The format and gameplay implications of No Reserve List Legacy have been covered already in this thread, but there's not a lot of talk about the financial implications, particularly the question of how exactly Wizards benefits from enacting a move like this.
Legacy doesn't move packs in the same way that Standard/Limited does and never would unless Magic trended towards YGO/Pokemon levels of power creep. And EDH/Commander has generally supplanted Legacy as the Eternal format in which you get to play with the entire history of the game (and does a much better job of that, I might add). There's really just not a lot of purpose to supporting the Legacy format besides keeping legacy (heh) players from kicking up an internet shitfit.
Think about it, what cards are there that are exclusively Legacy staples (i.e. not Modern or EDH staples) and not on the Reserve List that could sell $10 packs as marquee cards? Karakas? Port? It's such a tiny set of cards. Almost all of the big money, non-Reserved cards are shared staples in EDH which means they don't need Legacy to sell a reprint set; Commander Masters would do just fine with Wastelands, Forces, Derp&Tells, and what have you. And there's a much larger stable of $10-$40 cards to fill in the spots that aren't earmarked for chase Mythic status. Check out the prices of things like Crucible of Worlds, Rings of Brighthearth, Temporal Manipulation, and tell me Wizards doesn't have a ton of available reprint equity in Commander.
These cards are the most commonly played 40 Legacy cards from the Reserved List.:
Volrath's Stronghold
Volcanic Island
Undiscovered Paradise
Underground Sea
Tundra
Tropical Island
Transmute Artifact
Time Spiral
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Taiga
Serra's Sanctum
Shallow Grave
Scrubland
Savannah
Recurring Nightmare
Plateau
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Peacekeeper
Opalescence
Null Rod
Nether Void
Mox Diamond
Moat
Metalworker
Meditate
Lion's Eye Diamond
Intuition
Humility
Grim Monolith
Gilded Drake
Gaea's Cradle
Firestorm
Dream Halls
Cursed Scroll
City of Traitors
Chains of Mephistopheles
Candelabra of Tawnos
Bayou
Badlands
Aluren
♀
Volrath's stronghold and Aluren are really so strong no print again please friend
PTT (Formerly of MTT) - We make Champion
Price issues aside, the 10 original dual lands give so much freedom in deck design, and no other lands come close to doing what they have done for the game, really.
I honestly can't think of a single format that wouldn't instantly become more diverse, and more fun with original duals, than without.
For this reason alone, any company who cared about designing the best game possible would find a way to work around the reserved list.
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At some point once you kick out all the pillars of a given format, it really does shift towards the next smallest format + a bunch of spells nobody gives a fuck about. The top 10 most played cards in Legacy, according to mtgtop8.com, are 70% lands; 1 is Wasteland, 3 are beta duals (Volcanic, Tropical, Underground), and 3 are matching fetches. Move to the top 20; the next 10 down are primarily spells printed since, like, Kamigawa (save StP) and a couple more lands and fetches.
That list, poorly formatted because I'm lazy and my lunch is almost over:
Look how many Modern-legal spells* are the top 20 most played cards - 9 cards. Almost half that list. Now look at the lands that support those spells. After that, picture Legacy with one change -- using Ravnica shocklands over Beta dual lands. It is not hard to imagine why people would call a "No Reserve List" Legacy tantamount to Modern + random crap.Code:Name Decks Avg Brainstorm 65.6 % 4.0 Force of Will 58.6 % 3.8 Ponder 53.0 % 3.4 Wasteland 48.8 % 3.4 Polluted Delta 42.8 % 3.5 Volcanic Island 42.1 % 2.3 Misty Rainfrst 37.2 % 2.6 Tropical Island 35.1 % 2.1 Flooded Strand 34.7 % 3.6 Underg. Sea 31.6 % 2.5 DRS 30.5 % 3.9 JTMS 30.5 % 2.3 Scalding Tarn 30.2 % 3.4 StP 29.1 % 3.8 Bayou 27.4 % 1.7 Verdant Cat. 26.7 % 3.1 Daze 25.6 % 3.5 Gitaxian Probe 24.9 % 3.3 SDT 23.9 % 3.3 Spell Pierce 23.9 % 2.1
Now obviously there would be a whole meta to consider and things that were not amazing before might become playable afterwards, blah blah blah. That's perfectly fine. However, people will use the format's current starting point and top cards as a touchstone for the things that go on to define that new meta, and there's no way that Modern decks don't just filter down into this format after adopting like Wastelands and more relevant counterspells.
Like really, what hidden jewels exist in Legacy right now that removing the RP actually makes playable? Is there even a way to assess that? I have no idea how to answer this question, because I had a beer at lunch before my food came, so like... yeah man
* Okay, so many of the actual spells aren't necessarily "Modern-legal". A better phrase probably would have been "printed since 8th Edition" -- the point is, the most played spells in the format are Beta duals, fetchlands, and (by Legacy standard) incredibly recently printed spells
It's been a long time since I've been on The Source. I am a supporter of this change, and am down to necro a thread. This format becomes more and more insane to play. Ive owned this stuff since the 90s. When this thread was going strong this format was expensive, but not insane. Prices, are insane now. No reserved list Legacy is a breathe of fresh air.
Team Meandeck
I don't understand why this isn't the default approach by most people.
Before I moved countries, we had proxy vintage events in my region just to get enough people to actually play it.
I think for legacy, proxies would have also been acceptable.
Since WotC doesn't care about the formats, why should people care if they are sanctioned or not?
TOs who are also traders obviously have an interest in selling you their stock but there will be the point where they rather sell something and run tournaments then 5 people showing up.
I shouldn't have to!
But also, TOs don't sell proxies
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