Yup. They just Concordant Crossroads'd us again.
I do love that RKF art, though.
Reprinting crossroads twice in the same year made no sense to me.
I'll never understand why one of those slots wasn't used for mass hysteria instead which still hasn't been reprinted
The number 1 card I was going for. I have a foiled out Kaalia deck and this is my only non-foil card in the deck (so long as the card CAN be foiled). I didn’t want to dump the current $115 on a foil version so this should hit that figure pretty hard.
I'm happy to see this too for the same reason. The only other non-foils in my Kaalia deck are the few cards which never had foil printings (ie: Revised duals). What was particularly frustrating about missing this one is that when Battlebond came out, I had ordered a foil copy of this online from my LGS for $20 while it was apparently in stock. Then, upon pickup it was mysteriously missing from my order and was told it wasn't in stock, apparently due to an "inventory error" and they wouldn't do a backorder because they didn't know when they'd get another, so I was refunded and told to order it again once it was available, so I waited, and waited, and waited, patiently checking almost daily for months, and picked up a non-foil copy meanwhile, but foils never got restocked, and the price kept going up and up and up until I eventually gave up and said there's no way I'm paying 4-5x the price for it whenever it's finally in stock, so I said I'll just wait for a reprint instead, and alas, here it is, finally. I just hope I don't have the same experience again or I'll have to file a complaint for what all too often feels like a bait-and-switch.
I didn't miss it, I was disappointed to see her trash rear it's ugly head again.
Wow... That was totally uncalled for.
You certainly don't have to like every artist or their style (this also applies to musicians, actors, etc), but there's no reason to call her work "trash"!
I'm curious... What artistic talents do you have and do for a living?...data entry, insurance sales, scrub toilets, serve coffee, or something else which is trivial and requires little if any artistic skill? Y'know what?... it doesn't matter. Anyone who enjoys what they do and works hard at it to contribute to society, and support themselves and their family is still a winner in my books. Honestly, if you seriously think you can do better, maybe you should pick up some crayons, draw what you think is more impressive, and submit it to WoTC to see if they'll consider commissioning you for cards.
Back in the day, I'll admit I was never a fan of Drew Tucker's art, but in recent years I've been very impressed with his comeback and have a lot of respect for his continued efforts even if some of the art doesn't excite me or satisfy every player or card collector.
As for Rebecca Guay, she was never a personal favorite of mine either, but I recently bought a Serra the Benevolent playmat in addition to her secret lair drop and several copies of her wood elves promos (both arts) for commander as a show of support for her return because I respect and appreciate her work. If you don't like her artwork (or anyone else's), that's fine. Nobody is forcing you to buy or play with their cards, but please don't call them trash and show some respect. She's contributed a lot more to this game than you ever have.
Because set is meant to be drafted, and this card win games in limited.
I get that, but will it win any less easily with a higher rarity?
it's 8 CMC and triple-red which seems restrictive enough, so I doubt everyone who would open it at rare would even play it.
I don't even play it and I have multiple red commander decks.
I do however like the new borderless art so I may have to reevaluate that decision
That's a shame, I loved the sexy lady art in the original shelter
For 8 cents, you could still have a Shelter with that sexy lady!
I imagine giving people the option to play a Shelter depicting someone wearing pants did contribute to choosing it to get new art.
Perhaps they printed this angel version for budget Kaalia pillow-fort decks
...or perhaps the overly-sensitive woke crowd who got offended by earthbind thought the original art was also too misogynist
Why doesn't Judith look like she's even enjoying herself? Otherwise sweet.
She's probably expressing her disappointment with other cards in the set.
What's the deal with yargle? He just got a reprint.
Talk about a wasted slot on a dies-to-bolt card nobody plays.
Who even makes these reprint suggestions when sets are designed?
Wotc should fire that person, hire me for half their salary, and I can suggest cards which will actually sell packs!
The "profile of character in front of single-color BG" thing has got to be one of the most boring new art treatments in recent MtG history
Agreed.
Azusa is the best one revealed so far, but nothing says lazy and unoriginal like side-facing profile portraits with solid-colored backgrounds.
I wouldn't even want most of these if they sell for half the price of their bordered counterparts.
Evacuation is also a strange choice when they could've printed cyclonic rift instead, a card players actually want and use.
Edit: Evidently, I spoke too soon. Fortunately, Cyclonic Rift got spoiled and made the cut as well.
Not that I need more copies anyway, but it's never a bad time to get more foils
Let them maximize profits however they see fit.
It is after all their product to sell and business to run.
Personally, I have no issue with Wotc continuing to print serialized cards for those who want to feel like they opened something "special", or who want to pay a premium to have a more unique copy of whatever card, which ironically they likely won't even be playing with for fear of damaging it. However, I wish they would do away with all the other promos like the datestamps and planeswalker symbols. Some alternate art variations, textless cards, alternate borders, borderless copies, and especially retro borders or newer cards are nice and welcome additions to any collection, while etched foils and grayscale cards are tolerable, but why do we need planeswalker symbols or release dates in the artwork on cards?...for the nostalgia of looking at a card and seeing that it came from a promo back or seeing the exact date that set was released? Any stamps on cards which unnecessarily obstruct the artwork only make that version less desirable and therefore inferior in my opinion, but I suppose I'm a traditionalist who started playing way before foils were even a thing. The only exception is artist signatures, something which I like collecting on as many cards as possible even if it obstructs the art or text, damages the card, and often devalues it as a result. Perhaps eventually more people will realize that less is more, because if every card becomes uniquely stamped as "x of y", then nothing is really exciting or impressive in its uniqueness anymore.
Wow... Is this what Magic has become; a game/competition where players have to video record themselves opening packs just to prove to a bunch of random nobodies online that they actually opened 'card x, y, or z'? Lol. What a world.
I must say that in all the years I've played, I've never done this once, and I've probably cracked open thousands of packs.
Why do or should anyone feel the need validate their pulls in this way?
You know what you opened or didn't. Isn't that what really, and all that matters?
Why would anyone live a lie just to deceive others in this particular fashion, unless of course they were highly insecure and/or mentally ill?
It's not as if opening a good mythic, foil, or million dollar serialized gilded showcase card requires any skill.
For what possible benefit is there to obfuscate reality and pretend you pulled cards which you were gifted or bought as singles?...To prove that you're inherently "luckier" than the next consumer?
Talk about a waste of film phone battery, bytes, bandwidth, and a sad, pathetic, attempt to try and impress others in the absence of skills and friends with whom you can share the truth who will actually believe you because they know you're a person of character, honor, and dignity with a reputation to maintain who doesn't make up petty pointless lies.
Admittedly, I've taken some photos of well-prepared food I'm proud to have cooked and plated nicely over the years, something which actually requires skill, talent, and practice, but I do that purely for myself, not to share online or impress dates as part of some post-modern home chef portfolio project. I suppose perhaps I'm too old to fully appreciate or understand the Instagram/Youtube/Tiktok generation, but posting photos and videos of daily minutia, including activities which require no skill, have nothing to teach, and don't even offer a comedic element for the audience of random followers online to gawk at for "likes" or even monetary purposes is simply beneath me. If anything, I'd sooner post videos of myself doing porn (with the consent of other participants obviously), as such videos are exciting personal conquests which actually require skill and endurance, albeit perhaps not always worthy of pride depending on individual perspective and personality archetype. Each to their own I suppose, but life is too short to watch videos of MTG porn (people opening booster packs) just to have some sort of bizarre vicarious pack-cracking experience. People should only care about the packs they open, not what other people open as those packs do nothing for you.
Anyway, to all the conspiracy theorists: believe what you will, but understand that in your quest to find excitement in the mundane, you will all too often see conspiracies where none truly exist.
Ask yourselves:
Is it so hard to believe that some random forklift operator happened to buy two boxes, one of which contained the one ring?
Is that so beyond the realm of plausibility that we need to start coming up with conspiracy theories to speculate on what may have otherwise happened?
Some stores do crack open a lot of product before prerelease, but they sell many more boxes than they open and that's a fact.
Lastly, know that if you're seeking true knowledge, study epistemology, and identify as an "eternal skeptic", then it's not only logical, but critically important to doubt everything, including your own doubts. I rest my case.
Also, there's nothing illegal about LGS employees cracking into product before customers get a chance. Hell, I don't know if it's even against Wizards policy. But I do think it's unsportsmanlike and overall Bad Form.
If LGSs didn't crack open boxes prior to the prerelease date, how could they possibly know what inventory they'll have for singles preorders?
Personally, I miss the good ol' days before internet spoilers, the hype that goes with them, and presales because I can't help but feel they ruined the magic (pardon the pun) of the discovery process and what the secondary market would value cards at when they were first discovered upon release back in the 90's (and we had to rely on Scrye and The Duelist magazines). However, since spoilers and preorder sales will never go away at this point, I often feel I have to jump on that wagon to compete with other hungry consumers because not doing so would put me at an inherent disadvantage against others who do as secondary market prices take shape and fluctuate in the first weeks, however fickle they may be.
Also, as a customer of a different location, it makes me very happy to know that F2F Games helped facilitate this unique discovery as they are the best MTG retailer I've ever had the pleasure of doing business with. Congratulations to all who were indirectly involved, and especially to the lucky player who found the ring!
If a store owner or employee opened it, why would they need someone else to act as a "finder"?
Are you under the impression store owners can't open merchandise they've already paid for and own, or that store employees aren't allowed to buy packs which are for sale to anyone who wants to purchase them for personal use?
Also, why would the owner of the card have to reveal where they bought the booster pack with said card?
It's not as if the retail store would be entitled to a percentage of the winnings the same way retailers who sell a winning 6/49 or Lotto Max ticket are. As such, they're entitled to remain anonymous should they choose to.
I know that in Ontario (and some other provinces), employees of casinos and the provincial lottery corporations such as the OLG and Lotto Quebec aren't allowed to gamble in their province, but that conflict of interest rule doesn't even apply here because booster packs of cards aren't technically lottery tickets, even if they can potential yield similar profits. Furthermore, while lottery tickets can't be purchased with credit cards, packs of Magic cards can be and are all the time. Gambling winnings are also tax-free in Canada, so at most they would only have to pay a capital gains tax once the card is sold, and even then the seller and buyer can circumvent that tax by "gift exchanging" each other the card and check without producing a record of sale. They could even do it in another country where Revenue Canada doesn't have jurisdiction since only domestic income is taxable in Canada unlike the USA where residents have to report and pay income tax on all international income (unless they're a Canadian citizen who already filed and paid income tax to Revenue Canada tax due to a tax treaty to avoid double taxation).
Perhaps to encourage migration to the new domain, any user who had an account here should be given a "Legendary", "Legacy", or "Vintage" user account upon signing up for added prestige depending on how many years they were active or posts they had.
Reprinting crossroads twice in the same year made no sense to me.
I'll never understand why one of those slots wasn't used for mass hysteria instead which still hasn't been reprinted
I'm happy to see this too for the same reason. The only other non-foils in my Kaalia deck are the few cards which never had foil printings (ie: Revised duals). What was particularly frustrating about missing this one is that when Battlebond came out, I had ordered a foil copy of this online from my LGS for $20 while it was apparently in stock. Then, upon pickup it was mysteriously missing from my order and was told it wasn't in stock, apparently due to an "inventory error" and they wouldn't do a backorder because they didn't know when they'd get another, so I was refunded and told to order it again once it was available, so I waited, and waited, and waited, patiently checking almost daily for months, and picked up a non-foil copy meanwhile, but foils never got restocked, and the price kept going up and up and up until I eventually gave up and said there's no way I'm paying 4-5x the price for it whenever it's finally in stock, so I said I'll just wait for a reprint instead, and alas, here it is, finally. I just hope I don't have the same experience again or I'll have to file a complaint for what all too often feels like a bait-and-switch.
Wow... That was totally uncalled for.
You certainly don't have to like every artist or their style (this also applies to musicians, actors, etc), but there's no reason to call her work "trash"!
I'm curious... What artistic talents do you have and do for a living?...data entry, insurance sales, scrub toilets, serve coffee, or something else which is trivial and requires little if any artistic skill? Y'know what?... it doesn't matter. Anyone who enjoys what they do and works hard at it to contribute to society, and support themselves and their family is still a winner in my books. Honestly, if you seriously think you can do better, maybe you should pick up some crayons, draw what you think is more impressive, and submit it to WoTC to see if they'll consider commissioning you for cards.
Back in the day, I'll admit I was never a fan of Drew Tucker's art, but in recent years I've been very impressed with his comeback and have a lot of respect for his continued efforts even if some of the art doesn't excite me or satisfy every player or card collector.
As for Rebecca Guay, she was never a personal favorite of mine either, but I recently bought a Serra the Benevolent playmat in addition to her secret lair drop and several copies of her wood elves promos (both arts) for commander as a show of support for her return because I respect and appreciate her work. If you don't like her artwork (or anyone else's), that's fine. Nobody is forcing you to buy or play with their cards, but please don't call them trash and show some respect. She's contributed a lot more to this game than you ever have.
You can open 2-4 bad rares per draft booster, and 2-6 bad rares per set booster!
Bulk Masters at its finest! Lol
It's game over man...Game Over!"
I get that, but will it win any less easily with a higher rarity?
it's 8 CMC and triple-red which seems restrictive enough, so I doubt everyone who would open it at rare would even play it.
I don't even play it and I have multiple red commander decks.
I do however like the new borderless art so I may have to reevaluate that decision
Perhaps they printed this angel version for budget Kaalia pillow-fort decks
...or perhaps the overly-sensitive woke crowd who got offended by earthbind thought the original art was also too misogynist
She's probably expressing her disappointment with other cards in the set.
What's the deal with yargle? He just got a reprint.
Talk about a wasted slot on a dies-to-bolt card nobody plays.
Who even makes these reprint suggestions when sets are designed?
Wotc should fire that person, hire me for half their salary, and I can suggest cards which will actually sell packs!
Agreed.
Azusa is the best one revealed so far, but nothing says lazy and unoriginal like side-facing profile portraits with solid-colored backgrounds.
I wouldn't even want most of these if they sell for half the price of their bordered counterparts.
Evacuation is also a strange choice when they could've printed cyclonic rift instead, a card players actually want and use.Edit: Evidently, I spoke too soon. Fortunately, Cyclonic Rift got spoiled and made the cut as well.
Not that I need more copies anyway, but it's never a bad time to get more foils
It is after all their product to sell and business to run.
Personally, I have no issue with Wotc continuing to print serialized cards for those who want to feel like they opened something "special", or who want to pay a premium to have a more unique copy of whatever card, which ironically they likely won't even be playing with for fear of damaging it. However, I wish they would do away with all the other promos like the datestamps and planeswalker symbols. Some alternate art variations, textless cards, alternate borders, borderless copies, and especially retro borders or newer cards are nice and welcome additions to any collection, while etched foils and grayscale cards are tolerable, but why do we need planeswalker symbols or release dates in the artwork on cards?...for the nostalgia of looking at a card and seeing that it came from a promo back or seeing the exact date that set was released? Any stamps on cards which unnecessarily obstruct the artwork only make that version less desirable and therefore inferior in my opinion, but I suppose I'm a traditionalist who started playing way before foils were even a thing. The only exception is artist signatures, something which I like collecting on as many cards as possible even if it obstructs the art or text, damages the card, and often devalues it as a result. Perhaps eventually more people will realize that less is more, because if every card becomes uniquely stamped as "x of y", then nothing is really exciting or impressive in its uniqueness anymore.
I must say that in all the years I've played, I've never done this once, and I've probably cracked open thousands of packs.
Why do or should anyone feel the need validate their pulls in this way?
You know what you opened or didn't. Isn't that what really, and all that matters?
Why would anyone live a lie just to deceive others in this particular fashion, unless of course they were highly insecure and/or mentally ill?
It's not as if opening a good mythic, foil, or million dollar serialized gilded showcase card requires any skill.
For what possible benefit is there to obfuscate reality and pretend you pulled cards which you were gifted or bought as singles?...To prove that you're inherently "luckier" than the next consumer?
Talk about a waste of
filmphone battery, bytes, bandwidth, and a sad, pathetic, attempt to try and impress others in the absence of skills and friends with whom you can share the truth who will actually believe you because they know you're a person of character, honor, and dignity with a reputation to maintain who doesn't make up petty pointless lies.Admittedly, I've taken some photos of well-prepared food I'm proud to have cooked and plated nicely over the years, something which actually requires skill, talent, and practice, but I do that purely for myself, not to share online or impress dates as part of some post-modern home chef portfolio project. I suppose perhaps I'm too old to fully appreciate or understand the Instagram/Youtube/Tiktok generation, but posting photos and videos of daily minutia, including activities which require no skill, have nothing to teach, and don't even offer a comedic element for the audience of random followers online to gawk at for "likes" or even monetary purposes is simply beneath me. If anything, I'd sooner post videos of myself doing porn (with the consent of other participants obviously), as such videos are exciting personal conquests which actually require skill and endurance, albeit perhaps not always worthy of pride depending on individual perspective and personality archetype. Each to their own I suppose, but life is too short to watch videos of MTG porn (people opening booster packs) just to have some sort of bizarre vicarious pack-cracking experience. People should only care about the packs they open, not what other people open as those packs do nothing for you.
Anyway, to all the conspiracy theorists: believe what you will, but understand that in your quest to find excitement in the mundane, you will all too often see conspiracies where none truly exist.
Ask yourselves:
Is it so hard to believe that some random forklift operator happened to buy two boxes, one of which contained the one ring?
Is that so beyond the realm of plausibility that we need to start coming up with conspiracy theories to speculate on what may have otherwise happened?
Some stores do crack open a lot of product before prerelease, but they sell many more boxes than they open and that's a fact.
Lastly, know that if you're seeking true knowledge, study epistemology, and identify as an "eternal skeptic", then it's not only logical, but critically important to doubt everything, including your own doubts. I rest my case.
If LGSs didn't crack open boxes prior to the prerelease date, how could they possibly know what inventory they'll have for singles preorders?
Personally, I miss the good ol' days before internet spoilers, the hype that goes with them, and presales because I can't help but feel they ruined the magic (pardon the pun) of the discovery process and what the secondary market would value cards at when they were first discovered upon release back in the 90's (and we had to rely on Scrye and The Duelist magazines). However, since spoilers and preorder sales will never go away at this point, I often feel I have to jump on that wagon to compete with other hungry consumers because not doing so would put me at an inherent disadvantage against others who do as secondary market prices take shape and fluctuate in the first weeks, however fickle they may be.
Also, as a customer of a different location, it makes me very happy to know that F2F Games helped facilitate this unique discovery as they are the best MTG retailer I've ever had the pleasure of doing business with. Congratulations to all who were indirectly involved, and especially to the lucky player who found the ring!
Huh? I don't understand your conspiracy theory.
If a store owner or employee opened it, why would they need someone else to act as a "finder"?
Are you under the impression store owners can't open merchandise they've already paid for and own, or that store employees aren't allowed to buy packs which are for sale to anyone who wants to purchase them for personal use?
Also, why would the owner of the card have to reveal where they bought the booster pack with said card?
It's not as if the retail store would be entitled to a percentage of the winnings the same way retailers who sell a winning 6/49 or Lotto Max ticket are. As such, they're entitled to remain anonymous should they choose to.
I know that in Ontario (and some other provinces), employees of casinos and the provincial lottery corporations such as the OLG and Lotto Quebec aren't allowed to gamble in their province, but that conflict of interest rule doesn't even apply here because booster packs of cards aren't technically lottery tickets, even if they can potential yield similar profits. Furthermore, while lottery tickets can't be purchased with credit cards, packs of Magic cards can be and are all the time. Gambling winnings are also tax-free in Canada, so at most they would only have to pay a capital gains tax once the card is sold, and even then the seller and buyer can circumvent that tax by "gift exchanging" each other the card and check without producing a record of sale. They could even do it in another country where Revenue Canada doesn't have jurisdiction since only domestic income is taxable in Canada unlike the USA where residents have to report and pay income tax on all international income (unless they're a Canadian citizen who already filed and paid income tax to Revenue Canada tax due to a tax treaty to avoid double taxation).
More info: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/one-ring-card-found-1.6895945
Lots of funny, jealous, and ignorant comments below the article