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:
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #2
My predictions for mythics:
Land: Karakas
EDIT: Changed the land from Rishadan Port to Karakas in order to reflect that 
got extra love with Dack and DRS so it would make sense for 
to match representation with a land
February 24, 2016 2:39 p.m. Edited.
I don't think Elspeth, Knight-Errant has a chance making the cut. I think a more likely option for a third Planeswalker slot would be Ral Zarek since he actually sees eternal play.
February 24, 2016 3:09 p.m.
Harashiohorn says... #4
Elspeth and Mystic are both probably no goes since Elspeth, Knight-Errant isn't a legacy all star an is already market over-saturated, and doing stoneforge while she's the grand prix promo seems odd. I'm thinking Balance as a mythic for white, and also Enlightened Tutor. Both are Iconic white cards from the pre-modern era. Other than that your list looks pretty good to me.
February 24, 2016 3:12 p.m.
Oh its not reserved. I thought all of legends were..
February 24, 2016 3:17 p.m.
I'm only expecting 2x Walkers... 2 in MMA, 2 in MM2015.
Probably only 2 in EMA
My guess is Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Ajani Vengeant.
(Possibly not Jace, due to the $ value already seen in Force of Will... but he kinda needs to be there.)
February 24, 2016 3:34 p.m. Edited.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #8
Nah. Jace and Dack, but you're probably right that there are only 2 PWs.
February 24, 2016 3:37 p.m.
I think they would avoid both Walkers being/shring a color.
If they do Dack, then I don't see them doing Jace... and vice versa.
A reprint of Dack is possible in the upcoming Conspiracy set... whatever it will be called when the Throne is reclaimed and then emptied, and reclaimed again.
February 24, 2016 3:40 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #10
I like the idea of Balance, especially since it would be valued at Comet Storm levels but still feel like an eternal mythic.
The one thing I really don't like about my list is Deathrite Shaman as a mythic. WotC has never upgraded a card to mythic that was printed at rare at a time when mythics existed. Every upgrade to mythic (Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Planeswalkers, V Clique, etc) were printed in Lorwyn or earlier, when mythics were not yet a thing.
I like this precedent, mainly because I don't want to ever see a mythic snappy
February 24, 2016 3:43 p.m.
ArantirTheDestroyer says... #11
I know it'll never happen, but just once, especially for a limited-print-run Masters set, that Wizards would just say "Hang the Reserved List!" Just once, I'd like that...
Ah, well.
February 24, 2016 3:46 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #12
February 24, 2016 3:46 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #13
ArantirTheDestroyer I know. The reserve list just gets in everyone's way.
February 24, 2016 3:47 p.m.
Yes, I would sell my first born for a case of a set where they printed all Reserved List cards in it.
Just a Reserved List set. Oh my happiness. We can dream right?
Just getting rid of the Reserved List would actually make me even happier.
February 24, 2016 4:50 p.m.
Nightdragon779 says... #15
iAzire Reserved List Booster packs - $1000 msrp
*cries
February 24, 2016 5:39 p.m.
averagenovice74 says... #18
I think this is WotC final stand on what it wants to do with vintage/legacy. Spoiling two cards like Force of Will and Wasteland (being at rare at that) is going to show the response of how many players are willing to "poke" at eternal formats and what could be possibly done about revisions about reprinting cards on "lists-they-may-not-be-named" or doing so in not such a archaic(going against their own word) fashion.
The response will show if they can try to revive what they look at is to be a dead and stagnant format which doesn't bring them nay direct income. Look at the responses from MM1/MM2. Valuable reprints that allow them to keep the format healthy but to the extent of having a profit to buck. I think that is idea with more conclusion behind it.
A better thing would be they just do EMA expeditions of reserved lands which could get be their psuedo way of not shoving a foot in their mouth. A lottery chance of pulling The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale? or a Underground Sea? EMA would shoot through the roof and off the shelves like BFZ and OGW. And everyone is happy.
February 25, 2016 6:52 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #19
I think banning the reserve list, and introducing a "new modern"/modern rotation is in the works.
February 25, 2016 7:20 p.m.
Draglord_Sim says... #20
Imagine if you could draft countertop, the dreams.
February 26, 2016 2:43 a.m.
Smallpox at uncommon... or better yet put some Sinkhole and Bloodghast to go with your Deathrite Shaman..
Abrupt Decay needs to be there if Counterbalance is in the set.
February 26, 2016 3:05 a.m.
That would be a sleazy thing to do. The reserved list was created in part to ensure that certain cards retain value. Banning them completely would brutalize the value of many of them.
There are a lot of ways WotC could get around the reserved list. Hell, they could just print a cycle of functional copies of the ABUR dual lands in EMA or another non-modern legal set (probably the best of both worlds as it would allow players getting into the format to compete, and would supplement the traditional dual lands). The problem is, they care about that minority of players sitting on stockpiles of reserved cards too much, so such things are unlikely. :(
February 26, 2016 3:29 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #23
UNRESERVED! It is like Legacy, but the banned list is the Reserve List. No need for Wizards to support it, just for players to play it, and these days, shops are free to define whatever formats they like for F.N.M. If players want to play it, they can. If your meta had such a format, it would add a whole lot of value to those overpriced Eternal Masters packs.
February 26, 2016 3:47 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #24
Let's not discuss "unreserved" in two threads. We have one dedicated to that.
February 26, 2016 3:52 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #25
EpicFreddi, do not forget to try to quash Didgeridooda's suggestion because it amounts to something basically the same as UNRE...[REDACTED].
It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not want me to discuss the obvious or give it a great one-word self-descriptive name like UNRESE..[Self-Censored]. Anyway, I will leave it alone because this thread is supposed to be about spoilers rather than about a format which people who crack those overpriced Eternal Masters packs could enjoy with all of those lovely cards they are bound to open, all of which will certainly NOT be cards on the Reserved List.
I hope to see Chatter of the Squirrel with lovely new art...L.O.L.
We could use another printing of the extremely useful Terminate. That would make a great common for the set, though for as deeply in love those at Wizards seem to be with those running minor rackets in the secondary market, we could expect it to be uncommon at best. Hey! Wizards should would not want to upset anyone who sells a good common for four bucks, would they? I mean, that might amount to pleasing customers or providing value or something.
And hey! Just think how great it would be for more copies of Armadillo Cloak to be in circulation. Forget lifelink! Armadillo Cloak was fun to render your opponent's biggest beater nearly ineffective because you gained life equal to the damage it dealt.
We also should not forget about the lovely and wonderful Goblin Balloon Brigade.
Crusade would be good, too.
I will do my best to not mention UNRESERVED in this thread any more. I will save it for the other thread where I am under relentless attack for suggesting it.
February 26, 2016 4:28 a.m.
Didgeridooda says... #26
I was speculating that this set leads to changes. The reserve list would still be legal in vintage.
I believe functional reprints are addressed, and will not happen the same as reprinting the originals. I could look that up, but I remember reading that somewhere. So do not expect anything like that here.
February 26, 2016 8:16 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #27
NarejED they've already done that - shocklands.
February 26, 2016 8:27 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #28
Didgeridooda and ThisIsBullshit, one thing I recall being mentioned was the possibility of snow-covered dual lands. Hence, we could have Snow-Covered Bayou, etc. put into the Commander products. These would not be functional reprints and would not violate the Reserved List. Any small tweak would work.
There is the argument that this would screw up Legacy, but -- while some decks might adjust their mana bases for tiny performance enhancements -- the genuine duals and shocklands are already doing their work. They might make two-color decks more competitive, but they are unlikely to have more than a marginal net effect on the mana bases of three-color decks.
Still, you will hear screaming about it from those heavily invested in setting up the price-gouging schemes ("We hates it! Yes! We hates it! But we loves our Reserved list, our precious.").
Underground Sea seems to have gone up by about eighty bucks in just the last couple of weeks, and those running their little racket over the genuine duals which hamstrings Legacy will shout, pout, scream, and make any ludicrous argument in order to block such an obvious move which might enhance the game for those who did not have the privilege to crack open those cards over twenty years ago. I pulled a couple back with Revised, but I wound up selling my cards with the understanding that I might be able to afford the game once I was out of graduate school and gainfully employed.
It never occurred to me that any company would hamstring its own game by solemnly promising never to reprint its desirable intellectual property for the benefit of mewling aftermarket sellers. The Reserved List may well go down as one of the most incredibly bonehead moves ever made in the history of business. Wizards's deep love for the price-gouging aftermarket sellers is one of the great mysteries of M.T.G.
Anyway, let us hope for more great spoilers for Eternal Masters. Does anyone else think that Mons's Goblin Raiders is long overdue for a reprint? How about Great Wall or Force of Nature?
February 26, 2016 10 a.m.
Grantley91 says... #29
So has there been any more actual spoilers yet or has this just turned into a massive speculation thread (like they always do)?
February 26, 2016 10:08 a.m.
Didgeridooda says... #30
alanwescoat do you know why the reserve list was put into place though? It could be seen as the move that saved the game, and allowed it to thrive for so long. Also something like a snow dual would be better used to headline a standard set. Same reason why I don't think the Zen fetches will be in here. Though it could happen.
Grantley91 None outside of the first 2. They have just let us stew, and hype the set. Let it roll around for a while with the will they/won't they. Wizards is pretty good at building the hype. Now with no new info our imaginations go wild.
February 26, 2016 10:16 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #31
Didgeridooda, yes, I understand the history behind the Reserved List. It was a huge boneheaded move resulting from the previous boneheaded move of printing 4th Edition followed by Chronicles using too many of the desirable rares. Wizards was dependent upon a relatively small distribution chain, and the speculators in the chain were upset because Chronicles especially demonstrated that the earlier product had virtually NO numismatic value (and generally has only limited numismatic value save for Alpha and Beta).
Wizards was trying to make the players happy, which upset the distributors who were profiting from massive markups and from hoarding boxes. This was a period when (I have been told) there was a shortage of Legends packs everywhere, but now, more than two decades later, Legends packs are readily available, provided that one is willing to pay through the nose for them.
Anyway, a big mistake led to an even bigger mistake, and now we are stuck with the Reserved List and entrenched price-gouging for format staples, rather than Wizards printing and selling the cards that people want.
February 26, 2016 11:17 a.m.
SpringingTiger says... #32
Mark Rosewater has said before that WotC won't print Snow-Covered Duals (or something else similar), because that violates the spirit of the Reserved List.
February 26, 2016 12:40 p.m.
That would be a functional reprint, so a strict violation of the list. Legendary ABURs is the closest you can get to the real deal without violating the list..
February 26, 2016 2:38 p.m.
Actually, 'Legendary' being the only difference is also a functional reprint (according to the policy).
"A card is considered functionally identical to another card if it has the same card type, subtypes, abilities, mana cost, power, and toughness."
As 'Legendary' and 'Snow' are both 'Super-Types', and super-type is not a measure used to determine if a card is a 'functional reprint', neither 'Legendary' nor 'Snow' could be used.
The closest you can come, without 'technical' violation is to make it 'Tribal' and also give them a creature type... or you could give them the subtype 'Gate' (opening up some odd Maze's End deck options). :)
But even both of those options would violate the 'spirit' of the reserve list.
February 26, 2016 2:48 p.m. Edited.
Grantley91 says... #35
Not to mention the fact no new cards will be printed in this set. :P
February 26, 2016 4:21 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #36
I should mention that something good has come out of the Reserved List. Wizards has continually worked to deal with mana fixing without reprinting the genuine dual lands, and this has been a good thing. There turn out to be some very cool things about Modern because the dual lands are not available to the card pool. Had Wizards not adopted the Reserved List, the genuine duals would most likely have been reprinted at some point during the Modern blocks, and that would not be good for the format. The need to pay some kind of penalty for mana fixing beyond the life lost to fetches enhances the format. At least, that is my opinion of it.
As it stands, even if Wizards chose to take the critical cards off of the Reserved List and to reprint them, they would need to appear in something like Commander products or in summer products such as Conspiracy.
Since it seems to be established that supertypes such as Legendary or Snow will not work, Wizards could print new false duals, cards which are good enough to make reasonable substitutes. I am a little doubtful about the objection because I do not think supertypes were officially a thing when the Reserved List was adopted, but I will take the objections at face value.
My first proposal is that each land only has one of the basic subtypes. This would make a cycle of twenty lands, four of each of the five original basic land types (ignoring Wastes completely here). Each land in this cycle would also need to be Legendary on the grounds that non-Legendary versions allowing people to use (for example) Flooded Strand to fetch a Plains which can also tap for blue or an Island which also taps for white would almost certainly be bad for Legacy unless the land was Legendary.
A second idea is that for each of the basic land types, there is only one card for each of the five basic land types. Each of them has "When ~ enters the battlefield, choose a basic land type. ~ has that land type in addition to its other land types." While such a card would be more versatile than any individual genuine dual, it would be fetchable by fewer of the fetchlands.
A third solution would be a single-card answer. It has all five of the original basic land subtypes. It has, "When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of each of your upkeeps, choose one of ~'s basic land types. ~ loses all land types other than the chosen type."
A fourth less desirable partial answer would be a land with no basic land types with, "When ~ enters the battlefield, choose two basic land types. ~ has those types in addition to its other types." Its big drawback is that it is non-fetchable.
A fifth interesting possibility is a version of Evolving Wilds with a second ability: "Tap, sacrifice ~, pay 2 life: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library."
February 26, 2016 10:14 p.m.
Grantley91 says... #37
ChiefBell Epochalyptik can we get some sort of speculation thread going for EMA instead of ruining the supposed "spoiler thread" with comments that don't belong in it? I would love to be able to come here and look at actual spoilers (even if there aren't any yet) rather than a bunch of random posts about the RL and how to get around it with Snow Duals or whatever else they've come up with, and completely derailed the conversation. Thanks in advance!
February 28, 2016 2 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #38
Or we could just ask that a certain someone stop pushing his agenda in this thread and save it for the umpteen other threads where he's posting the same stuff.
February 28, 2016 2:19 p.m.
I think the speculation will die when there are actual spoilers. At the moment it's unfortunate that this is the case but I assure you that as real things to talk about come up the derailing will calm down.
May I remind everyone though that this is a thread for spoilers. Not a thread for discussing the RL. They said it's not being reprinted so it's not being reprinted. End of story. If you want to discuss whether thats sensible or not that's fine - but NOT HERE. Elsewhere please.
February 28, 2016 2:25 p.m.
I think the discussion in this thread has been fine. We've got very limited amounts of confirmed information to work with. In the absence of confirmed reprints, the discussion will largely center on speculation, hype, hopes and dreams, and the set in the grand scheme of things.
February 28, 2016 2:26 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #41
Why are so many people suggesting that they do a functional reprint of the dual lands? They've already done that - shocks, checks and battle lands are all "functional" reprints of OG duals. Unless those aren't good enough - but it's hard to get better than shocks without violating the spirit of the reserved list.
February 28, 2016 2:27 p.m.
Well, if we're being honest here, functional reprints are things like Counsel of the Soratami and Divination. The rules text on the shocks makes them strictly worse than the duals. That has far-ranging implications for the game. They don't qualify as functional reprints.
February 28, 2016 2:33 p.m.
The RL says they wont do functional reprints anyway. But seriously can we just not have this discussion. It's been covered - it's not happening.
Speculate about cards that realistically will be in the set - sure.
Speculate and debate about cards that obviously won't be in - don't bother?
February 28, 2016 2:35 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #44
Has anyone mentioned either Disenchant or Swords to Plowshares in this thread, yet? Given that Path to Exile was in the first Modern Masters set, I fully expect StP to be in this set, and it would also be nice to see disenchant receive some attention after it has been ignored in favor of Naturalize for so long.
Also, if this set sells well (and it almost certainly will), might it become a recurring product, as is Modern Masters? I would be very pleased if it did.
February 28, 2016 4:03 p.m.
Wee_Dragonaut says... #45
I want Deathrite Shaman, ZEN Fetches... cards that will drive down the price of cards that are a staple for every Legacy deck
February 28, 2016 4:09 p.m.
I would love a Young Pyromancer reprint. Think it would be a ton of fun to draft with him in a high powered format.
February 28, 2016 6:21 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #47
Young Pyromancer seems like it would be likely. Super prevalent in legacy and yet it would be a $1 uncommon with the reprint. Fits the set perfectly while keeping the box EV low.
I'm hoping for that long awaited Damnation
February 28, 2016 7:19 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #48
I wonder about the creature balance when sorceries and instants play such a strong role in Eternal formats over creatures. They always set things like this up with draft in mind, meaning that they will probably need to add more creatures than people actually want once the draft is done, especially in the common and uncommon slots.
Young Pyromancer and Deathrite Shaman have already been mentioned. Tinder Wall would be nice, I think. Will we get Llanowar Elves for the twentieth time? Wall of Blossoms would be nice. Kird Ape could stand another reprint. Disciple of the Vault has never been reprinted. Wall of Shadows is good fun. Cursecatcher could stand a reprint. Perhaps Priest of Titania?
What would be reasonable creatures to fill the common and uncommon slots for draft purposes?
February 28, 2016 10:17 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #49
It would make a lot of sense to have a lot of common / uncommon creatures for draft. Particularly elves, since they see a lot of eternal play imo, but for the sake of color balance, they would have to find some way to get creatures in all the colors while keeping the eternal feel.
I've probably said it about a dozen times by now, but I agree with you Serendipitous_Hummingbird that a Damnation reprint would make me super happy.
Reaxetion says... #1
That is a scary yet fantastic concept jamesfiek lol. I hope you are right, but I bet it is in the top 3 mythics for sure.
February 24, 2016 2:36 p.m.