You need to slow-roll your way to victory when you face Jund. If they strip your hand, that's okay. A big reason why we go down to 19 lands, and jam more creatures is so that we never run out of gas. Spreading Seas cantripping and enabling Islandwalk is going to be a big play on your part. Vapor Snags are important so you can cast them on your own creatures to dodge removal. I would also run Tidebinder Mages because they are all-stars here. Just play slowly and don't cast your lords until you have enough power on the board that Lightning Bolt won't kill you. For instance, on the end step when their tapped out, vial in a Lord, then on your turn, play another lord + lord and you're toughness should be 4, allowing you to not worry about Lightning Bolt. Don't play into anything, cuz they usually have answers. Just take it slow, and control them. This is the one match where you need to switch gears to a more controlling deck.
I appreciate what you're trying to go for with the Shoals and your rational behind them. But i'm urging you to try out more copies of Spreading Seas. When I said "we want to cycle into our creatures", what I meant was that Spreading is an assumed part of the core deck, and it's there to do a couple of things. It mana screws opponents, shuts off man lands, enables islandwalk, and then cycles into something else. Because the value potential of that one card is so high, it's usually always a 4-of.
I did some testing with the build I posted earlier. 4x Chalice in the main didn't do as much fore me as I hoped. I faced Death & Taxes, and some Tezzerator deck. The Chalice might have stopped them from casting their removal, but I was dead in the water against Lili and some of the bigger threats in D&T (Thalia made casting Echoing Truth very mana inefficient). I need to do some more testing, this time with Echoing Truth in the SB, and Spell Pierces in the MB. If I can lock my opponent's early spells with Chalice, the idea is that I can stop them from casting anything else that's relevant with my Spell Pierce's. This is the theory of course. If it doesn't work the way I want it to, I'm thinking that Chalice should go to the SB, and Vapor Snags and Spell Pierces should stay in the MB. I don't want to cut Chalice, because I think it's an amazing card against Affinity, Tron, Burn, Delver, and Jund. It just loses it's value against other decks that aren't packing tons of 1cmc cards in their deck.
The thing with a more controlling build of Merfolk, is that we might just be a better Aggro deck, you know what I mean? Like, no matter what we pack in our MB or SB, we can't forget that we turn creatures sideways to win. So it's hard finding a balance between creating a lock on your opponent, and still being able to deploy your main strategy. It's just possible that the Chalices might also be too narrow for Modern, at least as a MB card. Modern decks are more creature based and more midrangey, as I said earlier, so it's tough to generate the value in Modern that Chalice provides in Legacy because you still need to find a way to lock down your opponent's bigger CMC threats. And then you need to ask yourself, it it better to run Chalice, which is usually only relevant in turns 1 and 2 and targets 1CmC cards, or is it better to run something like Spell Pierce instead, which lets you counter anything you want and is relevant beyond turns 1 and 2. I'll do some more testing.
I watched the matches just now. Here's some unsolicited feedback about your list haha
I think Disrupting Shoal is a cool idea, but ultimately not really worth it. I don't think it's Modern's Force of Will for a couple of reasons:
1.) Force of Will is crucial in Legacy so you can blow out combo players. At least that's my perspective on it. I'm not a huge Legacy player but I watch videos all the time, and it seems that FoW is mainly in the deck to stop cards from resolving that would otherwise leave you in an unwinnable position, namely combo cards. Even though FoW is card disadvantage, countering those key cards in Legacy provides way more value than not countering them, sometimes winning you the game on the spot.
2.) In Modern, you don't have that many combo cards to deal with, and in the event that you are up against combo, the combos generally take more time to assemble in Modern than in Legacy. This should give you enough time to overrun your opponent and/or side in counterspells for those combo cards. In effect, the value of having Disrupting Shoal diminishes, because it generally won't blow out your opponent like it would in Legacy. Most combos in Modern are not "all in" combos, they are more midrangey, deploying some combination of removal + value creatures. Due to this, we can't dilute our main strategy of amassing a critical mass of lords to deal with whatever is on the other side of the board. I think in all cases, if we need to deal with combo, we should just be siding in counterspells specifically for those combo pieces, and letting our creatures take care of what's on the ground.
3.) Most Modern decks are midrange or Aggro, and pitching our creatures to Shoal against creature decks would severely diminish the effectiveness of our gameplan. Generally speaking, it's probably true that we outclass almost any other creature deck due to compounding effect of our Lords. Slowing that gameplan down means that we make ourselves vulnerable to whatever "value" creatures + removal that the opponent is using. Furthermore, we don't have TNN to slam down and brick wall our opponent. We need to preserve our ability to overrun our opponent, and that means we can't be pitching our creatures to counters.
In conclusion, I think it would be safe to say that Disrupting Shoal, as a result, is a much more narrow analogue to FoW. The card disadvantage in Modern would hurt us much more than in Legacy because we don't have brick walls that we can slam down like TNN, nor are we blowing out our opponent. In Modern, we rely much more on the critical mass of our creatures, and since the majority of decks in Modern are creature-based, we would more often than not find that it's not worth pitching creatures to Shoal, and instead, find more value in actually casting those creatures for the win.
Chalice of the Void on the other hand, can easily be played MD. I think it always provides value, especially if you run some number of Echoing Truth. Echoing Truth (bounce a creature, artifact, enchantment, etc) and then play Chalice on 1 or 2 could probably be a nice little combo to lock certain opponents out of the game.
Your thoughts on Spreading Seas are fair, but I still think that Spreading Seas provides a ton of value, and the cantrip alone makes it worth it. Spreading Seas basically reads "Your creatures are unblockable for the rest of the game. Draw a Card." I used to think it was clunky as well, and hell, I actually used to think MoW was clunky too. But Modern is sort of clunky all around, and clunky cards still work in Modern, much better than you expect them to.
Here's a more controlling variation of Merfolk that i've been wanting to try for a while. I too have taken inspiration from Legacy Merfolk, but I've made concessions for the Modern meta.
I think the emergence of U/W control decks + that toolbox combo deck necessitates Vendilion Clique over Kira. Vendilion can cycle away cards like Supreme Verdict which can absolutely blow us out. I also think running 4x Chalice in the main is somewhat of a substitute for Kira. We're usually getting hit by Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, and Thoughtseize, and Chalice takes care of all three. Kira might be too late as she is usually only a 1-of or 2-of, but if we can hit Chalice turn 1 or 2, we're looking good.
Hurkyl's Recall is way too narrow for my liking. If we've got Chalice, Echoing Truth, and Harbinger of the Tides in the main, I think Hurkyl's becomes a wasted spot in the 75. Way too much redundancy there.
I think 4 copies of Spreading Seas is important in the 75, just for the cantrip, if not for the islandwalk. Not to mention we're shutting our opponents off colours, which lends itself well to our controlling gameplan with this build. Card advantage is also very crucial for Modern Merfolk, especially if we're playing a more controlling build with Echoing Truth + Chalice. We need to cycle into our creatures as fast as possible so that we always have gas, plus, running 19 lands means the card draw helps us hit our land drops if we miss any.
Anyways, these are just my thoughts and ideas. Let me know what you think, and if you've done any further testing.
Hey tuxdev, i actually really like the idea behind your list. Do you plan on streaming any modern matches with it? It would be cool to see it in action.
Actually i dont think that the Mox banning would be the end of the format. It will be a statement. Although i agree that buying into tier 1 decks may be a bad idea.
Also, i dont understand how Eldrazi can still be the best deck without Eye.
Well, before the doomsday talk completely overtakes everyone, why is this making everyone think wizards is trying to ban T1 decks for just being T1? The reason they likely would ban opal with eye is because both are legendary enablers that allow explosive starts in two decks, both of which were going head to head and leaving the rest in the dust. Also, if wizards is taking control of modern they may also want to slowly drop the power level of modern by banning cards that don't fit with their vision.
Maybe wizards should stop reprinting cards in modern masters only to ban them after they got people to spend money on it.
EVEN IF there was an across the board power level raise in modern, Eldrazi would STILL not be okay. It would literally have to be raised to legacy's level to be good, and it's showing signs of competing even there. You ban the lands because when you ban, you go for the engine. Going for the threats is idiotic which is why they didn't do that with any ban ever.
Is that why Bloodbraid Elf, Punishing Fire, and Twin were banned?
Splinter Twin, in and of itself, is neither an engine or a threat. If you want to get technical Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite were both in this case. If we don't want to get technical, it's the creatures that allow the combo, and Twin was sideboarded out strictly because it wasn't an actual threat.
In each example, the threats were what was banned, not the engine.
I would argue that all cards can be defined as both an engine and a threat at the same time. An "engine" would be the figurative forming of a strategy based on a "source". The "source" is a "threat" and an "engine" if its a permanent that contributes to the altering of the board state and/or changing the game in any way.
Bloodbraid elf is a "threat" because it is a permanent and it is also an "engine" because it "enables" things to happen, (its cascade effect). To put it simply, its a draw engine. Just like Lord of Atlantis is an "Anthem" engine. It enables things. And its a threat. Just like Bloodbraid elf.
I for one, am interested in this one. It was due for new art after 5 or 6 printings, I'm just not sure yet if I like this art better than the classic art.
Classic art all the way!. Im a sucker for the classic art of pretty much every card. Theres something about the esthetics of older cards that you dont find anymore. I guess its because new cards are digitally drawn rather than hand-drawn these days. It also has a bit to do with the art style as well. But generally speaking, theres something very tolkien-esque about the style and tone of the older art. Its just very fantastical and endearing.
I'd totally play both. I like the idea of playing a format that won't artificially rotate with bans. I'd probably like it more than Modern. Modern will always be balanced around bans and Standard. Eternal wouldn't have this issue, and they could always print new cards in supplementary products to help balance out the format if needed.
It'll be awkward to be using shocks in a format with Wasteland, but that could also be a good thing. It would make it harder to run three colors and perhaps a more painful mana-base + the possibility of being blown out by Wasteland would be the "drawback", so to speak, of running multiples colors and having access to the power that multiple colors bring. I guess when you think about it, there should be more of a drawback to jamming multiple colors in a deck because that gives you access to things that mono-colored decks don't have. I don't know, i'm just spit-balling here, and I really couldn't say anything for certain. But I guess what i'm trying to say is that Eternal would be a format that punishes greedy mana-bases just a little bit more. And that would probably be a good thing because if you want to have access to all the things that other colors can do, then it shouldn't be so easy to wield that power.
That's just how I see it from a balance perspective. I really have no idea how much more punishing it would be to play with Shocks instead of Duals in this new "Eternal" format, because I've never played Legacy.
The number of people who don't get that the real issue is the benefit of the lands is astounding.
It's true. It's just the lands that are an issue. Having 2 full playsets of SOL lands in your deck provides too much consistency. It enables early and busted plays too often. It's obvious that one set of the lands needs to be banned. I personally feel that Temple has to go. Temples can stack and give them tons of mana the later the game goes. Eye is equally as busted, but they are at least limited to playing only one at a time.
Chalice does not need to banned. Chalice is not the problem. The problem is being able to play Chalice on turn 1 because you're running Spirit Guide; yet another enabler for degenerate things.
This deck is full of enablers for degenerate plays. Kill the enablers, and suddenly Eldrazi isn't Tier 0 any more.
Perhaps it's time to finally settle the reserved list situation in literally the only reasonable way possible...
Ban all reserved list cards in Lagacy.
Either that, or introduce a third eternal format. And not a non-rotating format like Modern, but a truly eternal fotmat, in terms of both backwards set legality, and the legality of new supplemental product cards like Flusterstorm. And, of course, ban the reserved list.
I think the former makes more sense. Just relegate the reserved list to Vintage and Commander. That should pretty much even out the supply for those players. I just read the list again, and I really don't think it would be super impactful to ban it. Obviously every mana base shifts, and mono-red gets a natural boost from that, but most of the major archetypes stay fully intact. You lose only a small handful of relevant cards, but nothing irreplaceable apart from maybe LED. After everyone has a few months to cry wolf and whine about it, Wizards can pretty much wipe their hands of the whole debate. No one will care any more than they currently do about the lack of Black Lotus reprints....
I wonder how that would make players feel after spending thousands of dollars on Duals. If Duals get banned in legacy, I don't see a situation where the prices of Duals don't just absolutely tank, and people will lose out on a crap-ton of money. The only reason why Duals hold any value is because of their demand in Legacy. No one plays Vintage, so if you ban them in Legacy, they literally have no value. That would be ironic, for cards on the Reserved List to lose their value not due to reprints, but due to being banned in Legacy.
And Wizards would 100% be able to get away with it because they only made a promise to simply not reprint those cards. They never said anything about guaranteeing that those cards don't get banned in older formats.
TBH, it's probably just as well that they do this, IMO. Then Wizards can finally take back control of their game and reprint to their hearts content. This is good for them and the players in the long run.
When that happens, it would probably be safe for Wizards to reprint cards from the Reserved List because their relative value will remain pretty much intact.
Wat
No, that's like the exact opposite of what an increase would mean. Assuming everyone in charge of WotC is fired and replaced, and they hire kindergartners to replace them who decide to break the reserve list, the Jackhole Collector Conglomerate (whoever they are) who would sue (Promissroy Estoppl or some state law thing) over it would measure their damages like this:
(Value of my Reserve List Cards BEFORE WotC Broke Promise) - (Value of my Reserve List Cards AFTER WotC Broke Promise)
If you jack up the former, you make it MORE dangerous to break the Reserve list.
Well that's just the thing. Assuming that my guess is correct and the price for Reserved List cards skyrocket due to increased interest to Eternal Formats, then it wouldn't be too hard to forsee a future where the Reserved List can actually be abolished. Because lets say a Tundra is going for $220 right now on SCG. It could skyrocket to $300, or even more, with increased demand for Eternal Formats. Wizards can then safely reprint some cards from the Reserved List with a controlled and Limited print run, which would produce an even greater demand from players who are seeking to buy in to Legacy, for example. This could either bring the price back down to $220, or it would stay at $300 due to the increase in demand.
This is just an example to illustrate what I mean. Anything can happen, and perhaps the price for Duals would tank, or maybe they could skyrocket even more.
This is all speculation on my part, but Wizards knows exactly what they're doing. They know that if they are calculated in their efforts, and surgical in their execution, they're going to one day be able to get rid of the Reserved List and not have to suffer the wrath of collectors. The effect on prices that Modern Masters had on modern staples is the reason why Wizards is going ahead and reprinting cards from Eternal Formats. They know that people are going to eat this stuff up, and you can be sure that prices are going to increase across the board.
We're going to see the price of Duals just absolutely skyrocket, along with any other Reserved List staples. When that happens, it would probably be safe for Wizards to reprint cards from the Reserved List because their relative value will remain pretty much intact. That would usher in even more people to eternal formats, thus keeping the price of Duals + any other cards relatively stable.
At the very least, this is what has been observed with Modern Masters. It wouldn't be too big of a stretch to predict that this is exactly what's going to happen to Eternal formats.
Not sure how much we get beyond those, but maybe we get an Umezawa's Jitte reprint too! This is a wonderful opportunity to get into Legacy Merfolk on paper if you haven't already.
It's on MTGO. It's not a paper set :/. That's a bummer. O
EDIT: Oh wait, nvm, i read that wrong. It's coming out for both paper and MTGO. This is amazing.
I did some testing with the build I posted earlier. 4x Chalice in the main didn't do as much fore me as I hoped. I faced Death & Taxes, and some Tezzerator deck. The Chalice might have stopped them from casting their removal, but I was dead in the water against Lili and some of the bigger threats in D&T (Thalia made casting Echoing Truth very mana inefficient). I need to do some more testing, this time with Echoing Truth in the SB, and Spell Pierces in the MB. If I can lock my opponent's early spells with Chalice, the idea is that I can stop them from casting anything else that's relevant with my Spell Pierce's. This is the theory of course. If it doesn't work the way I want it to, I'm thinking that Chalice should go to the SB, and Vapor Snags and Spell Pierces should stay in the MB. I don't want to cut Chalice, because I think it's an amazing card against Affinity, Tron, Burn, Delver, and Jund. It just loses it's value against other decks that aren't packing tons of 1cmc cards in their deck.
So this is what i'm thinking of testing:
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
3x Harbinger of the Tides
3x Merrow Reejerey
3x Phantasmal Image
2x Master of Waves
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Spell Pierce
3x Spreading Seas
Mana
4x Aether Vial
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Mutavault
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
9x Island
1x Master of Waves
1x Spreading Seas
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Vapor Snag
2x Dismember
2x Echoing Truth
2x Tidebinder Mage
2x Relic of Progenitus
The thing with a more controlling build of Merfolk, is that we might just be a better Aggro deck, you know what I mean? Like, no matter what we pack in our MB or SB, we can't forget that we turn creatures sideways to win. So it's hard finding a balance between creating a lock on your opponent, and still being able to deploy your main strategy. It's just possible that the Chalices might also be too narrow for Modern, at least as a MB card. Modern decks are more creature based and more midrangey, as I said earlier, so it's tough to generate the value in Modern that Chalice provides in Legacy because you still need to find a way to lock down your opponent's bigger CMC threats. And then you need to ask yourself, it it better to run Chalice, which is usually only relevant in turns 1 and 2 and targets 1CmC cards, or is it better to run something like Spell Pierce instead, which lets you counter anything you want and is relevant beyond turns 1 and 2. I'll do some more testing.
I think Disrupting Shoal is a cool idea, but ultimately not really worth it. I don't think it's Modern's Force of Will for a couple of reasons:
1.) Force of Will is crucial in Legacy so you can blow out combo players. At least that's my perspective on it. I'm not a huge Legacy player but I watch videos all the time, and it seems that FoW is mainly in the deck to stop cards from resolving that would otherwise leave you in an unwinnable position, namely combo cards. Even though FoW is card disadvantage, countering those key cards in Legacy provides way more value than not countering them, sometimes winning you the game on the spot.
2.) In Modern, you don't have that many combo cards to deal with, and in the event that you are up against combo, the combos generally take more time to assemble in Modern than in Legacy. This should give you enough time to overrun your opponent and/or side in counterspells for those combo cards. In effect, the value of having Disrupting Shoal diminishes, because it generally won't blow out your opponent like it would in Legacy. Most combos in Modern are not "all in" combos, they are more midrangey, deploying some combination of removal + value creatures. Due to this, we can't dilute our main strategy of amassing a critical mass of lords to deal with whatever is on the other side of the board. I think in all cases, if we need to deal with combo, we should just be siding in counterspells specifically for those combo pieces, and letting our creatures take care of what's on the ground.
3.) Most Modern decks are midrange or Aggro, and pitching our creatures to Shoal against creature decks would severely diminish the effectiveness of our gameplan. Generally speaking, it's probably true that we outclass almost any other creature deck due to compounding effect of our Lords. Slowing that gameplan down means that we make ourselves vulnerable to whatever "value" creatures + removal that the opponent is using. Furthermore, we don't have TNN to slam down and brick wall our opponent. We need to preserve our ability to overrun our opponent, and that means we can't be pitching our creatures to counters.
In conclusion, I think it would be safe to say that Disrupting Shoal, as a result, is a much more narrow analogue to FoW. The card disadvantage in Modern would hurt us much more than in Legacy because we don't have brick walls that we can slam down like TNN, nor are we blowing out our opponent. In Modern, we rely much more on the critical mass of our creatures, and since the majority of decks in Modern are creature-based, we would more often than not find that it's not worth pitching creatures to Shoal, and instead, find more value in actually casting those creatures for the win.
Chalice of the Void on the other hand, can easily be played MD. I think it always provides value, especially if you run some number of Echoing Truth. Echoing Truth (bounce a creature, artifact, enchantment, etc) and then play Chalice on 1 or 2 could probably be a nice little combo to lock certain opponents out of the game.
Your thoughts on Spreading Seas are fair, but I still think that Spreading Seas provides a ton of value, and the cantrip alone makes it worth it. Spreading Seas basically reads "Your creatures are unblockable for the rest of the game. Draw a Card." I used to think it was clunky as well, and hell, I actually used to think MoW was clunky too. But Modern is sort of clunky all around, and clunky cards still work in Modern, much better than you expect them to.
Here's a more controlling variation of Merfolk that i've been wanting to try for a while. I too have taken inspiration from Legacy Merfolk, but I've made concessions for the Modern meta.
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
3x Harbinger of the Tides
3x Merrow Reejerey
3x Phantasmal Image
2x Master of Waves
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Echoing Truth
3x Spreading Seas
Mana
4x Aether Vial
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Mutavault
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
9x Island
1x Master of Waves
1x Spreading Seas
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Vapor Snag
2x Dismember
2x Spell Pierce
2x Negate
2x Relic of Progenitus
I think the emergence of U/W control decks + that toolbox combo deck necessitates Vendilion Clique over Kira. Vendilion can cycle away cards like Supreme Verdict which can absolutely blow us out. I also think running 4x Chalice in the main is somewhat of a substitute for Kira. We're usually getting hit by Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, and Thoughtseize, and Chalice takes care of all three. Kira might be too late as she is usually only a 1-of or 2-of, but if we can hit Chalice turn 1 or 2, we're looking good.
Hurkyl's Recall is way too narrow for my liking. If we've got Chalice, Echoing Truth, and Harbinger of the Tides in the main, I think Hurkyl's becomes a wasted spot in the 75. Way too much redundancy there.
I think 4 copies of Spreading Seas is important in the 75, just for the cantrip, if not for the islandwalk. Not to mention we're shutting our opponents off colours, which lends itself well to our controlling gameplan with this build. Card advantage is also very crucial for Modern Merfolk, especially if we're playing a more controlling build with Echoing Truth + Chalice. We need to cycle into our creatures as fast as possible so that we always have gas, plus, running 19 lands means the card draw helps us hit our land drops if we miss any.
Anyways, these are just my thoughts and ideas. Let me know what you think, and if you've done any further testing.
Maybe wizards should stop reprinting cards in modern masters only to ban them after they got people to spend money on it.
I would argue that all cards can be defined as both an engine and a threat at the same time. An "engine" would be the figurative forming of a strategy based on a "source". The "source" is a "threat" and an "engine" if its a permanent that contributes to the altering of the board state and/or changing the game in any way.
Bloodbraid elf is a "threat" because it is a permanent and it is also an "engine" because it "enables" things to happen, (its cascade effect). To put it simply, its a draw engine. Just like Lord of Atlantis is an "Anthem" engine. It enables things. And its a threat. Just like Bloodbraid elf.
Classic art all the way!. Im a sucker for the classic art of pretty much every card. Theres something about the esthetics of older cards that you dont find anymore. I guess its because new cards are digitally drawn rather than hand-drawn these days. It also has a bit to do with the art style as well. But generally speaking, theres something very tolkien-esque about the style and tone of the older art. Its just very fantastical and endearing.
It'll be awkward to be using shocks in a format with Wasteland, but that could also be a good thing. It would make it harder to run three colors and perhaps a more painful mana-base + the possibility of being blown out by Wasteland would be the "drawback", so to speak, of running multiples colors and having access to the power that multiple colors bring. I guess when you think about it, there should be more of a drawback to jamming multiple colors in a deck because that gives you access to things that mono-colored decks don't have. I don't know, i'm just spit-balling here, and I really couldn't say anything for certain. But I guess what i'm trying to say is that Eternal would be a format that punishes greedy mana-bases just a little bit more. And that would probably be a good thing because if you want to have access to all the things that other colors can do, then it shouldn't be so easy to wield that power.
That's just how I see it from a balance perspective. I really have no idea how much more punishing it would be to play with Shocks instead of Duals in this new "Eternal" format, because I've never played Legacy.
It's true. It's just the lands that are an issue. Having 2 full playsets of SOL lands in your deck provides too much consistency. It enables early and busted plays too often. It's obvious that one set of the lands needs to be banned. I personally feel that Temple has to go. Temples can stack and give them tons of mana the later the game goes. Eye is equally as busted, but they are at least limited to playing only one at a time.
Chalice does not need to banned. Chalice is not the problem. The problem is being able to play Chalice on turn 1 because you're running Spirit Guide; yet another enabler for degenerate things.
This deck is full of enablers for degenerate plays. Kill the enablers, and suddenly Eldrazi isn't Tier 0 any more.
I wonder how that would make players feel after spending thousands of dollars on Duals. If Duals get banned in legacy, I don't see a situation where the prices of Duals don't just absolutely tank, and people will lose out on a crap-ton of money. The only reason why Duals hold any value is because of their demand in Legacy. No one plays Vintage, so if you ban them in Legacy, they literally have no value. That would be ironic, for cards on the Reserved List to lose their value not due to reprints, but due to being banned in Legacy.
And Wizards would 100% be able to get away with it because they only made a promise to simply not reprint those cards. They never said anything about guaranteeing that those cards don't get banned in older formats.
TBH, it's probably just as well that they do this, IMO. Then Wizards can finally take back control of their game and reprint to their hearts content. This is good for them and the players in the long run.
Well that's just the thing. Assuming that my guess is correct and the price for Reserved List cards skyrocket due to increased interest to Eternal Formats, then it wouldn't be too hard to forsee a future where the Reserved List can actually be abolished. Because lets say a Tundra is going for $220 right now on SCG. It could skyrocket to $300, or even more, with increased demand for Eternal Formats. Wizards can then safely reprint some cards from the Reserved List with a controlled and Limited print run, which would produce an even greater demand from players who are seeking to buy in to Legacy, for example. This could either bring the price back down to $220, or it would stay at $300 due to the increase in demand.
This is just an example to illustrate what I mean. Anything can happen, and perhaps the price for Duals would tank, or maybe they could skyrocket even more.
This is all speculation on my part, but Wizards knows exactly what they're doing. They know that if they are calculated in their efforts, and surgical in their execution, they're going to one day be able to get rid of the Reserved List and not have to suffer the wrath of collectors. The effect on prices that Modern Masters had on modern staples is the reason why Wizards is going ahead and reprinting cards from Eternal Formats. They know that people are going to eat this stuff up, and you can be sure that prices are going to increase across the board.
At the very least, this is what has been observed with Modern Masters. It wouldn't be too big of a stretch to predict that this is exactly what's going to happen to Eternal formats.
It's on MTGO. It's not a paper set :/. That's a bummer. O
EDIT: Oh wait, nvm, i read that wrong. It's coming out for both paper and MTGO. This is amazing.