The Simplest Resolution to the SL Downshift Issue

In the post announcing that the downshifts would be legal and the PFP will get some amount of integration in future downshifts, Gavin Verhey stated that the playability of Zeta packs was not considered, they were not looked at by designers and were made purely as a product to sell.

This leaves us with an incredibly simple fix for every single upcoming potential SL Set, don't alter the printed rarity of the cards. It does not really matter what rarity is printed on the card in a SL Booster, all that matters is the rarity slot it is assigned within the pack. Cut Down doesn't need to be printed with a C on it and called a common to simply take a common slot in the packs.

To address the only potential issue with this, would it cause confusion for people opening the packs or attempting to draft with the packs since they are TECHNICALLY draftable? The answer is no/who even cares. The 12 packs per customer means it is quite literally impossible to open a full set without circumventing the limit, so the idea of having a understanding for which card is in which slot doesn't really matter.

The draftablity is also meaningless, cards are selected in a draft based on quality not rarity. While there is a small room for miscommunication about how likely a card would be to reappear, this isn't a consistently draftable set that could have any hopes to form a meta over it's draft season. It doesn't matter if you can immediately tell how likely you are to see a second Gigantosaurus, and if you desperately need to know in your maximum of two drafts you could participate in with the max packs you can buy then you could look up what slot each card is taking up.

Finally we also know that cards like Ultrom Monitor and Go for the Throat were intentionally planted into the pauper format with their downshifts. These were conscious decisions to print cards that exist outside of normal rarity as commons. If WotC are going to go above and beyond to intentionally plant cards INTO the pauper format, it's very easy to intentionally remove cards from potential consideration as well. Pauper is still ultimately probably the 4th biggest format in MTG, depending on the era 3rd with what's been happening consistently with standard. Everyone at WotC should know that printing a card at common is the entire basis for its inclusion in the format. Just don't print them as commons next time.