I'm sure I'm not the only person on this forum that sometimes wonders "what if?" when thinking about the world and history of Magic.
"What if I had bought thirty sets of power nine in 1993?"
"What if I stumbled onto an unopened box of Beta or Summer Magic?"
"What if, in 2013, Chaos Orb was still a part of the Vintage metagame?"
"What if there was never a Dredge mechanic created?"
"What if Birds of Paradise was never 'accidentally' created by Mark Poole?"
"What if Ancestral Recall was printed as a common, as it was originally intended?"
"What if Wizards had begun printing foil cards in sets earlier than Urza's Legacy?"
"What if Time Vault was never printed?"
"Similarly, what if Voltaic Key was never printed but Time Vault still existed?"If you've known me for quite some time, then it's possible that I've brought up my two favorite "what ifs" to you before. They both regard the printings of the quintessential "power" cards of the game's history.
"What if the power nine had made it into the Revised printing?"
"What if the dual lands had made it into the Fourth Edition printing?"I often wonder how close these two sets of cards were to actually being included in just one more printing before they were ultimately cut from reproduction. Was their demise an eleventh hour decision, or was it something mulled over long before the next set came out?
Unlimited was the last set to feature the power nine, alongside other nominal cards that got cut such as Berserk and Sinkhole. The dual lands hung around for one more set, alongside Sol Ring, Regrowth, and Demonic Tutor, but were cut before Fourth Edition. Yet, for some reason, Mana Vault, Mind Twist, and Balance made it all the way into Fourth Edition's print run.
The power nine and Time Vault were only printed in Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited. If they had continued on for one more printing, we would currently have a humongous amount of Revised power. We would also have foreign, black-bordered German, French, and Italian power. Revised was the first core set to see European printings.
The dual lands were printed in Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, German, French, Italian, and Summer Magic. If they had continued on for one more printing, we would currently have a humongous supply of Fourth Edition dual lands. We would also have Japanese, Korean, and Chinese dual lands. Can you imagine that? A foreign, black-bordered Korean Underground Sea? Fourth Edition was the first core set to see Asian printings.
The thought that I often ponder is... which of those two scenarios would
I prefer? I personally would love to see the power nine featured as a part of the crisp printing run of the black-bordered European sets. Power would be much more plentiful. Dual lands are tough for many players to attain, but it's a realistic goal that is usually met with some time. Power can often be considered by many Magic players as something they will "never" have. A playset of Tundras can be cheaper than one Mox.
I also often ponder, outside of what I would personally prefer, is which of those two scenarios would be better for the Magic community as a whole? The dual lands would be unbelievably accessible if they had one more print run in Fourth Edition. Those lands are a big part of many formats. However, I also imagine that Vintage would be much more accessible as a whole if Revised boosters included some washed out printings of power. Would Vintage be more popular and more prominent if power was a part of Revised's 500,000,000(!) card print run? (Unlimited had a print run of 40,000,000.)
How would Magic be different with either of these scenarios? How would the prominence or popularity of certain formats change? Which of the two scenarios would you have personally preferred? How would either of these additional printings affect the pricing of these cards? What would the market look like? I'm interested to hear the thoughts of the people that frequent this forum.
