Changes that were suppoused to kill Magic, part 1

Throughout its long history some rules changes were implemented, that were going to kill Magic the Gathering. Human being prefers stability and predictability, hence many players expressed dissatisfaction. However, Wizards of the Coast have never leant towards voice of the crowd. So far, the game didn't die, on the contrary it is doing really well, as last post about Hasbro revenues shows, despite these changes:

First significant change was introduction of sixty card decks and four-card limit. Before, players ran 40-cards deck where they could put any number of the same card into their deck. However later, WotC limited it to four because it allowed some consistency for deck building but wasn't too much to ensure that the card would always be drawn every game. Changes were implemented because during the tournaments were only two categories of decks. The first category was a deck which was able to win on turn one, and the second category was a deck which couldn't win the tournament.

The four-of card limits and the increase in deck size helped, but it didn't stop the degeneracy, so the next step was to further limit how many of a card players could play with. The Banned and Restricted List dealt with problem cards in two ways. Banning meant that the card was no longer allowed to be played. Restriction meant that only one copy of the card could be included in the deck.

More in next part!