Why Won't Wizards Reprint?
Economics forum
Posted on May 30, 2020, 11:49 p.m. by TriusMalarky
I don't know if this actually helps anyone, but I need a quick rant.
Wizards definitely knows card prices. They know some cards are uber expensive. But why reprint old staples when you could force your playerbase to purchase tons of the newest set or be literally kicked out of the game forever?
I mean, seriously. Standard was too expensive for me back when I had maybe $30 to spend every couple months, back when Ghalta was what I needed to beat. Modern and Pioneer are cheaper than Standard, because I can hoard cards and build up. That, and Standard's just for newbs and crazy people because everyone else knows better than to play a format where you either pay $300 every three months or lose.
But now Modern and Pioneer are just Standard. Even commander is that way. Wizards prints some chase rare that everyone in every format needs, then suddenly you can't play what you want. On top of the fact that you needed to invest hundreds of dollars to even be competitive. Modern is just Standard but the pricetag is tripled now.
Wizards needs to fix this, and they need to fix it now. They need to reprint decent cards into oblivion so people can actually play, and they need to stop printing $40 chase rares and mythics into every darn set.
I want to play magic. Magic is for playing. It's a hobby. So why does Wizards think it's okay to turn it into a lifestyle? I mean, if this goes on it'll be like buying the new car every year. Just dump those thousands of dollars just so you can have fun.
Sad thing is, I can't even find a playgroup to Cube or EDH with. I mean, I can proxy fetches and crap to play with friends. It's easy, and I really don't care if that reduces the demand for one stupid card by a single person. I just wish I had enough friends with time schedules that worked... and that actually wanted to play.
Guess I might have to play Chess instead. Don't need a PhD and a well-paying job to afford that.
Gidgetimer says... #3
Mana Crypt may be too strong for standard, but if they would clear a spot of untapped multi-lands with basic land types, there is no reason they could not reprint fetches. There are many cards that are super expensive that they could reprint in standard and it wouldn't have a giant effect, as long as they separated them from other cards that they become problematic with.
I think the major problem is that they unreasonably restrict chase reprints to mythics in premium products with limited print runs. There is no reason for Force of Will, Tarmagoyf or Mana Crypt to have been mythic when WotC insists that mythic rarity is about complexity, not power. There is no reason for Mystery booster to have been limited print run when double masters is coming out in August as a super premium set with a bourgeoisie 35 card $99 "VIP" pack that is 1/3 basics.
They are driving out normal people with normal jobs. Let the collectors and whales have pretty alt arts and the reserve list. Let a dude in a 3 person family with a $70k household income and 3 hobbies at least be able to justify MtG as one of them.
May 31, 2020 8:03 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #4
Sorry if I said anything wack, it was a late-night largely incoherent rant. Although I will point out that, in my research, Standard seems like it would have been fine... up until KTK. Unfortunately, I was a kitchen-table-only player(actually a BSA camping tent floor player) until Ixalan was about to drop, and even then it was a weird format that was $30 limit(whole deck) Modern that I played with my other jobless underaged friends. Up until right before Guilds dropped, I never played Standard. Looking back, that was a rather decent period, largely because my meta was 90% Ghalta Stompy which really wasn't that bad, just too expensive.
I guess that my tangent, which needs a wrap-up, is trying to say that Standard would be perfectly legitimate if Wizards wasn't breaking it with every new set. I mean, I get wanting a flowing meta -- that's fine. But a meta that flows so fast that you either vomit money or get drowned? I don't like the sound of that, and I don't think anyone else does either.
And I know that reprints sell sets... but it's really not hard to reprint fetches at mythic in some Mystery or Masters set every year or three. I mean, they go up in value constantly. Every day they go without substantial reprints is another cent or two, and even with reprints they'd still be doing that. C'mon, wizards, it takes half a brain to realize that lands don't drop in price for very long. Shocks will be back up to $20 in a couple years, and they just got reprinted. They know that these powerful cards can have substantial reprints without losing all of their value AND still sell sets. I mean, Shocks were half of RTRTR block's value. But no, it's better to keep prices high and restrictive so that absolutely nobody can actually play the game.
I mean, I can't even reasonably afford Standard. Mostly because it would take me a year to get the minimum price for a halfway decent deck, so I'd just be brewing monocolor aggro and probably losing. The only reason I play Modern, Pioneer and EDH is because I can say, "Trackers dropped to $5 each. Well, I need them for this deck, and they'll be playable for years to come. Might as well bite the $20 and grab 'em". Can't do it with Standard, even if the decks looked interesting.
May 31, 2020 9 a.m.
This might be an unpopular opinion here, but given your available cash flow for Magic the Gathering, maybe this isn't the right hobby for you.
At the end of the day, Magic the Gathering is product, which is designed to be sold and at a profit so that the business can stay afloat. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are a whole slew of employees who work there becasue they love the story telling, they love how the game works, they're big on the community, all that. But there's also the cold, hard reality of the game. It's not some free to play labour of love that a group of people have made and released into the world. It is a product from a company and it needs to pay for itself.
On top of that, there is not the same widespread appeal that even games like pokemon cards (when the first came out) had. It is a complicated game which has a habit of driving away a lot of potential players due to either the complexity of it, the lore side of it or even due to the existing player base.
So back to the personal issue here. We know the ticket to entry for standard is about $300 at any given set. And we know that modern is about $1000 for anything competitive. This data has been available for quite a few years now from just looking at past and present meta decks.
So there are a few options that aren't standard. You have more casual variants of the formats or you have commander. For a basic commander precon you're looking to be out about $30 USD (I think, I'm Australian so I'm not exactly sure of the release price over there) which for a decent chunk of the commander community is fine. And hell, a player could buy a few dollar rares/even splurg $5 on a new card every now and again and you could build a so-so commander list (assumning you focused on one list and spent money where the deck needed it). So you might be somewhere in the $100 USD range in total. That's the benefit of a social format - you can find play at all sorts of different levels.
But back onto standard, modern and pioneer. These are one-v-one formats, designed to be competitive. And new cards and new decks will always be coming out that will shake up metas and to keep up, players will need to spend money. But them's the breaks. That's how WotC makes money and that's how the game works. So again on my initial statement - if you don't want to outlay the cash to keep up, then that's fine, noone is making you. Nobody has every died from not playing Magic the Gathering. But don't just expect WotC to drop the price on all their products for you.
May 31, 2020 10:02 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #6
I should clarify again: this thread was a late-night incoherent rant made when I was feeling really grumpy.
Normally, I love the challenge of trying to dominate in formats like Modern with a $50 budget. It's challenging, it's interesting, and it's fun. I refuse to play netdecks, because I'd rather brew my own deck and because netdecks don't fit within my budget.
I mean, I understand that there needs to be new cards that players need to buy. I'm not mad about Ikoria, Companion, etc., although Oko and T3f are annoying. It's hard to deal with them without a large budget, which puts a kink in my plans.
The one thing I'm really complaining about is lands. I don't need Thoughtseize, or JTMS, or Lili of the Veil, or FoW, or FoN, or Cryptic Command, etc to play how I want to play. What I do need is lands, and that's what ticks me off. You can always do well and brew without the top tier super powerful cards, but it's harder to do well without decent lands. I don't really like playing Aggro, and I don't want to play mono white prison, or a devotion deck. I like Midrange and Combo, and occasionally control. Those need decent lands.
Of course, I don't need Fetches and Shocks. I'll make do with jammed-together fetchless manabases filled with fastlands, the occasional shock, and painlands. I just wish they were a little cheaper, or if possible make fetches and shocks cheap enough for me to buy.
I'm going to contradict my post here, because I need to, and because that post isn't entirely what I believe. I welcome the changes, I love new cards. What I don't like is expensive lands and repetitive games. I won't play a format where every deck is the same(although various Midrange decks playing against each other is pretty fun), and I won't play a format where I can't reuse my lands. So I play Pioneer. Mostly because my LGS is filled with similarly poor players, and everyone's doing EDH and Pioneer, so it's my only real meta. I brew Modern in the hopes that someday I'll live in an area with a decent Modern playerbase. Until then, it's Pioneer and EDH.
And one last thing -- I never buy packs unless I'm playing limited. I drafted Mystery and Ikoria, I do prereleases on occasion, but I don't purchase packs to open them. In effect, the only things I care about are what new cards come, and the secondary market price. Wizards has no other influence other than bannings. So while I love it when they reprint pricey cards, I'm not gonna crack packs to find chase rares.
May 31, 2020 10:46 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #7
Commander precons are $42 US if you can find them in a big box store. I'm not sure about LGS prices.
May 31, 2020 12:15 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #8
Just another quick note on precon prices. The US sales tax isn't included in posted prices. When I bought my precons final price including taxes was $45.01
May 31, 2020 12:20 p.m.
Gidgetimer: Okay, so once you factor in conversion rate, it's pretty comparable. Commander decks are $60 AUD here.
TriusMalarky: Fair enough. Lands definitiely are a pain and where the vast majority of deck improvement funds go. At least in formats like commander, yo ucan leverage cards like Nature's Lore and Farseek in conjuction with the shocks (which are actually at a really good price right now) whereas it's harder to devote card slots to ramp in modern unless you're playing something like Scapeshift.
That being said though, it does mean that you have to be less picky with what deck you're playing if you want to compete. I mean you have some flexibility with dual coloured decks - G/W hatebears is a good example of this since you don't want fetches anyway. But you will still struggle to some extent unless you're willing to try stuff like mono white weenies or RDW. Again, it does depend on your playgroup - if everyone is in the same boat then slower decks aren't as big a problem.
If you only have a tight budget for hobbies, then not buying boosters is absolutely the right way to go - unless you just want bulk cards then you end up spending about the same or less just buying/trading for stuff you need. So you're doing the right thing there.
May 31, 2020 11:16 p.m.
A business in America purposefully organizes its retail releases such that consumers are forced to continually spend more and more in order to keep up with their peers, leaving the have-nots to writhe in shame and jealousy. Hmmmmm...
Welcome to capitalism 101. First time?
June 1, 2020 3:31 a.m.
Amen TriusMalarky! late night rant aside, they are pricing people out of the game NOT in. The whales argue that the whales support the business, I argue that this is a dangerous attitude (& I am a bit of a whale). It should be a tabletop game with more access to new demographics.... not more investment in middle-aged white dudes with disposable income (like me). A particular frustration I hear over & over, particularly in Eternal formats, is the price of the mana BASE (core pillar of the game) is out of control & "good price" on shocks is a very subjective term. "Good price" on cardboard is different if you already have an MTG lifestyle versus wanting to play table top without getting blown out of the water because your land base isn't working. & this applies accross the table to all 2 cmc ramp in particular. Investment, inshmeshment.... I would love if my newbies had access to more, even if my shocks & duals tanked, but then again, I have a life beyond clutching my collection like Gollum with One Ring.
June 2, 2020 9:08 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #12
I know. I mean, I'd jump to buy $5 fetches and shocks. I wanna decent manabase. I've already got the other pieces. Bolt, Push, Tracker, y'know, the basics. The cheap cards that win games and are all-around good. Although I am missing Path, but I haven't been into Modern in a while and I just bought some shocks, so that'll have to wait.
If Wizards would just take lands down to $1, everything would be awesome. Even just some simple core lands. I mean, I'll shell out for $6 Paths, if I really need high priced staples I can save up, but damn lands are expensive. My Pioneer decks are $2-300 simply because of lands, and I've been collecting lands for years!
June 2, 2020 9:18 a.m.
Going to say something that'll probably be rather unpopular--Fetches need to be cheaper, but they don't need to be $1.00. Nor do I think they could ever reach that amount--the demand for them is too high due to their universal applicability in all formats in which they are legal.
It's quite possible to make a budget Modern Mana base. Check Lands and Pain Lands are relatively inexpensive (though, Pains are getting to the point where they probably need a reprint), and are quite effective for two-color decks. If we're going to have Modern lands be reprinted to the point they reach the $1.00-$2.00 mark, Checks and Pains would be the right lands for that price-point, not Shocks and Fetches.
June 2, 2020 10:05 a.m.
Sometimes I think it is a good thing if all this Covid stuff makes webcam magic take off because no one can tell the difference with a high-quality proxie :)... I seriously miss the days of my $4.00 Shinders dual land :( The whales will always fight for the mana base to stay at an expensive norm. I still think the game would be so much greater if the market kept their hands OFF ballooning the mana base & kept it all geared towards the bells & whistles of the game instead of the nuts & bolts.
Caerwyn says... #2
Reprints have value to Wizards--they know they can reprint a popular card and that is going to move packs. The more they print those popular cards, the less effective those cards are at moving product the next time they get reprinted. So, even with the cards they can reprint, they do not have an unlimited ability to do so.
That said, I think they are being a bit miserly with their reprints and could do a lot better. It would be nice to see some of the chase cards for Modern/Eternal formats released in Standard-legal sets. I think Wizards errs on the side of caution with Standard, avoiding reprints they think would be "too powerful" for the format. I would like for them to take a bit more risks with strong reprints, even if it would mean a faster, more powerful Standard.
Speaking of Standard, you lose a lot of credibility when you write off an entire section of the game as "newbs and crazy people". There are legitimate reasons to play Standard over any other format. The smaller card pool means each and every new release; each and every rotation has a massive effect on the metagame. Unlike other formats, which are relatively stable, Standard's protean metagame ensures it doesn't get old.
So it's not your thing--that doesn't give you the right to insult and be dismissive toward those who do.
May 31, 2020 12:24 a.m.