The Reserved List is a list of cards that will never be reprinted in order to preserve their value. The Reprint Policy featuring the Reserved List was first published by Wizards of the Coast on March 4, 1996,[1][2][3] was revised in 2002[4][5] and again in 2010.[6]
Current definition
- Reserved cards are cards that will never be printed again in a functionally identical form.
- A card is considered functionally identical to another card if it has the same card type, subtypes, abilities, mana cost, power, and toughness.
- The exclusion of any particular card from the reserved list doesn't indicate that there are any plans to reprint that card.
- The reprint policy applies to both English and non-English cards.
- All policies apply only to tournament-legal Magic cards in printed form. Wizards of the Coast has and may continue to print special versions of cards not meant for regular game play, such as oversized cards. The restriction also does not apply on non-redeemable Digital Cards in Magic Online.
History
Creation
The Reserved List was created in the wake of the protests of Magic card collectors when a lot of their cards had been devalued with the release of Fourth Edition and Chronicles.
It had always been the policy of WotC to print any functionally novel card with a black border before or at the same time as it was printed with a white border. It had also been their policy never to reprint with a black border any previously published Magic card which had 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. However, it was now recognized that much of the collectibility of a Magic card also was determined by its availability for game-play purposes. Accordingly, WotC decided to expand their previous policies by creating a new category of cards, called "Reserved Cards," that they would never print again in black or white border in game-functionally identical form.
Wizards of the Coast reserved the right to continue to print non-standard versions of cards for sale or promotional use, such as factory sets and oversized cards.
The first list
The first list of Reserved Cards included:
- All cards from Alpha / Beta that had not appeared in Fourth Edition or Ice Age.
- All uncommon and rare cards from Arabian Nights and Antiquities that had not been reprinted in white border at that time (i.e., that did not appear in Revised, Fourth Edition or Chronicles).
- All rare cards from Legends and The Dark that had not yet been reprinted in white border.
Subsequent additions
WotC reserved the right to reprint cards from Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, and subsequent limited expansion sets, as well as cards from Chronicles. In order to maintain the collectibility of these products, however, they would reprint in white border no more than 25 percent of the rarest cards. At least 75 percent of the rarest cards from each of these sets would never be reprinted in either black or white border. For this purpose, the rarest cards from a given expansion set were defined as those appearing with the lowest frequency on the rarest print sheet used to print that expansion (i.e., cards from Fallen Empires, Chronicles and Homelands designated U1 and cards from Ice Age designated R1 in The Duelist magazine's cardlists for these sets).
In conjunction with the release of each new edition of the basic game, such as Fifth Edition, WotC would 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 would become a Reserved Card and thus would never be printed again in black or white border in game-functionally identical form.
2002 revision
In 2002's revision WoTC decided no cards from the Mercadian Masques set and later sets would be reserved. Commons and uncommons from Limited Edition were removed from the reserved list due to overwhelming public support for this change. In consideration of past commitments, however, no other cards would be removed from the list. The exception was Feroz's Ban from Homelands, which was was reprinted in Fifth Edition but (mistakenly) still on the Reserved List at the time. It was also removed.
2010 revision
The original policy only applied to non-premium cards, meaning that Reserved cards could still be reprinted as a premium-exclusive card (and quite a number of cards had been reprinted such way). Starting in 2011, no cards on the reserved list would be printed in either premium or non-premium form.
Complete List of Reserved Cards
Reserved until March 2002
The following cards were removed from the Reserved List in March 2002:[5]
| Card Name | Card Set |
|---|---|
| Basalt Monolith | Beta |
| Camouflage | Beta |
| Clone | Beta |
| Consecrate Land | Beta |
| Copper Tablet | Beta |
| Demonic Tutor | Beta |
| Dwarven Demolition Team | Beta |
| Earthbind | Beta |
| False Orders | Beta |
| Guardian Angel | Beta |
| Ice Storm | Beta |
| Invisibility | Beta |
| Jade Statue | Beta |
| Juggernaut | Beta |
| Lance | Beta |
| Living Wall | Beta |
| Nettling Imp | Beta |
| Psionic Blast | Beta |
| Regrowth | Beta |
| Resurrection | Beta |
| Sacrifice | Beta |
| Sinkhole | Beta |
| Feroz's Ban | Homelands |
References
- ↑ Card Reprint Policy, The Duelist #10, May 1996
- ↑ How was the Reserve List created?
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 05, 2013). "Twenty Things That Were Going To Kill Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Randy Buehler (January 07, 2002). "Reexamining Reprints". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Randy Buehler (July 19, 2002). "The New Reprint Policy". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (March 18, 2010). "Revised Reprint Policy". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.