Over the past few years, Wizards has been printing more new Magic: The Gathering cards than ever before. Even with the removal of supplemental sets, the jump in product has been wild, resulting in a release schedule many find hard to manage. In response, Mark Rosewater posted this week to defend the huge increase in card printing, prompting a spirited discussion that has left many in the MTG community unhappy.
Mark Rosewater Defends The Increase in MTG Card Printing
“It turns out a very small minority of Magic players feels a need to track every newly released card. Obviously, this audience tends to be very enfranchised, so they’re over represented online, especially with influencers whose job it is to react to everything new.”
Mark Rosewater, via Blogatog
Rosewater offered this response to a question raised by Skuddstevens late yesterday, in which they pointed out the “overwhelming increase” in the number of MTG cards being printed. This followed on from an earlier post on the same subject, where Rosewater noted that the current six-sets-a-year schedule is Wizards “slowing down” compared to previous years.
On the sets front, this is certainly accurate. Between 2020 and 2024 we saw eight or more sets a year, with 2022 topping the charts with a whopping 10 sets. 2025 and 2026 have had seven apiece, which is a step down, and if 2027 has six as planned, then this will be another step in that direction. This reduction largely comes from removing supplemental sets, but it’s a notable drop nonetheless.
On top of this, as Rosewater notes, most players don’t need to keep up with every set release and the cards they bring to the table. While competitive constructed players need to at least be aware of everything, that simply isn’t the bulk of players these days. Commander is by far the most popular format, and most decks can function perfectly well there without regular updates. As Rosewater has noted before, casual Magic, where such knowledge matters even less, makes up a huge chunk of the player base as well.
Following this response, a number of players chimed in to agree with Rosewater in the comments. Some pointed out that the feelings of fatigue being experienced are very likely a result of players trying, unecessarily, to engage with all new Magic content. As these commenters, and Rosewater himself, noted, that’s simply no longer the intended MTG experience.
That being said, it is definitely a change from how new product was handled in the past, which explains some of the friction we’re seeing now. MTG Goldfish’s Saffron Olive pointed out this awkward transition in a post on X, and it seems like a reasonable explanation for a lot of the negative reaction we’re seeing around this discussion. Others jumped in to note that, even in competitive formats, knowing every card isn’t necessary, which reduces a lot of the theoretical mental load here.
The Other Side of the Coin
While Rosewater’s response to the card-printing increase problem has satisfied some, many other MTG players aren’t so happy. In fact, many are accusing Rosewater of being deliberately disingenuous and skewing the facts to dodge the problem. When you dig a bit deeper into the figures, there is some truth to this.
Though most metrics make 2026 a seven-set year, other releases in the mix muddy those figures a little. Both Mystery Booster Commander Edition and The Zeta Set seem to have been omitted from the count, even though they were sealed releases in their own right. This is to say nothing of Marvel Super Heroes Jumpstart and the Commander precons for each set, which add a ton of new cards to the game while technically just extending other sets.
When you factor these in and look at the raw number of cards released each year, Magic doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. While it hasn’t quite surpassed monster years like 2022 and 2024, which featured 5,719 cards and 6,664 cards, respectively, 2026 certainly seems to mark an uptick. The total number of cards released this year currently sits at 4,515, which is a significant jump from 3,799 in 2025. Notably, this doesn’t include anything from Star Trek, which will push things even further.
This doesn’t entirely discredit Rosewater’s argument, as players can still choose not to engage with every new card released. That said, it’s hard to deny that such a rapid rate of expansion could become a problem at some point. The move to a three-year Standard and six Standard-legal sets per year has already greatly increased the card pool in that format, and it’s hitting most other constructed formats even harder. Combined with a rise in bannings due to recent power creep, there are financial issues at play here that make constructed Magic difficult to keep up with.
That said, while there are definitely issues, Wizards is unlikely to change its approach anytime soon. New sets consistently bring in record sales, both for Universes Beyond and in-universe expansions. Other products, like Secret Lairs and such, continue to sell out regularly, too.
Clearly, the current appetite for Magic still matches Wizards’ increased output, and perhaps even exceeds it. As long as this remains true, we’ll likely see even more cards released each year, and maybe even move back to a higher number of sets, too.
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