Thanks for posting this. I've had this, uh, 'discussion' with a number of shops that had proposed to launch Pauper nights and I try to ask them "MTGO rules or actual-paper printed rarity", they go "Whatever, if it was ever a common it's good unless it's on the banlist, if it was bad it'd be on the banned list", I explain "Hymn and Sinkhole aren't on the MTGO banned list because they're not MTGO commons..." "Whatever, man. We'll see how it plays out." Yeah, I already know how this plays out.
I don't want to bring a deck with Hymns and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (not on the MTGO pauper valids list). I don't want to bring a deck with Chainer's Edicts and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (never printed as paper commons). I don't want to bring a deck that resists using either flavor of corner case and then face decks all evening that didn't hold themselves to the same deckbuilding restrictions. I want a show-runner who gives a damn enough to make it clear to all players what the cardpool is; ideally, I want the organization that handles all the other formats (including the online version of Pauper) to actually give a damn enough to codify a ruleset for paper pauper. But for some reason they never do.
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- thatmarkguy
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Core sets are massively printed and the boosters low-priced. This set will probably have a print run not terribly different from a Masters set, and prices similarly premium. I would expect the net effect on the pricing of most reprinted cards to be ... comparable to the effect of Masters set reprints. Which tends to be modest and oftentimes temporary.
The only real place I could see a price impact is that foil slot. There will be 121 cards that will now have a foil instance in circulation that is just as frequent in this set as any nonfoil mythic is in a 'normal' set. For cards that had a high-demand foil premium multiplier, this will represent a substantial boost in circulation of that card at the foil level.
Any specific large-set mythic at foil is ordinarily, what, one per ~3000 packs? Any one reprinted here is 1 in 121 packs. Even if this is printed WAAAAAY less than a standard set, that's an enormous increase in foil circulation.
10 slots are 2-per-monocolor cards that are ‘uncommons’ or ‘commons’ (obv equally represented in this set, But cards that were uncommon or common in the set they’re being reprinted-from). Each slot is a unique print sheet, so you’ll get one card from White Sheet 1, one card from White Sheet 2, one from Blue Sheet 1, and so on.
One sheet is just like above but for multicolored cards, and one sheet is just like above but for artifacts-or-lands.
One slot is rares-and-mythics-from-M15-and-later, of any color(s) or lack thereof. Again the difference between rare and mythic here is purely ornamental, as each card is actually equally mythic (1 in 121) whether its set symbol is gold or red.
One slot is specifically cards pre-M15. These could be cards showing any rarity, but I expect these will be basically another ‘notable cards’ slot, where when it isn’t an actual rare it’s a ‘good’ common or uncommon from long ago (demonic tutor, lotus petal, Rhystic study, etc). The non-noteworthy old sub-rares would have been on the first 12 sheets.
And the last slot at retail is the foil that we don’t know anything about yet but I expect it to also be aimed at being a ‘good card’ (either some value or draft utility).
I expect most of the value, and most of the draft bombs, to be in those last three slots. The first 12 slots will likely be draft deck decents but constructed collection bulk.
So we have a solution, in the form of a card we can have no more than 4 of in deck, and is itself prone to removal in the turn before it becomes unsick, and probably wouldn't be played in many low-curve aggro builds, in specifically Black-Green decks. That ... really doesn't compare to the likelihood of an on-demand revolt trigger in a fetch-loaded modern deck. Like, not even close.
They've never even printed a B 2/1 without a downside, and you expect they'll suddenly print one with an huge upside and no downside?
I mean, so were Mana Drain, Karakas, Land Tax, and Sylvan Library. "Uncommon in Legends means fine at uncommon now" isn't really a sound foundation.
And in another direction - if we’re interested in finding a similar-utility replacement for Rancor, we might look at Rosethorn Halberd again. When it came out we dismissed it for this deck because it simply wasn’t as good as Rancor. But in rancorless Pioneer, we should look again. It gives the similar power boost, devotion, and eventual (albeit slower) reusability if its first host goes away. It loses trample of course (trading it for +1 toughness) but on the other hand, it’s ‘permanent’ devotion - even if the creature goes away it stays on board, and while Rancor can be sent to grave for-real if removal removes its target while it’s on the stack, this at least stays on the battlefield for devotion and possible eventual reattach.
So, not as good as Rancor ... but is it good enough to replace Rancor in the new format where Rancor does not exist?
People keep saying that, and have been saying that for years, but they keep on printing new land-search-and-shuffle stuff. Like really, if it was a significant consideration in design, Fabled Passage wouldn't exist. Evolvng Wilds wouldn't be reprinted every eyeblink. They wouldn't have added yet more fetching to Modern in the form of Prismatic Vista. They'd find/design other ways to ramp green than the usual "Search your library for a land". They'd stop printing cards with the Assassin's Trophy / Old-Growth Dryads / Path to Exile / Field of Ruin clause.
There's no actual identifiable sign that they're designing to avoid land-search-and-shuffle as a time saving imperative. If they really wanted to minimize shuffling they'd find a way, and they repeatedly opt not to.
(I was sad when Elvish Spirit Guide was not printed in Modern Horizons - that in modern would provide some much needed redundancy for that sort of effect in green).
That is interesting. I know some old casual-legacy Lowland Stompy decks often ran Land Grant, for that reason - it’s a nonland that can be free cast to become a land (and put a card in grave for delving a Hooting Mandrills, and cast a green spell for Talara’s Battalion or Nettle Sentinel...) I wonder if it finds a place in that sort of deck, where it is another way that deck can fluff its grave and reduce its land count...
But that’s not so sensible in the modern build.