First, the good news. Modern Masters 2015 can be reordered, so you can all rejoice about how easy it is to get packs.
Now, the negatives. If you want those MM 2015 packs right away please keep in mind that there are several issues going on with the first print run of the set. This first run might not be that desirable due to printing and packaging errors. And let me be clear, there are many errors with this product. James did a good job in pointing out the issues.
Non-Tamper Proof Packaging
Since Wizards decided to be Earth-friendly for the release of Modern Masters 2015, they are putting these packs in cardboard packaging and using glue to keep the packages closed together. This youtube video shows why that maybe wasn’t such a great idea. Modern Masters is going to have value, but please make sure to get your packs from reputable dealers or people that you trust.
In-Pack Card Damage
Next on the list is in-pack card damage. This Twitter picture pretty much tells it all.
I find it quite sad that every single foil common in the box was nicked in this manner. What do you do if you open a money common foil and it had this type of issue? What if every card in your pack had these kind of nicks? Not a very good feeling to see that pack fresh cards aren’t coming out NM and knowing that you have a good chance with this first run to get stuck with cards that are damaged due to the loose-packing style of the cardboard boosters.
Collation Issues
This reddit post does a great job explaining how cards in packs seem to be having collation issues. Washed out colors, misprints, badly centered cards – these are all basic things that shouldn’t be happening in sets like Dragons of Tarkir, let alone Modern Masters 2015. I’m wondering if the cardboard packaging did this to the cards or if the quality control was just that bad. Maybe it’s a one-of case that just happens to be anecdotal? Not sure, but based on what others are saying I find it hard to believe that this is an isolated case.
Pack Rarity Distribution Errors
This reddit post gives an account of packs containing no rares coming out of a sealed box. In the comments, a user gives an account of a friend opening packs containing multiple rares per pack. With this issue, I believe that Wizards will replace the defective product (that is, packs containing no rares) however it is still just another example of the low quality control seen so far.
Another issue with this is that you can even get these crazy DISCARD cards in your slot, or worse your mythic rare slot:
These DISCARD cards are a bit more common, as they have happened over the years in plenty of recent packs of sets, but to get one in a $10 pack is still pretty disheartening.
Wizards’ Response So Far
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is going to be a lot that you can do about many of these issues. Wizards was listening to feedback starting on Friday and through Saturday about the reported print run issues and released this Twitter statement along with an official statement from the mothership.
This statement doesn’t address anything with the concerns that people have been bringing up. It’s kind of a slap in the face to players, especially those who have bought boxes at WPN locations and discovered the issues with cards were nicked upon opening. Some of the louder voices on Twitter are continuously asking what we can do if we get packs with these types of print run issues. Hopefully there will be recourse in the future for the issues but for now we’ll just have to wait and see.
Continuous Discussion About Value and Condition
I’ve talked about potential issues with value for Modern Masters 2015 in my last article, but this video by Tolarian Community College does an amazing job explaining exactly why or why not to buy into Modern Masters 2015. He does get a bit preachy, especially when calling Wizards greedy for pricing packs with Goyfs in them at $10, but after seeing everything that has been going on with Modern Masters 2015 at this point I am inclined to agree with him. He also provides more documented footage of card conditions of cards that are coming out of pack fresh boosters. Great, straight-to-the-point coverage by The MTG Professor.
I realize that the vocal minority always complains the loudest. However, in my many years of playing Magic I have never experienced the amount of card quality complaints that I am seeing with this set over the past weekend. One factor could be because of the higher cost of entry – since players are paying more, they expect a higher quality product, and who can blame them. I have certain expectations when purchasing a Cadillac versus purchasing a Ford, however with Magic cards it should be even easier to guarantee that the product is up to snuff. Another reason might be the bandwagon effect – since it is popular to complain about Modern Masters 2015 during opening weekend, why not chime in with your own personal anecdote even if most other players haven’t experienced it. I mean, we’re all just kind of shooting from the hip here since we don’t know how exactly how much of the product is defective. However, recently players have said the Commander 2014 decks were also having issues, and I don’t remember the feedback for those decks being as negative as for Modern Masters 2015. This is only the first weekend, so maybe over time we’ll see that this is just overblown. However, I felt it was important to write this article because if you experienced these types of issues with your premium Modern Masters 2015 packs then please know that you are not alone and that several other community members both on Twitter and Reddit have been documenting and adding issues they are finding with the set.
I’ll leave you with this – even after seeing all of the issues with Modern Masters 2015, I still think Wizards has a chance to get it right with the next print run. They seem to have recognized that there is a problem, due to them Tweeting about it and releasing a statement on Saturday, however now we need action from Wizards to follow up with their mistakes. I expect great things from Modern Masters 2015 and hopefully future waves will correct the mistakes we are seeing on release weekend.
I’m not getting any MM15 but I did have a problem with a box of DTK. About half the packs I opened had machine grease on the first common card but not much. A few packs were soaked in it. The rares were fine but one that was covered. It was a bulk rare, but had it been Dragonlord Ojutai or another high priced card I would of been very upset.
I haven’t had any pack issues that I can recall,
but I did notice a pretty severe issue with one of my DTK pre-release boxes.
every single card in the seeded pack was heavily scratched across the center of the back of the card. It was however very consistent and not random, so definitely a machine error.
Fortunately my seeded pack was not valuable in any way, though the roast that was in it was pretty much garbage.
I sent in a support request via my mothership account asking how I get a defective Modern Masters 2015 booster pack exchanged.
I promptly received a reply stating “… thank you for taking the time to contact us. I’m so sorry to hear that your Modern Masters packs are defective. If you are located in the United States I’d be happy to assist you by setting up a Fed-Ex call tag to pick up effected packs! If you could provide the information below I will be able to set up the Fed-Ex call tag and begin the process of replacing your Modern Masters packs… .”
The rest of the message contains instructions on how to get the packs replaced.
Anyhow, I would advise those who have received defective packs to simply contact WotC customer support via their main site account.
Our LGS had a MM2015 draft Friday night. We did not have any of the big problems notes in the article but I was unpleasantly surprised in other ways by the low quality of the product. We had several cards with typical problems like multiple printing lines but most surprising to me were the number of cards with faint and/or seemingly smaller sized printing that frankly looked like counterfeits at first glance. This is very disappointing for a “premium” product offering.
I’ll be fine so long as I can get the 8 or so boxes I have of the first QC-less run exchanged for ones that have appropriate quality considerations. I hold stuff like this mostly for drafting with friends in future years, and having defective product down the road is not a fun plan.
When was the post about reorders made? My boss got an email saying that there would be no reorders Saturday.
Kinda wish they’d accidentally leave a Black Lotus front on a mythic spot in a print run somewhere… that’d be a fun mistake to see 🙂
I have only opted to crack one box with my kid for the sake of enjoyment. No issues with my cards allotment or condition. Landed 4 mythics and a foil Ulamog so my complaints don’t exist.
I am pretty sure these were printed in the US so it’s probably a new printer? Notice that the cards are similar to Commander decks / Duel Decks and the foiling process is a bit different?
Its the same printer they have been using for supplemental products for a few years now. Most of these issues are not exactly new but due to the increased size we are hearing about them more. I am also pretty sure they were printed in the US.
can we rename mm2015 SoM2015 ? like in Summer of Modern 2015.
wotc did the same back in early revised trying a new supplier which resulted in summer of magic. they quickly reverted back to cartamundi (i think at least for europe)… maybe history is repeating here…. so is it the time to stash boxes of this print run so that in 20 years they are 10x the price of normal mm2015 ?
Wow, that’s an interesting thought! Who knows, in 20 years if Magic is still around the boxes with known printing errors could definitely be worth more. Summer Modern Masters, there might be something to it…
Those discard cards are worth more than most cards in the set, in the relm of $40 – $80.
Well, I guess you’re pretty lucky if you pull one of them then! Who’s buying at $40-$80, people on eBay? Misprint collectors?
Well, I’m glad I read this article no less than 5 minutes after buying a box at my lgs. Awesome.
Hey, I’m just one guy noting a trend with product. Odds are your box is fine, and if it isn’t I’m sure you could complain to Wizards and they’ll give you something in return. Let us know how you make out and good luck!
Just adding, I did not want to buy large quantities of this set as I have a modern deck and its difficult to get out to play modern locally.
However I did purchase two packs yesterday to just try my luck and experience these new packs.
First disappointment of all, Canadian pricing and MSRP mark ups are ridiculous. Two packs at $14 each came to $31 after tax. From the minute he mentioned the price, I had nothing but regret. This being the cheaper store, I knew the other competitors would be at $15 a piece before taxes or more.
The packaging was different, kinda cool, fun even. Sad that people can manipulate it, however my cards all appeared to be in mint condition from the sides/front/back.
Disappointment number two. The cards smelled foul. There was no nostalgic magic the gathering smell, they smelled like nasty ink/plastic/cardboard crap… This is an extreme disappointment to me.
Disappointment number three. The cards were all extra slippery/slick texture such as recent box printings like duel decks or clash packs. Where you could compare two cards from a typical booster and a clash pack and they would be visibly different in colour, texture, flexibility And feel.
Disappointment number four. The cards were all dark, including the lackluster foils. Much like their clash pack brethren. The foils were all dull, dark and ugly. After wizards’ recent releases from the DTK set, everything was so vibrant amongst normal cards and stunningly shiny on foils… what happened !? It’s like going back in time to when foils were a coin flip, sometimes they’d be dull to the point where you wouldn’t even want it, and sometimes they are just stunningly bright and gorgeous. If i were to have opened a foil goyf from my packs, I would’ve sold it because of how ugly it were with dull ink/foiling. Reminds me of my set of foil KTK fetches, two of my wooded foothills barely even shine and it irritates me beyond belief, meanwhile the rest are stunning and beautiful.
Disappointment number 5. My packs were among the worst value you could imagine (completely my luck, I know there is extreme potential, and I rolled the dice and lost). My two rares were Wildfire and the notorious Comet storm.
I literally just spent $31 on two packs and opened $2 worth of rares and no valuable commons/uncommons. I will still attempt to draft at another store (hopefully these colour/print issues were locally within that box), but I will certainly not be buying any more packs even though I want to. Original MM packs were like crack to me, especially since I could buy them at 7CDN msrp. I may not draft if I cant find a store that will do it for a decent price, last weekend only one store was running it and it was $45 buy in… It’s not a god damn grand prix or ptq for christ sakes. Drafts are supposed to be discounted from msrp, why am I paying a premium on this.
Overall this set is a premium disappointment to me. I am happy I kept my MM goyfs, even if they took a temporary hit.
I think the issue for me is that they advertised a premium product and set a premium price, but have delivered a standard product. As typical with most releases, I and my son bought a box. The box had 3 duplicate rares (2 Daybreak Coronets, 2 Etched Champions, and 2 Swans). Of the 26 rares we opened – 10 were worth less than $1, 6 were worth under $2, 6 were between $2 and $10 (counting the foil price of 2 of them) and 4 (including the 2 Coronets) were above $10. In total, we got 8 of the 10 lowest priced rares and 1 of the 10 highest priced rares (bitter blossom). Was this luck of the draw, perhaps, but coupled with other issues it just looks like really bad quality control. I can honestly say I have serious doubts of ever buying a product like this again. And that is a sad state of affairs.