[News] New Cards Just For Eternal Formats

[Troy_Costisick]

Check out the Arcanna on the new Commander format: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/594

In it, it says, "The 51 new cards will be legal in Eternal formats (that's Vintage and Legacy), but they will not be legal in Standard, Extended, or Block Constructed."  I doubt they'll be any good, but here's the thing:  A long time ago MaRo said that cards like Mana Crypt and Nalathni Dragon wouldn't be printed again because they were promo cards not available in sets, thus making them harder to find and not fit in well with the rest of the card pool.  However, if they're willing to print 51 cards that can only be used in Commander, Vintage, and Legacy, could we see products down the road like a "Vintage Starter Kit" with 60 cards tailor made for Vintage (or Legacy)? 

Peace,

-Troy

[CHaPuZaS]

I loved that! It opens a window for so many eternal-related posibilities.

I speal about that in the article I published today (Speculations about Eternal and Magic), but unfortunately it's an spanish 7000-word one, so I won't be able to translate it really soon... and I don't think that the google translator will help you much.

The thing is the one you point out. Now that WotC has opened the door, theer's no reason to think that they won't be doin it regularly. The most important point it that those cards are designed FOR Eternal, so we can expect a huge jump in power levels, as they don't have to care what an overpowered card will do in Standard and the power creep in Eternal is huge.

[silvernail]

keep in mind the new cards for commander are designed for multiplayer and therefor will cost a ton of mana most of the time I would guess. I don't see they printing anything that will distort vintage or legacy outside of maybe a new oath guy or tinker bot.

[Qube]

But also Highlander needs some spells with low CMC... I've still some hopes that there will also be nice cards for Vintage&Legacy. Otherwise they could also be legal for standart ect. because they also don't use those overcosted cards... Or do I miss something?

[Tha Gunslinga]

I wouldn't bet on these being unplayable in Vintage, just based on the increased power of many newer cards.  I would expect at least something playable.  The thing is, the average Magic set is packed with filler for drafting and such.  2/2 for 2, that kind of thing.  This is going to be relatively devoid of that.  These will be playables.  That means there's a higher likelihood of them being vintage-playable.

[The Atog Lord]

I think this is a great way for Wizards to print cards as solutions to Eternal metagame issues. Previously, the Banned and Restricted list was the sole blunt instrument available to fix Vintage and Legacy metagames in many cases. Printing a ``hoser'' card in a regular expansion or base set would generally lead to a card poorly suited for the main purpose of that set (drafting, standard). But now, Wizards is far more free to impact the Vintage metagame without just removing cards. I believe this is a great change.

And as someone who enjoys EDH/Commander, I'm looking forward to this set anyway.

[Norm4eva]

There's a preview card on the Interwebs already, via mtgcommander.net...

Karador, Ghost Chieftain   5BGW

Legendary Creature - Centaur Spirit

-this- costs 1 less to play for each creature card in your graveyard.

During each of your turns, you may cast one creature card from your graveyard.

3/4

Not exactly a format-shattering Centaur, but we haven't seen a relevant Centaur since.. well, since...

[TopSecret]

I don't know about a Vintage specific product, but it's possible Wizards could print a product for Eternal in general without multiplayer specifically in mind. Eternal formats have a lot of crossover with "casual" aka "anything goes" or "sometimes it's fun to play things that are unfair". Although as far as a product targeted at playability in Vintage and Legacy goes, maybe it would be weird if they printed something with the theme of "OMG these cards of so good!". Maybe something more like Premium Decks: Burn, except with new cards for Eternal Formats. Of course, maybe nothing will be designed with any competitive formats in mind. EDH is casual, so maybe making new cards for it is not the same as making cards for formats like Legacy and Vintage where if people want to compete they NEED access to certain cards, instead of them just being cool things for casual. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this.

[DubDub]

This is an announcement I can get behind.  Very cool in my opinion, though I'd still like to see Planechase make a comeback.

From Forsythe's article:

The Magic: The Gathering Commander decks will each be three "wedge" colors with corresponding new commanders. "Wedge" is a term we use for three-color combinations consisting of an allied pair and their shared enemy. Examples of famous "wedge" cards are Lightning Angel () and Doran, the Siege Tower (). These combinations have been woefully short-supplied on legendary creatures, so each deck contains the corresponding Planar Chaos Dragon (such as Intet, the Dreamer) as well as two new legendary commanders in those colors, plus oversized foil versions of all three.

So we know 10 of the 51 new cards are 'wedge' colored Legendary Creatures, plus the spoiled dragon-making spell.  Can't wait to see the rest.

[Zherbus]

I think this is a great way for Wizards to print cards as solutions to Eternal metagame issues. Previously, the Banned and Restricted list was the sole blunt instrument available to fix Vintage and Legacy metagames in many cases. Printing a ``hoser'' card in a regular expansion or base set would generally lead to a card poorly suited for the main purpose of that set (drafting, standard). But now, Wizards is far more free to impact the Vintage metagame without just removing cards. I believe this is a great change.

And as someone who enjoys EDH/Commander, I'm looking forward to this set anyway.

These are my exact thoughts as well. It also opens a loophole, albeit it's as unlikely as a gnome launching from my pee-hole, for them to do functional reprints of shit they would never reprint otherwise.