Modern, Legacy, Eternal and the Reserved List.

As a former LGS owner and long time player I feel the need to address a few issues. I have taught many people how to play Magic the Gathering over the years, giving out many thousands of dollars worth of cards. I also enjoy playing competetively. There is a tl;dr at the end.

I would like to cover my views of the Reserved List (RL), the health of Legacy and Modern, the fledgeling Eternal Format, and finally I would like to offer some positive feedback.

First off, there are many ways to enjoy this game for cheap. Pauper and Commander are fun and gaining in popularity. But if you want to get into competitive Magic then be prepared to pay up. So I am not going to advocate dissolving the RL entirely. I think it should be eaten away at a little. I hate that the ugly faded Revised Dual lands are the go to for players entering the Legacy format. It is equally challenging for me to accept that Wizards likes the design limitations. So I propose to remove all cards printed in Revised 3rd Edition and forward from the list. This preserves the antique value of cards before the game started to catch on (printing in the 10's of millions compared to 100's of millions). It would preserve chase cards like Moat, 'Nacle, p9, etc. It would allow less restrictions on design space (even less if they removed all the bland cards at the same time). It would also allow collectors to continue hoarding their Legends complete sets. Alpha/Beta duals would still hold tremendous value, but Jhonny and Laura holding 300 Revised Underground Seas would be burned. It would redifine the line of investment, not destroy it. Dissolving the edges of the list wouldn't mean mass reprints. We have Modern to see that prices don't dictate reprints. Even in small print run Masters sets they don't add more than a dash of value. Sure, Shocklands wouldn't be worth as much. But they wouldn't be worthless unless Dual Lands were reprinted into standard product (which is unlikely). So Shocklands for Standard/Modern and Duals for Legs/Commander.

Speaking of Modern, and Legacy, I don't buy the idea of either format dying. Modern is an eternal format. It will adapt and recover more robustly after the Eldrazi are dealt with. Modern has a lot of room for growth and potential deck design. Over the years we have seen many decks become too powerful and they are dealt with either through printing answers or the ban hammer. Modern is expensive. So is any other hobby when you start to compete at any level. You can enjoy skiing with cheap gear. But if you want to race it might be best to do some research and fork over a healthy chunk of cash. Legacy is the same. Cards appreciate over time. New players wanting to join these formats can do so slowly. If you want to speed up the process, pay money. Legacy is not dying. Legacy is a fun format and (previous) lack of FoW and Wasteland availability has lead to fewer people entering. Many people have the card pools tied up in other formats. These card pools can be leveraged towards playing Legacy. But people don't want to tear that dual land out of their Commander deck because FoW is never on the trading block (making it impossible for the casual to build a set). Dual lands are a hard cap but make up less of the problem than they are credited. But we can all agree that buyouts of RL cards for profit will harm the game in the long run. Retailers make their money on turnover. Losing some dollars to invested items doesn't matter if that money is turned back into liquid assets. Holding Moxen and the like are a status symbol. Not an investment. It shows you can tie up a bunch of cash into dead inventory. If Underground Sea was $100 again it would sell faster, people would buylist them more, and stores would make more money than holding them in an investment portfolio would. Stores making more money means more money invested back into the community. An LGS is a labor of love. We don't do it to become rich. Please beleive me when I say we do it for the love of the community.

Which then brings me to the new buzzword: Eternal. The community overwhelmingly seems to think Eternal is going to happen. Eternal is not a format. Not in Wizard's eyes at least. Any interpratation otherwise is wishful thinking. Eternal format Magic has had no playtesting. There is nothing to say that it would be fun or more/less broken than the formats it is competing with. It would neuter more than half of the existing decks while providing significant gains to others. Do you think Psychatog/Madness would stand a chance against Brain/Storm? Without playtesting the format completely I can't have a positive stance on it. Logic dictates that Eternal has to prove itself. Not that I have to disprove it. The other argument from people who want Eternal are for the most part complaining of price. Banning the Reserved list in Legacy wouldn't make it cheap. Modern is not cheap. Price spikes, buyouts and other shady practices happen there too. Wizards has shown the willingness to reprint key cards. But they have also shown considerable hesitation even in Masters sets. Eternal will not provide the card pool required to stop the next Eldrazi Winter. Nor does it provide assurance Wizards will reprint something once it has spiked. All evidence I can gather leads me to frown upon Eternal as a format. Like if a child smeared makeup on the Mona Lisa and professed it to be profound. Everybody swears it is Mozart but it sounds like Bubble Gum to me.

I don't think that my idea of removing such a dramatic amount of cards from the RL is necessarily a good idea either. But it doesn't hurt to bring up that the RL could be trimmed. The recent focus on the RL, both through articles and buyouts, has to have been noticed by Wizards. I expect them to at least re-examine the policy. Maybe they won't change it. But I do know that public opinion has been observed.

Wizards has done a great job of supporting its Eternal formats. From Commander decks each year to fun Summer sets there is more and more evidence that they take the aftermarket seriously. We have been edging closer to a major change in the way competitive (Standard) Magic is managed. I think there is a new era of Magic in the workings. The focus and attention to these new changes has created the perception of WotC losing control over their monster. The monster has not broken its cage however. I just think they are building a new, updated cage. Change for the better rarely happens quickly. When it does usually it follows a catastrophe. I ask that we allow Wizards the opportunity to surpass our expectations. Clouding our vision with pocket books, a couple of months of bad tournament results, leaks, bannings, etc will not help anything in the long run. Speculators have been updating their strategies (other than RL buyouts) and will continue to do so. Players won't stop playing because of prices. We will stop playing when the mixtures within the card pool become stale. I don't see that happening any time soon.

tl;dr

The Reserved List hurts both players and stores. But there are no simple answers and change must happen slowly. Eternal will not be an easy fix. Abolishing the RL isn't the answer either. I hypothetically propose they trim the RL to exclude 3rd forward.