Black Lotus and the Power 9 will be seeing their first ever reprint since Unlimited in 1993, but it will cost you an enormous amount of money.
In true Hasbro-fashion, Wizards of the Coast just announced another overpriced product. As part of the 30th Anniversary celebration of Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast announced the Magic: The Gathering’s 30th Anniversary Edition special premium set, a set that is based on the Limited Edition Beta from October 2023, albeit with a lot of strings attached and footnotes to say.
Indeed, the cards included in the premium set will include cards from the Reserve List – a set of cards from Magic's history that Wizards of the Coast vows never to print again on a Standard Legal Set, including the famous Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine in reprint form. However, a couple of cards have been excluded, including:
- Contract from Below
- Darkpact
- Demonic Attorney
- Earthbind
- Weakness
- Crusade
The Magic: The Gathering’s 30th Anniversary Edition product will retail for $999 and will contain four 15-card packs. The distribution is as follows:
- 13 cards in the modern frame
- 1 basic land in modern frame
- 1 rare, with dual lands having double the chances of appearing
- 3 uncommons
- 7 commons
- 2 cards in retro frame
- 1 basic land in the retro frame
- 1 additional card in retro frame
- 1 Token
So, for $1,000, you get to gamble on the chances of winning the lottery and getting one of the Power Nine cards, or even better, a Black Lotus, right? Well, not exactly. The cards included in the 30th Anniversary Edition are not tournament legal. Wizards of the Coast describes the cards as “commemorative, collectible, non-tournament-legal,” and as such, you cannot use these cards in any capacity in any official tournament. Sure, you can bring these cards to your local game store or on the kitchen table, but who plays a Black Lotus in a Commander game, anyway?
So, in essence, Wizards of the Coast is releasing one big proxy set with a $250 per pack price tag. These products are due to arrive in early 2023, although we can't imagine anyone wanting to buy these glorified proxies. Who would want to spend $1,000 for a Black Lotus reprint that you won't be able to play with? Would Collectors even be interested in getting a card that you won't even want to grade, and will likely not appreciate in value over the years?
We've been wrong about premium Magic the Gathering products before, as there have been superfans who have displayed willingness in purchasing extravagantly priced products. Thanks to that, Wizards of the Coast seems keen on finding out just how far they could push the envelope. Only time will tell if we'd indeed see this product as a financial success for WOTC.
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