Magic should have Non-Canon Sets
This is just a thought I keep having with all of these recent Magic sets we're seeing, that are a very shallow premise with a coat of Magic the Gathering brand paint over them.
Detective Noir
Wild West
Death Race
All of these have issues because they have to be taken seriously within the overall story of the game.
I'd love if they would drop the idea that these sets had to be canon.
Murder's at Karlov Manor (Detective Set) was alright, it had a compelling mystery with a good twist, and characters that existed previously died for reasons that made sense in the story.
The main problem was everyone on the cards was a detective now for some reason. Like everyone. The guy who runs the assassin guild? Detective. The elemental that exists to persue science? Detective. Zombies, ghosts, everything else? Detectives for some reason?
Thunder Junction (Cowboy Set) and Aetherdrift (Racecar Set) have other. Every character you know has plot armor and cannot die, and anyone that does die is either unnamed or brand new to the story so they aren't important.
And Thunder Junction was marketed as the 'Villains Set', but we just got out of a large story arc, and other well known villains are still 'defeated' (not dead, but out of the picture for now) so some of the villains that do show up are either uninteresting or out of place.
Now imagine these set's didn't have to be canon. Now it isn't so weird that everyone is a detective, and you can give more justification for it with a more focused story, that doesn't have to worry about the future. Important, relevant, and beloved characters could potentially die in stories that don't have to worry about their 'big moment' in a few years, characters that are currently out of action could show up, giving real beloved villains a chance to show up and make a splash!
We could get cards like Nicol Bolas, Spark Wrangler, or Elesh Norn, Oil Barroness! The Death Race could have more faces we know, duking it out for a grand prize, and failing in spectacular ways, until you crown the winner! The Detective set can have even larger stakes, with known characters dropping like flies while everyone else frantically tries to put together the pieces of the puzzle!
Duskmorne, the 'Haunted House Set' did a decent job of this in the story! Each of the main heroes had a little get out of jail free card that would trigger when the would make a decision that would kill them, and send them back to before they made the decision. Several of the characters had horrible deaths that occurred due to how they handled a situation, but then we snapped back to right before that happened. It made the threat feel so much more real, and the story was one of my favorites as a result! What was shown on the cards had it's own problems but Duskmorne played with the idea of an 'alternate reality' in a way that rocked, even if it was brief.
You can keep the cards legal in standard, and it would make these out of place sets more whimsical than exasperating! It won't happen but I'd love to imagine the world where it did!