Mako--good idea, though not new. I've been suggesting that forever. Chronicles 2, all stars of magic. As long as the set isn't in any way changing what is legal in any format, why stop with the good extended cards though? Why not include the t1 staples as well. How many packs would they sell if you might open one and get commons like hymn, bolt, rancor, sinkhole, counterspell, flying men, and stone-throwing devels; hyppie, jackal pup, and mana drain for your uncommons, and a foil p9 card or library of alexandria as your rare. They would FLY off the shelves, and it would breathe new life into the older formats. The only reason not to is that they'd have to trash the reprint policy. The reprint policy isn't really helping them anymore though. It's not good for players, even those (like me) who own p9. I actually consider the value of my old cards diminished by the fact that it's almost impossible to get a type one game in rl. The only way to run a good t1 tourney these days (one that draws more than a few people on a recurring basis that can compete on a roughly even footing) is to allow proxies, a practice which (like apprentice) annoys the moneygrubbers at wizards, because they can't make their cut on it. Even though my cards would be losing value in theory if they get reprinted, it wouldn't matter to me, since I have no intention to sell anyway. It wouldn't have any effect on collectors, since they aren't selling either, just collecting. A reprint doesn't change the value of the older card for a collector--it just makes it a bit cheaper and easier to come by since some of the demand for the older cards from players will be drawn off. The only ones that lose from a reprint are speculators and singles dealers who have lots of the old cards in stock. As for the speculators, I have little sympathy for them. They don't really contribute much to the magic community, and if they lose on their "investment", tough for them. I hate to see singles dealers get hosed, but none should take it too hard so long as they are moving their
stock and not keeping too much in their inventory. In fact, an increased interest in t1 would set off a flurry of buying and selling the cards (people who are willing to play reprints selling off their old cards and vanity players and collectors snapping them up) off of which they could make back their losses. Retailers would benefit from the huge sales the set would generate. It would draw off some sales from the new t2 expansions, but the total sales would still be significantly better than they would be if they just printed an eighth or ninth edition of the basic set that nobody needs or wants. The set should be white-bordered and with completely new art. This would retain as much collectability and vanity players' appeal for the old cards as possible. Besides, I think we'd all like to see some of the cool new artists take a crack at the old classics (and given free reign to make ART, not tied down by lame comic book storylines). They could even hype the set (as if it would need it) by letting Maro do a popularity poll--who gets to paint Black Lotus?
I know this will never happen, but it should. The reprint policy was originally devised in order to assure people that their cards would retain value. Problem is, it's not really working for anything except the old power cards. If they reprinted dual lands, it wouldn't hurt the value of duals any more than they were hurt by rotating them out of the format where they got played the most. If you buy cards today, you can pretty much bank on the fact that their worth is going to take a hit when they leave t2, and that it's going to take another hit when they leave extended. This effect would be mitigated if there were stable, non-rotating formats that could use the cards indefinitely. So reprints and tourney support to prop up such stable formats would only enhance the long-term value of the cards they're printing now.