To be fair, they initially set a lower MSRP for Masters packs, but stores just jacked up the prices anyway, so WotC decided to get their share of that price markup. I can't say I blame them for that.
I don't know if that's actually the case.
It happened. MM1 had a MSRP of $6.99, but most stores sold them at $10-12 each at the time. WotC realised they had under-priced their product, so they upped the MSRP for MM2.
They decided from the start to make Sol Ring a staple card of the format. Back when they first printed Sol Ring in the first commander product, Sol Ring had 3 printings back in Alpha / Beta / Revised.
5, actually. Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, and From the Vault: Relics.
They artificially set the MSRP of this product (Masters sets) high to essentially introduce more stock of these cards into the market while keeping their secondary market values almost the same.
To be fair, they initially set a lower MSRP for Masters packs, but stores just jacked up the prices anyway, so WotC decided to get their share of that price markup. I can't say I blame them for that.
They seem to constantly push cards up in value if they are seeing play. There is nothing Mythic rarity about Tarmogoyf.
How about you cover travel costs / hotel costs for your judges instead of using your printing press to print off a $0.10 piece of cardboard that will retail for $200. Honestly, I wish judges were properly compensated and or that wizards would pay for their travel instead of going cheap and ridiculous with this program.
At that point Judges could be considered employees, which can cause all sorts of issues. I'm Canadian; can I be employed by an American company that has no official presence in Canada? (Probably, but there could be some red tape to deal with.) And if so, do I want to deal with the tax headaches this could cause? (Definitely not.) And can you blame Wizards for paying their judges $200 while only spending $0.10? I can't.
Does nobody else remember the rage when they made Mythic a rarity for magic?
Apples to Oranges here. Mythic Rare includes cards that you can only get from that rarity (ie they aren't printed elsewhere). Masterpiece rarity are all reprints; it's not like they printed Smuggler's Copter at Masterpiece rarity and nowhere else.
This program is essentially pushing mythic to a whole new level and sure while some could argue they are just adding the possibility of pulling these cards to an already established price tag of a pack I will counter with the fact that the cards they put in these are cards that NEED MORE PRINTING.
Yeah, Divert really needed another printing. Before being printed as a Masterpiece it was a whopping $2.20. Thankfully it's now down to a more reasonable $2.00.
I don't see much "controlling" of the secondary market here. If anything, I mostly see them reducing the prices of secondary market cards (like Tarmogoyf going from over $200 to under $100 after several reprints). They also have to be careful what sort of reprints they include in products; Captain Sisay is hard to reprint outside of Commander because she is a named character from several hundred years ago (meaning she's probably dead), and because of that you're not going to see her in a Standard set release. But if she's included in a Commander deck, the price of that deck may skyrocket at your LGS to match its internal value, thus putting that deck out of the reach of Commander players, which is counter to the intention of these decks (cheap way to enter the format).
A lot of your arguments sound more like Wizards responding to the primary and secondary markets, not controlling them. I think WotC has done a good job over the past few years in dropping the prices of many cards, but it's only been a few years since they started, so we need to give them some more time to continue printing more cards. They've also started out conservatively to make sure they did things right, rather than ending up with another Chronicles debacle. But they have increased the number of reprints since Modern Masters I; we have not one but TWO Masters products coming out in the next few months, potentially (or assuredly with Iconic Masters) with more reprints to drop prices. Maybe Captain Sisay is in Masters 25?
With his fiery throat, hands, and so on, I'm guessing he might be from Regatha. No real evidence to support this, but I don't think he's from a plane we've visited (Origins notwithstanding), as he just doesn't look like other minotaurs from already-released cards.
Disallow is currently in Standard. It can stop an activation for a turn, giving you a chance to deal with Gideon (or kill your opponent) without the emblem being around.
Also, @Sergeant_Wolf, I don't think I saw a correction anywhere but draft is 3 packs and passing, sealed is 6 packs and no passing.
Do you mean that Draft is where someone picks one card from their pack and passes the rest to the next person? I'll edit my post but I just want to be sure.
Yes, that is what drafting is. The 6 packs, build from what you open option is called Sealed.
I agree with Forgotten One, playing some Sealed at a Pre-Release is the best way to go. Low stakes, lots of people to help out, and you don't have to know how to evaluate cards when drafting them (pick orders, reading signals, etc).
Where is that site getting its prices from? SCG has most of those for a lower price, and Face to Face has most of them cheaper and in Canadian Dollars ($1CAD is about $0.80USD).
@MrMoustache, I appreciate the feedback, but I don't think that your statement of "It's not so much "blue" as it is "poorly coloured/printed" is really accurate - because it is both literally blue, and improperly printed, from my understanding.
Yes, I know that it's not actually black. The point is that it isn't "blue-bordered" (ie that it was intended to be blue, like silver-bordered or gold-bordered cards), but rather just a bad attempt at black.
My curiosity does extend to whether there are other misprints like this, and/or what the rarity of such misprints might be.
Not rare at all, since most of these sets were printed with these non-black black borders. I can always immediately find cards in my collection from some of those early sets, because they're all discoloured like that.
I do have my own oddity. Two black-bordered Reconstructions that are have no date and lack the Antiquities set symbol. They look exactly like the Masters Ed IV version except they're definitely cardboard, and i've had them at least 12-15 years. I've had them authenticated a few times, they're real, and in English, but nobody seems to know where they came from.
That's the Antiquities version. They were all misprinted missing the set symbol.
It's not so much "blue" as it is "poorly coloured/printed". A lot of old cards from FE/Ice Age/Homelands era had cards with "black" borders that weren't actually black. I have some cards from those sets that have a slight greenish hue for the "black" border. They're nothing special.
It happened. MM1 had a MSRP of $6.99, but most stores sold them at $10-12 each at the time. WotC realised they had under-priced their product, so they upped the MSRP for MM2.
5, actually. Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, and From the Vault: Relics.
To be fair, they initially set a lower MSRP for Masters packs, but stores just jacked up the prices anyway, so WotC decided to get their share of that price markup. I can't say I blame them for that.
Mythic Rare Tarmogoyf sells packs.
At that point Judges could be considered employees, which can cause all sorts of issues. I'm Canadian; can I be employed by an American company that has no official presence in Canada? (Probably, but there could be some red tape to deal with.) And if so, do I want to deal with the tax headaches this could cause? (Definitely not.) And can you blame Wizards for paying their judges $200 while only spending $0.10? I can't.
Apples to Oranges here. Mythic Rare includes cards that you can only get from that rarity (ie they aren't printed elsewhere). Masterpiece rarity are all reprints; it's not like they printed Smuggler's Copter at Masterpiece rarity and nowhere else.
Yeah, Divert really needed another printing. Before being printed as a Masterpiece it was a whopping $2.20. Thankfully it's now down to a more reasonable $2.00.
I don't see much "controlling" of the secondary market here. If anything, I mostly see them reducing the prices of secondary market cards (like Tarmogoyf going from over $200 to under $100 after several reprints). They also have to be careful what sort of reprints they include in products; Captain Sisay is hard to reprint outside of Commander because she is a named character from several hundred years ago (meaning she's probably dead), and because of that you're not going to see her in a Standard set release. But if she's included in a Commander deck, the price of that deck may skyrocket at your LGS to match its internal value, thus putting that deck out of the reach of Commander players, which is counter to the intention of these decks (cheap way to enter the format).
A lot of your arguments sound more like Wizards responding to the primary and secondary markets, not controlling them. I think WotC has done a good job over the past few years in dropping the prices of many cards, but it's only been a few years since they started, so we need to give them some more time to continue printing more cards. They've also started out conservatively to make sure they did things right, rather than ending up with another Chronicles debacle. But they have increased the number of reprints since Modern Masters I; we have not one but TWO Masters products coming out in the next few months, potentially (or assuredly with Iconic Masters) with more reprints to drop prices. Maybe Captain Sisay is in Masters 25?
Yes, that is what drafting is. The 6 packs, build from what you open option is called Sealed.
I agree with Forgotten One, playing some Sealed at a Pre-Release is the best way to go. Low stakes, lots of people to help out, and you don't have to know how to evaluate cards when drafting them (pick orders, reading signals, etc).
Yes, I know that it's not actually black. The point is that it isn't "blue-bordered" (ie that it was intended to be blue, like silver-bordered or gold-bordered cards), but rather just a bad attempt at black.
Not rare at all, since most of these sets were printed with these non-black black borders. I can always immediately find cards in my collection from some of those early sets, because they're all discoloured like that.
That's the Antiquities version. They were all misprinted missing the set symbol.
No problem! You pointed in the right direction, I just followed where you pointed.