Reprinting older cards in new waves? Is this a possibility?

By Kyle Ren, in Star Wars: Destiny

I just wondered what everyone thinks about this idea. I'm relatively new to CCGs, I'm more used to the LCG model.

So, yeah, like the title says, do you think they might reprint old cards in new sets? I don't mean we'll ever see Awakenings or Spirit of Rebellion again, but might a later expansion set contain copies of some of the same cards as we've already seen? For example, if some set way in the future is called "A Wretched Hive" and has tons of scum and villainy in it (like Greedo and Bossk) who desperately want Thermal Detonators, do you think card "A Wretched Hive #60" would be a Thermal Detonator? And then you could only have a total of two Thermal Detonators in your deck, between Awakenings #67 and A Wretched Hive #60? Or maybe Darth Vader: Sith Lord will see a reprint? (Both probably still as legendaries)

I'm just wondering if you think it's possible. In my experience with LCG-type games (i.e. X-Wing), if a card is really dominant in the meta and hard to get, it gets reprinted somewhere else (although in X-Wing, there are a few exceptions, such as Palpatine). For collectors, the old cards would still be differentiable, as the old ones would be from a different series and have a different symbol in the lower-right corner.

I'm also thinking they'll need to do this eventually for want of stuff from the actual movies. A number of games I've played quickly ran out of actual Star Wars stuff that people recognized and were interested in. Again, using X-Wing as an example, for the most part they've run out of ships that appear in an actual Star Wars movie, and now they're dredging deeper into the extended universe, video games, Rebels and Clone Wars shows, fiction novels, etc., and people are starting to lose interest in all these ships that don't even resemble anything that appears in a real movie.

What do you think? Given their unconventional approach to a CCG thus far, could FFG do this?

Yes.

The magic 8 ball says "Signs point to yes"

They will be in the Core Sets. I expect the Core Sets will be 50%+ reprints. The two expansions to follow will be 95%+ new cards each year.

~D

Very very very likely

Good, glad to hear others think this might be possible too. I'd be annoyed if there were no chance of me getting Thermal Detonator, Darth Vader, and Luke now (without paying tons of money) - I was very unlucky with my Awakenings pulls!

I'd be surprised if the 'core sets' weren't just 'a selection of the top meta cards from the last three expansions.'

14 minutes ago, Ajones47 said:

I'd be surprised if the 'core sets' weren't just 'a selection of the top meta cards from the last three expansions.'

I would be surprised if they were, why would you so limit your sales to new players or players filling gaps?

Yeah, I'd love it if that were true, but I think that's more of an LCG thing to do (like Android: Netrunner just did)

4 hours ago, HoodieDM said:

They will be in the Core Sets. I expect the Core Sets will be 50%+ reprints. The two expansions to follow will be 95%+ new cards each year.

~D

MtG couldn't get away with doing that many reprints in their Core Sets, despite having a exponentially larger card pool to reprint from. Those sets just didn't sell well enough so they moved away from them.

You think this game is going to get away with releasing a set with 50% reprints from a card pool that will be just barely over 500 cards when the first "Core Set" comes out?

That seems like a good way to flop a set and kill the games momentum real early.

1 hour ago, Ajones47 said:

I'd be surprised if the 'core sets' weren't just 'a selection of the top meta cards from the last three expansions.'

That set would sell very poorly and would stagnate the game for a 4 month period.

That would be how you kill a game.

They'll do reprints but there is no way they are doing a lot if them with a from a very small card pool. It's game suicide.

Edited by ScottieATF

I think were talking about two different things here.

We'll definitely see do overs of popular characters, or cards like the Falcon. However I doubt we'll see straight reprints of them, or at least not many- there's not much incentive for existing players , while releasing new versions will be valuable to everyone. So I doubt we'll see a reprint of Darth Vader, Sith Lord, but we'll probably get say, a similar costed version with a similar dice and a different ability.

What we are likely to see reprints of is 'basic' cards that don't really need to change. E.g. there's only so many ways you can do 'pay 1, remove a dice' or 'give a character a shield', so we'll probably see them as reprints (or functional reprints with different art/names but the same effect).

It was my understanding that the Core Set was going to be a starting point for new players. I think 50/50 would be good. I am sure it is a little hard to tell what meta cards are gonna be in a set that was probably designed a year ago.

I doubt they do any rare or legendary reprints before rotation removes the first year's product from tournament play. There's just not a large enough card pool yet. I'd rather get a new Luke or Vader than have them reprint the Awakenings versions. We need red Luke!

10 hours ago, ScottieATF said:

That would be how you kill a game.

How do you kill something that's already dead? ?

12 hours ago, ScottieATF said:

They'll do reprints but there is no way they are doing a lot if them with a from a very small card pool. It's game suicide.

I don't think the game would be doing this to itself, so it may be more like game murder. ;)

Why have a core set so soon if not to make it target new players? I see the point of not wasting a whole set on re-prints but I don't think the game see's itself as that big of deal yet. I think 50/50 would be good. Many casual player's never got Awakenings product. But when Rebels comes out we will see if the game continues to explode like it did with SOR.

Edited by DJRAZZ

I would be fine if one or two cards per set were updated cards with the proper wording (IE eratta).

Edited by ozmodon

I don't see FFG doing massive reprints in regular sets (50/50 is what I consider massive, yes).

They don't have to limit themselves to regular sets, though. Once they stabilise supply/demand somewhat, they can start releasing Destiny product "outside" of regular sets , something along the lines of: "Classics" set containing only (or mostly) straight-up reprints. Or Duel Decks with some of the valuable cards reprinted. Or... well, there are plenty of ideas to steal from MtG... ;)

Edited by Bron Ander Haltern
1 hour ago, DJRAZZ said:

Why have a core set so soon if not to make it target new players?

The difference as we know it so far, is that the core set will be available for the entire year reprinted as needed. The other releases will come and go with set supply.

Each core set should ideally target as many players as it can manage new and old alike.

I personally think they have to reprint them to some degree. Would the game be the same if Luke was only some to-be-released "Farmboy" or "Training" version as opposed to "Jedi Knight"? Same with Vader. If we only had Pre-suit Vader, would people be happy? I personally don't think so.

I do think that reprinting them exactly as they are may not necessarily happen, but at minimum a tweak to cost/ability/health/die wouldn't be too much to keep it fresh, even if the card was very similar otherwise. It would still make you need to get the newer version so no "omg wasted legendary" syndrome, but also bring those characters to a place where they felt more or less impactful as the game required and prevent people from just playing the same old deck arc after arc.

Being able to get old cards is irrelevant if the old cards are rotating out anyway. I'd prefer if/when they reprinted Jedi Luke (for example) that they tweak him slightly to fit in more with the arc at hand.

For example, MRP'ing/adjusting Rey in the next Core to be 10/13 cost to break up some of the shenanigans would make perfect sense and keep her in the game if we assume that she doesn't see another version prior.

What I would like to see is 6 card boosters with the rare/legendary being 1 card slot, 2 uncommon and 3 commons.

As it is an uncommon card is just a rare without a dice.

This early on, for re-prints, if you do too many you'll go too far, while the game is this young and you'll send people packing, think BB-8 happening with 50% of you pulls.

On 5/25/2017 at 2:49 AM, ScottieATF said:

MtG couldn't get away with doing that many reprints in their Core Sets, despite having a exponentially larger card pool to reprint from. Those sets just didn't sell well enough so they moved away from them.

You think this game is going to get away with releasing a set with 50% reprints from a card pool that will be just barely over 500 cards when the first "Core Set" comes out?

That seems like a good way to flop a set and kill the games momentum real early.

#1 i dont expect Core Set 2018 to have much reprints as it is the first set. Prob a few errata stuff.

#2 you can only have 1 Electroshock type of card. If theyre going to rename it every 2 years, they can, but I doubt they will. So I expect many commons/uncommons to be reprinted in core sets, alternating which ones so theyre always in rotation.

#3 why call it a core set if its going to be different every time?

~D

Just a clarification, it's not a "core set", but a "base set." From FFG:

" After the third expansion set, at the end of the year, we will release a base set for Star Wars : Destiny. Base sets for Destiny will consist of two new starter decks (which will replace the current Kylo Ren and Rey starter decks) and a set of booster packs. This base set will provide an easy entry point for new players, while providing a foundational set to build from. The base set will remain in print for one year, at which time, a new base set will be released."

I'm reading that as saying that it's a starter deck, meaning it provides a good place for new players to start. It sounds like it's a completely new starter deck, and hopefully it'll come with at least a few good cards (like how the originals came with Rey, Force Throw, and Mind Probe.) That being said, I have no idea if they'll contain reprints or completely new cards.

It is weird. What throws it off for me is that FFG say's it is a good set for new players to enter the game. But this a new TCG for FFG. This could mean anything I guess. It would be crazy if it was all new cards.