Why Does WotC Continue to Reprint Cards that Are Acknowledged Breaks?
General forum
Posted on April 22, 2020, 7:36 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
WotC has openly admitted that certain recent cards are outright breaks of the color pie, most notably Beast Within (because green is not supposed to be able to unconditionally destroy creatures) and Harmonize (because green is not supposed to be able to unconditionally draw cards), yet they have reprinted those cards numerous times, so I am wondering why that is.
WotC has not reprinted Prodigal Sorcerer or Psionic Blast in many years, because those cards do not fit into the modern color pie, so why does WotC continue to reprint newer cards that break the color pie? What does everyone else say about this?
I mean harmonize and beast within are a lot more recent then scionic blast.
Aslo beast within and harmonize haven't been reprinted in standard
April 22, 2020 8:24 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
shadow63, you make excellent points, there, and I do hope that WotC never reprints those cards in a standard-legal set, because they break the color pie.
April 22, 2020 9:10 p.m.
Magnanimous says... #5
I really hate color breaks of all kinds, but I view these reprints as different (and actually worse) than a color break. I think card advantage, tutors, filtering are all becoming more green traits. Also, Beast Within isn't considered a color break, more of a color bend. It's exchanging one permanent for another rather than pure destruction, which kind of works within Green's ideas of rebirth and the cycle of life but screws with the balance in my opinion.
I've said this before, but I think green gets way too much in newer sets while White gets absolutely screwed.
April 23, 2020 8:58 a.m.
I would say the reason for these cards being reprinted is they have a low $$ value so are not an issue there for WOTC to reprint but also are staples in EDH and thus needed. If they are not banned (and they shouldn't be IMHO) then reprint them to insure they have no value and people can play them. Otherwise in 5 years we will be seeing a few $10-$15 uncommons that will then have people calling for reprints and WOTC won't reprint them to maintain the lower reprint value in the pre constructed decks.
April 23, 2020 10:40 a.m.
sergiodelrio says... #7
MaRo has repeatedly said that reprinting cards into formats that already have access to them is fair game. And I agree
April 23, 2020 11:21 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #8
Harmonize and Beast Within have been printed into non-Standard sets rather often because they are good in EDH, although they do see some occasional Modern play.
Color pie breaks are weird, and they mostly exist because WotC wants to push boundaries. Pushing boundaries is fine, but in some cases they go overboard.
See, Beast Within is not an insanely powerful card in most formats. It would never be Standard playable, other than as a Sideboard card to allow Green to deal with Planeswalkers. Except in Standard, you just add blue and steal whatever's bothering you or add black and use Assassin's Trophy.
Where Best Within shines is formats where there are huge permanents that can singlehandedly win the game. I, for one, always prefer my opponent having a 3/3 than a Karn or Ugin or Eldrazi Titan. That's why it's good in EDH -- everybody is running giant game ending permanents. Beast makes sure Green is able to help out in the 'kill the guy with the OP board state' game. Without it, green wouldn't be much worse, but with it, it gives Green the ability to be more than "mana and John Cenasaurus", if only with one card. Beast doesn't break EDH, it helps it stay less broken, and it's not even all that amazing. is still a decent amount in EDH. It's like 1 mana in Modern, or 5 in Standard.
The opposite end of the spectrum is Veil of Summer. On the surface it's a "hey, maybe we can give green some control hate". In practice, it's Dismiss for that is restricted to Blue/Black instants and sorceries. 3 mana discount but the downside is it only hits half the color pie? It was maindeckable in 2 formats.
Another note is this: it's not hard to add another color if you have the $$ for the manabase. If you need a counterspell, you can splash blue for Spell Pierce any day. If you're a mono color deck, it's easy. A two color deck? Great, now you're 3 colors and out $50 for lands. Already 3 colors? Oh, well maybe it's a little more difficult.... At 4 colors you either don't try or you're already that color, and at 5 you're playing Humans or Slivers or Bring to Light. Color pie breaks don't really mean that the game is broken -- in fact, color pie breaks are often better for the budget player because they don't have to invest as much into lands.
April 23, 2020 11:28 a.m.
Magnanimous says... #9
Wizards is doing more than reprinting them though. Beast Within is becoming a standard green effect and there's a new Mutate card with Beast Within as an ETB effect.
April 23, 2020 11:31 a.m.
sergiodelrio says... #10
Magnanimous your statement is objectively false.
And I repeat, there is no damage adding reprints to formats that already have access to the card. In addition to that, MaRo has stated even more repeatedly that WotC is actively trying to avoid these kind of breaks for Standard legal cards.
"Witch hunt!" ;P
April 23, 2020 12:21 p.m.
Magnanimous says... #11
sergiodelrio, I'm pretty sure I was thinking of Gemrazer, which I misread. Still, the Harmonize color pie break that was so egregious years ago makes no sense today as green has some of the best card draw and card advantage tools, even surpassing blue when used in creature heavy decks. My main problem lies in their interpretation of the color pie, which I feel is boring and heavily supports planeswalker and creature heavy strategies while also managing to make white even weaker and black and red boring.
I don't keep up with standard, so I was basing that statement off of my misreading of Gemrazer, but I still dislike the spot GB has as the premier color combo for permanent removal when WB seems like the natural choice for permanent removal and RB just seems like it has slightly worse options when both those colors have philosophies of destruction. Anyway, here are some examples of green permanent destruction in Pioneer: Bramblecrush, Destructor Dragon, Display of Dominance, Nessian Demolok, and Sylvan Primordial.
April 23, 2020 3:20 p.m.
TriusMalarky I'd really like to see a John Cenasaurus card in Magic, but alas...
April 23, 2020 4:44 p.m.
sergiodelrio says... #13
Notice the change of template “noncreature“ because that's the only thing that was wrong with beast within. Green can destroy everything else color pie wise. And if you want my opinion on harmonize, reread my previous posts and replace beast within with harmonize. It's not coming to standard and green draw is tied to creatures for new cards. Please reconsider your POV. The issues are being fixed
dbpunk says... #2
Theres two really good reasons:
Eternal format staples are often color breaks. They give those colors the option to do things that the color is often not doing great or dont have as much access to. For example, Beast Within is an amazing removal piece for green, where removal pieces for creatures and planeswalkers is limited. Additionally, some of these breaks that arent printed are either A) too powerful to print without warping formats (looking at you Mana Flare) or B) not really what the color needs to function better (any blue color break).
The color pie isnt set in stone nor are they hard rules. It changes over time which is why something that would be a break a year ago is now a bend or something might be a break now. Additionally, theres nothing that ruins the game by breaking it, it only changes the complexity. Otherwise, all cards would be effectively the same and kind of make the game more boxed in and boring.
April 22, 2020 8:12 p.m.