Magic's Khans of Tarkir Brings Anticipated Reprint

[Brian Tams]

Now that most of the keywords have been announced, it looks like I'm going to be rolling with the Abzan houses. (WBG)
None of the keywords particularly thrill me like the ones in Return To Ravnica did.

Also; apparently Morph was a highly requested returning mechanic.
Who requested morph? As far as I was aware, it was a gimmick that was used in one set that nobody had any strong feelings about and was quickly forgotten.

Morph has so many combat possibilities, Onslaught and future sight were before my time, but just looking at the cards and knowing when to flip them or to play them unmorphed makes them seem great. Keeping track of multiple morphs at once might get annoying though.

I'm looking forward to envoking the all mighty morph rule again, so there's that.

(For you guys who don't know, Morph caused a bit of an honesty issue in tournaments. See, you're not allowed to look at the face down morphed card, which opens up cheating possibilities. People were playing, say, an Island as a morphed 2/2 which, if you were to do when your opponent had 2 life left and no way to deal with it, would allow them to swing for game. So a rule was put into place that forces both players to reveal any and all hidden cards on the battlefield once the game had ended, so you could make sure there was no non-morph cards played as morphed 2/2's. The rule itself became a little relevant when Lorwyn was in standard with the hideaway lands.)

 

[RaikuFA]

And they'll still cost an arm and a leg.

Also, I want to try a prerelease but work and you can't do any of the events unless you get the stuff from the prerelease.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Pay 1 life?
why pay 1 life for a land card you could have played before.(or may play shortly)

Well, The main reason that the fetchlands are sought out so highly (in competitive play at least) is for 2 reasons. In the early game, it gets you the specific colour mana of the one you need at that stage of your 2 or even 3 colour deck. Later on it helps thin your deck of lands so you are more likely to draw the spells you want, rather than lands you don't. The latter may seem stupid, as we are talking about small numbers in variance, but if you want your deck to win at a high level tournament, the consistency and ever so slightly better odds in your deck is what sometimes makes all the difference between winning and losing.

There are also several non-basic lands with basic land types that can be pulled with the fetch lands. There are also cards that combo interestingly with them due to the way they leave play, cause other lands to come into play, and also don't come into play tapped. They're tricky cards that have certainly filled a niche.

I only wish I knew they were so valuable before this announcement, or I might have sold the ones I have (I have an almost complete set of onslaught, including several signed fetch lands)... With this set dropping with reprints, the value will probably drop to the point where it won't really be worth me pursuing selling them.. but if I'd known that several of them were worth as much as they were, those values certainly might have swayed my decision to sell them.

Give it a year or so after the set rotates out, and the prices go even higher, due to the fact that these cards will finally be Modern legal. Flooded Strand will be the new high value fetch, because it's blue and white.

 

[Naeras]

The neat thing about fetches is that they will definitely be useful in Standard, but they lose out on one of their strongest points when they don't have shocklands in the same format, so they won't be nearly as insane as they are in older formats like Modern and Legacy.

They're gonna have great synergy with Courser of Kruphix though, I can see that card get ridiculously expensive in the near future. Any other effects that work well with library shuffling is also going to be very strong.

 

[RJ 17]

That's all? Wake me when they bring the Eldrazi back.

If my math/pattern recognition holds, that will be 2016.
OG Mirrodin: 2003
Scars of Mirrodin: 2010
OG Ravnica: 2005
Return to Ravnica: 2012
Zendikar: 2009
Every seven years. Assuming the set was worth caring about. Hence why we had Innistrad instead of Kamigawa, and we'll never see a return to Innistrad.
Because Innistrad is terrible.

In all seriousness, if I could have a single wish granted for MtG it would be a return to Kamigawa. Frickin' LOVED that set.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Hm, i thought they put the Duals and Fetchies on their list of cards they'll never reprint. Since i've reserved my boxes already that's nice to know.

To some other posts:
1. Kamigawa will probably not come again, since that Set nearly killed MtG and was god-awful designwise. Also it had probably the weakest impact out of all modern sets and the limited was ... good lord.

2. Zendikar is insanely popular. Eldrazis, Fetchies, Land enchants and one of the best limited blocks ever. People definitly cared about Zendikar.

 

[Godhead]

Oh god, my body is so ready.

Time to break out those Brainstorms one more time.

 

[Dragon Zero]

More info is coming out, it seems they gave Timur the Lame mechanic. It's pretty much just the Naya mechanic from shards with new paint. This redressing of mechanics isn't new but it still feels weird. I wonder if the shards might have more influence on this block than the obvious.

Sorin is confirmed as another Planeswalker for the set and some cards reference Ugin, so obvious Zendikar block connections are here as well. The January set will be named Fate Reforged.

Here are some links:

Mechanics article from the mothership-

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/mechanics-khans-tarkir

MtGSalvation forum discussing the cards revealed during the worldbuilding panel-

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/570384-worldbuilding-panel-3-new-cards-and-tons-of-new

Some art revealed at panel (this is also found within the previous link)-

http://imgur.com/a/02NJH#18

 

[RaikuFA]

That's all? Wake me when they bring the Eldrazi back.

If my math/pattern recognition holds, that will be 2016.
OG Mirrodin: 2003
Scars of Mirrodin: 2010
OG Ravnica: 2005
Return to Ravnica: 2012
Zendikar: 2009
Every seven years. Assuming the set was worth caring about. Hence why we had Innistrad instead of Kamigawa, and we'll never see a return to Innistrad.
Because Innistrad is terrible.

In all seriousness, if I could have a single wish granted for MtG it would be a return to Kamigawa. Frickin' LOVED that set.

Same here. Even came up with a new creature archtype: Tengu. They're R/U Goblin Birds. Some also wizards or barbarians.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I currently own four foreign Polluted Deltas, and as someone who has gone deep on buying those damn things, all I can say about these reprints is... Fuck. Yes.

The downside of my cards being devalued is nothing compared to the upside of lowering the initial cost to get into Legacy so I can play with more people.

I still think the reprints visually look like junk, though. Old frame and art-style for life.

 

[Lorenzo]

I am going to "Iron Man" the last M15 draft and all the prereleases at my local store, so 40 different choices sounds really insane and way too much dumb fun. Yeah for morph! just go all in on five-color morph, what can possibly go wrong?

 

[vxicepickxv]

It's good to have these fetches finally be in modern. I also hope this means the Zenkiar Fetchlands will be in the other two sets of the block? Hmmm? Wizards? Value?

They did state they will be no longer doing half cycles these days (and then promptly did a half cycle in M15 with Pain-lands) so this is a viable theory. You know if they don't start printing these lands in other sets/ products too Khans could be a really good set to speculate on once it rotates.

Theros block looks pretty horrible value in comparison now. All that wasted booster money...

There's only 2 sets in a block now, with an 18 month rotation, so they're still good spec targets. I see Flooded Strand being the most valuable of the Onslaught block, because of the power of R/W/U with Windswept Heath adding to pod, and both Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills adding to Jund.

Modern is going to get interesting.

 

[2xDouble]

More info is coming out, it seems they gave Timur the Lame mechanic. It's pretty much just the Naya mechanic from shards with new paint. This redressing of mechanics isn't new but it still feels weird. I wonder if the shards might have more influence on this block than the obvious.

Sorin is confirmed as another Planeswalker for the set and some cards reference Ugin, so obvious Zendikar block connections are here as well. The January set will be named Fate Reforged.

Here are some links:

Mechanics article from the mothership-

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/mechanics-khans-tarkir

MtGSalvation forum discussing the cards revealed during the worldbuilding panel-

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/570384-worldbuilding-panel-3-new-cards-and-tons-of-new

Some art revealed at panel (this is also found within the previous link)-

http://imgur.com/a/02NJH#18

Wait a minute... Ugin? as in [mtg_card=Eye of Ugin] Ugin? as in "protector and destroyer of Zendikar, and god-king of all dragons" Ugin? talking to Sorin as though both alive and dead, possibly providing some story closure for both he and Nissa as well as the supposed redemption of Sarkhan?

...in the first set of the block?

dude...

new Eldrazi and Nicol Bolas confirmed.

 

[Dragon Zero]

Wait a minute... Ugin? as in [mtg_card=Eye of Ugin] Ugin? as in "protector and destroyer of Zendikar, and god-king of all dragons" Ugin? talking to Sorin as though both alive and dead, possibly providing some story closure for both he and Nissa as well as the supposed redemption of Sarkhan?

...in the first set of the block?

dude...

new Eldrazi and Nicol Bolas confirmed.

I wouldn't go that far with it. I mean, sure, I feel Ugin might not be as dead as we thought, especially since the plot of the block does contain time travel, supposedly. However I think simply naming him doesn't necessarily mean Eldrazi are coming back any time soon. I think it's far more likely that it might just be a slight continuation of the story, just to show that WotC hasn't forgotten about it. We might see Bolas later on, since the teaser image for Fate Reforged looked somewhat interesting but, again, I wouldn't say that's more than speculation.

 

[AngryMongoose]

That's all? Wake me when they bring the Eldrazi back.

You might not have to wait long. Many people are predicting a "Return to Zendikar," [http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/2f3k8u/if_the_next_block_isnt_a_return_to_zendikar_ill/] possibly the next block. Tarkir features Sorin, Bolas, Sarkhan, and Ugin in some form in it's story; all major plays in the Edlrazi/Zendikar story, Duels 2015 ended with a sequel hook for Zendikar, and it would give them a good opportunity to complete the fetchland cycle, since enemy fetchlands were printed in the Zendikar block.

 

[Megacherv]

Pay 1 life?
why pay 1 life for a land card you could have played before.(or may play shortly)

I think there are land card's as well as other cards that let you seek out the land card you desire without paying 1 life.
Guild gates are a good example.(although them entering tapped cripples them a bit.)


But can you tap these types of cards as colorless mana (them being land), or only use them as described in the text?
If not they don't really make sense to me, like i said there are better alternatives.
Why not make it a sorcery or instant (could be mana cost free even).

They're more highly sought for Modern and Legacy. They don't fetch for the Basic Lands, they search for lands with that card type, meaning that the Shocklands (for Modern, which have basic land types but have a payment of 2 life to enter untapped) and the Alpha lands (for Legacy, dual lands with the land types that have no drawbacks) can be fetched out from your library, as opposed to just basics. They also thin your deck of lands so that you're more likely to draw threats, and they also allow for shuffling if you've somehow revealed your top decks (e.g. Courser of Kruphix).

 

[Megacherv]

The neat thing about fetches is that they will definitely be useful in Standard, but they lose out on one of their strongest points when they don't have shocklands in the same format, so they won't be nearly as insane as they are in older formats like Modern and Legacy.

They're gonna have great synergy with Courser of Kruphix though, I can see that card get ridiculously expensive in the near future. Any other effects that work well with library shuffling is also going to be very strong.

That's why they've waited until now to reprint them, they'd never reprint them in the same Standard rotation as the shocklands, they'd be way too powerful for standard

 

[Atmos Duality]

And they'll still cost an arm and a leg.

Yup.

Currently allied fetches are key in Legacy and effectively no other formats (none are significant now that Extended is dead).

So a reprint would suggest the price would drop since they're doubling the supply.
But the reprint makes them Modern-legal, which doubles their potential demand (more, if Modern is more popular than Legacy).

My conservative estimate: Usual Standard spike, then a brief fall as they rotate out of Standard, followed by a return to the usual gouging as they filter into Modern.

Normally I'd say that the return of allied fetches alone would make this a great block to invest in for singles scalping, but since WotC is going to be pushing for two-set blocks, I'd wait for the spoiler to gauge the number of junk cards at gold rarity first.

(bigger sets mean worse odds of getting what you want)

In short: What RaikuFA said. "They'll still cost an arm and a leg."

 

[rosac]

I'm considering starting magic, and my knight of the reliquary card just got so so so much better because of these (as far as I can tell). Use windswept heath to get me a white or green land set up, and give an automatic +1 +1 to the knight into the bargain! Winner winner.