We’ve known for decades that Magic: The Gathering is an incredibly expensive game to play. Unfortunately, this problem has only been getting worse in recent years. Now, even top-tier Standard decks are starting to cost over $600. Even Mono-Red, a once-affordable budget archetype, can now cost upwards of $300 to build.
Considering Standard’s position as the most important format, with its Universes Beyond sets and competitive support, this certainly isn’t ideal. Worryingly, this problem doesn’t look like it’s going to go away anytime soon. If anything, this problem appears to be getting worse long before it gets better.
Masters Have Been Massacred
Recently, Wizards of the Coast has been quietly canceling and reworking Magic: The Gathering’s best sources of reprints. For the longest time, Masters sets were the go-to reprint avenue since the debut of Modern Masters in 2013. Since then, these reprint-filled sets have popped up every few years, keeping prices somewhat in check.
Unfortunately, MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has recently revealed that the entire Masters product line has been retired. While it’s not necessarily gone for good, we’re not getting new Masters or Remastered sets anytime soon. This is due to Wizards of the Coast cutting down on the number of releases each year, following player feedback.
Concerningly, this feedback a few years ago didn’t account for the rise of Universes Beyond. Back in 2022, only having six sets per year would have left plenty of room for a yearly Masters release. Now, however, we’ve got three Magic Multiverse sets, three Universes Beyond sets, and nothing else.
Unsurprisingly, many MTG players aren’t happy about this overwhelming increase, especially for what it has pushed out. Masters sets weren’t just great fun to Draft, but they were essential to keep prices of staples down. In theory, Universes Beyond and Magic Multiverse sets do have a way to fix this, but Wizards has been tinkering with these, too.
Bonus Sheets Begone
While Wizards of the Coast has yet to entirely scrap MTG bonus sheets, they have been getting worse and worse. Previously, when a bonus sheet appeared, you’d find one card from it in every Play or Draft Booster. Now, in MTG Spider Man, the cards from the borderless source material bonus sheet only appear in one out of 24 Play Boosters.
Worryingly, this dramatic reduction in availability isn’t just a one-off. MTG Final Fantasy bonus sheet cards appeared in one-third of packs. Following that, Edge of Eternities bonus sheet cards were only found in one out of eight packs. Looking further ahead, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bonus sheet cards appear in one out of 28 Play Boosters.
In theory, this massive change in availability could just be part of the shifting tide of reprint equity. In theory, having fewer cards in a bonus sheet that are harder to get hold of should allow more expensive reprints to be included. Sadly, this just isn’t true, as reprint values are always all over the place.
Despite being the rarest bonus sheet to date, MTG Spider Man only has two bonus sheet reprints worth more than $20. Edge of Eternities, meanwhile, has three, one of which is the $85 Ancient Tomb. Final Fantasy, meanwhile, has eight cards with a raw reprint value of over $20, and multiple cards are worth $50+.
Clearly, the value of reprints doesn’t have anything to do with how accessible a bonus sheet is. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, as making bonus sheets rarer massively impacts their effectiveness as reprints. For Universes Beyond cards, Final Fantasy, especially, many bonus sheet reprints are actually more expensive than the original variant ever was.
No Home and No Hope
With bonus sheets getting less and less effective, Masters sets being retired, there’s no proper path for reprints anymore. Technically, Commander precons can provide some decent value and proper availability, but these are hamstrung by reprint equity. To keep things equal, Wizards can’t create one precon with insane value or increase reprint value without increasing prices.
On top of this, Commander precons are also built around a theme, so throwing in random high-value staples doesn’t really work. Sadly, due to this, these aren’t a suitable avenue for reprints either, and the same is true for Standard. Since this format needs to maintain its power level, Wizards can’t reprint Commander or Modern staples, even at mythic. Technically, Secret Lair drops could provide reprints, but the limited-run model also prevents it from being suitable.
Ultimately, with no avenue for effective reprints, it looks like MTG is only going to get more expensive. This problem is bad already, and it’s only going to get worse as new sets create new staples and new players need cards. Unfortunately, this likely means that the cost of playing Standard, Pioneer, Modern, and beyond won’t come down anytime soon.
As if this weren’t bad enough, insanely expensive MTG cards likely aren’t going to get any cheaper either. The recent reprint of Ancient Tomb has effectively failed, as did the Final Fantasy reprint of Rhystic Study. Without a sensible avenue to reprint The Fourteenth Doctor, that card is bound to hit $100 before too long.
It’s Bleak, but It Works
At the moment, it’s abundantly clear that Magic: The Gathering needs a new, actually suitable avenue for reprints. Preconstructed Standard decks seem like a stellar option, but these have always been a far cry from the World Championship decks of old. Instead, we get pitifully weak “Theme Decks” like those coming in Lorwyn Eclipsed, which don’t provide any high-value reprints.
Frustratingly, Masters sets were the perfect solution, and they’re retired now. Maybe a new product, like widely available Chaos Vault drops featuring needed reprints, would work, but there’s little incentive for Wizards to do this. Right now, the sad reality of the situation is that Wizards of the Coast doesn’t really have to do anything.
As much as they’re important to keep costs down, MTG players aren’t owed reprints. There’s no mandate that whenever a card or deck reaches a certain price, a reprint must occur. The only time this could happen is if the problem gets bad enough that players stop buying and start to boycott. Currently, it feels like that point is a long way away, even if we are going down this road.
Until this breaking point arrives, it’s in Wizards’ business interest to be stingy with reprints. Universes Beyond sets are selling more than well enough already, and keeping reprint values high makes them great marketing tools. We’ve just seen how high-value reprints can cause a Secret Lair to sell out almost immediately, for instance.
Ultimately, to say that I’m not optimistic about the current state of MTG reprints would be an understatement. Not only is there no clear path for them, but there’s almost no incentive for Wizards to provide more. Until something catastrophically breaks, Wizards can keep going as planned. If, or rather when this happens, taking two years to create a set that fixes this problem will be too little too late.
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