Reserved List

So I have been reading about the handling of the reserve list for quite some time now. Especially in the wake of articles by Ben Bleiweiss on www.starcitygames.com and also the forums on www.mtgsalvation.com

That being said I finally felt it was time for me to make my opinion known. The reserved list puts the game in a box. The policy basically says, "If you were around since the beginning, great! Enjoy the Legacy and Vintage formats. However if you're new to the game, we're not going to make it all easy for you get into anything other than Standard." I would even make the case that Extended can be hard to break into. I digress. The point is everyone goes on and on about how the value of their cards would go down. So? Let me ask you a question; what do you care more about? The health of the game over time or your own investment in the game? If you answered yes to both GREAT. You should care about your investment. But if you solely care about the investment and don't give a rat's ass about the health of the game, then we have a very serious issue.

Listen people, they aren't going to reprint power and if they do it's going to be in very limited formats and I honestly don't see it making much of a price difference on the older version. People still want that card and are willing to pay for it. What getting rid of the reserve list does is allow cards that have VERY LITTLE value in the first place anyway, a chance to be reprinted or functionally reprinted, or whatever they want to do.

Wizards needs to make the game accessible to a large range of players who want to play a large number of formats. I myself would love to get into Legacy and Vintage, but I have a mortgage and there is no way in hell I'm spending that kind of money to get into the format. Wizards has just lost one player to a format that they are trying to push more. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only person to feel this way. I'm one of thousands. Yes it's true that the recent turnouts in GP Legacy and Vintage events has been staggering. But take a moment to reflect on how many people actually showed up with T1 decks that could compete. People came because they want to be able to play with every card they've ever bought. They don't want to be restricted by Standard, where you are investing so much more over time to stay current.

The point is the reserved list serves one purpose, to keep the value of cards for collectors and sellers. That's it. That's what it boils down to ladies and gents. These people want to ensure that their Underground Sea will still sell for $90. They care about the value of their card, not the game.

I love this game (yes even though it frustrates the hell out of me) and I want to see the game continue to grow and see the success that it has recently been seeing. The game is not slowing down anytime soon, but it needs room to grow. The final word is that the Reserved List helps keep the game from growing. Think about it....