The big divide between "Legacy/Vintage" and "Modern" formats is supposed to be card availability; the latter formats have staples on the reserved list, the former does not. In theory, that means Modern cards SHOULD be easier to get ahold of, and thanks to years of R&D, has less broken cards. In theory.
There is a vast gulf between what WotC is putting out now and what they put out years back. The Khans/Origins/BfZ block of cards hasn't produced much that fits into Modern or reprints key cards. Instead, it is producing cards that are strong in limited/standard but worthless in eternal formats. Rather than new players building up a warchest of good cards (playable now), they end up with a lot of subpar stuff that is worthless after rotation and must begin scouring secondary shops for the cards needed to be competitive in Modern because those cards are out of print.
Sound familiar? Oh yeah, that was the original point of modern.
Do you think perhaps, that its time for a "third" era of Eternal play? Something where cards produced in the last few years (I don't know how far back, 3 years, more or less?) can be played without having to hunt down Blood Moon, Tarmogoyf, Lightning Bolt, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor Urza lands, etc, and pay out the nose for them, or where strictly better versions of spells (like Bolt vs. Shock) still linger? Somewhere were Khans, Origins, M15, Theros, and Battle Zendikar can still be relevant post rotation? Because its not legacy and increasingly its not modern.
I sure hope not. That will just divide the player base even more than it already is. I hate going for Legacy night and having half the people being like, "We'd rather draft."
Honestly though, it seems like the trend has always been that a lot of cards played in Standard never make it to another format. Not every card can be Delver of Secrets.
A minor point, but aren't like all the Urza lands very affordable? They're not anywhere near the price of even Goblin Guide.
Do you play modern often, because here is a list of cards that see play in modern printed in the last year or two:
Khans/onslaught fetches which weren't legal until reprinted in Khans
Tasigur
Gurmag Angler
Kolaghan's Command
Eidelon of the Great Revel
Monastery Swiftspear
Atarka's Command
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Ugin
Collected Company
Siege Rhino
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Harbinger of the Tides
Has seen fringe modern play:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Monastery Mentor
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Oblivion Sower
Blight Herder
Wasteland Strangler
Bring to Light
Battle for Zendikar dual lands
Brimaz
Courser of Kruphix
Outpost Siege
Scrylands
Anticipate
Not to mention thoughtseize, cryptic command, v clique, remand, mox opal, etched champion, and dark confidant all saw reprints that dropped their prices considerably. And Wizards has more then proven they are willing to reprint tarmogoyf every modern masters set. Shock lands were reprinted in RtR which is usually the worst part of nonrotating formats.
Wizards has made a pretty good effort of keeping modern in reach of players. Its arguable your "investment" is better in modern as the prices only tend to go up unlike standard.
Confession: I don't play modern yet. My experiences are formed only so far with the chatter I hear at my LGS and online.
The issue I'm worried about is that if the NWO keeps up (and so far, I don't see a reason for it not to) and if many of the staples keep getting more cmc costly, strictly worse, or rare/mythic, you're creating a pool of cards that (aside from a few shining gems) are virtually worthless post rotation. WotC seems intent on ramping down the power of certain cards (sweepers, burn, counters) which is making those staples harder and/or expensive to get. Else, new players have inferior versions of cards that veterans had access to in the draft/standard era of said cards. If you were playing 6-7 years ago, you had better access to some of those staple cards than if start today (much like if you started in Unlimited, you had better access to the Power 9 than someone who started in 4th edition, which was one of the reasons 1.5 came about).
I'm just wondering that, after several sets of BfZ/OtG power level cards, if the gulf between early modern cards and new modern cards will be so great that it might not warrant a "2.5" eventually.
WOTC seems to be actively discouraging play in eternal formats to keep players trapped on the standard treadmill. There is a deliberate powering down of cards, but this seems to be meant to keep people out of eternal, not create a new eternal format.
Do you play modern often, because here is a list of cards that see play in modern printed in the last year or two:
Not to mention the new Eldrazi deck that is still being brewed while making waves on the tournament scene. I don't think any deck has ever made such a presence while the optimal list is still being figured out. Lots of BFZ cards are being played in modern despite the fact it's power level is on the low side following Takir.
Well the "processor" cards require some specific cards to work with and the deck doesnt build itself from "block" cards, which Affinity did, as a comparable block deck.
However, we have plenty of graveyard hate cards and exile removal that work fairly well with processors and some of the more pushed "colorless" cards printed now.
Its fine, but the cards arent really spectacular enough, as theres simply not enough of them and they are overall not pushed enough to make a tier 1 deck (but good enough, if the maindeck graveyard removal is allready strong).
Isn't the idea of the NWO to prevent power creep? I thought I read somewhere that Magic will go through periods of lower power before swinging upwards again?
In saying that, standard and limited are where WotC make the most money, so keeping players there is what they want.
WOTC seems to be actively discouraging play in eternal formats to keep players trapped on the standard treadmill. There is a deliberate powering down of cards, but this seems to be meant to keep people out of eternal, not create a new eternal format.
Standard sets go through cycles of power level, by design. If every standard and every draft format has the same balance between creatures and how powerful removal is, the game gets stale. WotC is currently on a mission to make marketable characters and creature combat the defining feature of the game, thus cards like Tasigur and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy get printed today. This also explains the difference between Damnation and Languish.
On the other hand, I don't really consider recent sets necessarily powered down. Sure, there's a lot of cards that aren't going to be played outside of Standard, but that's always been true. Also, consider that Treasure Cruise has been banned or restricted in all three eternal formats and Dig Through Time is only legal as a 4x in Legacy. Monastery Mentor and the new Jace are key components of a current top tier Vintage deck and get played in Legacy and Modern as well. Every format plays Gurmag Angler. The new Eldrazi are going to see play. What you don't necessarily see much of is new low-CMC non-creature spells making a big impact, though even there, things like Kolaghan's Command, Atarka's Command, Murderous Cut (functionally a 1 or 2 CMC card) and so forth are seeing play.
Could WotC do more to reduce the price of buying in to Modern and Legacy? Sure, they could try harder to reprint hard to find or expensive cards. But they have to walk a fine line between keeping the format affordable, keeping Standard fun to play, and not wrecking the value of cards for collectors. You can't just drop Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf, Blood Moon and Mox Opal into a random standard set and call it a day.
Also, I don't see it as necessarily an extremely bad thing that Modern and Legacy are somewhat expensive. It means people are actually interested in playing the formats. There are at least two weekly Legacy tournaments within 30 minutes of me and a handful of Modern, I doubt that was true for Legacy ten years ago when dual lands were half the price they are now.
Also, I don't see it as necessarily an extremely bad thing that Modern and Legacy are somewhat expensive. It means people are actually interested in playing the formats. There are at least two weekly Legacy tournaments within 30 minutes of me and a handful of Modern, I doubt that was true for Legacy ten years ago when dual lands were half the price they are now.
This is an interesting point that economists are very aware of, but doesn't get much attention outside those circles: that when something is cheap and/or plentiful, people don't value it. The more effort and resources they expended to get something, the more seriously they take it, the more they keep it good (in the case of collectibles like Magic cards), &c.
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There is a vast gulf between what WotC is putting out now and what they put out years back. The Khans/Origins/BfZ block of cards hasn't produced much that fits into Modern or reprints key cards. Instead, it is producing cards that are strong in limited/standard but worthless in eternal formats. Rather than new players building up a warchest of good cards (playable now), they end up with a lot of subpar stuff that is worthless after rotation and must begin scouring secondary shops for the cards needed to be competitive in Modern because those cards are out of print.
Isn't the idea of the NWO to prevent power creep? I thought I read somewhere that Magic will go through periods of lower power before swinging upwards again?
NWO does nothing except reduce the complexity of commons. That is literally the only thing "NWO" is for. It isn't about power creep (although you could make the argument that complex cards are more powerful), and it doesn't apply to uncommons, rares, or mythics.
The speration between Modern and Legacy isnt card availability, but a difference in design philosophy. Techincally everything from I think Mercaidian can be reprinted, which is why you hear people wanting "overextended" as a format.
I dont think we are seeing a different design yet, but we are seeing the realization of thier current ideals. They think spells and creatires should be on the same power level, and we have aeen spells take a back seat to the Rhinos of the world for the last few sets now.
Do you play modern often, because here is a list of cards that see play in modern printed in the last year or two:
Not to mention the new Eldrazi deck that is still being brewed while making waves on the tournament scene. I don't think any deck has ever made such a presence while the optimal list is still being figured out. Lots of BFZ cards are being played in modern despite the fact it's power level is on the low side following Takir.
yeah I saw a few different versions of the deck at the Face to Face open, it seems to be quite popular while still being optimized
I'm interested to see what they'll do with colourless mana cards now
I dont think we are seeing a different design yet, but we are seeing the realization of thier current ideals. They think spells and creatires should be on the same power level, and we have aeen spells take a back seat to the Rhinos of the world for the last few sets now.
I think the problem is that most of the cards you listed are more towards the rare / mythic end of the spectrum, so while yes Standard does get a few Modern playables each set, new players aren't ending up with as many. Look at a set like Mirrodin, Lorwyn, or original Zendikar, where there are tons commons and uncommons that are playable cards, and then look at BFZ where you can probably count the number of modern relevant cards at common / uncommon on one hand.
Exactly. Which is part of my point: A new player getting in now has to buy everything modern from previous sets since few staples are coming out of standard are of equal power (and those that are tend to be Rare/Mythic). To someone who just started, Modern might as well be another game for how little recent cards contributes to the modern card pool. If you're already in (and were able to get fetches and other cards are reasonable prices as they were published) then a new set contributing 4-5 cards (all R/M) doesn't bother you. If you're new though, moving to modern is essentially burning your current collection and buying OOP/Limited Print cards, some at tremendous markups, because your Fiery Impulse isn't going to compete in a world of Lightning Bolts.
We're not entering a third era. This is a "problem" that will just continue to occur throughout the life of Magic. In five years without a reprint, Siege Rhino may become an expensive card or *insert other new Modern staple* as we get further and further away from the print time and if Magic (or more specifically Modern) continues to increase in popularity.
It's not that Tarmogoyf is expensive because they purposefully put out limited amounts of Future Sight. It's expensive because the amount that Future Sight was printed can't satisfy the demand NOW for it.
Oopssorry has it right, that the distinction between Legacy and Modern is design. When people say that creatures are better than spells now, they are not properly contextualizing things. It's not that spells were on par and are being powered down. Spells were way ahead in the race and now are being brought down as creatures are brought up to parity.
If you're new though, moving to modern is essentially burning your current collection and buying OOP/Limited Print cards, some at tremendous markups, because your Fiery Impulse isn't going to compete in a world of Lightning Bolts.
Your shifting the goal post now. Secondary market prices have little to do with Wizards Modern policy. The fact we can now bank on Modern Masters to keep the card pool growing at a reasonable pace is a great boon to the modern community.
If you want to get into modern look for a deck and start seeking cards for that deck. Is it expensive, depends on what you're building. Spending your money on packs for standard is still spending money, if you want to get into modern then you need to shift your buying priorities. That's not on wizards.
Wizards created Modern for the sole purpose of having a format where all the staple cards could be reprinted. The sole purpose of reprinting is to reduce card prices by increasing quantity. Wizards refuses to openly admit its role in the secondary market, but there is absolutely no way it doesn't affect their policies. A big issue though is that many of the Modern cards really should be reprinted in a larger capacity (ie larger than MM), but Wizards seems to be unwilling to reprint most of them in a large enough amount to make a noticeable difference (like via Standard sets) either because of power, flavor, or price reasons.
It's not the way you want but reprints are in the pipeline, that's more than what can be said for legacy. After building a couple modern decks through PucaTrade I can tell you how much easier it is to get a card reprinted in MM vs. an original print run. MM has improved the card pool and will continue to do so.
The issue is more with the people who are wanting to go from playing Standard to playing Modern - after playing Standard in OG Zendikar block, much more of your collection would be relevant to Modern decks you'd want to build, whereas if you're playing BFZ block, there's almost zero overlap between Standard / Modern.
Your case is that someone who JUST started playing can't get access to modern staples? That will never change.
Go build an eldrazi deck, there has never been a better standard season to start modern. Especially considering the price and manabases of some of the current Standard decks. 4 color goodstuff was the reason I finally pulled the trigger and started building for modern.
The big divide between "Legacy/Vintage" and "Modern" formats is supposed to be card availability; the latter formats have staples on the reserved list, the former does not. In theory, that means Modern cards SHOULD be easier to get ahold of, and thanks to years of R&D, has less broken cards. In theory.
There is a vast gulf between what WotC is putting out now and what they put out years back.
What your talking about is quite literally the former extended format which i was a fan of back in the day. Something in between, not modern, not standard but allows those hundreds of cool but ultimately sub par cards thrive.
There comes a point where you need to prioritize your hobby finances. Sell your Standard stuff at the height of its popularity and buy whatever singles you need for Modern. Its what I did, and it has helped me cobble together a Jund deck.
It's not the way you want but reprints are in the pipeline, that's more than what can be said for legacy.
Ironically, Legacy has gotten more love than Modern since Modern became a thing.
PDS:S gave us most of the playable slivers, PDS:F&L is pretty much Burn 101, PDS: Graveborn puts you on track for Reanimator, DD:EVG and CMD14 made Elves affordable. Brainstorm, Swords to Plowshares, Dark Ritual, Ponder, Cabal Therapy, Innocent Blood, Cephalid Coliseum, Counterspell, Explore, Daze, Buried Alive, Ancient Tomb, Berserk, etc. have all seen at least one reprint. ONS Fetchlands, Vial, Blood Moon, Hierarch, Bob, Thoughtseize, Chalice, City, Goyf were all happily shared but Narcomoeba and Bridge weren't really for Modern's sake, neither was Empty the Warrens, Seething Song, etc. The Judge Foil program is pretty much "Legacy reprints so we don't have to pay these chumps" and Wasteland is on it's 4th premium reprint.
Only things Legacy actually wants but cannot get are Duals, Tabernacle, LED and Workshop. And nowadays buying into Tier 1.5 Legacy decks is not much more expensive than buying into Modern. Hell you can still do well with budget Legacy decks like Burn which costs less than it's Modern version, meanwhile in Modern speculators have made sure there is no competitive budget decks left.
Modern is ****ed and we're getting notthing but empty promises. "Sure we'll reprint more agressively!" then they turn their backs and "We haven't even announced a MM16 because there's not gonna be one, we removed Core Sets so now it's even harder to reprint plane-specific cards and we removed IoK from MM15 knowing Kozilek's ***** in OGW was colorless spells only but you idiots still believe it was a honest mistake".
Auriok Champion is an extremely hard card to put in a deck, it needs a specific playstyle to be good right? It's not like the MED was Tokens, like Karador had a tokens sub-theme, Oloro was all about life-gain, Nahiri was weenies or Daxos had a tokens sub-theme again. "That card is so impossible to reprint, we just don't find a place for it!".
As far as building the Eldrazi deck, you do realize that most of the value of that deck is in cards that are NOT available in standard? There isn't a replacement for Eye of Ugin, Eldrazi Temple, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, or Inquisition of Kozilek. It's like telling someone they should buy an airplane because they already own the peanuts.
And how many of those 4 cards recently got a reprint? What's that, Eye and Temple had been reprinted in MM, and Temple got another reprint in the most recent Duel deck?! Tomb was reprinted in M15?! 3/4 have had very recent reprintings with the 4th undoubtedly getting one in the next MM. Are they in high demand right now, yeah, but my point is you can get 90% of the deck for CHEAP then work on the pricy stuff. Any deck worth playing is going to have some expensive cards, some more than others.
The TC's entire premise is 100% wrong and it is not even worth debating. Khans block had two cards that are banned/restricted in all non-rotating formats and too many to list that see play in Legacy and Modern. Origins had Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and three or four others, which is a very good number of cards for a single set. BFZ is currently the subject of tons of Modern hype with the Eldrazi deck.
It's like the person who made this topic has never played a game of tournament Magic in the past year and is instead just taking the word of the biggest pessimists on MTGsalvation as gospel. Mirrodin and Ravnica and Zendikar were filled with complete chaff as well.
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The big divide between "Legacy/Vintage" and "Modern" formats is supposed to be card availability; the latter formats have staples on the reserved list, the former does not. In theory, that means Modern cards SHOULD be easier to get ahold of, and thanks to years of R&D, has less broken cards. In theory.
There is a vast gulf between what WotC is putting out now and what they put out years back. The Khans/Origins/BfZ block of cards hasn't produced much that fits into Modern or reprints key cards. Instead, it is producing cards that are strong in limited/standard but worthless in eternal formats. Rather than new players building up a warchest of good cards (playable now), they end up with a lot of subpar stuff that is worthless after rotation and must begin scouring secondary shops for the cards needed to be competitive in Modern because those cards are out of print.
Sound familiar? Oh yeah, that was the original point of modern.
Do you think perhaps, that its time for a "third" era of Eternal play? Something where cards produced in the last few years (I don't know how far back, 3 years, more or less?) can be played without having to hunt down Blood Moon, Tarmogoyf, Lightning Bolt, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor Urza lands, etc, and pay out the nose for them, or where strictly better versions of spells (like Bolt vs. Shock) still linger? Somewhere were Khans, Origins, M15, Theros, and Battle Zendikar can still be relevant post rotation? Because its not legacy and increasingly its not modern.
Honestly though, it seems like the trend has always been that a lot of cards played in Standard never make it to another format. Not every card can be Delver of Secrets.
A minor point, but aren't like all the Urza lands very affordable? They're not anywhere near the price of even Goblin Guide.
Khans/onslaught fetches which weren't legal until reprinted in Khans
Tasigur
Gurmag Angler
Kolaghan's Command
Eidelon of the Great Revel
Monastery Swiftspear
Atarka's Command
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Ugin
Collected Company
Siege Rhino
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Harbinger of the Tides
Has seen fringe modern play:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Monastery Mentor
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Oblivion Sower
Blight Herder
Wasteland Strangler
Bring to Light
Battle for Zendikar dual lands
Brimaz
Courser of Kruphix
Outpost Siege
Scrylands
Anticipate
Not to mention thoughtseize, cryptic command, v clique, remand, mox opal, etched champion, and dark confidant all saw reprints that dropped their prices considerably. And Wizards has more then proven they are willing to reprint tarmogoyf every modern masters set. Shock lands were reprinted in RtR which is usually the worst part of nonrotating formats.
3 of the top lands in modern were printed in Khans: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern
Wizards has made a pretty good effort of keeping modern in reach of players. Its arguable your "investment" is better in modern as the prices only tend to go up unlike standard.
Edits: Spelling and missed siege rhino
The issue I'm worried about is that if the NWO keeps up (and so far, I don't see a reason for it not to) and if many of the staples keep getting more cmc costly, strictly worse, or rare/mythic, you're creating a pool of cards that (aside from a few shining gems) are virtually worthless post rotation. WotC seems intent on ramping down the power of certain cards (sweepers, burn, counters) which is making those staples harder and/or expensive to get. Else, new players have inferior versions of cards that veterans had access to in the draft/standard era of said cards. If you were playing 6-7 years ago, you had better access to some of those staple cards than if start today (much like if you started in Unlimited, you had better access to the Power 9 than someone who started in 4th edition, which was one of the reasons 1.5 came about).
I'm just wondering that, after several sets of BfZ/OtG power level cards, if the gulf between early modern cards and new modern cards will be so great that it might not warrant a "2.5" eventually.
Not to mention the new Eldrazi deck that is still being brewed while making waves on the tournament scene. I don't think any deck has ever made such a presence while the optimal list is still being figured out. Lots of BFZ cards are being played in modern despite the fact it's power level is on the low side following Takir.
However, we have plenty of graveyard hate cards and exile removal that work fairly well with processors and some of the more pushed "colorless" cards printed now.
Its fine, but the cards arent really spectacular enough, as theres simply not enough of them and they are overall not pushed enough to make a tier 1 deck (but good enough, if the maindeck graveyard removal is allready strong).
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In saying that, standard and limited are where WotC make the most money, so keeping players there is what they want.
Standard sets go through cycles of power level, by design. If every standard and every draft format has the same balance between creatures and how powerful removal is, the game gets stale. WotC is currently on a mission to make marketable characters and creature combat the defining feature of the game, thus cards like Tasigur and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy get printed today. This also explains the difference between Damnation and Languish.
On the other hand, I don't really consider recent sets necessarily powered down. Sure, there's a lot of cards that aren't going to be played outside of Standard, but that's always been true. Also, consider that Treasure Cruise has been banned or restricted in all three eternal formats and Dig Through Time is only legal as a 4x in Legacy. Monastery Mentor and the new Jace are key components of a current top tier Vintage deck and get played in Legacy and Modern as well. Every format plays Gurmag Angler. The new Eldrazi are going to see play. What you don't necessarily see much of is new low-CMC non-creature spells making a big impact, though even there, things like Kolaghan's Command, Atarka's Command, Murderous Cut (functionally a 1 or 2 CMC card) and so forth are seeing play.
Could WotC do more to reduce the price of buying in to Modern and Legacy? Sure, they could try harder to reprint hard to find or expensive cards. But they have to walk a fine line between keeping the format affordable, keeping Standard fun to play, and not wrecking the value of cards for collectors. You can't just drop Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf, Blood Moon and Mox Opal into a random standard set and call it a day.
Also, I don't see it as necessarily an extremely bad thing that Modern and Legacy are somewhat expensive. It means people are actually interested in playing the formats. There are at least two weekly Legacy tournaments within 30 minutes of me and a handful of Modern, I doubt that was true for Legacy ten years ago when dual lands were half the price they are now.
This is an interesting point that economists are very aware of, but doesn't get much attention outside those circles: that when something is cheap and/or plentiful, people don't value it. The more effort and resources they expended to get something, the more seriously they take it, the more they keep it good (in the case of collectibles like Magic cards), &c.
What are you talking about? Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were so good they got banned in eternal formats. Siege Rhino, Monastery Mentor, Monastery Swiftspear, Pia and Kiraan Nalaar, Kolaghan's Command, Collected Company, Atarka's Command, Murderous Cut,Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Abbot of Keral Keep, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Painful Truths and Gurmag Angler are all recent cards that are seeing play in eternal formats.
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I dont think we are seeing a different design yet, but we are seeing the realization of thier current ideals. They think spells and creatires should be on the same power level, and we have aeen spells take a back seat to the Rhinos of the world for the last few sets now.
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yeah I saw a few different versions of the deck at the Face to Face open, it seems to be quite popular while still being optimized
I'm interested to see what they'll do with colourless mana cards now
Exactly. Which is part of my point: A new player getting in now has to buy everything modern from previous sets since few staples are coming out of standard are of equal power (and those that are tend to be Rare/Mythic). To someone who just started, Modern might as well be another game for how little recent cards contributes to the modern card pool. If you're already in (and were able to get fetches and other cards are reasonable prices as they were published) then a new set contributing 4-5 cards (all R/M) doesn't bother you. If you're new though, moving to modern is essentially burning your current collection and buying OOP/Limited Print cards, some at tremendous markups, because your Fiery Impulse isn't going to compete in a world of Lightning Bolts.
It's not that Tarmogoyf is expensive because they purposefully put out limited amounts of Future Sight. It's expensive because the amount that Future Sight was printed can't satisfy the demand NOW for it.
Oopssorry has it right, that the distinction between Legacy and Modern is design. When people say that creatures are better than spells now, they are not properly contextualizing things. It's not that spells were on par and are being powered down. Spells were way ahead in the race and now are being brought down as creatures are brought up to parity.
Your shifting the goal post now. Secondary market prices have little to do with Wizards Modern policy. The fact we can now bank on Modern Masters to keep the card pool growing at a reasonable pace is a great boon to the modern community.
If you want to get into modern look for a deck and start seeking cards for that deck. Is it expensive, depends on what you're building. Spending your money on packs for standard is still spending money, if you want to get into modern then you need to shift your buying priorities. That's not on wizards.
It's not the way you want but reprints are in the pipeline, that's more than what can be said for legacy. After building a couple modern decks through PucaTrade I can tell you how much easier it is to get a card reprinted in MM vs. an original print run. MM has improved the card pool and will continue to do so.
Your case is that someone who JUST started playing can't get access to modern staples? That will never change.
Go build an eldrazi deck, there has never been a better standard season to start modern. Especially considering the price and manabases of some of the current Standard decks. 4 color goodstuff was the reason I finally pulled the trigger and started building for modern.
What your talking about is quite literally the former extended format which i was a fan of back in the day. Something in between, not modern, not standard but allows those hundreds of cool but ultimately sub par cards thrive.
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Ironically, Legacy has gotten more love than Modern since Modern became a thing.
PDS:S gave us most of the playable slivers, PDS:F&L is pretty much Burn 101, PDS: Graveborn puts you on track for Reanimator, DD:EVG and CMD14 made Elves affordable. Brainstorm, Swords to Plowshares, Dark Ritual, Ponder, Cabal Therapy, Innocent Blood, Cephalid Coliseum, Counterspell, Explore, Daze, Buried Alive, Ancient Tomb, Berserk, etc. have all seen at least one reprint. ONS Fetchlands, Vial, Blood Moon, Hierarch, Bob, Thoughtseize, Chalice, City, Goyf were all happily shared but Narcomoeba and Bridge weren't really for Modern's sake, neither was Empty the Warrens, Seething Song, etc. The Judge Foil program is pretty much "Legacy reprints so we don't have to pay these chumps" and Wasteland is on it's 4th premium reprint.
Only things Legacy actually wants but cannot get are Duals, Tabernacle, LED and Workshop. And nowadays buying into Tier 1.5 Legacy decks is not much more expensive than buying into Modern. Hell you can still do well with budget Legacy decks like Burn which costs less than it's Modern version, meanwhile in Modern speculators have made sure there is no competitive budget decks left.
Modern is ****ed and we're getting notthing but empty promises. "Sure we'll reprint more agressively!" then they turn their backs and "We haven't even announced a MM16 because there's not gonna be one, we removed Core Sets so now it's even harder to reprint plane-specific cards and we removed IoK from MM15 knowing Kozilek's ***** in OGW was colorless spells only but you idiots still believe it was a honest mistake".
Auriok Champion is an extremely hard card to put in a deck, it needs a specific playstyle to be good right? It's not like the MED was Tokens, like Karador had a tokens sub-theme, Oloro was all about life-gain, Nahiri was weenies or Daxos had a tokens sub-theme again. "That card is so impossible to reprint, we just don't find a place for it!".
My current trade binder.
"People most likely to cry "troll" are those who can't fathom holding a position for reasons unrelated to how they want to be perceived"
And how many of those 4 cards recently got a reprint? What's that, Eye and Temple had been reprinted in MM, and Temple got another reprint in the most recent Duel deck?! Tomb was reprinted in M15?! 3/4 have had very recent reprintings with the 4th undoubtedly getting one in the next MM. Are they in high demand right now, yeah, but my point is you can get 90% of the deck for CHEAP then work on the pricy stuff. Any deck worth playing is going to have some expensive cards, some more than others.
It's like the person who made this topic has never played a game of tournament Magic in the past year and is instead just taking the word of the biggest pessimists on MTGsalvation as gospel. Mirrodin and Ravnica and Zendikar were filled with complete chaff as well.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit