Some Magic: The Gathering (MTG) cards are rarer with white borders, as they were mostly from older core sets to distinguish them from expert sets. These cards are legal in current formats if they share an English name with a black border. The original black borders are alpha and beta print runs, worth a lot to collectors. Unlimited revised or later cards are likely worth less than a gumball. Alpha card corners are much more rounded than typical Magic cards, and unlimited cards lack a copyright date and set symbol but have a white border.
The 8th Edition Choke has more value than the Tempest original due to its white border. White bordered cards show any dirt, and 1,996 Magic cards were found where the border color is “white”. A card’s value is determined by its rarity and demand. Rare cards that are also a playset staple in a popular format have extreme value. The gold-border variant is worth roughly half as much as the black border but tracks enough to the price tag of the tournament-legal version.
The value of white border MTG cards depends on the specific card, its rarity, and condition. Fourth Edition cards are white-bordered and have no expansion symbol, with a copyright of 1995 making them easily identifiable. The colors of these cards can vary greatly depending on the specific card and its rarity.
📹 Why do some old Magic: The Gathering cards have white borders?
This video explains the history of white borders in Magic: The Gathering cards. It explores why some cards have white borders, including the transition from black borders in early sets, the use of white borders for reprints, and the introduction of white borders for starter sets. The video also discusses the stigma associated with white borders and how they have become more appealing to newer players.
How old are white border magic cards?
White borders were typically employed for “core sets” comprising a number, which were released under their numbered edition, commencing with the 4th edition in 1995. These sets were invariably constituted of older cards.
What does a white border on a Magic card mean?
Magic sets are divided into expansion sets and core sets, which are released annually. Before the 6th Edition, these sets were released every two years with white borders and without an expansion symbol. This guide aims to help beginners identify the correct edition of a card. The original Magic: The Gathering was released on 5 August 1993 at GenCon. The Limited Edition was split into two different printings, with the smaller Alpha run having mistakes corrected in the larger Beta run.
Both parts of the Limited 1st Edition have black borders, making them easily identifiable. Alpha cards have rounder corners than other Magic cards due to the cardboard being cut differently, and were banned from tournament play in decks that included non-Alpha cards. Beta cards, on the other hand, look like normal Magic cards, black-borded, and have no expansion symbol.
Are white bordered cards legal in Commander?
All regular-sized black- and white-bordered Magic cards released by Wizards of the Coast are legal to play in Commander, excluding silver-bordered cards. New black- and white-bordered cards are legal as of the Prerelease event for the corresponding set or on the release date for supplemental products like Commander decks. Silver-bordered cards are not covered by the Comprehensive Rules and not legal in constructed formats.
What does a white border code card mean?
The text posits the possibility of obtaining a hit from a white code, and that a black code card is equivalent.
When did MTG stop using white borders?
In 2013, Ninth Edition was the last Magic set to have white borders, with premium foil cards printed with black borders. The set also introduced Cyrillic cards for the first time since Simplified Chinese was added to Fifth Edition. The Tenth Edition, released on July 13, 2007, replaced Ninth Edition as the core set of cards for standard tournament play. The expansion symbol for Tenth Edition is the Roman numeral “X”, which was chosen by Wizards of the Coast as part of their “Selecting Tenth Edition” promotion.
Tenth Edition was the first core set since Beta to be printed with black-bordered cards, and it also included legendary creatures, such as Squee, Goblin Nabob, and Kamahl, Pit Fighter. This marked the first time a new language was printed for the game since Simplified Chinese was added to Fifth Edition.
What is the rarest type of Magic card?
Magic: The Gathering cards, including the Alpha Set, have become highly valuable, with even common cards worth thousands of dollars. Some rare and valuable cards, like the Shichifukujin Dragon and the 1996 World Champion, are considered priceless and not for sale. Dual lands like Taiga and Tundra are highly sought-after and can sell for thousands of dollars, providing versatility and power to decks using multiple card colors. The Alpha set, which debuted on Aug.
5, 1993, has become extremely sought-after over the years, with many of the cards in this set now worth thousands of dollars in today’s market. The Beta set, released in September 1993, also has cards worth thousands of dollars. The list below lists the rarest and most valuable Magic: The Gathering cards and their current worth.
Are white-bordered cards legal in Commander?
All regular-sized black- and white-bordered Magic cards released by Wizards of the Coast are legal to play in Commander, excluding silver-bordered cards. New black- and white-bordered cards are legal as of the Prerelease event for the corresponding set or on the release date for supplemental products like Commander decks. Silver-bordered cards are not covered by the Comprehensive Rules and not legal in constructed formats.
How can I tell if a Magic card is rare?
The expansion symbol in a card set indicates its rarity. A red-orange symbol signifies mythic rarity, a gold symbol signifies rareness, a silver symbol signifies uncommonness, a black or white symbol signifies commonness or basic land, and a purple symbol signifies special rarity. Only the Time Spiral® “timeshifted” cards have purple expansion symbols. Prior to the Exodus™ set, all expansion symbols were black, regardless of rarity. A card’s rarity is indicated with a single letter following the collector number.
What is the rarest type of magic card?
Magic: The Gathering cards, including the Alpha Set, have become highly valuable, with even common cards worth thousands of dollars. Some rare and valuable cards, like the Shichifukujin Dragon and the 1996 World Champion, are considered priceless and not for sale. Dual lands like Taiga and Tundra are highly sought-after and can sell for thousands of dollars, providing versatility and power to decks using multiple card colors. The Alpha set, which debuted on Aug.
5, 1993, has become extremely sought-after over the years, with many of the cards in this set now worth thousands of dollars in today’s market. The Beta set, released in September 1993, also has cards worth thousands of dollars. The list below lists the rarest and most valuable Magic: The Gathering cards and their current worth.
Are silver border MTG cards legal?
The project is not considering Mystery Booster/Unknown Event playtest cards as part of the project. The classification work is currently underway and will be shared with the Duskmourn quarterly format update on September 30. It is possible that more people may try out silver-bordered cards if there’s a reasonable chance they might get to play them. The default position is that these cards are not legal, so players don’t have to opt-in to playing with them.
📹 Do White Border Cards Solve The Reprint Problem?
#MTG #Magicthegathering #fleshandbloodtcg Tolarian Community College is brought to you by Card Kingdom! You can support …
Awkward honest Brian unfiltered is some of the best content on the website IMO. Love ya Prof thanks for letting me keep track of a game that is very much part of my DNA long after the many attempts at a local LGS sadly failed and my lingering play group has fell apart due to schedules and life getting in the way and also a massive thank you for introducing me to many of the other current magic content creators through Shuffle up and Play, Dies to Removal and all your other collaborations.
The List™ reprints are probably my favorite type of reprint I’ve seen. Besides how they’re distributed, which I don’t have an opinion on, I love that they keep the original expansion symbol and frame, but have a small marker denoting them as reprints. I don’t know if there are people that hate that symbol, but I like how they put the card in its original time period, that feels right to me.
I don’t think the idea of white borders is to make them cheaper per se – rather the idea is to allow the original printings to maintain a collectability value outside of the gameplay value, much like how the legends printings of the elder dragons cost 200 times the chronicles versions. Right now the main demand is gameplay pieces so they will be almost the same price, but a few more reprints and another 5-10 years down the line, if the original printings are the only black border printings available, they could easily be a couple times the price.
I love that Flesh and Blood does the History packs – I personally really like white borders and am very happy to see that they dont get chase foil version, its simple the card at its very base form and that is what the game needs. Let the chase foils, the first editions, and promo cards cost the big money and let the white border versions be readily available.
Reprints I believe are a good idea so people like me who started late could experience the history of the game. Along with the fun experience of simply building unlimited decks. Butz there should definitely be some sort of significant change in those reprints for the purpose of collecting and, maintain the games history
Honestly, if WotC just released a product called “History of the Multiverse 1” as a reprint set, and for this set they would include shock lands, fetch lands, and other cards like lightning bolt, arcbound ravager, at white border… it would be awesome. Put it at an affordable box price too, with $3-$4 booster packs… and the set wouldn’t be limited print run, either. WotC needs to take a hint from FaB. We can only take their abuse for so long
Chronicles is super nostalgic for me, because when I started to play MtG, it was one of the first sets to come out. I remember driving all over where my Dad lived to find a shop that had some, and my Dad, my sister and myself all bought maybe 3-4 packs each. Not a lot, but I was maybe 11-12 at the time, so it was a lot of fun to me.
I agree that it wasn’t just the white border reprints of Chronicles that brought about the RL. It was just part of the equation. The other parts were the terrible 4th Edition changes from Revised, as well as the reception on Fallen Empires and Homelands that really caused people to doubt Magic’s future. And thus the RL. Although I believe that the formation of the Pro Tour and competitive play that “saved” Magic. It gave people a reason to get the cards, beyond casual play. I think that all reprints should have been White Border in Magic as well, to give a “reason” to go for the originals, as well as lowered value access for players. As to the RL, if they don’t want to nuke it altogether (which they should), for a start you could change it to remove the cards on it that have been reprinted in Revised, which would give access to the duals and a couple of others (Wheel of Fortune for example) that are highly demanded.
history pack vol 1 was mainly created for foreign players in spanish, german, french and italien. the english version could have waited another couple of years tbh, there is an abundance of unlimited product around, which is great since new players join daily… the price difference in my eyes is miniscule, id rather get the black border for a couple of dollars more
FWIW I like your off-script articles, it’s nice to just hear you chat about your thoughts. I enjoy the way Cardfight does it. For supporting older formats they print dedicated products on a schedule that are about 50% needed reprints and 50% new cards for the format. For the premier (non-rotating standard) format they do “masterpiece”-like cards, so base-rarity singles don’t tend to creep past $20-$30. Many decks are cheap to build and competitive at locals. It honestly makes me miss the masterpiece days of Magic. I never opened one myself, but many of my friends did. It was also the last time I played standard MTG since it was so affordable.
I love History Pack 1. It brought many commonly used game pieces back into LGS’s in my city, and gave us some slightly cheaper Majestics and Legendaries so that more players has the game pieces they needed. I hope they continue to do this going forward. I wish Magic would do this without the inflated price tag associated with reprint sets. I’d even take white border without foils (Pringles) if it meant making magic decks more affordable.
I echo your thoughts on not liking the idea of making reprints less valuable or sought after, but I also don’t think it’s the worst idea ever, and it’s far better than nothing. Also, my insane take is that I kind of like some of these cards better with the white border than the original black lol. I’m genuinely considering picking up a bunch of white border cards for my Runeknight deck because I just love how the art pops on those borders.
I think Sol Ring is a great example of how over printing a card can be healthy for a format, lower market prices to get your hands on the card, and allows special printings of the card to keep their value. Sol Ring is in every single commander product and can be bought on the secondary market for around a buck. But certain printings of it that are foil or have specific art range from hundreds of dollars to thousands. WotC shouldn’t be afraid of reprints because it only encourages more people to buy into and play the game. And we have the market data to concretely prove that old printings maintain their value overtime, despite reprints. Look at Shivan Dragon! The reserve list is total nonsense. If every single card on it was reprinted, prices may dip slightly but will ultimately rebound because certain printings are just more sought after than others. The biggest issue with removing the reserve list is how long its remained. These cards have gone so long without reprints that if you tried to print them into the ground, any product containing them would sell out instantly and would destabilize the market for a good while. Wotc have really painted themselves into a corner. Every day the reserve list exists, the more destructive its removal would be. The sooner we rip off that bandaid, the better.
Old Magic artwork is much better in my opinion. It’s the same thing with Yu-Gi-Oh! for me. The original art is so iconic and “pops!” out at you, making the card memorable. Lord of D., Blue Eyes, Pot of Greed to name a few. So iconic. Modern Magic cards are of much higher quality, but it all looks so generic in my opinion. I don’t get a connection to the card, which is important to me.
I think that box was trying to nudge you into playing Runeblade lol, though it’s a shame Skeleta is banned in both formats currently. I certainly don’t mind white borders personally, it actually looks good on a lot of FaB cards. I also like how the majority of cards you’d typically run in a FaB deck are cheap commons and rares, and a lot of the majestics even are pretty cheap compared to a lot of playable mythic or even rare mtg cards.
If I were creating a new TCG, I would state up front that any card is always fair game to be reprinted. It might have different art, or a different foil treatment, or some promo stamp, or any other visual/aesthetic change so that collectors can differentiate them and put premiums on the older ones if that matters to them. But access to game pieces would always come first.
History pack makes sense but it was too soon. There is still plenty of unlimited available for the first 3 sets. Yes, eventually that supply will dwindle but until then there wont be a large amount of history pack being cracked which is why the prices of white borders to the UNL black border cards isn’t very large. As UNL supply dry up more history packs will be opened and the price gap will become clearer.
I love that you’re you doing more Flesh and Blood content. I’ve been playing for 9 months now and it’s been so much fun. I was already considering completely abandoning Magic due to how much more I like FaB, but Hasbro’s growing greed pushed me over the edge. I’m glad to see you giving the game some airtime and helping to grow the FaB community at the same time that players are leaving Magic and looking for an alternative.
The only weird thing about the History packs in FAB is how early they came out, you can still find Welcome to Rathe in a lot of shops and the supply of commons and rares for those sets aren’t really in short supply. They also didn’t significantly up the draw rates for Legendaries which is the main reason those legendaries were so expensive. So you have roughly the same chance of getting a Tunic in HP as you do in WTR and the one in WTR is foil black border. On the other hand the Arcane Rising and Crucible of War legendaries were getting up in price and the stock was getting bought up so the HPs did help drag down the price of Legendaries from Arcane Rising in particular. LGSs also didn’t get many of these, I think something like 4-6 BOXES per store which is also why it didn’t really flood the market with new reprints. But the HP sets will presumably be around for a good long while so those cards will always be somewhat available.
“Wizards of the Coast never did a set like (Chronicles) – not until 2013 when the first Modern Masters was printed in very cautious limited supply and at an MSRP of $6.99 per pack” Ah yes, the good old days of 9 years ago, when Wizards releasing a $6.99 booster pack (and that supply was limited enough that the street price was more like $10) was scandalous. Hard to believe that, less than one decade later, they’d be selling FAKE Magic cards in $250 booster packs.
I never heard anyone complaining about Chronicles reprints back in the day…then again, the internet wasn’t a thing back then. You had to get all of your Magic content from Scry and Inquest magazines. It was a great time to play as there wasn’t much “net decking” happening because there was no “net”.
I never comment on this subject…but I think the real problem is it’s TOO LATE. I agree with what you’re saying but it’s like the toothpaste thing. Too much money has been spent all these years by high level consumers collecting cards and to nuke their collection value would likely do more harm than good to eco system. Wizards knows this and in addition they’re making a fortune as things are.
With FaB’s distinctive card frames, the white borders look a lot better than I thought they might. My collection is entirely black border and heavily foiled so History Pack isn’t the product for me, but it’s a nice product. Part of the reason it’s in white border without foils is to help protect the investment I and other players have made in the older printings. HP1 includes a selection from the first three sets of FaB, all of which are technically out of print but still reasonably available in the US. They did also print a black bordered version of HP1 in four other languages, and those boxes include some special cards and treatments that the white bordered product doesn’t. You can get rainbow foil copies of the three Fabled rarity cards and double-sided cold foil copies of the original 8 heroes. HP2 will come out in another year or two and will include a selection of cards from the next three sets of FAB, all of which are still heavily available so there’s not much of a need for it yet.
I’m pretty sure they were the same price on release but since they came out when the prices of older expansion sets were still inflated that depending on where you were and what the local market prices were like they may well have been cheaper than anything but Fallen Empires. But this is such a trip down memory lane. I remember when all the core sets were white border and having a black border deck was a cool goal to strive for.
For me personally i think special foils and ok even blackborder can be the collecting and bling things but having the alternative white borders for cheap just to play is the beeest! You do a full white deck get in love and maybe tjen biy the black border deck just because you love it so much Thats also why im a big fan of the limited and unlimited print in first place
There are two reasons I don’t play MtG. 1. I already play a TCG and don’t feel like learning a new one. 2. I already play a TCG and don’t have the income to own cards of a second one. This weird, silly predicament where some relevantly played cards now cost hundreds and most of the money from that doesn’t directly trickle back ot WotC anyways to my understanding- its one of the reasons why TCGs trend towards hostile for new players. Yes, I can understand the rationale behind it. But y’know what? I’ve never looked at YGO’s aggressive reprint policy and been like “I wish more cards were at staple prices due to limited supply, really the issue here is that I have too much capital left over after buying into the product” like cmon bruh
I’ve recently gotten into Yu-Gi-Oh!. One of the things I really appreciate is that there’s a lot of staple cards that are available in both common and higher rarities, with a lot of what feels like targeted reprints specifically for the purpose of not necessarily driving the price of a card down, but rather to increase its availability. I’ve been playing since the beginning of the year. Since then, two structure decks came out. Both of them had quite a few reprints that can be slotted into pretty much any deck. And it also makes commercial sense. Take for example the first 2022 structure deck, Albaz Strike. With reprints like Effect Veiler, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Dark Ruler No More, Called by the Grave, Pot of Extravagance, buying three of the structure deck just to get playsets of these staples is a good value proposition even if you aren’t interested in the rest of the deck.
When i think about reprint price drops, I just think about Tarmogoyf and how it withstood reprint price dives for years, because it was a card that was being played so much. Theres obviously a point at which you’re reprinting something too much, but I think theres much more space for reprints than WOTC or LSS let there be
ok let me preface this, i built an CC iyslander deck from scratch recently Spent less than $1k, roughly about $540 SGD for an competitive build (including RF Tunic, RF Coronet, RF Storm Striders, RF Alluvion, 3 E.strikes,etc) thats like waaayyyyy cheaper than an MTG modern (heck even an CEDH deck, which i have 3 (Winota, Yuriko, Malcom). Really gotta give the good job well done sticker to LSS to keep the game pieces cheap.
I think its super weird, and unhealthy, that lands are so expensive. they’re the most boring part of the game and yet the lands are usually what costs the most to get a deck up and going. i hate it. lands shouldn’t be over like 10 bucks ffs THEY’RE LANDS. my biggest pet peeve about magic has always been lands(mechanically, the art is cool) aaaaaaaaand they’re expensive, sheeeeeeesh.
Reprints aren’t perfect substitutes for the original printings of cards. Collectors value the authenticity of the originals more than the competitive value in game. Card games like Yugioh and Pokemon have shown this pretty clearly. As of today, the reprinting of in-demand, nostalgic cards did and does not destroy the value of the originals (Blue eyes white dragon, base set charizard, champion pack printings of cards in normal sets, etc.) The market as it is now shows that reprints of high-priced, collector-driven cards in games with mature card bases (and a rich history ) don’t erode the value of the originals. And let’s not act like black lotus and moxes are expensive because of paper vintage and competitive demand. How many people play vintage in paper? like 40?
I really like the idea of white borders and I don’t view it as printing an inferior product but rather doing anything but that to achieve the goal of creating more affordable game pieces. White border cards are just as good, with just as nice artwork, as their black border counterparts, but if the white border means that they will be any cheaper than they otherwise would have been I think it makes it a more successful product. I really like the point about including foils or special treatment cards in the set though to increase the incentive to open packs. In Europe we actually have a limited print run black border version of History Pack 1 in non-english languages to make up for the fact, that the original products were not nearly as easy to get a hold of here and they also include super rare special treatment versions of the original 8 heros, as well as reprints of the first three fableds. Even though those cards are all in black border and also limited in print run the cheapest version of any given card from the first three flesh and blood sets is always from the foreign black border reprint and while I do believe that the non-english lenguage plays a part, I do think the increased incentive to rip packs of this set also plays a major role
The only solution to the “reprint problem” is MTG and WotC not being filled with corporate greed and wanting players to play their game. But their slow implementation to throttle and hinder LGS’s after Covid will never allow them to solve any problem that helps the player base more affordably play their game. The paper game is no longer for new, young players, and Arena is a predatory online platform where the people that can’t afford singles will go and languish. The solution to the “reprint problem”? Print more fucking cards.
Prof, I really feel like you are one step away from doing actual livestream(-able) content. Although you mention a certain awkwardness in doing this unscripted show, I bet having a live chat to directly talk to, and having it respond, bounce on and off topics would totally make that feeling of weirdness vanish in a matter of minutes. I’m relatively new to the website, so I don’t know if you’ve ever considered or talked about it, what’s your opinion on the idea and, seeing how much articles you put out, wether your schedule would allow it, but I swear you’d do great. I’d watch that, and I’m sure plenty others too. Anyway, thanks for all the great things you (and your colleagues, guests and such) make !
I Was playing when chronicles came out. I was SO happy when it came out. Urza lands and elder dragons were awesome. All of my friends were super happy to be able to play the cards. What a stupid decision to make the reserved list over reprinting the (by today standards) bad cards. lol. They should have just printed not limited edition beta, with idk purple borders or something no small print run, 10$ a pack. Buy all you want. And that would be fine. People would be happy. I’d probably drop 1k on boxes to draft and collect easily.
As a yugioh player the reserve list is actually disgusting. We have cards reprinted all the time, but we have so many rarities to choose from that our “whales” don’t care. If our most powerful cards were constantly never reprinted, then the game would have died years ago. The fact Magic relies on draft is a saving grace, but alienates those who want to try and win at a GP event or equivalent.
I know it had issues and all and I’m glad the reserve list started from it, But I frickin’ LOVED chronicles as a kid. I simply would never have gotten anything from the four expansions as kid without it and it was the most interesting thing to open, I never regretted adding a pack of chronicles to my purchase when I made it to the card store
I prefer black bordered cards and old frame. Urzas Saga is still my favorite era of art esp the lands. White bordered as a Chronicle style reprint if cost so that it’s not a “this product isn’t for you” would be awesome. Just so long as they don’t put as many of the really low end cards that we got in most of Chronicles.
Print playsets of grayscale cards (with normal backs) and sell them at an affordable price. They’re still official, let people play what they want and still preserve the value of your other cards. Essentially you’re selling playable proxies. Not flashy but they remove the barrier for entry. I don’t think they’d hurt the desire for the “real” cards. Not sure how rotation works in flesh and blood, but I’d print the grayscale playsets just before the next set releases. Surge of excitement for the old set as players can now get those chase cards, and that brings them in for events since now they’re “caught up” and ready for building with whatever comes next.
Yugioh had a good product called duel devastator where they reprinted expensive staples into a box of guaranteed cards – it was, and still is an amazing product. Magic is just so consistently expensive across the board, making any decently strong deck in any format, maybe aside from pauper, is going to cost atleast 500 dollars which is absolutely nuts. Combining the insane deck prices with a total lack of tournaments and competitive play has just killed the game – Coming from pokemontcg and YGO I wanted to get into the competitive side of things in Magic but seeing how it is now is just sad, the only events on a weekly or even monthly basis are just commander playgroups which is fine, I love commander but jesus christ what a sad state for such an amazing game. I dont think the problem will ever be addressed, however I do think a solution would be to push standard into their main format, and somehow make it comparatively equally affordable to YGO and PTCG with actual consistent paper tournaments, or something to push an affordable paper version of magic which is so desperately needed. And yeah I agree that they need to reprint chase cards in the standard sets, and then mass print them – injects alot of new copies of the expensive cards into the pool without destroying value, and because its not in some overpriced booster it should actually make things more affordable, I hate how much they pander to the second hand market, its fucking tragic. Imagine if double masters had normal price boosters instead of the insane price they gave it, that actually would have been good for making things more affordable.
There’s always gonna be conflict between players and investors. White border won’t fix that, master pieces won’t fix that, nothing will fix that. WotC just needs to pick a side : either they do a lot of reprints so players can get the game pieces, or they don’t so investors can keep their money. They’ve picked a side, and it’s not the players’. Edit : I wouldn’t care if my 4$ booster had 0.8$ worth of cards in it. I’m not planning on selling them, it’s not an investment, I don’t see it as cardboard-shaped dollars, they’re game pieces, my question is : are they fun game pieces, are they gonna lead to fun interactions. That’s what matter. What’s frustrating about dual lands and other stuff like that is that, outside of proxying, they make the game closer to “pay to win”, which is not a fun game system. That’s the issue and nothing else, at least in my opinion.
As an early adopter of EDH who eventually turned to throwing unopened product on a shelf, I don’t understand how paper magic brings in new players. It is amazingly cost prohibited at this point. Any old EDH deck I have sitting around is probably at least $500. That is just because the sheer amount of desirable cards for the format cannot be printed down.
There is an abundance of proof that reprints don’t drown out the price of the original. In yu-gi-oh the cost of original print or alt rarity is in most cases well over 10× the cost of the reprint. Pokemon which has completely unplayable cards from old sets have reprints for nostalgia, the reprint is also still miles away from the original. In magic the proof is in the article. The elder dragons from chronicles, less than a dollar. From legends, 100. The solution is literally just print them in base price packs/decks. The cards will become saught after again in a decade or so anyway, so just reprint again. Card value is constantly shifting. Reprinting doesn’t change that fact. Power creep is more damaging to card price long term. Serra angel says hello. Even the replacement baneslayer is dropping from power creep.
I think with silver borders retiring in Unfinity WotC has decided, probably correctly, that a Magic card is just always gonna have a black border. They also have other tools available to differentiate original printings from reprints. The List has its unobtrusive corner stamp while otherwise being faithful reproductions of the originals.
My personal opinion on card prices is no card should be above $20, unless it’s a special treatment like a foil or an alternate artwork or if you only need one copy ever. It SUCKS having to buy several $100 cards for a deck just so you can get in the door and have a fighting chance- I’ve rarely bought Yu-Gi-Oh cards that were over $15, and in Magic I mostly did it for EDH play. I just want games to be affordable and have diverse metagames for the cheaper price range, but I’m fine with games having chase cards and cards of legendary status like the Black Lotus. They get people talking, engaging, and otherwise playing the game. I don’t want every card to be worthless, since that’s how you kill a game- if no one buys packs, it’s hard for the company to keep investing in the game and keep players happy. It’s why everyone dislikes Homelands (MTG)
Honestly I like the special rare treatments like FaB does in it’s other sets. I would have loved to see some sort of special treatment thing included in History Pack Vol. 1 at a super rare pull rate to help drag the prices down for the secondary market, since this was meant to bring prices down for newer players anyways.
I think card games could take a lesson from comic books in this regard. When I was buying comics (2015-2017ish) the first printings would have a special banner that marked them as first editions, and those were the ones that held a lot of value. Would giving first printing rare/mythic cards some sort of 1st edition stamp help with reprint value? We already see prerelease and promo stamps. If they REALLY wanted to maintain reprint value on those, they could even only include them on first printing, that way they could continue to print more runs of the set. Idk if this would help or exacerbate the problem though
Yes, the reserved list should go away, like, going into legacy is almost impossible thanks to it. They said it was to protect their investment, first of all, that is a lie, because those old cards are valuable for the version of the cards they are, not because they have not been reprinted. And second, even if that was the case, this is a TCG, a game… not an investment but a game, who cares if the prices drop?
As someone who got Chronicles back in the day, I say we need to bring them back. I started playing after The Dark, Legends, etc, so having Chronicles made the game so much more accessible. Personally I would like to see them do Pioneer Master Sets this way since by banning the fetchlands they have shown they want to treat the Format differently. Print them with white borders and make them the same price as premiere sets. They don’t even need to be draft able. But get us a cheap version of Shocklands, The Great Henge, Kalitas and such. Make this format more accessible and keep Modern a high priced affair, whatever, milk them so I can have fun with good but inexpensive cards
I love the reserved list. I hope never goes away. I think it was a great decision on the part of wizards of the Coast. People do know that this is a COLLECTABLE card game, right? And that there are lots of games out there that are not collectible. Maybe they should try those games if they’re still upset about the reserved list.
I love seeing FaB content on this website! History pack was an interesting experience. When it was announced everyone thought the cards would be significantly cheaper due to low demand. And would help bring down the cost of staples like Command And Conquer and Spring Tunic. Howeverz the printerun was so small, that these cards ended up being harder to get than the originals. And so they were actually listed for higher prices than the black border Versions, which was pretty crazy. I’m happy to see that over time, the market corrected itself and these are now more affordable versions, though, not quite to the extent that we originally thought they would be.
My argument has always been that each card is both a game piece and a collectors piece. I have no issue with collectors pieces being any great range of prices. From $0.20 to $20,000.00 or more. My issue is when there is no affordable version of the game piece. What is affordable may vary from person to person(obviously). But I would argue, much like Dr. Garfield, that there should be some version of the game piece available for around $20.00 or less. How to achieve that? A great mystery of economics perhaps. I think I would start by reprinting those “high value” game pieces more frequently if not in substantially greater number. For purpose of collector value, print them with variations. Different art, different boarders, in black and white, with various frame styles, etc. The point is to make the game pieces available. Unless, of course, you don’t care whether or not anyone actually plays your game.
I personally love white border. And if you make your lands or key cards that were printed in one of the white bordered sets it makes search all that faster. But there are many people who despise white border considering them trash. Honestly when I saw that flesh and blood reprint set in white border I was super excited because it’s such a novel concept to make game pieces more available while giving them that these are meant to be used and played with.
Prof, it looks like you dont know why there are no foils in HP1 here is my take AFIK, the idea of James White was the cards printed on the past as foils, will never again see same foiling level to preserve its value, i.e. a card that is printed CF its never gonna be printed CF again, I guess that was the same plan but for rainbow foils, mainly for the L and M. So old blackborder cards preserve value vs reprints in white border. WoC and Pokemom does exactly the opposite, cards are reprinted in new weird foils (etched, etc…) so I like the idea that old cards preserve that special exclusive foiling.
i agree with the no-foils policy in the reprint sets. after all, foils are about creating rarity for collectors, and reprint sets are about creating availability for players: completely separate goals. you don’t need foils to play, and if you want the bling, just pay for the collectable original. btw: unscripted is great.
I love white border cards so much. Specifically with the older frame styles. I can take it or leave it with the ‘modern’ frames but I certainly don’t hate it. If you took mtg finance out of the equation and said I could have a mint beta dual land or a mint unlimited dual land, I pick the unlimited without blinking.
“I’m gonna monetize doing something stupid.” A common media tactic! However, we get some nice stream of conscious from you, so it all worked out. Well, for us anyway. EDIT on this one too: for relevant comment, I think they’re still testing the waters on how they want to run reprint sets. I don’t mind the white borders myself, and they did print them with black borders for non-English History Packs since those were for languages that didn’t have an original black border print run. I do like the black borders, but someone pointed out that white-inside sleeves like many art sleeves will blend into the white border card, so there’s also an interesting consideration.
I don’t really want white-bordered cards. I just think Magic could better separate cards that are game peices from cards that are collectible. Just have two versions of each card, bling and non-bling. If you count all the different foilings and promo versions, there are THIRTEEN different versions of Ajani, Sleeper Agent. Is that strictly necessary?? If you want “original printings” to hold more value, I don’t think a less attractive white border is the answer. I like the idea that the artwork of the original should never be re-used. That can help keep the original printings special and hold value. That keeps them distinguishable while keeping the black border.
Bring back white border reprints and give the collectors rare cards like Hidetsugu. The reserve list will always be a negative, impacting the secondary market with more people seeing and using the market as an investment (a problem with every tcg but I feel as though magics market is impacted way more because of this), magic should be about fun in playing/colleting not boosting ones wallet imo.
I don’t actually collect any card games anymore because I just point blank disagree with the cost. MTG is SLIGHTLY more acceptable but generally speaking (Pokemon, Yugioh, Digimon, Dragonball etc) its BS. These games are SUPPOSED to be for kids, I was once building a Perfect Cell deck, to complete the deck I needed a £200 card! what the actual crap is that about, to get a Competitive deck in a card game for kids, which kid is going to be able to afford 50, 60, 80, 100+ for a single card You mentioned that you don’t want to open a pack and the entire pack be only worth 80 cents, that wouldnt bother me in the slightlest, if the “value” was taken out of card games it wouldn’t be an issue for me in the slightest. as the “value” shouldn’t be in how much you can sell something for, it should be in how much and often you playing and how much FUN you have playing it. Thats how you “value” a card game, not paying ridiculous amounts for a piece of card with some foil stuck to it
First off, a reserve list where they can add and remove cards from it, like its original form, sounds absolutely useless. What I wish the reserve list was: we promise never to reprint these in black border. White border would be the game pieces that can always get reprints while black border would be for original printings only.
WOTC shouldn’t have listened to the complainers. Collectibles don’t lower in price due to reprints, and it was meant to be a game first and collectible second. When something is collectible you at least know what year it was published to the public and it is a separate thing from the same thing being reprinted/remade, that’s how card collectibles worked. I think it is absolutely stupid that in pretty much any circumstance it is cheaper to buy singles to make a deck. Think about a world were they didn’t listen. All rares being like roughly $5-$10, because they reprinted the most popular cards every two years or so. Then make a 5 year set with all blinged out cards. The competitive game would be extremely accessible to everybody and not just people with extra money, which is the reason I stopped playing TCGs in general. I get my deck constructed pvp fun in other games (ex EPIC by wise wizards; Ashes; VS System) that are way more affordable than EVERY TCG.
Back in the day, of Revised, 4th, 5th and even 6th edition, in my experience they kept the original black border version price’s high. Wanted a fully black border deck? Drop the $$$. Just want to play? Get thecheaper white border ones. And honestly? For me white border is nostalgic. Sometimes my proxies are white border for that very same reason.
Can we just take the reserved list and remove all the playable “staple” cards like mox diamond, LED, duals, City, monolith, survival, transmute, gaeas cradle, but leave it with cards like tabernacle and chains and the power 9, maybe even replace the good cards people need reprinting with randoms from portal that STILL haven’t been reprinted despite not being on the list. CEDH and Legacy are two of my favourite formats and I just want them to be more accessible, so I can play more and introduce new players without them always having the same response “But magic is too expensive, more so than yugioh, pokemon, digimon and all the rest”. When the reserved list exists and they all know about black lotus its hard to convince them otherwise.
When I had heard about the reserved list, just as I was getting into Magic, I was confused until I heard that it was to be used in a not so much banned but more now not the best time for the card to see mass availability. When they changed how it worked, it broke me that some cards would become just collector pieces. Then I started brewing for EDH/Commander. I have at times become very pissed that reserved list has stayed in place for so long. Chronicles only got reprinted as much as it did because of Legends’s shortfall. I find it to this day an interesting look into the “what happens when..” mind set. History Pack is just about making sure the staples are available for newcomers, just like Chronicles. But just like Renaissance did for Europe, HP1 is black border in the new languages. This goes to show that the White border was never the issue with the revised/3rd-9th core sets either. The other nice feature of the white border is that is does save ink in the long run.
With respect to the reserve list, I don’t like it. As a “player” I would rather the company policies of card production reflect the wants and needs that encourage playing. Appealing to collectors damages the way the game plays, and creates monetary barriers that for some, are insurmountable. I think you can abstract on the economics of MTG for years and find the foundations of LGS bullies, gate keepers, and gambling enablers. On the other hand, the reserve list probably creates a power scaling limiter because they don’t want to make the same cards with different names.
I’m not even sure if I want reprints anymore, they just piss me off with how they mishandle them. Look at Dockside Extorsionist, they’ve put it on Mythic, and with 4 new art variants, so while they’ve made it more accessible, players needed it more, because more players had it, and Collectors wanted all 4 arts, that it basically moved price down for about a week… before it got back up. At least they didn’t mess up Smothering Tide. Not that I care about Dockside, Fierce Guardianship, Flawless Maneuver and Smothering Tithe, bought precons which had them on time. lol But yeah… Reserved List is BS, new art wouldn’t lower the prices significantly if at all… we have examples if 1st prints being high in each game, despite reprints, and even in magic, just look at Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel
Loved Chronicles it was about that time a friend and myself properly started to get into magic and we bought a lot of chronicles because it was cheaper than other sets with the exception of Homelands later which was also very cheap. Artwork for me changed after Homelands and lost a lot of its flavour and I when I came back years later the problem had only got worse. Feels very slick and corporate these days very pretty but no soul or character. We played a lot back then but we didnt play correctly so we had some absolutely nuts games lol im talking like having 100s of mana stored and 1000s of life. We sorted out what we were doing wrong fairly quickly but those first few weeks of play were hilarious.
i think of TCGs in a similar way as with the whole microtransaction stuff in pc games. meaning, i don’t likd it when people essentially buy winning decks or some game mechanics but i think optic/graphical stuff is perfectly fine. so, print high quality special, rare versions for the whales. but print cheap versions to make the card accessable to play with. i don’t care if that doesn’t mske collectors quite as rich as the current policy. it shouldn’t be pay to win. it should be pay to brag about awesome looking rare versions
I still find the whole stigma against reprints in magic unnecessary. Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, flesh and blood all offer reprints. Yet it’s the og card that has the pricetag. A blue eyes white dragon is easy to get a hold of, yet a first edition, that’s a bragging piece. In magic the bragging rights seem to come more from the fact you even have the card, less it’s an alpha. In some cases at least
Simple answer? Yes Long answer? Thats what they where intended for in the FIRST place. White Border was brought in to specifically identify either CORE sets, aka 5th, M18, etc, as well as specialty sets outside the normal blocks. Basically Wizards created the whole 1st edition Pokemon stamp in a way that was less noticeable and blended better.
I can’t say History Packs are a bad idea. Especially now, with the current model eliminating the difference between 1st and Unlimited editions of sets, having the white borders as the reprint style makes sense. It gives the first printings a small sense of specialty; same goes for the foil not being available in white border. I personally wish they would print a little harder so that the expensive high-rarity cards actually come down in price, but that’s me. And I do have to agree that cards not having value does suck. We want our collection to be worth more than the time we put in, and if it costs no more than the cardboard it’s printed on, that feels bad. Having a standard printing that everyone can get for pennies or a handful of dollars AND the fancy chase versions that cost your entire wallet is probably the smartest way to go. It is a weird balance, and that took a long while for me to realize.
Fundamentally the price of an object is what people are willing to pay for it. Magic cards, or any CCG cards with active players is going to have cards that are only valued based on how good those cards are in the various formats it is legal in. Collects going after that copy of a useless gameplay reprinted card will always be unhappy with the end value. Fundamentally all of the cards in MTG or any CCG are highly collectable, but since collecting all the cards isn’t the end goal of most purchaser, most of the cards have no value.
I actually really like the idea of a set with just reprints, no foils or special cards with the intent of smashing down the cost of cards to play with. The white border, for me, is take it or leave it. On one hand, I do like black border more, but if there is an actually cheaper version of a card, as a player with a limited cardboard budget, that’s great. Also, keeping chase variants rare helps out the singles market and LGS
Honestly I think modern MTG art is only “more forgettable” because of the crazy release cadence. We just don’t have as much time to let the enjoyment sink in before the next spoilers are up. We can’t make those emotional ties. At least more so than because the art’s not unique or interesting. I think once we escaped all the Gatewatch wannabe Avengers stuff the art’s been great lately.
I’m OK with a reserve list if it means something like “we’ll only reprint this card in a base set every five (maybe ten) years.” But this idea that the card is at technically never to see reprint (at WotC’s discretion) seems more anti-gaming than anything else. As for pack prices for sets like master’s – I’m not saying WotC isn’t partly to blame, but I’d be willing to bet it’s pressure from their bosses causing such an increase in prices over recent years.
Look I don’t mind collectors who do it out of a hobby and yeah it sort of sucks when your collection loses value, but at the same time I feel like people who play TCG and people who get upset at reprints because it makes their card lose value are cut from different cloth. One loves the game and wants it to flourish and the other wants to gatekeep the game and flex on people with their supposed value. Reprints are nothing but good for the player and consumer, the only people getting mad at them or feel like they are getting screwed over are the people who decide to make this wonderful hobby into a business. If I had a black lotus, sure I’d be a bit sad if they reprinted it as a common and it wasn’t short printed and everyone suddenly had one, but at the same time I would get over it fairly quickly and just be happy I had an original one or be happy that other players can finally have a fun card they want and can play with it.
I dont get not doing reprints, having your fancy foiled high rarity cards just so you have a pretty deck is fun, but if you just want to play, why not just allow reprints with really high quality chase rarities for the cards people love if they really want that high rarity foil version, they can spring for it, it wont bring the price down because people still want to collect fancy shiny cardboard. and the dumb strong chase cards will still exist.
you’re spot on with regards to new magic art, in my opinion. The illustrations we remember the most are pieces by Guay or Hamm.. Pieces by artists whose style is unique and recognisable and doesn’t get lost in the “artstation blockbuster movie/videogame concept art” style that seems to be so popular with WOTC.
The idea of “The Reserve List” and the whole spook around the Chronicles set is so strange to me. I suppose from the perspective of 1994, when Magic was a new sort of weird thing as such an elaborate trading card game, there could be a concern about how long-lasting such a thing would be and the fear of devaluing the product could potentially have weakened it at an early, vulnerable time. Nowadays though, that idea is a bit of a relic, to the point, where a fresh new card game like Flesh and Blood can come out with it’s own reprint sets and Yugioh can model it’s entire game around it’s legacy with consistent and frequent reprinting and they’re celebrated, because more than anything else, accessibility is the key to good business today. The internet is just too big, too widespread and too fast for these limiting practices to be anything more than counter-productive, unless your intent is to make premium luxury items, which would be prohibitive regardless of availability.
I like Masters Sets, I like playing in that curated draft environment. I just wish they were at the same price as regular standard sets. I’m really excited for Shadows Over Innistrad remastered coming to Arena, as drafts there are exactly the same price as standard drafts. I hope that Dominaria Remastered is at Time Spiral Remastered’s price and not Double Masters 2 price.
Magic had not gotten good nation distribution until Revised edition. This was simply a way to let those areas of the country that were left out to catch up. Quite frankly, I think the set should have been more exhaustive. Ultimately it did not hurt the original sets that much as seen by the difference in price between chronicles cards and cards from the original sets
To be honest, I love these unscripted (or partially unscripted) articles, especially when you open packs or do something else while talking. It reminds me of when I went to my lgs and talked with my friends who were older than me and already played modern while I coudn’t afford a deck. They would play against each other, open packs, trade, while I bugged them with questions and we chatted. It’s a nice feeling, reminds me of simpler times 🙂
I love white border cards with the modern desing in MTG. It make it so appealing, so elegant. But talking about the cards design i love the design before the 8th edition, it was very atmospheric. And talking about atmospher and memorable, i do have a colection of cards of my favorite illustrators: Terese Nielsen, Paolo Parente, Rebeca Guay, Robert Bliss, Tony DiTerlizzi, Carl Critchlow. Oh boy, those were THE cards that could transport you deeply into the atmosphere of the game. I started playing Magic on 8th edition and my first deck was Sky slam. Oh boy what a deck. My favorite card of all times is Unsummon. Such many combat tricks you can make with that card. And that card was even more powerful when damage used to go to the stack. Now they made a new unsummon with steroids XD add a Scy 1 to the formula. So sweet card… i only have one copie of it. I just returned to play for Kamigawa, just from time to time in arena. The design of the cards in the last year, i must say is really well done. I can make some combat tricks again.
I wish they would have a chronicles 2. Bringing back white boarders is a great idea. Print in higher quantities versus the black boarder and create another distinguishing factor. Same as how chronicles versions are worth less than the original version, it would be the same. Collectors love something seen as more exclusive and the white boarders would not be that. Sets like chronicles allow people to see the game as a game again and not as simply a collection. Cards can cycle through like “the list” if need be. In fact “the list” is essentially a drop in the ocean of what a chronicles 2 set can do.
Can you please do a article on how much of a disaster m30 was. I attended and due to issues with their scheduling system was not allowed to play any of the events that I scheduled and then they had no ondemand events. Wasted money flying and on hotels to be told I wasn’t allowed to play with the staff being obtuse and rude the entire time.
Also, I agree with the Flesh and Blood choice. They actually had the perfect idea. By doing the reprints in white border with no foils, the original cards keep their value the foils themselves keep their value even more, but you can get the card to play cheap and easy. For now, when F&B is new, the price difference between the borders is negligible, but it will increase with time.
I COMPLETELY agree with the reprints of FAB in History Packs not having FOILS. This way you can both appease the collectors that invested earlier, WHILST giving card to new players while not tanking the old cards as Chronicles did. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN have a TCG where you can reprint cards for new players while not tanking collector stock. You do it by following FAB strategy.
I know lots of people that hate the white border Magic cards. I actually love em. I think reprinting using white boarders is an excellent idea. Shoot I’d like white boarded fetchlands. And yes I do wish they’d AT LEAST take the original dual lands off the reserve list. Sure, keep the moxes, but at least give us the lands and have em TOURNAMENT LEGAL as well.