For a Standard event, Pro Tour M15 was pretty entertaining and surprisingly diverse. Let’s hope we can say that for each of the next four Pro Tours, because we have a whole bunch of Standard in front of us for the next year.

While at first glance that may seem like an error, Wizards of the Coast announced the schedule for next year's Pro Tours over the weekend, and it appears that, yes, this is really the future we can look forward to.

On one hand, Block PTs were kind of useless to the vast majority of players, so getting rid of those is probably a net positive (although you could make the case that a low buy-in format is important to highlight in order to compete with free-to-play games like Hearthstone and SolForge).

However, losing the Modern PT hurts, at least for people who like fun. The announcement was met with general revulsion by the Twitter community.

In response to the outcry, Aaron Forsythe explained:

So WOTC is planning to still support Modern, just not on the game's biggest stage. Considering 99 percent of players don't actually play on the Pro Tour, this may not matter for the health of the format. But for those of us who enjoy watching, yeah, it kind of sucks. Modern is a blast to see played and Standard generally is not, with a few exceptions here and there. Forsythe went on to explain further:

So once again, WOTC has introduced a nuclear-level change with incomplete information, not at all anticipating the (what should have been obvious) outcry from the community.

At this point, the best thing the company could do for itself is to hire a public relations firm to handle all these major announcements. This year has been filled with poorly received changes that could have been handled in much more diplomatic ways, heading off at least some of the negative reception.

What Does This Mean for MTG Finance?

Well, first of all, I'm not planning on panic-selling my Modern collection. If you find anyone who is fire selling, feel free to scoop up those cards at a discount. Legacy is not a PT format and it does just fine. If nothing else, the Sunday Star City Games Modern events should help keep the format popular, just as Legacy Opens do for the older format. And the number of Modern GPs has increased in the upcoming year, so that will help.

But also keep in mind that perception is everything. It seems much of the community believes that this is killing the format, so I would be extra cautious buying into Modern cards until we're sure a price crash is not incoming.

If you can buy at a steep discount, by all means, do it. But in general, I think Modern cards are holds anyway. We are in the thick of the summer doldrums, after all, so selling now, especially if there are price decreases, is just asking to be disappointed when prices rebound in the fall. Don't panic—but be careful. We may not see another big Modern year like we did in 2013 and 2014.

As for Standard, perhaps this is an indication that there are going to be big shake-ups in the format with each new set released next year. We're likely looking at a powerful block, which would make sense given Theros block's relative lack of power. I'd be surprised if we saw another Dragon's Maze or Born of the Gods next year—the complaints about a stale Standard would be deafening.

It could also indicate that WOTC is intending to be more liberal with bannings in Standard. This is questionable, since historically they've hated doing such a thing, but it is a possibility. If this turns out to be the case, we'll want to diversify our holdings and not go too deep on any one spec. And if we do, we want to sell as soon as profit is realized, just in case.

It's a Gruul Kind of Week

With Khans of Tarkir confirmed as a three-color wedge set, dual lands are going to be very important after rotation. More and more, I'm thinking that devotion will be less prevalent in post-Return to Ravnica Standard. And although until now I've been focusing on the small-set scry lands, I'm now looking closely at the Theros ones.

I'm always a little wary of getting in on fall set rares, but in this case, it feels extremely safe. With a relatively low spread, a low buy-in price, and two Jund Planeswalker decks in the Top 8 of the PT, I'm extremely bullish on Temple of Abandon.

In the past few years, we've seen Seachrome Coast and Clifftop Retreat increase in price by quite a bit after rotation, despite being from fall sets. Mana fixing will be extremely important in a wedge format, and there will presumably be fewer options for allied colors, given the Apocalypse pain lands in M15.

Last week I expressed my concern about how shock lands didn't perform, but there are a number of mitigating factors there—the Dragon's Maze reprint, mono-colored decks dominating Standard, and their prices never really dropping to the levels we're seeing with the scry lands. I'm feeling more and more comfortable getting in on the scry lands, especially the low-priced Theros ones.

Temple of Silence in particular has an extremely low spread right now, albeit a higher buy-in price:

Another card I mentioned last week was Xenagos, the Reveler. The card received much praise from none other than LSV during the PT, and at about $7, seems like it could be a big contender for Standard staple next year.

I also mentioned Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver as being relatively equal with Xenagos in price potential, but that card did not do anything at the PT and was not well regarded by some of the pros asked about it in interviews. I'm now firmly in the Xenagos-over-Ashiok camp, and will be trading accordingly.

Xenagos and Temple of Abandon are the two cards that are sticking out to me after the PT. Until we know more about Khans of Tarkir, I'm not too anxious to make other predictions about next year's Standard. We still have another month or so to acquire Theros block cards, so keep an eye out for hints as WOTC releases more information about next year's schedule and sets.