Alright, let's take Oath of Druid's as an example... I'll use Carlson Oarke's deck from the BoM9 Vintage Trail. Prices from MTGOTraders. And assuming $50 for each of the power nine, which is a pretty low estimate I think. I came up with $1576.81 total. Please, someone tell me my math is wrong or prices will drop or something like that?
The rest seems fairly accurate, but duals should drop as they're being reprinted in Vintage Masters. Unfortunately fetchlands are still a major cost for the format.
Also, I'm not sure that Oath is the best deck to get a feel for format cost.
There's a good chance people hoard power, so that's why they could be worth 200 each.
Dual lands should be cheaper than they are now.
The other fetches and cards not reprinted (show and tell, misdirection, mental misstep) should be higher than they are now.
However there is another factor. Supposedly they are making the switch to the V4 client in July. Prices will be depressed when lots of people quit and sell their collections, so that should have some impact on vintage prices.
The prices of all of these cards that are printed in VM will be bottoming out by the end of release weeks. I would guess in that window any piece of power can be had for $50 or less. Dual lands should be at their lowest levels ever. FOW will be at it's lowest level ever.
I'm still unsure as to why the Onslaught Fetches weren't printed in VM (although I think this may be a hint that they could be reprinted in a standard legal set, something that I never thought would happen). Those will be pricier, but overall, the decks shouldn't be too crazy expensive, and if you purchase the pwoer at the right time it should be a solid investment that will go nowhere but up.
Um, stupid question: who would run Onslaught fetch lands when Zendikar lands come in at half the price?
Doctor that list to fit with the different supply/demand of online and you're going to knock some dollars off.
Also, If players play the hell out of Vintage Masters we may be able to flood the market with some of these cards. I don't expect power nine cards to be cheap but, cards like FoW that are reprinted in the set will put more into the secondary market (plus, yeah, you're way off on the cost of that particular card!) and I can see some of those cards dipping a bit.
My concern is that if the format doesn't start out on the right foot it will stumble and die before it has a chance.
The longer after VM goes off sale they try to rejuvenate the format the worse it will get, as the staple cards will only go up in price over time.
Which is why I don't really understand why they insisted on pricing it at $6.99 a booster, obviously for more profits, but they are essentially banking the success of arguably MTGs most iconic format on Vintage Masters selling well enough to provide enough cards. If the limited format isn't as amazing as they seem to think it is, the lure of opening big money can only justify so many $25 drafts. If Modern Masters is anything to go by, the secondary market booster prices will typically sit around the 7tix mark and wont drop.
The cost will be a big factor as well, I don't really think that the format needs to be as expensive to enter as people seem to think it should be. Just because paper vintage is stupidly expensive, doesn't mean online has to be as well. There should be some cost associated with it and some amount of commitment but not stupid levels. MTG is a game after all, and whats the point of having a format if its too expensive for most people to actually play with any degree of success?
The cost will be a big factor as well, I don't really think that the format needs to be as expensive to enter as people seem to think it should be. Just because paper vintage is stupidly expensive, doesn't mean online has to be as well. There should be some cost associated with it and some amount of commitment but not stupid levels. MTG is a game after all, and whats the point of having a format if its too expensive for most people to actually play with any degree of success?
Yeah the $7 booster is clearly financially motivated, all claims of needing to maintain Vintage specialness notwithstanding. They probably figure they can get away with it simply because online Vintage will be an order of magnitude cheaper than paper Vintage. You can get some original dual lands at ludicrously cheap prices - for instance, Plateau is about 7 tickets online. Force of Will is only in the mid-30's.
Thus, for someone wanting to get into it, online will be far and away the easiest and cheapest way to do so, and will have the most consistent tournament support. But I have no idea how popular the limited format will be, since I imagine some people will shy away from dropping $25 just to lose one match and maybe open no money cards.
Does anyone have a list of cards in this set that have not previously been released online?
I expect the limited format for this to run at full tilt pretty much the entire time the cards are available. I also expect people to play it when they release limited events again for the set down the road (you know they will, they do it with all "limited time only" sets). I expect them to be popular despite the cost for the obvious reasons that there are some money cards in there and the opportunity to own power nine cards, even fake ones, is pretty appealing to a lot of players.
This set has had me thinking a lot about the artificial supply and demand that Wizards creates for this game. It sometimes just makes me sick to my stomach...
This set has had me thinking a lot about the artificial supply and demand that Wizards creates for this game. It sometimes just makes me sick to my stomach...
MTG has always been about artificial supply and demand... MTGO is not going to be any different.
Yes. I know.
But it hadn't been on my mind until the announcement of this set because I've been playing primarily online for the last 2 years.
The cost will be a big factor as well, I don't really think that the format needs to be as expensive to enter as people seem to think it should be. Just because paper vintage is stupidly expensive, doesn't mean online has to be as well. There should be some cost associated with it and some amount of commitment but not stupid levels. MTG is a game after all, and whats the point of having a format if its too expensive for most people to actually play with any degree of success?
Yeah the $7 booster is clearly financially motivated, all claims of needing to maintain Vintage specialness notwithstanding. They probably figure they can get away with it simply because online Vintage will be an order of magnitude cheaper than paper Vintage. You can get some original dual lands at ludicrously cheap prices - for instance, Plateau is about 7 tickets online. Force of Will is only in the mid-30's.
Thus, for someone wanting to get into it, online will be far and away the easiest and cheapest way to do so, and will have the most consistent tournament support. But I have no idea how popular the limited format will be, since I imagine some people will shy away from dropping $25 just to lose one match and maybe open no money cards.
It doesn't matter if online vintage only costs say $1400 for a deck instead of whatever ungodly amount a paper vintage deck costs, in my opinion that is still *far* too much. It's just greed, pure and simple. WOTC thinks they can make a massive amount of money of this set, so they are going to milk it for as much as they can. The thing is, as far as I can tell, the entire future of online Vintage (and the opportunity to grow online legacy) heavily depend on the success of this set. If the limited format is not as amazing as they think it will be, how many $25 drafts will people really be willing to plow through in the hopes of opening money rares?
Vintage (and legacy) are unique experiences for MTG that not many players get to experience (outside of proxy allowed tournaments) compared to the number that would probably like to that simply cannot afford it. Its expensive in paper so it should be expensive online, seems to be the main argument being thrown around when cost is brought up, but is that really true? Would anyone consider it a good thing that there is a massive barrier to entry for people wanting to just play the game? Would it have been such a bad thing if online vintage/legacy was say $400-500 to put together a competitive deck and push extra cost into pimping out said deck (foils, alternate arts etc)
If VM isn't a massive success, the vintage format will be dead before it even starts. If there are not enough P9 in circulation, there is no way the format can really grow, and it only gets worse once it goes off sale and someone wants to get in later. Sure, legacy and vintage events will pay out VM packs, but I would be extremely surprised if the number of packs was not cut in half to 'account for the increased cost of the VM boosters'. In any case, I'm not sure that will really help *all* that much. Those with a viable vintage deck get to get more vintage cards and people are forced to literally gamble (ripping $7+ packs hoping for a money card) in order to increase supply with these prize packs.
I think the last thing to consider too is that many paper vintage events aren't paying out boosters as their only prizes, they typically have special prizes of some kind.
In short, I want to see these formats thrive online, but I am concerned that WOTCs greed is going to kill it before it has a chance, *especially* considering the timing of the upcoming forced change to the new client. They should be trying to build faith with their players, not be trying to gouge them for as much money as possible.
The cost will be a big factor as well, I don't really think that the format needs to be as expensive to enter as people seem to think it should be. Just because paper vintage is stupidly expensive, doesn't mean online has to be as well. There should be some cost associated with it and some amount of commitment but not stupid levels. MTG is a game after all, and whats the point of having a format if its too expensive for most people to actually play with any degree of success?
Yeah the $7 booster is clearly financially motivated, all claims of needing to maintain Vintage specialness notwithstanding. They probably figure they can get away with it simply because online Vintage will be an order of magnitude cheaper than paper Vintage. You can get some original dual lands at ludicrously cheap prices - for instance, Plateau is about 7 tickets online. Force of Will is only in the mid-30's.
Thus, for someone wanting to get into it, online will be far and away the easiest and cheapest way to do so, and will have the most consistent tournament support. But I have no idea how popular the limited format will be, since I imagine some people will shy away from dropping $25 just to lose one match and maybe open no money cards.
It doesn't matter if online vintage only costs say $1400 for a deck instead of whatever ungodly amount a paper vintage deck costs, in my opinion that is still *far* too much. It's just greed, pure and simple. WOTC thinks they can make a massive amount of money of this set, so they are going to milk it for as much as they can. The thing is, as far as I can tell, the entire future of online Vintage (and the opportunity to grow online legacy) heavily depend on the success of this set. If the limited format is not as amazing as they think it will be, how many $25 drafts will people really be willing to plow through in the hopes of opening money rares?
Vintage (and legacy) are unique experiences for MTG that not many players get to experience (outside of proxy allowed tournaments) compared to the number that would probably like to that simply cannot afford it. Its expensive in paper so it should be expensive online, seems to be the main argument being thrown around when cost is brought up, but is that really true? Would anyone consider it a good thing that there is a massive barrier to entry for people wanting to just play the game? Would it have been such a bad thing if online vintage/legacy was say $400-500 to put together a competitive deck and push extra cost into pimping out said deck (foils, alternate arts etc)
If VM isn't a massive success, the vintage format will be dead before it even starts. If there are not enough P9 in circulation, there is no way the format can really grow, and it only gets worse once it goes off sale and someone wants to get in later. Sure, legacy and vintage events will pay out VM packs, but I would be extremely surprised if the number of packs was not cut in half to 'account for the increased cost of the VM boosters'. In any case, I'm not sure that will really help *all* that much. Those with a viable vintage deck get to get more vintage cards and people are forced to literally gamble (ripping $7+ packs hoping for a money card) in order to increase supply with these prize packs.
I think the last thing to consider too is that many paper vintage events aren't paying out boosters as their only prizes, they typically have special prizes of some kind.
In short, I want to see these formats thrive online, but I am concerned that WOTCs greed is going to kill it before it has a chance, *especially* considering the timing of the upcoming forced change to the new client. They should be trying to build faith with their players, not be trying to gouge them for as much money as possible.
I guess I just have a totally different perspective on this set release. This doesn't seem like greed at all. It feels like Wizards catering exclusively to the people with bottomless pockets for Magic and secondary dealers. If it was a money grab they'd have cost the packs normal price and not had a limited run. If this set was on sale forever and drafted forever, they'd make money off of it for all time. Players would never, ever stop buying it and playing. That would be better for their bottom line.
I know they don't make money in the secondary market and that they have to keep that in mind for things like this, but there's no real reason to put a cap on the supply of this set from their end. The cards are not redeemable so they don't have to worry about that. Again, they have no stock in the secondary market but they are intentionally driving price up. It doesn't benefit them to do this.
All said, I'm a nut bag when it comes to this game so my opinion is for crap. For example, if I was in charge at Wizards Vintage Masters would be a paper set as well and I'd print it every year. To hell with the secondary dealers. This game, IMO, is more fun when everyone can access the cards. I prefer deckbuilding and experimenting over collecting the cards.
Having a thriving secondary market and card scarcity is actually good for the game as it garners additional interest in the game. I'm saying it's good for the players, or that it's good for the actual gameplay. It is however, good for the overall health and longevity of the game. If all cards were just in print for forever, even online only, your old cards would ALWAYS be competing with your new cards, and people would get bored by having less areas of interaction with the game and its pieces.
Having a thriving secondary market and card scarcity is actually good for the game as it garners additional interest in the game. I'm saying it's good for the players, or that it's good for the actual gameplay. It is however, good for the overall health and longevity of the game. If all cards were just in print for forever, even online only, your old cards would ALWAYS be competing with your new cards, and people would get bored by having less areas of interaction with the game and its pieces.
I don't believe this at all and never have. We'll never know for sure because its never been done, but to me the fun is in deck building and game play. If everyone had easier access to all cards it would kill the secondary market, yes, but we'd have more creativity in deck building, IMO. We'd also have more interest in vintage style formats. The only anyone in my local area can play vintage is by playing in tournaments that allow proxies.
Having a thriving secondary market and card scarcity is actually good for the game as it garners additional interest in the game. I'm saying it's good for the players, or that it's good for the actual gameplay. It is however, good for the overall health and longevity of the game. If all cards were just in print for forever, even online only, your old cards would ALWAYS be competing with your new cards, and people would get bored by having less areas of interaction with the game and its pieces.
I don't believe this at all and never have. We'll never know for sure because its never been done, but to me the fun is in deck building and game play. If everyone had easier access to all cards it would kill the secondary market, yes, but we'd have more creativity in deck building, IMO. We'd also have more interest in vintage style formats. The only anyone in my local area can play vintage is by playing in tournaments that allow proxies.
Sorry it's not a matter of we'll never know for sure because we do know for certain. CCGs without a thriving secondary market have universally failed. You might say they lacked depth of gameplay, or any number of other factors. But every successful CCG also has a thriving secondary market. It could be correlation and not causation, but personally I think it's both.
Let's jump in the time machine and look at some superficial aspects of some old CCGs. Jihad (Vampire: The eternal Struggle) had at one time solid gameplay, and emerging fanbase, and an emerging secondary market. Then they changed the card backs,de-valued the entire collection and it was a dead game within a year (I played in SEVERAL local tournaments for this game, it had rising popularity). That awesome/terrible Star Trek CCG is up next, if I recall they tried making some of the most popular characters from Star Trek commons rather than rares. This had an interesting effect of the game having rares that were both unplayable garbage, and undesirable characters. For a brief period in time the most expensive cards in the set were actually Star Trek Villains, because they didn't get the same treatment. This game was a flash in the pan for a secondary market, I think you could acquire the entire set for a box of Fallen Empires about 8 months after it left print.
Long term players do not open product, they do not want to open product. They don't want to have 40 copies of every common. If there isn't a thriving secondary market games do not make it. I think WarCraft TCG and L5R prove it rather well in fact. As soon as confidence was lost in the Secondary Market, there stopped being profit for stores to run tournaments, there stopped being L5R and Warcraft TCG as a healthy game.
Now you might validly point out that PLENTY of online card games do quite well without a secondary market, and I would say they do ok. But I played several, Altiel being one I played for several years, and instead of a secondary market you buy boosters. I mean I've seen videos of guys crack 1000 $3 boosters to get 1 5-star card. And there was nothing to do with the other 2999 cards because he already had ALL of them.
I do not want to play that game. I don't play those games anymore because... yuck. I play Magic, which is mildly expensive, but I've been doing it for 20 years now and I know the value is there on every penny I put in.
Also, 1 more example. The number 1 universally requested feature I see on EVERY single game without a Secondary Market.
When are you going to add a trade system? What do we do with all these extra cards?
Having a thriving secondary market and card scarcity is actually good for the game as it garners additional interest in the game. I'm saying it's good for the players, or that it's good for the actual gameplay. It is however, good for the overall health and longevity of the game. If all cards were just in print for forever, even online only, your old cards would ALWAYS be competing with your new cards, and people would get bored by having less areas of interaction with the game and its pieces.
I don't believe this at all and never have. We'll never know for sure because its never been done, but to me the fun is in deck building and game play. If everyone had easier access to all cards it would kill the secondary market, yes, but we'd have more creativity in deck building, IMO. We'd also have more interest in vintage style formats. The only anyone in my local area can play vintage is by playing in tournaments that allow proxies.
Sorry it's not a matter of we'll never know for sure because we do know for certain. CCGs without a thriving secondary market have universally failed. You might say they lacked depth of gameplay, or any number of other factors. But every successful CCG also has a thriving secondary market. It could be correlation and not causation, but personally I think it's both.
Let's jump in the time machine and look at some superficial aspects of some old CCGs. Jihad (Vampire: The eternal Struggle) had at one time solid gameplay, and emerging fanbase, and an emerging secondary market. Then they changed the card backs,de-valued the entire collection and it was a dead game within a year (I played in SEVERAL local tournaments for this game, it had rising popularity). That awesome/terrible Star Trek CCG is up next, if I recall they tried making some of the most popular characters from Star Trek commons rather than rares. This had an interesting effect of the game having rares that were both unplayable garbage, and undesirable characters. For a brief period in time the most expensive cards in the set were actually Star Trek Villains, because they didn't get the same treatment. This game was a flash in the pan for a secondary market, I think you could acquire the entire set for a box of Fallen Empires about 8 months after it left print.
Long term players do not open product, they do not want to open product. They don't want to have 40 copies of every common. If there isn't a thriving secondary market games do not make it. I think WarCraft TCG and L5R prove it rather well in fact. As soon as confidence was lost in the Secondary Market, there stopped being profit for stores to run tournaments, there stopped being L5R and Warcraft TCG as a healthy game.
Now you might validly point out that PLENTY of online card games do quite well without a secondary market, and I would say they do ok. But I played several, Altiel being one I played for several years, and instead of a secondary market you buy boosters. I mean I've seen videos of guys crack 1000 $3 boosters to get 1 5-star card. And there was nothing to do with the other 2999 cards because he already had ALL of them.
I do not want to play that game. I don't play those games anymore because... yuck. I play Magic, which is mildly expensive, but I've been doing it for 20 years now and I know the value is there on every penny I put in.
Also, 1 more example. The number 1 universally requested feature I see on EVERY single game without a Secondary Market.
When are you going to add a trade system? What do we do with all these extra cards?
Extra cards? Obviously you've not seen my online collection.
No card game can even begin to compare to Magic because none of them has made it other than Pokemon but Pokemon is a very special case. It has a built in audience and a billion cartoons to sell its product. Those other games only failed because they weren't as good.
Printing Vintage Masters every year might be a bit extreme. I'd rather see Wizards get rid of the Mythic rarity and get rid of the no reprint list. That would be enough for me.
1x Flooded Strand ($37.15)
2x Island ($.02)
1x Misty Rainforest ($29.80)
1x Scalding Tarn ($33.63)
2x Polluted Delta ($118.50)
2x Tropical Island ($44.58)
3x Underground Sea ($99.24)
4x Forbidden Orchard ($17.80)
Creatures
1x Blightsteel Colossus ($4.80)
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn ($27.22)
Artifacts
1x Mana Crypt ($29.11)
1x Sol Ring ($1.08)
1x Lotus Petal ($4.21)
1x Mox Sapphire ($50.00)
1x Mox Jet ($50.00)
1x Mox Pearl ($50.00)
1x Mox Ruby ($50.00)
1x Mox Emerald ($50.00)
1x Black Lotus ($50.00)
Other Spells
4x Force of Will ($256.00)
3x Spell Pierce ($0.24)
3x Mental Misstep ($5.34)
2x Preordain ($6.40)
2x Swan Song ($0.16)
2x Thoughtseize ($15.64)
1x Tinker ($0.35)
1x Thirst for Knowledge ($0.25)
1x Mystical Tutor ($5.72)
1x Flusterstorm ($26.50)
1x Vampiric Tutor ($29.65)
1x Misdirection ($74.72)
1x Brainstorm ($2.93)
1x Ancestral Recall ($50.00)
1x Show and Tell ($65.51)
1x Time Walk ($50.00)
1x Abrupt Decay ($4.18)
1x Beast Within ($0.71)
1x Demonic Tutor ($15.49)
4x Oath of Druids ($31.44)
1x Dragon Breath ($0.05)
2x Show and Tell (131.02)
1x Ravenous Trap ($0.03)
2x Tormod's Crypt ($0.44)
1x Golgari Charm ($0.20)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite ($11.54)
2x Hurkyl's Recall ($43.60)
4x Nature's Claim ($0.32)
2x Pithing Needle ($1.24)
The promo Emrakul is around 10tix each
Thoughtseize is 5tix each for the new one
Preordain can he had for under 10 cents each, not $3+
You're about $10 over on the Underground Sea set
The rest seems fairly accurate, but duals should drop as they're being reprinted in Vintage Masters. Unfortunately fetchlands are still a major cost for the format.
Also, I'm not sure that Oath is the best deck to get a feel for format cost.
Check it out!
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part-1-one-shot-resources/
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part2-tempo/
I've also written a short primer on Manaless Dredge in Vintage:
http://www.eternalcentral.com/the-dredge-of-glory-an-introduction-to-manaless-dredge-in-vintage/
There's a good chance people hoard power, so that's why they could be worth 200 each.
Dual lands should be cheaper than they are now.
The other fetches and cards not reprinted (show and tell, misdirection, mental misstep) should be higher than they are now.
However there is another factor. Supposedly they are making the switch to the V4 client in July. Prices will be depressed when lots of people quit and sell their collections, so that should have some impact on vintage prices.
I'm still unsure as to why the Onslaught Fetches weren't printed in VM (although I think this may be a hint that they could be reprinted in a standard legal set, something that I never thought would happen). Those will be pricier, but overall, the decks shouldn't be too crazy expensive, and if you purchase the pwoer at the right time it should be a solid investment that will go nowhere but up.
Doctor that list to fit with the different supply/demand of online and you're going to knock some dollars off.
Also, If players play the hell out of Vintage Masters we may be able to flood the market with some of these cards. I don't expect power nine cards to be cheap but, cards like FoW that are reprinted in the set will put more into the secondary market (plus, yeah, you're way off on the cost of that particular card!) and I can see some of those cards dipping a bit.
If you can't fetch the right basic you will lose to wasteland. So certain decks need onslaught fetches.
The longer after VM goes off sale they try to rejuvenate the format the worse it will get, as the staple cards will only go up in price over time.
Which is why I don't really understand why they insisted on pricing it at $6.99 a booster, obviously for more profits, but they are essentially banking the success of arguably MTGs most iconic format on Vintage Masters selling well enough to provide enough cards. If the limited format isn't as amazing as they seem to think it is, the lure of opening big money can only justify so many $25 drafts. If Modern Masters is anything to go by, the secondary market booster prices will typically sit around the 7tix mark and wont drop.
The cost will be a big factor as well, I don't really think that the format needs to be as expensive to enter as people seem to think it should be. Just because paper vintage is stupidly expensive, doesn't mean online has to be as well. There should be some cost associated with it and some amount of commitment but not stupid levels. MTG is a game after all, and whats the point of having a format if its too expensive for most people to actually play with any degree of success?
Yeah the $7 booster is clearly financially motivated, all claims of needing to maintain Vintage specialness notwithstanding. They probably figure they can get away with it simply because online Vintage will be an order of magnitude cheaper than paper Vintage. You can get some original dual lands at ludicrously cheap prices - for instance, Plateau is about 7 tickets online. Force of Will is only in the mid-30's.
Thus, for someone wanting to get into it, online will be far and away the easiest and cheapest way to do so, and will have the most consistent tournament support. But I have no idea how popular the limited format will be, since I imagine some people will shy away from dropping $25 just to lose one match and maybe open no money cards.
I expect the limited format for this to run at full tilt pretty much the entire time the cards are available. I also expect people to play it when they release limited events again for the set down the road (you know they will, they do it with all "limited time only" sets). I expect them to be popular despite the cost for the obvious reasons that there are some money cards in there and the opportunity to own power nine cards, even fake ones, is pretty appealing to a lot of players.
This set has had me thinking a lot about the artificial supply and demand that Wizards creates for this game. It sometimes just makes me sick to my stomach...
A comic about the world's most addictive game, Magic: The Gathering.
Yes. I know.
But it hadn't been on my mind until the announcement of this set because I've been playing primarily online for the last 2 years.
It doesn't matter if online vintage only costs say $1400 for a deck instead of whatever ungodly amount a paper vintage deck costs, in my opinion that is still *far* too much. It's just greed, pure and simple. WOTC thinks they can make a massive amount of money of this set, so they are going to milk it for as much as they can. The thing is, as far as I can tell, the entire future of online Vintage (and the opportunity to grow online legacy) heavily depend on the success of this set. If the limited format is not as amazing as they think it will be, how many $25 drafts will people really be willing to plow through in the hopes of opening money rares?
Vintage (and legacy) are unique experiences for MTG that not many players get to experience (outside of proxy allowed tournaments) compared to the number that would probably like to that simply cannot afford it. Its expensive in paper so it should be expensive online, seems to be the main argument being thrown around when cost is brought up, but is that really true? Would anyone consider it a good thing that there is a massive barrier to entry for people wanting to just play the game? Would it have been such a bad thing if online vintage/legacy was say $400-500 to put together a competitive deck and push extra cost into pimping out said deck (foils, alternate arts etc)
If VM isn't a massive success, the vintage format will be dead before it even starts. If there are not enough P9 in circulation, there is no way the format can really grow, and it only gets worse once it goes off sale and someone wants to get in later. Sure, legacy and vintage events will pay out VM packs, but I would be extremely surprised if the number of packs was not cut in half to 'account for the increased cost of the VM boosters'. In any case, I'm not sure that will really help *all* that much. Those with a viable vintage deck get to get more vintage cards and people are forced to literally gamble (ripping $7+ packs hoping for a money card) in order to increase supply with these prize packs.
I think the last thing to consider too is that many paper vintage events aren't paying out boosters as their only prizes, they typically have special prizes of some kind.
In short, I want to see these formats thrive online, but I am concerned that WOTCs greed is going to kill it before it has a chance, *especially* considering the timing of the upcoming forced change to the new client. They should be trying to build faith with their players, not be trying to gouge them for as much money as possible.
I guess I just have a totally different perspective on this set release. This doesn't seem like greed at all. It feels like Wizards catering exclusively to the people with bottomless pockets for Magic and secondary dealers. If it was a money grab they'd have cost the packs normal price and not had a limited run. If this set was on sale forever and drafted forever, they'd make money off of it for all time. Players would never, ever stop buying it and playing. That would be better for their bottom line.
I know they don't make money in the secondary market and that they have to keep that in mind for things like this, but there's no real reason to put a cap on the supply of this set from their end. The cards are not redeemable so they don't have to worry about that. Again, they have no stock in the secondary market but they are intentionally driving price up. It doesn't benefit them to do this.
All said, I'm a nut bag when it comes to this game so my opinion is for crap. For example, if I was in charge at Wizards Vintage Masters would be a paper set as well and I'd print it every year. To hell with the secondary dealers. This game, IMO, is more fun when everyone can access the cards. I prefer deckbuilding and experimenting over collecting the cards.
I don't believe this at all and never have. We'll never know for sure because its never been done, but to me the fun is in deck building and game play. If everyone had easier access to all cards it would kill the secondary market, yes, but we'd have more creativity in deck building, IMO. We'd also have more interest in vintage style formats. The only anyone in my local area can play vintage is by playing in tournaments that allow proxies.
Sorry it's not a matter of we'll never know for sure because we do know for certain. CCGs without a thriving secondary market have universally failed. You might say they lacked depth of gameplay, or any number of other factors. But every successful CCG also has a thriving secondary market. It could be correlation and not causation, but personally I think it's both.
Let's jump in the time machine and look at some superficial aspects of some old CCGs. Jihad (Vampire: The eternal Struggle) had at one time solid gameplay, and emerging fanbase, and an emerging secondary market. Then they changed the card backs,de-valued the entire collection and it was a dead game within a year (I played in SEVERAL local tournaments for this game, it had rising popularity). That awesome/terrible Star Trek CCG is up next, if I recall they tried making some of the most popular characters from Star Trek commons rather than rares. This had an interesting effect of the game having rares that were both unplayable garbage, and undesirable characters. For a brief period in time the most expensive cards in the set were actually Star Trek Villains, because they didn't get the same treatment. This game was a flash in the pan for a secondary market, I think you could acquire the entire set for a box of Fallen Empires about 8 months after it left print.
Long term players do not open product, they do not want to open product. They don't want to have 40 copies of every common. If there isn't a thriving secondary market games do not make it. I think WarCraft TCG and L5R prove it rather well in fact. As soon as confidence was lost in the Secondary Market, there stopped being profit for stores to run tournaments, there stopped being L5R and Warcraft TCG as a healthy game.
Now you might validly point out that PLENTY of online card games do quite well without a secondary market, and I would say they do ok. But I played several, Altiel being one I played for several years, and instead of a secondary market you buy boosters. I mean I've seen videos of guys crack 1000 $3 boosters to get 1 5-star card. And there was nothing to do with the other 2999 cards because he already had ALL of them.
I do not want to play that game. I don't play those games anymore because... yuck. I play Magic, which is mildly expensive, but I've been doing it for 20 years now and I know the value is there on every penny I put in.
Also, 1 more example. The number 1 universally requested feature I see on EVERY single game without a Secondary Market.
When are you going to add a trade system? What do we do with all these extra cards?
Extra cards? Obviously you've not seen my online collection.
No card game can even begin to compare to Magic because none of them has made it other than Pokemon but Pokemon is a very special case. It has a built in audience and a billion cartoons to sell its product. Those other games only failed because they weren't as good.
Printing Vintage Masters every year might be a bit extreme. I'd rather see Wizards get rid of the Mythic rarity and get rid of the no reprint list. That would be enough for me.