Interesting Ask Wizards

[vartemis]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/0806

Q: What led you to reprint particular Ice Age or Alliances cards in the Coldsnap theme decks? (ex: Swords to Plowshares, Dark Ritual)
--Anthony
Quitman, TX

A: From Aaron Forsythe, Magic Head Developer:

We chose cards that would evoke the feel of old-school Magic in one way or another, either because they are over the modern power curve (like your aforementioned Swords to Plowshares and Dark Ritual), had some charming weirdness that we think of when we think of old sets (Kjeldoran Home Guard, Orcish Healer, Snow Devil), or fit the deck's theme particularly well (Balduvian Dead, Aurochs).

We were conscious to put as many old favorites that we could into them, as we know some people like getting new-frame versions of old powerful cards, like Brainstorm and Gorilla Shaman. Additionally, we knew that many of these cards would be appearing in Magic Online for the first time in these decks, so we wanted to make them somewhat tempting to that crowd.

I'm sure that the essence of your question in some way has to do with the absence of Force of Will in these decks, and there are two reasons for that. One, by putting FoW in one of the decks, we would severely imbalance the value of the four decks in relation to one another. Store owners hate that, with good reason (yes, putting Umezawa's Jitte in the Rats' Nest deck was a mistake, not some plan to make the card easier to acquire). Two, when we finally do get around to printing a new version of Force of Will, we'll probably want to do so as a prize card of some sort.

Hmmm, foil FOW?  saw-eet!  Has anyone bought the precons?  I bought 4 of the kjeldoran ones to get 3 playsets of BS, a playset of grunts, and a playset of Swords.  I want the Gorilla Shamans, but I dont really need the tinderwalls that much, and I dont think the black one has enough in it to get the dark rituals.

j

[Whatever Works]

I would actually be very very angry if they reprinted FoW... Especially as a foil...

Seeing the most defining card in magic with the new frame would be painful, and seeing it in foil would just destroy the old feeling & power of the card.

It would also hurt the value of FoW overall, and would then be a redicules value to buy (easily in thr $100 range for a foil version if it was to be given out as a prize).

Awful, just awful.

[Kowal]

I would actually be very very angry if they reprinted FoW... Especially as a foil...

Seeing the most defining card in magic with the new frame would be painful, and seeing it in foil would just destroy the old feeling & power of the card.

It would also hurt the value of FoW overall, and would then be a redicules value to buy (easily in thr $100 range for a foil version if it was to be given out as a prize).

Awful, just awful.

You're alone on this.  Bring on the reprints.

[Komatteru]

I would actually be very very angry if they reprinted FoW... Especially as a foil...

Seeing the most defining card in magic with the new frame would be painful, and seeing it in foil would just destroy the old feeling & power of the card.

It would also hurt the value of FoW overall, and would then be a redicules value to buy (easily in thr $100 range for a foil version if it was to be given out as a prize).

Awful, just awful.

You're just upset that you know you end up having to pay out whatever the outrageous price for Foil FoWs is.  I used to think like that as well.  I was upset that I knew I wouldn't be able to resist buying the foil version eventually, and it was going to cost me a boatload.

[vartemis]

Even if it was a judge's foil and prohibitively expensive, I would still be interested in seeing the new art they selected for it.  I have liked almost all the alternate foil art, especially balance.  I'm waiting for a judge's DT.

j

[TD]

Even if it was a judge's foil and prohibitively expensive, I would still be interested in seeing the new art they selected for it.  I have liked almost all the alternate foil art, especially balance.  I'm waiting for a judge's DT.

j

I don't think they'd do alternate art for it. The only 'old' card they did alternate art for was Balance. Sol Ring, Regrowth and most of the others used the old art. They've been doing alternate art for the Extended legal cards (Mage, Lavamancer, etc.) because doing the original art would just be boring. (They're already available in foil)

[forests failed you]

I would have no problem with Wizards reprinting any of the old cool cards with new card face or in foil.  I think it looks cool, and has the potential to get newer players into the older formats.

[Whatever Works]

My FoW's are customly altered already by terese nielson. There is absolutely no way that the coolness factor could be surpassed by any card featuring a new frame even if foil. So gg to that misconception.

I didnt like the reprint of sol ring, balance, etc. either. I thought they were tacky & just play bad.

Kyle L

[Royal Ass.]

As somewhat of a reactionary, I agree with Whateverworks.  I still hate the new card face, and never really caught on to foils.  But I do however agree with Forcefield that reprinting old cards could get more people into the format and that outweighs my dislike of the new card face.

[CrashTest]

As a strong advocator of pimpage, if it looks pimp - bring it on!

          it'd suck to have a FoW that says "FNM" or even "DCI" on it, I usually do not like those types of foils very much. I much prefer the older promo foils like the Urza Saga's Duress, and things of that nature.

          Regardless, it'd be nice to have it in Japanese foil. English foils are kind of not pimp. (Except when worse comes to worse, like Vampiric Tutor  - It's either Korean or English Foil.)

[The Atog Lord]

My FoW's are customly altered already by terese nielson. There is absolutely no way that the coolness factor could be surpassed by any card featuring a new frame even if foil. So gg to that misconception.

Agreed. Foil Asian Artist-Mod Misprint new card frame is far less pimp than anything in the old card frame.

[Liam-K]

I know I'm alone on this but I absolutely hate foil cards.  I think they are tacky, gaudy, and condescending to the player base (oh they'll love this, it's SHINEY!).  I can deal with the new frames but foils don't make me happy.  For the record I also prefer english cards to foriegn.

New art is fun though, and playing with cards that aren't beat is sexy.

[Bardo]

Ditto. My idea of pimp: English, black-bordered. And definitely NOT foil. Beta > everything.

Edit.



@ Kowal - The Hong Kong APAC island is the mother of all.

Personally, I have enough APAC, Unglued, Unhinged and Beta islands that I play depending on my mood and deck. Like lately, I've really been digging Unglued Islands in my Legacy Threshold deck, but for Tog, something classier is required (Beta); where GAT is lean and mean enough that Unhinged seems a perfect fit to my eye.

Indeed, I take basic land selection for my decks way too fucking seriously.

[Matt]

Ditto. My idea of pimp: English, black-bordered. And definitely NOT foil. Beta > everything.

Close but no cigar, I like Unhinged basic islands more than Betas (and Betas more than Unglued). Also, Guru lands > all other basics.

[Kowal]

The guru island is actually pretty hideous.  The rest are nice though.  For islands, I prefer the APAC one with the little boat.

[Jacob Orlove]

The guru island is actually pretty hideous.

That's a dirty lie.

[CrashTest]

I always really liked the artwork on the Guru Island, I think it is well done. That and rarity is all that this card has to differentiate it, since it is neither Beta, nor available in a foil version. I do believe that this is the best basic land to play, though.

         Summer Islands look random if you don't play Summer duals and other cards like Sol Ring - but that is not an option for most people.

[Mr. Nightmare]

Has anyone bought the precons?  I bought 4 of the kjeldoran ones to get 3 playsets of BS, a playset of grunts, and a playset of Swords.  I want the Gorilla Shamans, but I dont really need the tinderwalls that much, and I dont think the black one has enough in it to get the dark rituals.

I bought three of the U/W ones also, but I got mine from Japan, so I have Japanese Ice Age Brainstorms, Disenchants, Swords, and Portents.  That's Pimp.

[zeus-online]

I'd love to own a playset of DCI FoW's. I really like fnm/dci cards, while i find normal foils to be rather boring.

I definetly prefer having english cards (okay i'm still looking for a bunch of russian hyppies )
I HATE having to explain some newb what my card does 'cause its japanesse or whatever. How is having a card that nobody can read, pimp?

Prefer Unglued islands over most other pimp islands

Never understood the obsession with summer magic cards, most people probably can't tell the difference between a summer dual and a revised dual.

Oh, and i don't really like the new frame much either.

/Zeus

[Methuselahn]

Now that Gencon is over with, I can put away my power and go back to using the proxies I've made.  Yay!

[Anusien]

Has anyone bought the precons?  I bought 4 of the kjeldoran ones to get 3 playsets of BS, a playset of grunts, and a playset of Swords.  I want the Gorilla Shamans, but I dont really need the tinderwalls that much, and I dont think the black one has enough in it to get the dark rituals.

I bought three of the U/W ones also, but I got mine from Japan, so I have Japanese Ice Age Brainstorms, Disenchants, Swords, and Portents.  That's Pimp.

Link?

[Mr. Nightmare]

Has anyone bought the precons? I bought 4 of the kjeldoran ones to get 3 playsets of BS, a playset of grunts, and a playset of Swords. I want the Gorilla Shamans, but I dont really need the tinderwalls that much, and I dont think the black one has enough in it to get the dark rituals.

I bought three of the U/W ones also, but I got mine from Japan, so I have Japanese Ice Age Brainstorms, Disenchants, Swords, and Portents. That's Pimp.

Link?

I'll scan them all when I get home.

Edit - If you were looking for a place to buy them, I can't help you.  I contacted Volcanon when he was over there, he had to go to like a Wal-Mart equivalent to find them, and ship them to me.

[Frodo Fett]

I know I'm alone on this but I absolutely hate foil cards.  I think they are tacky, gaudy, and condescending to the player base (oh they'll love this, it's SHINEY!)

I understand that part of the reason they changed the card face was because the old face supposedly looked "not so good" in foil.  So you can blame foils, at least in part, for the card face change.  And they are tacky, much of the time...

As for new FoW: textless art would be the coolest.

[zeus-online]

I really, really, really hate Textless cards.
I'd almost feel insulted if they printed a textless fow.

/Zeus

[Dr. Teeth]

I like the textless mana leak more than other ones, though (but if i could get my hands on some russian foils... :p)

[vartemis]

I got a playset of the textless leaks, but that's because it reminds me of Raiden and that guy from Big Trouble in Little China.

Has anyone bought the precons? I bought 4 of the kjeldoran ones to get 3 playsets of BS, a playset of grunts, and a playset of Swords. I want the Gorilla Shamans, but I dont really need the tinderwalls that much, and I dont think the black one has enough in it to get the dark rituals.

I bought three of the U/W ones also, but I got mine from Japan, so I have Japanese Ice Age Brainstorms, Disenchants, Swords, and Portents. That's Pimp.

Link?

Im not a big fan of foreign cards, but I love the bigger art picture, and I like this pic 1000% better than the MM one with the floating bath beads.

j

[Mr. Nightmare]

Although Vartemis posted the Brainstorms, here's a scan of all 4 "important" cards from the U/W precon.

[Whatever Works]

Although Vartemis posted the Brainstorms, here's a scan of all 4 "important" cards from the U/W precon.

Taking old cards and putting them in new border scheme is atrocious.

[wraith985]

I don't think it's that bad - the Ice Age symbol is amazingly ugly, though, probably because they had to color them common/uncommon/rare and thus had to make it all fat and stupid.

It doesn't help that IA STP and Disenchant have bad art to begin with.

[Kowal]

I prefer the IA art to the A/B/U art on Swords to Plowshares.

Amazing they found a method of making that hideous Brainstorm artwork even uglier.

It's too bad the only decent looking Disenchant artwork was the promo one.

...Who gives a rat's ass about Portent?