In April of this year, I tackled the (then) current crop of Promotional Foil cards – cards that are given away at Friday Night Magic, as part of the Player Rewards program, Judge foils, and other such giveaways. Eight months ago, Promotional cards were reaching towards a pinnacle – a nirvana of good Promo choices and popular reprints.
A lot can happen in eight months.
Let’s get a list of the Promotional foil cards released since the last article.
FNM Foils:
5/05: Cabal Therapy (Judgment artwork)
6/05: Fact or Fiction (Invasion artwork)
7/05: Juggernaut (Alpha artwork)
8/05: Circle of Protection: Red (Alpha artwork)
9/05: Kird Ape (Arabian Nights artwork)
10/05: Duress (Urza’s Saga artwork)
11/05: Counterspell (Alpha artwork)
12/05: Icy Manipulator (Alpha artwork)
1/06: Elves of the Deep Shadow (The Dark artwork)
Judge foils:
Sol Ring (Alpha artwork)
Mishra’s Factory (Antiquities Autumn artwork)
Exalted Angel (New artwork)
Grim Lavamancer (New artwork)
Pernicious Deed (New artwork)
Player Rewards foils:
Hypnotic Specter (Alpha artwork)
Prize Foils:
Gemstone Mine (Weatherlight artwork) (Amateur Championships)
Underworld Dreams (Legends artwork) (Two-Headed Giant Championships)
Prerelease and Release cards:
Saviors: Kiyomaro, First to Stand (Prerelease), and Ghost-Lit Raider (Release)
Ravnica: Gleancrawler (Prerelease), and Dimir Guildmage (Release)
9th Edition: Force of Nature (Release) and Shivan Dragon (Russian Release)
Arena League:
Saviors: Okina Night Watch
Ravnica: Skyknight Legionnaire
On the surface, it appears that these are a good group of foils. Exalted Angel, Grim Lavamancer, Pernicious Deed, Sol Ring, Mishra’s Factory, Fact or Fiction, Duress, Counterspell, Cabal Therapy, Hypnotic Specter and Gemstone Mine are all good cards. If you dig deeper, you begin to see problems.
FNM Foils – The Original Artwork Bonanza
The past few FNM foils have been foil versions of the older artworks of more current cards. These include Juggernaut, Counterspell, Elves of Deep Shadow, Icy Manipulator, Kird Ape, Duress, and Circle of Protection: Red.
Many of these cards cannot be reprinted in regular sets due to financial constraints – the original artwork agreement that Wizards has with many artists makes it ridiculously expensive for Wizards to use old artwork. Releasing those cards as free Promotional foils is a good work-around for this problem, as Wizards does not need to pay full (or maybe even any) royalties on, say, an Alpha-picture Juggernaut that is given away.
Unfortunately, this batch of foils are all pretty poor choices for foiling. Let’s go over them one by one.
Icy Manipulator
There were already three other foil versions of Icy Manipulator – Deckmasters (Ice Age picture), Mirrodin, and 9th Edition. The 9th Edition version is still in print. Icy has not been a tournament-viable card for the past three years of play, and FNM foils are supposed to be geared towards tournament playable cards.
Counterspell
There are also three other foil versions of Counterspell – Mercadian Masques, 7th Edition, and a Judge Rewards foil. Counterspell is also seeing little play right now in any format, and the Judge Rewards Counterspell is still being given out to judges at events this year!
Elves of Deep Shadow
Yes, the original artwork is a lot more memorable than the Ravnica artwork for the Elves. No, nobody is playing Elves of Deep Shadow, thanks to Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise. Plus, the Ravnica foil Elves are easily obtainable.
Juggernaut
Nobody played Juggernaut in any format except Vintage when it was Darksteel legal. Darksteel foil Juggernauts are not very popular. Who is this card supposed to appeal to?
Circle of Protection: Red
There are three versions of Circle of Protection: Red out there, before the FNM version – 7th Edition, 8th Edition and 9th Edition. Unlike some other FNM foils, which are reprints of higher dollar cards, Circle of Protection: Red is easily obtainable for a single quarter.
Kird Ape
In 9th Edition as a foil, and will not be popular until Guildpact (and the Gruul guild) are released. If this was to be printed, it should have been timed to come out with the Red/Green dual land. Instead, it came out months ahead of where it should have been.
Duress
The best of the bunch, as it is played heavily in Extended, Vintage and Legacy, and the non-foil versions are becoming pricy. Duress was already done as an Arena league promo, though that version is relatively rare and hard to come by. The 7th Edition Duress is not as hard to find, making this Duress the third version to be put to foil.
Totaling up these numbers, we find that there were already fourteen foil versions of the above seven cards – an average of two other foil versions of each card on this list!
Compare this to the last batch of FNM foils:
7/04: Treetop Village
8/04: Accumulated Knowledge
9/04: Avalanche Riders
10/04: Reanimate
11/04: Mother of Runes
12/04: Brainstorm
1/05: Rancor
2/05: Seal of Cleansing
3/05: Flametongue Kavu
4/05: Blastoderm
Number of previous foil versions of each of these cards – exactly one, all of which were in the old (pre-8th Edition) card face.
The FNM foil choices have markedly gone downhill over the past few months. There are a lot of better cards that could have been foiled, especially those that would have coincided a little better with the current (Extended) season:
Black: Cabal Ritual, Chainer’s Edict, Tendrils of Agony, Zombie Infestation
Blue: Careful Study, Circular Logic, Deep Analysis, Standstill, Wonder
Green: Arrogant Wurm, Basking Rootwalla, Nimble Mongoose, Roar of the Wurm, Wild Mongrel
Red: Firebolt, Goblin Ringleader, Goblin Warchief, Lava Dart
White: Astral Slide
Gold/Split: Fire / Ice
Land: Cabal Coffers
*Aside #1*: The state of desirable White Uncommons/Commons to foil is deplorable. Last year, the textless card ended up being Reciprocate – a strictly inferior card when compared to Terror, Mana Leak, Oxidize, and Fireball. Which card will be the White textless card this year? We’ve already seen Pyroclasm and Hinder for Red and Blue.
The Standard-legal White instants and sorceries that might be made textless are: Chastise, Demystify, Devouring Light, Gift of Estates, Holy Day, Otherworldly Journey, Terashi’s Grasp.
These are not an impressive group of cards. My bet would be on Otherworldly Journey (which has seen the most tournament play out of any of these cards), but it is very likely that the White textless card this year will be the weakest one of the batch yet again.
Prerelease, Release and Arena League Promos
Prerelease and Release cards:
Saviors: Kiyomaro, First to Stand (Prerelease), and Ghost-Lit Raider (Release)
Ravnica: Gleancrawler (Prerelease), and Dimir Guildmage (Release)
9th Edition: Force of Nature (Release) and Shivan Dragon (Russian Release)
Arena League:
Saviors: Okina Night Watch
Ravnica: Skyknight Legionnaire
None of these are particularly inspired choices. Kiyomaro ended up being junk, Ghost-Lit Raider was barely played, Gleancrawler is barely played, Dimir Guildmage is barely played, and Force of Nature is barely played. Shivan Dragon is an iconic creature, and the Russian version looks great – that one is hats off.
If there’s one thing that has been proven, it’s that printing one of the more popular cards of a set as the prerelease card will not significantly impact the value of that card in the secondary marketplace. The regular versions of Helm of Kaldra, Shield of Kaldra, Sword of Kaldra, Ink-Eyes, Glory, Laquatus’s Champion, and Lightning Dragon have not been reduced in value because of the existence of prerelease foil versions of these cards. The other prerelease foils are worth a lot less simply because, well, the cards are junky by comparison.
The rule about Prerelease cards is that they must show off a new mechanic/facet of that set, it must be a creature, and that the card must be a rare. Let me pick some alternate choices for the past batch of prerelease cards, with that one rule in mind.
Saviors of Kamigawa
Hand Size Matters: Adamaro, First to Desire – Kagemaro is out, because the Betrayers foil was also a Black card. Adamaro was a much more playable-looking card than Kiyomaro.
Flip Enchantments: Erayo, Soratami Ascendant – this might have been a bad choice, given that the flip mechanic debuted in Champions. Still, they chose Ryusei as the prerelease card for that set, leaving this modified version of the flip card as a viable choice.
Kirin Cycle: Celestial Kirin – I wouldn’t have said that the Kirins were a good choice to make into a prerelease card, except that the Champions card was Ryusei, which did not have any block-specific mechanic. It was simply part of a cycle of dragons which had an effect when they go to the graveyard, so the Kirin would have also been fair game.
Epic: Enduring Ideal – Enduring Ideal is the best of the Epic spells, and showcases one of the featured new keyworded mechanics designed for Saviors. However, it’s not a creature, so it’s straight out. You also want the prerelease card to be something a little less narrow – you don’t want the card to be the one card the deck is built around – you want it to be a complementary piece to your other decks.
Channel: Arashi, the Sky Asunder – Arashi would have been the perfect card to use as the prerelease card. It’s a big, Green fatty with a relevant ability to the current Constructed season (anti-Blue flyers), and Arashi appeals to both casual and competitive players. The only drawback to using Arashi was that Wizards put him in one of the Saviors Theme Decks.
Gleancrawler wasn’t a bad choice for the Ravnica prerelease card – it falls under the category of Raging Kavu/Soul Collector category that I’ll call “of interest to players, but will not be played in tournaments.” Let’s run through some other choices from Ravnica:
Radiance (Boros): None, as the prerelease card must be a creature.
Convoke (Selesnya): Autochthon Wurm – A big fatty, which appeals to a segment (Timmy) of the population. However, making the Wurm the prerelease card is akin to if Draco had been the Planeshift prerelease card. They’re both big guys who show up a set mechanic, but who wants to print a card which is best used as a component of an Erratic Explosion deck?
Milling (Dimir): Circu, Dimir Lobotomist – Circu would have appealed to casual players, but would not have appealed to tournament players. It’s probably best that he wasn’t chosen as the prerelease card, but he’d be the best example of the Dimir creature to use for the prerelease.
Split Mana (All): Gleancrawler – The best choice among the split mana cards.
Hunted Creatures: Hunted Dragon – The Dragon would have been the best of the five card cycle, but we already had a Red Dragon last block (Ryusei), which takes Hunted Dragon out of serious contention.
Dredge (Golgari): Grave-Shell Scarab – The Scarab would have been a really good choice as the Prerelease card. It showcases one of the set-specific mechanics, appeals to all walks of players, and is tournament viable.
Invitational Card: Dark Confidant – If not Grave-Shell Scarab, this should have been the prerelease card. No, it does not show off a mechanic of the set. However, Wizards of the Coast has been building up the Invitational through online coverage and MagicTheGathering.com articles (Arcana, Mark Rosewater article, etc). What better way to follow through on promotion of the card than by making it the prerelease card? Not only would you have a card that most people already desire (hype was high on the Confidant coming into the event), but you’d have a card that ties straight in with the newly release Pro Player cards!
I’m not going to talk much about the release event cards, except to note that they are Uncommons, and that they are also creatures. They should probably be alternate-art like the Prerelease cards.
*Aside #2*: What is the deal with Arena League foil promos? Is there a point to even making them at this point? The Unhinged Arena league promos were a lot better than the foil current ones, because they presented something different. On top of this, Wizards of the Coast printed Ashnod’s Coupon (from Unglued) as a foil prize for this league, and the Coupon was an inspired choice.
A list of the past few Arena League foil promotional cards:
Legions: Skirk Marauder
Scourge: Elvish Aberration
Mirrodin; Bonesplitter
Darksteel: Darksteel Ingot
Fifth Dawn: Serum Visions
Champions: Glacial Ray
Betrayers: Genju of the Spires
Saviors: Okina Night Watch
Ravnica; Skyknight Legionnaire
The only difference between these foil cards and the regular foil versions of these cards is a faint “Arena League” stamp in the text box of the card. Is the lure of Okina Night Watch going to make anyone play in Arena League? No. In fact, aside from Serum Visions and Genju of the Spires, these cards are strictly casual fare. I don’t think it’s a good idea to promote a league with prizes that nobody from the league is going to want.
Seriously, Okina Night Watch and Elvish Aberration? Some of the other cards on the list are cards which might have been tournament playable with a slight metagame shift, but I don’t see a world where Okina Night Watch and the Aberration were going to be burning up the tournament scene.
*Aside #3*: Speaking of the Ashnod’s Coupon Arena League foil, you know what would make the absolute best Coldsnap prerelease card? A foil version of Force of Will! Force of Will is not going to be in Coldsnap, per se, but Wizards is printing many Ice Age and Alliances cards for the Coldsnap Theme Decks. It would be a bad idea to put Force of Will in those preconstructed decks, because A) there would be too many Force of Wills flooding the market and B) it is a pretty uninspired place to put a reprint of Force of Will.
Wizards does want to find a way to get more Force of Wills into the market, because it is a key and expensive card needed to play Legacy. Wizards of the Coast wants to push Legacy as a viable format, and Coldsnap gives them a good excuse for making a tournament-playable reprint of Force of Will. Making it the Prerelease card would serve four purposes:
- It would put a foil version of Force of Will into the market, and Force of Will is the single most foilable card left in Magic, period.
- It would control the number of Force of Wills entering the marketplace, since the foil Force of Wills would be gone once the prerelease was over.
It would drive attendance to the Coldsnap prerelease through the roof, as you would have thousands of extra players (worldwide) attending the prerelease event just to get a foil Force of Will, and
It would make the prerelease card a card that does not appear in Coldsnap booster packs, making it easier for Tournament Organizers to explain to players that they can’t play their prerelease cards in their Coldsnap sealed decks.
*Aside #4*: I am hoping that Wizards of the Coast will make Coldsnap similar to 9th Edition in that there is a land per pack. I am also hoping that this land is a Snow-Covered land, making those lands easily accessible (given that Snow-Covered lands are a mechanic of that block), and opening up the possibility for getting foil Snow-Covered lands.
Judge, Prize and Player Rewards Foils
Judge foils:
Sol Ring (Alpha artwork)
Mishra’s Factory (Antiquities artwork)
Exalted Angel (New artwork)
Grim Lavamancer (New artwork)
Pernicious Deed (New artwork)
Player Rewards foils:
Hypnotic Specter (Alpha artwork)
Prize Foils:
Gemstone Mine (Weatherlight artwork) (Amateur Championships)
Underworld Dreams (Legends artwork) (Two-Headed Giant Championships)
Let’s get the ones I have no problem with out of the way: Hypnotic Specter was a good promo mailing, along the lines of Psychatog from last year. The original artwork is memorable, and so having a foil version of a highly-played creature (unlike Kird Ape/Juggernaut from FNM) is great. Mishra’s Factory was a card that long-needed to be foiled, so a foil version of the card is welcomed with open arms.
Now to the bad.
To this day, I could not tell you the rhyme or reason behind the Gemstone Mine foils. They were first given out to the Top 8 competitors at the Amateur Championships at Origins, and have been seen sporadically since – once as a Top 8 prize at a foreign Grand Prix, and then who-knows when? (If anybody knows other events at which the Gemstone Mine was given out, please post in the forums!)
Meanwhile, Sol Ring has become a standard card given out to Judges at events. There are a lot more foil Sol Rings out there than Foil Gemstone Mines. Sol Ring is a restricted card; Gemstone Mine is not. The math does not add up to me – wouldn’t you want the card that is given out more often to be the one that is played as a four-of in decks, and not the one-of?
Did we need second foil versions of Exalted Angel, Pernicious Deed or Grim Lavamancer? Maybe, but not as judge foils. These would have made amazing prizes for players – given out like the Gemstone Mines to Top 8 competitors. Judges would be getting Legacy/Vintage foils, and players should be getting Extended/Standard foils.
The logic is as follows: Give people something that they are more likely to use/want! For resale purposes (Judge Promos), Vintage/Legacy cards demand a much higher price than Extended/Standard cards. This is because Vintage/Legacy players foil out their decks with a much higher frequency than Extended/Standard players, and there are a lot of Vintage/Legacy cards which have yet to be foiled. Here’s a brief list of cards that do not have foil versions, and would be in high demand as judge foils:
Black:
Grim Tutor
Hymn to Tourach
Imperial Seal
Mind Twist
Recurring Nightmare
Sinkhole
Yawgmoth’s Will
Blue:
Control Magic
Force of Will
Morphling
Mystical Tutor
Green:
Aluren
Elvish Spirit Guide
Fastbond
Regrowth (rumored to be the next Judge foil)
Survival of the Fittest
Red:
Chain Lightning
Goblin Lackey
White:
Land Tax
Land:
Strip Mine
Tolarian Academy
Artifact:
Black Vise
Lotus Petal
Mana Vault
Mox Diamond
Nevinyrral’s Disk
Smokestack
Tormod’s Crypt
Total: Twenty-eight foils – at least five years worth, at five a year!
Gemstone Mine should have been a judge foil, and Exalted Angel/Pernicious Deed/Grim Lavamancer should have been player prizes. This would not have affected the value of judge compensation at all, and would have made a lot more sense from a distribution perspective.
*Aside #5*: I’m still hoping that Wizards will print a single version of a foil power nine card as the prize for their Vintage World Championships. This single copy of the card would make for an awesome prize, would triple-to-quadruplet he attendance of the Vintage World Championship event, and would make sure that the value of Alpha/Beta/Unlimited power was not affected.
The prize for the Two-Headed Giant championship was the Underworld Dreams foil, using the ugly Julie Baroh artwork. Julie, I have nothing against you, but seriously none of your cards should be made into promos – your artwork is just pretty bad compared to many other Magic artists. Why give out an ugly version of a card that has already been foiled in a much more attractive version (8th/9th?) Why pick a card that has limited appeal to players to begin with? Here are a couple of suggestions for better cards to have given out as the participation prize for the Two-Headed Giant Championships:
Two-Headed Giant of Foriys: This one is obvious. Wizards can reprint cards on the reserve list if they are foil promotional cards. Why not make the 2HG championship prize the original Two-Headed Giant?
Twincast: A very popular casual card, and one that ties in very well with the theme of Two-Headed Giant.
Coat of Arms: A ridiculously more popular casual Rare than Underworld Dreams, and one that would tie into the format (tribal decks) a lot better than Underworld Dreams.
Well Wizards, here’s to hoping that the Promotional cards are better in 2006 than during the last part of 2005. 2004 and the beginning months of 2005 were strong for Promotional foil cards, but the program took a nosedive on every conceivable level for the last two-thirds of the year.
Tomorrow: MMM…