Pssh, you youngins.

The correct answer is Fallen Empires / Ice Age / Fourth Edition

Fallen Empires was all chaff, tedious and completely lackluster. FE teed-up the shit. Fourth Edition reprinted a lot of rare, valuable stuff with worse art, and faggoted the tap symbol for no fucking reason. This is when censorship rolled in as well.

Ice Age is when they knew they've got you, and screwed around with the rarities. Also it was clear that this was going forward as a milking operation.

This is all content complaints. A more adult answer would easily say 1999, when Wizards of the Coast got bought by Hasbro. This set the scene for future wokery. I can't exactly explain why, but WotC buying TSR in '97 also rankled. But to buy TSR and then get folded into fucking Hasbro a couple years later is something akin to a war crime.

Pssh, you youngins.

The correct answer is Fallen Empires / Ice Age / Fourth Edition

Fallen Empires was all chaff, tedious and completely lackluster. FE teed-up the shit. Fourth Edition reprinted a lot of rare, valuable stuff with worse art, and faggoted the tap symbol for no fucking reason. This is when censorship rolled in as well.

Ice Age is when they knew they've got you, and screwed around with the rarities. Also it was clear that this was going forward as a milking operation.