Modern Masters 2017? The dead hype train?
Woah Woah Woah! 2 articles in 3 days? Flippin bananas what is exactly going on?!
Before we all go too crazy, I’ll like to mention this is a quick article from me, as I’m writing this there is a small but marginally growing problem I feel that I wanted to talk about. And that is Modern Masters 2017.
Straight into the issue
At the time of me writing this article, it is exactly 28 days to the release of Modern Masters 2017.
I shall mention this with a very heavy heart: “I have never seen so little hype for any Masters set”. Period. The hype for Modern Masters 2017 is so bad, a lot of things are happening around us that players do not normally see. You might ask, “What exactly is wrong with this set? The cards have not been spoiled.” - exactly! We are just under a month away to the actual launch of a Masters Set, a one and only unique, premium, posh, high-standards and high hopes set, that finds a place into most player’s wishlist and no cards have been spoiled/announced by Wizards for the set.
It is disappointing really. No, I’m not disappointed because there are no spoiled cards, but the secondary market is not reacting the way it should be. After some quick reads on Reddit. Many stores across the USA are dumping preorder boxes of Modern Masters 2017, yes you heard it right, stores are dumping boxes of Modern Masters 2017, for 10-15% of original MSRP pricing set by Wizards! This is probably the only time I’ve heard such a case has happened for any sort of Masters set. Back in 2013, when the original Modern Masters came out, boxes were healthy in terms of pricing, around low $200s which maintained it’s pricing despite Wizards releasing another small wave of them to the market. 2 years later, Wizards released Modern Masters 2015, placed the set alongside a couple of huge Modern GP’s alongside it just to made sure it would sell out, the set would later release criticism, on it’s atrociously bad Rare, Uncommon and Common slots as well as the disastrous pack material that was used to “save the environment” somehow managed to scam many many people’s money, by just selling them “searched” packs.
State of Modern
Not exactly the actual state of Modern’s meta-game, but the state where how the market will react to the release of the set. I’ll also break down the state of Modern’s playability after that release of that Modern Masters set as well as the cards included, sealed environment, Wizards’s marketing, etc...
Modern Masters 2013
Hailed as probably the best Masters set of all time. The very inception of Masters set itself was at a time where Wizards wanted to promote Modern as a new, safe and strong eternal format. All at the same time being a good alternative for Legacy. The set was filled with an outrageous, and I mean holy cow! The mythic slots were crazy, the rares were what people wanted, the commons and uncommons were flipping people off. It seemed like a set that just wanted to focus on value, both from a playability and monetary standpoint. Wizards did feed the market and the playerbase well with this set, the original pricing and quantity was reasonable enough for many players to get their hands on a box or even a couple of packs for draft. Even a few months later after the release of the set, Wizards printed a 2nd wave, smaller than the 1st wave of boxes but was much appreciated by most of the market and the playerbase alike. Today, box prices are high due to the amount of power and staples included in the set, cards of all rarities are sought after in the set as well as players cracking open a box or too for it’s flavorful, simple yet powerful draft environment. Rating: 9/10
Modern Masters 2015
Many players have a complicated love-hate relationship with this set, Modern Masters 2015 was released for what I believed was the time when Modern was at it’s very zenith. Players were enjoying having Modern in Pro Tours, more players were investing into the format, prices were still quite stable at that time. When the set was officially released, Wizards hosted 3 GP’s dedicated to Modern and the set’s sealed events. Many players were thrilled and it just took off from there on to be honest. Prices were stable and though some slots for rares, uncommons and commons seemed like an oddity, the set still sold well to the playerbase and secondary market. It was only just a few months later, a turning point in which I felt changed Modern forever. Splinter Twin, one of Modern’s biggest decks got banned from the format, an announcement from Wizards that shook the Modern community and took them by surprise. The meta-game changed to aggro’s favor and then came the Eldrazi Winter, which crushed Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch and again left Modern in a state of shock. Shortly after, Wizards officially decided to push Modern out of the Pro Tour, indicating a sign that the format was no longer in Wizard’s fullest attention. All of this happened in a flash, nobody expected a rising format to crush so soon, Modern will then go into a “slumber” and would now be seen as a solved format to a few. In terms of sealed, Modern Masters 2015 did quite well, it’s biggest letdown however was the inclusion of a few “oddities”, causing it to lose out to the original Modern Masters. Rating:5/10
How bad it seems
So bad, a box theme/design has not even been spoiled. Guess we’ll stick to an actual black box.
In terms of the spread of sets included in Modern Masters 2017, the picture above mentions: “Representing everything from 8th Edition through Magic 2014–including trips through Innistrad and Return to Ravnica” Now here are the possible predictions many have been speaking of:
No Shocklands - the market will go tank-town
Lili and Snap at Mythic
Usual Goyf/Clique/Bob/Cryptic reprint
Comet Storm will be reprinted in the jank mythic slot (no one can take Lord Comet Storm’s place)
Pushing that out of the way is the biggest, burning question in my mind - “Can Wizards really really really make Modern Masters great again?”. Answer is, it’s gonna be pretty hard to do so.
I don’t think the 5 cards mentioned above will be guaranteed reprints, I’m not even talking about the Zendikar fetchlands here, just showing examples of staples in Modern. To go on with this rant of mine, I’ll just make a list of cards I feel needs reprinting
Arcbound Ravager
Mox Opal
Steel Overseer
Glimmervoid
Inkmoth Nexus
Blood Moon
Path to Exile
Thoughtseize
Voice of Resurgence
Fulminator Mage
Stony Silence
Lightning Bolt
Goblin Guide
Tron Lands
Karn
Ugin
Mishra’s Bauble
Kitchen Finks
Scapeshift
Through the Breach
Goryo’s Vengeance
Ancestral Vision
Pact of Negation
Bloodghast
Celestial Colonnade
Auriok Champion
Remand
Surgical Extraction
Ancient Stirrings
You see what I mean?
It is a guarantee that Wizards cannot make everyone happy, but desperate times really call for desperate measures. I feel it’s time for Wizards to get their act together and try to make Modern Masters 2017 just like the very first one. One that many players remember and have high respect for even today, the state of Modern in terms of playability and monetary value is just too high for many players to afford, combine that with the fact it’s rather “solved” is really a shame.
Writing it off dreadfully...
All we can pretty much do is hope Wizards will learn their mistakes from Modern Masters 2015 and the small print run of Eternal Masters. The spoilers have not rolled in yet, but there is a small talk going round the community this is the set in which Wizards will save Modern from falling into it’s bigger brother Legacy. Until next time, do keep following up on the articles, follow the blog and keep up with the spoilers! Goodbye and have a great weekend ahead!