After an unexpected early start, the MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spoiler season is finally underway in earnest. Despite all the set’s rares and mythics being spoiled early, there is still a surprising amount of new things to see this week. Not only are there new TMNT Commander cards, commons, and uncommons to look at, but Magic Online even got a sneaky update, too.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that fewer decklists will be published for players to see in the future. This may not seem like a big deal, but there are massive negative consequences to this seemingly innocuous change. MTG players have been quick to pick up on these, leading to immense backlash online. While Wizards has responded to this already, unfortunately, that has done little to calm concerns.
Forcing Players to Play in the Dark
In Magic Online’s latest weekly update, it was revealed that published decklists will be getting scaled back significantly. Previously, MTGO has always published the top 32 decklists from MTGO Challenges. Now, the number of decklists will scale with the size of the event, with most events seeing a steep reduction in the number of decklists shown.
From now on, events with fewer than 64 players will only show the top eight decklists. Events with between 64 and 128 players will show the top 16 decklists, and only larger events will get the full 32 decklists we’re used to. Notably, this reduction will also affect third-party sites like mtggoldfish and MTG Decks, which use publicly available event decklists.
In the short term, this change will significantly affect the perceived metagames of all competitive MTG formats. While we’ll know what decks tend to routinely perform well, players will no longer have a strong grasp of how much a specific deck is played on a week-to-week basis. This will ultimately lead to metagame snapshots that don’t accurately portray how a format looks, at least until netdecking makes it that way.
This might not have a huge impact on formats like Standard and Modern, but it has a strong chance of massively affecting less supported formats. Formats like Pauper, Pioneer, Premodern, and even Legacy are all at risk of seeing a significant metagame shift due to this change. With fewer results on display, those looking to build a meta deck will have fewer choices, leading ot more skewed play rates. This could ultimately create a negative feedback loop that either devolves into a combo hellscape or requires urgent bans.
To make matters worse, fewer decklists being displayed could crush the potential for any meta-breaking decks that players brew up. Unless these decks truly crack the meta and top events, players won’t know they exist to iterate upon them. Many of Magic’s most powerful decks, like Dimir Inverter, have origins like this, starting as a rogue idea that gets refined over time. With this change, many of Magic’s most interesting decks have a chance of never being developed. Even if a majority of brew ideas won’t end up as potential metabreakers, their disappearance will hurt everyone from curious players to MTG streamers.
As you may imagine, for these reasons, the MTGO change caused a massive uproar in the community. This response revealed the reasoning behind these changes, which only makes things worse.
Slowing Down the Solution
After the MTG playerbase’s justifiable negative reaction, MTGO Creative Director Ryan Spain explained the reasoning behind this controversial decision. To summarize, this change was made to prevent players from figuring out metagames so quickly. In an ideal world, this sounds like an amazing change, as it extends the time when Standard is at its most interesting.
Shortly after a set comes out, it’s always a hoot to go to FNM with your own brew or metabreaking deck. You have an idea what’ll be good, but it feels like everyone is on level pegging once again. Through this lens, it makes sense that Wizards is trying to slow things down. In reality, however, this change is far from flawless.
For starters, Magic: The Gathering cards cost money. With Standard decks costing $500+ nowadays, many players want to avoid investing in a risky strategy. Now, the reduction in decklist reporting will make netdecking much harder, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Realistically, this solution is a band-aid fix to a much more pervasive problem.
As much as it’s frustrating for a deck like Vivi Cauldron to be discovered, solved, and take over the meta, it’s not the players’ fault. Sure, the accessibility of digital results might have made this process incredibly quick, but Wizards printed the cards. This, if anything, is the real problem, and players shouldn’t be blamed or punished for figuring things out.
Ultimately, as if this change didn’t create enough problems, it doesn’t even fix a problem right now. Currently, Standard is in an amazing spot for once, with multiple decks vying for the crown of best. Beyond the meta just being competitive, it’s self-balancing too, as each deck is taking a turn in the spotlight before the others iterate and fight back. Modern has been the same since the ban of Underworld Breach, proving that a strong, healthy meta never really gets solved.
Even if these ‘solved formats’ are somehow the fault of MTG players, it’s not like they have long to solve a metagame anymore, anyhow. While the strength of sets does vary, we’re getting seven Standard-legal sets this year, with typically just six weeks between them. Thanks to this, the Standard metagame will rarely be very stable, and further destabilization could push players away.
Not For the Players
Admittedly, while formats and Standard and Modern aren’t always as healthy as this, it’s not like players asked for this change. Instead, it feels like Wizards of the Coast is trying to protect itself from another Vivi-esque debacle. Ironically, this interpreted attempt to preempt the problem has arguably landed them in even more hot water right now.
Sadly, while MTG players are rightfully upset right now, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Back in 2024, Magic Online stopped showcasing MTGO Preliminary results, as well as decklists that went 4-1 or worse in leagues. The pushback towards this change was also negative, but not nearly as loud as this one.
Despite player protests, however, these changes were never reversed. This makes it all the more important that players have their feedback heard regarding this more destructive change. Magic Online does have a discussion channel set up, where players can make their displeasure heard. While Wizards of the Coast going back on this decision looks unlikely, the best that players can do at this point is make their voices heard.
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