If you missed this morning’s 30th Anniversary kickoff hosted by Mark Rosewater, Elaine Chase, and Blake Rasmussen, you missed out on 53 new promotional cards and previews of upcoming products, not including the (near-)complete re-release of Magic’s original Alpha/Beta/Unlimited set as a non-tournament-legal collector’s product. Wizards has a full gallery/article including all of the previews and promos.
We could spend some time talking about how cool the Mishra meld card is, and speculating on what the green meld card that Maro hinted at will be (I’ll be shocked if it isn’t Multani). We could also talk about Dominaria Remastered and which cards we think would be cool to see get new alternate art treatments (or maybe yet another Sol Ring right?). There’s also Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered, Regional Championship Qualifier promos, and an amazing new Secret Lair holiday gift product.
We could talk about any of those products, but we won’t. Why? Because Wizards also announced a special collector’s box. This box contains four booster packs. These packs each contain 15 cards and one token. 13 of the cards will use the modern frame and two will use the rare frame. The cards themselves are non-tournament-legal reprints of the original ABU set (the back is different from Magic) which makes it the first set to do so since the original Collector’s Edition (which predates the official reprint policy, aka the reserved list).
No, the reason we’re going to talk about it is because of the price tag. One. Thousand. Dollars.
According to Elaine Chase, this box will cost $999.99 and will be available for direct order, similar to how Secret Lair products are generally acquired. Inside this box will be four individually sealed packs. Those packs will contain the following 16 items:
- 13 cards featuring the modern card frame distributed across rare, uncommon, and common
- 2 cards featuring the original frame
- 1 basic land
- 1 rare, common, or uncommon (3 out of 10 will be rare according to Mark Rosewater)
- 1 token featuring art from a card from Alpha/Beta/Unlimited
While many if not all of the cards will have updated text boxes with the latest Oracle wording, the basic lands will have their original look and feel. This will be a great addition for people who love using these in their cubes or commander decks at home. Honestly if the product was just basic lands I think there’d be a fairly large market.
But it isn’t. The product is, in fact, almost every card from the original Magic the Gathering core set, with no cards shifted for rarity. That’s right, you could open Purelace, Savannah Lions, Warp Artifact, or The Hive in your rare slot. Of course you could also open one of these:
Regardless of your stance on proxies or collectors products, opening one of these up is going to be a pretty good feeling. And as I mentioned before, I think there’s going to be a very clear audience for these for people who own or are trying to build cubes and Commander decks at home, but don’t yet have access to a lot of these cards.
It’s clearly going to be a significant year for Magic the Gathering in all arenas for all players and fans. If you’re a competitive player, then the various levels of pro play will feature 30th Anniversary promotions, not to mention the return of the Pro Tour itself. If you’re a casual player, then the 30th Anniversary pre-release promo cards, which will be available with every set release for the next year, are going to be for you. And if you’re a collector, then 30th Anniversary Edition will be for you, whether you buy sealed product or pickup the singles you want on the secondary market.