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Quote from Tiro of Meletis »We officially know more about Ikoria than we do Theros. That’s some garbage right there. Wow Wizards. Way to seriously fail. I can’t even get an answer about whether or not Theros will have a story. Remarkable
Quote from WizardMN »Quote from Blair Phoenix »Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30They're snow lands. It's on par with how much you'd be spending on the open market, if not a bit less.That is a problem though. Wizards has a number of ways to go about rectifying the high prices of cards. They can do what they have said they have been doing and print cards they think people want or cards that fit with whatever set they are making but realize people who already have the cards don't want to lose value. This doesn't seem to work because it doesn't do anything. In order to really make things accessible, they need to print more copies or put the packs of cards at a reasonable price point. Something they are not willing to do. Plus, there are too many cards people want and not enough avenues to print them. Or, they can ignore the secondary market, and the value of people's collections entirely, and just print these supplemental sets to demand. No more limited print runs. No more high cost packs. They seem reluctant to do this to because they don't want people to lose focus of the "cheaper" format of Standard so getting reprint sets always command a premium. But this would arguably be a pretty decent route for accessibility. Or, they do what they have done here with these "Secret Lair" boxes: they print cards and price them based on the secondary market. That is, they have given us sets that are priced based on the individual cards' values on the secondary market. This is Wizards saying "we don't pay attention to the secondary market (wink, wink)". This is especially egregious with Bitterblossom as they are selling us a Single for lower than, but still close to, current market value. There is a reason this card is the only one included in that box. This is why I think arguing that these boxes are a "good deal" misses the point of people's complaints entirely. This product, if successful, creates a conflict of interest within Wizards. There will now be a reason not to reprint cards to make them accessible. They are better off *not* making things accessible so the prices jump. With this product, they could cease major reprints going forward. Instead, and the fetchlands are a good example for this right now, they could simply allow prices to skyrocket out of control and then come in with their own product for cheaper. If they neglect to reprint a Pioneer staple and it gets to $100 over the course of the next 3 years. And then they come out with a product that gives us a single, "special edition" copy of that card for $50. That is certainly a "good deal" but why is that card $100 to begin with? At what point do we no longer accept their excuse not to reprint as simply "we couldn't find room for it in a set" and start seeing it as "we wanted it to get high enough where we could make money selling that same card direct to players". Now, as this is the beginning of this product line, it is difficult to go too far down the rabbit hole on what they will do. This is only speculation but this opens the doors to some pretty scummy stuff Wizards could do. So, no, I don't think getting 5 foil basic lands is a deal since there should have been more than 2 reprints of snow basics in the last 20 years (and definitely should not have been in a limited, overpriced product). I don't believe getting a Single, Alt-Art Bitterblossom for $30 is a good thing just because the current version in $40. There is a way to do these products right. Releasing the basic land pack with 2 of each would have been more acceptable. 3 of each I think would have been the sweet spot. Perhaps more than that is giving a bit too much, but they are still basics that are only expensive because of scarcity. This product doesn't change that and only exacerbates it by setting an artificial floor on these lands right out of the gate. The kaleidoscope box is a good way to do this too. Overlord was $30+ before this box and they gave us a couple other good cards with it. It won't drastically reduce the buy in, but it does a lot to lower existing prices. Overloard is already down about 50% from where it started. That is a good thing for accessibility. We can enjoy these products for what they are and buy the ones we want to buy. Overall, while I don't feel any but two of them are worth it (and I am being very generous with the Cats one since the cards themselves are worth less than half what they are charging) others may like certain ones for different reasons. But the Basic Land box is the most damning of them all. There is nothing special about them and there is nothing that dictates that price beyond what the current market says because of lack of supply. These could have arguably been in a Holiday Gift Box and would make perfect sense (in NA anyway) as Winter = Snow. But Wizards chose to put them in this product, where people need to spend hundreds to get enough for a deck when they could have done so much more with them. If only they would truly ignore the secondary market like they want us to think they do.
Quote from Blair Phoenix »Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30They're snow lands. It's on par with how much you'd be spending on the open market, if not a bit less.
Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30
Quote from Melkor »Quote from SonofaBith75 »Quote from Xcric » the packs themselves are kind of boring without the test cards but meh Mana Crypt $190 Kolaghan’s Command $23 Elesh Norn $18 Sliver Hivelord $20 Demonic Tutor $24 Rhystic Study $16 Teferi’s Protection $37 Aura Shards $13 Bloom Tender $47 Kiki-Jiki $13 Teferi, TA $15 Alhamarrett’s Archive $12 Animar $13 Tireless Tracker $13 Defense of the Heart $16 Grave Titan $13 Soren Markov $11 Recruiter of the Guard $18 Rhys the Redeemed $30 Mishra’s Bauble $10 Phyrexian Arena $10 $4-$10 cards like Manamorphose, Sol Ring, Caged Sun, Kruphix, Lightning Greaves, Birds, Chromatic Star, Toxin Sliver, Solemn Simulacrum, PHyrexian Metamorph, Lotus Petal, Asceticism, Chromatic Lantern, Hedron Crab, Dictate of Erebos, Basilisk Collar, Baleful Strix, Temporal Mastery... Sub-$4 format All Stars like Thran Dynamo, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Rune-scarred Demon, Skullclamp... That’s “meh”? Seriously, get better at evaluating, you’re terrible at it. Other then fetches, what more kind of things are people looking for in a reprint set? And the list I compiled was with about 400 cards spoiled, with anywhere from 600 to 1600 more cards to come. He said boring, not bad. There looks to be some good stuff (although at 2000 cards, every rare is basically a mythic, and a mythic is basically a Masterpiece in terms of how many packs need to be cracked for a specific one). I don't care about the test cards either way, but it was neat that they had a gimmick. It's not great for the first card we saw on stream to be something we can't get at the LGS. It still looks decent. As far as prices, you know those won't age well. There are certainly some excellent picks, and a lot of things I will be glad to see reprinted, but of the cards you listed, there are quite a few that are expensive because of scarcity, not play. They are welcome sights for EDH players, but like Defense of the Heart and Bloom Tender would not break $5 if as many copies as a rare in just one core set existed in the world
Quote from SonofaBith75 »Quote from Xcric » the packs themselves are kind of boring without the test cards but meh Mana Crypt $190 Kolaghan’s Command $23 Elesh Norn $18 Sliver Hivelord $20 Demonic Tutor $24 Rhystic Study $16 Teferi’s Protection $37 Aura Shards $13 Bloom Tender $47 Kiki-Jiki $13 Teferi, TA $15 Alhamarrett’s Archive $12 Animar $13 Tireless Tracker $13 Defense of the Heart $16 Grave Titan $13 Soren Markov $11 Recruiter of the Guard $18 Rhys the Redeemed $30 Mishra’s Bauble $10 Phyrexian Arena $10 $4-$10 cards like Manamorphose, Sol Ring, Caged Sun, Kruphix, Lightning Greaves, Birds, Chromatic Star, Toxin Sliver, Solemn Simulacrum, PHyrexian Metamorph, Lotus Petal, Asceticism, Chromatic Lantern, Hedron Crab, Dictate of Erebos, Basilisk Collar, Baleful Strix, Temporal Mastery... Sub-$4 format All Stars like Thran Dynamo, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Rune-scarred Demon, Skullclamp... That’s “meh”? Seriously, get better at evaluating, you’re terrible at it. Other then fetches, what more kind of things are people looking for in a reprint set? And the list I compiled was with about 400 cards spoiled, with anywhere from 600 to 1600 more cards to come.
Quote from Xcric » the packs themselves are kind of boring without the test cards but meh