major topic of the moment, but aside from the Eldrazi Reality Smashing everyone and everything, there are many other things going on as well. Today we are going to touch on as many of those topics as we can, as well as just random topics I’ve been wanting to discuss for a while. I also have an exciting announcement to make.
Let’s dive right in!
Eternal Masters Is Here To Save Legacy!
Just like Modern Masters did wonders to support Modern and make it more affordable for the masses, Eternal Masters is here to save Legacy as well!
Legacy is my favorite Magic format, and finally there will be new copies of Legacy staples like Force of Will and Wasteland in circulation. The worst thing about Legacy is the high monetary barrier to entry, and these sorts of reprint sets do a great job of getting more cards in circulation while making the cards a bit uglier so the original versions retain a good portion of their value.
Once Eternal Masters comes out, I can finally build that Storm deck I’ve always wanted to…
…oh. Okay, well I can have some fun create comboing people with Elves by…
…hmm, well I love Wastelanding and Rishadian Porting people, I can play lands with…
…jeez. Well how about a more fringe deck like MUD? Turn 2 Lodestone Golem sounds cool…
Ugh. Well how about…
Oh.
I see.
Eternal Masters sounds like a great idea, but as long as the Reserved List exists, it will continue to wrap its black tentacles around the format, suffocating any attempts it makes at breaking out of being a niche format. And frankly, that sucks. Legacy is an awesome testament to the complete history of the game. It has all different kinds of decks, and its diversity and deep gameplay should be supported, not shunned into a corner by an extremely awkward and dated policy.
I understand the importance of the Reserved List, but its time has come. The spirit of the Reserved List is that Wizards of the Coast will not massively reprint, and therefore devalue, many old valuable cards.
This can be maintained without strictly adhering to the dogma of the current Reserved List. Given their track record with both Modern Masters sets, Wizards of the Coast has been very careful with their releases. I could easily see them doing a release where they reprint Reserved List cards in a controlled and tactical way that would not destroy the value of these cards on the secondary market. Quite the contrary, if Modern is any indicator, many of these cards may even raise in value.
Your Revised Underground Sea or Alliances Force of Will is still a collectible part of Magic’s history, even if there is a new ugly version that people can use in tournaments so they can play too.
End the Reserved list! Save Legacy!
Bring Back The Junior Super Series!
It has been eight years since there has been a tournament Magic series designed for getting younger players into the game. Things like Eternal Masters and Modern Masters are fantastic for the players already deeply involved in Magic, but there is a void for getting new younger players into the game. Retention is high, but I am worried about acquisition.
For those who are unfamiliar (it was eight years ago), the Junior Super Series was a tournament series for players who were sixteen years of age or younger and had zero lifetime Pro Points. Rather than giving out qualifications to Pro Tours or other big events, they awarded scholarship money for college. Imagine the following scenario for fourteen-year-old little Timmy:
Scene – The present-day world we live in.
Timmy: “Hey Mom, can you bring me to a big convention center in downtown Philadelphia so I can play in an 800-person event with a bunch of 25-30 year old dudes? I can win some money and a chance to play in an event that’s a thousand miles away in a city you’d never let me go to by myself for a few thousand dollars.”
Mother: “Timmy, go to your room and never speak to me of this devil gambling card game again!”
Timmy: “Oh… okay.”
Now imagine this scenario:
Scene – A future where the Junior Super Series exists again.
Timmy: “Hey Mom, can you bring me to my local card shop to play in a 40-person event with a bunch of kids my age that are just as excited about Magic as I am? I can make new friends who enjoy the same hobby as me, and if I can win, I get thousands of dollars in scholarship money to help you pay for my college education!”
Mother: “Wow Timmy, you can win money for college by playing a card game with your friends that will keep you off the streets and out of trouble? Should I buy you Abzan Aggro or Bant Company?”
Timmy: “Thanks Mom, you’re the best and I love you!”
A lot of getting the younger generations into the game is simply getting the parents’ support, and the Junior Super Series did a fantastic job of that. It provided a gateway into larger Magic events for kids and put them on the path to being upstanding degenerates like the rest of us.
The Oliver Tomajkos and Dylan Donegans of the world aren’t going to grow on trees, but with things like the Junior Super Series, we can cultivate them ourselves. While Wizards of the Coast has dropped the ball on this one, maybe StarCityGames.com can pick it up and spin it on their finger, like they have with basically everything else they have touched when it comes to Organized Play.
Get Them Started Young!
Last weekend, Nicole and I played in a PPTQ in Brooklyn. We won some booster packs and saved a few to bring home to Nicole’s son John to open – gotta hook them young. He is five years old and is almost at the point where we are ready to start teaching him the game, but for now we just have him open packs and read the cards to us.
His favorite card, without question, is the 8/8 Octopus Token. I don’t think he realizes that it’s not actually a Magic card you can put in your deck and play with, but we don’t really have the heart to tell him yet.
So we are opening our six prize packs, and disaster strikes:
“Come on Octopus token, come on Octopus token! Aw.. All I got was this stupid land