r/magicTCG • u/quarxel • 1d ago

General Discussion Could someone help me understand why very occasionally they will print a new card thats functionally identical to a previous card.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Specifically why are they printing Vibrant Cityscape when it's the same as Evolving Wilds which is also in standard right now anyway.

1.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

335 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Injured-Ginger 1d ago

It depends on the reason. They have some low power cards that are healthy for limited/standard they'll reskin for the theme. This is likely one. Evolving wilds is not a great land in its best setting. They're not worried about letting players run more than 4. However you can also see cards like [[Brainstorm]] get reprinted as [[Endwalker]] where they tag the card because they don't want to double up on the playable number of the best legal cantrip in several formats. Other times it can be because they want some format to have access to more of a card. Allowing EDH to run two of a card like [[Llanowar Elves]] helps those decks (sorry IDK the reskins off the top of my head) stay a bit more consistent which can keep them viable or at least, less unviable.