The reprinting of Phyrexian Negator in the Phyrexia Vrs The Collation Duel decks. Negator is on the list and now he is being printed for the duel decks!
Ben “The Money Man” Bleiweiss wrote about the reserve list in these articles:
The Rise of Magic's Popularity
Mr Bleiweiss goes to Washington
The Cost of Cards On Foils and One Last Reserved List Thought
Stephen “Me-nobody-can-pronoce-his-last-name” Menendian wrote about the reserve list here:
The Vintage Market Report
The two and a half hour Monster Yo MTG Taps episode, fans the flames.
First this is first- let’s assess the situation. We have to realize is that there are more than one arguments happening here. We should break them down into manageable questions / issues.
Should WoTC keep or kill the reserve list?
Should WoTC care about the secondary market?
Should WoTC make Legacy cards available via a reprint set?
The Reserve List (AKA The Boogie Man)
For those of you who don’t know. WoTC has a list of cards that they promise not to reprint. People have a lot to say about this –blah blah blah ... this was a promise made before Hasbro took over and yadda yadda yadda. Some players want wizards to keep the reserve list and some want them to kill it. Let’s talk about what I think; since that’s what’s really important here.
I don’t care what WOTC does. They have done a fantastic job of keeping the game fresh, interesting, fun and even profitable to play / sell. I trust them with the fate of the game and the final say in this decision. That being said, let’s pretend that I was on the board of WoTC and I had to give some thoughts on the subject of the reserve list. Here is what I would say.
The reserve list is pretty useless in the sense that it takes the game that we love and puts it in a box. It puts restrictions on what WoTC can and can’t do. I am against such ideals. I think that the wonder and “what if” should always be available for us as patrons and players to dream about. Remember when news broke about the priceless treasure in the Zendikar packs!? I want WoTC to have room to do awesome things like that.
The Secondary Market
“But if they get rid of the reserve list then they will kill the secondary market!” This is a valid concern. The secondary market is important. I have heard people say “Wizards doesn’t care about the secondary market.” I hope that’s not true. The secondary market is important because it allows players to maintain equity in the game via the value of their collection. How would you feel if you dropped sixty dollars on a Baneslayer Angel only to find out that WoTC is printing an FNM Foil version three months later? This is an extreme and outlandish example but it gets to the point – if people can’t invest in the game then the game will lose players. Yo Gi Oh is a good example cards go from three hundred dollars to zero dollars overnight. People need to be able to expect a return when they invest their money. Imagine a bank where you deposit two hundred dollars into your savings account and then find out a week later that you only have sixty now. How long do you think that bank would be in business?
Collectors The Unsung Minority
You might be asking, “Why would you invest money in Magic? This is a game not a bank!” There are many people who view Magic strictly as a game, but the fact is that it is a “Collectable” card game. This means that part of the customer base is collectors. This portion maybe small (when compared to players) but their impact is big. If collectors didn’t exist then cards that have little or no play value would be worthless. In a world where only players exist there would be little hope, “that someday my old cards might be worth money”. The absence of collectors also means less income for WoTC when they release products like From the Vaults or Sliver Decks Premium. Less revenue for WoTC means less tournament support and less print runs. All aspect of the customer base are important to sustain the level of growth that Magic is experiencing.
By now you should understand that the secondary market is important for two reasons, one it gives us the ability to invest in our card collections (aka give Wizards more money); two it keeps the Collectors happy who continue to collect (aka give Wizards more money) and who actually buy all our (the players) old cards to keep us funded to play the game further. Granted the collector is not always the one directly buying our cards but our cards will end up in their possession when all is said and done. In marketing we call this a final consumer. We know all this, but what we don’t know is how will abolishing the reserve list affect the secondary market?
It won’t tangibly affect the secondary market. If they do away with the reserve list this may cause a panic and cause people to sell their collections, for fear that they will be worthless. The truth is that removing the reserve list does nothing but give Wizards the opportunity to reprint card. They could remove the reserve list and still never reprint a single card on the list. The real fear lies in the question “What if they do reprint cards from the list?” Well, this is precisely what some player are asking for. Their argument is that eternal formats are near impossible to enter and that WoTC should fix that by reprinting older staples.
Legacy The Pie in the Sky
The fundamental problem is that people want to play eternal formats but don’t own the cards. With the growing popularity of these formats namely Legacy, prices are starting to increase and card availability is getting scarce. This means that people who are interested in the format but don’t own the cards are starting to worry. I can understand that, but at the same time I have no sympathy. I think that there is a huge misconception about entering the legacy format. I won’t talk about how to do it (since I do that quite a bit on this blog already) but I do want to address the misconception.
People have this idea that it is near impossible to enter the format without spending alot money. This is false. I have always been an advocate of trading smart and using your collection to fuel your magic endeavors. On the Yo MTG Taps episode 14 the Joes were talking about how easy it is to get type two cards and how hard it is to get legacy cards. In these statements lies the answer to the question. Trade your type two cards for legacy cards. Yes there is a mark up for trading type two for legacy but it is well worth it! Keep in mind when you go to sell your legacy staples chances are they will be worth more than you paid/ traded for them. Also keep in mind that you can get the type two cards back easier that getting legacy cards later. I see a strong sense of entitlement coming from the Type Two players saying things like, “Wizards needs to give us the cards!” Playing Legacy is a privilege of those who put in the hard work. There are many barriers to entry (cost, skill, good looks) and these are good things. It is part of what gives legacy its personality.
This isn’t like FNM where any eight year old can sit down at the table and cascade their way to victory. This is the “big leagues” where the people who have worked hard get to enjoy a test of skill and a little slice of magic sub-culture that cannot be found anywhere else. We don’t have to babysit FNMers at legacy tournaments because of these barriers to entry. We only get committed players who are genuinely invested in the format. This may seem like an elitist attitude but there is a sense of pride that one gets from earning and working for his/her collection. In contrast we have those who resemble the typical spoiled teenager demanding to be given what the rest of us worked for. Don’t you think I had a hard time trading my whole type two collection (save one deck) to get some Tropical Islands? The story hasn’t changed much. If you want to ride the bus, you have to pay for a ticket.
As it turns out, before posting this blog – Wizards has made a decision not to reprint cards from the reserve list, save the ones listed here. No I guess, I really will have to show all you whiners how to get into legacy. Thanks for reading!
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