General [M25]Masters 25

Velrun

Velrun

I have never been much for all these supplement products with 100 % reprinted because they rarely bring anything new to the table. Only discounted version of previously known cards. Sometimes a new artwork or two...

...However something new and quite exciting is about to happen with Masters 25!


(Drum roll)


Most cards will receive a watermark. Even ones that never had it before and watermarks we’ve never seen before will see the light of day.

The first example: Azusa, Lost but Seeking will now receive a Champions of Kamigawa set symbol watermark. I believe cube owners who care about the lore will deem this decision very interesting and very expensive ;)

Masters 25 will be released on the 16’th of March 2018.

What do you guys think?


4C0B00B2-A572-4A36-9873-E1B0541495FB.png
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I couldn't care less about the watermark, but I'm always interested in seeing what cards get reprinted. They are reprinting a minimum of one card for each set ever this time! Since I'm trying to update everything to the new border eventually, these are my biggest hopes:



That would at least let me replace all pre-8th edition borders! :)
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
sigh said:
Click to expand...

I'm quite certain this will be a must have for power cubes that allow for silver bordered cards after M25 comes out.

Possibly with...

Image.ashx
Image.ashx


That's a pretty good Rewind, if the basics also are treated with a watermark!
 
sigh

sigh

hedging their bets on the revived core sets making it to 2025? :p

Edit: ALSO, all of the shocks have watermarks. That VCC seems decent already, tbh, at least for the double fetch/shock crowd
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Kirblinx said:
Got to keep M25 for the new core set in 7 years. Assuming they haven't gotten rid of them again by that point.
Click to expand...

Well, you can't accuse them of lacking foresight in this case then, even though they displayed some clear deficiencies in that department on other occasions #FoilTokensForFNM #FelidarSovereignGate #LetsDoAwayWithNationals
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman fans will also remember it from Good Omens, where it turns out the M25 was actually the work of a forward thinking demon, designed to create mass frustration and ill will.
 
inscho

inscho

So these aren't going to be foil, right? I hate cubing with foils and my only copy of recruiter is the judges version.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Chalice of the Void is also a mythic in this set. For these set they obviously take secondary market value into consideration. Then again, opening an Imperial Recruiter as your mythic is more exciting than opening a Prossh, so maybe it's right that it's a mythic?
 
David Bohlander

David Bohlander

I typically like drafting these masters sets, but the cards Wizards chooses to print at mythic is often really frustrating. Unless a card is mostly really expensive because of its scarcity, like with Mana Drain and probably with Imperial Recruiter, these sets don't do much or anything to make the cards reprinted at mythic more affordable on the secondary market. All they do is make opening a very small percentage of packs more exciting. (Which, fine. Maybe they consider that a feature.)
But pulling one Snapcaster or one Dark Confidant doesn't really help anybody play a 60-card constructed format, so the excitement of cracking the card is really only about the card's value.
I know I'm complaining about Wizards shoving cash into packs, but I'd much rather have more formats available to more people at a more reasonable price than occasionally open a $60-$100 card.
And I'd like drafting these sets to cost less.
 
safra

safra

David Bohlander said:
I typically like drafting these masters sets, but the cards Wizards chooses to print at mythic is often really frustrating. Unless a card is mostly really expensive because of its scarcity, like with Mana Drain and probably with Imperial Recruiter, these sets don't do much or anything to make the cards reprinted at mythic more affordable on the secondary market. All they do is make opening a very small percentage of packs more exciting. (Which, fine. Maybe they consider that a feature.)
But pulling one Snapcaster or one Dark Confidant doesn't really help anybody play a 60-card constructed format, so the excitement of cracking the card is really only about the card's value.
I know I'm complaining about Wizards shoving cash into packs, but I'd much rather have more formats available to more people at a more reasonable price than occasionally open a $60-$100 card.
And I'd like drafting these sets to cost less.
Click to expand...
Right, but it's important to remember that most people who play Magic exclusively play casual Commander games. For them, one copy of a mythic is enough.
 
Aston

Aston

The problem with the Masters sets, and Magic sets in general, is that Wizards are trying to solve several competing problems in one go.

Cards are too expensive on the secondary market? Reprint them
People don't want their expensive cards to lose value when they're reprinted? Only add enough that it doesn't affect the secondary market too much, assign rarities to cards in part based on their secondary market value
People need the cards for constructed? Reprint constructed playable cards that are bad in or for limited
People want to draft the set? Design the set with a focus on limited play, reprinting cards that are not suited for constructed.

This isn't a criticism of Wizards, they have a hard job, and they're being pushed on from all sides with what they're trying to do with these sets. I have to think there's a better way but honestly I don't know what it is.

My ideal world would be a cross between Netrunner and current Magic, where all the constructed worthy cards are printed as playsets in separate packs, and draft packs which are specifically designed as disposable and draft only with very few constructed playable cards in them. Unfortunately this would probably be a terrible business model. Fortunately, that's what we have cube for.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The problem is the $9.99 mrsp for these packs. They want to be able to reprint stuff that has a lot of value on the secondary market without affecting the price too much, but the value is concentrated in only a few cards, like Jace, the Mindsculptor and Imperial Recruiter. Consequence is you pay 10 bucks for the chance to open beauties like these:



And those last three eat up a precious mythic slot! $10! For a $2 card (if you're lucky...) Drafting these sets can be super fun, but when your return on investment can be this abysmal, how can you justify spending triple the amount of a normal draft just for the fun draft format? In addition, some of these have already seen a reprint, what's the point of printing another Bident of Thassa, Hanna or Akroma, Angel of Fury? For Theros, that could've been a Hero's Downfall or Sylvan Caryatid, or even a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx if they wanted to really throw us a bone. Thah Hanna could've been a Phyrexian Altar, a Captain Sisay, or an Absorb. That Akroma could've been... well... there really isn't much in Planar Chaos that hasn't already been reprinted, though Boom // Bust is an option, and extra Damnations and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoths are always welcome. Even if you do pick Akroma, it could've been a rare though. I mean, it was just reprinted as a rare in Commander Anthology last year... Some of these reprints are just baffling to me.
 
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