They could reprint the Onslaught fetchlands in order to smooth out the mana base. Right now the Modern Duals versus Fetches are not proportional, so a later set/promo expansion could reprint the fetches. To me the lack of fetches in Modern Masters hinted at a potential ONS fetch reprint, but that's purely my opinion and speculation. Hopefully they do as enemy fetches can somewhat stifle (though to a minimal extent) allied colored decks, and the reprint would be good for reducing the barrier to entry to all formats.
So let me get this straight.. First people complain about dual lands. They get shockduals and a reprint of shockduals, and now fetchland is the culprit to format accessibility? Come on guys. Zendikar wasn't released 20 years ago and there are plenty in circulation.
This response isn't surprising at all. To put it politely, Modern was created as a format for those who couldn't afford to get into Legacy. Some of them felt entitled to a non-rotating format and blamed existing Legacy players, collectors, speculators, WotC, StarCityGames, and countless other entities for their inability to enjoy Legacy, as though they felt all these groups were working in conjunction to somehow price them out of this experience.
However, they're learning that supply and demand principles do not apply to Legacy exclusively, and that speculators are going to try to capitalize off perceived arbitrage in Modern as well as Legacy.
I wouldn't mind an Onslaught fetchland reprint in Standard. Not just to make there be more copies around, but just because I think it's really weird that only the enemy colored lands have fetchlands in Modern.
I'm sure it's coming eventually though. Wizards is just holding them until they find a set they think they fit in like they did with Zendikar.
You make too many assumptions about how people want to play their magic. I'd rather go to Vintage worlds and play with 300 people and play all my beta power with other people who own powerful and valuable cards than sit at a Starcity standard event with 800 people all copying the same 3 lame standard decks. Why? Because it's fucking awesome and elite.
I don't want every mouth breathing grocery bagger to be able to afford the best deck. That's just me. Magic isn't a right, it's a collectible hobby with a skill element at the sanctioned level.
Also, defining affordable is tough. Standard over a period of years with Johnny Standards buying his Baneslayers @ $30-40 then trading in his Baneslayers after they plunge (ditto for Titans, Planeswalkers, Lands, other standard must haves) is as big a money sink as legacy if you consider that Johnny Standards could have just bought reserved list / legacy staples. Now I think Modern helps alleviate this pain a bit ... e.g. a competitive standard card might retain its value a bit more if it also a fine card in Modern (see: Kitchen Fink) ... at the same time S&D will still punish those who didn't get the card on the cheap no matter what the format is called or how the border looks (see: Bob, Goyf, Thoughtseize, Auriok Champion, Mutavault, Shocks for a bit, Fetches, Daybreak C).
Affordability is so relative that it's a joke to even call it that at the competitive level.
Take MTGO vs Paper prices. A $150 Underground Sea is not affordable in paper, but at $26 (tix) on MTGO it is?
While I appreciate the Ideal tournament environment that allows people to play whatever they want or think is the best cards/deck without regards to card availability; the truth in tournament Magic is that scarcity exists. Not everyone will be able to play the same 75 card deck. This is what makes the experience interesting (variation) and challenging (trading/metagaming).
PTQ season is the primary driver for increased demand of all cards. This is an old phenomenon. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Goyf, Bob, Thoughtseize, etc are useful in Modern. Stocking up on them during the off-season and unload them during the high-demand portion of the year becomes a profitable venture. Play smarter, not harder. I'm fucking sick of people moaning that they are getting reamed because of being ill-prepared for planned events.
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All this hype about Modern and then the Spanish GP can't even gather 1000 people... pretty weak for a european GP. If it was Legacy I'm sure there would be 1500 people at least.
Humphrey is always correct.
Starcity likes to kill every format this way. Anybody else remember when Merfolk was a $200 deck? Starcity is just one letter away from scarcity. It's like Obama and Osama, man.
Man, I really regret giving away my set of Seizes during one of the Secret Santas here. The good news is that it wouldn't be hard to get into the format with a deck like Urzatron anyway, since the tron pieces have been reprinted 500 times.
I'm pretty sure as a secondary seller in the market, Starcity games would prefer to support a larger eternal format like legacy than modern. This way they have more access to cards to sell and hoard up.
Makes no sense really if scg drops legacy altogether when there is a huge inventory of cards that needs to be unloaded.
Starcity has the health of magic as a top priority. They don't earn money when the game dies out. Sure, Starcity does some cutthroat things to earn cash, but no one benefits from a dead game, so it's not all 'evil-empire'.
That's almost like saying lenders have the health of the housing market in mind as their top priority. It's definitely not completely black-and-white ethically, but Starcity is definitely focused on profit. By keeping a certain format alive with tournaments, they are able to establish control on that market.
Leyline of Sanctity: $15
Serum Visions: $3 (LOLOLOL)
SCG benefits from formats where card values are high because their model (like any card store) is "buy your shit for about half of what we sell it for".
Digging through 108 Mirran Crusaders. Paying $1.08 each for them. Selling them for $2.75.
vs.
Buying one Underground Sea. Paying $60 each for them. Selling them for $109.00.
(actual prices may vary)
It's easier for them to just recycle that Sea a thousand times. It's an easy buy. Assuming they have enough cash (e.g. their buying power is effectively unlimited) it's one transaction to make $49. On a stable asset. There's way less flux with eternal cards. Underground Sea isn't going to be $20 tomorrow. Whereas Baneslayers, Titans, other rotating reprintable standard crap is up and down.
The main and ultimatly ONLY goal of the modern format is to make Hasbro money. If you have expensive cards, it makes people buy more packs from wizards to avoid having to make that $400 investment down the road for goyfs, when they could just buy a bunch of packs now, and then trade for the cards they think will be good down the road.
Obviously this is working, as MTG is getting 30%+ attendance at pre-release events where lots of product gets opened.
http://www.examiner.com/article/magi...-profit-growth
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