A 30th Anniversary is supposed to be a momentous occasion, when you look back upon the years and reflect on the journey so far. Unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast would love to forget Magic: The Gathering's 30th anniversary thanks to the controversy surrounding the $1,000 commemoratory packs launched specially for the event. However, MTG fans aren't letting Wizards forget about its greed anytime soon – by spamming the Greed card on every official MTG social media post.
The MTG 30th Anniversary Edition contained four booster packs, with 15 cards each. Each pack housed 13 modern-frame reprints of Beta cards, and two with a retro-frame treatment: one basic land, and one more random card. While that all sounds great, it costs $1,000, which, no matter how much you love MTG, is just too much. However, while the price is pretty steep, it isn't the only issue with the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition.
Say you have the money to spare, and do end up paying $1,000 for the Anniversary Edition, you won't really be able to use those cards in an actual tournament. While the collection does contain reprints of Magic’s classic Beta in both the original retro frames and new modern frames, they are not tournament legal. They also feature an exclusive card backing that prevents them from being played in most formats. So the best use for them is just as a collector's item.
Still, if the price doesn't bother you, and you're fine with the Anniversary Edition serving as a collector's item, you'd at least hope that it would include officially licensed artwork. It turns out that you'd be hoping against hope, as the pack may contain artwork that Wizards doesn't own the rights to. Justin Hoover was made aware that one of the cards, Meekstone, uses the art created by his father Quinton Hoover. However, Justin claims that Wizards of the Coast never contacted him or his family about this. "The last time this came up they tried to buy the rights but fell short of what we thought was fair," said Justin. "This led me to believe they don't have full rights especially when it came to printing. The wording in the contracts is very particular and I've already been working with property/copyright lawyers, just really don't want to go down that road."
With the reception that the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition was receiving, along with the ridiculous price, MTG fans and game store owners decided to take things into their own hands. For instance, William Ljungberg, owner of the Mindstage and SvenskaMagic stores, decided to create and sell his own version of the 30th Anniversary Edition. He created 40 custom booster packs full of old cards, and priced them at SEK 2500 ($220) each. There are $8830 worth of cards split between the 40 packs, which includes Revised dual lands and Unlimited Time Walk.
Considering how long this has been going on for, it goes to show that the fans have still not forgiven Wizards for putting out a pack that was essentially a major cash grab. Just head on over to any MTG social media channel and check out the comments.
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