Hasbro: That Modern Masters 2017 set sold great and made us lots of money! What can we expect for Modern Masters 2019?
Wizards: OH WE DON'T DO THOSE ANY MORE THE PROS DON'T LIKE MODERN
Exactly, I don't know why they would stop printing $9.99 MSRP sets that sell well. That wouldn't make much sense.
If Wizards continues to move away from Modern, maybe a rebranding would be in order. Just something like "Magic Masters 2019". A place to reprint cards for any older format...
Also, is there anything that would stop Wizards from just reissuing previous Masters sets? (if they don't have enough newer cards that need reprinting) That would even save them on the costs of developing a limited environment.
All these great reprints makes me think this might be the last Masters set.
This was exactly my thought as well.
Count me in as well.
Why? Someone explain this logic to me. So far all I've seen are people make this statement with no logic or evidence to substantiate it.
How do you think wizards is going to keep in print the extreme volume of unique cards in modern right now? The format reached its critical turning point just before return to ravnica and even commander is hard to fully support due to the legality of legacy cards.
Modern is also filled with a lot of stuff the designers today dislike and pros have been complaining about for years.
The only people who like modern are non-pro players who were around for a while and own the card pool to play the format. Online things are a little better, but still.
So basically, because of one limited print run set, every Modern player will be able to get every play set they want, and therefore they won't purchase future Masters sets?
Why? Someone explain this logic to me. So far all I've seen are people make this statement with no logic or evidence to substantiate it.
How do you think wizards is going to keep in print the extreme volume of unique cards in modern right now? The format reached its critical turning point just before return to ravnica and even commander is hard to fully support due to the legality of legacy cards.
Modern is also filled with a lot of stuff the designers today dislike and pros have been complaining about for years.
The only people who like modern are non-pro players who were around for a while and own the card pool to play the format. Online things are a little better, but still.
So basically, because of one limited print run set, every Modern player will be able to get every play set they want, and therefore they won't purchase future Masters sets?
I don't buy it.
No, did you read the post or cherry pick the parts you wanted to reply to as a gut reaction to seeing something contrary to your world view? =-O
Also, extremely happy to see craterhoof behemoth. That guy is amazing.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Now we just need to see some common mana-dorks. And *cough*noble hierarch*cough*
WOTC: we need some mana creatures
how about noble hierarch?
Na, we just reprinted it 2 years ago.
What about birds of paradise?
We did that in conspiracy
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
As the owner of two foil Craterhoofs (and four nonfoil), this is sad,
but not unexpected.
I'm honestly more disappointed by the way Decay isn't the promo art/flavor text,
but I guess a certain amount of time has to pass before they're okay with that.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
All these great reprints makes me think this might be the last Masters set.
This was exactly my thought as well.
Count me in as well.
Why? Someone explain this logic to me. So far all I've seen are people make this statement with no logic or evidence to substantiate it.
How do you think wizards is going to keep in print the extreme volume of unique cards in modern right now? The format reached its critical turning point just before return to ravnica and even commander is hard to fully support due to the legality of legacy cards.
Modern is also filled with a lot of stuff the designers today dislike and pros have been complaining about for years.
The only people who like modern are non-pro players who were around for a while and own the card pool to play the format. Online things are a little better, but still.
To be fair, no one has liked the last few seasons of Standard either and Modern is the second-most popular format.
Yeah, I wouldn't take my statement as bashing on modern or anything like that. It's just that their is a particular audience that modern draws and usually it's the more affluent of the community (people higher on the age brackets with good paying jobs). Personally, I think the format will be much healthier if they do more reprints, especially on the mana base.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah, I wouldn't take my statement as bashing on modern or anything like that. It's just that their is a particular audience that modern draws and usually it's the more affluent of the community (people higher on the age brackets with good paying jobs). Personally, I think the format will be much healthier if they do more reprints, especially on the mana base.
They finally realized their target market - people with deeper wallets (hence MSRP), don't need advertising to get to because they are enfranchised players (subdued marketing), care more about the quality of the cards (literally every complaint about MM2), probably don't really have to time to be grinding PTQs and to be playing the PTs either (less higher tournament support but there's at least some (more than Legacy) GPs) and mainly playing the likes of FNM (and EDH).
I almost feel like saying from both their products and sentiments from their articles/social media that they actually found the correct formula for a non-rotating format in a company that makes its bread and butter in rotation and they didn't screw up as badly as the first time round (coughlegacycoughchroniclescoughreservedlistcough).
It's always sad to see the value of cards you own drop in value, even if you are not a hoarder/speculator. Just because the same people are happier for the community/game at large doesn't mean they need to be devoid about the sadness of their own cards dropping in value.
For example I'm also sad my foil Blood Moon has dropped in price, although I'm definitely happier about the reprint for the community. I may have no intention to sell that Blood Moon (its in my EDH), but the lack of intention to sell doesn't mean I wouldn't feel sad over the loss in value of a cardboard I own, simply because I own it and nothing more.
Yeah, I wouldn't take my statement as bashing on modern or anything like that. It's just that their is a particular audience that modern draws and usually it's the more affluent of the community (people higher on the age brackets with good paying jobs). Personally, I think the format will be much healthier if they do more reprints, especially on the mana base.
They finally realized their target market - people with deeper wallets (hence MSRP), don't need advertising to get to because they are enfranchised players (subdued marketing), care more about the quality of the cards (literally every complaint about MM2), probably don't really have to time to be grinding PTQs and to be playing the PTs either (less higher tournament support but there's at least some (more than Legacy) GPs) and mainly playing the likes of FNM (and EDH).
I almost feel like saying from both their products and sentiments from their articles/social media that they actually found the correct formula for a non-rotating format in a company that makes its bread and butter in rotation and they didn't screw up as badly as the first time round (coughlegacycoughchroniclescoughreservedlistcough).
Everyone keeps bringing up chronicles. That situation is impossible with how the market is now and they literally could have made this set 99 msrp without blowing up the market. The demand on these cards is just so high it wouldn't matter and there are other cards not being reprinted all over the place that would shoot up anyway.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Everyone keeps bringing up chronicles. That situation is impossible with how the market is now and they literally could have made this set 99 msrp without blowing up the market. The demand on these cards is just so high it wouldn't matter and there are other cards not being reprinted all over the place that would shoot up anyway.
I was saying it was possible then which was why Legacy paid the price. It's precisely because it's impossible now which is why they could afford to bumble around for a few years before getting it correct, otherwise they could have screwed it up on the way.
Anyway they're actively moving the demand for the format down to its actual realistic levels (through the format's removal from higher-level play) and I wouldn't be surprised if they're testing waters again. Considering the generosity of value across most rarities (at least compared to both MM1 and MM2) and the possible much-increased print run people are claiming about, they've taken pretty much 3 major steps at the same time already (lowering demand to realistic levels, refining card choice dramatically and increasing print run), which is more than can be said for almost every other action they've taken for the format in the past 5 years.
Is it perfect? No. But it's pretty obviously a huge improvement over past actions and I'm giving credit that they finally started to get their act together.
As the owner of two foil Craterhoofs (and four nonfoil), this is sad
Why is it sad? More people having access to the card doesn't make yours any less playable.
I was going to write "saddening," but that sounded clunky.
I just meant it was sad for me, not the community at large.
Ok... so why is it saddening to you?
Is that a real question?
Ok, claws away friends. If you were looking to sell the regular ones like I was, that's unfortunate, but I don't see the price of original foils really getting hit at all after the dust settles
Private Mod Note
():
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Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
Why? Someone explain this logic to me. So far all I've seen are people make this statement with no logic or evidence to substantiate it.
How do you think wizards is going to keep in print the extreme volume of unique cards in modern right now? The format reached its critical turning point just before return to ravnica and even commander is hard to fully support due to the legality of legacy cards.
Modern is also filled with a lot of stuff the designers today dislike and pros have been complaining about for years.
The only people who like modern are non-pro players who were around for a while and own the card pool to play the format. Online things are a little better, but still.
So basically, because of one limited print run set, every Modern player will be able to get every play set they want, and therefore they won't purchase future Masters sets?
I don't buy it.
First: I do not think it is the last Masters set. But I think it is the last MODERN Masters set.
And to explain the logic - well, at least from my side, there is not much to add to what Colt47 said. From my side, it is half-logic and half gut-feeling. And I do not ask you to buy it at all.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Yeah, I wouldn't take my statement as bashing on modern or anything like that. It's just that their is a particular audience that modern draws and usually it's the more affluent of the community (people higher on the age brackets with good paying jobs). Personally, I think the format will be much healthier if they do more reprints, especially on the mana base.
They finally realized their target market - people with deeper wallets (hence MSRP), don't need advertising to get to because they are enfranchised players (subdued marketing), care more about the quality of the cards (literally every complaint about MM2), probably don't really have to time to be grinding PTQs and to be playing the PTs either (less higher tournament support but there's at least some (more than Legacy) GPs) and mainly playing the likes of FNM (and EDH).
I almost feel like saying from both their products and sentiments from their articles/social media that they actually found the correct formula for a non-rotating format in a company that makes its bread and butter in rotation and they didn't screw up as badly as the first time round (coughlegacycoughchroniclescoughreservedlistcough).
Oh no, that msrp is atrocious hot garbage, especially when you realize the boxes are 129.99 at distributor pricing and probably a fraction of the cost to manufacture compared to a 36 pack standard set. If they made the prices to distributors on the same model as standard, wizards would still make money because they only print 2/3rds of the cardboard per box, and retailers could make a mint off of the boxes at much lower msrp at 145 usd. They just have to print enough to get the supply out there and reprint more regularly. It would get prices in line on the cards printed and spike the cards that didn't, which is why they should be printing more regularly instead of depending on investors to do all the work for them. It's like wizards doesn't understand that people want to play MTG, not gawk at it like it's a novelty piece of amish furniture manufactured out of wood from the 1940s.
The pricing on the second hand market for singles like Craterhoof Behemoth and cards like Tarmogoyf have been out of hand for a very long time and people just sort of shrug it off as if it is nothing, probably because they got short memories or nothing better to compare to. It doesn't kill standard to have a more affordable modern (unless you call forcing people to play the format they don't like because the other one is hidden behind a paywall is a good thing), so lets not even start that discussion again.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Oh no, that msrp is atrocious hot garbage, especially when you realize the boxes are 129.99 at distributor pricing and probably a fraction of the cost to manufacture compared to a 36 pack standard set. If they made the prices to distributors on the same model as standard, wizards would still make money because they only print 2/3rds of the cardboard per box, and retailers could make a mint off of the boxes at much lower msrp at 145 usd. They just have to print enough to get the supply out there and reprint more regularly. It would get prices in line on the cards printed and spike the cards that didn't, which is why they should be printing more regularly instead of depending on investors to do all the work for them. It's like wizards doesn't understand that people want to play MTG, not gawk at it like it's a novelty piece of amish furniture manufactured out of wood from the 1940s.
The pricing on the second hand market for singles like Craterhoof Behemoth and cards like Tarmogoyf have been out of hand for a very long time and people just sort of shrug it off as if it is nothing, probably because they got short memories or nothing better to compare to. It doesn't kill standard to have a more affordable modern (unless you call forcing people to play the format they don't like because the other one is hidden behind a paywall is a good thing), so lets not even start that discussion again.
What you described, while good for us players, is also pretty much a lot of excessive work for the same amount of profit on their end. Sure, it's definitely good for the format itself, but considering the recent decrease in tournament support for the format, I don't think that's of any priority to them, and pretty sure they aren't going to churn out extra work for it (since profit is constant in either case). Also, it takes a while for the actual impact of said decreased tournament support to hit the general public (as opposed to us over here), so for all intents and purposes, MM3 is still targeted at those willing to pay a premium (and from the reactions around, there's still a sizable group here willing to pay said premium).
What WotC is trying to do now is the lower the Secondary Market without a sudden flush of supply, because it gives them better control in the long term and the very first step they are doing is to lower demand. You can't lower price first, because it is sort of pointless since MSRP is only suggested (some people are already still raising prices at this point) and even if MSRP is enforced somehow all it does is create a drain in supply quickly, both which require a solution of "supply rush".
It wouldn't be now, but one day when the demand has finally subsided and the Secondary Market has finally settled down a lower bracket than it was before, then we could see that their next move might be to lower MSRP, since the threats that demand a "supply rush" are no longer there.
I probably divided my thoughts up between too many threads on this to be frank, but I agree with you on the part of not wanting to print too hard at once. The really big problem is that if they overprint a specific set of cards in modern rapidly it will cause the prices on other cards not printed to skyrocket, so even though the goal of wizards is definitely to get the price down and eventually set the secondary market prices where they want them, they have to do it by first getting enough cards out there to slow down price spikes, then steadily reprint the staple cards across the span of probably two to three years. If they do that while constantly reprinting the fetchlands via eternal and modern masters it will make a healthier format for both Commander and Modern players.
Ultimately, my take on it as a player is that wizards did good with reprinting cards like Craterhoof behemoth and Abrupt decay in larger print runs. People who gambled on pre-orders got a good deal for once on a box for 175 and 180, and those who waited are being rewarded with the assurance that the set is, for once, finally the modern masters people really wanted. Lets hope for the best on the remaining spoilers.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I probably divided my thoughts up between too many threads on this to be frank, but I agree with you on the part of not wanting to print too hard at once. The really big problem is that if they overprint a specific set of cards in modern rapidly it will cause the prices on other cards not printed to skyrocket, so even though the goal of wizards is definitely to get the price down and eventually set the secondary market prices where they want them, they have to do it by first getting enough cards out there to slow down price spikes, then steadily reprint the staple cards across the span of probably two to three years. If they do that while constantly reprinting the fetchlands via eternal and modern masters it will make a healthier format for both Commander and Modern players.
Ultimately, my take on it as a player is that wizards did good with reprinting cards like Craterhoof behemoth and Abrupt decay in larger print runs. People who gambled on pre-orders got a good deal for once on a box for 175 and 180, and those who waited are being rewarded with the assurance that the set is, for once, finally the modern masters people really wanted. Lets hope for the best on the remaining spoilers.
I assume when you said "slow down price spikes" you're referring to cards currently being reprinted. I mean you can't directly slow down a "price spike" of a card that skyrocketed because it was not printed while another component of a deck was, by virtue of the cause being not reprinted in the first place. In fact, technically the more of a component you reprint, the more the other component spikes. Mishra's Bauble already started spiking because of a combined factors of fetchlands, Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf caused it to and if anything, printing more of those means Bauble just goes up even more.
Perhaps you're saying "Print more fetchlands/Shadow/Goyfs" so that when Bauble gets reprinted in MM4, they will not spike back up in reverse, then I understand what you're saying and of course for that to work, it means more Baubles must be printed than fetchlands/Shadow/Goyfs, otherwise Bauble will continue to remain expensive. So ultimately, the solution is to make sure every following Modern Masters has a larger print run than the previous one in order to prevent "missing component spikes" as much as possible, which is reasonable and assuming the 5x rumors are through is already happening.
The only other thing left plausible is that "5x print run isn't enough", but considering the set isn't released yet and we haven't seen its actual impact on the market (plus it's no secret we're all greedy it could be 100x print run and there's still someone saying "not enough"), so I'm just going to be skeptical on all ends and wait to observe its actual impact.
I noted heavily on WotC heavily reducing marketing on the format, which should at the very least prevent a repeat of MM1 (as in marketing was too good that it spiked prices of cards reprinted in it instead) while still holding a quality inside better than MM1. What I'm interested in is how well it can suppress spikes of cards not reprinted instead in the long term. I may have used Bauble as an example earlier, but that was a bad example since it was way too long it was last printed (and in a rather unpopular small set), I would take Eidolon of the Great Revel (from a much-nearer set) as a better example. Sure, it has also spiked because of MM3, but the market always reacts immediately (via buyouts) to previews, so the actual result is only observable around 2-3 months after the set's release. If the demand for the format has indeed overall dropped, its price will eventually go back down slowly. It may not return back to pre-MM3 status (by virtue of being not printed), but the end increase is only by a few dollars, then I would say it would successful enough that the "next cycle" will stand a good chance of keeping spikes to a minimum and generally shifting the market down to a lower price bracket (and then that's when lower MSRP will make sense, because like I said it's pointless anyway if the entire market is in a higher price bracket).
I will also admit that I decided to buy the playset of Eidolon just before it spiked. That probably didn't help things.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Exactly, I don't know why they would stop printing $9.99 MSRP sets that sell well. That wouldn't make much sense.
If Wizards continues to move away from Modern, maybe a rebranding would be in order. Just something like "Magic Masters 2019". A place to reprint cards for any older format...
Also, is there anything that would stop Wizards from just reissuing previous Masters sets? (if they don't have enough newer cards that need reprinting) That would even save them on the costs of developing a limited environment.
So basically, because of one limited print run set, every Modern player will be able to get every play set they want, and therefore they won't purchase future Masters sets?
I don't buy it.
Check out http://www.mtgbrodeals.com/author/john-murphy/ for my EDH articles!
No, did you read the post or cherry pick the parts you wanted to reply to as a gut reaction to seeing something contrary to your world view? =-O
Also, extremely happy to see craterhoof behemoth. That guy is amazing.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
WOTC: we need some mana creatures
how about noble hierarch?
Na, we just reprinted it 2 years ago.
What about birds of paradise?
We did that in conspiracy
Lets give players what they want.......utopia tree!!!!!
We'll give them magus of the vineyard so nobody will complain.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
but not unexpected.
I'm honestly more disappointed by the way Decay isn't the promo art/flavor text,
but I guess a certain amount of time has to pass before they're okay with that.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Why is it sad? More people having access to the card doesn't make yours any less playable.
I was going to write "saddening," but that sounded clunky.
I just meant it was sad for me, not the community at large.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Yes, but maybe not permanently, while they put out a few more standard blocks to reprint from.
To be fair, no one has liked the last few seasons of Standard either and Modern is the second-most popular format.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
They finally realized their target market - people with deeper wallets (hence MSRP), don't need advertising to get to because they are enfranchised players (subdued marketing), care more about the quality of the cards (literally every complaint about MM2), probably don't really have to time to be grinding PTQs and to be playing the PTs either (less higher tournament support but there's at least some (more than Legacy) GPs) and mainly playing the likes of FNM (and EDH).
I almost feel like saying from both their products and sentiments from their articles/social media that they actually found the correct formula for a non-rotating format in a company that makes its bread and butter in rotation and they didn't screw up as badly as the first time round (coughlegacycoughchroniclescoughreservedlistcough).
Ok... so why is it saddening to you?
It's always sad to see the value of cards you own drop in value, even if you are not a hoarder/speculator. Just because the same people are happier for the community/game at large doesn't mean they need to be devoid about the sadness of their own cards dropping in value.
For example I'm also sad my foil Blood Moon has dropped in price, although I'm definitely happier about the reprint for the community. I may have no intention to sell that Blood Moon (its in my EDH), but the lack of intention to sell doesn't mean I wouldn't feel sad over the loss in value of a cardboard I own, simply because I own it and nothing more.
Everyone keeps bringing up chronicles. That situation is impossible with how the market is now and they literally could have made this set 99 msrp without blowing up the market. The demand on these cards is just so high it wouldn't matter and there are other cards not being reprinted all over the place that would shoot up anyway.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I was saying it was possible then which was why Legacy paid the price. It's precisely because it's impossible now which is why they could afford to bumble around for a few years before getting it correct, otherwise they could have screwed it up on the way.
Anyway they're actively moving the demand for the format down to its actual realistic levels (through the format's removal from higher-level play) and I wouldn't be surprised if they're testing waters again. Considering the generosity of value across most rarities (at least compared to both MM1 and MM2) and the possible much-increased print run people are claiming about, they've taken pretty much 3 major steps at the same time already (lowering demand to realistic levels, refining card choice dramatically and increasing print run), which is more than can be said for almost every other action they've taken for the format in the past 5 years.
Is it perfect? No. But it's pretty obviously a huge improvement over past actions and I'm giving credit that they finally started to get their act together.
Is that a real question?
Check out http://www.mtgbrodeals.com/author/john-murphy/ for my EDH articles!
Ok, claws away friends. If you were looking to sell the regular ones like I was, that's unfortunate, but I don't see the price of original foils really getting hit at all after the dust settles
First: I do not think it is the last Masters set. But I think it is the last MODERN Masters set.
And to explain the logic - well, at least from my side, there is not much to add to what Colt47 said. From my side, it is half-logic and half gut-feeling. And I do not ask you to buy it at all.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Oh no, that msrp is atrocious hot garbage, especially when you realize the boxes are 129.99 at distributor pricing and probably a fraction of the cost to manufacture compared to a 36 pack standard set. If they made the prices to distributors on the same model as standard, wizards would still make money because they only print 2/3rds of the cardboard per box, and retailers could make a mint off of the boxes at much lower msrp at 145 usd. They just have to print enough to get the supply out there and reprint more regularly. It would get prices in line on the cards printed and spike the cards that didn't, which is why they should be printing more regularly instead of depending on investors to do all the work for them. It's like wizards doesn't understand that people want to play MTG, not gawk at it like it's a novelty piece of amish furniture manufactured out of wood from the 1940s.
The pricing on the second hand market for singles like Craterhoof Behemoth and cards like Tarmogoyf have been out of hand for a very long time and people just sort of shrug it off as if it is nothing, probably because they got short memories or nothing better to compare to. It doesn't kill standard to have a more affordable modern (unless you call forcing people to play the format they don't like because the other one is hidden behind a paywall is a good thing), so lets not even start that discussion again.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
What you described, while good for us players, is also pretty much a lot of excessive work for the same amount of profit on their end. Sure, it's definitely good for the format itself, but considering the recent decrease in tournament support for the format, I don't think that's of any priority to them, and pretty sure they aren't going to churn out extra work for it (since profit is constant in either case). Also, it takes a while for the actual impact of said decreased tournament support to hit the general public (as opposed to us over here), so for all intents and purposes, MM3 is still targeted at those willing to pay a premium (and from the reactions around, there's still a sizable group here willing to pay said premium).
What WotC is trying to do now is the lower the Secondary Market without a sudden flush of supply, because it gives them better control in the long term and the very first step they are doing is to lower demand. You can't lower price first, because it is sort of pointless since MSRP is only suggested (some people are already still raising prices at this point) and even if MSRP is enforced somehow all it does is create a drain in supply quickly, both which require a solution of "supply rush".
It wouldn't be now, but one day when the demand has finally subsided and the Secondary Market has finally settled down a lower bracket than it was before, then we could see that their next move might be to lower MSRP, since the threats that demand a "supply rush" are no longer there.
Ultimately, my take on it as a player is that wizards did good with reprinting cards like Craterhoof behemoth and Abrupt decay in larger print runs. People who gambled on pre-orders got a good deal for once on a box for 175 and 180, and those who waited are being rewarded with the assurance that the set is, for once, finally the modern masters people really wanted. Lets hope for the best on the remaining spoilers.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I assume when you said "slow down price spikes" you're referring to cards currently being reprinted. I mean you can't directly slow down a "price spike" of a card that skyrocketed because it was not printed while another component of a deck was, by virtue of the cause being not reprinted in the first place. In fact, technically the more of a component you reprint, the more the other component spikes. Mishra's Bauble already started spiking because of a combined factors of fetchlands, Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf caused it to and if anything, printing more of those means Bauble just goes up even more.
Perhaps you're saying "Print more fetchlands/Shadow/Goyfs" so that when Bauble gets reprinted in MM4, they will not spike back up in reverse, then I understand what you're saying and of course for that to work, it means more Baubles must be printed than fetchlands/Shadow/Goyfs, otherwise Bauble will continue to remain expensive. So ultimately, the solution is to make sure every following Modern Masters has a larger print run than the previous one in order to prevent "missing component spikes" as much as possible, which is reasonable and assuming the 5x rumors are through is already happening.
The only other thing left plausible is that "5x print run isn't enough", but considering the set isn't released yet and we haven't seen its actual impact on the market (plus it's no secret we're all greedy it could be 100x print run and there's still someone saying "not enough"), so I'm just going to be skeptical on all ends and wait to observe its actual impact.
I noted heavily on WotC heavily reducing marketing on the format, which should at the very least prevent a repeat of MM1 (as in marketing was too good that it spiked prices of cards reprinted in it instead) while still holding a quality inside better than MM1. What I'm interested in is how well it can suppress spikes of cards not reprinted instead in the long term. I may have used Bauble as an example earlier, but that was a bad example since it was way too long it was last printed (and in a rather unpopular small set), I would take Eidolon of the Great Revel (from a much-nearer set) as a better example. Sure, it has also spiked because of MM3, but the market always reacts immediately (via buyouts) to previews, so the actual result is only observable around 2-3 months after the set's release. If the demand for the format has indeed overall dropped, its price will eventually go back down slowly. It may not return back to pre-MM3 status (by virtue of being not printed), but the end increase is only by a few dollars, then I would say it would successful enough that the "next cycle" will stand a good chance of keeping spikes to a minimum and generally shifting the market down to a lower price bracket (and then that's when lower MSRP will make sense, because like I said it's pointless anyway if the entire market is in a higher price bracket).
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!