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Hello, readers. Today I want to take the time to address a grassroots movement sparked by the release of Eternal Masters, the so-called "Eternal Format."
For many this has been a long time coming. It's the community responding to the inherent issues of both Modern and Legacy at the same time. It's a culmination of years of conversations among players, and many ideas as to how a new eternal format can accommodate and include today's playerbase.
It's a proposal for a format that won't have the long-standing issues of the Reserved List, and which could lend itself to being supported in a meaningful way. It's a format built on the foundation of powerful interactions, self-regulation, and reasonable prices.
I wanted to address many of these points about Eternal in the face of both long, constructive conversations and a fair amount of scrutiny. Some have volunteered to be a part of this project with the hope of the format ultimately receiving recognition from Wizards of the Coast. Eternal at its core could be a new solution to a bevy of old issues when it comes to the current eternal formats, and very well redefine what the term means in today's community.
At some point I want to bring everything to the table and address all aspects, whether positive or negative, about Eternal. Every new format will have growing pains, scrutiny and praise, and I don't want to leave anything out. Many players have their fair share of praise and skepticism, so in the interest of being inclusive to all those points I want to write this article (and many more) to be as informative as possible.
Inception and Ideology
Eternal would essentially be taking from both Legacy and Modern in the sense that it would add ten more years of Magic to the Modern card pool. At the same time, players would be able to enjoy all the great interactions from Legacy with cards like Wasteland, Force of Will, and even Brainstorm.
This is clearly a different landscape than just "shocklands in Legacy" or "adding Force and Wasteland to Modern." It features a lot of great aspects from both formats, while removing the stranglehold of the Reserved List.
Even before this format was called "Eternal," it has long been a topic among Magic players. One of the concepts behind this format was the dialogue around what Legacy would be like without the Reserved List. This has been a narrative for quite some time, with a constant back and forth between players and Wizards on how the Reserved List directly affects all of us and the formats beholden to it.
When Eternal Masters (EMA) was announced on February 16, all of these conversations immediately came back to the forefront. With a fair share of hype came a host of new questions.
The most important was simply, "What if..." What if WotC releasing EMA is a gateway to the re-definition of what "Eternal" means? Could there be a new format to finish the three-format cycle that once was Standard-Extended-Legacy?
Many would argue the solution to "no-Reserved List Legacy" was the Modern format, but I don't think that's true. I think Maro's response implies that Modern was created for a reason, but that the solution doesn't stop there. Modern has its own issues, from price spikes, to regulation via the ban list, to card pool.
Whether players want to admit it or not, the Reserved List will always add a hard cap to Legacy and Vintage as formats and remain "something we have to deal with," to use the words of Mark Rosewater. Debate all we want, but Eternal as a format (whether it's ever picked up by WOTC or not) is more realistic than the Reserved List going away. Eternal, like Modern, can be a format where everything is reprintable as well.
"Eternal" is not the name of a format, real or imaginary. #thetruthisoutthere
— Aaron Forsythe (@mtgaaron) February 16, 2016
The community is willing to step forward, and many think Wizards of the Coast is fully pushing us to do so. This fairly innocuous tweet by Aaron above could have many different connotations. Eternal might not exist yet for anyone at Wizards, but surely the community can spearhead its creation.
#MagicRevolution! #MTGEternal! Excited to be a part of this and see how it turns out! https://t.co/iJPyuB1NXB — Modern Nexus (@modern_nexus) February 21, 2016
For those claiming it would be lame, what about duals over shocks is the most appealing. You still have busted things to do.
— chris vanmeter (@Chris_VanMeter) February 17, 2016
With some dedication and hard work this could be made a reality. Aaron's tweet came at a very coincidental time, when the main Magic website was running an informative article by Quinn Murphy about "Making your Own Magic Format". Perhaps this is WotC encouraging us as a community to go forward with the project. Perhaps the truth is out there after all.
With the Reserved List never going away it would be advantageous for Wizards to cultivate a format like Eternal. It's a win-win situation. They keep the promise they made to us (the Reserved List), and gain the ability to increase the supply of cards via Eternal/Modern Masters.
Everything is on the table at this point, and their promise doesn't go any further than, "this is a list of cards that won't be reprinted." It's been a long time since 1996, and the community is larger than ever. That issue alone is of great concern, considering there's approximately 75,000 playsets of dual lands and a reported 20 million Magic players worldwide.
This way the Reserved List can remain intact but doesn't have to be relevant to the question of prolonging the game and making sure it continues to thrive. Eternal was created knowing those issues, and unlike Legacy, it never has to overcome that---it is the solution.
Tracing an Outline of the Format
At this juncture the Eternal format is set up with the following core rules. More information can be found in the subreddit link provided.
- Cards from expansions and special sets (like From the Vault, Magic: The Gathering—Commander, Duel Decks, Conspiracy, etc.) are legal in the Legacy format on the date of release of the expansion or special set.
- Original Banned List: The ban list starting point should be the ban list for legacy as it currently stands. This will be looked at in the future to see what else needs to be changed.
- The following cards are banned in Eternal tournaments:
All cards from the reserved list
All cards of the card type "Conspiracy"
All cards dealing with Ante
Balance
Channel
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Dig Through Time
Flash
Frantic Search
Goblin Recruiter
Gush
Hermit Druid
Imperial Seal
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mental Misstep
Mind Twist
Mind's Desire
Mystical Tutor
Necropotence
Oath of Druids
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Tinker
Treasure Cruise
Vampiric Tutor
Windfall
Eternal is its own distinct format even if it shares cards and concepts with both Modern and Legacy. Shocklands in Legacy would be a disadvantage, leaving players at a loss because they wouldn't be on an even playing field.
It's also better than just adding Force of Will and Wasteland to Modern to solve its issues. It's adding additional card pool to a format that some say it desperately needs, in order to combat the constant fluctuations and banning that regulate Modern.
I wanted to showcase a couple of community-provided decklists to let people see what some of these decks would look like in Eternal. There's a myriad of archetypes to already choose from, and I will provide the Reddit subforum where this all takes place at the conclusion of this article.
What's really important to note is that any/all of these archetypes have to be tested and as many games as possible need to be played in order for the community to better evaluate where Eternal is headed. In the meantime we can discuss the obvious changes behind Eternal as a format.
Eternal RUG Twin by Brianbgrp
Well, this is a very intriguing list. Not only would Modern players be able to enjoy their Splinter Twin copies again, they could pair them with a bevy of new spells unavailable to them in Modern. Let's talk about some of the changes here.
So, here we have a lovely blue value package. Ponder and Brainstorm could very well be coupled together in a variety of different ways in Eternal, and pairing them with Splinter Twin seems extremely potent.
I have to say that this very archetype could be one of many that pushes the envelope on power level with these new Legacy/Modern hybrid decks.
Having access to such powerful deck manipulation tools to find copies of Splinter Twin would clearly be much more portent than the Modern version. And it would seem some players have experimented with Twin in Legacy already. The one caveat is that with additional card pool and other decks capable of running their own copies of Force of Will, the format could self-regulate this deck.
It would be up to the community to discuss and consider whether its consistency and power level was too much. What the Eternal community would try to do is make sure a deck like this is on the radar, and go forth with a process determining if/when it needs to be dealt with via a banning---hopefully with a clear and transparent approach, and with concrete tournament data to back up said decisions.
It's great that in a situation like this, a format with this high power level and larger card pool is able to produce such potent decklists. From the looks of it Twin could already be a strong contender in the Eternal format.
Eternal Nic Fit by Fivebone
Here I think we have another fantastic blend of what an Eternal format decklist would look like. This deck takes powerful strategies from both formats and melds them together into a capable and fun decklist. This would have never happened when you just work with the Modern card pool.
Without the barrier of cards like Bayou or any other dual lands this could be a reasonable goal for a player who was already playing Legacy, or a player already playing Modern. It's the perfect blend of cards, considering it's a similar mana base to what a Modern deck would look like, with the addition of powerful spells known to Legacy.
I think these are the perfect sort of decks to showcase when players ask what this format is all about, and how it's different regarding the broad umbrella of player concerns. Each deck illustrates the perfect blend of the two formats Eternal is trying to accomplish.
As you can see they don't just fall easily into "Modern plus" and "Legacy plus" categories, but truly constitute a novel format. There are plenty more examples of deck-building by a wide variety of users that are also great examples of Eternal as a format.
One last point I wanted to address upfront as well: the subject of Burn as an archetype. I can say it likely will be a very powerful strategy in the format from the start. At the same time, with proper testing, and with results in hand it would be a subject to address like any other archetype. That's how the community plans to resolve issues in Eternal, with transparency and data-driven analysis to help solve issues in the format. Burn would be no different.
Call to Arms: Playtesters and Support
What's most important about the "Eternal" movement is the requirement of an immense amount of testing under the confines of the Eternal format rules and structure. A sub-reddit was created that can be found here.
Most small subs are still good like this one for example: https://t.co/RTlfjghXx5 #mtgeternal — Heath Newton (@MTGOTraders) February 18, 2016
Players and readers have already subscribed, but there's room for plenty more. None of us, including the community members who've stepped forward, can really get meaningful data or feedback without plenty of testing, matchup reports, and tournaments results. It's that specific and important data that can lead an open dialogue as to what really needs to be changed, and more importantly, why.
Data like this can help us address concerns about the format such as, "Is Burn too strong in Eternal"---but again that requires more than adequate data and matchup results in order to properly address those issues. No one ever claimed this was going to be easy; we're re-creating and re-defining a term everyone has grown accustomed to. It's essentially taking from two existing formats but going in a new direction.
Conclusion
Eternal is a short-term and long-term commitment. The short-term being having fun by enjoying a vast card pool and self-regulating strategies. The long-term goal is minimizing the barrier that will always be the Reserved List. It's addressing those issues that can never be solved directly. It expands on the shortcomings of Modern, and adds an additional format players could navigate through. Many could and likely will argue against the format and be taken aback at what this format represents and what it's trying to accomplish. Change is hard, and I as well as others fully understand that. At the same time, the band-aid has to come off at some point---it's going to have to sting in order for the long-standing issues to get better. There will always be points of contention, but when the dust settles the Eternal format can at least address some of the core issues that plague Modern and have all but killed Legacy.
The cost barrier of Legacy (which I will talk about again in detail) would be lifted by making every card reprintable, and the supply of these cards can be increased by sets like Modern Masters and now Eternal Masters. Modern's issues would be addressed with a different attitude to the banlist, and by an expanded card pool. This will theoretically lead to a more stable metagame---one that isn't dictated by bans and overpowered strategies. A myriad of new questions will arise, and they should be asked when a project of this magnitude comes along. Although I'd have to say that Eternal does a great job at solving a lot of issues on its own just by coming into existence and becoming a community project. The format could become what Modern strives to do, and what Legacy should have been by today's metric---featuring diverse decks, powerful interactions, self-regulation, and reasonable prices.
While it's a ways away, the first #EternalMTG tournament is on the schedule. 1st place gets a box of #MTGEMA! https://t.co/KaV5PJIOeB — Saffron Olive (@SaffronOlive) February 19, 2016
Thanks for taking the time to read this introduction to Eternal, and I hope to see people continue to be a part of this community-driven project. It's grassroots movements like this that have the real potential to make change, and from that hope does indeed spring Eternal.
Maybe this format can be a great short- and long-term solution. I will continue to write about this here at QS, and will continue to address many different topics when it comes to the format.
For instance the name of the format itself has already been a point of contention; the name "Eternal" was chosen in response to Eternal Masters being released. The community overall agreed the name Eternal already had momentum, and just sounded better than other names pitched, like "Heritage" or "Unreserved."
Even with Wizard's definition of Eternal defining formats like Legacy and Vintage, definitions can always be changed. With additional dialogue and voicing legitimate concerns it will only help Eternal along as a format.
- Chaz @ChazVMTG
This still feels much too close to Legacy to actually take off. Making a new format for older cards feels good, but this feels far too much like a more expensive Modern variant, and I don’t know why the format isn’t set up in a way to differentiate itself more.
I actually don’t think it will be much more expensive. What cards that are legal in this format are more expensive than Goyf? Than Jace? Than Lily Veil?
Card prices *right now* aren’t what matter. Card prices after post-hype spikes are what matter. See Tiny Leaders as an analogue: cards that had no appeal prior (oftentimes with very small and only one print run) get very popular or becomes pillars of an archetype and demand jumps through the roof.
The already-high staples (like the 3 you cite) aren’t going to move much. It’s these 2nd tier staples that are newly discovered that you have to worry about. Also consider shocks when Modern was announced. Hallowed Fountain became a $45-50 card overnight!
High format popularity means high demand. High demand means high prices. WotC can’t react to meta shifts with reprints fast enough, so there will always be something super expensive pricing people out of a format or causing enough grief to complain about. I’m sure WotC has good intentions for Modern reprints, but they’re just not nimble enough with their 18+ month ramp up for the most benign supplementary products.
“Eternal” would be no different in this regard.
And it would still be cheaper then legacy.
Modern has been getting better in terms of prices, especially if you are savvy with when you buy your cards. With the exception of a few cards, the MMA reprints helped reduce prices for decks across the board. The point of “Eternal” is that reprints for all cards in the format would now be possible. Buy a playset of those cards now when they are cheap and you won’t need to worry about waiting until the reprints occur. The possibility of reprint is strictly better than the impossibility of a reprint in terms of controlling price.
I, for one, am super ready for “Eternal” to happen, if for no other reason than to stick it to the reserved list and watch the price of those cards drop because nobody plays legacy and those cards any more.
It’s insanely foolish to think that some people playing “Eternal” would result in Legacy players no longer playing Legacy. Legacy players play the format because they like it. It’s a lot of fun. They already own the cards.
What motivation would they have to stop doing so even in the slightest? If they want to play a format that feels like a sadly underpowered version of Legacy, Modern is already an option for most people with a Legacy collection.
There’s just too much overlap between Legacy and “Eternal” for both to exist side-by-side and “Eternal” won’t be able to actually grow without buy-in from the Legacy playerbase (who already own the bulk of cards needed to build the decks and immediately flush out the playerbase from day 1).
If the primary group of people that you’re hoping steps up to play “Eternal” are those that are complaining about card prices and then cards get expensive due to hype or popularity, those are the first people that are going to balk and bow out and just stick to Modern.
I feel like that’s what appeals to a lot of people. Most LGS communities can’t fire legacy tournaments because of card availability. People want to play their stoneblade and splinter twin decks, but there’s nowhere for them to do so other than the one US grand prix every year.
Yes, this format would have a lot of legacy decks and powered up modern decks. It would also have new decks that have never been created before as well. There are a ton of cards that would thrive in this format that are too high cmc for legacy. There’s a bunch of cards that are banned in modern that would thrive here like DRS and Splinter Twin as well.
It has the potential to be the best of both formats, and self governing enough to require less bans than modern, while opening up long term supply with reprints from masters sets.
Even if this “Eternal” format would become a real thing, it wouldn’t solve any issues. Cards would still get banned, prices would still be high. Maybe the price of decks would be 2000 dollars instead of 4000, it’s still high by most people’s standards.
Magic is an expensive hobby, as is golf.
Eternal isn’t meant to solve Legacy pricing issue, it is meant to get away from the shackles of the Reserved List that will never go away. Eternal allows for all cards in the format to be reprinted at some point in time, allowing supply to always be able to be increased so prices don’t ever get to ABUR duals level.
Legacy will eventually die or become a shell of itself because of the Reserved List.
The price issue is intrinsically connected to the reserved list and the large motivator behind the format. People aren’t trying to rally philosophically against the RL. They’re trying to get out from under dual land and other RL prices. That’s the core motivation driving the interest.
Reprints do alleviate some of that pressure, but we know it’s not an actual solution because WotC’s reprint leadup can’t react fast enough to meta shifts. Both spikes and buyouts will happen and prices will probably be just as expensive as Modern and maybe as Legacy.
Plus, increased demand in the format will raise prices of weird, unexpected cards. See Serum Visions as a great example. That card has no business being $7 by itself.
I actually don’t think cost per se is the reason why people are pushing the Eternal format. Players who are interested in this format want a few things:
1. Have enough players to the point where they could find a game within a reasonable distance from their house.
2. Have the card pool as large as possible while still allowing for #1
3. Have a stable format where there is not a lot of banning/unbanning
The cost of the format is not a major concern, other than how it affects the factors above.
Legacy (and Vintage) do not satisfy criteria #1. The existence of the reserved list makes this not possible. If there were ever enough players to make a local game easy to find, the cost of the deck would probably be $10000 purely due to the cost of RL cards. This can never change.
Modern – does not satisfy criteria #2. there are 10+ years of cards that are not legal in this format. Does not satisfy criteria #3 due to frequent bans.
Eternal
1. Popularity – this obviously depends on community/Wizards support
2. Card pool – non-RL Legacy I believe is the largest possible card pool that allows for the possibilty of finding a game at your LGS, since the RL makes #1 unattainable
3. I think the community is hoping that if Wizards does adopt this one day, that it will keep a relatively hands-off approach. I don’t think anyone hopes to see Eternal Pro Tours anytime soon.
The cost is an issue for Eternal in the short term, however in the long term reprints have the potential to keep prices stable while allowing for growth in player base. Using Modern for comparison, it is true that Modern Masters did not make Modern any cheaper, however it allowed for an influx of players while keeping the cost manageable. If there were a large influx of players into modern without Modern Masters, the cost of Modern right would probably be just as high as legacy. With no MM, you would not be able to pay $1000 for a deck in Modern and find a game at your LGS. It would be accessible and cost $5000, or it could cost $1000 but no games to be found.
If Eternal continues to be expensive in the face of reprints, it means that will have been successful in attracting more players. Having reprints cause both an increase in card prices AND a stable or decrease in players does not logically make sense.
On the topic of popularity and Legacy, this completely depends on where you live… which is also the same for other formats. There are some communities where Modern just isn’t that popular and people have to drive a ways to find regular Modern play.
That doesn’t mean there’s a problem with Modern (besides the Eldrazi Menace, of course), it just has to do with how people are distributed.
Legacy is extremely popular. Just ask, say, Legacy players. SCG is still running an equivalent 5K every weekend for Legacy except when they’re doing stuff like this weekend and running Legacy as their open format. Plus, virtually every GP has a scheduled Legacy event on offer each day.
Vintage is, and always will be, niche and it’s not even worth bringing into the conversation. Even if the RL were abolished tomorrow and WotC decided to reprint all the cards on there, we’ve seen by what they’ve done with Vintage Masters online and how rare they would want to keep power. Reprints wouldn’t have a marked difference in their prices.
I desperately hope this site gets shut down before more people try to kill magic with this atrocious idea. The reserved list is the ONLY thing that makes this game a safe investment and disrupting that WILL cause market instability and will lose the trust of the business side. How can people save money and play this game if the game dies because everyone is trying to kill the prices. You are naive and dangerous.
Question here: how does Eternal affect the RL? The whole premise of Eternal is to honor the RL promise and never reprint a single card on that list. If anything, this should make RL-card owners even more confident, because it means Wizards is moving to a format model that forever respects the sanctity of the RL.
it does not affect the Rl at all. the thing i feel most people want is reprinted cards for there X format, but what i don’t understand is the idea that we move away from legacy so we can print cards into oblivion. like a comment earlier, magic is an extremely expensive hobby. people drop thousands of dollars on tier 1 decks, theres no reason imo that if your not willing or wanting to spend that much money on magic, then don’t be upset or look for blame at the creators of the game who made a promise they’re still keeping to each and every player they make product for. making a force of will cost 60 instead of 85 doesn’t change the problem, its the attitudes of the consumer. any comment that says theres not enough dual lands to go around obv hasn’t looked on ebay or tcg, there are tons. maybe not at the price you want to pay, but there out there.
This is great if you want to drive up the price of some otherwise irrelevant cards, just like Tiny Leaders.
So who is going to play this format? Most Legacy players will continue to play Legacy. The Modern players who are dissatisfied with Modern would be the bulk of the early adopters. So Modern would be damaged more when WoTC is actively supporting it. Why did WoTC create Modern to begin with? Because of so many requests for an accessible “Legacy like’ format. But it is almost as expensive as Legacy with 2 sets of MM reprints! I don’t think ‘eternal’ format will get any support from WoTC because they don’t want to pull the rug out from Modern.
The problem with Legacy is that its growth is capped by the RL, because cards will become too pricey and scarce for players to pick up. Duals are over $200 right now and rising, and that’s with dramatically reduced tournament support relative to Modern. Those prices would be astronomical if anyone ever tried to push Legacy as THE nonrotating format going ahead. As such, Legacy players have incentive to migrate to Eternal to support a format that is sustainable and ripe for future growth.
As for Modern players, I believe Eternal is the format Modern should have been but never became. It has a powerful card pool to internally regulate decks, mitigating the need for external regulation and a heavyhanded banlist. Cards can also be added to Eternal via supplemental products to bypass Standard, something Modern doesn’t currently support. This makes Eternal more sustainable than Modern too, as well as healthier in the long-run.
Hello! Interesting article, and I’ve been following the “legacy / eternal” discussion for a while now.
My long story short: I don’t feel this eternal format is necessary. The main culprits for “cost” are the dual lands. Instead of effectively killing the legacy format (see extended -> modern conversion) this could be solved by printing a land “similar” to duals with a slight drawback (ex: when this comes into play, each opponent gains 1 life). This would not only help with sales (who wouldn’t buy into “new duals?”) but also mitigate the cost of duals. Outlier cards that have gained value (ex: city of traitors) are going to occur regardless of format once new tech is discovered (see: nourishing shoal in modern as a previously used example).
In my personal opinion, I feel wotc can do more for legacy by printing “semi functional reprints” rather than alienating the entire legacy player base and creating a format that will simply divide the eternal formats even further…
***Controversial statement alert!***
As an aside, a lot of the comments I’ve read on the net seem to have very… “entitled” sentiments in them. Just like it’s not my “right” to own an Aston Martin when all I can afford is a Pinto, it not a “right” to play legacy and just expect the market to cater to invividuals financial situations. If you want something, GTA to save up for it! If your G (Goal) is to play legacy, and your T (Timeline) is next rotation, what A (Actions) are you taking to meet your G? Are you still pumping $ into modern? Well, that’s clearly not going to get you into legacy unless they’re cross format cards. Do you have a heavy investment in standard? Perhaps part of your A could be to sell some rotating std cards to achieve your G of entering legacy? If all you’re going to do is complain about prices, while not taking action to meet your goals… who’s really at fault here? The RL, or your own spending / saving habits? I literally know people who complain about the cost of legacy but spend $50-$100 on booze every week. Clearly, you want the booze more than the ability to play legacy in this situation. Or the ability to play modern… or buy that video game / system… etc. GTA!
… me again!
I honestly feel like there’s opportunity for someone to write an article called “How to save your money to play Magic” when strategies like PTS to savings accts and GTA strategies are examined. Since this is a “financial mtg site” perhaps it would even illuminate other ways for your subs to save some $ even OUTSIDE the game? This could include ways to reduce interest so that you could use that “leftover” $ to put into savings etc. Using a LOC to pay down CC debt and locking in a FRAO would be a viable way to save $ on interest, and use that $ elsewhere…
I was really excited by the start of this article, and then realized it didn’t solve any problems.
The key problems in the current formats: 1) Reserved List 2) Banned List 3) Card Pool and Prices.
If your solution carries forward 2/3 of these problems, then it’s really a tiny incremental step that will never garner enough support to shift a company like Wizards.
You need to solve 2/3 problems at minimum to be worthy of support.
An “Eternal” format that would allow Wizards to reprint cards from the Reserved List or to have NO Ban List would be a breakthrough that would shape the game in a meaningful way.
I was really excited by the start of this article, and then realized it didn’t solve any problems.
The key problems in the current formats: 1) Reserved List 2) Banned List 3) Card Pool and Prices.
If your solution carries forward 2/3 of these problems, then it’s really a tiny incremental step that will never garner enough support to shift a company like Wizards.
You need to solve 2/3 problems at minimum to be worthy of support.
An “Eternal” format that would allow Wizards to reprint cards from the Reserved List or to have NO Ban List would be a breakthrough that would shape the game in a meaningful way.