PURP (formerly known as MTG Purple) on YouTube had a theory that both Masters 25 and Iconic Masters were in development at the same time, and effectively it was one set as it was meant to be the 25th Anniversary set that WotC was working on. So apparently one of the higher ups decided, "Hey why don't we do two Masters sets instead of one to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of MTG?" as they ship 20 to 50,000 cases of these things out into the public as they're not very open about disclosing print run numbers.
Effectively they wanted to double the number of booster boxes they were manufacturing, so why is this so important? Well in Iconic Masters, 15 out of 68 of the Rares and Mythics are above the $9.99 MSRP with it 7 out of the 15 Mythics and only 8 out of 53 of the Rares. That puts your odds at less than 22% of pulling a Rare or Mythic that's going to be worth more value than the actual booster pack. These are reprints which means that 78% of the time it'd had been better for the consumer to buy card singles because it's a lot cheaper than the price of the booster pack.
For example, there was a card reprinted in Masters 25 that's worth 12 cents as the Rare and you'd end up paying $10 for a 12 cent card. That's how bad Masters 25 is. Back in the day Commons were 25 cents, Uncommons were 50 cents, and Rares were a $1.00-$5.00 which was once the standard pricing for MTG cards until the Mythic rarity changed everything with the Reserve List and Power Nine being the main exception. The current prices are absurd when they upshifted it from Uncommon to Rare or Rare to Mythic which is something that WotC does to help stabilize the Secondary Market.
The fact of the matter is that you only have 15 cards in Iconic Masters that are above $9.99. This is really, really bad. This doesn't sell packs, you literally cannot sell this product for $250 which is why it's going on eBay for about $130-$145 where on Amazon it's about $149. There are only 15 cards above the standard MSRP price in Iconic Masters which is $3.99. So If you were to put it all together then you'd have 30 Rares and Mythics above $3.99 MSRP. It means that Iconic Masters would've been a fantastic Summer set printed on demand at $3.99 a pack like with Conspiracy: Take the Crown.
It's not because booster packs are $9.99 each making the set impossible to draft with and that's the problem. So now were going to move over to Masters 25 (a.k.a. Iconic Masters 2.0) where we have 18 out of 68 Rares and Mythics above $9.99 a booster pack with 7 out of 15 Mythics and 11 out of 53 Rares. So your odds right now on Pre-Order for Masters 25 are less than 26% of pulling a card that is worth more than $9.99 a booster pack. You can literally buy all these cards on the Secondary Market for less than the price of these booster packs, why wouldn't you since Masters 25 is Iconic Masters 2.0?
All these reprinted cards in Masters 25 are expected to drop below $9.99 because they don't see a whole lot of play, most of these cards above $20 don't see a lot of play and the only reason why they were so expensive like for example Rishadan Port should've been a $5 land because it was meant to be that Rare land printed into a Commander precon that nobody wanted like with Ash Barrens in Pauper. Rishadan Port's not that great of a card, the only reason why it's so expensive is because it's never been reprinted same with Imperial Recruiter.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is only $127 because he was unbanned in Modern, it doesn't have as much to do with EV when it gives consumers a reason to buy booster packs. Pulling a foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor when you can actually use him in Modern is important for consumers, then again these Masters sets are effectively gambling. They're whale boxes as it's consumers who just want to gamble on the chance of pulling a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Imperial Recruiter, Chalice of the Void, and/or Rishadan Port in foil when they're much better off buying them in card singles.
Now If Masters 25's EV had 18 out of 68 Rares and Mythics above $9.99 a booster pack with the odds of pulling 7 out of 15 Mythics and 11 out of 53 Rares being about 26% then the set actually would've sold which would put it on par with Modern Masters 2017 and Eternal Masters. Another thing that's holding Masters 25 back is the land cycle they chose being the Enemy Filters from Eventide which are pretty popular in Commander as they would've been better off reprinting the Allied/Enemy Fetches instead which would've been strong enough to hold their value.
So with Masters 25 you could've had 35 Rares and Mythics above $3.99 a booster pack which would've been a fantastic summer set printed on demand. MTG customers would've really liked the idea of every Rare and Mythic in a Masters set actually being worth more than the price of the booster pack. The main reason why it didn't happen with Masters 25 and Iconic Masters was because they were afraid of destroying the Secondary Market by being too conservative with their reprint choices.
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NuBlkAu posted a message on [Primer] MonoU Tron - "The well-oiled machine"played a comp league with U tron just now, my first in a bit, cause i wanted to try RayFuturePro's list that posted a few 5-0s recently (with a few modifications to my liking, i cant put Solemn simulacrum in a list) ... but yeah, went 5-0 myself!Posted in: Control
played vs:
humans, merfolk, titanshift, URcontrol, hollowone roulette
card notes:
torrential gearhulk felt good everytime i saw it (1/1 snapcaster split) first time actually trying it, lol.
supreme will also felt good everytime i had it.
buried ruin won me a game or two (the fact that it immediately puts a card, ballista in this case, into your hand, vs on draw) in the gemstone caverns slot
did not cast Committ/memory once, so i'm not sure about that one...
also, nimble obstructionist vs TKS as a postboard tempo threat , not sure which i like more. -
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Wizmin posted a message on Masters 25After seeing how low the filter lands have dropped, this set isn't even worth anywhere close to $160 a box. It's officially worse value than Iconic Masters. See yall at the $140 mark.Posted in: The Rumor Mill -
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WarMachinePrime posted a message on Masters 25Posted in: The Rumor MillQuote from RxPhantom »Ugh. This set is so bad on so many levels. Now I'm torn about paying $75 for a sealed M25 pPTQ today. On one hand, the set is pure garbage and isn't worth the money, but I also want to support my LGS. After all, they were saddled with this crap.
Just buy up to that 75 dollars in merchandise that is reasonably valued instead. Don't support something you don't want at a price that is ripping you off. Then let the LGS owner nicely know why. When people say Wizards doesn't "owe" us anything, the shoe fits the other foot as well. You don't "owe" them or the LGS anything either. They have to earn your dollar. -
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procobrito posted a message on Masters 25Great, if I have an incredible luck in my first box, I will know the value of the other...Posted in: The Rumor Mill
Man, this is dumb and terrible. -
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Card Slinger J posted a message on Masters 25Well either way this isn't going to stop me from buying singles for this set since I'm already aiming to pick up a few cards for Commander. I need to pick up a Protean Hulk for my friends' Reaper King deck unless he decides to go with one of the new Commanders in Dominaria. I've also been thinking about running Azusa, Lost but Seeking for Duel Commander yet I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for Crucible of Worlds which should've got a reprint in this set.Posted in: The Rumor Mill -
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Card Slinger J posted a message on Masters 25Posted in: The Rumor Mill
Won't be long before the reddit mods delete that as well.Quote from Antiantiserum »
Or you could instead link to the thread you can access in this very moment.Quote from Card Slinger J »So apparently on WotC's official reddit page and 4chan they're deleting posts/threads that link to Rudy's box openings of Masters 25 that he already pre-ordered. Each of the two boxes were nearly identical except for Jace, the Mind Sculptor in place of Mikokoro, Center of the Sea in the second box. My guess as to why they took the link to Rudy's video down was because they were afraid that nobody would buy Masters 25 If they found out that none of the boxes were randomized properly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1btKaGDB3JQ
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/847edl/rudy_of_alpha_investments_opened_2_near_identical/
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WarMachinePrime posted a message on Masters 25Epic Dumpsters 2.0 continues to impress with its fail.Posted in: The Rumor Mill -
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GrimDucky posted a message on [Primer] MonoU Tron - "The well-oiled machine"Anyone gonna switch to the new condescend or O-stone artwork? I think I'm gonna.Posted in: Control -
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kharniverous posted a message on [Primer] MonoU Tron - "The well-oiled machine"Hi guys!!!! Long time lurker.. First time poster child! That list we top 8'd the modern challenge is pretty solid. If you notice we are running 1x trinket, 1x tolaria west, and they can find 1 chalice, 1 Engineered Explosives, and 1 walking ballista. The treasure mage is down to 1 because the trinket is doing the same gig but finds things on a smaller (faster) level. The river of tears, and 2 gemstones is all you really need to hit EE on 2 when the time calls for it. It's like running two different tutor packages in the same 60 with 1 trinket 1 treasure. On a side note we started that challenge 4-0, lost 2, then won the last round. We 5-0'd a league during the same time as well. We were boozing at an extraordinary clip ( the alcohol was being consumed at a high velocity if you will) and I didn't even realize we made top 8 of the challenge. The next stream we threw down another 5-0 league. Wizards has just stopped posting my 5-0's which is awesome but don't think we've stopped dominating the dojo because we've been running good lately. I'm a married man now so the gaming sessions are minimal but I try to keep my reputation as one the best of spell slingers in the game. Crunked or sober =).Posted in: Control - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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