Most of the decisions regarding reprints and the reserved list are influenced by a small clique of card hoarders, collectors and other stakeholders in bed with

Most of the decisions regarding reprints and the reserved list are influenced by a small clique of card hoarders, collectors and other stakeholders in bed with WotC execs and resellers, and they are known to whine a lot whenever a reprint takes place. Like, a lot. For instance, Fork is on the reserved list, but Reverberate was printed (although it does not exactly do the same thing, it is almost identical to Fork in practice, thereby not breaching the reserved list promise), and there was a huge outcry among these people. This is despite the fact that both cards see zero play in competitive formats. They just feel entitled to treat cards as stock options because of a non legally binding promise made by WotC in 1995, and because of them the older formats are simply dying out due to lack of new players. I have zero empathy for the hoarders. All people I know who play MtG have an extensive collection of old cards worth tens of thousands of dollars. All of them wish the reserve list gone and the cards reprinted to hell. They care more about being able to actually play the game with human opponents who can afford it rather than masturbating over a triple sleeved A+ graded beta Lotus. Hell, even big card stores such as StarCityGames or ChannelFireball want it gone too, because holding such fragile assets worth that much ($300+ pieces of cardboard) is a liability that sees limited transfers.