Without intentionally creating artificial scarcity through limited printing and distribution in packs, cards from "The List" (or the reserved list) wouldn't feel nearly as special as they do now to all us of, especially those among us who already have and cherish such treasures.
Cards like these, Masterpieces, and Expeditions are supposed to feel like unexpected hidden gems you find while rummaging through a coal mine, not a regular happenstance or anticipated occurrence. Wizards does guaranteed box-toppers for some sets, but guaranteed pack-toppers like you ask for would be shall we say over the top. Just be thankful we can now buy packs which guarantee foils in every pack, which wasn't a thing until recently (except for those weird all-foil Alara packs which came out during my hiatus). Were those technically the first "Collector packs"?
Players can also get many foil or full-art lands at once more easily in bundles which used to take much more time to accumulate.
Perhaps most importantly, new players have many options, and are no longer being baited with purchasing starter packs which had few, often bad rares with no synergy whatsoever to start building with. What I would have given for intro decks back when I started during Revised and was completely at a loss with what to build after opening my first starter and a few boosters (beyond the fact that I was probably building Naya due to my initial mana base).
Consider this... Gold has many uses, but would diamonds (or lion's eye diamonds) have any special meaning or a high value if they were found in abundance all over the place? How many practical purposes (or deck archtypes) do they truly usefully serve?
Would that rare fruit you can't always enjoy off season taste as exotic and enjoyable as it does when you get to finally eat it after waiting in anticipation? Take fiddleheads for example. They're only available in May, high in demand, low in supply, priced up as a result, and then they're gone in the blink of an eye until next year. If they were around all year and cheaper, I might be happier at first, but then the novelty would wear off, I wouldn't look forward to them knowing I could get them anytime, and they wouldn't be as satisfying each time I did.
I want to feel the gravity of every rarer-than-mythic rare that I open in a pack (not that I open many packs since I always opt buy singles instead, unless I'm drafting or doing a sealed deck at prerelease, which effectively makes seeing any such rewards that much rarer for me). I want a Kozilek right now which is on "The List", but do I honestly want to know that I could potentially open one in every pack? No, because that may only encourage me to gamble more on pack opening, which isn't my style, nor do I want it to be. All opening packs with certain expectations does is disappoint and offer diminishing returns. Therefore, I'll either wait to find someone to trade with, or get one from a store the next time he drops. I'm patient, and have plenty of strong placeholders for the deck I want him in.
Never feel "cheated" by the card you wanted and hoped for but didn't open.
Instead, don't delude yourself with such idealisms or wishful thinking fantasies.
Know and accept in advance (reluctantly if you must) that every booster pack you open is virtually a guaranteed loss which will almost certainly yield diminishing returns.
Expecting to break even or turn a profit on any pack you open is frankly naive and unrealistic. If that's an issue, only buy the singles you want and remove the gambling element completely. Trying to hedge your bets on boxes or cases instead of individual packs may create the illusion of a law of averages, but you will still lose purchasing at retail prices. Know this to be true.
Then, and only then, will you be pleasantly surprised when you open a pack and randomly see something free and extra which is rare in the true sense of the word (since you won't find one such card in every pack), and/or of secondary market value which you didn't suspect or take for granted was always inside waiting for you for find.
Also remember...At the end of the day, nobody has to buy the Magic cash cows and whoever want to can get their milk from a Cockatrice for free
It just won't look or taste as good.
Cards like these, Masterpieces, and Expeditions are supposed to feel like unexpected hidden gems you find while rummaging through a coal mine, not a regular happenstance or anticipated occurrence. Wizards does guaranteed box-toppers for some sets, but guaranteed pack-toppers like you ask for would be shall we say over the top. Just be thankful we can now buy packs which guarantee foils in every pack, which wasn't a thing until recently (except for those weird all-foil Alara packs which came out during my hiatus). Were those technically the first "Collector packs"?
Players can also get many foil or full-art lands at once more easily in bundles which used to take much more time to accumulate.
Perhaps most importantly, new players have many options, and are no longer being baited with purchasing starter packs which had few, often bad rares with no synergy whatsoever to start building with. What I would have given for intro decks back when I started during Revised and was completely at a loss with what to build after opening my first starter and a few boosters (beyond the fact that I was probably building Naya due to my initial mana base).
Consider this... Gold has many uses, but would diamonds (or lion's eye diamonds) have any special meaning or a high value if they were found in abundance all over the place? How many practical purposes (or deck archtypes) do they truly usefully serve?
Would that rare fruit you can't always enjoy off season taste as exotic and enjoyable as it does when you get to finally eat it after waiting in anticipation? Take fiddleheads for example. They're only available in May, high in demand, low in supply, priced up as a result, and then they're gone in the blink of an eye until next year. If they were around all year and cheaper, I might be happier at first, but then the novelty would wear off, I wouldn't look forward to them knowing I could get them anytime, and they wouldn't be as satisfying each time I did.
I want to feel the gravity of every rarer-than-mythic rare that I open in a pack (not that I open many packs since I always opt buy singles instead, unless I'm drafting or doing a sealed deck at prerelease, which effectively makes seeing any such rewards that much rarer for me). I want a Kozilek right now which is on "The List", but do I honestly want to know that I could potentially open one in every pack? No, because that may only encourage me to gamble more on pack opening, which isn't my style, nor do I want it to be. All opening packs with certain expectations does is disappoint and offer diminishing returns. Therefore, I'll either wait to find someone to trade with, or get one from a store the next time he drops. I'm patient, and have plenty of strong placeholders for the deck I want him in.
Never feel "cheated" by the card you wanted and hoped for but didn't open.
Instead, don't delude yourself with such idealisms or wishful thinking fantasies.
Know and accept in advance (reluctantly if you must) that every booster pack you open is virtually a guaranteed loss which will almost certainly yield diminishing returns.
Expecting to break even or turn a profit on any pack you open is frankly naive and unrealistic. If that's an issue, only buy the singles you want and remove the gambling element completely. Trying to hedge your bets on boxes or cases instead of individual packs may create the illusion of a law of averages, but you will still lose purchasing at retail prices. Know this to be true.
Then, and only then, will you be pleasantly surprised when you open a pack and randomly see something free and extra which is rare in the true sense of the word (since you won't find one such card in every pack), and/or of secondary market value which you didn't suspect or take for granted was always inside waiting for you for find.
Also remember...At the end of the day, nobody has to buy the Magic cash cows and whoever want to can get their milk from a Cockatrice for free
It just won't look or taste as good.
I used to be a demigod, but now I'm an omnimage