Counterfeit cards are certainly a problem that the market has had for a long time now. It makes me wonder if more or less cards would be produced if the marketplace began to see serious instability. For now, we do our best to fight fakes in the market, but the fake cards have become nearly untraceable at their peak quality. It’s already a scary concept.

What’s even more interesting to me – and an inevitability – is what happens when the entire old guard (including Maro) retire or move on from the game? I believe a lot of what has kept the design interesting is the deep creative experience that old team has with the game.

Are they cultivating new talent appropriately? Will the games design and feel shift with the next generation? These are the kinds of questions that I find particularly interesting, as it is a near certainty the game will outlive designers and executives such as Maro and Forsythe.

Honestly, the idea of another company taking over MTG in the future and making new product is terrifying to me. Things such as the Restricted List may be disregarded in favor of reprinted old product, and the marketplace would fold under its own pressure.

You are right though, if a new company were to take over and respect all of the wishes of the community and do things similar to the way Wizards of the Coast does business, then we might be alright.

That could create another problem: the new sets being inferior/overpowered to the current ones,as there’s no way the design team could be kept intact during the change.Making everyone outside of kids or the pro circuit(required to play with the new cards) to play formats using only Wizards cards.

If the sets are good,then this period of incertainity will be replaced by a ressurgence and things go back to normal