Wizards announced on Tuesday that the order in which packs are opened during booster drafts will be reversed beginning with Mirrodin Besieged. This means that rather than the latest set being added at the end of the three packs, it will now be the first pack opened.

Aaron Forsythe answered some questions in the article:

Q: What's the reasoning behind this change?

Forsythe: This decision came from the challenges of designing small sets to make them relevant in draft. It's always been a challenge because of how subservient they are to what you've drafted in the large set. So we figured we could solve that problem and keep Limited environments more fresh and exciting by just switching the order around.

Q: What do you see as the benefits of the change? What about the drawbacks?

Forsythe: The newer set will have more relevance, because you'll have to evaluate those cards on their own merits rather than on how they fit it in to what you've already drafted. The negative is that you don't get to carry over a lot of earned knowledge when the second set comes out, although good players will see that as a positive. It's going to reward constant adaptation. The only other negative is that change is difficult.

Q: Why did you decide to leave the drafting order of existing formats as it is?

Forsythe: Magic's got a lot of history. I think it's important to let the historical record stand. We could still have weekend events where we try old formats in the new order. But when people want to go back and re-experience something they have fond memories of, we should just let them do that.

Q: Why make this change now?

Forsythe: The current drafting order has been in place since at least Mirage, maybe even Ice Age, but the Magic R&D veterans said they'd never heard anybody question it. After talking with lots of people, drafting the new set first makes so much sense that I'm surprised it hasn't been brought up before.

Original announcement at Wizards.com