I know Magic tends to be a magnet for sarcasm and negativity, but I have to confess that in the last few years, the Magic designers have blown me away with their ability to make new and compelling cards every single set.
In years past, there might be a handful of cards that would get my attention, and maybe only 1-2 that were Vintage playable, but it seems recently they have really hit the ball out of the park.
I mostly only play casual, vintage cube, and pre-releases these days, but I still follow Magic closely and still look at each new set for cool playables to put into my infinitely sized cube (32 player cube, sure!!). I used to grab maybe 3-4 cards every set. Now I am finding my cube being overrun with "modern bordered cards." I've been averaging 20-35 cards on my "watch list" the last few sets.
If you are a Johnny, it's the best of years. If you are a Spike, every set you've got something new to work with, and if you are a Timmy....well, have creatures ever been this cool???!! Just look at the Single Card Discussion group these days. It used to be 1-2 breakouts and then a ton of people really trying to stretch play-ability. Now I can barely keep up with all the threads, and many of them are quite viable!
Now if we could just get something done about those borders and artwork.........either way, what a great time to be a Magic player!