There are a lot of common complaints levied at MTG sets these days. Players rail against the overuse of tropes, broken cards and combos, and an overabundance of cards designed specifically for Commander. In a similar vein to that last point, the sheer volume of legendary creatures in recent releases has come under fire too.
What was once a fairly rare mechanic, reserved for truly special creatures or legendary-matters sets, is now incredibly common. This has led to a kind of legendary creature fatigue in MTG, with players wishing for less of these unique characters in each set. According to Mark Rosewater, this wish may be granted sooner rather than later.
Less Legends From Now On?
In a Blogatog post on Sunday, Rosewater responded to a thought from 3-slugcat-pilots-7-ornithopters on the number of legendary creatures feeling lower in Duskmourn than in past sets. Turns out this was very much intentional.
“We are consciously trying to lower legendary creatures in premier sets.”
Mark Rosewater
That’s about as clear-cut as it gets when it comes to statements from WotC. The number of legendary creatures in each mainline set is being lowered, which should assuage the complaints I mentioned earlier. Interestingly, this isn’t actually the first time Mark Rosewater has commented on the legendary creature fatigue issue in MTG. Back in July last year, he responded to a question from rosyfacedlovebird about a potential legendary-lite set.
“We’ve been talking about lowering the average of legendary creatures in Magic IP sets. Universes Beyond, due to its nature, will still want a lot of legendary creatures as the named characters of an IP are a big draw.”
Mark Rosewater
This shift isn’t just a sudden decision. It’s something that’s been in the works for some time, likely in response to the community complaints. Magic sets are typically designed two and a half years ahead of their release, so the game can be slow to adapt in situations like this.
Overall, Magic experienced a legendary boom around 2020, with the sets following Dominaria and War of the Spark. This was when complaints really began, so, allowing a couple of years of leeway to test the waters, it makes sense to see a reaction to that now based on the typical WotC timeline. This isn’t just talk, either: Looking at just the last few sets, we go from 51 legendaries in Thunder Junction to 27 in Bloomburrow, to 24 in Duskmourn. Slowly but surely, the issue is being addressed.
The MTG Legendary Fatigue Problem?
But what exactly is the issue? Why are MTG players experiencing legendary creature fatigue in the first place? That’s a fairly complex question to answer, but we can start by looking at the data. Above is a graph created by Reddit user PianoOk5877, which shows the number of legendary cards in each Standard set since Zendikar. The average starts around a very solid 10, climbing to 20 around Hour of Devastation, then skyrocketing for Dominaria and War of the Spark.
Granted, these two should be considered outliers. Dominaria was very specifically a legendary-matters set, while War of the Spark is skewed by its large number of legendary planeswalkers. After these sets, however, the average number of legendaries jumped to 30-40, and even 50 in some sets. Basically, there are a lot more legendary creatures in modern Magic sets than there used to be.
Is that an inherent issue? In some ways, yes. A creature being legendary has both mechanical and narrative implications. You can only control one copy of a given legendary, so they’re a bit more awkward to play with. Narratively, legendary slots should be reserved for truly important characters. The fact that we see so many of them now dilutes that element a bit.
“When everything is legendary they don’t have the unique specialness of being legendary anymore.”
Hellbringer123
It’s also worth noting that every new legendary creature is a potential new Commander. With so much Commander product coming out these days, fatigue in that format is a whole separate issue. But it’s one that’s compounded by the rise of legendary creatures in main sets. With all of that considered, this new direction from WotC seems like a huge net positive.
A Balanced Outlook
Of course, there are two sides to every story. The increased volume of legendary creatures has had many positive effects as well. As always, though, these tend to be discussed less than the negatives. In response to a Blogatog post by magicwithclass back in 2022, Rosewater defended the higher legendary counts at the time.
“There’s no limit. Why so many? Read this blog. Players are constantly asking for specific Commanders to play the niche strategy they enjoy.”
Mark Rosewater
This line of thinking makes a lot of sense. The more archetypes with viable Commanders, the more players will be drawn into the format. Given how Commander has exploded in popularity over the last few years, it seems WotC’s gambit worked perfectly in this case. Is having more niche Commanders a bad thing? Depends who you ask. Some argue that having creatures specifically designed for a given deck removes some of the creativity and challenge of the format. Others are just happy that their pet decks are finally playable.
We should also keep in mind the gameplay implications of the legendary tag, too. In some cases, a card really needs to be legendary to avoid problematic play patterns. Just look at Sheoldred, the Apocalypse for a prime example.
“I never understood the complaint of “too many legendaries!” You were never going to build every commander anyways. So who cares if it’s 50 or 200? In constructed formats, legendary supertypes allows WOTC to push cards and feel safer doing it.”
True_Italiano
For all that players complain about it, the legendary supertype is a valuable tool in multiple ways. I do believe that bringing the average number of legendaries down in mainline sets is a good move, however. With Commander products in the mix, they’re not wholly necessary. The ideal number is likely somewhere between 15 and 20, but it’ll be interesting to see where things end up over the next few sets.
Read More: The Best MTG Commanders From Duskmourn
