Magic the Gathering is an old card game, created in 1993. It was the original collectible card game, and as you can expect, it's earliest incarnation had some definite limitations. The fact that it's lasted this long (over 15 years) can not be attributed to a sturdy game design. Instead, I think it's endurance has more to do with capable management and handling with a deep rooted vein in conceptualizing popular themes in fantasy. The huge great sweeping M10 rules change was an attempt to prevent complexity creep. But more routine management is needed for maintain a game as a business. Running games, that is that games that are routinely updated and sold in waves, almost inevitably have one sweeping problem: Power Creep.
As a business, the main goals is to stay in business. When creating a game, the main goal is to make an enjoyable experience for the players. If no one buys your product, your business fails and if you fail to make the experience enjoyable, people won't play your game. But if you have a running game, you have to release game parts that are compatible with older iterations and still give people incentive to buy them. One way to do this, a very easy way, is to release cards that are strictly better than previous ones. (In the card world) this creates a situation where although older cards technically work, anyone who fails to buy your newest release will be at a distinct disadvantage. The release of strictly better cards with each iteration is Power Creep, as the power level of the cards released steadily raises in an effort to attract players to buy newer cards.
Power Creep is seductive in that it literally gives most players what they want, stronger and cheaper cards. But it is destructive to the fun game play over the long run. As cards get cheaper in their playing cost, the individual matches get shorter and more explosive. Players often want cards that decrease the variability of their shuffled deck, but releasing too many cards that allow them search for cards leads to matches that are no longer randomized and that are overly predictable. Most often, whatever players want 
most is bad for the game overall because players think strictly of ways they can card-for-card improve their play.While the cards used in most recent Magic sets are stronger than the majority of early sets, they have done a decent job of avoiding Power Creep. They largely accomplished this by by doing two things: setting baseline 'standards' and rotating themes. The core sets, are often the place where 'standards' cards are released. An example is the Grizzly Bears card, one that has been in core sets since the beginning. For for the cost of 1 colored mana and 1 mana of any color (listed at the top right of the card) you get a creature that has 2 attack points and 2 hit points. All other new cards that are similar are only allowed to be slightly better than Grizzly Bears. For instance Wild Mongrel is a card based off Grizzly Bears. It has the same cost and the same stats but it has an extra ability, an ability so good that it unexpectedly became a power house card to play on the second turn. Wild Mongrel is strictly better than Grizzly Bears, but it did not become the new standard. Many sets (and bear lookalikes later) Ashcoat Bear was released. Just like all other cards on the 'bear standard' it is meant to be only slightly better than the standardized Grizzly Bears. Magic does this with all basic creatures and all basic effects it deems central to the game.
Although releasing cards that continuously get better than the same base card prevents the game from getting Power Creep, by itself it doesn't encourage the sales of newer sets. Which is why Magic rotates themes. Each set and block (3 related sets) tie together by focusing on certain playing styles or concentrations on certain game zones. For instance, one of the reasons Wild Mongrel was so good was that it was released in a block that rewarded players for having many cards in their discard pile (graveyard). It also followed a block where players were rewarded for playing cards of multiple colors. Had Wild Mongrel been released in a a block based around artifact cards (such as Mirrodin) it wouldn't have been as exciting. Magic rotates these themes and markets them as a fun new way to play the game. It also uses the rotation to discontinue the cards from popular tournament play a few years after their introduction. This allows them to generate excitement by releasing cards strictly better than the standards (which most tournament players have) reissued in the core set.
One of the most drastic changes in this upcoming core set is the removal of the standard Wrath of God, a card that was so hyper efficient at mass creature removal that could not be improved upon without risking Power Creep. Every white colored tournament deck would often include the maximum number of Wrath of God cards over the newly released Wrath-variants because they were often more specific and more expensive to play cards than the standard. Wrath of God has been so strongly ingrained in core sets that it's often been seen as one of the few reasons to actually buy core set cards. In its place, they put what would otherwise be seen as a new Wrath-variant.
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