Eternal Masters Spoiler Thread
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Feb. 15, 2016, 11:26 a.m. by FAMOUSWATERMELON
Set Name: Eternal Masters
Number of Cards: 249
Release Date: June 10, 2016
Official Three Letter Code: EMA
MSRP: $9.99
Including:
It's worth noting that NOTHING ON THE RESERVED LIST WILL BE REPRINTED. So no ABUR duals and the like.
Additional Information:
This set will probably have more variance with the number of creatures that you play in limited than other sets- that is, you can make control decks with few creatures as opposed to just-less-than-average creatures. Hence, Flusterstorm would be better than in regular limited.
April 4, 2016 5:49 a.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #4
It's still a horrible card in limited. It's not good early because pressure there will happen with creatures, it's not good late because they'll just pay the 1 me for their removal, it doesn't help to break board stalls and you can't come back from behind. Not to mention how abysmal it is as a turn 13 topdeck. I wouldn't play it. Not ever. Not even if my opponent had 12 targets for it.
April 4, 2016 9:36 a.m.
I get the feeling that they will have to pay more than 
for Flusterstorm. By chance, did you forget that it has storm? Sure, it's a horrible topdeck, but it's only as bad as turn 13 Berserk- after your creatures are dead.
April 4, 2016 9:56 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #6
I feel like Flusterstorm is more expensive than it should be.
April 4, 2016 10:19 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #8
It wins counter wars in legacy. It may as well say "force target spell you control into play."
April 4, 2016 10:38 a.m.
nobodygaming says... #9
So how are we feeling about Ancestral Vision and Sword of the Meek chances with their modern unbanning? This may not be a modern focused set, but I imagine EDH/Cube players wouldn't mind easier access to these cards. Or would it be more likely in a future MM set like Bitterblossom was
April 4, 2016 6:05 p.m.
The set was finalised no later than the start of this year, and probably October or earlier. Hence, unless they could guess that they were going to unban them... They may still see a reprint, but if they do, it won't be because of a modern unbanning.
April 4, 2016 6:11 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #11
@nobodygaming They are both possible due to the fact that both are key parts of Legacy decks. However, it wouldn't be in Eternal Masters due to being unbanned.
April 4, 2016 6:22 p.m.
Harashiohorn says... #13
@lemmingllama Actually, given the design cycle for sets they could very well be included because there was no impression or belief they would be unbanned during the design phase. From WOTC's perspective they Eldrazi were supposed to spice up modern, they didn't anticipate them blowing up the format. At this point the unbannings are basically 2 things: 1)An opportunity to test the power of previously untested cards in a format that can't really get any more chaotic or unbalanced than it already it, and 2)These are both cards that have been on a large chunk of modern players unban wishlist, as something they would like that don't seem to busted. So this is basically a consolation prize/apology for blowing up the format. So far as I can tell, the decision to unban these probably came long after the set was finished being designed.
April 5, 2016 6:57 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #14
I guess I wasn't clear. They certainly can and may be in Eternal Masters. This is due to the play they see in Legacy. I don't think that the Modern unbannings have any bearing on whether or not they would be reprinted, for the reasons you stated.
April 6, 2016 8:18 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
I have noticed that Inquisition of Kozilek has become quite expensive, recently, so I believe that it would be an excellent card to reprint in this set, given that it is a very popular card; does anyone else agree with that idea?
April 10, 2016 1:02 a.m.
I would be thrilled to see a reprint of Inquisition; it very much so needs one. But, it's popular mostly in modern, so I'm not sure how much it will be considered for a set built to focus on legacy and edh cards, formats where Inquisition isn't as good.
April 10, 2016 1:18 a.m.
Thankfully its been dropping ever so slowly. I hope that continues!
April 10, 2016 1:46 a.m.
Rabid_Wombat says... #18
Too everyone saying Dual lands won't be reprinted due to the "Reserved List"....it didn't stop WoTC from releasing Chronicles now did it?
I knew this was coming so I sold all my Duals a few months ago...wait and see :)
April 10, 2016 3:43 a.m.
Inquisition of Kozilek is a card which should be reprinted in MM2017 not Eternal Masters. It's more appropriate there.
April 10, 2016 6:35 a.m.
Rabid_Wombat you sold all your Duals just before they all spiked in price? They're only going to go up. Your decision seems rather foolish....
April 10, 2016 7:07 a.m. Edited.
Rabid_Wombat, if I'm not mistaken, none of the cards in chronicles were on the reserved list.
April 10, 2016 9:11 a.m.
The reserved list was in response to chronicles, I believe...
April 10, 2016 9:15 a.m.
Yes, it was. I wish I could have been the one he offloaded them to haha.
April 10, 2016 9:15 a.m.
Harashiohorn says... #25
Chronicles was a reprint of some of the most valuable/desired cards in MTG at the time. And it tanked their values. This is where the beloved Reserved list comes from, to regain the faith of collectors and investors, and to prevent another chronicles. Now with the "Masters" sets we question the continued existence of the list, but given that the list didn't go away during the Hasbro acquisition, it seems odd it would suddenly be repealed now.
April 10, 2016 5:20 p.m.
Rabid_Wombat says... #26
I think you will find that the "No Reprints" policy was in place when Chronicles dropped. This is why a lot of collectors/investors quit the game in response at the time.
The Reserved list came into effect due to this. Wizards broke their own rules once, nothing is stopping them from doing the same again (except for Nerd Rage).
In fact, the Reserved list has to be repealed. Why? Because the market has been flooded with high-quality proxies (especially Duals)- that once sleeved are impossible to distinguish from the real deal (without a jewellers loupe).
This is why we will see "Underground Sea" and "Volcanic Island" in the first Eternal Masters set with more to follow!
And as for my making a loss....I only paid a few bucks each for them (pulled from Unlimited boosters) :)
April 10, 2016 9:18 p.m.
EpicFreddi says... #27
Didn't Maro already confirm that there will be no cards from the reserved list in EM?
April 11, 2016 2:39 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #28
@EpicFreddi It says that right in the announcement page.
April 11, 2016 7:40 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #29
lemmingllama soo.. yeah. So much for "Duals will be in the product". I recently bought all the duals for 2k, which was a sweat deal. So they better not be reprinted. :v
April 11, 2016 9:11 a.m.
EpicFreddi, you have nothing to worry about. Anyone saying that Wizards are going to reprint reserved list cards is seriously deluded. They won't be. They have stated several times that it is simply not going to happen. They'd open themselves to a massive class action lawsuit if they did anyway.
Picking up all the duals was a smart move on your part because they are only going to go up over time now that Eternal Masters has been announced. I personally picked up 4x Gaea's Cradle, two Bayous and a Savannah for an Elves deck I want to get into. And am currently working my way to a playset of Taigas for a funky Scapeshift/landfall deck I'm brewing.
I'm not looking for a profit I'm simply looking to be able to get these decks before it becomes unfeasibly expensive to do so in the future.
I would advice anyone else wanting to get into Legacy to do the same. If that's your goal you don't want to miss the boat.
April 11, 2016 10:18 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #31
I believe that the original dual lands are too powerful to reprint, even if they were not on the reserved list. They, plus the "power nine," are some of the most powerful and unbalanced cards in the game, which is the reason for which they are on the reserved list in the first place. Over the years, there have been replacements for those cards that are supposedly balanced, including the dual lands. It seems to me that the "shocklands" are the closest that WotC shall ever come to reprinting the original dual lands, so I believe that it would be better to focus more on them rather than hoping for reprints of the original dual lands.
April 11, 2016 4:06 p.m.
That doesn't make any sense at all. We're not talking about reprints in standard, it's just Eternal Masters. The duals are already legal in Legacy and Vintage so reprints has no bearing at all as the cards already exist.
The reason they're not getting reprinted (in Eternal Masters) is because they are on the reserved list. It has nothing to do with their power level, it's just that they are not going to reprint the reserved list cards.
April 11, 2016 5:41 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #33
Crotale, the reason that the original dual lands are on the reserved list is because of their power. They unconditionally enter the battlefield untapped and produce two colors of mana without any drawbacks or conditions. Every other dual land in the game has some form of restriction; most of them unconditionally enter the battlefield tapped, with only a rare few entering the battlefield untapped when the proper conditions are met (i.e., the shocklands, the "checklands" from Magic 2010 and Innistrad, and the "battle lands"). The two cycles of dual lands (apart from the originals) that enter the battlefield untapped without any conditions are the painlands and the "filter lands" from Shadowmoor and Eventide, but those lands instead either require certain conditions to be met for producing two colors of mana or have drawbacks to doing so. Therefore, I maintain my belief that the original dual lands are too powerful to ever reprint (outside of the online-only Vintage Masters).
April 11, 2016 10 p.m.
DemonDragonJ, the reserved list actually has nothing to do with the power of the cards on it. It is a list of cards wizards promised never to reprint in order to preserve their value for collectors. It was first published in the late 90s and has been revised once or twice since. It was created in response to the reception of Chronciles, which saw expansive reprints and tanked the value of a lot of cards (making collectors super unhappy). What places a card on the reserved list is a combination of its rarity and when it was printed: it has nothing to do with power level. the ABUR dual lands are certainly incredibly powerful, but that's not the reason they're on the list. With that said, they appear to have no desire to abandon the reserve list, so there's no way we're seeing a reprint of the ABUR duals in any set any time soon.
Crotales point is that eternal masters does not add any new cards to a meta. Cards printed in eternal masters continue to only be legal in formats they were already legal in, which means "too powerful to reprint" doesn't mean anything. Reprinted cards will increase the quantity of cards available which will, in theory, lower the price point for entry into eternal formats, but they won't be shaping those formats in any way. You might argue that they'd do crazy things to the EV of a pack of eternal masters, but that's related to price and not power.
April 11, 2016 10:39 p.m.
00xtremeninja says... #35
I feel like we need those turbo tax commercials in here.
"It doesn't take a genius to understand why ABUR duals won't be reprinted, but we brought one in to explain anyways."
April 11, 2016 11:23 p.m.
Why are we still talking (or arguing, can't tell at this point) about why/why not ABUR duals are getting reprinted? :)
It's kind of a moot point, since Reserved List shenanigans, and obviously we're way off topic too (assuming there was one in the first place without new spoilers).
April 12, 2016 7:47 a.m.
miracleHat says... #37
Are Force of Will and Wasteland the only printings so far?
April 12, 2016 8:21 p.m.
Yup. The set is painfully far away, so who knows when we'll get more info...
April 12, 2016 8:42 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #39
How shall the fact that there shall be a new Conspiracy set affect this set? Given that that is another eternal set, I imagine that WotC shall not wish to have too much overlap between the two sets, and, thus, not print too many of the same cards in each set. What does everyone else say about that? Will having this set and the next Conspiracy set in close proximity to each other increase the amount of legacy/vintage reprints that shall be seen?
April 12, 2016 11:02 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #41
Also, regarding the reserved list, why does WotC still care about the collectors who prompted its creation? That was almost two decades ago, so the situation has likely changed greatly, since then. If I worked for WotC, I would not care about them; I would do whatever I felt like doing, regardless of what the customers thought of it.
April 12, 2016 11:08 p.m.
SpringingTiger says... #42
DemonDragonJ, the thing is WotC made a promise, and they intend to keep it. If they abolish the RL, then they're breaking that promise, and any vows they make in the future will hold significantly less weight.
April 12, 2016 11:11 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #43
Adding to what SpringingTiger said, the biggest hurdle to abolishing the Reserved List wouldn't be convincing WOTC, R&D, or even the consumer base; it would be convincing their legal department that it would be a good move and they would be able to win any lawsuits brought to them. Because by getting rid of the RL, which they promised to never do, would mean that not only did they break that promise, but collectors would lose money from their previously-reserved cards. This act of promise-breaking and the fact that collectors would lose money could very well open WOTC up to lawsuits.
In addition, the abolishment of the RL has the potential to tank a crucial company asset: the goodwill the consumers have in the company. Because if they broke one heavy promise that held a ton of weight, what proof do the consumers have that they won't do it again?
April 12, 2016 11:32 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #44
SpringingTiger, GoldGhost012: like what, for instance? What promises has WotC made beyond not abolishing the reserved list? What grounds would collectors have for bringing a lawsuit against them? Surely, WotC has more than sufficient money to settle any lawsuit with minimum losses to themselves? Why can the collectors not realize that they represent only a small percentage of the players of this game, and that their needs are outwieghed by the needs of the majority of the players?
April 12, 2016 11:45 p.m.
Do we still not have any word as far as what new things will be in this set? Any new info?
I was hoping for Chalice of the Void but that was banned to pieces in one of the formats. So maybe Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman for 
and some glorious Brainstorm so people have a chance at getting foils?
April 12, 2016 11:48 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #46
DemonDragonJ: I dunno, they could bring back Extended, create a supplemental set that introduces non-reprint Modern-legal cards, or bring back Tribal. Not sure if these are the best examples, but they were the ones I thought of.
Maybe losing thousands of dollars in a product they were essentially guaranteed? Chronicles was dissed for a reason.
It's not about having the money to settle. It's about having the lawsuits in the first place. Most companies tend to take as many steps as they possibly can to minimize lawsuits against them. It's playing it safe. They certainly could say "fuck it all" and make massive reprints for the RL, but that has some majorly heavy consequences.
Just because they're in the minority doesn't mean their opinions don't deserve to be heard or recognized. These guys do have the right to be pissed as hell if they suddenly lose thousands of dollars because WOTC went back on their word.
April 13, 2016 1:04 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #47
The thing is, the reserved list was never a legally binding document. It was just a restriction that Wizards put on themselves, and they reprinted cards from the reserved list in foil without lawsuits. Some collectors could try to bring them to court, but they wouldn't have a good case for it.
The big thing is that the reserved list would need to be removed in advance of reprints. Since Wizards plans ahead, they could announce its removal years before they actually reprint any cards. Additionally, the collector's cards wouldn't significantly drop in value if the cards are in a limited print run set at mythic rarity. This way, collectors that wanted to cash out would have time before new cards hit the market, and collectors who keep their collections wouldn't significantly lose money.
April 13, 2016 7 a.m.
Further to lemmingllamas point, the original printings of some cards that have been reprinted like crazy are still worth loads.
Take Birds of Paradise as an example. The original alpha printing of it is worth over a $1000 (source: look for the alpha printing), whilst all other printings are worth less than $10.
Based on this, I think that, if these Reserved List cards were reprinted, obviously, there will be an initial hit to the price, as vendors etc will perceive a decrease in demand and drop the price. But after said hypothetical announcement, I think that further reprints will serve only to increase the price.
As an additional point, depending on how the cards are reprinted, they could end up being more expensive than the originals (see Yawgmoth's Will and Wheel of Fortune )
All hypothetically speaking of course, I don't want to be presumed to know a lot about economics, I'm just regurgitating what I've been told on the topic.
April 13, 2016 7:13 a.m.
"DemonDragonJ like what, for instance? What promises has WotC made beyond not abolishing the reserved list? What grounds would collectors have for bringing a lawsuit against them? Surely, WotC has more than sufficient money to settle any lawsuit with minimum losses to themselves? Why can the collectors not realize that they represent only a small percentage of the players of this game, and that their needs are outwieghed by the needs of the majority of the players?"
There would be a class action lawsuit based on the legal principle of promissory estoppel. And WotC would lose this, hence why it will never happen and those who are claiming it's not a big of a deal are ignorant of the details. The legal folks at Hasbro know what they are doing. They are aware how much money they could make if they could reprint the reserved list. I am sure their legal team has analysed the situation from top to bottom. But it's not going to happen because they would be liable for a whole lot more. We are talking about the livelihoods of countless vendors here, no way would reprinting reserved list cards hold up in court against a class action lawsuit.
April 13, 2016 11:32 a.m.
logansullivan says... #50
was anyone around for modern masters 1 or 2015? Tarmogoyf was printed in both of those sets and the original is worth more than ever before if wotc reprints cards on the reserved list it will just get more people interested in legacy which will mean more people playing legacy which means more of those cards will sell which means the price could actually easily increase and it would mean more people would be playing legacy which can only be a good thing
Nightdragon779 says... #1
Meh, I've never liked Flusterstorm or its price. Other than the fact that it's worth ton, I would not want to open one.
April 3, 2016 11:09 p.m.