It's not even them, I don't think. Ever since Hasbro shoved its filthy corporate hand up WotC's ass and started piloting it around like a Muppet, we've been getting delightful money-grubbing idea after delightful money-grubbing idea.
Direct-to-player sets with garbo alternate art in the Secret Lairs? Check.
Monopoly-style IP crossovers? Check.
Eight bajillion promo versions of cards sold primarily through smaller, more expensive packs? Super check.
I was having this conversation with a friend the other day, but even their world building is getting lazy. Compare recent new worlds to, say, the run of Mirrodin through Alara:
Mirrodin is a weird science fiction-ish world that wasn't like anything else Magic has made and no obvious straight line to a pop culture franchise;
Kamigawa was Japanese-inspired but not in the obvious low-effort anime way;
Ravnica was a planet-wide Renaissance city that was vaguely Eastern European, with ten factions that gave a flavor and mechanical identity to the color pairs that felt unique and fresh at the time;
Lorwyn was Magic's take on the spirit of British folk tales, with unique twists on staple fantasy races, while Shadowmoor was its dark Halloween-ish mirror image;
Alara was a world that was actually five mechanically and flavorfully unique worlds that were each built around the idea of, "What if this world didn't have access to these two colors of mana?"
Most of these settings were very different both from what Magic had done before and from things that were kicking around in pop culture at the time. even the things that could tie in to pop culture didn't feel like a one-to-one reference in the way that, for example, Gingerbrute is literally just the Gingerbread Man.
While we're on the subject, compare those worlds to the recent run of new worlds:
Eldraine is a schizophrenic mashup of Skrek-style fairytale nonsense (the fae realm) and the most boring parts of Arthurian legend (the knight world);
Ikoria is half Monster Hunter, half Pokemon, with a small dash of Attack on Titan;
Kaldheim is Norse mythology ctrl+c, ctrl+v'd into Magic with a Phyrexian and some planeswalkers;
Strixhaven is just Harry Potter going to community college.
Even the worlds we've revisited have been lazy. Theros 2 is just Theros but there's a hole in the underworld for some reason. Zendikar 3 is just Zendikar 1 but...wait, does this set even have a story? What even happened in this set? The Ravnica sets were so by-the-book it was painful and War of the Spark is an obvious and frankly kind of nonsensical Avengers: End Game ripoff. The new Innistrad set is probably going to be, what, Twilight but years after Twilight had cultural cachet?
I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the previews of next year. It's not even the Fortnight shit, it's just that the sets are so...uninspired. Oh look, we're going back to Kamigawa, except the only part that's like Kamigawa is that they're all vaguely Japanese (don't worry, I'm sure they'll shoehorn some blacks in somehow)! And because it's cyberpunk, the set will have to jam in every cyberpunk trope because otherwise someone might complain, and it'll have to jam in every Kamigawa trope because otherwise the five vocal Kamigawa fans who still exist will definitely complain, so it'll be a busy mess. Then we have a mafia noir world with three-color crime families (because Commander players love three-color decks), which is...yawn. Then Dominaria again, then Dominaria but in the past...I guess I'm kind of excited for the Brother's War because I liked that novel and that era of Magic was neat, but I don't have high hopes for the set.
Man, I should just liquidate my collection and get some other hobbies that aren't as vulnerable to cultural strip mining. Maybe I should teach myself woodworking.
