Returning from a break

[ekans_]

Hello people of the internet,

I'm planning on returning to playing again when I'm back from holidays, after a break that started right around the release of strixhaven/modern horizons 2. And I wondered if anything noteworthy happened in the year I was gone. Any major format that broke again? Metagame shifts in modern that happened while I was gone? Has the power- /complexity creep stopped? Any more secret lairs as controversial as the Walking Dead one?

I just wondered if anybody was in a mood to wrap up what I missed, of course I'm aware this forum isn't my personal newsletter, but I thought asking wouldn't do any harm ^^

Edit: Does anybody know what happened to Prowess and the Heliod Combo Decks in modern? They totally dominated in modern when I left, now I cant even find them on goldfishs metagame site.

[stuffnsuch]

I think the complexity creep and power creep aren't gone, but aren't worse than Modern Horizons 2.  There was a pretty big commander set called Double Masters 2022, which was preceded by a not very big, not great for commander set called Commander Legends 2: Dungeons and Dragons - Battle for Baldur's Gate, which, besides the incredibly long title and trying to be a sequel to two separate and unrelated sets, was not really bad, per se, just didn't seem to fit anywhere.  There hasn't been anything as terrible as companions or as complex as mutate for a while, which is nice, but the Innistrad sets had a really unpleasant day/night transform mechanic that really didn't jive well with previous werewolves.  They also released a "special" set called Innistrad Double Feature which included "special" printings from both Innistrad sets.  It was marketed as a curated set, but ended up including every card from both sets, and the "special" printings were just all the original artworks in greyscale.  It was pretty disappointing and too obvious a cash grab.  There are creatures that are also equipment, now, and they don't have equip costs, but rather reconfigure costs.  New Cappena was a three color set that managed to do very little to make each of the 5 color trios feel very special, though there were some impactful cards from the set.  Modern hasn't changed much, though it did change drastically right after Modern Horizons 2, so depending on how long after that you left, everything may look very similar, or drastically different.  Right now, the big discussions I'm hearing about the game are all about "universes beyond" and whether anyone likes it at all, and the upcoming 30 year anniversary, which could be fun, or may be just another opportunity for people to feel disappointed by Wizard's hype not matching their delivery.  Oh, and about Post Malone, who is quite an advocate for the game, it seems.  Anyways, that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  Welcome back, and have fun getting caught up.