Hey everyone! True to my word, I want to keep putting up some thoughts about what is going on in the Magic: the Gathering world, so here is another post just a few days after the last one. If you were unsure of the topic from the title of this post, wonder no more! I have some thoughts on everyone’s favorite gag set… Unstable!

To start off, I want to make my stance perfectly clear about the Un-sets; I do not enjoy them as a product. To be clear, I laugh at some of the cards and they are funny in the sense of “Haha, that would be crazy if I played any format where these were legal” but the reality is that I cannot see myself ever drafting or playing… UnMagic? Casual? Aside from drafting these in a bubble, what good do these cards serve? (Please do not say “because the cards are funny” … I already stated I get the humor.) Honestly, Wizards of the Coast could put these images up as an April Fool’s-like article and I would get the same amount of enjoyment out of them as I do now. Some kind off article would mean I could skip over a spoiler season of cards that will never be useful outside of the time of their printing.

Most people will probably wonder how an EDH enthusiast such as myself would not get excited over something like an Unset. I mean, EDH is THE face of casual formats, right? Unsets are casual Magic created by punmaster Mark Rosewater, right? It should be a match made in Nykthos. But the reality is that Unsets are not legal in any format outside of people saying they can be used at their table or drafts. So even as a “casual format enthusiast,” I still see no benefit from this entire printing.

Just to switch gears for a minute, I would like to highlight that I have seen statements all over the place (on Twitter, on Reddit, on Facebook, etc.) that people feel like this holiday season is saturated with new products. We are still enjoying the release of Ixalan, Commander 2017 is still fresh in our minds and November 2017 has THREE PRODUCTS being released! THREE. PRODUCTS. Then, as if that is not overwhelming enough, there is another product in December and one in January. Over the course of three months, we are going to see five new products released, skip the month of February and then see yet another product released in March and another in April.

Think about that. We are in mid-November right now. Within the next six months, we are going to see seven new products. More products… Than months. That blows my mind. Again, that is not even counting the sets that came out in the past couple of months, either. During a year, we may see nearly 10-12 new products and that is not the norm.

Just to highlight how out of the ordinary this schedule is, after the April product (Dominaria, by the way!) we are going to skip over two months until the next new product (the revitalized Core Set product releases in July) so… How are we going to feel for those two months? Especially after the rush of products we are experiencing right now? After six months of product after product after product, we must go two months and I can only imagine it is going to feel like withdrawal from our favorite drug.

… Get it? Magic is commonly referred to as Cardboard Crack. There is even a webcomic (that is sadly now over) named as such.

I want to wrap this up, but before I do, I want to extend an olive branch to everyone who loves the Unsets. I hope you enjoy the set. I hope it brings you many great memories and laughs at your table. Just because I am not fond of something does not mean it is not fun for others or that I do not want that fun to last for those people. So have your jokes and laughs and I look forward to seeing people smile in pictures of Unreal (HAHA, GET MY FUNNY JOKES?!) board states.