Standard Ban Update scraped a week early from the site.
Banned things that would have previously rotated next standard set (Before they announced the new 3-year rotation): Fable of the Mirror-breaker, Invoke Despair, Raffine Scheming Seer, Reckoner Bankbuster, The Wandering Emperor, Wedding Announcement
Banned things that wouldn't have rotated: Atraxa Grand Unifier, Plaza of Heroes.
I am pretty okay with it. Shit that has long overstayed its welcome (and previously would have been going away soon anyway), plus a couple cards that are either cancerous or would probably be top-dog without the other shit anyway.
We're basically moving to Yugioh "soft rotation," so expect the top tier decks to get nuked each summer. Or they'll release a standard event deck version of the good deck to harvest some profit, then ban it next summer.
"We couldn't get the money from the open license, so we had to find some, or Hasbro would have our heads"They also just raised prices on their Dungeons and Dragons books.
His son was a bit protective of his dad's work but not that much. Once he died, basically all of Tolkien's IP is now managed almost exclusively by lawyers, which should be enough to tell you what will happen.
Letter 190 is Tolkien saying don't change any of his shit for any reason, and basically goes off on the guy asking. So no, there's no way he'd approve of what WOTC is doing. Not that WOTC cares one way or the other.
Also Tolkien's grandson is in charge, he is a failed author who only got published once he dropped his pen name and used "Tolkien". He is really salty about that and doesn't ming sabotaging his grandfather's work for cash.His son was a bit protective of his dad's work but not that much. Once he died, basically all of Tolkien's IP is now managed almost exclusively by lawyers, which should be enough to tell you what will happen.
2 million apparently... And...Well its up to 1 million for the ring now.