Priceless Treasures, now these reprintings. I think they are testing the market, seeing how everyone will react. And, reading these forums, it seems like almost everyone is saying "MORE MORE!"
Which, is why I think we will see some "Priceless Treasures" again, only this time they will be foil reprints. Same rarity as the old priceless treasures, and just as illegal in Standard and Limited. (and this time they will announce it, not be quite about it. That was the test, the real thing is coming.)
Remember, I'm talking about "Priceless Treasure" rarity. Which means 1 in every 20 boxes or something. The "loophole" they are saying they are using, (which as someone points out is immaterial because the policy is not legally binding anyway) lets them reprint FOIL versions of the cards. Since they are all talking about "embracing the loophole" it means they don't plan on getting rid of the policy. They ARE planning on making it look like their "hands are tied" and that they can ONLY print promo versions of the cards. There hands are, of course, NOT tied since they can get rid of the policy at anytime if they wanted, but they can make more $ if they reprint these cards as promos only, because it lets them make $ off of the secondary market, something they've never overtly tried to do before.
What this mean, as was pointed out, that these cards will NOT be printed in sets, they will NOT become Standard legal, because than they would have to print non-foil versions of them. (This is assuming that they don't go the "all Ultra Rares only come in foil" like other card games did.) So, those of you that want to play Vesuvan Doppelganger in Standard are out of luck.
People keep asking "Why did Wizards put Vintage cards in Zendikar BUT NOT TELL ANYONE?" They still have not said anything about it, and we sill don't *know* why they did. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and GUESS the reason they did it was to "test the market" for that kinda thing. We all have said for years "If Wizards put power 9 in packs, they would fly off the shelf." Well, Wizards wanted to test that, and guess what? They did.
Now, we are getting this line from Wizards saying "We can only print these cards in foil but we are embracing that," and seeing how people react.
And most people are saying, unsurprisingly, "awesome!"
I also believe that wizards has been experimenting by essentially dipping into the singles market with the myriad of boxed sets that have been popping up lately.
It's not secondary market because they're still not selling directly to players. The new relics (just like exiled) is going to go for $150+ but WotC still sells it to the stores for less than MSRP...
It's not secondary market because they're still not selling directly to players. The new relics (just like exiled) is going to go for $150+ but WotC still sells it to the stores for less than MSRP...
That's because Wizards couldn't care less about the value of cards in special sets.
To print Garruk vs Liliana they have about the same amount of costs as printing any FTV. Don't forget it's still just cardboard in a fancy package, that gets shipped around the world. The printing cost of cards doesn't even matter, cause printing a Black Lotus is just as expensive as printing a Squire.
Costs of printing cards is even negligible compared to shipping and promotion costs. If they want to print a foil FTV: P9, they can, and they can still sell it for $20,- and make profit.
I think the treasures are mainly a cool idea for Zendikar. Just like they did the time shifted cards in Time spiral. Some flavorful addition that exists for a single block.
Now whether they'll start reprinting more cards now, i think so. I think the buzz from the treasures has shown that players are hungery for older cards. Though i wouldn't expect to see treasures become a standard thing from now on.
Full disclosure: I completely despise mythic rarity. It's gimmicky, derivative of lower quality CCGs, and it keeps interesting new cards completely out of casual players' reach. Normal rare rarity is as hard-to-acquire as any first printing of any card should be. So, it goes without saying that if WotC devised an "ultra mythic rare" rarity level for new cards or Standard-legal printings, it would deserve the hatred of all players to a correspondingly greater degree.
With that out of the way...
I think that Priceless-Treasures level rarity ("ultra mythic rare" level, if you will) is an acceptable solution for reprinting non-Standard-legal cards, especially cards from the Reserve List. So, I would approve if WotC wanted to keep on doing Priceless Treasures in that fashion. But, those two conditions must hold. Again, the conditions: reprints (NOT new cards) that are NOT Standard-legal. Go ahead and reprint P9 with new borders, new art, etc., make them astoundingly hard to acquire, but put a different expansion symbol on them so the lucky players who open them know they don't just go into any old Standard deck.
WotC is happy because they have their Willy Wonka Golden Tickets to drive sales, and the player base is happy because they can actually acquire new, Standard-legal cards without selling their kidneys. The secondary market is happy because "ultra mythic" RL reprints will drive interest towards the older printings of those cards. Eternal format players are happy because more copies of Eternal format staples means more players means a better format. Easy, simple, excellent.
So, why do I have a nagging feeling that WotC is going to mess this up?
This is a great idea and I hope they do it. The rarity needs to be like one per case though, not one per 20 boxes. At our store I saw 80+ boxes opened and not a single treasure. A lot of people refuse to believe that they ever existed and think it's all a big conspiracy, and it stopped driving sales after no one opened any for weeks.
Of course, the fact that they'd be new foil versions of things like dual lands (The most important thing they can reprint, which they obviously know given how high a percent of priceless treasures were dual lands) that hadn't existed before would be proof they were real, but making it as rare as the priceless treasures doesn't help anyone except the lucky people who open them and immediately hock them to collectors. They need to be rare enough to be special, but common enough to be playable. One per case should work pretty nicely for that. Hell, even 2.5 per case (read: varying between 2 and 3 per case, not half a card) would be fine.
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"Rage is the only freedom left me"
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
I'm going on record right now and stating that before the end of 2012 we will see foil dual lands in booster packs (The real, Alpha dual lands). You can quote me on that.
Full disclosure: I completely despise mythic rarity. *SNIP* it keeps interesting new cards completely out of casual players' reach.
You do realize that due to the decreased set size and introduction of mythic rarity that any given normal rare is twice as easy to acquire now, right?
So, sure, Elspeth, Knight-Errant may cost a butt-load, but because of that my Stoic Angel costs less. Not to mention the fact that most mythic rares are not tournament playable and thus not expensive anyways.
And why restrict yourself to Standard? If you play with extended-legal decks (that's what all my casual non-EDH decks are) then prices are generally much lower for singles and there's a lot more room for creativity which is what casual is all about.
I'm going on record right now and stating that before the end of 2012 we will see foil dual lands in booster packs (The real, Alpha dual lands). You can quote me on that.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Rage is the only freedom left me"
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
I'm going on record right now and stating that before the end of 2012 we will see foil dual lands in booster packs (The real, Alpha dual lands). You can quote me on that.
You do realize that due to the decreased set size and introduction of mythic rarity that any given normal rare is twice as easy to acquire now, right?
The newfound ease of pulling rares has more to do with the fact that there are proportionally fewer of them in post-Shards sets than in pre-Shards sets (they comprise about 21% of big sets now as compared to 29% of big sets before). Contrary to what you claim, mythic rares technically make normal rares harder to acquire (because they take up 1 out of every 8 rare slots), but again, this is something of a technicality. The chances of opening any particular rare from a pack of Ravnica was about 1.1% (1 in 88 packs), while in Zendikar it is about 1.7% (1 in 60 packs - this accounts for mythic rares). That's about a 50% increase in your chances, not a 100% ("twice as much") increase. I haven't thought about whether the new normal rare distribution is a good or bad thing. But, I wasn't talking about normal rares, anyway.
The fact of the matter is that you have to acquire more chaff (in the form of unwanted duplicates) than ever before if you're attempting to open a particular mythic rare. So what if any given mythic is about as rare as any given Tenth Edition rare, in terms of the number of packs you have to open to get one? You're getting tons more unnecessary junk in the process. The whole point of mythics is to get players to buy more product (searching for mythics) for less R&D cost on the back end (fewer cards printed in the set). This is why I hate them. They make Magic a poorer commercial product.
The problem is not that WotC prints chase cards. The problem is that those chase cards are general-interest cards that typical players want, and that those players have to submit to a less-satisfying commercial experience in order to get. It's bad for Magic. Extreme rarity cards should be reserved for selective-interest reprints. The kinds of players who are motivated to hunt for chase cards will want them regardless. I've been saying that pretty much ever since the coming of Timeshifted cards in Time Spiral (a great idea, IMO, that would be perfected by higher-quality reprints and having them not be Standard legal). My sincere hope is that "Priceless Treasures" was a step back towards this kind of chase card model.
There you go again taking my idea and just making it thier own. I some time ago thought it nifty to see if wizards would reprint foil chase rares off the reserved list. Put them at 1 in 6 or so boxes and make them foil and make them power 9 and maybe the dual lands and maybe cards like gaea's cradle and tolarian academy. Who would not want to open a pack of magic and find a foil mox diamond or a foil mox jet? It would sell like hot cakes and make a ton of $$$
You do realize that due to the decreased set size and introduction of mythic rarity that any given normal rare is twice as easy to acquire now, right?
So, sure, Elspeth, Knight-Errant may cost a butt-load, but because of that my Stoic Angel costs less. Not to mention the fact that most mythic rares are not tournament playable and thus not expensive anyways.
And why restrict yourself to Standard? If you play with extended-legal decks (that's what all my casual non-EDH decks are) then prices are generally much lower for singles and there's a lot more room for creativity which is what casual is all about.
Baneslayer Angel, Jace, the Mindsculptor, Master of the Wild Hunt, Nissa Revane, Sorin Markov, Jace1, Garruk, Ajani 1&2, Elspeth, Tezzeret, Sarkhan Vol, Rafiq of the Many, etc.
A lot of Mythics are expensive well beyond their playability, or the amount of play they receive.
People keep asking "Why did Wizards put Vintage cards in Zendikar BUT NOT TELL ANYONE?" They still have not said anything about it, and we sill don't *know* why they did. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and GUESS the reason they did it was to "test the market" for that kinda thing. We all have said for years "If Wizards put power 9 in packs, they would fly off the shelf." Well, Wizards wanted to test that, and guess what? They did.
I am not a lawyer.
I believe the reason WOTC never acknowledged the priceless treasures is a legal one. It amounts to a sweepstakes or other odds-based promotion. There are many laws dealing with disclosure of such promotions. I believe that by not acknowledging it, they get around having to deal with the legal issues surrounding it. For example, but not limited to, 1) including the collation rate on the packs and other promotional material, 2) differentiating between first and second run boxes (more than just a serial number, it would require different packaging, distrubution, etc), 3) other obscure international laws that may prevent such a promotion.
It makes sense that they wouldn't promote priceless treasures before the Zendikar release because they wanted to keep it a surprise. However, continuing to not acknowledge priceless treasures after the fact seems odd (outside of some vague and non-specific comments by some employees confirming it).
Trust me, I'm pretty sure their lawyers are calling the shots here.
I believe the reason WOTC never acknowledged the priceless treasures is a legal one. It amounts to a sweepstakes or other odds-based promotion. There are many laws dealing with disclosure of such promotions. I believe that by not acknowledging it, they get around having to deal with the legal issues surrounding it. For example, but not limited to, 1) including the collation rate on the packs and other promotional material, 2) differentiating between first and second run boxes (more than just a serial number, it would require different packaging, distrubution, etc), 3) other obscure international laws that may prevent such a promotion.
It's not a sweepstakes any more than putting foil Baneslayers in M10 is a sweepstakes or WoW having loot cards is a sweepstakes. Every pack of Magic is an odds-based promotion. If it were a sweepstakes, they also would need to have a "no purchase necessary" option available, which is impossible. In random drawings, you send in your name etc. in lieu of a purchase and it gets entered into the random drawing. In the McDonalds Monopoly game, you can mail away for free game pieces. The thing is, there's no way to do that. There's no random drawing, and there are no little pieces to scratch off and see if you win. You are paying money for a PRODUCT, and that product may be worth money. You are not paying money for a product and INCIDENTALLY getting some sort of game piece or raffle entry that itself has no value.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Rage is the only freedom left me"
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
I'm going on record right now and stating that before the end of 2012 we will see foil dual lands in booster packs (The real, Alpha dual lands). You can quote me on that.
It's not a sweepstakes any more than putting foil Baneslayers in M10 is a sweepstakes or WoW having loot cards is a sweepstakes. Every pack of Magic is an odds-based promotion. If it were a sweepstakes, they also would need to have a "no purchase necessary" option available, which is impossible. In random drawings, you send in your name etc. in lieu of a purchase and it gets entered into the random drawing. In the McDonalds Monopoly game, you can mail away for free game pieces. The thing is, there's no way to do that. There's no random drawing, and there are no little pieces to scratch off and see if you win. You are paying money for a PRODUCT, and that product may be worth money. You are not paying money for a product and INCIDENTALLY getting some sort of game piece or raffle entry that itself has no value.
Yes, but in your Monopoly example there are clear rules and disclaimers available for the chance of winning, odds, prizes, etc.. There is nothing of that sort for the priceless treasures. You'll notice that the odds of pulling a premium (foil) card are printed on each booster pack. There's no such language posted for priceless treasures. Had they advertised the fact and used it as a selling point, they would have to post the odds of pulling the treasures. (And somewhere, probably their website, a complete list of cards available).
The sports card industry uses this method as their key selling point. All the special inserts, autographed cards, and other rarities are explained somewhere. If you advertise that you can open a rare and/or valuable item in your product, you have to disclose the odds somewhere.
Baneslayer Angel is not a good example because it is no more rare than any other mythic rare in M10. It just happens to be worth more on the secondary market because of its playability. The card rarities (common/uncommon/rare/mythic) are disclosed on the product page for each set.
Back on topic, I think WoTC will eventually distribute foil versions of reserved list cards in more mainstream methods. It may be through packs, or as prizes for tournaments, or in more Duel Decks & From the Vaults, or some other product not in existence yet. If they can figure out a way to do this without destroying the secondary market value of these cards, it will be done.
For what it's worth, I talked to a member of Wizards R&D who was at the Worldwake pre-release and asked him if there were any priceless treasures in WWK. He said he wasn't allowed to comment on that. I think both the legal argument and the future treasure argument both hold some water because if it was a one shot deal or lawyers weren't calling the shots, he would have just said that it was a one time thing or he would have said something. Instead, I could tell he wanted to say something but he just smiled and kept shuffling his deck.
I believe the reason WOTC never acknowledged the priceless treasures is a legal one. It amounts to a sweepstakes or other odds-based promotion. There are many laws dealing with disclosure of such promotions. I believe that by not acknowledging it, they get around having to deal with the legal issues surrounding it. For example, but not limited to, 1) including the collation rate on the packs and other promotional material, 2) differentiating between first and second run boxes (more than just a serial number, it would require different packaging, distrubution, etc), 3) other obscure international laws that may prevent such a promotion.
It makes sense that they wouldn't promote priceless treasures before the Zendikar release because they wanted to keep it a surprise. However, continuing to not acknowledge priceless treasures after the fact seems odd (outside of some vague and non-specific comments by some employees confirming it).
Trust me, I'm pretty sure their lawyers are calling the shots here.
It's not a legal issue.
First, for it to be a legal issue, there has to be some generally accepted value that can be placed upon it. If you win the powerball, you get a defined amount X. If you open a pack of Magic, you get a handfull of cards.
For it to be a sweepstakes, then every single pack of Mtg has to be a sweepstakes, so the logic that gets you "Priceless Treasures" is a sweepstakes requires every Magic card to have disclosed odds and definite values, before they actually have a secondary market.
It's no more a sweepstakes than anything else in Magic. If there were any legal issues at all, WOTC would've disclosed every bit of detail so that the FTC didn't come banging on their door. Hasbro would fire the entire adminstration in one day if that happened.
They didn't say anything about it likely because it was an experiment. If they'd said anything, they would've had the "Internet flames from Hell" all over them, they wanted to see the true reactions, which were positive.
The reprints are coming, it's a given at this point, the OP's post is just about as likely as any other method to occur.
Though personally, I think this is the worst way they'll do it, because it'll cause all kinds of problems with Standard Events. An old, out of place card is obvious and easily identifiable, a special new foil, people are *going* to stick them in their decks and screw up the event.
It'll also cause major problems if they do it in any reasonable frequency, say 1 per case. Because stores will just open boxes from a case till they hit it, then sell the remainder of that case, and start on a new one. Very few will actually be opened by Player's if there's any way to tell if there's 1+ in a case.
IMO the Master's Edition is much more likely to happen, just because it's less problematic.
Good point. The "test," as you put it, proved to be a powerful Portent.
But imagine the going proce for a foil Black Lotus? It might shoot to the price of lets say... one semester of college tuition at a junior college... or of a mid-90's 4-door sedan. All kidding aside, it will make the fans extactic & the 2ndary market weep.
But it is time for el revolution! We are tired of the world of M:tG being divided like the class system in America: the rich (collectors & seasoned players from the mid 90's) getting richer and the noob getting noober (the young, the poor, the college student, the casual player who cannot afford the Black Lotus or cannot place 1st to recieve one in a major tourny).
I hope they bring 'em back, but make classic uncommons & commons more common to "dig up" than 1 pack out of 20 boxes.
I really like this idea, but agree it would have to be 1 to 2 in a case to make it worthwhile. It would make alot of sales, but how long would it last? A set? A block?
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Which, is why I think we will see some "Priceless Treasures" again, only this time they will be foil reprints. Same rarity as the old priceless treasures, and just as illegal in Standard and Limited. (and this time they will announce it, not be quite about it. That was the test, the real thing is coming.)
Remember, I'm talking about "Priceless Treasure" rarity. Which means 1 in every 20 boxes or something. The "loophole" they are saying they are using, (which as someone points out is immaterial because the policy is not legally binding anyway) lets them reprint FOIL versions of the cards. Since they are all talking about "embracing the loophole" it means they don't plan on getting rid of the policy. They ARE planning on making it look like their "hands are tied" and that they can ONLY print promo versions of the cards. There hands are, of course, NOT tied since they can get rid of the policy at anytime if they wanted, but they can make more $ if they reprint these cards as promos only, because it lets them make $ off of the secondary market, something they've never overtly tried to do before.
What this mean, as was pointed out, that these cards will NOT be printed in sets, they will NOT become Standard legal, because than they would have to print non-foil versions of them. (This is assuming that they don't go the "all Ultra Rares only come in foil" like other card games did.) So, those of you that want to play Vesuvan Doppelganger in Standard are out of luck.
People keep asking "Why did Wizards put Vintage cards in Zendikar BUT NOT TELL ANYONE?" They still have not said anything about it, and we sill don't *know* why they did. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and GUESS the reason they did it was to "test the market" for that kinda thing. We all have said for years "If Wizards put power 9 in packs, they would fly off the shelf." Well, Wizards wanted to test that, and guess what? They did.
Now, we are getting this line from Wizards saying "We can only print these cards in foil but we are embracing that," and seeing how people react.
And most people are saying, unsurprisingly, "awesome!"
I also believe that wizards has been experimenting by essentially dipping into the singles market with the myriad of boxed sets that have been popping up lately.
I think they need to ramp up the availability a bit though, say one in every case (6 boxes) or so, especially if they do foil reprints.
That's because Wizards couldn't care less about the value of cards in special sets.
To print Garruk vs Liliana they have about the same amount of costs as printing any FTV. Don't forget it's still just cardboard in a fancy package, that gets shipped around the world. The printing cost of cards doesn't even matter, cause printing a Black Lotus is just as expensive as printing a Squire.
Costs of printing cards is even negligible compared to shipping and promotion costs. If they want to print a foil FTV: P9, they can, and they can still sell it for $20,- and make profit.
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I'm an AI making Magic cards.
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Now whether they'll start reprinting more cards now, i think so. I think the buzz from the treasures has shown that players are hungery for older cards. Though i wouldn't expect to see treasures become a standard thing from now on.
With that out of the way...
I think that Priceless-Treasures level rarity ("ultra mythic rare" level, if you will) is an acceptable solution for reprinting non-Standard-legal cards, especially cards from the Reserve List. So, I would approve if WotC wanted to keep on doing Priceless Treasures in that fashion. But, those two conditions must hold. Again, the conditions: reprints (NOT new cards) that are NOT Standard-legal. Go ahead and reprint P9 with new borders, new art, etc., make them astoundingly hard to acquire, but put a different expansion symbol on them so the lucky players who open them know they don't just go into any old Standard deck.
WotC is happy because they have their Willy Wonka Golden Tickets to drive sales, and the player base is happy because they can actually acquire new, Standard-legal cards without selling their kidneys. The secondary market is happy because "ultra mythic" RL reprints will drive interest towards the older printings of those cards. Eternal format players are happy because more copies of Eternal format staples means more players means a better format. Easy, simple, excellent.
So, why do I have a nagging feeling that WotC is going to mess this up?
Of course, the fact that they'd be new foil versions of things like dual lands (The most important thing they can reprint, which they obviously know given how high a percent of priceless treasures were dual lands) that hadn't existed before would be proof they were real, but making it as rare as the priceless treasures doesn't help anyone except the lucky people who open them and immediately hock them to collectors. They need to be rare enough to be special, but common enough to be playable. One per case should work pretty nicely for that. Hell, even 2.5 per case (read: varying between 2 and 3 per case, not half a card) would be fine.
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
You do realize that due to the decreased set size and introduction of mythic rarity that any given normal rare is twice as easy to acquire now, right?
So, sure, Elspeth, Knight-Errant may cost a butt-load, but because of that my Stoic Angel costs less. Not to mention the fact that most mythic rares are not tournament playable and thus not expensive anyways.
And why restrict yourself to Standard? If you play with extended-legal decks (that's what all my casual non-EDH decks are) then prices are generally much lower for singles and there's a lot more room for creativity which is what casual is all about.
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
The newfound ease of pulling rares has more to do with the fact that there are proportionally fewer of them in post-Shards sets than in pre-Shards sets (they comprise about 21% of big sets now as compared to 29% of big sets before). Contrary to what you claim, mythic rares technically make normal rares harder to acquire (because they take up 1 out of every 8 rare slots), but again, this is something of a technicality. The chances of opening any particular rare from a pack of Ravnica was about 1.1% (1 in 88 packs), while in Zendikar it is about 1.7% (1 in 60 packs - this accounts for mythic rares). That's about a 50% increase in your chances, not a 100% ("twice as much") increase. I haven't thought about whether the new normal rare distribution is a good or bad thing. But, I wasn't talking about normal rares, anyway.
The fact of the matter is that you have to acquire more chaff (in the form of unwanted duplicates) than ever before if you're attempting to open a particular mythic rare. So what if any given mythic is about as rare as any given Tenth Edition rare, in terms of the number of packs you have to open to get one? You're getting tons more unnecessary junk in the process. The whole point of mythics is to get players to buy more product (searching for mythics) for less R&D cost on the back end (fewer cards printed in the set). This is why I hate them. They make Magic a poorer commercial product.
The problem is not that WotC prints chase cards. The problem is that those chase cards are general-interest cards that typical players want, and that those players have to submit to a less-satisfying commercial experience in order to get. It's bad for Magic. Extreme rarity cards should be reserved for selective-interest reprints. The kinds of players who are motivated to hunt for chase cards will want them regardless. I've been saying that pretty much ever since the coming of Timeshifted cards in Time Spiral (a great idea, IMO, that would be perfected by higher-quality reprints and having them not be Standard legal). My sincere hope is that "Priceless Treasures" was a step back towards this kind of chase card model.
You are my Super Secret Tech, SolonWave.
Baneslayer Angel, Jace, the Mindsculptor, Master of the Wild Hunt, Nissa Revane, Sorin Markov, Jace1, Garruk, Ajani 1&2, Elspeth, Tezzeret, Sarkhan Vol, Rafiq of the Many, etc.
A lot of Mythics are expensive well beyond their playability, or the amount of play they receive.
I am not a lawyer.
I believe the reason WOTC never acknowledged the priceless treasures is a legal one. It amounts to a sweepstakes or other odds-based promotion. There are many laws dealing with disclosure of such promotions. I believe that by not acknowledging it, they get around having to deal with the legal issues surrounding it. For example, but not limited to, 1) including the collation rate on the packs and other promotional material, 2) differentiating between first and second run boxes (more than just a serial number, it would require different packaging, distrubution, etc), 3) other obscure international laws that may prevent such a promotion.
It makes sense that they wouldn't promote priceless treasures before the Zendikar release because they wanted to keep it a surprise. However, continuing to not acknowledge priceless treasures after the fact seems odd (outside of some vague and non-specific comments by some employees confirming it).
Trust me, I'm pretty sure their lawyers are calling the shots here.
It's not a sweepstakes any more than putting foil Baneslayers in M10 is a sweepstakes or WoW having loot cards is a sweepstakes. Every pack of Magic is an odds-based promotion. If it were a sweepstakes, they also would need to have a "no purchase necessary" option available, which is impossible. In random drawings, you send in your name etc. in lieu of a purchase and it gets entered into the random drawing. In the McDonalds Monopoly game, you can mail away for free game pieces. The thing is, there's no way to do that. There's no random drawing, and there are no little pieces to scratch off and see if you win. You are paying money for a PRODUCT, and that product may be worth money. You are not paying money for a product and INCIDENTALLY getting some sort of game piece or raffle entry that itself has no value.
"Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they're folded.". - Dr. Jeebus
The sports card industry uses this method as their key selling point. All the special inserts, autographed cards, and other rarities are explained somewhere. If you advertise that you can open a rare and/or valuable item in your product, you have to disclose the odds somewhere.
Baneslayer Angel is not a good example because it is no more rare than any other mythic rare in M10. It just happens to be worth more on the secondary market because of its playability. The card rarities (common/uncommon/rare/mythic) are disclosed on the product page for each set.
Back on topic, I think WoTC will eventually distribute foil versions of reserved list cards in more mainstream methods. It may be through packs, or as prizes for tournaments, or in more Duel Decks & From the Vaults, or some other product not in existence yet. If they can figure out a way to do this without destroying the secondary market value of these cards, it will be done.
It's not a legal issue.
First, for it to be a legal issue, there has to be some generally accepted value that can be placed upon it. If you win the powerball, you get a defined amount X. If you open a pack of Magic, you get a handfull of cards.
For it to be a sweepstakes, then every single pack of Mtg has to be a sweepstakes, so the logic that gets you "Priceless Treasures" is a sweepstakes requires every Magic card to have disclosed odds and definite values, before they actually have a secondary market.
It's no more a sweepstakes than anything else in Magic. If there were any legal issues at all, WOTC would've disclosed every bit of detail so that the FTC didn't come banging on their door. Hasbro would fire the entire adminstration in one day if that happened.
They didn't say anything about it likely because it was an experiment. If they'd said anything, they would've had the "Internet flames from Hell" all over them, they wanted to see the true reactions, which were positive.
The reprints are coming, it's a given at this point, the OP's post is just about as likely as any other method to occur.
Though personally, I think this is the worst way they'll do it, because it'll cause all kinds of problems with Standard Events. An old, out of place card is obvious and easily identifiable, a special new foil, people are *going* to stick them in their decks and screw up the event.
It'll also cause major problems if they do it in any reasonable frequency, say 1 per case. Because stores will just open boxes from a case till they hit it, then sell the remainder of that case, and start on a new one. Very few will actually be opened by Player's if there's any way to tell if there's 1+ in a case.
IMO the Master's Edition is much more likely to happen, just because it's less problematic.
But imagine the going proce for a foil Black Lotus? It might shoot to the price of lets say... one semester of college tuition at a junior college... or of a mid-90's 4-door sedan. All kidding aside, it will make the fans extactic & the 2ndary market weep.
But it is time for el revolution! We are tired of the world of M:tG being divided like the class system in America: the rich (collectors & seasoned players from the mid 90's) getting richer and the noob getting noober (the young, the poor, the college student, the casual player who cannot afford the Black Lotus or cannot place 1st to recieve one in a major tourny).
I hope they bring 'em back, but make classic uncommons & commons more common to "dig up" than 1 pack out of 20 boxes.