The Master Set
Reprinting Magic's Classic Cards

by Jeff Zandi


Reprinting the most popular and most powerful cards in the history of Magic:
the Gathering in a new Master Set would reignite the game's popularity
around the world. Two weeks ago, I started this ball rolling by talking
about the need for a new set of Magic cards. This new set, I would call it
the Master Set, it could also be considered something of a Hall of Fame set
or a best-of set, would reprint a collection of the best three or four
hundred card ever to appear in the game of Magic.

This week, I would like to concentrate on the idea of a Master Set primarily
for use in constructed events. The basic idea would be to use this new
Master Set to create a constructed format that would use essentially the
very same cards from year to year. New sets produced by WOTC would not be
allowed in Master Set play formats. This week's new angle is to concentrate
on a specific kind of Master Set idea, the idea of a set that does the
"impossible", that reprints many of the cards on Wizards of the Coast's
hallowed "Never To Be Reprinted" list.

This is a big problem, so I'll go ahead and solve it right away. The new
Master Set would be printed with different backs, more similar to the
collector's edition sets that WOTC produced in December of 1993. These
collector's edition cards have remained collectible, but their square cut
corners and gold embossed card backs have not hurt the collectibility (not a
word apparently) of Alpha, Beta and Unlimited edition cards. The reason for
this is simple, the cards produced for 1993's Collector's Edition sets are
not allowed in sanctioned tournament play. I think different card backs and
reduced collectible value for my proposed Master Set would be a small price
to pay to remove the "artificial" barriers that WOTC has placed between
their most classic cards and the average Magic player.

This week's incarnation of the Master Set would be available as a factory
set only and would be available in a 400 card set (one each of the cards)
for collectors and a 1600 card set (four of each of the cards) for players.
The idea would be to competitively price the 1600 card set to make it
cheaper to buy than four of the 400 card sets, if that makes sense. The
point is that this set is made for constructed play and would use virtually
all of the accepted deck construction rules that Magic players have been
used to for the past ten years.

Reprint the power nine? Yes sir! At least, mostly. Here's the partial list
that I've been working with this week:

Artifacts include Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire,
Mox Emerald, Sol Ring, Forcefield, Disrupting Scepter, Nevinyrral's Disk,
Fellwar Stone, Howling Mine, Dancing Scimitar, Jayemdae Tome, Millstone,
Meekstone. And let's not forget about a lot of more recent cards like
Chimeric Idol, Grafted Skullcap, Ensnaring Bridge or even Skullclamp.

Lands include Library of Alexandria, Mishra's Factory and all ten dual lands
from Alpha, Beta and Unlimited plus more recent choices like Undiscovered
Paradise, Cabal Coffers, Stalking Stones or even Wasteland.

Blue cards include Time Walk, Copy Artifact, Braingeyser, Blue Elemental
Blast, Counterspell, Pirate Ship, Control Magic, Mana Short, Magical Hack,
Mahamoti Djinn, Spell Blast as well as more recent solid gold hits like
Rushing River, Raven Familiar, Dissipate, Ophidian, Thwart or even Impulse.

Black cards include Black Knight, Hypnotic Specter, Nether Shadow,
Nightmare, Lord of the Pit, Bad Moon, Royal Assassin, Sengir Vampire
including newer cards like Duress, Phyrexian Negator, Pox, and even Vampiric
Tutor.

Red cards include Lightning Bolt, Shivan Dragon, Ball Lightning, Earthquake,
Disintegrate, Goblin King, Mana Flare, Power Surge, Shatter, Stone Rain and
newer cards like Shard Phoenix, Avarax, Threaten, Mogg Fanatic and even
Jackal Pup.

White cards include Armageddon, Disenchant, Crusade, Serra Angel, Personal
Incarnation, Healing Salve, Reverse Damage, Savannah Lions and all six
Circle of Protection cards including COP: Artifacts as well as newer cards
like False Prophet, Soul Warden or even Land Tax.

Green cards include Birds of Paradise, Desert Twister, Elvish Archers, Fog,
Force of Nature, Giant Growth, Hurricane, Killer Bees, Llanowar Elves, Giant
Spider, Shanodin Dryads, Tsunami as well as great cards from more recent
Magic history like Wild Mongrel.

What is the point of this type of collection of cards? Think back to when
you first started playing Magic. This may or may not apply to players who
started playing competitive immediately, or those who have only played with
the cards created by Wizards in the past four or five years. When you
started playing Magic, the game was all about constructing your own deck.
You generally started playing one deck, then tried to continually fix that
deck by making one small change after another. One thing that has certainly
made Magic a great game is the new cards continually coming from Wizards of
the Coast, but there is definitely something to be said for playing
constructed over and over again with a stable set of cards.

What would have happened to Magic if no cards had been created after the
Alpha and Beta editions? We'll never know. Magic as a continuously changing
card pool certainly remains a great game. This Master Set would simply add a
new way to have fun with Magic: the Gathering. Power nine cards are great,
but Wizards has certainly proven that there are lots of ways to have fun
with Magic without such powerful cards. On the other hand, wouldn't it be
great if more people had a chance to play with the great old cards? The
Master Set is a win-win proposition, another way for players and collectors
to enjoy the classic cards of the game of Magic and another way for Wizards
of the Coast to earn some well-deserved money from parts of their amazing
game that already have proven appeal.

Some people have said that playing with the same cards wouldn't be very fun.
I don't believe this is true. My team, the Texas Guildmages, is devoted to
playing Magic at the highest levels of competition. This means that we
prepare for every Pro Tour season, sealed deck, booster draft and Rochester
draft; Standard, Extended and Block Constructed. This means that our group
of players, around twenty guys these days, changes formats very regularly.
We play everything. However, when we don't have much planned for a team
practice and don't feel like just drafting ONE MORE TIME, we break out the
set of top eight constructed decks from the first Pro Tour. This set of
decks was produced in May of 1996 and contains a good mix of different
decks. We have literally played with these same decks hundreds and hundreds
of times. Playing with decks that you are very familiar with can be a great
deal of fun. Taking a page from the Classicist's argument, you don't need
the playing pieces to change every year to have a great game. The queen is
still fun to play with in Chess, and aces are still fun to have in a poker
game.

Regardless of what four hundred cards you would assemble in a Master Set,
the number of really competitive deck designs that would be possibly created
from such a set is realistically limited. This is not a new concept in
Magic. As recently as this year's Regional tournaments, there were a small
number of truly competitive deck designs. This limitation does not keep the
game from being worthwhile. Obviously, the idea would be to create a Master
Set that would facilitate the largest possible number of good deck ideas.
But before we forget about this Spring's supposedly small number of viable
Standard constructed decks, consider the effect of the short season in which
we have to prepare for Regionals. If Standard continued to use the same
cards that were available for this year's Regionals, do you REALLY believe
the two or three decks that dominated in May would continue to be the only
competitive decks? I don't think so. Between the rapid sharing of deck
information on the internet and the relative brevity of each constructed
season, I think a lot of players have forgotten about the continual
evolution that affects all formats in Magic. In the current limited format,
for example, players are not only drafting different decks today than last
October JUST because Darksteel and Fifth Dawn have been added to the limited
format, they are ALSO thinking about the Mirrodin cards differently, cards
that they have been playing with in limited formats for almost a year.

There is good news and bad news for a constructed format when you include
some of these powerful cards from the past. The good news is obvious; we
would all like to play Moxes and Black Lotus and Library of Alexandria
again. On the other hand, including cards like these in the Master Set
returns the art and science of deck design back to a place where many cards
were almost ubiquitous, appearing in many, if not all decks. If you print a
set of this kind with some of the cards we have been talking about, you can
expect that virtually every deck in the Master Set format to include them.
Therefore, old issues like the possible need to restrict the use of some
cards also returns. Four of each Mox in a deck doesn't turn me on. Neither
do restricted lists. Somehow, a compromise would have to be made.

The fact that there are problems to work out does not keep the Master Set
from being a great idea. As I have said before, working out exactly what
cards go into this set would require a large amount of thought from a group
of very good Magic minds. Believe me, I think we are up to the challenge and
I truly believe the effort is worthwhile. Getting access again to the best
cards ever created will produce a set that is very exciting to play with. I
want it, and if enough of YOU want it, Wizards will make it for us.

The next time we explore this topic, I will present an entire card list for
the Master Set.


As usual, I'd like to know what YOU think.

Jeff Zandi
Texas Guildmages
Level II DCI Judge
jeffzandi@thoughtcastle.com
Zanman on Magic Online