Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

In Soviet Zendikar, plane eats eldrazi!

(Even if that's not what ends up happening.)

Sudden plot twist idea for Shadows over Innistrad:

Nahiri is the flip Planeswalker of the block, turns out she was sealed not in the Helvault, but instead inside the 'Neglected Heirloom' mentioned on the double-side card from the spoilers. When that flips over - BOOM! - Nahiri escapes.

But what is the neglected heirloom? Sorin's sword, maybe? The weird red jewel (?) thing in his chest? A great mystery indeed...

I doubt it's anything that's part of Sorin's normal outfit, since that would make it far more difficult for it to be neglected.

True enough, Sorin does get some good use out of his sword.

So, this is a thing now.

"The land promises nothing and keeps that promise." ~Oracle en-Vec

<.< I love using these releases like refresher courses. Do I remember what X is on this card? What about that one?

Oracle en-Vec...the name follows the distinctive pattern of naming conventions from...uh...Rath! It's Rath. "il-Vec" means you support the Phyrexian rulership, "en-Vec" identifies you as a rebel. So the Oracle must be a village oracle from the rebel forces arrayed against Phyrexia on Rath prior to the plane's forced merger with Dominaria!

~.~ So I correctly deduced the position, but forgot all about the Korvecdal and the oracle's important role in the plot. I was close!

edited 15th Feb '16 8:50:11 AM by TobiasDrake

Decklists for Duel Decks: Blessed vs. Cursed

Oh boy, Eternal Masters!

My wallet's gonna love that...

I understand on some level why they're doing it this way, but something about doing 'Eternal Masters' while the Reserved List is still in effect feels a little hollow.

Just what would it take for them to do away with the Reserved List? Someone with too much time and money on their hands buying up all the copies of a given card on the reserve list and effectively removing it from use unless Wizards breaks their no-reprint policy?

Because I'd be lying if I said I hadn't amusingly imagined the idea of, if I had more money than I knew what to do with, I'd be half tempted to try just that.

edited 15th Feb '16 10:37:33 AM by TheSpaceJawa

My assumption is that many reserved list cards are owned by former Wizards employees, and that is the secret constituency keeping the list alive.

Maybe if every new player made a pact to just pretend every card on the reserve list doesn't exist. You can't get your hands on the damn things anyway.

For those cards to be considered playable by R&D.

The Reserved List isn't, "These cards specifically can't be reprinted." It's, "Whatever this card does, NEVER AGAIN."

It's not just that you can't reprint Black Lotus specifically. You can't make a card that's identical to Black Lotus either. It's the effect of Black Lotus, what it does to the game, that is banned forever - not the existence of a card named Black Lotus.

Sometimes it's because the effect is utterly ridiculous like Chaos Orb or City in a Bottle. Sometimes it's just because the card is insanely overpowered, like Ancestral Recall. Whatever the reason, R&D doesn't want it to ever touch the game's balance again, and the only reason it would be considered for removal from the Reserved List is if Wizards decided that the card could provide a positive effect to the game environment.

edited 15th Feb '16 11:02:02 AM by TobiasDrake

No, you're very incorrect. It is a specific list of cards they cannot reprint. Power level was not a consideration.

From the horse's mouth:

edited 15th Feb '16 11:04:45 AM by TobiasDrake

Yes, but that is not what you said.

It gets especially silly when you realize that - if I'm not mistaken - there's at least one card on the list that is a white 2/2 flying bird on the reserved list.

Which means that Wizards can never again print a white 2/2 flying bird.

Not that have any belief that anyone is asking for them to print a new card like that, but I think it serves to underscore just how ridiculous the whole thing is as it stands.

edited 15th Feb '16 11:06:21 AM by TheSpaceJawa

MrShine is correct. It was created to preserve the value of older cards, not to balance the game.

For example:

• Thunder Spirit: on the reserve list.
• Sky Spirit: not on the reserve list, because it's UW rather than monowhite.
• Voiceless Spirit: not on the reserve list, because it's got a slightly different mana cost and one point lower toughness.

This. The reserve List was made specifically as a promise from Wizards to the Collectors back when the game was still young. "We won't reprint these particular cards ever again so you guys don't have to worry about the price of them dropping due to higher availability".

And that is the very reason for why they have been so adamant about not abolishing it, because doing so would break said promise and damage their integrity with a non-insignificant portion of the playerbase.

edited 15th Feb '16 11:08:36 AM by LeChuck4

Question: How many reserved list cards are now utterly obsolete due to a Strictly Better version being printed?

Probably quite a few. But for every white 2/2 bird, there's probably a Tolarian Academy.

How could you hope to match the awesome power of Farmstead?

Another tidbit that I'm going to copy+paste from what I already wrote out elsewhere:

"Another thing of note - I hope that, assuming this is successful (because it's hard to imagine it not, all other things aside), this doesn't wind up turning the summer supplemental set into a yearly "Modern/Eternal Masters Reprint set" release. Commander, as much as I love it, has already taken over the fall supplemental set release that was originally intended to be a yearly multiplayer release, and if I'm not mistaken this will mean that for the past four years we've seen Modern Masters I/Conspiracy/Modern Masters II/Eternal Masters, and I could easily see them doing Modern Masters III next year and Eternal Masters II the year after that for a MM/EM/MM/EM schedule with no room for any fun, goofy sets like Conspiracy or even the possibility of finding room for another Un set in future summer releases should they decide to give that another shot."

"Unless they wind up finding space somehow for another yearly release schedule slot specifically for unconventional stuff and turn the summer supplemental release set into the year "X Masters" reprint set release, though there's honestly only so much space for yearly releases."

Which release slot did Conspiracy sit in?

I thought it sat in the spring/summer release slot that Modern Masters used last year and Eternal Masters is using this year.

If I'm wrong on that it would probably do away with that particular worry about this and future MM releases.