I’m going to make this article a short one, as I’d like to get these preview cards up for all to see, as I know people are anxiously awaiting them.

Here is what it comes down to folks

 

Sorry, no preview of Power 9 for you here - and at this point let me cut right to the chase. There is simply now no more prevaricating about the bush. When you preview Mana Vault and Library of Alexandria (two incredibly awesome cards on their own that I can't wait to use) there is no avoiding that the only question is going to be "what about the power 9?"

With the preview of these two cards, I think it's probably fair (but not necessarily safe) to assume that we'll be getting other restricted cards, like Wheel of Fortune and Fastbond, but it's not safe to assume that just because these are previewed that the Power 9 are not in the set. After all, if Power was in the set, as much as WOTC are really great people nice enough to give me previews, do you think that they would give me that news? It may be that these are the best cards in the set, but if there are power, I have the feeling that is the kind of preview you don't give to any site. I mean, that's marketing you're giving away there. While those of you reading this make up a group probably larger than some people think, I have no delusions as to where the place where I'd want to spread that news - and it's not here at CQ.

That being said, there are 105 rares in this set, and these two Vintage restricted wonders make up two of them. Let's not bother to talk about the chances that on Nov 20th, there is going to be a B&R that says that Library of Alexandria is unrestricted - I think it's pretty likely it will be, and as I've reiterated many, many times before, you just can't sell as set on restricted cards like this. Ask MED2. Mana Crypt and Imperial Seal were selling for 1 at the time, and that was a set with 5 duals and an unrestricted Necropotence in an 80 rare set. Even WoTC acknowledges that there was too much chaff in MED2. So how in the heck are there 105 rares in this set? Even worse, at the time there was no Legacy, so the people who are now firmly entrenched as Legacy-only players (and there are many) have absolutely no need for these or any other Legacy-banned cards.

This essentially leaves us with 3 possibilities

1. MED4 has power in it - I mean, there is simply nothing left, and lets be fair - even Legacy players (and everyone else) will still play the hell out of any set with power in it, even if you only need one. If you have power, you can have a 105 rare set, and sell if with 96 (well ok now 94) laces in the other rare spots.
2. MED has no power in it, but a bunch of reprints. Good ones. First, I'm pretty sure that even if this were the case, I'd be plenty worried about it. Let's take the best case scenario, and say that all 10 dual Lands were in the set at rare. With 105 rares and 10 dual lands, the dual land ratio is better than even MED3 was - where apart from Tropical Island, all the duals sell for less than $20. However, even in that scenario, I'm afraid I see a flop of a set. You see, there are an awful lot of dual lands out there. They are already much cheaper than the paper cousins, so I don't expect reprinting them will draw many more from people looking to either switch or play both, and while I know everyone has a budget, reprinting of duals and bringing more people up will likely simply have the effect on raising the price of other Legacy staples that are, shall we say, already more expensive than duals themselves (Hi, Force of Will and Wasteland). In other words, while I guess it's possible reprints would sell the set to some effect, I don't know where the people buying to have a 1 in 10.5 shot (MED2 was 1 in 16 and MED3 was 1 in 14) to get a dual land are going to come from. Meanwhile, the restricted cards like Library here will probably cost you buck since there still wouldn't be Vintage, just Classic, where it will be restricted.
3. The last possibility I see is that there are all the restricted non-p9 cards in here (including ones that have only appeared in Duel Decks or From the Vaults) and the set will suck - royally. Personally such a thought is pretty gruesome to me and I'm pretty sure WoTC is smart enough not to make another MED2 except without anything but a dozen Mana Crypts and Imperial Seals.

So full stop, pretty much the only question left is whether and when we'll get P9. As soon as you start flashing around cards with the pedigree of Library of Alexandria, you'd better be prepared to answer that question I think. I suppose we'll know the answer soon enough.