Asking WotC About the Reserved List

At the New York City local, Derek Heaton (a.k.a. Tencteri), who Top 8'd the 90sMTG Legacy Championship on April 19, 2026, with Merfolk, told me about his correspondence with Wizards of the Coast (WotC) customer service regarding the Reserved List. More specifically, Derek asked about what the initial rationale was for including each card on the Reserved List.

The Reserved List was established as WotC's "official reprint policy" in response to collector backlash regarding the devaluation of cards following the release of sets like Chronicles and Fourth Edition, both of which included reprints of cards from earlier sets.

While the Reserved List was deemed to promote collectability in the game and support the value of collections on the secondary market, there is a lack of clarity as to why some cards from the era were included but not all.

Derek reached out to WotC to ask why. Below is his email correspondence.

Reserved List Correspondence with WotC

Spoiler: WotC did not reveal any previously unknown information. This, however, is written confirmation of WotC's current policy as of Feb. 5, 2026.

WotC, Customer Service Representative | Jan. 28, 2026, 5:16 p.m. EST

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Service! This is regarding your call about the reserved list in Magic: The Gathering. At this time, Customer Support has no further details regarding this topic. Our team is limited to providing information currently available to the public through announcements and articles.

With that said, we encourage you to keep an eye on magic.wizards.com and our official social media channels for more news and announcements as they become available.

I’ll be glad to help you further if you have any other questions or concerns!

Derek | Jan. 28, 2026, 7:26 p.m. EST

Thanks for the response! That's fine if you're unable to provide the information. If it isn't an issue, these are the questions I have regarding it, and I would greatly appreciated if you could pass it along to whoever has the final say:

With the exception of the Power 9 and the dual lands, what is the core principle behind each card chosen to be on the list?
What would have to happen for the list to be expanded or abolished?
Is the reserved list a company policy?

Although I don't expect the questions to be answered, if I had to sign NDAs to get them answered, I'd be more than happy to do so. This inquiry was intended strictly for personal understanding, as it's more than understandable if the questions can't be answered.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond!

WotC, Customer Service Representative | Feb. 5, 2026, 12:00 p.m. EST

Hello Derek,

Thank you again for reaching out to us, and for your thoughtful follow‑up questions regarding the Magic: The Gathering Reserved List. We appreciate the time you’ve taken to share your curiosity and your interest in understanding the history and structure behind it.

At this time, our Customer Support team is limited to the information publicly shared by Wizards of the Coast. While we aren’t able to provide internal decision‑making details or comment beyond what has been officially published, we can summarize what is publicly available:

The Reserved List is an official reprint policy created to support the collectible aspect of Magic: The Gathering.
Cards on the Reserved List will never be reprinted in a functionally identical form.
No additional cards will be added, and cards currently on the list will not be removed.
These commitments were made as part of prior policy decisions, and Wizards continues to uphold them.

You can review the full policy and the complete Reserved List on our official site.

Regarding your deeper questions—such as the original criteria for selecting specific cards, the internal authority behind the policy, or what circumstances might lead to changes—those details have not been shared publicly. For that reason, we’re unable to provide additional insight or forward inquiries that involve internal decision‑making or confidential business information. We also aren’t able to facilitate NDA‑based disclosures.

That said, we truly appreciate your passion for the game and your interest in its history. If Wizards publishes any updates or changes to the reprint policy in the future, they will appear on magic.wizards.com and our official social media channels.

If you have any other questions we can help with—whether about products, gameplay, or general account support—please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always happy to assist where we can.

Thank you again, and have a great day!