Standard is going to kill this game.

Damien

I think the main reason I'm playing now is just habit and I'm curious to see what they eventually do with dupes. 

speakupaskanswer

But eventually, R&D came to the realization that if we didn’t ever have any rotation of any kind, if all cards just stayed in the format, the format was going to break under the weight of it. Or it’s going to have major power issues and just get overpowered. [...]
And they came up with the idea of “What if we have--the main format we push—one of the formats we push…” At the time we didn’t know it would be the main one I guess, although I’m sure we wanted it to be. Was a format that constantly was rotating. And it was a very radical idea. I mean, once again, whenever the message was “Hey, you can’t play cards you own,” that never goes over well. [...]
But this was the one that my memory is—I mean, there were people who were just—I mean, I guess whenever there’s a big controversy, people threaten to quit the game, and all sorts of stuff, but this one was super serious because people…
It’s funny now, because looking back, looking at Standard—I mean, Standard now is the most popular format by leaps and bounds. I think people understand kind of the richness of Standard and how it lets people get into the game, and how it keeps things constantly fresh so that the environment’s changing, is what makes deckbuilding a lot of fun is not that it’s exactly the same all the time. And if you want formats that don’t change as much, we have older formats that do that, that are a little more static in how they work. But it’s nice to have the main format be pretty dynamic so you’re constantly changing things.
But at the time, it is very, very easy to see the negative, because the  negative was immediate, and the positive was less obvious and long-term. And so the players are like “What? I can’t play with my cards? I don’t like that.” And like a lot of the things that Standard would go on to do, it was hard to see at the time.
And I was in R&D, I was behind the walls, I was definitely—although I wasn’t there yet. But I mean, as a member of R&D, now, I can look back and like “Oh, I get where they were coming from. I understand.” I mean, obviously we all see why they did it, but it’s something where when you really understand the motivation behind it, you get it, but it’s hard sometimes. And that the players are very focused on the here and now, as they should be, it’s not their job to worry about the game a year from now or two years from now or ten years from now. Their job is to enjoy the game right now. And right now, not letting me play all my cards, it’s a big downer. And rightfully—I mean, I understand why they were upset. I think we did the right thing.

Mark Rosewater: Twenty Things That Were Going to Kill Magic

 Do I think that D3 has as much foresight and planning as Wizards had all those years ago? Clearly not. But the outcry here seems disproportionate. The execution of Standard is probably less than perfect (as with most changes in this game), but the idea is a logical conclusion. In most cases, I don't think you can compare paper MtG with PQ but I am convinced the new format is the only way to keep this game healthy.