Core Reprints

Today I'll close out the month with another look at core sets (see previous post). From last time, there are 21 core sets to date in Magic's history. Adding up the cards in each, we have 6,451 total cards available in booster packs, but recent releases have offered further core set cards available only in preconstructed planeswalker decks (or other products), driving that number up to 6,725 cards. This counts everything (multiple copies of basic lands in each set, for example), so let's look at things in more detail, with a focus on reprints.

As you'd expect, reprints are common in core sets. Last time, we learned that 10 core sets featured only reprints. This time, I want to look at reprints as the occur in core sets only- in other words, I don't count if a given card was reprinted in an expansion or special release. Looking at the 21 core set releases, what do we see?

A few caveats: I don't count basic lands, and I count instances where cards were printed twice in one core set with differing artwork only once.

At a high level, 

• 131 cards have been reprinted in 7 or more core sets, or 33% of the releases.
• 37 cards have been reprinted in 11 or more core sets, or 50% of the releases.
• 9 cards have been reprinted in 14 or more core sets, or 67% of the releases.

The 5 most commonly reprinted cards:

• Shivan Dragon, Giant Spider, Serra Angel (16 core sets)
• Nightmare, Unsummon (15 core sets)

One in each color, it just so happens:

Let's look at more numbers, focusing on those 131 cards that show up in 1/3 or more of core sets. Those cards, in total, account for 1,226 of the 6,725 core set cards- over 18%. Of these 131 cards,

• 111 (85%) first appeared in Alpha; see list below

• 1 first appeared in Beta (Circle of Protection: Black)
• 3 first appeared in Revised (Millstone, Ornithopter, Aladdin's Ring)
• 1 first appeared in 4th Edition (Spirit Link)
• 5 first appeared in 6th Edition (Gravedigger, Pacifism, Shock, Phantom Warrior, Rampant Growth)
• 2 first appeared in 7th Edition (Mind Rot, Duress)
• 2 first appeared in 8th Edition (Naturalize, Diabolic Tutor)
• 1 first appeared in 10th Edition (Cancel)
• 2 first appeared in Magic 2010 (Negate, Act of Treason)
• 1 first appeared in Magic 2011 (Plummet)
• 2 first appeared in Magic 2012 (Lava Axe, Titanic Growth)

Looking at types, rarities, and colors, we have the following breakdown:

• 46 creatures
• 27 enchantments
• 22 instants
• 20 artifacts (or artifact creatures)
• 16 sorceries
• 56 commons
• 41 uncommons
• 34 rares
• 23 White
• 20 Blue
• 22 Black
• 21 Red
• 25 Green
• 20 Artifact

As you'd expect, the first sets (Alpha through 5th Edition) have many of these most commonly reprinted cards (over 100 each). 

• Revised and Fourth Edition have the most, at 114 cards
• Core Set 2021 has the least, at 5 cards
• There's a steady decline of commonly reprinted cards, as shown below

Of course, this is looking only at those reprinted in 7 or more core sets. Numbers swell dramatically when we include those printed (say) in 3 or more core sets. But that analysis is for another time.

This work further informs my 2021 goal: designing My Own Core (or "MOC") set, drawing from Magic's history and taking a cue from these frequently reprinted cards. Wizards is telling us something: with these 131 cards showing up in so many of the games foundational products (which is what core sets are- or at least were), they warrant likely (or mandatory) inclusion in MOC.

At the Core

Giant Spider

I love core sets. By definition, they're the basis of the game. They were the first releases, they contain so many classic cards, they focus on fundamentals . . . they're great. To date, we've had 21 core sets: Alpha, Beta, Unlimited (Second Edition), Revised (Third Edition), Fourth through Tenth Edition, Magic 2010 through Magic 2015, Origins, and Core 2019 through Core 2021. Today's post looks at some stats based on core sets. Throughout, scryfall syntax commands are presented should you wish to reproduce any of the results.

Basics

Here are the core sets with their release date, set code, and number of cards.

Two things to note:

1) The number of cards in a core set has varied between roughly 250 and 450 cards, with an average of just over 300.

2) The time between releases varies from a few months (the first few) to every two years (Fourth Edition-Magic 2010) to every year (Magic 2010-Origins and Core Set 2019-Core Set 2021). There was a three-year gap between Origins and Core Set 2019.

Number of Same Cards Reprinted Across Core Sets

How many cards have "passed through" all core sets? In other words, how many of the same cards are printed in Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, and so on? (I omit basic lands.) As you'd expect, the number drops as we include more core sets. All cards in Alpha show up in Beta, for example, but fewer are in Alpha/Beta/Unlimited, fewer still are in the first four core sets, and the number drops to zero by Magic 2013. So there is not one card that shows up in all core sets. The one that does through the first thirteen? Giant Spider. Graph shown below. 

Scryfall syntax:

in:lea in:leb [returns cards printed in both Alpha and Beta]

in:lea in:leb in:2ed [returns cards printed in Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited]

and so on.

Number of Alpha Cards Reprinted in Other Core Sets

The next analysis focuses on Alpha. How many cards in Alpha got reprinted in subsequent core sets? (Again, I omit basic lands.) In other words, how many Sixth Edition cards were first printed in Alpha? How many Origins card were printed in Alpha? And so on. This number also dropped as we progress in time, but remains nonzero until Core 2021- the first set that contains zero cards printed in Alpha. Five cards from Alpha show up in Core 2020: Disenchant, Air Elemental, Unsummon, Fire Elemental, and Shivan Dragon. Graph shown below. 

Scryfall syntax:

in:lea in:6ed [returns cards printed in both Alpha and Sixth Edition]

in:lea in:m19 [returns cards printed in both Alpha and Core 2019]

and so on.

Number of Cards Reprinted in Adjacent Core Sets

This next topic concerns 'adjacent' core sets. This ignores expansions or other special releases and looks at how the core sets 'evolved' over time. How many cards in Alpha showed up in Beta? How many in 3rd Edition showed up in 4th Edition? How many in M13 showed up in M14? And so on. There have never been fewer than 12 cards reprinted from this perspective (between Origins and M19), and every other adjacent core release has had at least 23 reprints. Graph shown below. 

Scryfall syntax:

in:9ed in:10e [returns cards printed in both 9th Edition and 10th Edition] 

in:m13 in:m14 [returns cards printed in both M13 and M14] 

and so on.

Cards in Core Sets That are Not Reprints

This final category flips it around. How many cards in each core set are unique- in other words, have never been reprinted? Initially, the goal with core sets was to provide staple cards to players, so after Alpha, core sets were always 100% reprints through 10th Edition. [But, from the previous graphs, we see that the reprints weren't always coming from previous core sets- in fact, most were not. That meant cards first printed in expansions were finding their way into later core releases.] But the 'reprint only' policy changed with the release of M10. I still remember the buzz around that change- people were so excited (I among them). Those first few "M[x]" core sets featured ~100 new [meaning unique] cards per release. That number has jumped to ~180 since Origins. Graph shown below. 

Scryfall syntax:

e:ori not:reprint [returns cards printed in Origins that are not reprints] 

e:m21 not:reprint [returns cards printed in Core 2021 that are not reprints] 

and so on.

Concluding Thoughts

Core sets are worth studying because they give insight into what Wizards considers the nucleus of the Magic experience. Through reprints have always played a big role, they were not always from previous core sets, and new [unique] cards are increasingly featured in the last few. 

I did this analysis as part of my goal for 2021: to design my own core set, using only existing cards, drawing from Magic's rich history, and using statistics to include most commonly-reprinted cards, etc.

Most Frequently Reprinted

Giant Growth, the most reprinted Magic card

The last few posts have focused on unique cards or nuances to that (like tweaked or functional reprints). Now we'll go in the opposite direction: which Magic cards have been reprinted the most number of times? (We exclude basic lands, which of course appear in nearly every product.)

The Scryfall command is easy: sets=[x], where [x]=any whole number. I knew from a recent Cardmarket facebook post that Giant Growth had the most reprints, at 42. Starting there and working my way down, I find the following cards have been reprinted 20 times or more (meaning they've appeared in 20 or more different core sets, expansions, and/or special releases, like preconstructed decks):

42: Giant Growth

38: Serra Angel, Evolving Wilds

35: Disenchant

34: Dark Ritual

33: Counterspell, Llanowar Elves

31: Swords to Plowshares, Terramorphic Expanse

30: Air Elemental, Pacifism

29: Fireball, Shivan Dragon, Sol Ring

27: Giant Spider, Gravedigger

26: Lightning Bolt, Sengir Vampire, Unsummon, Wrath of God

25: Mind Rot, Stone Rain

24: Duress, Negate, Rampant Growth, Shock, Terror

23: Birds of Paradise, Naturalize, Shatter

22: Armageddon, Cancel, Fog, Harmonize

21: Brainstorm, Mahamoti Djinn, Nightmare, Raise Dead

20: Forgotten Cave, Healing Salve, Hurricane, Juggernaught, Lightning Greaves, Lure, Ornithopter, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Unholy Strength

From this list, we see the most reprinted card in each color, including the most common artifact and non-basic land. 

The card art (and often text) of these cards has changed over the years. To see all prints of a given card, use !"[card name]" in Scryfall.

As the number of reprints decreases, the number of cards get larger, as you'd expect:

19 reprints: 8 cards

18 reprints: 17 cards

17 reprints: 9 cards

16 reprints: 19 cards

15 reprints: 26 cards

14 reprints: 33 cards

13 reprints: 46 cards

12 reprints: 56 cards

11 reprints: 73 cards

10 reprints: 97 cards

9 reprints: 105 cards

8 reprints: 173 cards

7 reprints: 232 cards

6 reprints: 387 cards

5 reprints: 603 cards

4 reprints: 1171 cards

3 reprints: 2280 cards

2 reprints: 4942 cards

Since we know the total number of unique Magic cards is over 20,000, this means 10,000+ cards have never been reprinted- about half. Put the other way, about half of all Magic cards show up in at least two products.

One takeaway: if there's an older card that you want but cannot find, wait a few years; it may be reprinted. Another: reviewing the lists of cards gives insight into what Wizards considers the core of the game; more on this topic to come.

Tweaked Reprints

 As promised in the previous post, today I look at tweaked reprints. From yesterday,

• A strict reprint is reusing an existing card in a new release. It might have new art or flavor text, but the same name, casting cost, type (creature/instant/etc.), stats, and abilities- it's identical in every game-relevant aspect. 
• A functional reprint is a card that has the same color, casting cost, type, stats, and abilities of an existing card but different name.

A tweaked reprint is a card that has similar casting cost, stats, and abilities of an existing card, but could be a different type or even color. But I'll stick with examples in the same color:

The first two cards, Reviving Dose and Revitalize, have identical stats but different casting cost. The second pair are nearly strict reprints save for card type (instant vs. sorcery) and a nuance: Healing Hands says "target player gains 4 life," while Ritual of Rejuvenation says "You gain 4 life." For the former, most of the time, I'd imagine you'd choose yourself as the target player, but it is an option to choose another.

Next example: destroying creatures.

This first set of cards has an identical ability but slightly varying casting cost- either in total amount of mana or color requirements: {3}{B} vs. {1}{B}{B} vs. {2}{B}{B}. And some are instants, some sorceries. But many variations on this card have been made over the years, adding abilities simplistically grouped as 'conditional' or 'additional.' Conditional first:

Note that these are cheaper than the generic 'destroy' options, but come with conditions based on creature type, power, or color. And some are instants, others sorceries. The next set is additional:

These cards are more expensive than the generic, because they both destroy a creature and grant some additional bonus- surveilling, discarding, creating a food token, or gaining life. And again, note instant vs. sorcery.

Why offer tweaked reprints? 

• To account for the flavor of a set. Deadly Visit or Bake into a Pie are examples: their respective sets had keywords or tokens added to the generic ability. Surveil decks could make good use of the former; Food decks, the latter.
• To adjust spell cost or type based on the strengths/weaknesses of a set. If, for example, a set features many expensive creatures (like the Ixalan block), a card like Impale- which costs more than the standard Murder spell- reflects the designer's desire to scale the cost of removal spells accordingly. (People won't play those expensive dinosaurs if a cheap removal spell does them in.) Instant vs. sorcery makes a big different, too- I'll cover 'instant speed' another time.
• To balance standard or another format's metagame. If a certain color or strategy is gaining the upper hand in a format, Wizards might introduce a conditional card designed to curb the strategy's dominance without banning cards. Deathmark, for example, is a cheap spell clearly aimed at white/green decks. It may have been introduced to balance out the meta at the time (I don't know in this specific case, but have seen this done before).
• Like functional reprints, tweaked reprints can be a way to get more of a certain type of card into your deck. If you have a life gain/card draw deck, you might want four copies of both Reviving Dose and Revitalize, for example.

Learning to recognize reprints (of all stripes) helps players understand and navigate an impressively big card pool. With over 20,000 unique cards, even lifelong students of the game will come across cards they've never seen (or remember seeing) before. With the different types of reprints, players will learn to recognize trends and patterns across sets, becoming familiar with typical card abilities and the various ways they can be presented. You may even find yourself starting to think of new cards in terms of existing: "oh, that's like a more expensive _____."  Ultimately, though this game has near-infinite variety, there is nothing new under the sun.

Functional Reprints

Yesterday's post about the total number of unique Magic cards didn't discuss a nuance that would have complicated things: functional reprints.

A strict reprint is reusing an existing card in a new release. It might have new art or flavor text, but the same name, casting cost, type (creature/instant/etc.), stats, and abilities- it's identical in every game-relevant aspect. (I excluded those yesterday from the calculation, as they weren't unique.) A functional reprint is a card that has the same color, casting cost, type, stats, and abilities of an existing card but different name. Examples:

Note that the definition doesn't include subtype, so it would count Oreskos Swiftclaw (below) as a functional reprint of Savai Sabertooth and Prowling Caracal, even though the Swiftclaw is also a warrior.

I don't see eye to eye on that one, because (for example) Swiftclaw could benefit from Kor Blademaster while the other two would not, since they're not warriors:

But it's not up to me. The official Wizards page ran a nice article on this years ago, and Gamepedia has a list of cards in this category.

Why do they make functional reprints? Why not just reprint an existing card? I see two reasons.

1. From the Wizards article, "They are usually made for one simple reason: to flesh out the world of the new set." Each Magic expansion has a theme, and some existing cards may not be a match (based on name or art), but would fit well otherwise. So change the name and art, and voila, it works.
2. Functional reprints effectively allow a player, depending on format, to play more than 4 copies of a given card. If you wish, you can play four copies each of Swiftclaw, Sabertooth, and Caracal in a Modern deck, giving you twelve 3/1 white cats for {1}{W}. When both sets were legal in Standard, you could play Didn't Say Please and Thought Collapse in the same deck, giving you eight identical counterspells (I did this in a mill deck iteration).

If you stick with the game long, you'll pick up on such reprints as you scan card previews of new sets. You'll get a twinge- "wait, haven't I seen this before?"- and chances are, you have. Either in a strict reprint or functional one.

A final thought: why do reprints at all? Again, the Wizards article is helpful. They give three reasons for strict reprints, but the concepts apply to functional as well:

• define play environments, 
• give new players more access to staple cards, and 
• provide sets with links to the past.

I'd add: there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. There are staple cards- offering basic abilities important to fundamental Magic play- that really don't need to be changed from set to set. They're good as they are, so why change them? 

Whether strict or functional, yesterday we found that Magic has over 20,400 unique cards (no strict reprints). The Gamepedia article lists 334 cards that are functional reprints, so if we dropped those, we'd still be north of 20,000 unique cards. Either way, the card pool has more variety and complexity than can be enjoyed in several lifetimes, so I'm fine with the arrangement.

There's yet one more nuance- the tweaked reprint- that I'll cover next time.

How many cards?

The Grand Calculatron

How many Magic cards have been made? Today's question is more difficult than it appears. 

First, let's clarify the intent. Do we mean:

• How many total cards have been made? 
• This would count duplicates (or reprints)- so if a given set had 4 versions of a basic land Forest card, each would count.
• How many unique cards have been made?  
• This would not count reprints, within or across sets.
• How many total cards have been printed?
• A print run- how many copies of cards are produced, packaged, and distributed- for a given set is generally in the millions, as discussed here.

This post will focus on the middle question: how many unique cards have been made.

Now we have to clarify scope. Many types of Magic products have been produced over the years (a good list is here). Do we count:

• Core sets and expansions only?
• Basically, this is any set that would have been legal for use in Standard at any point.
• Compilation sets (like the Masters series)?
• Sets like Modern Masters are generally 100% reprints; since we're concerned with unique cards, we can safely ignore these.
• Preconstructed products?
• Commander decks, duel decks, theme/planeswalker decks, Ravnica guild kits, and other preconstructed decks have been released over the years. Do we count those? Most of those contain reprints of cards that first appeared in core sets and expansions, but not all- there are some cards unique to preconstructed products.
• Funny sets?
• What about silver-bordered cards that came from sets or preconstructed products like Unhinged, Unglued, Unstable, or Unsanctioned?
• Supplemental sets or special releases?
• Do we count unique cards in products like Jumpstart, Conspiracy, Archenemy, Secret Lair Drop series, and product variants like Vanguard or Explorers of Ixalan?
• Do we count digital cards- those that have been released only in digital format (like on Arena)?

Ugh. Where to begin? We'll start broadly and narrow it down. Throughout this post, Scryfall will be our guide. Any commands shown below were typed into the main Scryfall search bar. And all results are accurate only as of this writing- 7 November 2020- as the numbers are always changing.

The first query: how many unique Magic cards have been made? Using Scryfall's syntax, we search as follows, and get the result (presented immediately after and copied from Scryfall's explanation):

• not:reprint  
• 20,962 cards where the cards aren’t reprints

Cool. But this includes funny cards . . . let's drop those:

• not:reprint not:funny  
• 20,485 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny

Now let's remove those digital-only cards:

• not:reprint not:funny not:digital  
• 20,466 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Great. Now let's look at how many unique cards have appeared in core sets:

• not:reprint st:core  
• 1,685 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the card is in a core set

And now expansions:

• not:reprint st:expansion  
• 17,075 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the card is in an expansion set

All that remains are cards that weren't in core sets or expansions:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion  
• 2,202 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the card is not in a core set and the card is not in an expansion set

Oops, that includes funny and digital cards. Adjusting:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion not:funny not:digital  
• 1,706 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the card is not in a core set and the card is not in an expansion set and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Alright, I think that's it for today. So in summary, as of today,

• 20,466 unique Magic cards have been released in core sets, expansions, or other special releases that are not funny and not digital only. The breakdown:
• 1,685 unique Magic cards in core sets
• 17,075 unique Magic cards in expansions
• 1,706 unique Magic cards in special releases
• 477 unique funny Magic cards have been released
• 19 unique digital Magic cards have been released

The numbers are always changing; here's a screenshot on how the numbers have changed over the past few months. Note that the "-is:" or "-st:" syntax is interchangable with "not:" in some cases:

That's a lot of Magic cards. Enjoy!