[Rumors?] D&D 4th edition fans will become the new grognards

[Glinthall]

No, the thing with Magic is that in any official game, you can only use cards from the most recent sets. Compare the D&D Encounters program, that indeed only allows you to make characters using the most recent books.

And it's not the case that every Magic set is more powerful than the preceding one; if anything, they're weaker than the first few sets. Of course, that holds for 4.4 as well: most of it is significantly weaker than the 4.0 stuff. It's not a bad comparison, really.

Man, passively following gaming can come back and bite you if you suddenly try to actively jump into it.

Most of my Magic experience comes from pick up games at a scout summer camp when the strongest card anyone had was "Lord of the Pit" (7/7 flying trample). At that time, my friends were complaining about how fourth edition revised removed the burning pentagram from "Unholy Strength."

My only Encounters experience was right after Player's Handbook Three was released. At that event, using the new book was encouraged (players were given bonus points for doing so) but not enforced. I didn't realize that official events now require using only the most recent releases.

Thanks for updating me on Wizards' sponsored events policies. Luckily, as a passive gamer, I don't have to worry too much about those. Now, as long as fifth edition doesn't get released with Wizards' secret edition ninjas that make customers burn all old source material, I won't whine too loud about what it might contain.