One of the biggest problems with Magic: The Gathering’s Alchemy format has always been its lack of a physical counterpart. Players simply don’t like seeing new cards spoiled that they’ll never be able to play in their real-world games. In some cases, this digital exclusivity is justified. For others, the cards could easily be printed on paper. In a surprising turn of events, it turns out a kind of ‘Digital Masters’ set bringing them to paper isn’t out of the question.
In a recent Blogatog post, Head Designer Mark Rosewater noted that a set like this could be a possibility. Or, at the very least, some Alchemy reprints in regular physical sets in the future. What form this will take, if it happens at all, is unclear at present. It’s certainly an exciting idea, however, and one that could help bridge the gap between physical and digital play.
Digital Masters Could Be Coming To MTG
“Klouploup: Hi Mark, a quick Google search says that there seems to be about 330 ish digital only cards at this point. Has there ever been consideration to do a Digital Masters or Alchemy Masters type set(s) where digital only cards were printed physically?
Mark Rosewater: We’re willing to consider reprinting cards that can be played in tabletop, but ones that only work on digital are less likely.”
Via Blogatog
Rosewater’s response here is, admittedly, rather noncommittal, so we can’t draw anything from it for certain. That being said, it does leave the door open to a number of exciting possibilities.
As he doesn’t refute Klouploup’s suggestion outright, there’s a chance that MTG really might see a Digital Masters set in the future. There’s definitely plenty of material to work with, as there are over 420 Alchemy cards that have been created for MTG Arena. Unfortunately, the latter half of Rosewater’s statement throws a spanner into the works for most of these cards.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Alchemy cards use digital-exclusive Alchemy mechanics. Conjure, Perpetually, and Seek have all been routinely used within Alchemy sets, and those mechanics don’t fly on paper. As such, as Mark Rosewater notes, it’s unlikely they’ll be getting true reprints anytime soon.
While there is some precedent that could allow these cards to see paper printings, this statement almost kills all hope for a Digital Masters set. Excluding all the digital-exclusive Alchemy mechanics, we’re left with around 50 truly paper-viable cards. This may be a decent number of potential reprints, but it’s nowhere near enough to create a full MTG set.
As such, it’s more likely that Wizards of the Coast will reprint Alchemy cards gradually in other MTG products and sets. Not only does this suit the smaller pool of suitable cards, but it massively mitigates the financial risk. As exciting as it may be for some players, there’s little guarantee a set like Digital Masters would sell well. Without Alchemy’s weirdest and most powerful digital-exclusive cards, there’s not much to get excited about.
Plenty To Work With
Pursuing this Digital Masters idea, for the 50 MTG cards without digital mechanics at least, would be an easy move to make from a logistics perspective. Despite being Alchemy designs, these would play perfectly fine on paper for the most part. Aetherdrift’s Wish Good Luck, for example, is simply a sorcery that makes three different tokens. It’s slightly cumbersome, but hardly a problem considering the overall complexity of current Magic.
Other Alchemy mechanics have, essentially, already been printed in paper since their digital debuts. Subversive Acolyte from Jumpstart: Heroic Horizons, for example, had an Exhaust ability four full years before Aetherdrift hit shelves. At the time this was the kind of mechanic that Wizards deemed a better fit for digital than paper, but now it’s in a mainline set.
Basically, there’s no mechanical reason Wizards can’t bring these cards to paper. Some, like Concert Kaboomist, have tricky tracking issues attached, but there’s so much going on in the game nowadays as-is that they likely wouldn’t pose a problem.
Some of Alchemy’s cards have serious potential in physical formats, too. Assemble the Team is an extremely powerful pseudo-tutor spell, and one cheap enough to see consideration in formats like Legacy. Dedicated Dollmaker is one of the more popular Alchemy offerings, and it would open up a huge number of combo lines for paper play. Copying pretty much any nonland permanent is a big deal, and is something even older formats may be interested in.
Commander, of course, would reap the biggest rewards if we saw this batch reprinted physically. New Commanders like Sala, Deck Boss and Ethrimik, Imagined Fiend would provide some fun options, while hyper-specific designs like Speedbrood Stalker and Wickerwing Effigy would give niche decks new tools.
A Mysterious Test Run
For better or worse, Kouploup isn’t the only one who has been thinking about Alchemy cards on paper. It’s clearly been on Wizards’ mind for a while now. In fact, as part of last year’s Mystery Booster 2, they took a stab at a scaled-down version of the concept.
Nestled among the hideous white-bordered reprints and funky Future Sight frames, Mystery Booster 2 also included a number of previously digital-exclusive cards. Some were eternal-legal, like Mardu Outrider from the Arena Beginner Set, and Velukan Dragon from the Magic: The Gathering game for Sega Dreamcast. Others, like Alchemy’s Oracle of the Alpha and Rusko, Clockmaker, came with Acorn stamps barring them from serious play.
This Acorn stamp is the saving grace for the hypothetical Digital Masters set. By using this legality-defining security stamp, Wizards could reprint the most exciting Alchemy cards, without worrying about making their mechanics work. Since Wizards is removing the Universes Beyond security stamp, however, it’s unclear if this is even an option anymore.
All in all, 10 cards made the leap from digital to physical in Mystery Booster 2. That’s not a huge figure by any means, but the fact these reprints happened at all is telling. At the very least, it shows that Wizards of the Coast knows there’s a demand for Alchemy cards on paper.
Due to this, Wizards of the Coast may seriously be considering a Digital Masters set, or at least Alchemy reprints, in the future. When exactly this may happen, however, is anyone’s guess. Not only is the MTG development timeline rather lengthy but finding suitable places to reprint cards is a struggle in itself. Ultimately, even if this is what MTG players want, it seems we’ve got a wait on our hands.