[Free Article] Insider Trading - The Cost of Cards: The Rise of Magic’s Popularity (P

[jrsthethird]

Big money cards that could see reprinting in a standard-legal set without power level concerns. Note that with the Mythic Rare technology they have now I would expect most, if not all, of these cards to be at that rarity and least $40 while they're in Standard. It might hurt but it opens up more people to the format and over time the benefit will offset the cost:

Mox Diamond - They have been printing mana at the cost of card advantage in standard over the past few years without any problems. This isn't far from the power level of Chrome Mox, and with it rotating out this year, reintroducing a Mox might be a good call (look at the fetches; once the old ones rotated, Wizards printed new ones).

Chains of Mephisopheles - Only problem with this is that the wording is a little clunky. They could make a reprint without the somewhat confusing last two sentences (this version would allow you to discard the card you drew).

Grim Tutor - Diabolic Tutor is in M10, same thing, except trading 3 life for 1 mana.

Juzam Djinn - They printed Plague Sliver, also looking at guys like Abyssal Persecutor and Woolly Thoctar he seems weak.

Loyal Retainers - Not out of color (Ressurection anyone?); this is 1 mana cheaper but has a restriction in both type of creature and speed, and it can be killed before you get a chance to use him. I expect Columbus to really open up Wizards' eyes on price-level of Legacy and this is one of the first cards I think they should reprint.

Old Man of the Sea - Why not? Seems pretty bad compared to recent stuff like Sower, Shackles, and Threads.

Strategic Planning - Just another Impulse variant (like Telling Time). Should not be $60; card seems like it would be considerably useful in a Turbo-Thresh deck, and very good in Extended.

Word of Command - With Mindslaver and Sorin around, this is child's play, and a great card to fit into black's flavor. This is the card I would like to see put into M11 the most.

Zodiac Dragon - This guy should have been in FTV:Dragons. Could make Sneak Attack viable in Legacy if he were widely available.

A couple crappy cards that could work:
Marshaling the Troops - Flavor doesn't make too much sense here, but in the right block it might work. Card should probably be left alone since it sucks. Easily could be functionally reprinted at uncommon or as a bulk rare.
Mirror Universe - 6 mana for a marginally useful effect, that can be destroyed before it ever does anything? You could make a useless Mirror deck in standard with this and Mirror of Fate.
Overwhelming Forces - $60 for a Decree of Pain without cycling? Wouldn't even get played since it's too narrow and expensive.
Wolf Pack - Wow....this guy is terrible compared to Thorn Elemental. $40????

Money cards that could be in FTV: Relics (not necessarily good in Legacy, but still old and expensive)
Candelabra of Tawnos
Mox Diamond
Forcefield
Gauntlet of Might
Grindstone
Lion's Eye Diamond
Mirror Universe
Phyrexian Dreadnought

Imperial Recruiter doesn't have power level concerns, just unfortunately out-of-color. Color shifting wouldn't help either since Imperial Painter is red. =/

This list was compiled using SCG prices of $30+ (except Grindstone)

Also Duel Decks with dual lands (kind of cute to say) would work but it would be hard for them to sell them the way the previous DDs have been sold. They wouldn't be at $20 MSRP, they can't sell them at Wal-Mart because people will wait at mass-market stores for the truck to come in and buy them all at $20. This is one of the big draws I think Wizards is trying to do with DDs...it's a good splashy product to sell at mass-market stores to people who are out looking for a Christmas/birthday present, or maybe a couple friends are out one day and think, "hey this looks fun, let's split it and play".

I think a reasonable solution is actually a spin-off of the upcoming Deckbuilder's Toolkit. For one thing, I would not be surprised if, in the random assortment of cards that comes with it, they would include "priceless treasures". Once word of this hits it would create a huge interest in what seems to us serious players as a crappy product. However, they could release future DBTs that include one of each dual land, or one with Force of Will, Goyf, Tabernacle, or something else, or have a laundry list of $10-15+ cards and include 10 of them in the box. Also, include a smattering of decent commons and uncommons (Brainstorm, Psychatog, Hymn to Tourach, Fireblast, etc.) and release them at a high MSRP (thinking $80-$100) for maybe 40-50 playable cards, so that you're almost guaranteed to make out on the purchase (considering prices prior to this release).

Or take the above approach and combine it with the Master's Edition idea and make the DBT a new printing, and sell it in $20 packs or something, with rarities based on secondary market prices. So for example:

Possible mythics ($40+, non-duals):
Tarmogoyf
Tabernacle
Imperial Recruiter

Possible rares ($15+)
all 10 duals
LED
Dark Confidant
Wasteland
Mox Diamond
Chrome Mox
Force of Will
Grindstone

Uncommons (generally $5+, but some cheaper cards need to be here to offset EV of packs)
Path to Exile
Swords
SDT
Nantuko Shade
Tombstalker
Goblin Lackey
Counterbalance
Spell Snare
Grim Lavamancer

Commons:
Daze
Dark Ritual
Brainstorm
Lightning Helix
Kird Ape

Print all these cards in a set with collector numbers for collectibility, and in new card frames with regular chances for foils and stuff, just need to adjust MSRP so that the market isn't flooded. Set size (and distribution between rarities) should be that of a small set, so your chances of a Goyf are the same as a Jace or Abyssal Persecutor out of WWK, and so on. The reasoning here is that since you're spending $20+ on a pack, you won't get any 'bad' cards. The threshold price for the rare slots needs to be lower than the MSRP so that buying packs isn't instant profit. Duals aren't mythic since they're the most desirable cards, and also they would clog the mythic spot.

[jrsthethird]

I guess I'm just not sold on the idea of a masters edition set - I don't think there's a way to make the packs affordable, and balanced without detracting from the sales of standard legal sets too much - and I feel like any other promo option boils down to WotC just might as be supplying singles directly.

Read my post. It should not be compared to ME on MTGO. They need a high MSRP so that the market won't be flooded. Also, if the MSRP is high enough you can exclude all 'bad' cards. My example cards are probably off, and my rares might be a little stacked, but it's a baseline to go off of. Imagine a pack where the worst rare you could get is a Tombstalker or a Price of Progress? How much would you pay for that pack? Say you buy a Standard-legal pack for $4. You get a $1 rare. compare that to opening a $20 pack and getting a $5 rare. Now, the latter option seems a lot worse, since you spent 5x the amount. However, the uncommon/common quality is so good you got another $5 out of the pack there, minimum. That might not be enough to sell the product, so your rares might need to be about $8 at minimum to justify ever buying a pack, since the disappointment for the price paid is too much otherwise. You can't really draft the pack because who is going to drop $60 on a draft where everyone is going to pick the most expensive card in the pack. Also, it wouldn't be balanced for drafting.

[Jon Stewart]

I prefer reprinting cards as Mythic Rares in Standard as jrsthethird suggested, to releasing a seperate masters edition where stores would jack up the prices well past MSRP and the quantities would still be too rare to cause a decline in price.

By reprinting powerful cards as Mythic Rares, the price of those cards would stay just as high, as long as those cards are standard legal (and collectors could offload those cards then to make back their money). When Psionic Blast got time shifted in quantities much larger than a Mythic Rare, the price of Psionic Blast didn't take that big of a hit. It wasn't until after the card rotated out of standard that it's price plummeted.

But once those mythic rares leave standard, the price will fall, and anyone that wants to enter legacy would have an easy time getting a hold of those cards.

I actually think just about every card in legacy can be reprinted in standard without breaking the format. Even Force of Will or Sinkhole being reprinted in standard wouldn't completely break the format. Just as long as not all cards are reprinted in the same block, it would be fine. Cards like Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Balance etc that really would break Standard, are already banned in legacy.

And best of all, doing this would increase interest in the format. And for Wizards benefit, it would probably get a lot more legacy players to start playing Standard as well if it means they can use some of their favorite cards in legacy in that format.

[Aggro_zombies]

Reprinting cards in Standard as Mythics is an awful idea. Not only would it take two years for them to rotate and potentially drop in price (which is far, far too long IMO), they would still be in Extended and thus have inflated prices that way. And this is ignoring the warping effect they would have on the format; "doesn't break the format" isn't the same as "becomes the epicenter of the format." Jund doesn't break Standard, but before WWK it certainly warped the hell out of the format and made it incredibly boring (and the fact that it continues to do quite well may indicate that WWK didn't provide enough power to the challengers to make it less obnoxious). People bitched incessantly about Cryptic Command, so do you think they'll be any more happy about have Force be legal? The old duals are strictly better than basics. People bitched about 5CC in Standard, so do you really think having the duals legal and making mono-color decks obsolete in the format is really a good idea when Standard is supposed to be the easy format to get into?

Printing things at Mythic doesn't keep them out of Standard, it just drives the prices through the roof while restricting supply.

[jrsthethird]

Not all cards can be printed at mythic in standard. The ones I mentioned are the ones that are $30+ that would not be broken in standard. The idea is to increase supply. Hell, some of them can even be rare (Mox Diamond does not make sense as a mythic, according to Wizards' philosophy on them). In retrospect the only one that makes sense to print at Mythic is Zodiac Dragon, while I admit that Strategic Planning would be a really shitty rare and should be uncommon, but I'm afraid of the backlash from printing it at uncommon.

[majikal]

Why do people keep insisting that expensive cards that only see fringe play in one or two decks should be reprinted? That does nothing to help the cost of entry into the format. Cards that are expensive because they are oddities should stay that way.

Loyal Retainers? Why would this ever need to be reprinted? It has exactly one use in one archetype as a one-of. Reprinting it won't make Legacy any less expensive, and there is already an extremely viable alternative in Natural Order.

Strategic Planning? What deck even plays these? Reanimator? They would become worth like a quarter, and then they would still be unplayable.

We're not talking about tanking the market just for the sake of it; we're talking about stabilizing prices of staples.

[lordofthepit]

Strategic Planning? What deck even plays these? Reanimator? They would become worth like a quarter, and then they would still be unplayable.

We're not talking about tanking the market just for the sake of it; we're talking about stabilizing prices of staples.

Agreed.

Of some of the cards mentioned above, there is absolutely no reason to print Chains of Mephisopheles, Grim Tutor, Juzam Djinn, Old Man of the Sea, Strategic Planning, Word of Command, Zodiac Dragon, Marshaling the Troops, Mirror Universe, Overwhelming Forces, Wolf Pack, Forcefield, or Gauntlet of Might (none of which I own). The benefit from increased supply would be minimal, whereas the backlash from gratuitously destroying people's collections would be significant.

I can see a case for reprinting more playable cards like Loyal Retainers, Candelabra, Ravages of War, Sea Drake, Tabernacle, or Moat (again, none of which I own), but I think that it would be a poor decision on the part of Wizards if they were to reprint these cards in any significant quantity.

[Aggro_zombies]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/m...rved_List.html

Stephen Menendian's turn. I'm posting this here even though it's not part of Ben's series because it's addressing the same topic. And yes, Stephen's is premium. QQ moar, nub.

This article is great, and he does a good job at addressing price fluctuations using real-world examples. Good job!

[MMogg]

I can see a case for reprinting more playable cards like Loyal Retainers, Candelabra, Ravages of War, Sea Drake, Tabernacle, or Moat (again, none of which I own), but I think that it would be a poor decision on the part of Wizards if they were to reprint these cards in any significant quantity.

What kills me is that the supply problem of P3 and Starter playables is entirely created by Wizards. It's nice to say they shouldn't be reprinted when it was Wizards' ridiculous policy change of making previously non-legal sets legal that caused the problem in the first place. Nice work on that one. They created the problem and now they don't give a solution. For those cards (and not Legands or cards on the Reserved List), I see no problem with them printing functional reprints or blatantly reprinting them if they choose to. Am I clamoring for those? No. But I find it rich that someone would oppose the reprinting of cards entirely within the long standing reprint policy of the company. Naturally we all want Wizards to be careful, it's just that talking about how Wizards better not reprint P3 or Starter really illustrates the uselessness of the Reserve List. No one, and I mean no one, seems to want to abide strictly by the Reserve List.

[MattH]

Well, they should reprint Grim Tutor because it would be an excellent card to have in Standard/Extended, independent of any scarcity concerns. Strategic Planning, too.

[Smmenen]

mods, please delete this post. poll has been fixed.

[Nihlus]

Simple, ban the reserved list or create a new format.

[troopatroop]

Simple, ban the reserved list or create a new format.

Necro Thread?

[LostButSeeking]

On the other hand, when this thread was started, I couldn't read BB's articles--or Smennedian's--but now I can. Nothing's changed much, but I appreciate having people who are in contact with Wizards reassuring us that 1) wizards DOES care about us and 2) no, it's not just you, the reserved list actually IS fucked up.

[I am the brainwasher]

To be honest, I dont have much faith into Wizards changing anything at all besides altering the Extended-Format into something that outclasses Legacy because of its availability and lower prices in general.
They definetly see (otherwise they would be blind, and I mean really blind) that many people are more into a format that doesnt change at all (and has a huge variety of decks beeing able to Top8) and could create a new Eternal-Format. Something like starting with the oldest set that is not on the reserved list and each younger set is allowed. Taking this chance, they would keep their promise to the reserved list and still would make great money out of it after quite a time and THEN care about reprinting some cards; if they reach then higher prices than the current T2 Mythics (which they would) they would start dancing around naked and laughing at all those who spent money on another cheap trick of them.
Dont get me wrong here, I really DO NOT want this to happen but a feeling that was created after so many years of lying (literally) and cheating of wizards tells me that Legacy-Players are in somewhat of a trouble after a few years.
What are arguments are out there which they consider to strengthen Legacy? Not so much besides the greater (and still growing) number of players which they cant sell a single shitty card to and who dont buy Booster-packs/boxes, especially of the new sets.
Some players might think that with NPH and its more or less viable cards for the Legacy-format they do care about it but I think this way of thinking is more based on "wish for something" than the reality actually is.
The whole topic was discussed heavily on germagic.de as it was still available and most players came to the conclusion that Wizards dont care a shit about something that cant be made great money out of. I mean they are a company on a free market, surprised? I am not... .

I think the development of prices is just sad and cant be helped without support from wizards that we sadly wont get (or dont to the extend that is needed).
Not that I see a problem on lying again concerning the Reserved list, as they did on Mythics (just flavour cards, no tournament staples: Lotus Cobra, Baneslayer Angel, JaceTMS, Titans, NPH's Batterskull... .Amuse me again...) and leaking content (we wont make statements or take action on any leaks. <Thats what I red in an article discussing the Ban of Guillaume's, dont take this for 100% sure>) but that simply wont happen because wizards wont make great profits out of it, thats the way I see it.

I would like it so damn hard to see me profen wrong but for the reasons said above, I am not in a good mood.
I like the game as much as I dislike the actions wizard took in the past few years (mainly creating Mythic Rares and ensuring the reserved list) and that means a lot. Unfortunetly that isnt part of their interest at all.
Better the Eternal-Community starts to help itself before a lot of jeweled pirates sink on their own ship, chanting and wearing 2 eyepatches... .

Dont take this context as part of my main-charakter, normally I am not into those "hater" and "end-of-the-world" shitloads but this whole thing really make me both sad and angry.
Greetings

[Parax]

i jest read the articles. Best articles ever.