MTG reprints in peril as Wizards of the Coast scraps The List

The List has been an excellent, reliable way of making reprints accessible for MTG players since 2020, but – aside from in-universes Special Guest cards – Wizards of the Coast is now doing away with this beloved part of Magic Boosters.

MTG’s Bloomburrow set has gotten many Magic players, both new and long-term, very excited for a mostly standalone fantasy plane. Bloomburrow has seemed uniquely well-placed to appeal to longtime Magic players weary of MTG’s genre experiments like Outlaws of Thunder Junction, while also drawing new fans into the hobby through its adorable designs and engaging mechanics.

Unfortunately, there is now a downside to be found in Bloomburrow, and it’s a surprising lack of reprints, which is set to be the norm moving forward.

Along with the regular announcements for new cards that come with every Magic spoiler season, reprints included on The List are usually shared by Wizards in the weeks leading up to a given set’s launch.

Wizards has made an announcement regarding The List ahead of Bloomburrow’s release, but it isn’t what most players had been expecting.

As part of the Collecting Bloomburrow article on the official Wizards MTG site, there is a discussion of the many bonuses found in Bloomburrow, from seasonal full-art lands to the Imagine: Courageous Critters showcases that transform Planeswalkers and well-known MTG Creatures into adorable animal forms.

Below all of these details, towards the bottom of the article, is crucial information on how The List will change going forward:

“Starting with Bloomburrow, de-archived cards, commonly known as The List cards, which feature the Planeswalker stamp in the bottom-left corner will no longer appear in Play Boosters. The cards found on The List in Bloomburrow are Special Guests cards.”

De-archived cards made up the vast majority of The List in previous sets, and while The List will continue to exist it is essentially in name only until it contains something other than just Special Guest cards.

While this change is certainly unexpected, it doesn’t come completely without warning. The List had already dropped significantly in size in time for the Murders at Karlov Manor set, with just 40 cards in addition to the Special Guest reprints.

All of this isn’t to say that Wizards is doing away with reprints in their main Magic sets altogether, as doing so would have a profound impact on the game and its collectors. The List slot in Play Boosters will still include Special Guest cards, which provide new art for old cards, as opposed to The List’s usually stylistically unchanged reprints.

While this seems like good news at first, as Special Guests have been warmly received as a way to recontextualize existing Magic designs for new planes, Special Guests have a much lower chance of appearing in a given Play Booster than The List cards did. This change makes reprints much more difficult to get a hold of for regular MTG players.

Wizards continues to experiment with their boosters, including the recently announced Value Boosters first appearing in Bloomburrow. As these changes are implemented, it is unknown if MTG players will see a system of reprints introduced to replace The List, or if Special Guests will continue to be foregrounded.