My guess is that the rune spells will cost 1 mana and most (if not all) will cost 1 colored mana. This card will allow you to play non white rune spells without having the proper color of mana available.
You're looking at 2 cards that were in the original release of the game - Craw Wurm and Lightning Bolt. When the game was first released, there were only about 300 cards. Wizards had no clue what the game would eventually become, nor did they fully grasp how much balance there really needed to be within the game.
Craw Wurm was one of the biggest creatures when the game was first released in 1993. Primordial Wurm was released 25 years later in Dominaria. The game changed a lot over that time. Craw Wurm seemed weak compared to other creatures with the same or similar casting costs, so they updated it.
Lightning Bolt actually went in the other direction, they felt it was too powerful for it's casting cost, so made a weaker version of it with Shock. This happened only 4-5 years after the original release of the game.
The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
Yes I know all of this. Many on the site do as well. There are a few delusional that think you should get twice the EV that you paid for. That's not what I or anyone else reasonable is advocating. What I'm saying is that if the average EV of a pack of Masters is around 3 to 4 bucks (And that is probably stretching it.) then MSRP should be no more than 2 times that amount at $6.99 a pack. There is nothing more feel bad than paying 10 bucks for a pack of Masters and opening it to find a worthless 25 cent bulk rare and an equally worthless common foil that isn't played anywhere. 10 dollars for 50 cents worth of value. Maybe I need to set up a stand at Magic tourneys and offer 2 shiny quarters for a ten dollar bill. Its almost the same lunacy.
So there IS a solution to this. WotC/Hasbro needs to only reprint stronger, reasonable value cards in PREMIUM Masters sets. Screw the "configured for draft". That is what the Conspiracy line is for. Make it so EV of packs is targeted so you at least get half back what you paid for it. Sure some decks will come in way on the high side, but others will fall a slight bit below to balance it out. And yes this would probably take a new pack collation method, not their current one. I'm sure they will say that its time intensive and would cost them money to do so. I'd bet there is still "meat on the bone" per cost of pack produced to do this. But they will never share that information, they don't want us to know.
Thanks for the response though. I think we need a discussion of this topic.
That type of system works if all of the rares/mythics have a value that fall within the given range. But no one will want to buy a set like that because none of the (non-foil) cards will be worth more than the cost of the pack. They need to have high dollar cards to draw interest in the set. The more high dollar cards they put into the set, the more "feel bad" cards are needed to create the correct balance.
Let's take Masters 25 as an example. We know Jace, Phyrexian Obliterator and Azusa will all be in Masters 25. How should they balance out the set and achieve the desired average pack EV just based on those 3 cards being included?
According to http://mtg.dawnglare.com/?p=sets&source=tcg_low&pack=1, using the lowest value indicator, assuming anything worth less than $1 is worthless, and not taking into account foils, EV on every Masters set before Iconic Masters is $6+, and even Iconic is $4+. Using mid-value indicator, it's closer to $6 for Iconic, $9 for most masters sets and over $18 for the original Modern Masters (and that's still ignoring anything worth less than $1 and ignoring foils).
According to these numbers, you're already getting EV nearly equal to MSRP (or more, given the pessimistic assumptions) from every pack of Masters except Iconic, and even in Iconic the EV is not less than half the MSRP. So if you just want MSRP no more than two times EV, then Wizards has already satisfied your criteria.
You're looking at current EV numbers for past sets, which are much higher than the EV of those sets when they were first released. What we are talking about is EV at the time of release or while the set is readily available. Yes, Modern Masters 2013 has an EV higher than the MSRP - but good luck finding packs for that price, or even for a price equal to the current EV.
A lot of what people are asking on here will never (and probably should never) happen.
I know people on here want $40 event decks with $300 worth of value in them. Maybe you're special and your game store will reserve a copy for you. Most people will watch those rot on a speculators shelf, or end up on eBay with severely inflated price.
I know people on here want cheap Masters packs with a huge pack-to-value ratio. See above. Most boxes will just end up on collector's shelves.
I know people on here want Wizards to not be the evil overlords of the world, the dreaded "SJW!". Yeah... okay... whatever... I didn't know Return of Kings was a Magic website.
Solutions to Magic's issues are not that simple.
How much did WotC give you to post that up? Oh, that's right, they don't pay non-employees. I'm guessing you got a foil advertising card.
On a more serious note, what do you suggest? The OP is asking for ideas. I don't think people are asking for 40 buck 300 value event decks or 20 dollar EV in a 5 dollar pack. What are your suggestions?
The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
At the time, there were 3 "Levels" for Magic products.
Starter - which was for Portal, the product designed to teach people how to play the game.
Advanced - which was for Core sets, the base sets which only included reprints of older cards.
Expert - which was for all expansion sets.
They stopped using these classifications many years ago. I think Future Sight (2007) was the last expansion with the "Expert" label on it.
Urza's Saga packs don't have the word "Premium" printed anywhere on them.
Urza's Saga didn't have foils. Foils first showed up in the following set, Urza's Legacy.
Just remember, box mapping was a real thing when those packs were printed. Make sure you fully trust the seller if you're buying the packs just to open them.
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Craw Wurm was one of the biggest creatures when the game was first released in 1993. Primordial Wurm was released 25 years later in Dominaria. The game changed a lot over that time. Craw Wurm seemed weak compared to other creatures with the same or similar casting costs, so they updated it.
Lightning Bolt actually went in the other direction, they felt it was too powerful for it's casting cost, so made a weaker version of it with Shock. This happened only 4-5 years after the original release of the game.
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That type of system works if all of the rares/mythics have a value that fall within the given range. But no one will want to buy a set like that because none of the (non-foil) cards will be worth more than the cost of the pack. They need to have high dollar cards to draw interest in the set. The more high dollar cards they put into the set, the more "feel bad" cards are needed to create the correct balance.
Let's take Masters 25 as an example. We know Jace, Phyrexian Obliterator and Azusa will all be in Masters 25. How should they balance out the set and achieve the desired average pack EV just based on those 3 cards being included?
You're looking at current EV numbers for past sets, which are much higher than the EV of those sets when they were first released. What we are talking about is EV at the time of release or while the set is readily available. Yes, Modern Masters 2013 has an EV higher than the MSRP - but good luck finding packs for that price, or even for a price equal to the current EV.
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The problem is that if a sealed product has a high enough EV compared to it's MSRP, then stores/sellers will have more incentive to either raise the price on the sealed product or just open it up and sell singles instead of selling the sealed product. We've seen this over and over throughout the history of the game. WotC obviously knows this happens and it looks like they want to limit the extent of it happening (mostly just with FTV products). If the sellers don't do either of those things, then they will most likely sell out of the product immediately and lots of people who want to buy the product from them won't be able to.
Look around and you'll notice that people complain about the drop in the level of cards used in almost every type of sealed product compared to what we've had in the past. Most people seem to complain about it by saying that WotC is just being cheap and not giving people the cards that they really want. The way I see it is that they are being realistic about people being able to get sealed products at the MSRP.
Is there a solution to this situation? I have no idea whether there is or not.
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Starter - which was for Portal, the product designed to teach people how to play the game.
Advanced - which was for Core sets, the base sets which only included reprints of older cards.
Expert - which was for all expansion sets.
They stopped using these classifications many years ago. I think Future Sight (2007) was the last expansion with the "Expert" label on it.
Urza's Saga packs don't have the word "Premium" printed anywhere on them.
Urza's Saga didn't have foils. Foils first showed up in the following set, Urza's Legacy.
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