As promised, we keep looking at what is on the damn Reserved List of Magic: The Gathering, seeing what could be placed in Standard if the list was abolished, and then look at what could happen to have a similar card be printed with the list still around. Today we are looking at all 7 cards on the Reserved List from the Stronghold expansion.
Crovax the Cursed
In Standard?: Yes.
The power level isn’t that bad, especially given that creatures today are more powerful than back in the day as a whole. Like most other Legendary cards, it would have to be renamed.
How it could be altered? Losing Legendary status and it would still be a fine rare or mythic rare card, althro given that vampire is now black’s smaller creature tribe of note, a new Crovax would probably be a demon.
Dream Halls
In Standard?: Hell No
There was once a CCG/TCG magazine named Inquest that dubbed this the worst card of the set. They were soon proven to be fools as this card was eventually found to be bah-roken.
How it could be altered? This is the kind of card that scares R&D. It would cost much more than 5 mana, and there’s a good chance it would be multi-colored. It might cost 5 mana if it was WUBRG…maybe.
Mox Diamond
In Standard?: No
WotC is way too scared of quick mana now. Remember that Elvish Mystic is now considered too good.
How it could be altered? Maybe if instead of discarding a land you could discard an enchantment or a planeswalker…something that fewer decks naturally have, especially in quantities. Be aware that it would have been playtested heavily by R&D.
Silver Wyvern
In Standard?: Yes
This has perhaps the lowest power rating of any card on the Reserved List from Stronghold, at a mere 3.426. It’s like, but it is hardly that big of a deal.
How it could be altered? Making it a 3/3 or a 3/4 should be more than enough to see a new version of it. Might be made a sphinx as drakes are not as big of a thing now.
Sliver Queen
In Standard?: Yes
Slivers are loved, and this costing one of each mana keeps it at the right power level. Besides, this is one of the few Legendary creatures that wouldn’t need to be renamed, as anjy world with slivers might have a Sliver Queen.
How it could be altered? We’ve seen lots of new takes on the Queen since Stronghold, so no real need to come up with another.
Volrath’s Shapeshifter
In Standard?: Hell no
Not only is this a pretty powerful shapeshifter, but it cares about graveyard order, which is verboten.
How it could be altered? The fact that graveyard order can’t be a factor really hurts the chances of making a similar card that isn’t just another shapeshifter.
Volrath’s Stronghold
In Standard?: Maybe
It is possible this could be OK for Standard, but it would need a name change. Bringing back creatures is a fairly big effect. In the online-only Tempest Remastered it was a Mythic Rare.
How it could be altered? Raise the cost of returning the creature to your library to 3B, at least. That might also let it no longer have to be legendary.
Well, those are the cards on the Reserved List from Stronghold. There’s not a lot of really remembered cards (save for Sliver Queen), but unlike other sets there are cards that could see a return to Standard.
Next up: Exodus. There’s 9 cards in the Reserved List from the set, so it’ll definitely be another one and done. See you then.
Quoth the penguin…evermore.