There was really only 1 mythic in MM15 that was for the limited environment (comet storm) so its not totally out of the realm of possibility that they use this time to put some big cards at mythic that are also build around cards.

For example, craterhoof behemoth at mythic and the set also has unburial rites.

I’m personally expecting Griselbrand at mythic because it’s a modern card with a modest price tag. It’s hard to include too many expensive cards because if the MSRP of a pack is lower than the EV of a pack then you get into situations where stores often charge more than MSRP.

MM15 was a pretty good middle ground where the MSRP of a pack and the EV of a pack on release was close enough that it wasn’t impossible to find booster packs for $10.

Honestly, it’s too early to tell and too hard to guess what rares might be in the set. I will revisit this once we get closer to the set release and have a few spoilers.

I’m not sure Cavern of Souls was expensive enough to be on their radar when they were designing the set. It’s probable at rare if it is reprinted because its the type of card that would really not benefit a ton from a mythic reprint. It’s also from a time period that included mythics so my stance has been to assume those won’t be upgraded. We haven’t had a rare upgraded to mythic in this booster set unless it was only printed in sets that did not contain mythics to begin with.

I’m not sure Snapcaster Mage’s price will drop at all if it’s reprinted as a rare. It’s already fallen a great deal due to people expecting it to get reprinted. I would expect it rebounds a bit faster if it’s a Mythic. I would not be surprised if it was still a $50 mythic.

If Preordain is unbanned there is not enough information to tell us if that would affect the price of Snapcaster Mage. Surely they are good together but there is no data to suggest which deck would benefit the most. Traditionally the blue card selection is banned to stop combo decks and not control style decks that play Snapcaster Mage.

Agreed that Damnation needs the reprint most after Lili, but why should a color-shifted Wrath of God (5$ rare) be moved to Mythic? I asked Jim for his opinion on it above, but I still don’t think they should do it. They reprinted Cryptic Command at rare when it was pushing 55-60$, why wouldn’t they do it for Damnation? As far as I’m concerned, there is no justification for moving that effect to Mythic rare, and doing so would be a bit of a slap in the face, not to mention that it wouldn’t help bring down the price nearly as much. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Lili and Obliterator at Mythic and Damnation at Rare.

A lot of people are similarly hoping for Cavern, and I’m sure it’s on WoTC’s radar. That said, it was rare the first time around and probably would be this time too.

Also, do you intend to do a similar article for rares? I know that’s a bit more of a crapshoot since there are way more possible choices and slots for them in the set, but an informed look at the likelihood of seeing staples that people want in the set would be interesting. Hopefully Snapcaster is a lock and doesn’t get rarity shifted (obviously we won’t know 100% until it’s spoiled), it and Lili of the Veil are the 2 cards I think everyone expects/wants out of this set, and not delivering on that expectation would be pretty disastrous in my opinion.

Lastly, how much do you think having been printed in a previous MM sets affects the likelihood of being printed again? I don’t think it has a big impact on mythics, as history has shown, knocking their price down with consecutive printings is more important than mixing it up (plus the pool to choose from is a lot shallower) but what about rares and lower rarities? Cards like Chalice of the Void, Blood Moon, Arcbound Ravager, Aether Vial, Path to Exile, etc have been done in MM before, but they’re expensive again and due for a boost in circulation. I just wonder if WotC is likely to shy away from these cards to avoid making the sets too similar.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d LOVE to see almost everything on this list. But knowing Wizards, they would likely put in unplayable jank that “helps the Limited environment” before giving us tooooo many good things in one set. Especially when many of those would be better suited for future Conspiracy/Eternal Masters releases (which seem to focus more heavily on Legacy/Commander). We’ll see how much they learned from EM and CN2, because MM15 was extremely polarizing to begin with and got even worse when they banned Twin after reprinting so many staples for the deck. “Confident” is not a word I use to describe their reprint management.

If you look at the past Modern Masters sets (as Jim did) you’ll see a similar pattern. Same thing with Eternal Masters and Vintage Masters (a MTGO-only set)—tons of Commander fare. Wizards uses these sets to seed things for other players as well. We are almost certain to see some number of mythics and rares that are unplayable in Modern.