Assuming that $1500 average deck costs are unsustainable...

[GexxX]

I personally think Legacy is the most fun Format I've ever seen and played in. I've had a little experience with vintage and I feel the power level of most Decks is too broken. Winning games off of topdecks makes you feel it's random (even though it often isn't). Legacy does not have many of those cards and they are not combined the way they are in Vintage. Many cards that are restricted in vintage are extremely powerful due to other restricted cards. For example mystical tutor is. Mystical can fetch up will, anc, demonic, tinker to name the most broken ones, BUT it can also find solutions, such as hurkyl's recall, chain of vapor, ancient grudge or many others.
Even though mystical is banned it does not find such broken cards! It's not played or was played in every Deck that runs legal targets as it's the case in Vintage.
What I am trying to say is that a card in Legacy can do extremely different than in Legacy. And that is mostly due to the power level. Legacy is slower, but I think it's more interactive and I guess that's what most of us enjoy(I personally like Storm and will allways have at least one combo deck). Newcomers to the format should have the opportunity to recognize how complex this format is and still have the option to play a viable deck!

I voted for #3!
My candidates of choice are: Force of Will, Wasteland, and Grim Tutor.

Wasteland and Force of Will:
They are freaking uncommon and cost $50!??! That's just ridiculous! (I've got a playset of both, but I still think it's insane!)

Grim Tutor:
I personally don't think this card is played as much as it should be. It's not even a part of testing for most people due to it's price and unavailability. I'd like to see it in a "A vs. B" Deck, just as demonic, because demonic is fancy, but to be honest useless unless you play at your kitchen table. The reason Grim Tutor goes for ~$150 is because it's not available. Is it played often? Is it too broken?! NO! - Is it safe to reprint, but not legalize in Standart? I think it sure is!

We need a healthy format and that means we need fresh blood from time to time. Having access to lets say 4 Duals(just for a start) and 4FoW and 4 Wasteland lets you play a variety of Decks to explore the format with(sometimes they are not even a must!). You should have some T2 cards though.

Merfolk, CounterbalanceTopTopter, Dredge, StifleNought/Dreadstill, ANT, TES, Goblins, Zoo, BWConfiControl and maybe Lands.

That makes a bunch of really cool control, combo and Aggro Decks.

You can not play all of them with the same four duals, but you can pick one and go find out how much you like or dislike Legacy.
Duals should never be reprinted, simply because I think we need something to still be a quite "exclusive" format.

Unless we do something against the prices of our beloved cards we'll be seeing the same people each tournament and they'll become less and less... Just as Vintage!

[TooCloseToTheSun]

I voted for #3!
My candidates of choice are: Force of Will, Wasteland, and Grim Tutor.

None of those cards are on the reserved list. Official Reserved List

[DTC]

The price of legacy is getting crazy due to the few year old cards, but we have to evaluate the supply vs. demand.

Duals are expensive only because they ended their run in revised and fell to the reserved list rules at the time. Had duals ever made it to 4th edition, they may not have hit the reserved list due to policy and would be a fraction of the price they are now. At worst we'd be paying half their price.

Ebay is good for duals as they're much cheaper than retail. I commented on my local store selling a SP trop and NM tundra both at $100. If you go to tcgplayer these are more or less what the others vendors are selling them for. If you go to ebay though you can probably pick up either dual for $75-80 give or take.

A lot of vendors are probably having a hard time buying in duals to keep in stock, so the only way to do this is to compete with the rest of the circus and buy them on ebay (buying a trop on ebay for $75, then selling it in store for $100 is better than trying to get them at a dealer price and sell them at ebay prices and not being able to keep them in stock for your playerbase) and then overinflate the prices of duals. The prices are ridiculous from vendors but duals are so hard to get off anyone these days unless they're really played and the player upgraded to better condition ones, or the player is getting other duals out of the deal. Duals are gold standard cash machines now, dealers can buy them with confidence that they will sell for a profit even if they sat on them for 6 months and the price incrementally reaches what they want in the meantime.

We also have to factor in players with multiple legacy decks. Legacy is a format played by a lot of people who have gotten these cards over years, and often over a decade ago. You see people at legacy who started when ice age was new and the big thing, and you got others who started around 2000's with invasion block or something. These players have their playsets so what they go after is finishing decks without taking the other apart. Being a new legacy player (been playing about 8 months) i'm still swapping between decks the cards i need to, but older players who have 12 force of will and 3 blue decks probably don't feel like trading their extra playsets because they're in these decks and they don't want to switch 4 cards between the three every week they play a different deck. Most players with these collections are old enough to be financially stable with their income and don't need the cash they'd get selling a set either.

What this means is the supply dries up. If we lived in a perfect world where everyone wouldn't own more than 6-8 copies of a card (playset for decks, singleton for EDH and cubes if that's their thing, 0-2 for trade) unless they're a store then there would probably be enough supply to bring these down to reasonable (i use that term loosely, i think force's current price is reasonable given what it is) prices, but with some cards, especially old uncommons like forces, wastelands, etc it's not uncommon to find the old dogs hoarding at least 20 copies among their various decks, or some might be lost in their bulk boxes at home they never go through (after all, they have enough cards/decks, and no need to bulk/sell off their collections with any rush) and this makes less supply onto the market, which will eventually cause the speculated price hits that have been dicussed ($100+ forces for example).

Part of the reason why i buy collections from non-mtg folk as often as possible is to free up these old cards. If a guy played from ice age up to urza block he might still have 2 forces or 2 wastelands sitting in his boxes after all. In 1999 they were only worth $1 and $2 respectively. I know many active players who come across a tarmogoyf or two (and even 6) in their bulk rares that they tossed away after a future sight prerelease when that card was still considered a dollar bin rare, so its far from unlikely that people who quit the game still have these sitting in boxes unaware of what they're worth. Anyone who gets back into the game after a hiatus is always in disbelief when they find out what those were worth, some kicking themselves because they sold off their collections and realize what some cards will cost to get back now.

I'm not sure what the deal is with vials and tops other than demand. I know both were higher than the average uncommons in their heydays already, but these sets seem way too recent for the cards to be worth so much, and this is what makes me worry more about what i was talking about earlier. Legacy has exploded in popularity and there are thousands of people playing it regularly, and even more semi-regular. It could potentially price itself into oblivion. Wizards doesn't want to flat out reprint everything as it will cause backlash (and eternal customers have higher loyalty to the brand as most have been playing and buying product for years now) but if they want to keep a reasonably priced eternal format to exist in the next few years they'll have to consider potential anthology sets that aren't standard legal. Times and the tcg industry has changed a lot since chronicles came out (one of the prime offenders that made them do a reserved list after all) and since they ceased to reserve cards from mercadian masques onwards, they can reprint many of those to keep some reasonable (tops, vials, for example) but not print every format staple to leave them as chase cards and keep the money rolling and legacy fairly priced.

Here's an example of a rare/mythic sheet with this approach:

Mythics (20):
Akroma, Angel of Wrath (new art, or DvD art)
Force of Will
Mana Crypt (will be as much a chase mythic as force of will)
Umezawa's Jitte
Sol Ring (not legacy legal, but due for a reprint, perhaps FTV art or alternate art)
Various legendary cards from pre-mythic days

Rares (70):
An example of 7 chase rares for the set
Aether Vial
Arcbound Ravager
Berserk
Dark Confidant
Mutavault
Pernicious Deed
Sensei's Divining Top

This could then include the 10 ravnica duals as well, and other random low end rares that are popular in legacy, or were popular during their runs in standard for the nostalgia factor (Even if they're bulk now...a set with 100% legacy staples would cripple the secondary market)


With the next set they can reprint wasteland as a rare to sell the boxes out, as well as things like fetchlands. They can make a theme and add popular nonbasics as well like urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, kor haven, tolaria west, vesuva, etc. After all, need something to use that wasteland on right? ;)

These sets would reprint some stuff we've seen a ton already like Lord of Atlantis, Goblin King, Elvish Champion and other tribal lords to bring them back.
With uncommons we can see a lot of the more utility staples that aren't worth a bunch, as well as kickback to popular standard commons uncommons.


You can open a pack like:
Mogg Fanatic (common)
Gerrard's Verdict (common)
Counterspell (common)
Frogmite (common)
Terror (common)
Flametongue Kavu (common)
Terminate (common)
Harrow (common)
Sakura Tribe-Elder (common)
Aura Shards (common)
Ebony Owl Netsuke (uncommon)
Sterling Grove (uncommon)
Hypnotic Specter (uncommon)
Horizon Canopy (rare)

It would help a lot more players get into legacy, and the cards that will get hit hardest are the incremental ones that trade for $5 or less. The downside to those is that price, as it would make trading them up to chase cards $15+ a lot more difficult.

I guess this can be helped by doing only a single print run on these similar to a small expansion or less. The cards would then dip but eventually stabilize again, and it would introduce enough supply to bring down some prices for a while. It's a slippery slope with reprints though and there's as many cons to it on the secondary market as there is pros so they would have to be very selective with reprinting and exactly how many cards worth $5+ they really want to bring into circulation. The larger the card, the bigger the fall so players who just bought a wasteland the day before it became reprinted will be more verbal than the guy who buys counterbalance for $8 and sees it drop to $4 with a reprint.