$240 Mythic Highlights Issues With Current MTG Reprint Policy

Ever since its inception in 1993, the high financial cost of playing Magic has been a consistent issue with the game. While Wizards has addressed this issue in various ways over the years through reprints and supplementary products, the rise of Universes Beyond has arguably pushed it to its worst state yet. This is reflected in the eye-watering price of Mox Opal: a powerful MTG staple that is now serving as a rallying point for the community on this crucial issue.

Mox Opal Reveals a Major MTG Price Problem

Yesterday on the r/magicTCG subreddit, PartyOk7389 kicked off this conversation asking about potential avenues Wizards might use to reprint Mox Opal in future. Given that Opal has, since its unbanning in December 2024, spiked in price to around $240, it’s not surprising to see it discussed in this context. In fact, other than a few unplayable-but-scarce cards, Mox Opal is the most expensive non-Reserved List card in Magic as a whole, working off of lowest reprint value. This, effectively, makes it the most desirable reprint possible.

While prices on this level aren’t a new phenomenon for Magic, with Tarmogoyf Tarmogoyf Tarmogoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1. notoriously hitting $200 back in its heyday, they’re unusual for the current game. For years, Wizards could check the prices of most staples by reprinting them in supplemental sets, including Masters, Horizons, and Remastered sets. Now that we’re fully entrenched in the Universes Beyond era, however, this facet of the game has disappeared.

With every set each year now going directly into Standard, there are far fewer opportunities to reprint pricey multi-format staples from the past. Just imagine the havoc Mox Opal would wreak if it were reprinted in the upcoming Star Trek set, for example. While we do see occasional strong reprints in Standard, like Bloom Tender Bloom Tender Vivid — {T}: For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color. in Lorwyn Eclipsed and Craterhoof Behemoth Craterhoof Behemoth Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control. in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, for the most part this just doesn’t happen.

Thanks to this shift in reprint strategy, many staples, particularly Commander staples, have spiked to absurd price points recently. While Mox Opal is the biggest hitter here, plenty of other bangers are now financially inaccessible, too. Whether it’s Imperial Seal Imperial Seal Search your library for a card, then shuffle and put that card on top. You lose 2 life. at $170, Chrome Mox Chrome Mox Imprint — When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand.
{T}: Add one mana of any of the exiled card's colors. at $169, or even Ancient Copper Dragon Ancient Copper Dragon Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, roll a d20. You create a number of Treasure tokens equal to the result. at $137, cards are creeping up in ways we haven’t seen in a long time.

Possible Solutions

Over the past 24 hours, a large number of MTG players have chimed in on PartyOk7389’s post, offering different potential paths through which Wizards could address this ever-worsening problem. By far the most common suggestion on offer is that cards like this could be reprinted in bonus sheets, such as the Special Guests and Source Material cards we see in most sets. Given that Masters sets are currently in retirement according to Mark Rosewater, this is pretty much the only viable avenue.

What’s interesting about this suggestion is that Wizards already prints powerful staples here in many cases. Chrome Mox Chrome Mox Imprint — When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand.
{T}: Add one mana of any of the exiled card's colors. was one of the Special Guests for Aetherdrift, for example, while Tarkir: Dragonstorm got the enemy-colored Fetchlands. Though these notable reprints are always outnumbered by far less valuable cards, they do exist in pretty much every recent set.

Unfortunately, bonus sheet reprints like these have proven time and again to be an ineffectual way to lower card prices. Since these cards are relatively rare pulls in packs, the injection of fresh supply is minor in each case. Add in the fact that the artwork used is often some of the best, or at least flashiest, art available for a given card, and the usual effects of a reprint are canceled out.

The Unfortunate Reality

As ineffectual as bonus sheets are as reprint outlets, they’re the best option in Wizards’ current roster. Several players in the thread mentioned Secret Lairs, but those suffer from the same problems to a greater extent. The heavily limited supply often means players can’t get hold of the Lairs they want on release day. This, in turn, jacks up the price of Secret Lair reprints on the secondary market, often by a lot if the artwork is good.

Secret Lairs, when combined with the scarcity of valuable bonus sheet reprints, highlight a worrying trend with current Magic reprint policy. With few exceptions, these cards are now being distributed exclusively through premium avenues, which does nothing to help the average player get hold of them. The disastrous recent release of The Zeta Set perfectly illustrates this. On reprints alone, this was a fantastic, Masters set-esque product, but the tiny supply ruined any chance it had of acting like one.

With all of these issues in mind, it’s hard to offer a positive response to PartyOk7389’s post. As Anagkai mentioned in their comment on the thread: “Meaningful avenues for represents have basically been abolished.” As long as the current set release system keeps breaking records, Wizards is very unlikely to revisit Masters sets and the like, leaving us with a reprint dearth that will only push more staples to Mox Opal levels over time.

While Magic has always been an expensive game to keep up with, Wizards’ current reprint policy could easily push things into untenable territory. Unless we see significant change soon, $240 staples could become a regular occurrence, leaving many players priced out of multiple strategies.

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