I wouldn’t count MM as the norm, Shock also have the painless option while the Painlands will damage you whenever you want colored mana and Shocks have not been printed in a set aimed at beginners.

I recall seeing something like that as well. Though, if Wizards can reprint City of Brass and Shock Lands, perhaps Pain Lands are no longer off the table.

There was this article on the wizards site where they explained that they found players often really disliked taking damage from their lands. This was quoted as the major reason they were moved out of the Core Set. I would not count on them seeing a reprint.

I want the classic pain lands back! I miss tapping my Karpulsian Forests and checking out that goblin lounging in a mud hole at the Sulfurous Springs! lol

… Seriously though, it’s been a while since they’ve been reprinted, they come into play untapped and can be used for colorless mana with no ill effects. I think they’re ripe for the reprinting. (Not that they’ll be worth anything, just that they’d be nice to have back)

Wouldn’t a cycle of Horizon Canopy lands be awesome? That would be my preference! Well, assuming Fetches are a no go until after Shocks Rotate.

I agree that they will likely print some mana fixing but it shouldn’t be to ‘fix’ price or availability concerns at least relative to Modern. Maybe they get more play casually or as a short term placeholder for fetches for the budget conscious. I would like to see something new in Theros myself but that is a personal preference.

It’s not that they need to reprint the filter lands it’s that they aren’t printing the buddy lands in M14 and either people will be forced to go back to 2 color decks, or take a lot of damage from shocks when Theros rolls around, unless some other mana fixing shows up in Theros. Otherwise you’ll have shocks and that’s it.

Filter Lands are so interesting, and I’m not sure what to make of them. I personally don’t like playing with them a whole lot. By using Fetch Lands / Shock Lands for primary manabase, I’d rather have a couple Check Lands or Scars Lands to plug in the holes vs. Filter Lands. An opening hand with just 2 Filter Lands is terrible, while having 2 Check Lands is only annoying and 2 Scars Lands is terrific. I think this is consistent with the number crunch you did. Perhaps supply of Filter Lands is much lower? I honestly see no reason to play Filter Lands at all in Modern – I’d sell my copies even if I didn’t expect a reprint. They just seem less important in Modern (perhaps EDH is a different story?).

David,

Thanks for the comment! It was great meeting you as well – thanks for making some last minute changes to stop by so we could meet. I’m sure that phone call was quite the surprise! I am glad you found a couple gems in that bulk box! I felt bad taking that Gosta Dirk from your LGS! I need to check out the bulk box at my own LGS next, I’ve been inspired!

I think set specific words are safe from seeing reprint in a core set or even expansion. Nothing is safe from Modern Masters, but some cards are larger targets than others. It’s really a craps shoot at this point, which is why I feel diversification is best here. We should continue to invest in Modern because there’s a lot of money to be made there. We just need to be careful going too deep on any one card.

Interestingly all of the filters were from Eventide- all are TCG low 12ish. From Modern pov filters and fastlands do not need reprints – as you stated for fastlands and the numbers confirm it.

I agree with your calls. As you mention the fetchlands will be reprinted (at some point), especially since they’ve all eclipsed all the shocklands in value, thus they become the biggest “cost barrier” for the mana base. It was nice to meet you in person at my LGS and nice find in their bulk bin. I actually snagged a Cadaverous Bloom and a foil Death’s Presence from there.

I’m interested to know which keyword is going to be coming back in M14 / Theros… whichever keyword it is may signal the time to sell those modern cards that contain it?