There is only one way to play Magic

Magic the Gathering is flippin' ridiculous.

If they did 2 expansions a year, it would be boarderline too much for me to play. They do 5 expansions with every couple of years hitting a magic moment when they do 6 expansions in one year. That is just blatant stupidity. You have to commit to that game and no other if you want to play Magic. I am not up for that. What you get is cycles of players coming and going through Magic instead of a steady stream of fans. You get those reports if you read and listen to interviews. "this expansion had a lot of return players, we hope the next one does too" then you read "our return players left and we were left with the core players."

The only way to play Magic is to come in during the start of a block, buy a ton of whatever "edition" they're on, and play that block only. By the time the next block rolls around in 7 months, all your players and friends will be sick of buying cards and will look and say "so all those cards I just bought... are... old? WTF?" And then you move on to the next game you want to play.

Anything else will just cause tension and hatred as some friends decide to skip this block but keep playing with new cards. Some will want to play only the new block. These blocks are made in a way where a new mechanic must be used to compete, so now its the haves and the have nots. Great for Wizard when you read it on paper, forcing players to buy the new stuff. Horrible in the long run for keeping people around.

These are the same guys trying to find a way to make the cheapest game on the planet(D&D) profitable by releasing 1/3rd set of books a year so you only get the full game in 3 years. So I'm not surprised. Just frustrated. Because I like Magic. Its just too far beyond itself. There is no casual playing of Magic. Only degrees of hardcore.