Mark Rosewater made a huge announcement this morning in which he showed off the new Masterpiece Series. This is a new series of reprints in every block in the style of the Expeditions that were part of Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch.
Zendikar Expeditions were a set of 45 reprints which were not Standard Legal but could be found in packs of Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. That series included all land cards and featured valuable reprints such as Wasteland and Scalding Tarn.
The Expeditions are becoming the Masterpiece Series and will be a permanent feature of all four annual expansions going forwards, with flavor from the plane we’re visiting. For Kaladesh, instead of becoming Zendikar Expeditions, they become Kaladesh Inventions. Maybe it’s a bit campy, but it’s also a lot awesome.
Here are all the juicy details from Mark Rosewater’s article:
- The Masterpiece Series will exist at a rarity higher than mythic rare. For example, in Kaladesh, you will open a Kaladesh Inventions card roughly 1 out of every 144 boosters. (Technically, the Kaladesh booster pack says the ratio is 1:2,160 cards.) This is slightly more often than opening a premium mythic rare. These ratios may change for future sets.
- The Masterpiece Series will be reprints of existing cards with one exception. There will often be cards from that set included in the Masterpiece Series (like how the Battle for Zendikar rare dual lands were included in Zendikar Expeditions), but they will typically exist in the set in a traditional frame in their normal rarity in addition to appearing in the Masterpiece Series. Kaladesh Inventions has a cycle of five mythic rare cards that appear in the Kaladesh set. There will never be cards appearing in a Masterpiece Series that can’t be found outside of it. (I’m talking, of course, about the card itself and not the particular creative/frame treatment.)
- The Masterpiece Series, both in presentation and card selection, will be tied thematically to the world appearing in the block. For instance, all of the Kaladesh Inventions will be artifact cards presented as Kaladeshi artifacts. The frame will likewise have a special treatment that ties into the theme of the block. I will be showing off some of the Kaladesh Inventions cards later in this article, so you’ll get a chance to see what I’m talking about for our first Masterpiece Series. The frame treatment will be exclusive to the Masterpiece Series it appears in.
- The number of Masterpiece Series cards may fluctuate, but roughly speaking we expect each Masterpiece Series to be around 50 cards for the whole block. Kaladesh Inventions, for example, will have 30 cards in Kaladesh and 24 cards in Aether Revolt. The large set and small set in a block will have different Masterpiece cards.
- All Masterpiece Series cards are printed in English, but they do appear in non-English product.
- The expansion symbol for each Masterpiece Series will be block-specific, but distinct from the sets in that block. For example, the Masterpiece Series cards in Kaladesh and Aether Revolt will share one unique expansion symbol—they won’t use the Kaladesh or Aether Revolt symbols.
- All Masterpiece cards will exist only in premium foil versions.
- Masterpiece cards are planned for Magic Online, but will not be redeemable and are not counted as part of the set. They’re going to be distributed in an exciting new way, but we’re not quite ready to announce what that is. Look for that announcement later this month.
- Masterpiece cards will not exist in Magic Duels.
- Masterpiece cards can be played in any Limited format they’re opened in and in any Constructed format in which the card is already legal.
The first four Kaladesh Inventions were also revealed in Mark Rosewater’s article:
Wow, those are some really gorgeous cards in my opinion (though Matt Jones may beg to differ). I’m a little sad that they didn’t get full frame art, but then again there’s a lot of text on these cards.
The rest of the 30-card Kaladesh Invention set that will available in packs of Kaladesh in a few weeks will be revealed this afternoon, so stay tuned for more information. Also look out for more articles this week from our staff discussing the implication of these reprints on Commander, Vintage, Legacy, and Modern!