How Does Harmless Offering Not Violate the Reserved List?

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Posted on Feb. 3, 2020, 10:07 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

Donate is on the reserved list, but WotC recently printed Harmless Offering in Eldritch Moon, which is nearly identical, apart from its color and the fact that it can target only opponents, so I fail to see how it does not violate the reserved list.

I am glad that that card was printed, but WotC has repeatedly stated that they will not abolish the reserved list, so I wonder Harmless Offering does not violate it.

What does everyone else say about this? How does Harmless Offering not violate the reserved list?

Flooremoji says... #2

I believe that unless it is a functional copy of a card in the reserved list (i.e. everything but the name), it won't violate the Reserved list. Harmless offering is red and has a slightly different text, (even if it plays like the same card) so it is different.

February 3, 2020 10:30 p.m.

Suns_Champion says... #3

The Reserve List protects cards on it against reprints and functional reprints (which means cards that are exactly the same except in name). Since Offering is Red instead of Blue, it is not a functional reprint, thus doesn’t violate the RL rules.

I honestly see this as a neat way to “reprint” RL cards.

February 3, 2020 10:59 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #4

Flooremoji, I am glad that such a loophole exists, and I hope that WotC exploits it further in the future.

February 3, 2020 10:59 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #5

Suns_Champion, I agree, and I hope that WotC can use such a technicality for other cards, in the future.

February 3, 2020 11 p.m.

shadow63 says... #6

I mean theres Fork and Reverberate

February 4, 2020 1:06 a.m.

StopShot says... #7

Harmless Offering could have been in blue though. The difference is Donate allows you to give the targeted permanent to yourself if you choose to. Harmless Offering forces you to give to an opponent, so you can't use it on a creature you stole with Act of Treason or Claim the Firstborn to permanently give that stolen creature to yourself.

Even Reverberate is strictly worse from Fork. Let's say you play an important spell and your opponent tries to counter it with a blue counter spell. In return you could Reverberate the counter spell effectively countering it with the copy, but if your opponent(s) has a second counter spell in the form of Red Elemental Blast or Guttural Response they can effectively win the counter war. If you had used Fork and their were no other counter spells available you would have won the counter war.

Also Fork is better even if you account for spells like Blue Elemental Blast/Flashfreeze because that spell can counter the initial Fork/Reverberate anyway. Fork only fails if the spell you want to copy isn't red and you need it to target a creature with protection from red which is more niche than the example I gave above.

Effectively you can make a practical reprint so long as it has some aspect it falls short in, even if that downside is really negligible.

February 4, 2020 1:57 a.m.

Rzepkanut says... #8

Yes, Harmless Offering is obviously just a color shifted version of Donate with modern word templating. However the card's functionality has changed significantly because of the color shift IMHO. Even with having very similar text boxes and CMCs they feel very different being in different colors so it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't violate the stupid stupid reserve list.

I wish they would just abolish the reserve list already. Its existence is a tragedy for us all, but its even worse for all the future generations of kids who will learn to play Magic one day.

February 4, 2020 6:15 a.m.

shadow63 says... #9

StopShot fork and reverberate are identical other then fork makes the copy red

February 4, 2020 8:31 a.m.

clayperce says... #10

Per Wizards' official reprint policy:

Reserved cards will never be printed again in a functionally identical form. A card is considered functionally identical to another card if it has the same card type, subtypes, abilities, mana cost, power, and toughness.

Harmless Offering has a different ability and a different mana cost than Donate, so it's no issue whatsoever.

February 4, 2020 12:01 p.m. Edited.

clayperce says... #11

FWIW, here are some other examples where this has already been done:

Color-shifted:

Color-shifted and almost the same abilities:

February 4, 2020 12:19 p.m.

Boza says... #12

The only example of blatantly violating the RL is Mox Diamond, which was reprinted in shiny form for From the Vault: relics. After a backlash of Wizards violating their own policy with that (see above for the policy), shiny editions of RL cards are not done anymore.

Opinion on the RL Show

February 5, 2020 3:10 a.m.

I wish Wizards would abolish children who complain about the Reserved List.

February 5, 2020 3:30 a.m.

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