1997]

Ironically, I've been playing yugioh since maybe a year or so before nekroz format... I always tend to try some of the newer archetypes everyonce in awhile.. mostly cute trolly decks. But I always go back to melodious no matter whatever deck i tinker with. Lol

[@wolfgangfegelein2450]

The Virgin Set Rotatation vs the Chad Rigging Worlds For Your Nostalgia Bait

[@poemanx7297]

"To prevent some antediluvian combo made with cards printed 20 years apart." I chuckled and immediately thought of YuGiOh

[@christopherblackwell975]

I wasnt aware kaijudo used set rotation. I thought all cards but one (Bottle of Wishes) were legal to play?

[@brianmcgoldrick9529]

Towards the end they moved to a standard/legacy system. God I miss kaijudo

[@christopherblackwell975]

@@brianmcgoldrick9529 Same, I miss Duel Masters in general

[@thrillhouse4151]

1:35 jeez poison AND sleep? Those don’t even stack in the videogame!

[@Vorloru]

Joke's on you, you can stack both Poison and Burn (which use counters to show the condition) with sleep, confusion or paralysis (which use card orientation to show the condition). It's pretty nutty, but other than hypnotoxic when it was legal doesn't happen in meta decks much at all partly special conditions are so easy to remove as the pokemon leaving the active position removes all of them. Even though Paralysis and Sleep prevent you from retreating, cards like switch just don't care about them. I think there was a Weezing poison deck that was around a few years ago, but I stopped keeping up with the TCG in like 2012 or 2013 and only occasionally look back into it.

[@spiritwildfiregaming1975]

Besides the idea of a problematic card not being usable in tournaments, the only other plus I can think of (as a magic player anyways) is that it's another reason to try the new cards with new mechanic (even Core sets can offer some cool stuff). Who knows, 10 years later when you're not playing competitively and just want to play with a friend, this one deck with a special mechanic that was restricted could make the game a ton more fun, right?

[@LordRedhand]

As a commander player for MtG having a card with a different name but similar effect is important for consistency for certain strategies.

[@shades2all]

So this lacks some base concepts of card games that is very important. That a player's collection being worth money is not necessarily what keeps a player going. Each player is different in keeping viable competitive or casual cards. An example is magic's pauper format that uses all commons and most cards in a player's deck shall never exceed $5 by itself. Likewise in the opposite direction many players hold value in playing in formats and trading cards that have limited shelf life well aware that the cards will not hold value forever. Last point on magic however is while Mark Rosewater has accomplishments in creating magic cards do not there are certain points that he should not be quoted on for creating said problem. Also the reserve list is something that many players and Wizards of the Coast employees hate but also Mark Rosewater is not WOTC. On the Yugioh side of things value of cards is based on the fact that is still competitively viable or in such short print that it is more of a collectors item. However supporting cards outside of reprints makes money the access point of certain decks (even ones that aren't necessarily relevant to a tournament setting). Since buying singles is important to finish deck construction if a card gets future support but that support is either too expensive then that can kill a player's interest in dusting their cards off to remake or try out the deck again. Konami specifically reprints cards to make decks cheaper and add access but most importantly they understand the secondary market exists for their players. Making certain cards have artificial or natural spike allows for interest in whales (people who will spend a lot on your game) rather than collectors who do not contribute to your revenue as a company. However not all reprints are created equal and some do not lower in price which also denies the ability to play. In many cases there are no win scenarios to this type of problem however some of your points do make sense. there is a fundamental lacking however, of how some card games are structured and what might keep a player going in a game. Overall this is not a bad video but definitely does not look at counter arguments and could use some more work into understanding how this pitfall can be stopped.

[@canismajor1186]

I don't play standard in MTG because of rotation. Maybe if I borrow a deck and there is no entry price into a tournament I might play. I'll just stick to all the other non-rotating formats.

[@GemBlenders]

Great video!

[@Astulock86]

Hi Kohdok, great video and narration. Loved the New Yorker magazine guy :) Would it be okay for me to send you a prototype of a card game I created? If so, how should I do this? Thanks!

[@Kohdok]

Businees email on my twitter

[@soul94evisceration]

9:27 why is this bad though? As a Magic player I would love for some cards to get a functional reprint so that I can essentially play more than 4 copies in a deck

[@Stroggoii]

Contextualize it towards the rotating format. In Standard you have never been able to play Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic together. For commons it doesn't really matter. If Shocklands rotate and immediately get replaced by functional reprints Commander players would cream themselves but Standard players would riot.

[@jeffhughes7104]

The idea is that its a bit of a slap in the face for those who only play Standard. Imagine that you have Llanowar Elves. Then it gets rotated out. Now Elvish Mystic is printed and able to be used in Standard. Now you have to go buy a set of Elvish Mystic to replace Llanowar Elves for your deck. Even though they do the exact same thing.

[@TheForeverRanger]

They would probably make a rule that you can't play more than 4 copies total of the two cards. In Pokemon's Expanded Format you can't play more than four copies total of Juniper and Sycamore. The same goes for Boss's Orders and Lysandre.

[@soul94evisceration]

@@TheForeverRanger no perhaps my first comment wasn't clear, but my point is that Magic encourages this by sometimes printing cards that are functionally the same as older cards (except for the name and maybe creature type). This lets you have more consistency in the deck, and it's quite nice. That's why I was wondering why he says it's a bad thing

[@Ruceyod]

why do you have an ultimate rare effect veiler? lol

[@Kohdok]

Don't be vexin cuz of my flexin! B)

[@skullservant8486]

Blu-eyes got support to stay competitive... Shows the ritual one on screen 😂

[@kotkafer2292]

Hey the chaos dragons May Not be good but by golly its a fun OTK fundeck

[@skullservant8486]

@@kotkafer2292 sure is, just ordered 3 for christmas

[@TheOnlyBootlegger]

The mention of Jace is extremely hilarious because he was unbanned 2 years before this video premiered, and he proceeded to do very little other than be a decent advantage piece in modern.

[@TheL0rd0fSpace]

I think Magic's system for handling set rotation is the best, because there are so many formats without set rotation. Basically, unless you're a standard player, set rotation doesn't exist. So, you get to reap all the benefits of set rotation (flatter power curve, etc) without any of its negatives. So yeah. I don't hate set rotation, because it has never affected my play. Hell, it's actually better for me, because when standard playables get close to their "use by" date, I can snap them up for cheap for non standard play.

[@TheAweDude1]

1:25 "To hear what they have is basically worthless doesn't make them happy." Bruh, literally 99% of all my Magic cards (and I have a lot of magic cards) are barely worth the cardboard they are printed on.

[@midivilplanet]

Yeah, a lot of his arguments don't hold much water. He even goes on to say not a minute later that if a card it too powerful you can just ban it which is even worse than a set rotation.

[@suddenllybah]

Grizzly Bears isn't worth money?

[@feritperliare2890]

@@midivilplanet ban is just different not worst or better

[@ccggenius]

@@feritperliare2890 You generally know set rotation is coming in advance, as opposed to bans which are either sudden, or telegraphed SO HARD by the cards getting banned that the format is shit for the intervening interval. One of these is much better from a consumer perspective. That being said, either one is arguably better than how FFG handles things with their LCGs, they use power level errata. Because I love it when cards don't do what they say they do... Yeah, Magic also erratas things, but that is almost entirely to make the cards continue to work as intended with game-wide rules changes.

[@jacoblykins8571]

While getting rotated out does usually decrease a card's monetary value, I think he primarily meant that it makes the card unplayable, and therefore worthless from a gameplay perspective. If you've just spent $100 on cards for a new tcg, and then they rotate out, your whole collection becomes literally illegal to play with.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

I like set-rotation, when there are multiple formats that are non-rotating (standard v modern v vintage v legacy v commander v pauper v etc etc)

[@endtimestcg5146]

I am HERE TO LEARN!

[@yoshiboy5]

That’s what I love about Cardfight Vanguard. With their premium tournament format, any and all cards in the game, both current and past, are allowed. There are a few cards with restrictions on when they can be used but they can still be used. There are cards from older sets that greatly support newer sets and vice versa.

[@CassiopeiaOnYT]

To further add on is that Cardfight Vanguard actually have a yearly set of new cards that are created just for the Premium format. Yes new cards, which injected new life to the format in a huge way. Look at Premium Collection 2020, maybe except for Zazan, and ever since Zazan’s limitation to 1, it is widely regarded as one of the most fun metas for a Long while.

[@SGD_ToysDownUnder]

There was something rather interesting you neglected in this video; Magic's extended format players don't buy cards. Modern players buy decks, they don't buy boosters or cards like a Standard player does. For them, it's a one and done deal, unless a banning happens. This isn't doesn't generate revenue for Wizards. The only time Modern makes money is when Wizards makes a set with the intention of getting people into Modern, leveraging the value of the singles on the open market. If Modern, Extended, Pioneer, Legacy, ect, was Magic, the game would necessitate Power Creep as the developers would need to compete with their older designs. The game would be YGO. Even if they were capable of making interesting new designs, year after year, you would still hit a point where the fanbase is like 'Nah, I'm good.'. Magic does have that problem even with rotation however, as it's said the average life span of a Standard Magic player is about 18 months, hence Wizards' focus on new players. We don't know why they quit or what they've moved onto afterwards however. You're right about it needing cushioning, Naruto's Death to Rotation is fairly infamous, but it's far more nuanced than Sell More Cards. It's closer to keep the game alive and retain the spirit of the game.

[@Kohdok]

Ya know Modern players would buy tons of Standard draft packs if they reprinted fetch lands...

[@reeksofchees3856]

@@Kohdok No, they would just buy singles.

[@mpawn]

@@reeksofchees3856 somebody has to buy those packs to open the fetches

[@Abluemoon9112]

@@mpawn ya limit player and standard buy more new pack then modern.

[@mellowcorpsep6665]

@@mpawn a lot if not most packs opened are drafted, a player thats only interested in drafting is gonna sell a fetch because that one card alone would be worth at least one draft by itself

[@fearanarchy]

"The two year curse can happen for many reasons" Probably 730 days going by ;-p

[@CCCASMR]

Absolutely LOVE this concept