As far as the amount of filler and worthless rares, it reflects an unfortunate facet of this game's set design that has existed since Alpha. Even disregarding the tenants of how Wizards designs for limited, Wizards would never, ever release a set with a cube-like level of value. Some of the rarity changes made sense (such as Force of Will's upgrade and the downgrade of some former junk rares) and others were WTF (Argothian Enchantress). Of course, the inclusion of cards that had been out of print for decades clashing with the company's insistence on creating a draftable set is most likely at fault for this disharmony.
Completely agree. I've always thought that the 'Masters' products are trying to do too many things at once. If making a set that's fun to draft you want a focus on commons and uncommons, a low overall power level and a low price to make up for the fact that you'll mostly be getting bulk commons. A set meant to increase card availability needs to focus on uncommons and rares, a high power level and a high price point to help curb stores overcharging and card prices from dropping too far too fast.
In my opinion these sets end up offering the worst of both worlds. They're mostly low-power commons and uncommons to make a good draft experience, but the packs are expensive the chance of getting high-value rares/mythics. It's too difficult to shift cards down in rarity because that will upset the draft format but keeping all the high-value cards at rare/mythic prevents prices from moving significantly. The worst part is, because of limited the print-runs, most of the product ends up in the hands of investors and constructed players (who couldn't care less about a bunch of draft un/commons) leaving stores with little to no product left to run drafts.
I think the thing that pisses me off most about this is that they went out of their way to print stuff like Control Magic in the set because it's never been in foil, but then don't print cards like Containment Priest, True-Name Nemesis, or Back to Basics that also desperately need foils and pretty much can't be printed in any other set w/ foils.
Nether Shadow is the only card left with no foil and/or Modern border version in Manaless Dredge. It's also a $2-4 card that's impossible to print in modern Magic because it works with the old graveyard rule.
Would it have been too ******* bad to print it instead of Braids who is banned or useless everywhere? R&D seems to think so.
Okay, I'm seeing too much of 'why didn't they reprint THIS really expensive card? This set sucks!"
Are people forgetting what would happen if the set was full of $20+ cards?
Prices of the packs would skyrocket, a few people would buy all of the boxes, and then people who just want to crack some good packs would be hard pressed to find them.
How do people not learn from things like the Mind Seize deck? When the EV of the pack vastly outweighs the MRSP, they disappear into the hands of speculators.
In saying that, why did they reprint Jareth, Leonine Titan here? It was just in COMM15, and Control Magic was in COMM 12 and 13. Very odd choices.
Okay, I'm seeing too much of 'why didn't they reprint THIS really expensive card? This set sucks!"
Are people forgetting what would happen if the set was full of $20+ cards?
Prices of the packs would skyrocket, a few people would buy all of the boxes, and then people who just want to crack some good packs would be hard pressed to find them.
How do people not learn from things like the Mind Seize deck? When the EV of the pack vastly outweighs the MRSP, they disappear into the hands of speculators.
In saying that, why did they reprint Jareth, Leonine Titan here? It was just in COMM15, and Control Magic was in COMM 12 and 13. Very odd choices.
That wouldn't happen if Wizards would actually print these Masters sets to demand with a normal MSRP like they do with normal Standard sets. But they won't and that's the problem.
Unlike the modern masters sets I feel like the cards here will have a harder time rebounding price wise. Mythics like mana crypt wont change too much becasue supply is will be too small. But unlike goyf no commander player is really going to try for 3 more if they open a crypt.
I estimate pack ev to be about $12 and head down to about $9 in a month. In a month I predict 13 cards worth a pack, 8 of them Mythic, only 1 rare worth more than $20. It not that the set is too top heavy, they piled comet storm level rares (balance, worldgorger, necropotence). The only thing that props of the price is the limited print run. I am not asking for crazyness but they could replace these 3 mythics with Imperial Recruiter, Demonic Tutor, and Land Tax. Add about 20% more value down the line as well and you would have it.
This set strikes me as being created in the mold of MM2 without any impact the players response to the set. MM1 was a 9 on my scale, MM2 a 6, this is probably a 7.
People being disappointed about card exclusions was pretty much guaranteed. It's only 249 cards from across the history of the game, and everyone wants something different.
I'm pretty sure nobody wanted Call the skybreaker, even at common.
The annoying thing is that boxes will sell out everywhere despite the generally schizophrenic final list. Money talks and wizards can't hear our groaning over it.
Can't wait to get my third sphinx of the steel wind tho... (seriously that guy was in graveborn and a commander set :/) I guess pyrokinesis is on the same level as FoW, so obviously it had to be rare. Shoulda been mythic imo. That card is hella hard to find too. Thank god I might get 2 or more from my $12-15 packs.
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My favorite flavor text: Time of Heroes
Feel free to tell me yours!
YES! Tidal Wave in the new border. And a THASSA quote no less! Love the flavor text! The art always did make it look like a Greek ship, so very much appropriate! Easily my favorite card in this set! Going right into my Thassa EDH, which is one of my favorite things to do in MTG. Get cards for that deck.
Cards I want:
Enlightened Tutor
Control Magic
Force of Will (regrettably for Keranos EDH)
Glacial Wall (DAT ART)
Hydroblast
Memory Lapse (Love Rebecca Guay but the original art on this wasn't a favorite for me)
Mystical Tutor (Yaasss)
Tidal Wave (THASSAAAAAAAAAAA)
Gaea's Blessing (New border!)
Heritage Druid
Sensei's Divining Top (will probably get the original instead when cheaper)
Winter Orb (Because art. We need an icy themed world again tbh)
Wish Merchant Scroll and Tragic Poet were reprinted in this to be in the new border. Why all these Monk Idealist reprints when we could have Tragic Poet? The wait continues. Oh well, at least I have these.
Also need Sunken City in the new border too, with Arixmethes art tbh.
Did you expect a free removal at uncommon? Ok that Invigorate is uncommon, but its free ability is useless as a killing mode without a Berserk effect, while this card can kill more than one creature out of nowhere. It's not an effect R&D wants to happen any draft I suppose.
Infect is the main reason why we won't see Invigorate in Standard/Modern anytime soon... Glad to see it in a new border though
I don't like drafting so I always knew I'd buy singles. Perhaps a few packs. It does look like a fun draft set though, I must admit. If I did draft I'd buy a box and draft it at home with friends.
Peregrine Drake makes me cry a bit because I finally got one recently and here he is at common. But then again, it's a great card to have more of out there so can't complain. Besides, I love the Planechase art more, and I couldn't have known he'd show up in here.
Wish Merchant Scroll and Tragic Poet were reprinted in this to be in the new border. Why all these Monk Idealist reprints when we could have Tragic Poet? The wait continues. Oh well, at least I have these.
Merchant Scroll is allready in modern border - from 8th
With all that in mind, the question I have to ask is if it's really worth making players unhappy by upshifting Uncommons to Rare in their $10-$12 packs just so they can feel good about designing a draft format that will only see play for a month before the supply dries up.
That's completely another story, and I fully agree on it, too, this time even more than MMA and MM2 because Conspiracy is coming and people are still getting a special product focused on Draft. Unfortunately, Wizzy knows people would draft even their undergarbage if their mom & dad gave them inside boosters, so they won't change their mind anytime soon.
As a quick aside, drafting panties and the like should have more or less the feeling of beeing on the other side of the table against someone who builded an overpowered Winter Orb deck in this expansion...
I'm familiar with hat drafting, but what on earth does drafting panties mean?
I honestly don't mind a lot of chaff in the set - as has been discussed before, the EV of a set can't be TOO high without pricing the boosters out of people's range. However, I would like to see at least interesting chaff. Things like the Colloseum Champions Cycle has been reprinted before (multiple times in certain cases) and they aren't all that interesting. Dito a card like Call the Skybreaker. Wouldn't have hurt to throw Commander a few bones with cards that haven't seen a reprint in a long time and while they're not expensive, they might simply not be found a lot. Stuff like, say, Tsabo Tavoc isn't worth much but could go in there. Likewise, there are plenty of cool and interesting rares from yesteryear that have never seen a foil/modern border printing before that could've slotted in. Instead, the last day of spoilers was a whole lot of chaff and stuff that has seen several reprints, with Duplicant being just about the only interesting card, along with MAYBE 8.5-tails.
Oh and Sphinx of the Steel Wind just feels like a kick to the nuts of anyone who bought Graveborn, C13 Esper or pulled one in its Alara days. It's not that good a card, it's not needed, it's been reprinted two times already.
As for the commons/uncommons...they're at least at a decent level this time. Between a few value cards (Young Pyromancer, Wall of Omens (no clue it was that pricey), Cabal Therapy, etc) and some fun rarity downgrades, along with some cards that simply were out of stock often while not being that pricey, I think the set does well on that aspect at least. Unlike MM2 which had maybe 3 modern playables in its pack of commons and uncs, here there's at least a lot of somewhat interesting goodies.
I'm just...annoyed by the final day gulf. They really blew their wad the first few days and hope everyone is so hyped up they don't notice the pile of chaff on the final day. They really should rethink this strategy; you now get a lot of sour grapes on the final day. Suppose Karakas, Maze of Ith, Sensei's Divining Top, Entomb and Sylvan Library had been in this final spoiler instead of during the first four days, I don't think the reaction would've been as negative as it is now.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
My issue with this set is that it's supposed to make older formats more accessible and this really doesn't do that. Instead we have crap like the Hondons at uncommon and the vintage allstar Seismic Stomp. At least some of it like Ghitu Slinger finds its way into cubes, but the only here for draft stuff is really disappointing. With a limited print run set, you don't actually have to craft an immaculate draft format. Just put in good cards and let people slam the OP stuff against each other. At over 30 bucks a draft it's not like your going to play it so much as to ware it out...
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Playing with NFC cards should earn a lifetime ban.
The rarity upshifts in this set range veer wildly between making perfect sense (Enlightened Tutor) to infuriating (Pyrokinesis).
I nearly crapped my pants when I saw Pyrokinesis at rare. Gross.
Did you expect a free removal at uncommon? Ok that Invigorate is uncommon, but its free ability is useless as a killing mode without a Berserk effect, while this card can kill more than one creature out of nowhere. It's not an effect R&D wants to happen any draft I suppose.
I'd rather it just not be in the set. I get that not everything can be some $50 staple, but this is garbage.
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Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 6/29/20 (Core Set 2021).
People being disappointed about card exclusions was pretty much guaranteed. It's only 249 cards from across the history of the game, and everyone wants something different.
I'm pretty sure nobody wanted Call the skybreaker, even at common.
Considering that all of this could have gone into a Modern Masters set where it would have been more appropriate, then I am not happy to get Call the Skybreaker, Burning Vengeance or Dream Twist in this set. I would have preferred something that hasn't been in a modern border or had a foil printing. With Eternal Masters, I wanted nostalgia, not retrace or cards that were printed in the last few years.
My issue with this set is that it's supposed to make older formats more accessible and this really doesn't do that. Instead we have crap like the Hondons at uncommon and the vintage allstar Seismic Stomp. At least some of it like Ghitu Slinger finds its way into cubes, but the only here for draft stuff is really disappointing. With a limited print run set, you don't actually have to craft an immaculate draft format. Just put in good cards and let people slam the OP stuff against each other. At over 30 bucks a draft it's not like your going to play it so much as to ware it out...
I totally agree with you. I wanted to have Erg Raiders and Cuombajj Witches with a little shadow thrown in.
Wish Merchant Scroll and Tragic Poet were reprinted in this to be in the new border. Why all these Monk Idealist reprints when we could have Tragic Poet? The wait continues. Oh well, at least I have these.
Merchant Scroll is allready in modern border - from 8th
Not that i expected much after MM2, but this is seriously dissapointing. First of all, this won't get new players into legacy. That's just a fact. Opening a random staple or two with 40 useless cards won't get anyone's legacy career started. And prices won't drop for most of the cards, considering the effects of MM2. Not to mention that the landbase is still ridiculously expensive and will never get reprinted.
So this set is not for people trying to get into legacy. But then for whom is it?
Is it for the draft enthusiasts? I doubt it. There has been a lot of rarity shifts upwards(''because of limited''), but what about down? Why isn't Fow an uncommon again? Counterspells are not that good in draft, especially ones that make you lose card advantage. Argothian enchantress and worldgorger dragon at mythic? Would they really break the format at rare? And of course, Shardless agent is a rare with BB elf in the same set at uncommon. Also why are these packs more expensive if they are just made for drafting? Innistrad was also made for drafting and is not that expensive. Let's not kid ourselves, Wotc clearly put secondary market prices before limited. So while people might certainly enjoy drafting this set, Wotc seems to have had a different group of people as their priority.
So the set was not made for people wanting to get into legacy, and the limited environment took a backseat to the secondary market. This set is just another lottery. Only people who are already deeply invested into the game will intentionally buy it, in hopes of opening that big lottery ticket, while at the same time covering up their gambling problem with ''if I don't get anything i will atleast get a fun draft'', even though there are better and cheaper ways of doing that. This is another rip-off and everyone who buys it will just enable further money-grabbing by Wotc.
This set was made to increase Hasbro's revenues by providing a lottery product with artificial scarcity for Magic players to consume. End of story.
Not that i expected much after MM2, but this is seriously dissapointing. First of all, this won't get new players into legacy. That's just a fact. Opening a random staple or two with 40 useless cards won't get anyone's legacy career started. And prices won't drop for most of the cards, considering the effects of MM2. Not to mention that the landbase is still ridiculously expensive and will never get reprinted.
So this set is not for people trying to get into legacy. But then for whom is it?
Is it for the draft enthusiasts? I doubt it. There has been a lot of rarity shifts upwards(''because of limited''), but what about down? Why isn't Fow an uncommon again? Counterspells are not that good in draft, especially ones that make you lose card advantage. Argothian enchantress and worldgorger dragon at mythic? Would they really break the format at rare? And of course, Shardless agent is a rare with BB elf in the same set at uncommon. Also why are these packs more expensive if they are just made for drafting? Innistrad was also made for drafting and is not that expensive. Let's not kid ourselves, Wotc clearly put secondary market prices before limited. So while people might certainly enjoy drafting this set, Wotc seems to have had a different group of people as their priority.
So the set was not made for people wanting to get into legacy, and the limited environment took a backseat to the secondary market. This set is just another lottery. Only people who are already deeply invested into the game will intentionally buy it, in hopes of opening that big lottery ticket, while at the same time covering up their gambling problem with ''if I don't get anything i will atleast get a fun draft'', even though there are better and cheaper ways of doing that. This is another rip-off and everyone who buys it will just enable further money-grabbing by Wotc.
Spot on!
One thing I don't get is why they didn't throw online players a bone? Drafting EMA isn't worth the price of admission. They didn't include the online cards that are hard to get: Rishidan Port, Misdirection, Show and Tell, or Imperial Recruiter. I get that not all of them would be included... but not one? From what I can tell, there are only one or two cards worth more than 20 tix.
Just very disappointing.
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Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
In my opinion these sets end up offering the worst of both worlds. They're mostly low-power commons and uncommons to make a good draft experience, but the packs are expensive the chance of getting high-value rares/mythics. It's too difficult to shift cards down in rarity because that will upset the draft format but keeping all the high-value cards at rare/mythic prevents prices from moving significantly. The worst part is, because of limited the print-runs, most of the product ends up in the hands of investors and constructed players (who couldn't care less about a bunch of draft un/commons) leaving stores with little to no product left to run drafts.
Nether Shadow is the only card left with no foil and/or Modern border version in Manaless Dredge. It's also a $2-4 card that's impossible to print in modern Magic because it works with the old graveyard rule.
Would it have been too ******* bad to print it instead of Braids who is banned or useless everywhere? R&D seems to think so.
Are people forgetting what would happen if the set was full of $20+ cards?
Prices of the packs would skyrocket, a few people would buy all of the boxes, and then people who just want to crack some good packs would be hard pressed to find them.
How do people not learn from things like the Mind Seize deck? When the EV of the pack vastly outweighs the MRSP, they disappear into the hands of speculators.
In saying that, why did they reprint Jareth, Leonine Titan here? It was just in COMM15, and Control Magic was in COMM 12 and 13. Very odd choices.
That wouldn't happen if Wizards would actually print these Masters sets to demand with a normal MSRP like they do with normal Standard sets. But they won't and that's the problem.
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I estimate pack ev to be about $12 and head down to about $9 in a month. In a month I predict 13 cards worth a pack, 8 of them Mythic, only 1 rare worth more than $20. It not that the set is too top heavy, they piled comet storm level rares (balance, worldgorger, necropotence). The only thing that props of the price is the limited print run. I am not asking for crazyness but they could replace these 3 mythics with Imperial Recruiter, Demonic Tutor, and Land Tax. Add about 20% more value down the line as well and you would have it.
This set strikes me as being created in the mold of MM2 without any impact the players response to the set. MM1 was a 9 on my scale, MM2 a 6, this is probably a 7.
I'm actually quite happy to see Call the Skybreaker, though I would have preferred uncommon. It's pretty sweet in limited with Burning Vengeance, Dream Twist, and whatnot.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
I nearly crapped my pants when I saw Pyrokinesis at rare. Gross.
My 720 Peasant Cube
Hell yeah, I'm digging Braids too!
Can't wait to get my third sphinx of the steel wind tho... (seriously that guy was in graveborn and a commander set :/) I guess pyrokinesis is on the same level as FoW, so obviously it had to be rare. Shoulda been mythic imo. That card is hella hard to find too. Thank god I might get 2 or more from my $12-15 packs.
Feel free to tell me yours!
Cards I want:
Enlightened Tutor
Control Magic
Force of Will (regrettably for Keranos EDH)
Glacial Wall (DAT ART)
Hydroblast
Memory Lapse (Love Rebecca Guay but the original art on this wasn't a favorite for me)
Mystical Tutor (Yaasss)
Tidal Wave (THASSAAAAAAAAAAA)
Gaea's Blessing (New border!)
Heritage Druid
Sensei's Divining Top (will probably get the original instead when cheaper)
Winter Orb (Because art. We need an icy themed world again tbh)
Wish Merchant Scroll and Tragic Poet were reprinted in this to be in the new border. Why all these Monk Idealist reprints when we could have Tragic Poet? The wait continues. Oh well, at least I have these.
Also need Sunken City in the new border too, with Arixmethes art tbh.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Infect is the main reason why we won't see Invigorate in Standard/Modern anytime soon... Glad to see it in a new border though
Peregrine Drake makes me cry a bit because I finally got one recently and here he is at common. But then again, it's a great card to have more of out there so can't complain. Besides, I love the Planechase art more, and I couldn't have known he'd show up in here.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Merchant Scroll is allready in modern border - from 8th
http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardsearch.php?singlesearch=Merchant Scroll
Oh and Sphinx of the Steel Wind just feels like a kick to the nuts of anyone who bought Graveborn, C13 Esper or pulled one in its Alara days. It's not that good a card, it's not needed, it's been reprinted two times already.
As for the commons/uncommons...they're at least at a decent level this time. Between a few value cards (Young Pyromancer, Wall of Omens (no clue it was that pricey), Cabal Therapy, etc) and some fun rarity downgrades, along with some cards that simply were out of stock often while not being that pricey, I think the set does well on that aspect at least. Unlike MM2 which had maybe 3 modern playables in its pack of commons and uncs, here there's at least a lot of somewhat interesting goodies.
I'm just...annoyed by the final day gulf. They really blew their wad the first few days and hope everyone is so hyped up they don't notice the pile of chaff on the final day. They really should rethink this strategy; you now get a lot of sour grapes on the final day. Suppose Karakas, Maze of Ith, Sensei's Divining Top, Entomb and Sylvan Library had been in this final spoiler instead of during the first four days, I don't think the reaction would've been as negative as it is now.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I'd rather it just not be in the set. I get that not everything can be some $50 staple, but this is garbage.
My 720 Peasant Cube
Considering that all of this could have gone into a Modern Masters set where it would have been more appropriate, then I am not happy to get Call the Skybreaker, Burning Vengeance or Dream Twist in this set. I would have preferred something that hasn't been in a modern border or had a foil printing. With Eternal Masters, I wanted nostalgia, not retrace or cards that were printed in the last few years.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
This set was made to increase Hasbro's revenues by providing a lottery product with artificial scarcity for Magic players to consume. End of story.
Spot on!
One thing I don't get is why they didn't throw online players a bone? Drafting EMA isn't worth the price of admission. They didn't include the online cards that are hard to get: Rishidan Port, Misdirection, Show and Tell, or Imperial Recruiter. I get that not all of them would be included... but not one? From what I can tell, there are only one or two cards worth more than 20 tix.
Just very disappointing.