The rule of 572
February 11th 2010 01:43
“To maintain your confidence in the Magic game as a collectible, we've created this Magic: The Gathering card reprint policy. It explains why we reprint cards and lists which cards from past Magic sets will never be reprinted.”
-- Introduction to the Magic: the Gathering Reprint Policy and Reserved List
Like me, you are undoubtedly waiting impatiently for Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. the Coalition. Like me, you may have seen a certain blurry photograph which, though most people haven’t realized it yet, will shake the Magic world to its core:
Yes, the card on the left is more than 95% certainly the wildly popular Urza’s Destiny rare Phyrexian Negator, and yes, Phyrexian Negator is still on the Reserved List.
A fun blast from the past, or a flagrant violation of a promise made to collectors? Before you tell me your answer, there’s another question you need to consider: does Twincast violate the Reprint Policy?
If you don’t get the reference, don’t worry. It’s to a red card so old, most people at your local store have probably never even seen one, much less played with it.
The Reprint Policy states that a reserved card will never be reprinted in a “functionally identical form.” The definition of functionally identical is, for these purposes, very narrow – it includes rules text and color and mana cost. If even one of these is different, even by one word, even by one colorless mana, the card is permitted under the Reprint Policy. Twincast does exactly the same thing as Fork (minus the color-changing clause, which is no longer as relevant as it used to be), for the same converted mana cost. It even has similar elements in its artwork – but by changing the little fireball mana symbols to droplets of water, it is kosher. Does it violate the spirit of the Reprint Policy? Probably. Should it have been printed anyway?
Here’s another conundrum for you. Does Clone violate the Reprint Policy?
Harmless-looking little card, isn’t it? But what most of us forget now is that until a few months before the release of the Onslaught expansion, Clone was also on the Reserved List, along with a host of other uncommons from Magic’s early expansions. Wizards of the Coast unilaterally removed all uncommons from the Reserved List, partly so they could put Clone in Onslaught just because it was cool. This paved the way for the return of other uncommons from the dawn of Magic, notably Psionic Blast in Time Spiral. Could this have been interpreted as a backhand to anyone uneasy about the value of their Limited Edition Clones and Psionic Blasts? Perhaps. Should it have been done anyway?
Most of us are concerned at least a little bit with the value of our cards. But why would the existence of new versions of popular cards affect the old version? The original Phyrexian Negator still has amazing art by John Zeleznik. It still has the Urza’s Destiny expansion symbol, and it is still in the old card frame, which may seem commonplace to old people like me but will fade from memory and become a novelty as time goes by. How do you know that people won’t play with the new Duel Decks, learn there’s another version of the Negator, and actively seek it out?
Don’t cry for the Reserved List. It’s already dead, buried, and forgotten.
-- Introduction to the Magic: the Gathering Reprint Policy and Reserved List
Like me, you are undoubtedly waiting impatiently for Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. the Coalition. Like me, you may have seen a certain blurry photograph which, though most people haven’t realized it yet, will shake the Magic world to its core:
Yes, the card on the left is more than 95% certainly the wildly popular Urza’s Destiny rare Phyrexian Negator, and yes, Phyrexian Negator is still on the Reserved List.
A fun blast from the past, or a flagrant violation of a promise made to collectors? Before you tell me your answer, there’s another question you need to consider: does Twincast violate the Reprint Policy?
If you don’t get the reference, don’t worry. It’s to a red card so old, most people at your local store have probably never even seen one, much less played with it.
The Reprint Policy states that a reserved card will never be reprinted in a “functionally identical form.” The definition of functionally identical is, for these purposes, very narrow – it includes rules text and color and mana cost. If even one of these is different, even by one word, even by one colorless mana, the card is permitted under the Reprint Policy. Twincast does exactly the same thing as Fork (minus the color-changing clause, which is no longer as relevant as it used to be), for the same converted mana cost. It even has similar elements in its artwork – but by changing the little fireball mana symbols to droplets of water, it is kosher. Does it violate the spirit of the Reprint Policy? Probably. Should it have been printed anyway?
Here’s another conundrum for you. Does Clone violate the Reprint Policy?
Harmless-looking little card, isn’t it? But what most of us forget now is that until a few months before the release of the Onslaught expansion, Clone was also on the Reserved List, along with a host of other uncommons from Magic’s early expansions. Wizards of the Coast unilaterally removed all uncommons from the Reserved List, partly so they could put Clone in Onslaught just because it was cool. This paved the way for the return of other uncommons from the dawn of Magic, notably Psionic Blast in Time Spiral. Could this have been interpreted as a backhand to anyone uneasy about the value of their Limited Edition Clones and Psionic Blasts? Perhaps. Should it have been done anyway?
Most of us are concerned at least a little bit with the value of our cards. But why would the existence of new versions of popular cards affect the old version? The original Phyrexian Negator still has amazing art by John Zeleznik. It still has the Urza’s Destiny expansion symbol, and it is still in the old card frame, which may seem commonplace to old people like me but will fade from memory and become a novelty as time goes by. How do you know that people won’t play with the new Duel Decks, learn there’s another version of the Negator, and actively seek it out?
Don’t cry for the Reserved List. It’s already dead, buried, and forgotten.
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