Magic: The Gathering® Card Reprint Policy
March 4, 1996
Introduction
Wizards of the Coast understands that many of you were surprised by the quantity and selection of cards from the Arabian Nights®, Antiquities®, Legends®, and The Dark® expansion sets that we reprinted in Magic: The Gathering Fourth Edition(TM) and Chronicles(TM). We have therefore created this Magic: The Gathering® Card Reprint Policy to explain why we choose to reprint cards and how many cards from which expansion sets you can expect to see reprinted in future Magic products.
Why Magic Cards Are Reprinted
Magic: The Gathering has tremendous appeal both as a game and as a collectible; however, Wizards of the Coast is a game company, and we believe that Magic is first and foremost a supreme game of strategy and skill. We choose to reprint certain cards from limited expansion sets in products like Fourth Edition and Chronicles because we believe that the cards we reprint make for enjoyable game play and that Magic players deserve an opportunity to play with these cards.
Wizards of the Coast understands that Magic also appeals to many of you as a collectible. For this reason, it has always been our policy to print any card with a new card power in black border before or at the same time as it is printed in white border. It has also been our policy never to reprint in black border a previously published Magic card using 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.
We have discovered, however, that, in addition to the limited nature of our black bordered products, much of the collectibility of a Magic card is determined by its availability for gam play purposes. Accordingly, we have decided to expand on our previous policies by creating a new category of cards, called "Reserved Cards," that we will never print again in black or white border in game functionally identical form.
Reserved Cards
As mentioned above, "Reserved Cards" are cards that we will never print again in black or white border in game functionally identical form. For this purpose, a card is game functionally identical if it has the same card power and casting cost as another card. Note that the exclusion of any particular card from the Reserved Card list does not indicate that we have any plans to reprint that card.
The current list of Reserved Cards includes
1) all cards from Alpha/Beta Editions that do not appear in Fourth Edition or Ice Age(TM)
2) all uncommon and rare cards from Arabian Nights and Antiquities that have not yet been reprinted in white border (i.e., that do not appear in Revised(TM) [Third Edition], Fourth Edition or Chronicles)
3) all rare cards from Legends and The Dark that have not yet been reprinted in white border.
Appended to this Magic: The Gathering® Card Reprint Policy is a current list of all Reserved Cards.
Reprinting Cards from Fallen Empires(TM) and Subsequent Products
In order to create products that are enjoyable for Magic players, Wizards of the Coast may reprint cards from the Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands(TM) and subsequent limited expansion sets, as well as cards from Chronicles. In order to maintain the collectibility of these products, however, Wizards of the Coast will reprint in white border no more than 25 percent of the rarest cards from Chronicles, Fallen Empires, or any subsequent limited expansion set. At least 75 percent of the rarest cards from each of these sets will never be reprinted in either black or white border. For this purpose, the rarest cards from a given expansion set are all of those cards that appear with the lowest frequency on the rarest press sheet used to print that expansion (i.e. cards from Fallen Empires, Chronicles and Homelands designated "Uncommon 1" and cards from Ice Age designated "Rare 1" in The Duelist(TM) magazine's card lists for these sets).
In conjunction with the release of each new edition of the basic game, such as Fifth Edition, we will 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 will become a Reserved Card and thus will never be printed again in black or white border in game functionally identical form.
Non-English-Language Editions
Note that the foregoing policies apply both to English language and non-English-language cards. The only exception to this is that special considerations which arise when commencing publication of Magic in a new language may force us to publish some cards in that new language in white border form (e.g. as part of Fourth Edition) without first publishing all of those cards in that new language in black border form.
In addition, note that the Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark expansion sets will not be printed in black- or white border form in any additional languages, although cards from these expansion sets may be printed in additional languages in black- or white border form as part of non-English-language editions of the basic game or Chronicles. Chronicles, Fallen Empires and subsequent limited expansion sets may be printed in black border in additional languages. Wizards of the Coast will periodically announce when any of these products are being removed from consideration for reprinting in additional languages.
Special Purpose Reprints
All of the policies described herein apply only to standard, tournament legal Magic cards of standard size and bearing the standard Magic card back. Wizards of the Coast has and may continue to print non-standard versions of cards for sale or promotional use, such as factory sets and oversized cards.