Since Magic: Reunion The 30th Anniversary Edition was announced in October, it made headlines. Its $1000 price tag for four random boosters of 15 non-tournament legal cards from the first set of Magic (some of which are Wizards of the Coast promise never to reprint back in 1996) there are many players up in armsto the point where even Wall Street noticed. The tension around it is higher than I’ve seen with any Magic product in a very long time, with some arguing it’s an overpriced insult to the establishment. players while others consider it just another premium collection in a game built on them.
So when Wizards of the Coast offered to send IGN two for whatever coverage we saw fit, I was really surprised. These boxes are an ephemeral thing – on November 28th they Officially available in less than an hour before official Magic Twitter account announced The sale is “closed”. Meanwhile WOTC seems to have sent packages to celebrities like baseball player Hunter Penceand even surprise includes four packs in the stylish bag of the most expensive Black Lotus VIP class during the Magic 30 convention in Las Vegas, further promoting public awareness that this product is only for the elite.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these boxes, let alone two, and chances are most people won’t. It’s hard not to feel it’s somewhat intentional, with FOMO (fear of missing out) fueling the hype surrounding this premium product. friend will never be able to open for themselves. I don’t know if that was really the intention, but the result is the same: many players feel left out and it’s frustrating when the product itself contains what many have wished would be. happen for a while.
The disdain for the Reserved List, WOTC’s decades-old promise not to reprint a particular classic deck, has long been felt, even by former WOTC employee Bill Stark. recent tweets that it cannot be rescinded for legal reasons “that would bankrupt the game.” Because the 30th Anniversary Edition reproduces (mostly) the first series of Magic, it contains a lot of reprints on the dedicated list. The backs of these cards are different, meaning no cards are legal in the tournament, but it’s still a pretty big change in policy – Magic’s lead designer Mark Rosewater says The dedicated listing includes “all normal-sized versions” of these cards as recently as last August.
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The promise of opening spares for those rare and sought-after cards is a ploy for some and a waste of money for others, but I’m really curious about these bundles what it really feels like to open as a player. For now, keep in mind that my experience was slightly influenced by the fact that these were provided to IGN for coverage, and therefore I would never attempt to sell them as that would be a conflict. serious moral interest. But setting the value proposition aside for a second, is taking a trip back up the memory lane by unpacking the Magic’s first set with shiny new borders and a nostalgic non-tournament treat. re… or sorting through a 30 year old chaff draft in the hope of hitting a very limited list of potential diamonds brutally disappointing in its own value?
The answer for me ended up being somewhere in the middle, as opening these $1000 light bars up for debate is a somewhat odd and ultimately quite paradoxical experience – and I say that opening two boxes is probably as close to ideal as you can statistically hope for. It’s exciting to see the cards I’ve recognized since childhood in modern molding and framing, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly interesting. Cracking an old-fashioned Anti-Spell or Dark Rite elicits a reaction almost the same as when I unwrap a Starburst wrapper and find a pink one waiting at the front of the line: a quiet “neat” followed. is a sweetness that quickly fades.
The mix of joy and annoyance became even more messy when I actually opened one of the nine strength – the names of the nine oldest, strongest and most expensive cards of Magic, counted Black lotus among them. Mine is a Mox jetquickly followed by a nostalgic frame version of one of the coveted dual lands (a Taiga, in this case) in the same package. If opening boosters was a game, I just won, but neither of the cards got me pumping in the way I expected. In contrast, I’ve opened rare packs in the $4 booster pack of recent sets that energize. Instead, my first thought when I saw my new Mox was “Where am I going to keep this?”
It’s not a card I actually use because Power Nine is banned in the most popular format of Magic, Commander. It’s not a valuable card to me as it will never go on sale and it doesn’t feel as special a collector’s item as it does a real one when it’s printed brand new like a kind of decoy for my excitement. It’s definitely a great piece of paper to have, I just don’t know what to do with it now that I have it. It’s hard not to feel like betting for a chance to open something you can sell for even more. great part of the pitch here, and without it, these bundles don’t have much appeal at such a high price point.
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Seeing the cards firsthand, the cost of the 30th Anniversary Edition is really the most disappointing thing about it, as these packs maybe was a really fun way for more people to experience the roots of Magic firsthand. I’d love to be able to celebrate this game’s birthday by doing affordable Beta drafts at my local game store – even though the hard truth is it’s not exactly a generator. produce particularly interesting drafts. Dismissing another pretty neat product as a collector’s item is a valid decision for WOTC to make if they want to do it, it’s just a silly one for the rest of us.
Anyhow, I think much of the frustration of the community comes from not wanting to open these packages or the quality of the product itself, but more from feeling left out something many people have missed. request for many years. Today, the Reserve List mainly benefits those who make money from the scarcity it causes, while it harms a lot of players just trying to use those cards to play the game. So to final get new prints of something like the coveted Dual Lands at scale – reprints can be happily played in Commander, where their non-tournament legal status usually doesn’t matter to the team your game – only understandably they are disappointingly out of reach prices.
One counterpoint to that is that the illegal status that underpins this is clearly something that is only for collectors and most players can safely ignore it as it won’t force the average person. have to buy expensive packages just to get them. . I think that’s the logical way to look at the whole situation – but the door to the Reserved List is also now open in a way that many didn’t think would happen, and the frustration of realizing that it will always be. An expensive door to enter. through anyway is real whether you skip this particular product or not.
After jailbreaking the 30th Anniversary Edition myself, I don’t necessarily think it was a disaster that completely destroyed the game or anything. (Just to be clear, I also don’t recommend it unless you’re really Post Malone.) Stripped of its hefty price tag, it’s been a lot of fun to flip through the new card versions I’ve come across since his childhood. But it also makes me feel like a relatively sterile Magic product in my hands, more like it was made for money than a celebration of Magic’s 30th birthday. art. As a result, I’m left with a rather odd experience that I’ve had more enjoyable moments opening the rare standard this year than I did opening Mox Jet.
Tom marks IGN’s Associate Editor of Reviews. He likes puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, puzzle games, etc.
