Some Pioneer Thoughts

I think pioneer is an interesting format... in that they can shape it in any way they want. This is true for all formats of course, but pioneer has more relevance and legitamacy in that it covers range of sets since the RTR. What is most significant about that set onwards is that it was the beginning of massive print to demand as well as a collective depowering of sets. Sure there were strong cards that slipped through, thank goodness for that (even hasbro/wotc should be thankful for that as it keeps them different from a company that sells toilet paper ya? I.e. your cards are worth more than toilet paper)

I just read somewhere about every 10 years being a cut off of sorts to create a new  eternal format. This is an interesting concept... in that in a strange way it fosters what players shpuld be doing but are not invested enough to do...  using current legacy and modern as an example. Modern has over 10 years accumulated alot of power and speed. Such that decks can be built from its pool such that they can challenge legacy decks. It was always my belief that eldrazi winter was actually containable... it only highlighted the low power artificially induced by bannings. EVEN with bannings, it was a coco deck that got the last laugh by beating a string of eldrazi decks to win the last major tournament before the eye of ugin bannings. Of course nobody lauds that. But again kudos to the team gatewatch that fought the good fight of finding ways to beat the top decks. Good ole magic style.

But i digress, my point is really just in a nutshell, over 10 years the cumulative sets should in  theory build up enough power to challenge older formats.
Why is this interesting with regard to the way magic players do not accumulate cards today (as opposed to old farts like me 2 decades ago)?  Here's why:

The creation of these 10 year block eternal formats artificially encourages players to accumulate cards and essentially store and build their collection for 10 years... by which time in terms of power level, their collection would very likely be able to challenge decks from older formats.

If this is the intended effect of creating new formats every 10 years... then all i can say  about wotc is that it is brilliant!!

[Note: I wrote this about when Pioneer just started...  and since the bannings... well I have some new thoughts but mostly these thoughts are still the same]