First off, let me make it clear that I agree to the general principle of Brad's idea. However, I have some concerns about his article "How 'Bout Opening a Time Walk and a Rorix?" and the realization of his suggestions.
I got into Magic in 1996, and I have been playing Vintage decks ever since I heard of the existence of tournament formats. Alas, I do not own a real set of the Power 9, but I do own an Arabian Nights' Library of Alexandria and a near-complete set of the Collector's Edition Power Nine (missing only Timetwister)...
And whoa! It sucks to have real and very good cards you can't use in tournaments.
This feeling would very likely be the same to Standard players. You cannot print a card good enough to be a Type-1-staple in a standard-legal expansion and make it only Type 1 legal. This would create confusion and probably anger Standard-players - Wizard's biggest group of customers (as they are keen to emphasize). And I'm not talking about the Power Nine here - everybody would be happy to pull a Mox, right? But what about the other old staples like Swords to Plowshares and Abeyance, both of which Brad directly mentions?
Especially after the last Extended rotation, players will not be happy to find exactly those cards in their boosters that just rotated out: "Oh great; the DCI rotated these cards out, and Wizards is printing them again?" Nobody would see a sensible point. Plus, all these staples (with the possible exception of Mana Drains and Mishra's Workshops) are comparatively easy to come by - especially after the last Extended rotation!
But everybody knows that there are cards that are bloody hard to find, and go for sky-high prices. Ancestral Recall. Time Walk. Black Lotus. Moxen. These are what you dream of at night. These are the ones that would make your older brother not look at you for days when you pull one. And here comes Brad Mish and proposes "that Wizards buy back older cards on the reserved list off the market, then randomly insert them into packs in place of rares."
First things first: It's a restricted list, not a "reserved" list. (Oops - The Ferrett, who shoulda caught that) However, this proposal is dead wrong. It does not solve a problem, it actually creates one: It would dry out the secondary market for the Power Nine and raise the prices simultaneously. How? I'm no economist, but I'm sure if Wizards bought Power Nine at all costs to fill up booster packs, the prices would skyrocket. "Hey, look - there's that stupid company who buys their own product back! Let's milk them!" And Wizards would have to buy at any prices. In fact, I believe there's not enough P9 ever been printed to fill the demand of inserts for just one expansion. Wizards would merely transform the way of distributing the scarce supply of P9 from the secondary market to their retail and shuffle the owners around. And what Vintage player would sell his story-laden and hard acquired Power cards, anyway?
So this way is out if you really want a resurgence of the availability of Power cards.
What else is there? Nothing else than to return to the idea of a reprint. Not a reprint of the entire Beta card set, or the restricted list: I propose a reprint solely of the Power Ten. All other cards are still available, and if you wanted to compose a list of staples for reprint, you'd end up with all cards ever printed. Give them new artworks and a special expansion symbol, so collectors don't get too upset. The prices for the "original" pieces would probably drop - but that would be a minor concern for vendors given the predictable increase in Vintage activity and the need to buy those support cards, too.
And distribute them the way Brad Mish proposed. And with new expansion symbols, they could also be right out of Standard legality, ready to boost the Type-1 scene all over the globe.
So this is my pledge to Wizards of the Coast: Reprint Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, Black Lotus, the 5 Moxen, and Library of Alexandria! Insert these reprints randomly but with certain odds (maybe one in three display boxes) into the packs of one or more future sets. You would really help Type 1 and the game as a whole.
(And if you really want to be nice, you can do Mishra's Workshop, Illusionary Mask, and Mana Drain some time later)
Hanno Terbuyken, a.k.a. Dozer on TheManaDrain.com and zkforum.com
For questions and comments, reach me at hanno@terbuyken.net
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