My Thoughts on Functional Reprints

I want to start off by saying I don't mind the functional reprints in m10 that much. I think I get why WotC decided to do it. True, I'd rather have Borderline Ranger be an Elf, and Remove Soul seemed like a more appropriate name than Essence Shatter (though I guess the idea that these creatures we throw around and send to their deaths have souls might be a little disturbing), but overall I'm fine with the whole thing.

I understand the anger, though. People get attached to cards, that's part of the beauty of magic. I know people who still have the first rare they ever opened up. In the last IPA draft I played in, the day before Odyssey came out, I opened a Draco. I loved 5c, was already in 5c. I slammed it. 3-0'd the draft, and I still have the card. I used to keep it in my wallet. It's not tournament legal, but that's not the point. That's how attached I was to that card and that format. Whenever I play with Jitte in extended, I use the stamped one I opened at PT-London. I have basic lands that I've been using for years. All of these things give me a small sense of joy when I play the game. I feel a sense of nostalgia whenever I play my Arena Counterspell that I got for joining the DCI. Functional reprints kill some of this fun. While I don't see Counterspell or Jitte being in t2 anytime soon, being able to play my Italian Legends Remove Souls that I opened at the first Arena event during Origins 96 would be fun.

Functional reprints make a lot of sense in expansions, especially when the originals have names that tie them to their setting. We get to see Alara's version of a RG 2/2 pro blue creature instead of wondering how a Yavimaya Barbarian got there. Or the Goblin version of a red creature we might have played before. They seem appropriate with all the plane hopping. You wouldn't want a Council of the Soratami on Mirrodin, but with Dominaria being the center of the multiverse, we understand there being some level of flavor bleed from other planes in there. Beyond that, are we to believe that Grizzly Bears were wiped out on Dominaria by their slightly more flavorful Rune-covered cousins? Is the push to remove any references to Earth that important?

Rares changing names and going to uncommons doesn't bother me personally because I don't have a large collection of rares, I tend to liquidate them every few years. Maybe if I did, the hit to the value of my Lions would hurt, as would not being able to play my older versions. I do, however, have a LOT of old commons/uncommons. I got a kick out of playing my AQ Atogs in Mirrodin block. I picked up a set of AQ Ornithopters when I was playing Affinity in Extended. I hunted around for a set of Beta Stone Rains when Magnavore was popular in t2, and threw in some Legends Boomerangs. These cards may not be worth much money, but they are worth a lot emotionally. They remind me of the past, and what it was like the play with the cards the first time they were printed. I can look at my lethal 12/2 Ornithopter and remember being in middle school, being made fun of for playing the card. Who would play an 0/2 flyer? It doesn't do anything. Well, who's laughing now? It just wouldn't feel the same if I was attacking with a Mecathopter. Not that I wouldn't remember that the Mecathopter was the same thing as Ornithopter, but deep down I'd like to take the same Ornithopter that got laughed at 15 years ago, and give that piece of cardboard a chance to redeem itself.