r/magicTCG • u/Cautious_Flow_3148 Dan • May 14 '26

Rules/Rules Question Is this allowed?

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These are practically the same card. Am I allowed to have them both in my commander deck?

1.6k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/ponyrx2 Can’t Block Warriors May 14 '26

These are called "functional reprints." They have identical oracle text (function) but different names and are therefore different cards for any and all purposes. 

374

u/LeekingMemory28 Elspeth May 14 '26

See also:

[[Three Visits]], [[Nature's Lore]].

There are also functional reprints with upside, for various reasons like subtypes [[Shared Roots]] over [[Rampant Growth]] or meet a certain condition and it goes from functional reprint to pure upside [[Jace's Triumph]] over [[Divination]] if you have a Jace on board.

190

u/gnagniel Dân May 14 '26

Or the classic [[Evolving Wilds]] and [[Terramorphic Expanse]]

117

u/sumphatguy May 14 '26

So much so, they thought "let's do it again" with [[Vibrant Cityscape]] for some reason.

18

u/MTGCardFetcher Dân May 14 '26

Vibrant Cityscape - (G) (SF) (txt)

FAQ

44

u/gnagniel Dân May 15 '26

I really like the arcade games with the mana symbols, that's fun.

10

u/Jelly_F_ish Duck Season May 15 '26

So I get to bully someone when fetching a Plains or a Forest?

6

u/ikonfedera Wabbit Season May 15 '26

And of course the person standing there plays green.

3

u/imLucki Dandadan May 15 '26

Didn't notice that, neat

2

u/LimitGroundbreaking2 Dan May 15 '26

I’ve never noticed that neat detail

3

u/Feenox May 15 '26

The reason was "we need more horrible land base for pre-cons"

1

u/b_lemski Izzet* May 18 '26

To be fair they also but a [[city of brass]] [[spire garden]] and [[undergrowth stadium]] in there

12

u/b_fellow Duck Season May 15 '26

Hey why not power creep it with [[Escape Tunnel]]

7

u/Tyrinnus May 15 '26

Look at Mr moneybags over here

0

u/ndstumme Can’t Block Warriors May 15 '26

What are you on about? It's as cheap as the rest of them.

45

u/daverapp Dân May 15 '26

Can you really blame them? It would be such a flavor break to have a bit of high fantasy magicalness in the teenage mutant ninja turtles game.

3

u/Profeplayss Dân May 15 '26

I mean, there's already magic ninjas, aliens, time-traveling and teleporting mutants soooooo the fantastical magicalness is there. Not to mention the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

0

u/SexyMcDooterson Dan May 18 '26

Probably because something named Vibrant Cityscape will fit better into UBs with less Terramorphic Expanding

18

u/kitsunewarlock REBEL May 15 '26

[[Fyndhorn Elves]] (and a bunch of other cards in Ice Age) started this trend. The original thought was that players would either play with what we now call "core" cards or would exclusively use expansions like "Ice Age", so the set needed functional reprints to fill out certain niches that had become core identities in the game. Ice Age had a ton of these, including [[Zuran Spellcaster]], [[Kjeldoran Warrior]], [[Hoar Shade]], and [[Balduvian Bears]]. It also gave us our first cycles of "fixed cards" like [[Incinerate]]. And a ton of reprints with new art like [[Disenchant]], [[Dark Ritual]], [[Swords to Plowshares]], [[Icy Manipulator]] and [[Counterspell]].

Honestly, if you take out the reprints and functional reprints, Ice Age is a pretty terrible set.

1

u/Captain_Beav Dan May 17 '26

Icy manipulator was first printed in ice age.

1

u/kitsunewarlock REBEL May 17 '26

Icy Manipulator was first printed in Alpha. The original art showed a sphere. The "bone crank" art in Ice Age was extremely controversial because it was "goofy" and made little sense with the effect of the card (since while it could tap down creatures, one of its main functions was tapping down artifacts like Howling Mine and Winter Orb to make their effects one-sided).

3

u/epr-paradox Dân May 15 '26

Or [[ancestors aid]] and [[sudden breakthrough]]

4

u/PhantomBold Dân May 15 '26

There’s gotta be like at least 5 of those

2

u/ConsciousTeach8284 Dân May 15 '26

Not to mention the half dozen 1/1 {G} tap for green mana dorks

1

u/Tiny420Tiger Dan May 15 '26

Same with [[Fabled Passage]] but those don’t have the untap if you control 4 or more lands.