Wednesday, July 2, 2025

The First Sin revisited: The Reserve List Policy.


 In April, 2018 I wrote about what I called the first unforgivable sin of Magic: the Gathering. The Reserve List Policy (RLP).




In it, I talked about the nature of the RLP, why it happened, and the nature of its existence in the game. In the seven years since I wrote that initial article, a large number of things have changed. 

One of the first ones was that MOST of the cards originally printed in Alpha was reprinted in a special edition set called Magic 30, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the set. Not only were all the artists not informed of this, but there was talk of legal action. This is hardly the only controversy involving the set. From removal not only of cards, but of flavor text, the facts cards were giving away for free when they didn't immediately sell out, to even art crops being bad, the set wasn't just controversial, it was outright bad, and hardly justified the 1,000 dollar price tag the packs asked for. While not entirely against WotC policy, it did skate the line really hard, hardly the first policy they've reneged on however (more of that below). 



Since Covid, there has been an exponentially increasing acceptance of proxies. While I personally still dislike proxies, and refuse in almost all cases to use them, I cannot fight the tide for everyone. Proxies are unfortunately here to stay, and I on some level can sympathize with those that do, as card quality has gone to beyond shit. I've even seen at least one Old School tournament that allowed the use of proxies, something that would have been unheard of in 2018. 

WotC has worn a lot of goodwill from the player base. One of the most controversial things was them sending Pinkertons to a man's house who had gotten his hands on some product early.

Sharks have become a major force. While the creepy 'investor' was always there in the back of the store, it has gone main stream, and while a much bigger problem in Pokemon, it does exist in MTG. Nothing is as funny, and as embarrassing, as watching a clout chaser and a boomer who failed at life get into a literal fight over children's cardboard so they both can hope to get the shiny one, the clout chaser for clicks, the boomer for money so the bank doesn't take his house.

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has started selling products directly to the consumer, capitalizing largely on FOMO and limited availability. They've also since 2018 removed MSRP, but than, brought it back.

So back to the original point. In the original post I actually defended WotC decision, concluding it was a reasonable and logical knee jerk decision, but one that wasn't entirely thought out, and as with all policies, one that has been changed numerous times. Since then, every policy Wizards has ever had in regard to Magic has been changed, this list includes:


  1. Promo Exclusives (Nalanthi Dragon controversy which left them promising that all promo's would be reprints of existing cards).
  2. The policy of not crossing Magic with their own in house IP's, most notably in the west Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), which they've done on both ends, with MTG getting two D&D sets, and every plane getting a setting in D&D 5th.
  3. The promise that Mirrodin would be the most "sci-fi" setting. Though I can't find anything on that now, I do remember reading it at the time. Though I'll also put this in the maybe section. "To be clear, it’s the science fiction end of the spectrum of fantasy. It’s as science fiction-y as we let Magic’s fantasy get."--Mark Rosewater, Blogatog

Magic 30 was in its own right, a shit show. It also showed just how desperate Wizards of the Coast could be. Things in the last two years haven't fared super better. The increased need for not only other IP's, but the fabricated controversy around at least one of them to drum up attention, shows that sales aren't in nearly as healthy a place as they let on. 

Dominaria United has a magically appearing Legends box appearing in random booster packs, though that either says WotC is so incompetent they lost a box of one of the most sought after sets ever for 30 years, or they bought a box from a private collector, and fabricated the story. We will probably not know which of these stories are the correct one. 

My dissertation is this, the RLP is on borrowed time. It's only a matter of time before they need a quick sale, and they try another Magic 30, or they go to the previous policy and release the Power 9 as an all foil Secret Lair Drop (with an admittedly hefty price tag). The other alternative is to continue down the path they are on until proxies are so much the norm that the entire game is chinese glossy cardboard with anime girls on them (more so than it is now). 



The Seven Unforgivable Sins of Wizards of the Coast, revisited.



Me looking at MTG in 2025


Seven years ago, I started a series of articles called "The Seven Unforgivable Sins of Wizards of the Coast". At the time, the blog was new and was entirely based on card/deck reviews. A part of me wanted something more though, than just my thoughts on Bog Imps and Pikemen. 

I started the series with what I felt were, in chronological order, sins WotC had committed primarily about Magic: the Gathering (MTG) and its resulting fallout. 

At the time I featured a great deal of sources, quotes, and articles. A lot has changed since 2018, the massive archive of articles on Magicthegathering.com is gone, gatherer comments are gone, a great deal of reddit like and MTGSalvation.com threads are gone. The Internet is in its book burning phase for the sake of saving money, and it sucks. 

I will take each sin, link it to the original article, give a basic overview of my point from seven years ago, and then talk about how much that has changed, for better or for worse. 

I will try to source articles when I can, and I will, as said, certainly like the original article I wrote.


Naturally, this will take time, but I'm hoping to have the series finished by the end of the summer. 


Original article: Gunnarson's Bag: The Seven unforgiveable sins of WotC