Am I the only one thinking the new "variant" printings is effectively giving Unstable different rarities within each rarity levels? For example, if we assume for discussion sake that Very Cryptic Command only has four variations (is it up to 6 now?) and it's a rare. Then we can reasonably assign a relative rarity of R1 to each of the four variations. Ergo, the other rares that do not have variations would have a relative rarity of R4.
See where I'm going with this? Or am I figuring these rarities wrong?
I think I can see where you're going, but it depends on how frequently these cards appear on their respective sheets compared to non-variants. Do the variants combined appear as frequently as any other card of the same rarity, or do these cards appear more often by virtue of having variants? The casual nature of the set prevents the former scenario from having any serious price implications, but it could complicate things from a collecting perspective.
Am I the only one thinking the new "variant" printings is effectively giving Unstable different rarities within each rarity levels? For example, if we assume for discussion sake that Very Cryptic Command only has four variations (is it up to 6 now?) and it's a rare. Then we can reasonably assign a relative rarity of R1 to each of the four variations. Ergo, the other rares that do not have variations would have a relative rarity of R4.
See where I'm going with this? Or am I figuring these rarities wrong?
The U1-U4 designation is a reference to the way print sheets are laid out. A U1 card appears once on the uncommon sheet, while a U4 appears 4 times on the uncommon sheet.
In modern MTG printing, mythics and rares share the rare sheet. You can see an example M14 sheet here. Notice that the mythics show up once each (Archangel of Thune, Ring of Three Wishes, etc.) while the rares show up twice (Clone, Sanguine Bond, etc.). In that sense, you might call a mythic R1 and a regular rare R2.
Calling the variants of Everythingamajig, Ineffable Blessing, and Very Cryptic Command (which all have 6 variants) R1 is wrong, since they're not showing up once on the rare sheet. In fact, they would be showing up on 1/3 of the rare sheets, on average.
I wrongly calculated the rarity by setting the reference point to the card rather than the sheet.
Just as I suspected, 6 variant cards for every 3 sheets sets each unique version rarer than the equivalent Mythic that appears once each sheet. An Ultra-Mythic of sorts or whatever.
I wonder where WotC is going to take this in future sets? Will they use this technique in future sets to finally make box mapping truly a thing of the past or will they create super-mega-ultra-once-in-a-blue-moon-crazy-Mythic-Rare? Or something inbetween?
Do we know for a fact that the variant cards only get the same number of spots per name as other rares? What if instead they made them appear six times as often so that each variation is exactly as rare as any normal unique card?
I wrongly calculated the rarity by setting the reference point to the card rather than the sheet.
Just as I suspected, 6 variant cards for every 3 sheets sets each unique version rarer than the equivalent Mythic that appears once each sheet. An Ultra-Mythic of sorts or whatever.
I wonder where WotC is going to take this in future sets? Will they use this technique in future sets to finally make box mapping truly a thing of the past or will they create super-mega-ultra-once-in-a-blue-moon-crazy-Mythic-Rare? Or something inbetween?
I think Masterpieces fill that niche right now. They're not universally popular, but they mercifully are optional bling with no discernable impact on the price of decks. In that sense, I'd question why Wizards would even want to replace chase cards that successfully move product with something that has the same benefits and more downsides. The segment of their customer base willing to spend vast amounts of money on sealed product for masterpieces overlaps heavily with the people who do the same for other valuable cards, so including both or switching would do little to improve revenue. Not to mention, the past couple of years have been rough for the company's PR, and this decision would certainly come with a massive backlash.
Do we know for a fact that the variant cards only get the same number of spots per name as other rares? What if instead they made them appear six times as often so that each variation is exactly as rare as any normal unique card?
Currently we only have speculation. It's possible someone can run the number to see if it's even possible to fit all variants on the sheets wizards uses, or the various ways it could be broken up. Alternatively we can ask wizards and hope for an answer before mass openings figure it out the hard way.
This could have Major price implications on certain cards.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
This could have Major price implications on certain cards.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
Take a look at the Basic Island Foil... remember, those basic lands are playable outside of Un-sets.
This could have Major price implications on certain cards.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
Yes. You can already see foil Very Cryptic Command A (the sketch art variant) has skyrocketed, but part of that is because the artist died February 2016.
This could have Major price implications on certain cards.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
Yes. You can already see foil Very Cryptic Command A (the sketch art variant) has skyrocketed, but part of that is because the artist died February 2016.
That's why!
I couldn't figure out why the price was skewed other than it was a sketch. I thought it was some weird joke WotC was trying to do.
Or some hefty interaction with another card that cared about art/artist/color/whatever.
Or people really really liked sketch art for some weird reason.
This could have Major price implications on certain cards.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
Yes. You can already see foil Very Cryptic Command A (the sketch art variant) has skyrocketed, but part of that is because the artist died February 2016.
That's why!
I couldn't figure out why the price was skewed other than it was a sketch. I thought it was some weird joke WotC was trying to do.
Or some hefty interaction with another card that cared about art/artist/color/whatever.
Or people really really liked sketch art for some weird reason.
I had no idea the artist died.
He's also the artist for the original Cryptic Command, and the Player Rewards full-art Cryptic Command, so I'm sure that has something to do with it as well.
Am I the only one thinking the new "variant" printings is effectively giving Unstable different rarities within each rarity levels? For example, if we assume for discussion sake that Very Cryptic Command only has four variations (is it up to 6 now?) and it's a rare. Then we can reasonably assign a relative rarity of R1 to each of the four variations. Ergo, the other rares that do not have variations would have a relative rarity of R4.
See where I'm going with this? Or am I figuring these rarities wrong?
In modern MTG printing, mythics and rares share the rare sheet. You can see an example M14 sheet here. Notice that the mythics show up once each (Archangel of Thune, Ring of Three Wishes, etc.) while the rares show up twice (Clone, Sanguine Bond, etc.). In that sense, you might call a mythic R1 and a regular rare R2.
Calling the variants of Everythingamajig, Ineffable Blessing, and Very Cryptic Command (which all have 6 variants) R1 is wrong, since they're not showing up once on the rare sheet. In fact, they would be showing up on 1/3 of the rare sheets, on average.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Just as I suspected, 6 variant cards for every 3 sheets sets each unique version rarer than the equivalent Mythic that appears once each sheet. An Ultra-Mythic of sorts or whatever.
I wonder where WotC is going to take this in future sets? Will they use this technique in future sets to finally make box mapping truly a thing of the past or will they create super-mega-ultra-once-in-a-blue-moon-crazy-Mythic-Rare? Or something inbetween?
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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I think Masterpieces fill that niche right now. They're not universally popular, but they mercifully are optional bling with no discernable impact on the price of decks. In that sense, I'd question why Wizards would even want to replace chase cards that successfully move product with something that has the same benefits and more downsides. The segment of their customer base willing to spend vast amounts of money on sealed product for masterpieces overlaps heavily with the people who do the same for other valuable cards, so including both or switching would do little to improve revenue. Not to mention, the past couple of years have been rough for the company's PR, and this decision would certainly come with a massive backlash.
If Version X of Very Cryptic Command is the "BEST" one by far, it's either going to be a chase rare, or 6 times as rare. On average, a specific mythic shows up about 1/2 as often as a rare (50 rares in 7/8th of packs = ~1 in 60 packs vs 13 rares in 1/8 pack is 1 in 1:104 packs) variance in small set versus large set of course.
This could be even more insane in rarity of foils. For example, if I want "Extremely Slow Zombie" in Christmas format, a normal foil common might cost 50 cents but this could make price go up exponentially. Star City has The Zombie at 9 cent commons versus $.99 foils for example. Very Cryptic Command are running $.99 each versus $30 for foil version.
Take a look at the Basic Island Foil... remember, those basic lands are playable outside of Un-sets.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
That's why!
I couldn't figure out why the price was skewed other than it was a sketch. I thought it was some weird joke WotC was trying to do.
Or some hefty interaction with another card that cared about art/artist/color/whatever.
Or people really really liked sketch art for some weird reason.
I had no idea the artist died.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)