Why I will not purchase any Portal Singles prior to October!

[iamfishman]

I had a brainstorm...the non-blue kind...and figured out WOTC on the ride home from school last night.

As such...I will not be buying any singles(Imperial Seal, Cruel Tutor, etc.) prior to Ocotber.  Here is the logical progression of my think, told in thought form.

1.) Why are they waiting so long to unrestrict Portal.  If they are going to wait a while...why not just announce it closer to the actual date of legality.

2.) They should have just done it with the next B/R announcement.  Let's see...they do it every three months...that means the next announcement is June 1st...then Sept 1st.  Wait...if they were going to announce it on Sept 1st, the change would happen on Sept 20th. (20 days after the announcement like when 3 spher goes)

3.)  That's weird...what else happens periodically like that...oh yeah...set's become legal.  Betrayers became legal on Feb 20.  That means Saviors will become legal on June 20...and the next Stand Alone will become legal on OCTOBER 20!

4.) Wait a sec...am I on to something here.

5.) Wizards doesn't make money off type 1.  But they notice that we are becoming a more and more populous group.  They gave us Onlslaught and Mirrodin as type 1 gifts.  In turn...we bought there packs.

6.) Wizards has nothing to gain off allowing portal cards.  The boosters are no longer in print.  Typically, they have a alterior (read as $$$) motive for the things they do.

7.) What is stopping WOTC from re-printing playable portal cards in the next Stand Alone.

8.) Portal Cards are not on the reserved list.

9.) Type one players will buy packs to get all their tutors.

10.) Type 2 players get to play with old portal cards.

11.) They have been reprinting older cards in non-base sets for a while now.  Did they run out of stuff and want to bring back some portal cards.

12.) Wait, Ray.  Wizards isn't going to put tutors into type 2.  They would have to restrict them.  After all, anything that is good enough to be resricted in type 1 is good enough to be restricted in type 2.

13.) Oh wait...Trinisphere.....oh...a nd Chrome Mox.

14.) Type 2 isn't really fast enough to make the tutors broken.  Look at me...I'm gonna tutor for ARC SLOGGER.

15.) When would they make a descion about whether to include Portal in a set that will be out in 8 months...oh yeah...a month ago.

16.) Would Wizards reprint a card just so there are more copies out there and so it is more fair for everyone to have a better shot at obtaining those cards...nah...they wouldn't do that...they don't do things like that.

17.) Oh wait...the release of more Invasion block product into Magic:Online.

These are some of the thoughts I had last night that I can remember now.  I am sure I had other convincing reasons to support the claim that WOTC will print some portal cards in the upcoming Stand Alone.  Forgive me if I have forgotten some of the other evidence I had last night, seeing as how later on the car ride home, I slid into a street sign, and so was a little frazzled.

Again...this is just speculation...but I have a VERY VERY good feeling about this.

Comments?

[Smmenen]

That's wrong ray.

You want to know why they waited until October?  Here is why:

Extended is rotating and they wanted to wait until Extended is rotating out so that Portal WON'T be Extended.  That and that alone is the sole reason.  Sorry.  That's why Portal hasn't been legal as of today - it would be in Extended.

[iamfishman]

Oh.  Sorry Steve.  Didn't realize I was wrong.

Mods...could you close this thread.

Thanks,
Ray

[Smmenen]

That's not to say that they won't be reprting cards from Portal 3K.  They certainly could.  All I'm saying is that the reason they are rotating in the fall is because of Extended.

[Zherbus]

Actually I tend to agree with Ray's entire post.

[Smmenen]

It is not that They won't reprint Portal cards.  But let's not mistake the timing.

[TracerBullet]

Yeah, Steve (wait, Smmenen... too damned many Steves on this site) is right.  As I remember it, this was the point made by Foresythe during a conversation at GenCon.

[thecapn]

If you don't buy your portal cards now you won't have the most BLING versions.  Even if they do reprint portal cards, why would anyone want to run the newer versions!?  

[Komatteru]

If you don't buy your portal cards now you won't have the most BLING versions.  Even if they do reprint portal cards, why would anyone want to run the newer versions!?  

FOILS!!

[Matt]

Three Kingdoms cards are white bordered. All of them.

[Joel Rojo]

Special Announcement Regarding Starter-Level Card Sets:

On October 20, 2005 cards from all starter-level card sets -- Portal, Portal Second Age, Portal Three Kingdoms, and Starter (1999 and 2000) -- will become legal for sanctioned play in the Vintage and Legacy formats.

I thought that only t1 and t1.5 would be able to use Portal cards, so, unless I'm missing something, the extended thing would not apply.[/code]

[dandan]

There is no secret agenda. Wizards have done this because it is the right thing to do. It is long overdue but better late than never. Look at Wizards' track record in Vintage over the last year or two. It is pretty good. They can and will do things for the format although they will not do anything they would have adverse effects on Type II or Sealed (their cash cows). Most people understand this. Aaron Forsythe has also stated other reasons behind policies like lack of Vintage reprints (basically that is not the direction Wizards want to take Magic, most of us do acknowledge the fact that a lot of Vintage cards are design/development mistakes). I don't have to agree with them but I do respect the fact that they have made considerable efforts to explain their position.

I am constantly amazed that the bulk of threads talking about Wizards are negative. I feel a little 'love' for Wizards is long overdue. (note that this thread is fairly mild, but the idea that Wizards only do stuff for $$$s is sad) They do care about what we, their most loyal customers, want and keeping your customers happy is good business practice in any case. No ulterior motive required.

[iamfishman]

@ Joel...Me and Smennen talked about this.  The fact is that they only didn't include extended in the list of formats portal would be legal in was because they already knew that extended would be out by the time they introduce portal into envoronments.  It is not too imply that they contemplated allowing portal immediately and just not letting it be extended legal.

@ Dandan... Yes, Wizards ultimate goal is to make money (primarily off type 2 and extended), however, if you look at point 16, I give them some credit.  Magic Online was an example of Wizards "looking out for the little guy" and bringing down secondary prices of a card to make the amount of access everyone has to cards greater.

[CF]

Magic Online was an example of Wizards "looking out for the little guy" and bringing down secondary prices of a card to make the amount of access everyone has to cards greater.

Hm? How did Magic Online look out for the little guy and bring down secondary prices?

And have you seen secondary prices on online cards? 4 Pernicious Deeds? That will be hundreds of dollars, thank you. The secondary market for (older) modo cards is a total nightmare.

--
Chris

[iamfishman]

What I meant CF, is that WOTC did nothing to increase, or project an increase of the insane prices that people are paying for Invasion Block Singles on Magic Online.  Irregardless of the fact that these high prices are not their fault, they are adding additional supply of product(through the introduction of a supply of IPA boosters) to hopefully alieviate the prices of cards such as Pernicious Deed on MTGO.

[The Atog Lord]

"That's why Portal hasn't been legal as of today - it would be in Extended."

I don't follow this. Declaring Portal to be legal in Type One would do nothing to make it legal in Extended. According to the definitions used to define the extended format, making Portal Type One legal would not cause it to be extended legal.

Ray, that's clever.

[Jacob Orlove]

"That's why Portal hasn't been legal as of today - it would be in Extended."

I don't follow this. Declaring Portal to be legal in Type One would do nothing to make it legal in Extended. According to the definitions used to define the extended format, making Portal Type One legal would not cause it to be extended legal.

With the way that they're organizing the extended rotations, particularly with respect to when the base sets rotate, you could make an argument that any portal sets printed concurrently with extended legal sets should be extended legal. However, with the rotation, that will not apply to any of the cards they're legalizing.

[iamfishman]

"That's why Portal hasn't been legal as of today - it would be in Extended."

I don't follow this. Declaring Portal to be legal in Type One would do nothing to make it legal in Extended. According to the definitions used to define the extended format, making Portal Type One legal would not cause it to be extended legal.

Ray, that's clever.

I dont think I said that the way I meant to say it.

What I basically meant was simply that SINCE they decided to wait until extended rotated out, they had only had to say Type one and Legacy as the formats that Portal would be legal in.  The exclusion of exteneded from the list of legal formats was not meant to imply that extended was definitively chosen not to use portal(not to say it wasn't either...good grief...I think that came out right), but simply the point was moot since Portals inclusion was to be delayed.

[dandan]

Clearly the DCI were concerned about Horsemanship decks dominating Extended.

AFAIK nobody was pushing very hard to get Portal in Extended. Don't ask, don't get.

[Gabethebabe]

I wonder what is going to happen with the price of Imperial Seal.

Right now it is ridiculous. Is it going to get worse or better?
I hope Ray is right and that they reprint a couple of playable Portal cards. I don´t want to pay $200 for a mediocre card.

[dandan]

Right now demand has just risen and supply is still lagging. However prices will only fall when there are more Seals at a certain price than there are people willing to pay that price.

[MuzzonoAmi]

I would only plan on getting one Seal, since it's probably going to get restricted before it's legal.

[Gabethebabe]

I would only plan on getting one Seal, since it's probably going to get restricted before it's legal.

This is already the case. Imperial Seal and Personal Tutor will be restricted.

[Triple_S]

If I had to guess there will be a preliminary inflationary spike in the price of Seal but eventually I think it will slide back down to a price hovering around $100.

[Gabethebabe]

If I had to guess there will be a preliminary inflationary spike in the price of Seal but eventually I think it will slide back down to a price hovering around $100.

That looks reasonable. They´re now going for 130-ish, after starting at 200.

I will not pay 100$ though for a card that is so inferior to demonic, vamp and mystical. The fact that you can´t cast it in your turn before your draw step HURTS.