I agree with Irmo, but for a slightly different reason. The fact that they put in Counterspell as a COMMON tends to point to a decision that WOTC won't print it in a Standard set any time soon. If they were going to upgrade the rarity, this would have been the perfect place to do it. They already upgraded Lightning Bolt's rarity, and the two cards are often seen as comparable. Counterspell at Common will likely be too powerful and "unfun" for a regular set's draft format and therefore likely won't enter Standard any time soon.
Rarity in this set has nothing to do with anything regarding playability or reprtinability in another format - rarities here are only to check the amount of copies in print and the limited impacts. That's it.
Source?
There doesn't need to be a source.. that's all rarities signify - how common they want them to show up in limited formats (the overwhelming main reason) and to check prices (Goyf in both MMs is the big one - now FOW as well). Rarity shifts have never meant anything other than one of these two things (other than our ability to play them in pauper or not).
Edit - In re-reading your post: it is understood by everyone that rarity in a given set is independent of something's rarity in other sets correct? If Wizards released yearly draft sets and in one set lightning bolt was a mythic (because EVERY creature in the draft format was x/3 or smaller and thusly didn't want completely destroy the format with bolt at common/uncommon) and in the following year was a common (because it wouldn't do anything to warp the draft beyond how they designed it) then that is WELL within their wheelhouse and as such Bolt would have 2 different rarities which would depend on which set you were talking about. Rarities don't mean anything.
I was always under the impression that a rarity shift, while certainly pertinent and potentially driven by the current limited format, also marked a shift in WOTC's design philosophy. However, in looking for quotes or articles to substantiate it, all I found on point was this:
Rarity shifts are when card developers in R&D change the rarity of a card to augment an archetype in a Limited environment.
While one could potentially argue that's a partial and incomplete definition, it's also all I could find and it goes a long way to prove your point. So I'll concede it.
For sure for sure - as far as I've always understood, rarities are just tools used to balance the limited format they're a part of and is why promos never have rarities. With that said, they definitely DO change the way that they assign rarities based on different design philosophies, so I agree with you there - I just don't think that them changing a rarity for one draft format signifies anything too specific about any one given card. Ya feel me?
Wrath of God is getting a reprint. Again.
In its defense I am fine with more black border ***s seeing print, as frequently reprinted as *** was the vast majority of those reprints were white border.
No offense to people who like white border.
It does make me wonder if Blood Moon is a classic enough effect that they would throw it in, a number of cards in EMA so far seem chosen for historical value moreso than to help add to the supply.
They're not printing high value modern cards in the set - they've been extremely clear about that, hence no Damnation.
That's actually very disappointing. At least Karakas is getting a reprint.
At least they've been pretty clear about it - not every release can contain great modern stuff, and I'm sure we're going to continue to see awesome modern reprints through the summer and into the commander sets (there are like 4 more supplemental products coming out between now and the end of the year).
Wrath of God is getting a reprint. Again.
In its defense I am fine with more black border ***s seeing print, as frequently reprinted as *** was the vast majority of those reprints were white border.
No offense to people who like white border.
It does make me wonder if Blood Moon is a classic enough effect that they would throw it in, a number of cards in EMA so far seem chosen for historical value moreso than to help add to the supply.
They're not printing high value modern cards in the set - they've been extremely clear about that, hence no Damnation.
They announced Goblin Charbelcher earlier, which is used in the Modern Belcher deck. They've listed a few others as well, but unfortunately the focus of this set is Vintage, Legacy, and EDH.
I'm more worried for the prospect of ever getting cards like Counterspell and Wirewood Symbiote in Modern if they are in this set.
We were never going to get Wirewood Symbiote - but I don't know that anything really changes regarding counterspell other than now it is more available. We're just as likely to get counterspell after this comes out as we were before - which is to say, not much likelihood at all (~0.1%).
I agree with Irmo, but for a slightly different reason. The fact that they put in Counterspell as a COMMON tends to point to a decision that WOTC won't print it in a Standard set any time soon. If they were going to upgrade the rarity, this would have been the perfect place to do it. They already upgraded Lightning Bolt's rarity, and the two cards are often seen as comparable. Counterspell at Common will likely be too powerful and "unfun" for a regular set's draft format and therefore likely won't enter Standard any time soon.
Rarity in this set has nothing to do with anything regarding playability or reprtinability in another format - rarities here are only to check the amount of copies in print and the limited impacts. That's it.
Source?
There doesn't need to be a source.. that's all rarities signify - how common they want them to show up in limited formats (the overwhelming main reason) and to check prices (Goyf in both MMs is the big one - now FOW as well). Rarity shifts have never meant anything other than one of these two things (other than our ability to play them in pauper or not).
Edit - In re-reading your post: it is understood by everyone that rarity in a given set is independent of something's rarity in other sets correct? If Wizards released yearly draft sets and in one set lightning bolt was a mythic (because EVERY creature in the draft format was x/3 or smaller and thusly didn't want completely destroy the format with bolt at common/uncommon) and in the following year was a common (because it wouldn't do anything to warp the draft beyond how they designed it) then that is WELL within their wheelhouse and as such Bolt would have 2 different rarities which would depend on which set you were talking about. Rarities don't mean anything.
They announced Goblin Charbelcher earlier, which is used in the Modern Belcher deck. They've listed a few others as well, but unfortunately the focus of this set is Vintage, Legacy, and EDH.
I'm more worried for the prospect of ever getting cards like Counterspell and Wirewood Symbiote in Modern if they are in this set.
We were never going to get Wirewood Symbiote - but I don't know that anything really changes regarding counterspell other than now it is more available. We're just as likely to get counterspell after this comes out as we were before - which is to say, not much likelihood at all (~0.1%).
I agree with Irmo, but for a slightly different reason. The fact that they put in Counterspell as a COMMON tends to point to a decision that WOTC won't print it in a Standard set any time soon. If they were going to upgrade the rarity, this would have been the perfect place to do it. They already upgraded Lightning Bolt's rarity, and the two cards are often seen as comparable. Counterspell at Common will likely be too powerful and "unfun" for a regular set's draft format and therefore likely won't enter Standard any time soon.
Rarity in this set has nothing to do with anything regarding playability or reprtinability in another format - rarities here are only to check the amount of copies in print and the limited impacts. That's it.
They announced Goblin Charbelcher earlier, which is used in the Modern Belcher deck. They've listed a few others as well, but unfortunately the focus of this set is Vintage, Legacy, and EDH.
I'm more worried for the prospect of ever getting cards like Counterspell and Wirewood Symbiote in Modern if they are in this set.
We were never going to get Wirewood Symbiote - but I don't know that anything really changes regarding counterspell other than now it is more available. We're just as likely to get counterspell after this comes out as we were before - which is to say, not much likelihood at all (~0.1%).
Yeah, I'm happy for Commander staples and that's about it. I have absolutely zero interest in Legacy and Vintage because I don't want to take a second mortgage out just to build a deck.
Agreed. For a long time I wanted to play legacy but there just isn't enough interest to make the investment worth it for me and my store even has a somewhat supported legacy scene. I just want to cube!
SDT, also another good reprint for if we're allowed to have nice things (we aren't, but one can dream).
Elves seems to be one of the draft archetypes, but Shaman of the Pack isn't exactly a card in "needs reprints now" territory. But when you have Elves as a draft archetype, that's practically open admission that Heritage Druid will be a card, and that's a card worth reprinting for sure.
Tangent:
If Countertop Miracles gets more support in the set, I'm sure it'll spike the price of Flooded Strand. Reminder to grab fetches while they're still cheap, I guess.
All of the spike value from a legacy perspective is going straight into the reserved list cards. KTK fetches are so plentiful that we need to look at 'spikes' in the context of years.
Complementary demand, though.
Yes it will hit the reserve list the hardest, the reserve list has brutalized the cost of eternal formats due to uncontrollable complementary demand, but they're not the sole cards whose demand will increase.
Oh no argument there in that demand increases, I'm just saying that the amount of demand it takes to move the needle on fetches is INCREDIBLY high. Even if players decide they want to get into legacy in droves, many of those players are going to be (presumably) modern players who are more enfranchised who we can also assume have some sort of collection going which more than likely includes some number of fetches. They can reprint Top, Counterbalance, Force, Jace and you STILL have 1400+ in duals that you need. I just don't think there are many people who are like "Yeah, I wanted to play counter-top in legacy but I just don't want to shell out for Top and Flooded Strands." Ya feel me?
With all of that said, I'm super excited for EMA. It's going to make finishing my cube A LOT easier.
SDT, also another good reprint for if we're allowed to have nice things (we aren't, but one can dream).
Elves seems to be one of the draft archetypes, but Shaman of the Pack isn't exactly a card in "needs reprints now" territory. But when you have Elves as a draft archetype, that's practically open admission that Heritage Druid will be a card, and that's a card worth reprinting for sure.
Tangent:
If Countertop Miracles gets more support in the set, I'm sure it'll spike the price of Flooded Strand. Reminder to grab fetches while they're still cheap, I guess.
All of the spike value from a legacy perspective is going straight into the reserved list cards. KTK fetches are so plentiful that we need to look at 'spikes' in the context of years.
There might be a few reprints of Legacy staples banned in Modern like Jitte. I'm guessing most will be commons/uncommons that get reprinted all the time like Giant Growth, Negate, or any number of burn spells.
Why on earth would they print either Giant Growth or Negate in EMA? I can see a lightning bolt reprint, but those other two cards are magnitudes lower on both power level, importance, and desirability.
While I think there are better versions than those (Invigorate or Copunter-spell) that would be better to print. Since it is intended as a draft format and, assuming there will be powerful spells, they will also need different types of counter-spells. Look at Modern Masters, not every card was highly played modern staples.
No I absolutely understand - it just seems odd that they would specifically reprint the cards Negate and Giant Growth. I would think that they would use this opportunity to print long out of print cards that would fill similar roles to those other two. Things like Counterspell, Invigorate, Forbid, Capsize.. etc.
There might be a few reprints of Legacy staples banned in Modern like Jitte. I'm guessing most will be commons/uncommons that get reprinted all the time like Giant Growth, Negate, or any number of burn spells.
Why on earth would they print either Giant Growth or Negate in EMA? I can see a lightning bolt reprint, but those other two cards are magnitudes lower on both power level, importance, and desirability.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Death to false Value.
GW
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Yeah, this was a really nice reprint to see.
Another underrated reprint? Those Young Pyromancer tokens - they've become exceedingly difficult to find.
I'm not sure what this has to do with anything - also, 'rotated out to modern' isn't a thing.
For sure for sure - as far as I've always understood, rarities are just tools used to balance the limited format they're a part of and is why promos never have rarities. With that said, they definitely DO change the way that they assign rarities based on different design philosophies, so I agree with you there - I just don't think that them changing a rarity for one draft format signifies anything too specific about any one given card. Ya feel me?
At least they've been pretty clear about it - not every release can contain great modern stuff, and I'm sure we're going to continue to see awesome modern reprints through the summer and into the commander sets (there are like 4 more supplemental products coming out between now and the end of the year).
They're not printing high value modern cards in the set - they've been extremely clear about that, hence no Damnation.
There doesn't need to be a source.. that's all rarities signify - how common they want them to show up in limited formats (the overwhelming main reason) and to check prices (Goyf in both MMs is the big one - now FOW as well). Rarity shifts have never meant anything other than one of these two things (other than our ability to play them in pauper or not).
Edit - In re-reading your post: it is understood by everyone that rarity in a given set is independent of something's rarity in other sets correct? If Wizards released yearly draft sets and in one set lightning bolt was a mythic (because EVERY creature in the draft format was x/3 or smaller and thusly didn't want completely destroy the format with bolt at common/uncommon) and in the following year was a common (because it wouldn't do anything to warp the draft beyond how they designed it) then that is WELL within their wheelhouse and as such Bolt would have 2 different rarities which would depend on which set you were talking about. Rarities don't mean anything.
Rarity in this set has nothing to do with anything regarding playability or reprtinability in another format - rarities here are only to check the amount of copies in print and the limited impacts. That's it.
We were never going to get Wirewood Symbiote - but I don't know that anything really changes regarding counterspell other than now it is more available. We're just as likely to get counterspell after this comes out as we were before - which is to say, not much likelihood at all (~0.1%).
Agreed. For a long time I wanted to play legacy but there just isn't enough interest to make the investment worth it for me and my store even has a somewhat supported legacy scene. I just want to cube!
Oh no argument there in that demand increases, I'm just saying that the amount of demand it takes to move the needle on fetches is INCREDIBLY high. Even if players decide they want to get into legacy in droves, many of those players are going to be (presumably) modern players who are more enfranchised who we can also assume have some sort of collection going which more than likely includes some number of fetches. They can reprint Top, Counterbalance, Force, Jace and you STILL have 1400+ in duals that you need. I just don't think there are many people who are like "Yeah, I wanted to play counter-top in legacy but I just don't want to shell out for Top and Flooded Strands." Ya feel me?
With all of that said, I'm super excited for EMA. It's going to make finishing my cube A LOT easier.
All of the spike value from a legacy perspective is going straight into the reserved list cards. KTK fetches are so plentiful that we need to look at 'spikes' in the context of years.
No I absolutely understand - it just seems odd that they would specifically reprint the cards Negate and Giant Growth. I would think that they would use this opportunity to print long out of print cards that would fill similar roles to those other two. Things like Counterspell, Invigorate, Forbid, Capsize.. etc.
Why on earth would they print either Giant Growth or Negate in EMA? I can see a lightning bolt reprint, but those other two cards are magnitudes lower on both power level, importance, and desirability.