I would snap-take Pile B. Two Reserved List cards plus the only full-art, foil printing of Wasteland is better than a large pile of reprintable, largely-Modern cards. In the long-term, Pile B is the choice I'd make.
wholeheartedly agree. I'd make the same trade in a heartbeat.
I'm not advocating an unlimited reprint or some extreme stance, they need to reprint modern cards at a serious clip if the prices are to stay under control and prevent buyout issues. They haven't tried to do what I've been suggesting yet and Chronicles is not a good example of what I'm suggesting they do. Chronicles was badly done because of timing and the length. Right now it's perfectly viable to do a major reprinting without crashing the game.
actually, based on a post 2 days ago, you were advocating an unlimited print run.
The part that isn't true is the implication that everyone is asking for massively printing cards to the ground. Unfortunately, whenever the discussion seems to get brought up, it's always with at least one side assuming some kind of extreme and we end up arguing to the hillocks over absolutely nothing. An unlimited print run on a booster pack driven modern masters at 99 msrp will not destroy or tank the format. Stores will crack packs to sell singles and players would do drafts between standard blocks, but otherwise it would mostly just get some price control on some needed staples and give more people entry into the format. Plus, more people in modern means more demand, so prices would simply shift onto the shoulders of whatever cards are not in print that year. The point is people could get into modern at the price of standard by using whatever cards are in print that year + what comes out in standard.
It's a better system than trying to do this limited print run modern masters / eternal masters set idea and think it will do anything other than raise costs further.
I know it was brought up before, but should be again. EV calculations of boxes should always be considered when doing reprints. If wizards were to set the bar at 99 USD then singles pricing would drop to at best equivalent EV. Based on what we have seen in the past you're more likely to see it at 70% or 80% EV. That sounds like Chronicles 2 to me.
Another thought here. You've mentioned that Wizards should be more liberal with their reprint policy to prevent buyout issues. We do see instances of people trying to buy out individual cards, but there is never an availability issue. I know that before Goyf was reprinted in MM13 that it was challenging to actually find them. Even big box stores might not have them in stock. Now, if you're arguing people are buying out individual cards to manipulate pricing, I can understand that point much better. But I would also argue that for every 1 card that is intentionally bought out by a single individual trying to corner a single card, there are 3 or 4 instances where MTGGoldfish, MTGPrice, MTGSalvation, or another entity makes it known that there is a run on a card and many here rush out to purchase a copy or be left behind. I know I've been guilty of trying to be on the front end of a buyout before the pricing on a card doubles.
wholeheartedly agree. I'd make the same trade in a heartbeat.
actually, based on a post 2 days ago, you were advocating an unlimited print run.
I know it was brought up before, but should be again. EV calculations of boxes should always be considered when doing reprints. If wizards were to set the bar at 99 USD then singles pricing would drop to at best equivalent EV. Based on what we have seen in the past you're more likely to see it at 70% or 80% EV. That sounds like Chronicles 2 to me.
Another thought here. You've mentioned that Wizards should be more liberal with their reprint policy to prevent buyout issues. We do see instances of people trying to buy out individual cards, but there is never an availability issue. I know that before Goyf was reprinted in MM13 that it was challenging to actually find them. Even big box stores might not have them in stock. Now, if you're arguing people are buying out individual cards to manipulate pricing, I can understand that point much better. But I would also argue that for every 1 card that is intentionally bought out by a single individual trying to corner a single card, there are 3 or 4 instances where MTGGoldfish, MTGPrice, MTGSalvation, or another entity makes it known that there is a run on a card and many here rush out to purchase a copy or be left behind. I know I've been guilty of trying to be on the front end of a buyout before the pricing on a card doubles.