More Slowly Institute Color Theme Shifts
This is perhaps the simplest fix and the one that would have the most immediate impact. By changing the speed at which color theme shifts are implemented Wizards could do two things.

First, it would solve the all or nothing phenomenon discussed above. Second it would help Wizards more effectively make new theme cards in the new color. Instead of merely hypothesizing that Pianna and her officers would impact OBC, only to have nothing happen, Wizards could see what the shift cards need and address the problem in the next set. Imagine what would have happened in OnBC, if after seeing the mess that was made in OBC, Wizards gave White some disruption or acceleration. These new abilities combined with an appropriately synergistic theme, soldiers, could have made White a contender again.

Now, two blocks after the OBC mess, Wizards tries another quick fix to the problem - adding Equipment, only to boost decks that slaughter White Weenie (Affinity). These design"surges" have ruined White. Each new attempt is a gamble that has failed, and because so many cards are related to the fix they fail on a Custer-like scale. Wizards is not implementing color shifts with enough time and patience to correct for mistakes and as a result the colors are grossly imbalanced, with Green prospering with each new shift and White taking it on the chin.

Wizards needs to slowly and gradually shift to new themes. They also need to pick up on shifts that are not working. White needs another 2/2 for WW with a combat ability about as much as George W. Bush needs a stutter. The idea that you can make a tournament viable deck with efficient creatures yet no disruption is obviously wrong. Either they need to pump up these creatures more (but how can this be done given the existence of incredibly efficient cards like Savannah Lions and Leonin Skyhunter?) or give White something else like disruption, removal, evasion or acceleration.

One thing that Wizards has only briefly experimented with is White's rules making capacity, a theme which is innately powerful. Cards like Windborn Muse and Rule of Law need to be taken to the next step, and provide White's weenie theme with some good support. The capacity to alter the rules can be tremendously powerful. White could limit extra draws per turn, limit the number of lands play, limit which creatures can attack, and so on. There is virtually nothing that is off limits for White if it is approached through White's rules making theme. Wizards needs to do something - White has been awful longer than any other color in the history of the game. Aside from the Rebel deck era and Slide, White has been virtually unplayable in any Block Constructed format or in Standard (apart from Wrath of God) since Swords to Plowshares rotated out in 1997. That is seven years of weak cards, with two small hiatuses in between. It is time to change how abilities are shifted around the color pie.

Reprinting Core Card Types
This was touched above. Now we will make it explicit. This suggestion is not even a reform. They do this anyway. The point here is that they need to be careful when doing it. Reprint the COPs or other bland cards is not that much of a help. Reprinting or tweaking cards like Duress or Counterspell is. These cards, much like Force of Will in Vintage, prevent formats from spiraling out of control under the pressures of one or two cards. If Wizards is sure that there is no undue problem caused by leaving out a card type, that is fine, but if OnBC is any indication of what happens when they do this on purpose, the idea should be abandoned. One moderately efficient counter type spell would have helped balance out the environment immensely. Look what happened when Stifle was printed. U/W came into power based solely on an incredibly narrow counterspell.

There seem to be some basic abilities that should never be ignored, except after very extensive testing. They are:

1) Cheap, caster controlled single card discard;

2) Three or four mana spot creature removal (remember how balancing Repulse was in IBC compared to the super efficient Black removal in OBC?)

3) Efficient land control

4) Semi effective counterspells

5) Artifact and enchantment removal in more than two colors.

If these basic card types were present in every format and were fairly distributed the possibility of Thawing Glaciers, Pros Bloom, Cursed Scroll, and Lightning Rift type problems would decrease greatly. Wizards already does this to some extent, but they need to be more thorough about it. Failure in any one of these categories could be incredibly problematic and lead to a situation where cards like Stabilizer are required.

Changing the PT Schedule
Here is another incredibly simply solution to the staleness of Block Constructed: give us non-Pros a first crack at the format. By giving non-Pros first access Wizards lets us play with the cards and explore without the cutthroat conditions of preparing for a Pro Tour. Even if we don't find the right decks, we will have fun looking around. By giving the cards to the Pros first, Wizards is essentially releasing to us a format with much fewer cards. The Pros generally weed out between 50-60% of the cards in a given block format leaving us with no more than 350 cards to really explore and work with.

If the Block Constructed qualifier was before the Block Constructed PT, the average player would have more incentive to explore and more appreciation of the block itself. Furthermore, forcing the Pros to play a"stale" format is nothing new. By the time the PT arrives, every PT format is stale. After all they are getting paid to play, while we do the exact opposite.

The excitement over a new block that occurs prior to States could be expanded by having Block Constructed be the next qualifier season. This means that what happened this year - the players reveling in Mirrodin in general and Affinity in particular - could be spread out for months. The result would be more player activity and exploration and as a side result more sales of the new sets. If players knew that cards purchased in September would be the focus of Magic for the next three months in a way that allows for continuous development and playtesting, they would be more willing to invest initially and more likely to invest more later on.

Changing the PT schedule would give us more ability to explore and would probably lead to increased sales due to focused attention on the new cards. Having Extended as the next qualifier season is an awful idea. Wizards essentially buries the new cards just released in a heap of older, more powerful cards for two months right after they are released (though this year's Extended season was an aberration, due to a mistake made after Worlds in which Tinker was not banned). Staying on message for a long time would almost certain increase sales. Even if this scheduling change is not implemented I think the Block Constructed PT absolutely must take place when all three sets are released. The small cardpool problem reaches dangerous levels when only two of the three sets are available.

Better Testing
This goes without saying, sort of like that sage advice - don't do something stupid. For all the reasons we have discussed, errors in Block Constructed are incredibly hard to ameliorate. As such there needs to be better testing of block formats. There are certain things that we hope this letter makes obvious. Wizards needs to be on the look out for them. If they combine their own internal rules for when cards should be banned or restricted along with the suggestions made about to filter out dangerous cards in block we will see less problems, have more diverse formats, and have a more enjoyed way to spend our money

Conclusion
Magic is an amazing game. It has flourished for more than ten years and the block structure is part of the reason for its success. It is also the source of the biggest problems the game faces: prebuilt decks, broken mechanics and themes, and ridiculous imbalances in the distribution of good cards across the colors. These problems have indisputably ruined UBC, OBC, MBC, and OnBC. The formats became stale coin flip matches nearly instantaneously. Other formats have been close to ruined: TBC, Mivi Lite, IABC, and thus far MirBC. Only one Block Constructed format remained a vital and thrilling format the entire season - IBC, as is shown by the sheer number of different decks that won throughout the qualifier season.

Wizards Block Constructed track record over a period of more than seven years is terrible. As Limited takes a larger role in Magic, there are now only two Constructed formats and eight out of nine times, one of them stinks. With a few different steps Wizards could dramatically improve Constructed Block. Furthermore, fixing these problems could address a number of problems that touch every facet of Magic. Wizards needs to take action to fix Block Constructed.

There is little worry that this letter will be ignored. Phil's stats were insightful. They provide the evidence for my arguments and conclusions. Furthermore, the last letter was clearly heeded by Wizards. This is our game and they listen to us. It is this commitment to us the players, that, above all else, has sustained this game. Mark Rosewater and the rest of the www.magicthegathering.com people have changed this game. We owe it to them to keep them apprised of our opinions of what is working and what is not. Any change to Block Constructed format would be welcome, and though their track record with the format stinks, their track record at addressing problems is second to none.

Appendix
Cards Sorted Greatest-to-Least Appearances
420 Mountain
233 Forest
5 Swamp
2 Island
2 Plains

154 Electrostatic Bolt - Highest Red Card
139 Darksteel Citadel - Highest Nonbasic Land
139 Solemn Simulacrum - Highest Artifact Card
137 Great Furnace
117 Blinkmoth Nexus
116 Arc Slogger
106 Shatter
105 Fireball
104 Detonate
104 Furnace Dragon
104 Pyrite Spellbomb
102 Shrapnel Blast
100 Disciple Of The Vault - Highest Black Card
100 Frogmite
100 Skullclamp
98 Oxidize - Highest Green Card
97 Vault Of Whispers
92 Arcbound Ravager
90 Glimmervoid
84 Myr Enforcer
80 Viridian Shaman
74 Arcbound Worker
72 Terror
70 Talisman Of Indulgence
67 Ornithopter
66 Flamebreak
63 Echoing Ruin
57 Welding Jar
52 Cloudpost
50 Damping Matrix
50 Talisman Of Impulse
51 Chromatic Sphere
49 Pulse Of The Forge
48 Molten Rain
48 Tel-Jilad Chosen
51 Seat Of The Synod
44 Tree Of Tales
39 Thoughtcast - Highest Blue Card
38 Duplicant
36 Grab The Reins
36 Tooth Of Chiss-Goria
34 Oblivion Stone
34 Stalking Stones
32 Genesis Chamber
32 Myr Retriever
30 Troll Ascetic
29 Pulse Of The Tangle
28 Molder Slug
27 Atog
23 Somber Hoverguard
21 Mindslaver
21 Talisman Of Unity
20 Barbed Lightning
20 Chalice Of The Void
20 Reap And Sow
20 Sylvan Scrying
20 Tooth And Nail
19 AEther Vial
19 Fangren Firstborn
19 Karstoderm
19 Scale Of Chiss-Goria
17 Culling Scales
16 Slith Firewalker
16 Viridian Zealot
16 Vulshok War Boar
13 Seething Song
12 Deconstruct
12 Predator's Strike
12 Shunt
12 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
12 Thirst For Knowledge
11 Glissa Sunseeker
11 Mirrodin's Core
10 Echoing Decay
10 Myr Moonvessel
10 Platinum Angel
9 Arcbound Stinger
9 Chrome Mox
8 Annul
8 Bloodscent
8 Hum Of The Radix
8 Thought Prison
7 Trinisphere
6 Broodstar
5 Darksteel Colossus
5 Leonin Abunas - Highest and ONLY White Card
5 Sword Of Fire And Ice
5 Sword Of Light And Shadow
4 AEther Spellbomb
4 Darksteel Forge
4 Drooling Ogre
4 Journey Of Discovery
4 Lightning Greaves
4 Override
3 Isochron Scepter
3 Krark-Clan Stoker
3 Megatog
2 Barter In Blood
2 Dismantle
2 Needlebug
2 Plated Slagwurm
2 Savage Beating
2 Spawning Pit
2 Talisman Of Dominance
2 Unforge
1 Ancient Den
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Neurok Hoversail
1 One Dozen Eyes
1 Pulse Of The Dross
1 Stand Together

Pro Tour Kobe Top 64
1. Mono Red Control
2. TwelvePost
3. Mono Red Control
4. Affinity
5. Mono Red Control
6. Mono Red Control
7. Affinity
8. Mono Red Control
9. Affinity
10. Affinity
11. TwelvePost
12. Mono Red Control
13. Mono Green Beats
14. RG Beats
15. Mono Green Beats
16. Affinity
17. Mono Red Control
18. Mono Red Control
19. Mono Red Control
20. Affinity
21. Mono Green Beats
22. Mono Red Control
23. Mono Green Beats
24. Mono Red Control
25. Mono Red Control
26. Mono Red Control
27. Affinity
28. TwelvePost
29. Affinity
30. Mono Red Control
31. Mono Red Control
32. TwelvePost
33. Mono Red Control
34. TwelvePost
35. Affinity
36. Affinity
37. Affinity
38. Affinity
39. Mono Red Control
40. RG Control
41. RG Control
42. Affinity
43. Affinity
44. RG Control
45. Affinity
46. Mono Red Control
47. RG Control
48. Affinity
49. Affinity
50. Affinity
51. Affinity
52. Affinity
53. RG Control
54. Affinity
55. Affinity
56. RG Control
57. RG Control
58. RG Control
59. Affinity
60. Mono Red Control
61. Mono Red Control
62. Mono Red Control
63. Affinity
64. Affinity

Summary
25 Affinity
21 Mono Red Control
8 RG Control
5 TwelvePost
4 Mono Green Beats
1 RG Beats