With the discontinuation of Masters sets in recent years I would've thought that Core Sets and Commander Pre-Cons would be the ideal place to turn to for reprints however that doesn't seem to be the case this year. Wizards of the Coast realizes that adding needed reprints in Standard legal sets will only lead to the kind of emergency bannings that we saw back in Kaladesh and Aether Revolt where as their reasoning for it in Commander Pre-Cons is that they don't want a specific Pre-Con to be the most sought after over another like what happened with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice back in the day. So what would be the ideal solution for giving us more reprints in mass quantities without hurting the LGS like what the Masters sets did?
Another part of the problem as to how the lack of new reprints are making Paper Magic more expensive is due to advertisers on YouTube talking about specific cards that ends up raising the price of specific singles on the Secondary Market such as the Command Zone constantly mentioning Vedalken Orrery which went from being a $20 card to $40. Maybe If Wizards of the Coast officially discontinued both Legacy and Vintage then some of the demand for a lot of high dollar cards could become more affordable for Commander players especially since the Reserve List has created a high barrier of entry for newcomers to play in Legacy and Vintage. So what do you guys think?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
WOTC already does very little to nothing to cater to the Vintage and Legacy crowd other than Eternal Weekend events. They do not design cards or sets with those formats in mind. If a newer card breaks into those formats it's by accident, not design. Vintage and Legacy players are NOT the drivers behind card prices. Those formats only absorb a few. if any, new cards per year.
Vintage and Legacy players are usually long term, entrenched players. There's not a new crowd of people out rushing to enter into those formats. The price barrier alone is enough to keep most away. And the expense to enter those formats has to do with the Reserved list, not expensive cards that can be reprinted.
The largest drivers of prices are Standard, Modern, and Commander. And you can tell which format these cards are going into. Vedalken Orrery is pricey because of Commander, not Vintage and/or Legacy. "Discontinuing" Legacy and Vintage would have zero impact on card prices since those formats are basically dead to non-franchised players anyway. Plus those formats aren't competing in the same card pool.
Just because they've discontinued the Masters sets doesn't mean there isn't an outlet for reprints. There are Commander decks(for what they're worth). Battlebond and the Conspiracy sets had all sorts of great reprints of higher dollar cards. Also Core sets, they just put Crucible of Worlds in a core set and it didn't break Standard, showing that carefully placed, high end reprints can slip into Standard without ruining it, and bring down the price somewhat without killing it. Plus they've given us Modern Horizons, which gives them more flexibility in a set with reprints(however, I felt they were too into the new cards and didn't include enough reprints).
WOTC has always been conservative with higher end reprints, after all they wouldn't want to disrupt the secondary market(that they disavow) too much. They will reprint cards until they've hit a price point that WOTC thinks is OK without tanking it on the open market.
As to the bannings during Kaladesh, those bannings were not of reprinted cards those were design and play test errors that needed correcting.
During the Kaladesh block two cards broke into Legacy and Vintage, Fatal Push in Legacy(somewhat), and Paradoxical Outcome in Vintage. Neither of those cards carries a high price tag. Now compare the to the recently banned(in Commander) Paradox Engine which, until it's ban, was a much pricier card than the other two I mentioned.
WOTC has to tread a fine line between reprinting cards enough so that players don't become disgruntled and leave the game, but also keep higher end cards from wild fluctuations so that LGSs don't buy those cards only to lose their shirts. As such they've been opting on t he side of caution(mostly).
Players always want cheaper cards, until it comes time to sell them, then they want top dollar. As players we're all kind of hypocrites, we want to buy cards on the cheap but expect to make a profit off of selling them. Cannot have it both ways.
People will always figure out which cards are good, and those cards will gain value over time. Folks on the internet have made that faster and easier, but the phenomenon has always been there. Can't stop people on the internet from talking about Magic, so really it's a non sequitur, the cat's out the bag.
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Another part of the problem as to how the lack of new reprints are making Paper Magic more expensive is due to advertisers on YouTube talking about specific cards that ends up raising the price of specific singles on the Secondary Market such as the Command Zone constantly mentioning Vedalken Orrery which went from being a $20 card to $40. Maybe If Wizards of the Coast officially discontinued both Legacy and Vintage then some of the demand for a lot of high dollar cards could become more affordable for Commander players especially since the Reserve List has created a high barrier of entry for newcomers to play in Legacy and Vintage. So what do you guys think?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Vintage and Legacy players are usually long term, entrenched players. There's not a new crowd of people out rushing to enter into those formats. The price barrier alone is enough to keep most away. And the expense to enter those formats has to do with the Reserved list, not expensive cards that can be reprinted.
The largest drivers of prices are Standard, Modern, and Commander. And you can tell which format these cards are going into. Vedalken Orrery is pricey because of Commander, not Vintage and/or Legacy. "Discontinuing" Legacy and Vintage would have zero impact on card prices since those formats are basically dead to non-franchised players anyway. Plus those formats aren't competing in the same card pool.
Just because they've discontinued the Masters sets doesn't mean there isn't an outlet for reprints. There are Commander decks(for what they're worth). Battlebond and the Conspiracy sets had all sorts of great reprints of higher dollar cards. Also Core sets, they just put Crucible of Worlds in a core set and it didn't break Standard, showing that carefully placed, high end reprints can slip into Standard without ruining it, and bring down the price somewhat without killing it. Plus they've given us Modern Horizons, which gives them more flexibility in a set with reprints(however, I felt they were too into the new cards and didn't include enough reprints).
WOTC has always been conservative with higher end reprints, after all they wouldn't want to disrupt the secondary market(that they disavow) too much. They will reprint cards until they've hit a price point that WOTC thinks is OK without tanking it on the open market.
As to the bannings during Kaladesh, those bannings were not of reprinted cards those were design and play test errors that needed correcting.
During the Kaladesh block two cards broke into Legacy and Vintage, Fatal Push in Legacy(somewhat), and Paradoxical Outcome in Vintage. Neither of those cards carries a high price tag. Now compare the to the recently banned(in Commander) Paradox Engine which, until it's ban, was a much pricier card than the other two I mentioned.
WOTC has to tread a fine line between reprinting cards enough so that players don't become disgruntled and leave the game, but also keep higher end cards from wild fluctuations so that LGSs don't buy those cards only to lose their shirts. As such they've been opting on t he side of caution(mostly).
Players always want cheaper cards, until it comes time to sell them, then they want top dollar. As players we're all kind of hypocrites, we want to buy cards on the cheap but expect to make a profit off of selling them. Cannot have it both ways.
People will always figure out which cards are good, and those cards will gain value over time. Folks on the internet have made that faster and easier, but the phenomenon has always been there. Can't stop people on the internet from talking about Magic, so really it's a non sequitur, the cat's out the bag.