For those of you who have Reddit blocked, here's the full quote:
I'm sorry that Iconic Masters didn't work out at your local store. I can't help with your specific situation now, but I do want to address one thing about Masters from a Product Architecture standpoint.
In the beginning, we had Modern Masters. The idea was that we would pull only from Modern legal sets. Makes sense.
However, over time, we've now done three of these and reprinted a ton of the cards in Modern. A thing we have to be very careful about is how quickly we reprint cards, because otherwise doing more Modern Masters becomes hard. Additionally, going wider and looking at other formats makes a lot of sense - Legacy and Vintage players need reprints too!
So, Masters sets have entered a new era. Instead of being based around formats, we are basing them around themes. Iconic Masters was the first of these. (I should note that this doesn't mean there will never a Modern Masters again, but just that we're trying something else out.) I was happy with how the set came out in a lot of ways (if you didn't try drafting it, I, for one, would recommend it: I enjoyed it a lot!) and, like every set we've ever made, there are of course some things I would have changed in retrospect. It was also our first roll at this, and I like to believe we tend to only get better and better with iteration.
Masters 25, coming out in March, is the next. I'm incredibly happy with how that turned out, it's a fantastic celebration of 25 years, and I think it will be a big success.
So if Iconic Masters wasn't your jam, keep your eyes out for Masters 25. The set is fantastic and I think you'll really enjoy it.
I think this is a good thing for the future. It gives them more freedom to reprint cards in need of one without a true home, while still having a venue to reprint modern/legacy/vintage cards. As long as the sets are a bit more worthy than IMA, this looks like a good change to me.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
It makes sense to switch to this model, even if it will make things a bit confusing for the uninitiated (who will need to look each card up to verify legality).
I wonder which defining cards this set will have. It’s gotta be something from portal three kingdoms. Are they ever able to do some kind of masterpiece set for say dual lands in masters 25 since it’s not technically a reprint?
I wonder which defining cards this set will have. It’s gotta be something from portal three kingdoms. Are they ever able to do some kind of masterpiece set for say dual lands in masters 25 since it’s not technically a reprint?
Doing so would actually violate the reserved list. This happened with an early Duel Deck and FTV and people were not happy. So no Masterpiece Duals.
My question is: what exactly upset people about Iconic Masters? I drafted it twice and enjoyed it. But it seems as though there was a lot of outrage. Would anyone want to clue me in? I’m very curious to know what Gavin is saying.
I wonder which defining cards this set will have. It’s gotta be something from portal three kingdoms. Are they ever able to do some kind of masterpiece set for say dual lands in masters 25 since it’s not technically a reprint?
Doing so would actually violate the reserved list. This happened with an early Duel Deck and FTV and people were not happy. So no Masterpiece Duals.
My question is: what exactly upset people about Iconic Masters? I drafted it twice and enjoyed it. But it seems as though there was a lot of outrage. Would anyone want to clue me in? I’m very curious to know what Gavin is saying.
IMA has, compared to MM3 and EMA, very little in the way of actual marquee high-value cards. This + the high availability caused the expected value of a booster to plummet, yet they're still $10 a pop. The result is hard-to-sell stock and people feeling burnt by buying into the set.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I still have a TON of issues with the master set lines
1) the cost to produce is unchanged but the MRSRP is jacked sky high.
2) good draft cards != money cards. There is nothing about Tarmogoyf that says it should be a mythic. In fact, its kind of weak in a limited format to the point I would actually say you could downgrade its rarity to uncommon as far as drafting is concerned. If you look back to the first modern masters they had a bunch of rebels for instance which were FANTASTIC in limited and a good example of strong draft fodder.
My issue with these sets is that they try to JAM value cards and cross them with a draft format. You could make a really great draft format that is not using ***** for money cards and instead charge $2-4 per pack and let people draft the hell out of it instead of trying to cover reprints and call it a draft set. I am all for getting more prints to people but I just cannot get behind the money train of a product that the masters sets have been. Make a real drafting set and charge a low MSRP for it or try to drop the prices of some of these damn expensive high demand cards please. Masters sets on average do a terrible job of dropping the prices of a lot of these cards and cost too damn much for a draft set. If you ask me, these sets fail to meet any demand that we have as they keep prices constant and cost far more than a draft set should.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I wonder which defining cards this set will have. It’s gotta be something from portal three kingdoms. Are they ever able to do some kind of masterpiece set for say dual lands in masters 25 since it’s not technically a reprint?
Doing so would actually violate the reserved list. This happened with an early Duel Deck and FTV and people were not happy. So no Masterpiece Duals.
My question is: what exactly upset people about Iconic Masters? I drafted it twice and enjoyed it. But it seems as though there was a lot of outrage. Would anyone want to clue me in? I’m very curious to know what Gavin is saying.
IMA has, compared to MM3 and EMA, very little in the way of actual marquee high-value cards. This + the high availability caused the expected value of a booster to plummet, yet they're still $10 a pop. The result is hard-to-sell stock and people feeling burnt by buying into the set.
I understand the booster pack value is crazy. But i bought a case at pre-release and more than doubled my investment. I think the people that are complaining are the ones that were either looking for specific cards (doubling season) or already had playsets of the originals of some of those cards that were now going to lose value.
Maybe if the packs weren't $10 and were only $7 at max, boxes were 36 packs instead of 24, and they wouldn't upgrade card rarities just because of their price then maybe people would actually enjoy them outside of drafting, oh and if drafting wasn't $30-$50. Specifically IMA wasn't "iconic" in many ways and in no way deserved to have $10 packs with how little was actually in it.
He says that they get better with each iteration, but considering we haven't had a Masters sets be as good as the MM1 that proves that little saying completely wrong.
In my perspective the cards should ALL get at the very least new artwork.
It makes me sick to see cards reprinted with the same art and the same everything.
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That is also what makes buying new sets so terrible, as the "good" cards are reprinted in some kind of product anyway, so the sets just get hit even harder if they lose the hand full of money cards they have.
----
They are lazy , and if they didnt see it comming that reprinting all the good cards in the first sets , then they are just as stupid as they where with Masterpieces and just as stupid as they are with pretty much anything they do (they simply overdo it, do it lazy and fly with higher prices, its humongous bad decisions, but the market soaks up every product that has any known value ; reprint dual lands and fetchlands, every set with these will sell like hot potatoes).
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Making good draft sets would be good if the set wouldnt be overly expensive.
Its terrible and prevents players from actually playing the format , if you ask 3times the price.
----
Anyway, they wont change and just continue , sad , but as long as the stuff sells they will just keep making it more and more terrible to the point it doesnt sell anymore (and Iconic Masters is still a incredible bad deal for Local Game Stores, unless you have some super premium customers that buy hundreds of packs).
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I also dont see why they strictly have to be 100% reprints at all.
They could just slam in some cool cards that would benefit the older formats while bypassing standard that would be damaged by some potentially "too good" cards.
Theres plenty of room to do so and it would easily give the set a reason beyond the 100% reprints , which almost always dont even have new art or anything new, its just copy/paste reprints, thats no work at all, thats just randomly thrown in money cards to fit a quota of value from the 2ndary market.
Technically, I think the fact that there's a foil in every pack means that production costs for masters sets are in fact slightly higher than normal sets. But there's no way a single shiny card costs $5 to make unless they use actual silver.
Foil cards may be more expensive to make, but compared to other card games, they are the cheapest looking one in the market. Other companies probably don't have the volume too, so dunno why making foil in every pack should justify a huge increase in price. $6 bucks like the first MM was already pushing it. Well, it's just MSRP, but this influences the final price as well. MSRP just don't make much a difference if the demand is higher than supply, but it is a factor when the inverse is true. Also, master set printing quality after the first one has been a bit questionable as well.
I wonder which defining cards this set will have. It’s gotta be something from portal three kingdoms. Are they ever able to do some kind of masterpiece set for say dual lands in masters 25 since it’s not technically a reprint?
Maybe if the packs weren't $10 and were only $7 at max, boxes were 36 packs instead of 24, and they wouldn't upgrade card rarities just because of their price then maybe people would actually enjoy them outside of drafting, oh and if drafting wasn't $30-$50. Specifically IMA wasn't "iconic" in many ways and in no way deserved to have $10 packs with how little was actually in it.
He says that they get better with each iteration, but considering we haven't had a Masters sets be as good as the MM1 that proves that little saying completely wrong.
Yeah I think everyone and their brother are with you on this one. These masters sets have been tried and people don't like the price. Not to mention there is no way they can maintain that 240 msrp price point if they dip into card pools that are largely just under-printed. Otherwise the entire set literally becomes about potentially just 5 cards. Just looking at the prices for iconic masters even now, it's basically like looking into oblivion. The only cards really holding their value are the modern staples, and even horizon canopy has dropped into mid 20s. The only realistic reason I can think of why WoTC would print the boxes at such a high MSRP is to prevent the mad rush to the bottom keeping packs away from players.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Unstable has a foil card in each pack yet the price of a booster pack was kept to the standard MSRP. Charging 10$ per booster is and will be the main issue Masters sets have. Combine that with crappy cards aimed only for limited formats that have no constructed value, and you get a disaster. No one wants to pull a Sky Swollower from a 10$ pack. Period.
The Masters-type reprint set is a limited resource, in that they have a limited pool of high-value reprints to pull from to justify a higher than normal MSRP. There's no problem with that by itself, but Wizards just can't seem to keep their hands out of the Masters cookie jar, and with how often they're churning out Masters sets, there won't be any high value reprints to choose from after awhile.
The problem is that the prices of a lot of VERY desirable cards (*cough* Zendikar fetches *cough*) were barely impacted by their reprint in the respective Masters set in which they appear. The only cards with prices that almost never recover are those played in niche decks that were printed in low numbers (by today's standards).
The diminishing returns rate is far higher for these sets for that reason, and given how little restraint Wizards has shown in printing Masters sets, it won't be long until there's hardly anything left to print to justify a Master's set high price.
I'd be shocked if Masters 25 boxes weren't collecting dust next to Iconic Masters box on LGS shelves everywhere in six months.
The Masters product is really fail because it's a product that Wizards wanna please everyone but ends up giving more feel-bads to each party.
-Wanna make it draftable
-Wanna give revenue stream to LGS
-Wanna make big profits
-Wanna give access to newer players
-Wanna hold a leash on reprints so as to not upset LGS
This is Wizards dream scenario that has made nightmares for affected parties.
IMO Wizards at the end of the day should only answer to players. If you serve the players well everything should fall into place. More people will play the game, thereby buying more product from LGS. That should be the way.
Lower MSRP and increase it into 36 boosters per box. Masters is supposed to be draftable! The rest of the packs can be redistributed as prizes. As it stands in many LGS I've been to, people pay for the drafts and only the winner and runner up gets something. Or in many cases there's no prize at all.
Actually, they did create the successful product we sort of wanted before, not once, but twice - Conspiracy.
Sometimes I think the real problem with the Masters Series is actually the name - it creates the air of "premium" that doesn't carry over to the desired goals of drafting (and price drops, but that's something they don't outright say or care too much about). Think about it the same way Planeswalker carries the same quality within the game (to the point they didn't want to reference it on lesser rarities). I wonder if Marketing (or some other department) at some point was so scared of selling sets with "only old cards" wouldn't sell that they did a lot of reprint-related mistakes in the past years (besides making Masters "premium", they abolished Core Sets, which actually is an even bigger problem than the Masters one if Standard is any indicator).
I mean, true be told, old core sets (and even the newer ones to some degree) were probably the worst-selling and least drafted sets of the year (I don't have statistics but from personal experience it has always been the case anyway). I don't think it's a problem that can ever be solved (Conspiracy was slightly more favorable, but I've heard more or less enough that it isn't that much better than the fate of the Core Sets in the end), but I feel like it's safe to say at this point to WotC that such sets are necessary "sacrifices" on your part to keep the game engine running.
It almost feels like WotC is concentrating too much on how to convert cardboard to only blockbuster sellers all the time they forgot the essence of the game structure itself requires reprinted cardboard that won't sell as well but helps sustain what made the cardboard more than cardboard in the first place. After all, Nintendo Labo Cardboard wouldn't be worth as much if it doesn't come with the software (and updates) doesn't it? It's just unfortunate MTG's "software" requires more practical updates since the entire thing is physical and more prone to outside erosion.
Is a 1 drop vanilla flash elf that costs G for curio elves okay? Or maybe a bg elf that has a thoughtseize or whatever attached to it. God forbid reprint cards that are no longer modern legal like Sylvan safekeeper. For God's sake stop printing green humans and make them elves. Elves has zilch for burn and Tron which happen to be two of the more popular archetypes. Has nothing on azorious control unless you can spend 100+ dollars on cavern. It's okay against shadow. Green is a color with very little interaction so it should have some very good cards in other aspects. You just don't see green decks without coco nowadays
So we will be getting Masters sets that revolve aroynd multicolor, tribal, graveyard, or artifact synergies. Maybe even a legends or lands set. This will be a be a great draft experience, at the same time they won’t easily run out of cards to print.
Kinda nonplussed about this. My purchase decisions will lay only with the reprints involved and whether I need them for my Modern or CMDR decks.
Theme is nice and all, but it's not getting me to drop $40+ on a draft set; only reprint quality will do that and let's be honest Gavin, the Reserve List is cutting off the needed staples, so short of dropping a bunch of Portal 3 Kingdoms or Rishadan Ports or so on, I'm in complete wait and see mode.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
I think Iconic Masters follows Wizards' basic guidelines of 33% chase cards/good cards, 33% middling cards/Commander cards, 33% junk for a set. As everybody else stated, the packs are too expensive.
I don't have a problem with secondary prices of reprints dropping. If we want greater accessibility to cards, secondary prices will have to drop, at least in the short term. Really good cards will retain (or regain) their value over a long period of time, even after several reprints. People need to stop treating Magic like an financial investment. It was designed as a card game originally, and unfortunately, Wizards' policy actions created a secondary market that allows people to try to make money from them.
Actually, they did create the successful product we sort of wanted before, not once, but twice - Conspiracy.
All of this. The best Masters product turned out to be Conspiracy. Both of those sets did reprints far better with only half the set being reprints and it didn't need $10 packs to do it.
The problem with masters set is that they have an identity crisis and Wizards' incentives don't align with the players' incentive.
The schizophrenia comes from multiple angles. It wants to be a set of desired, staple reprints and be a draft set. It needs to have a high price due to the value cards, but would need to be cheap to entice drafters. Needed reprint are all over the map but a draft set needs coherence.
Wizards incentives is to stretch the reprint pool as thin as they can while charging the most money as they can milk, while players would like a higher density of reprints and a more reasonable price.
These sets just can't possibly work if they keep the dichotomies.
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For those of you who have Reddit blocked, here's the full quote:
I think this is a good thing for the future. It gives them more freedom to reprint cards in need of one without a true home, while still having a venue to reprint modern/legacy/vintage cards. As long as the sets are a bit more worthy than IMA, this looks like a good change to me.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Doing so would actually violate the reserved list. This happened with an early Duel Deck and FTV and people were not happy. So no Masterpiece Duals.
My question is: what exactly upset people about Iconic Masters? I drafted it twice and enjoyed it. But it seems as though there was a lot of outrage. Would anyone want to clue me in? I’m very curious to know what Gavin is saying.
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IMA has, compared to MM3 and EMA, very little in the way of actual marquee high-value cards. This + the high availability caused the expected value of a booster to plummet, yet they're still $10 a pop. The result is hard-to-sell stock and people feeling burnt by buying into the set.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
1) the cost to produce is unchanged but the MRSRP is jacked sky high.
2) good draft cards != money cards. There is nothing about Tarmogoyf that says it should be a mythic. In fact, its kind of weak in a limited format to the point I would actually say you could downgrade its rarity to uncommon as far as drafting is concerned. If you look back to the first modern masters they had a bunch of rebels for instance which were FANTASTIC in limited and a good example of strong draft fodder.
My issue with these sets is that they try to JAM value cards and cross them with a draft format. You could make a really great draft format that is not using ***** for money cards and instead charge $2-4 per pack and let people draft the hell out of it instead of trying to cover reprints and call it a draft set. I am all for getting more prints to people but I just cannot get behind the money train of a product that the masters sets have been. Make a real drafting set and charge a low MSRP for it or try to drop the prices of some of these damn expensive high demand cards please. Masters sets on average do a terrible job of dropping the prices of a lot of these cards and cost too damn much for a draft set. If you ask me, these sets fail to meet any demand that we have as they keep prices constant and cost far more than a draft set should.
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I understand the booster pack value is crazy. But i bought a case at pre-release and more than doubled my investment. I think the people that are complaining are the ones that were either looking for specific cards (doubling season) or already had playsets of the originals of some of those cards that were now going to lose value.
He says that they get better with each iteration, but considering we haven't had a Masters sets be as good as the MM1 that proves that little saying completely wrong.
It makes me sick to see cards reprinted with the same art and the same everything.
----
That is also what makes buying new sets so terrible, as the "good" cards are reprinted in some kind of product anyway, so the sets just get hit even harder if they lose the hand full of money cards they have.
----
They are lazy , and if they didnt see it comming that reprinting all the good cards in the first sets , then they are just as stupid as they where with Masterpieces and just as stupid as they are with pretty much anything they do (they simply overdo it, do it lazy and fly with higher prices, its humongous bad decisions, but the market soaks up every product that has any known value ; reprint dual lands and fetchlands, every set with these will sell like hot potatoes).
----
Making good draft sets would be good if the set wouldnt be overly expensive.
Its terrible and prevents players from actually playing the format , if you ask 3times the price.
----
Anyway, they wont change and just continue , sad , but as long as the stuff sells they will just keep making it more and more terrible to the point it doesnt sell anymore (and Iconic Masters is still a incredible bad deal for Local Game Stores, unless you have some super premium customers that buy hundreds of packs).
----
I also dont see why they strictly have to be 100% reprints at all.
They could just slam in some cool cards that would benefit the older formats while bypassing standard that would be damaged by some potentially "too good" cards.
Theres plenty of room to do so and it would easily give the set a reason beyond the 100% reprints , which almost always dont even have new art or anything new, its just copy/paste reprints, thats no work at all, thats just randomly thrown in money cards to fit a quota of value from the 2ndary market.
Thinking about this mess makes me mad ...
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
The money will be on Rishadan Port, for one. I expect it will look very similar to an entire set of FtV:20.
In other words, I fully expect to see Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, Llanowar Elves and Counterspell at lower rarities in the set.
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Yeah I think everyone and their brother are with you on this one. These masters sets have been tried and people don't like the price. Not to mention there is no way they can maintain that 240 msrp price point if they dip into card pools that are largely just under-printed. Otherwise the entire set literally becomes about potentially just 5 cards. Just looking at the prices for iconic masters even now, it's basically like looking into oblivion. The only cards really holding their value are the modern staples, and even horizon canopy has dropped into mid 20s. The only realistic reason I can think of why WoTC would print the boxes at such a high MSRP is to prevent the mad rush to the bottom keeping packs away from players.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The problem is that the prices of a lot of VERY desirable cards (*cough* Zendikar fetches *cough*) were barely impacted by their reprint in the respective Masters set in which they appear. The only cards with prices that almost never recover are those played in niche decks that were printed in low numbers (by today's standards).
The diminishing returns rate is far higher for these sets for that reason, and given how little restraint Wizards has shown in printing Masters sets, it won't be long until there's hardly anything left to print to justify a Master's set high price.
I'd be shocked if Masters 25 boxes weren't collecting dust next to Iconic Masters box on LGS shelves everywhere in six months.
-Wanna make it draftable
-Wanna give revenue stream to LGS
-Wanna make big profits
-Wanna give access to newer players
-Wanna hold a leash on reprints so as to not upset LGS
This is Wizards dream scenario that has made nightmares for affected parties.
IMO Wizards at the end of the day should only answer to players. If you serve the players well everything should fall into place. More people will play the game, thereby buying more product from LGS. That should be the way.
Lower MSRP and increase it into 36 boosters per box. Masters is supposed to be draftable! The rest of the packs can be redistributed as prizes. As it stands in many LGS I've been to, people pay for the drafts and only the winner and runner up gets something. Or in many cases there's no prize at all.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Sometimes I think the real problem with the Masters Series is actually the name - it creates the air of "premium" that doesn't carry over to the desired goals of drafting (and price drops, but that's something they don't outright say or care too much about). Think about it the same way Planeswalker carries the same quality within the game (to the point they didn't want to reference it on lesser rarities). I wonder if Marketing (or some other department) at some point was so scared of selling sets with "only old cards" wouldn't sell that they did a lot of reprint-related mistakes in the past years (besides making Masters "premium", they abolished Core Sets, which actually is an even bigger problem than the Masters one if Standard is any indicator).
I mean, true be told, old core sets (and even the newer ones to some degree) were probably the worst-selling and least drafted sets of the year (I don't have statistics but from personal experience it has always been the case anyway). I don't think it's a problem that can ever be solved (Conspiracy was slightly more favorable, but I've heard more or less enough that it isn't that much better than the fate of the Core Sets in the end), but I feel like it's safe to say at this point to WotC that such sets are necessary "sacrifices" on your part to keep the game engine running.
It almost feels like WotC is concentrating too much on how to convert cardboard to only blockbuster sellers all the time they forgot the essence of the game structure itself requires reprinted cardboard that won't sell as well but helps sustain what made the cardboard more than cardboard in the first place. After all, Nintendo Labo Cardboard wouldn't be worth as much if it doesn't come with the software (and updates) doesn't it? It's just unfortunate MTG's "software" requires more practical updates since the entire thing is physical and more prone to outside erosion.
Theme is nice and all, but it's not getting me to drop $40+ on a draft set; only reprint quality will do that and let's be honest Gavin, the Reserve List is cutting off the needed staples, so short of dropping a bunch of Portal 3 Kingdoms or Rishadan Ports or so on, I'm in complete wait and see mode.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
I don't have a problem with secondary prices of reprints dropping. If we want greater accessibility to cards, secondary prices will have to drop, at least in the short term. Really good cards will retain (or regain) their value over a long period of time, even after several reprints. People need to stop treating Magic like an financial investment. It was designed as a card game originally, and unfortunately, Wizards' policy actions created a secondary market that allows people to try to make money from them.
All of this. The best Masters product turned out to be Conspiracy. Both of those sets did reprints far better with only half the set being reprints and it didn't need $10 packs to do it.
The schizophrenia comes from multiple angles. It wants to be a set of desired, staple reprints and be a draft set. It needs to have a high price due to the value cards, but would need to be cheap to entice drafters. Needed reprint are all over the map but a draft set needs coherence.
Wizards incentives is to stretch the reprint pool as thin as they can while charging the most money as they can milk, while players would like a higher density of reprints and a more reasonable price.
These sets just can't possibly work if they keep the dichotomies.