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Fall 2015 Expansion Named, and It’s a Good One (and Other PAX News)

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Kyle Lopez nailed it.

On a recent episode of Brainstorm Brewery, he said he didn't think Zendikar fetch lands would be reprinted in Modern Masters 2015 or Dragons of Tarkir, instead predicting that we would see them in the a "return to Zendikar" style expansion in the fall. At today's PAX East conference, this was more or less confirmed:

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No, I'm not hearing that Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the fetch lands will really be in here, but come on. Do you really think they won't include them?

The panel also confirmed a few other cool things, including that Duels of the Planeswalkers 2016 will be free-to-play (something I've written about before and am very pleased to see come to pass) and that Magic Origins will feature five double-faced cards that represent young, creature versions of planeswalkers on one side...

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and spark-ignited planeswalkers on the other.

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Finally, two more things were confirmed:

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Yep, it's a great time to be a Magic player. What's got you the most excited?

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Danny Brown

Danny is a Cube enthusiast and the former Director of Content for Quiet Speculation.

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7 thoughts on “Fall 2015 Expansion Named, and It’s a Good One (and Other PAX News)

  1. I’m reading so much about modern sucks, it’s a failing format, etc…

    Modern Masters was a huge product, modern masters 2015 looks to build the same hype and modern events look to be filled well. Twitch broadcast events seem to show higher viewership compared to other events.

    Be nice to see the writers here tackle this topic.

  2. The transforming Legendary Creatures/Planeswalkers gimmick is pretty cool, and I can’t wait to see what the other ones are do.

    It’s also sweet to see Goyf confirmed for MM2. Pretty much everyone thought it was going to return, but confirmation is always nice. Goyf was still a gigantic hurdle for many folks looking to get into Modern, and with another wave of them on the near horizon, I’m hoping the Modern scene has a chance to grow a little more with MM2’s release.

  3. I’m not surprised at all that goyf is confirmed for MMA2. It’s obvious that the format’s premiere $200 staple would be reprinted in a set which was created for the express purpose of increasing the accessibility of the modern format.

    What IS a bit surprised (and more than a little disappointing) is the fact that it’s still a mythic. Goyf at rare would really kick the teeth out of its current price point, but at mythic rarity it seems unlikely that its price will sink below $150, which is still far, far out of reach for most players. Yes, you can talk about how even at current prices goyf is still less than half the cost of a tarmo twin deck, but having the price of any individual card, particularly a format-defining staple, over $100 is still a huge psychological hurdle for people getting into modern.

  4. Options for the psychologically hurdled:

    1. Don’t play modern – It’s too expensive with mythic goyfs
    2. Buy goyfs – Visa will be happy to help with this if you want them to cost a total of $250-300 each over time.
    3. Show some maturity and restraint, and play a more affordable modern deck that they work towards over time by trading and saving – not everyone is entitled to have all of the best cards whenever they want them.

    I have chosen 1 and am working towards 3.

  5. I never understood the argument that Modern is to expensive to play. All it takes is patience, some research on speculating, and making trades. I used to be in the “it’s too expensive” tribe, but I’ve managed to slowly acquire big chunks of the format’s staples through those avenues. Of course, I also live in L.A. which provides me with a bigger community to trade/do business with, but it’s still totally doable for most people.

  6. I agree with the general sentiment that goyf’s reprint is disappointing at face value, but they need to have enough expensive cards to justify the $10/pack price, so if they print it at rare and it becomes worth $50, fewer people will want to buy a box at $240 and Wizards’ attempt to capture a greater portion of the profit will ultimately fail. At the end of the day, Wizards is in it to make money, and this is the way to make them the most money.

    It’s not about making modern more accessible; if it were, they would not specify a limited print run, goyf would be a rare, and MSRP would be lower since Wizards would want to sell as much product as possible ($10 Khans fetches). Keeping card prices high simply encourages people to crack packs, because at the end of the day, people won’t want to crack packs of a set with nothing valuable in it. Also, putting it at mythic allows its price to remain effectively unchanged, allowing them to reprint it yet again in a future set which people will scramble to buy since it will have a $150 card in it.

    There is a blatant duplicity in what Wizards does: it has to answer to Hasbro, and their shareholders, while simultaneously pleasing its stakeholders (players). Though they say it’s about accessibility, it has very little to do with it–it’s about increasing hype and awareness of Modern while slowly chipping away at a Pareto-like price curve with the reprint of non-staples. Look at the Kamigawa dragons and other cards that were $10-$15 casual cards. Their reprint crushed their price in the short term, kept it in check in the long term, and did little to affect the accessibility of modern though it made casual players happy and technically decreased the cost of Modern-legal cards as a whole.

    I think Wizards will focus on decreasing the value of cards under $15, especially commons and uncommons, and ultimately leave the chase rares where they are. Reprints will continue to be done in the most profitable way possible, and while players will continue to feel as though it isn’t enough, their irritation will be temporarily placated.

    I happen to be in favor of keeping prices high, as I’ve spent years slowly building up my (now modern) and legacy collection, so to have all that hard work thrown away is disappointing beyond reason. Regardless, I completely agree that $100 for a card is a tough hurdle to look past, but again it is also best for Wizards because they make their money off of standard which, amazingly enough, people believe is the cheapest format. That psychological hurdle is one of the most important things to the continuity of Wizards keeping the game as it is–the other option to get people to buy the cards from a new set is absurd power creep.

    Yu-Gi-Oh, for example, constantly has cards reprinted to the point of being worth very little; therefore, the incentive to buy new cards stems primarily from the power creep of the game and less from the newest format being the most accessible. In fact, their “standard” winds up being more expensive than Magic’s Modern format because the cards come out very expensive and then are worthless in a year or two. There are exceptions of course, but on a high level this is typically the trend.

    Essentially, I’d much rather see Magic keep formats like Modern and Legacy expensive and reward people who work to get into those formats than spew out increasingly powerful cards with each expansion, necessitate the purchase of said expansion and then reprint those cards while making another, even more powerful expansion.

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