Welcome to spoiler season! The time of the year when cards spike and everyone called their shot and were never wrong (end old-man Stu rant). In all seriousness, this has been one of the most pushed reprint sets that I can remember (I can’t remember Chronicles, it was awful). I am going to go over some notable inclusions, even more notable exclusions, and some cards I hope do make it into the set.

Inclusions:

Verdant Catacombs/Misty Rainforest/Arid Mesa/Marsh Flats/Scalding Tarn

 

I am firmly in the camp that these did not need to be reprinted here and could have been saved for a product that really needed a boost, like the upcoming Archenemy set or a future second set in a block since those ones really seem to suffer when it comes to having large amounts of product being opened and being exciting. That being said, it is still very cool that we are getting these and at rare that will keep the prices on these down for a good long time.

 

Damnation

 

“About time right?” was the reaction that everyone on the internet had for this card. Although, I wish Sam Stoddard had gotten his wish and left this card for the full gallery spoiler at the end of the week. I think with this reprint here, we will never see a great 4 mana wrath effect again. They have made it quite clear that 4 mana wraths, 3 mana land destruction, and 2 mana counterspells are probably never coming back at this point.

Path to Exile/Might of Old Krosa/Inquisition of Kozilek

  

Every time they reprint these uncommons they seem to just rebound to their pre-reprint price. However, I think this time will be different. Conspiracy 2 and EMA had some higher end uncommons reprinted like Chain Lightning and Cabal Therapy and their prices have not recovered. Inquisition was just reprinted recently too in Conspiracy 2 so there is going to be a lot of them. Would be surprised to see any of these hit $7 again any time soon.

 

Exclusions:

Grove of the Burnwillows/Horizon Canopy:

 

 
I think it is super telling that they did not include these in Modern Masters this time. I think we are going to visit a plane sooner rather than later that these Futureshifted cards come from. There is almost no way these cards do not gain 50%-100% in the next few months, especially Grove that has been touted as a strong card against the Death Shadow deck.

 

Adarkar Waste/Brushland/Sulfurous Springs/Karplusan Forest/Underground River

  

These cards have a very small window to get reprinted due to Adarkar and Karplusan being specific places. I suppose they could just make new versions with generic names, but I do not think that is a design space that Wizards wants to go to. I could see these getting up into the $12-$15 range for the Ice Age and 10^th Edition versions pretty easily since the next chance for a reprint might be Archenemy, but if not, when is the next time they can come out to play?

 

Oboro, Palace in the Clouds/Minamo, School at Water’s Edge:

 

 
I think this makes sense that these are going to be saved for a Commander product, but cards like Oboro and Miren, the Moaning Well make for some cool limited interactions, especially in a set that is already looking to be a lot of fun to draft. I don’t think we will ever see a return to Kamigawa so having these not be reprinted means that they have a lot of upward room to grow in value.

 

Rest in Peace:

 

This one kind of surprised me to be honest. They reprinted Stony Silence but not best graveyard hose around. There might be some limited interactions that want to exist and this would single handedly ruin them, but if there are things like borderposts or an artifact sub-theme Stony Silence would just do the same to that. This card just might not appear until a future supplemental set or the Return to the Return to Ravnica.

 

Missed Chances:

Mishra’s Bauble

 

 This one is a bit greedy because I really want to play this deck in Modern and I am not looking to pay $40 for an uncommon unless that is my last resort. Coldsnap was a very low-opened set and without the apparent inclusion of Snow-Lands, I doubt we are going to see very much from Coldsnap included in this set. If it is not in this set, I don’t expect to see a reprint anytime soon with the name being a specific person and not being able to fit into a plane…unless they go back to Dominiaria!

 

Jace, the Mind Sculptor/Bloodbraid Elf

  

Unless Jace is a rare, I do not see this happening unfortunately. I am firmly in the camp that I think both cards are safe for Modern, and Jace doubly so if Bloodbraid Elf comes with it. A giant curveball would be to have these preplanned to be unbanned and including them in the set will help keep the price down on the cards when the demand goes up. This would actually be really exciting to see, but something I think in the end we will not.

 

Infernal Tutor

 

This is one is a preemptive reprint. The longer we go with sets being released, the more combo decks that are potentially out there. Those decks could really want a tutor effect and with the low amount of them out there, any new top tier deck will cause this card to go to $50+. A reprinting will keep this card down in the $20 range if there is a strong deck to include it. I really don’t think they lose anything by including this, and some people looking for the foils will be really happy to see the reprint.

 

Thanks for reading!
 
-Stu Somers
@Ssomers55 on Twitter