Wizard's New Reprint Policy (or what won't be in Chronicles 2)
Kevmiller
Magic: The GatheringŽ Card Reprint Policy
March 4, 1996
Introduction
Wizards of the Coast understands that many of you were surprised by the
quantity and selection of cards from
the Arabian NightsŽ , AntiquitiesŽ , Legends(TM), and The Dark(TM)
expansion sets that we reprinted in
Magic: The Gathering--Fourth Edition(TM) and Chronicles(TM). We have
therefore created this Magic: The
GatheringŽ Card Reprint Policy to explain why we choose to reprint cards
and how many cards from which
expansion sets you can expect to see reprinted in future Magic products.
Why Magic Cards Are Reprinted
Magic: The Gathering has tremendous appeal both as a game and as a
collectible; however, Wizards of the
Coast is a game company, and we believe that Magic is first and foremost a
supreme game of strategy and skill.
We choose to reprint certain cards from limited expansion sets in products
like Fourth Edition and Chronicles
because we believe that the cards we reprint make for enjoyable game play
and that Magic players deserve an
opportunity to play with these cards.
Wizards of the Coast understands that Magic also appeals to many of you as
a collectible. For this reason, it has
always been our policy to print any card with a new card power in black
border before or at the same time as it
is printed in white border. It has also been our policy never to reprint
in black border a previously published
Magic card using identical art and card power. The purpose of these
policies was to make the black-bordered,
limited edition versions of Magic cards as collectible as possible.
We have discovered, however, that, in addition to the limited nature of
our black-bordered products, much of
the collectibility of a Magic card is determined by its availability for
game-play purposes. Accordingly, we have
decided to expand on our previous policies by creating a new category of
cards, called "Reserved Cards," that
we will never print again in black or white border in game-functionally
identical form.
Reserved Cards
As mentioned above, "Reserved Cards" are cards that we will never print
again in black or white border in
game-functionally identical form. For this purpose, a card is
game-functionally identical if it has the same card
power and casting cost as another card. Note that the exclusion of any
particular card from the Reserved Card
list does not indicate that we have any plans to reprint that card.
The current list of Reserved Cards includes 1) all cards from Alpha/Beta
Editions that do not appear in Fourth
Edition or Ice Age(TM); 2) all uncommon and rare cards from Arabian Nights
and Antiquities that have not yet
been reprinted in white border (i.e., that do not appear in Revised(TM)
[Third Edition], Fourth Edition, or
Chronicles); and 3) all rare cards from Legends and The Dark that have not
yet been reprinted in white border.
Appended to this Magic: The GatheringŽ Card Reprint Policy is a current
list of all Reserved Cards.
Reprinting Cards from Fallen Empires(TM) and Subsequent Products
In order to create products that are enjoyable for Magic players, Wizards
of the Coast may reprint cards from
the Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands(TM), and subsequent limited
expansion sets, as well as cards from
Chronicles. In order to maintain the collectibility of these products,
however, Wizards of the Coast will reprint in
white border no more than 25 percent of the rarest cards from Chronicles,
Fallen Empires, or any subsequent
limited expansion set. At least 75 percent of the rarest cards from each
of these sets will never be reprinted in
either black or white border. For this purpose, the rarest cards from a
given expansion set are all of those cards
that appear with the lowest frequency on the rarest press sheet used to
print that expansion (i.e., cards from
Fallen Empires, Chronicles, and Homelands designated "Uncommon 1" and
cards from Ice Age designated
"Rare 1" in The Duelist (TM)magazine's cardlists for these sets).
In conjunction with the release of each new edition of the basic game,
such as Fifth Edition, we will announce
which sets were considered eligible to have cards from them rotated into
the basic game. Any rare card from
those sets not rotated into the basic game at that time will become a
Reserved Card and thus will never be
printed again in black or white border in game-functionally identical
form.
Non-English-Language Editions
Note that the foregoing policies apply both to English-language and
non-English-language cards. The only
exception to this is that special considerations which arise when
commencing publication of Magic in a new
language may force us to publish some cards in that new language in
white-border form (e.g., as part of Fourth
Edition) without first publishing all of those cards in that new language
in black-border form.
In addition, note that the Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The
Dark expansion sets will not be
printed in black- or white-border form in any additional languages,
although cards from these expansion sets may
be printed in additional languages in black- or white-border form as part
of non-English-language editions of the
basic game or Chronicles. Chronicles, Fallen Empires, and subsequent
limited expansion sets may be printed
in black border in additional languages. Wizards of the Coast will
periodically announce when any of these
products are being removed from consideration for reprinting in additional
languages.
Special-Purpose Reprints
All of the policies described herein apply only to standard,
tournament-legal Magic cards of standard size and
bearing the standard Magic card back. Wizards of the Coast has and may
continue to print non-standard
versions of cards for sale or promotional use, such as factory sets and
oversized cards.
Magic: The Gathering Card Reprint Policy
February 26, 1996
Reserved Card List
Alpha/Beta Editions
Ancestral Recall
Badlands
Basalt Monolith
Bayou
Berserk
Black Lotus
Blaze of Glory
Braingeyser
Camouflage
Chaos Orb
Clone
Consecrate Land
Contract from Below
Copper Tablet
Copy Artifact
Cyclopean Tomb
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Demonic Hordes
Demonic Tutor
Dwarven Demolition Team
Earthbind
False Orders
Farmstead
Fastbond
Forcefield
Fork
Gauntlet of Might
Granite Gargoyle
Guardian Angel
Ice Storm
Illusionary Mask
Invisibility
Jade Statue
Juggernaut
Kudzu
Lance
Lich
Living Wall
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Natural Selection
Nettling Imp
Plateau (Brudi)
Plateau (Tucker)
Psionic Blast
Raging River
Regrowth
Resurrection
Roc of Kher Ridges
Rock Hydra
Sacrifice
Savannah
Scrubland
Sedge Troll
Sinkhole
Sol Ring
Taiga
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Tropical Island
Tundra
Two-Headed Giant of Foriys
Underground Sea
Vesuvan Doppelganger
Veteran Bodyguard
Volcanic Island
Wheel of Fortune
Word of Command
Arabian Nights
Ali from Cairo
Bazaar of Baghdad
City in a Bottle
Diamond Valley
Drop of Honey
Elephant Graveyard
Guardian Beast
Ifh-Biff Efreet
Island of Wak-Wak
Jihad
Juzám Djinn
Khabál Ghoul
King Suleiman
Library of Alexandria
Merchant Ship
Old Man of the Sea
Pyramids
Ring of Ma'rűf
Sandals of Abdallah
Serendib Djinn
Shahrazad
Singing Tree
Ydwen Efreet
Antiquities
Argivian Archaeologist
Candelabra of Tawnos
Citanul Druid
Damping Field
Gaea's Avenger
Gate to Phyrexia
Golgothian Sylex
Haunting Wind
Martyrs of Korlis
Mightstone
Mishra's Workshop
Power Artifact
Powerleech
Su-Chi
Tawnos's Coffin
Transmute Artifact
Urza's Miter
Weakstone
Legends
The Abyss
Acid Rain
Adun Oakenshield
Al-abara's Carpet
Alchor's Tomb
All Hallow's Eve
Angus Mackenzie
Bartel Runeaxe
Boris Devilboon
Caverns of Despair
Chains of Mephistopheles
Cleanse
Disharmony
Divine Intervention
Elder Spawn
Eureka
Falling Star
Field of Dreams
Firestorm Phoenix
Forethought Amulet
Gosta Dirk
Gravity Sphere
Gwendlyn Di Corci
Halfdane
Hazezon Tamar
Hellfire
Imprison
In the Eye of Chaos
Infinite Authority
Invoke Prejudice
Jacques le Vert
Jovial Evil
Knowledge Vault
Kobold Overlord
Lady Caleria
Lady Evangela
Land Equilibrium
Life Matrix
Lifeblood
Living Plane
Livonya Silone
Mana Matrix
Master of the Hunt
Mirror Universe
Moat
Mold Demon
Nether Void
North Star
Nova Pentacle
Pixie Queen
Planar Gate
Quarum Trench Gnomes
Ragnar
Ramses Overdark
Rapid Fire
Rasputin Dreamweaver
Reverberation
Ring of Immortals
Rohgahh of Kher Keep
Spinal Villain
Spiritual Sanctuary
Storm World
Sword of the Ages
The Tabernacle at
Pendrell Vale
Telekinesis
Tetsuo Umezawa
Thunder Spirit
Tuknir Deathlock
Typhoon
Ur-Drago
Willow Satyr
Wood Elemental
The Dark
City of Shadows
Cleansing
Eternal Flame
Exorcist
Frankenstein's Monster
Goblin Wizard
Grave Robbers
Hidden Path
Knights of Thorn
Lurker
Mana Vortex
Martyr's Cry
Nameless Race
Niall Silvain
Preacher
Psychic Allergy
Scarwood Bandits
Season of the Witch
Sorrow's Path
Stone Calendar
Tracker
Worms of the Earth
Wormwood Treefolk