Good grief, there’s yet another superdrop? And this one is an international sensation of IP, with giant fantasy monsters and the humans who stand up to them?

Why did it take so long?

Let’s talk about the Monster Hunter superdrop, the individual cards, and what’s worth braving the queue for.

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Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the co-host of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at an event and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

It’s a time of madness, people, as Wizards assaults our wallets for the fourth big drop in a five-week span. Secret Scare was on 10/13, Playstation was on 10/27, then the Encyclopedia boxes dropped on 11/3, and now Avatar has five drops coming on 11/17. Between the problems people encounter on the website, and the powerful drain all this has on our wallets, you can be forgiven for thinking, “I don’t know if I want to buy this right now.”

I’m here to help, with a breakdown of the cards, their usage rates, and what’s worth it at MSRP and what’s worth waiting for Dump Week.

First of all, remember that these five Lairs are all at the $29.99 nonfoil/$39.99 rainbow foiling prices. I do think that eventually, all Lairs will be at that price point, but as long as we’re getting these, I hope it stays on the cheaper side, mostly. 

Please, as always, remember that EDHREC is useful but it’s not perfect. There’s an awful lot of people who never get around to posting a deck there, and it’s weighted towards cards that have been in precons. Useful data, but not the only information and definitely not without flaws.

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | My Cabbages!

Chain of Vapor (128k, MYB2 foil $100)

Meltdown (12k, MH2 foil $1)

Nature’s Claim (248k, FCA foil $1.50)

Anguished Unmaking (400k, raised foil $20, SLD foil $5)

Putrefy (238k, MPR nonfoil $6, STA foil $3)

These are hilarious art, and we know that memes have their own value with Commander players. The big unknown here is Chain of Vapor, as the only two foils are the hard-to-pull MYB version and the ‘never-any-around’ original pack foil. The other cards will be lucky to hit $5 here. I like the art, and the setup, but we have data to show that these four cards don’t have high-priced versions. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | Everything Changed

Torment of Hailfire (154k decks, SLD foil $37)

Blood Moon (94k, Borderless foils $15-30)

Lightning Bolt (392k, 12 different SLD plus other promos)

Dramatic Entrance (1k decks, pack foil $4)

One great, one pretty good, one super-common, and one no one cares about. The Torment will likely be in the $20-$25 range during Dump Week, and the others will be gettable for a lot less. We got a great version of Torment in the sAnS mErCy drop, but the trolling might have put some folks off. Blood Moon has lots of $10+ versions, and this should join that crew. This is the 13th Secret Lair printing of Bolt, making it third place behind Sol Ring (21) and Command Tower (17). Worth getting at retail.

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | A Lot to Learn

Serra Ascendant (116k, SLD foil $45)

Ponder (424k, lots from $8 to $18)

Cryptolith Rite (122k, borderless foil $5)

Kodama’s Reach (948k, borderless foil $3)

The big question here is if the Serra Ascendant can hold its price. The Secret Lair version that’s pushing $50 in foil is from 2022 and is a great piece of art. Aang is a great character, but there will absolutely be people who refuse to engage with the UB side of Magic. That’s the minority of people, and I won’t let them hold me back. The other three cards are good and used enough that they should be a few bucks each, but this is all about the Ascendant. It’s an echo of the pre-Commander days, never given errata, and the easiest path to becoming the archenemy as a turn one play. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | One with the Elements

Silence (211k, SLD foils $25-$70)

Preordain (337k, SLD foils $10-$25)

Painful Truths (78k, pack foil $2)

Past in Flames (85k, Spellbook foil $5)

Force of Vigor (108k, Raised foil $80)

Expressive Iteration (111k, SPG foil $11, Showdown foil $24)

Force of Vigor has the potential to be pricey here, given how the low-supply raised foil did, and this is a lot nicer to look at. The rest of these should be decent to good as well, even though there’s other special versions around. I think this will also be worth buying at retail. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Ember Island Players

Phantasmal Image (98k, SPG foil $27)

Braid of Fire (28k, SLD foil $25)

Cursed Mirror (205k, WHO Surge FEA $10)

Mask of Memory (106k, 40K Surge $4)

Thespian’s Stage (182k, SLD rainbow $8, Stellar foil $24)

Very solid choices, and one of the great episodes of the series. Blessed few Magic cards are funny, but this Phantasmal Image definitely is. We’re about to see a spike of decks that can make use of Braid of Fire, so there’s a lot of potential there as well. This should also prove to be worth getting at retail, as they need to average $8 to break even. 

Overall, three of these are likely worth it, and I’d expect either A Lot To Learn or Everything Changed to be the first ones to sell out, if even numbers of all Lairs were printed. The other two Lairs are going to take too long to rise in price, so I will avoid those for now. 

I don’t expect good bundle pricing, either, and I also expect that the networks of bots clogging the site early on will lead to most of these selling out relatively quickly. We’ve seen this pattern a few times now, and while we don’t know the relative quantities that were printed for each Lair, we do know what’s left on the site: 24 different lairs from Spider-Man, Secret Scare, and Playstation are still there as of today, 11/7. I can’t guarantee which get targeted and sold out first, but the Serra Ascendant, the Torment, and the Chain of Vapor are likely the cards that will lead to the most interest from people who want to resell immediately. 

When these Lairs arrive in hand, I’ll want to go after the following cards at the Dump Week lows: Preordain at less than $5, Cursed Mirror in the same range, and Torment of Hailfire in the $20 range, all three in foil. Dump Week is good for most cards that hit lows, but those three especially catch my eye for art, use pattern, and the number of other versions available. 

Join me next week for some math!

Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the co-host of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at an event and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

We are in an unprecedented era when it comes to spending money on Magic, and next year will be even wilder. 

Seven sets planned for 2026, and that’s without the inevitable Secret Lair/Chaos Vault offerings that Wizards gives us. Right now, we’re in the middle of three superdrops within a month of each other: Secret Scare, Playstation, and Avatar: the Last Airbender. Things are wild and they are only going to get worse. 

I write about Magic finance, but really, my budget isn’t unlimited. I have to decide what to buy and what not to buy. I’m here to give you my general guide, and give some examples/counterexamples of why I’m following these guidelines. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of everything that’s done well, but instead is a set of rules that I follow when spending money on Magic cards that I plan to resell.

I also need to note that this doesn’t cover things I buy for myself, personally, or for my decks. I have a very pretty, maximum-foil Dragon deck, and I’ve paid early prices because I had to have that foil right now and I don’t feel bad. 

We can’t buy everything and frankly, we shouldn’t. Let’s go over what I am buying, and what I’m staying away from.

Things I do buy:

1. Reprints that make staples cheap 

Dump Week is a wonderful thing that’s happening in Magic finance right now. Basically, there’s a group of people who need to get as much as they can after paying retail for something, even if they end up with a small sliver of profit or even a loss. A great example of this is coming up with Demonic Tutor. Once the Secret Lair version is on TCGPlayer, there will be a short time where you can buy foils and nonfoils of the Kieran Yanner art for much less than they will eventually cost.

The risk here is repeated reprints. I picked up a lot of Aerith’s version of Heroic Intervention, just to see it show up again in Spider-Man AND Avatar. I bought Deadpool’s Blasphemous Act, only to see a new Secret Lair version shortly after. I’m not going to lose money on these long-term, but it’ll take a lot longer thanks to the reprints. Nothing I can do about this, either.

2. Cards that are good with upcoming Commanders/themes

I made a lot of money on some assorted Assassin specs when ACR was previewed, and I’ve already made good money on some Avatar-related ones like Earth Surge. More Allies are coming, and Earthbending especially offers a whole lot of chances for cards to spike. I’m also in on Corruption of Towashi, as a transform-related card for what’s coming up in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

The key with these specs is to make sure you sell into the hype, because if you wait, interest and prices cool off. A great example of this from my own experience is Widespread Brutality. I bought pack foils for $1, resold them at $5, but later found an extra dozen copies that didn’t stay with the group and are now back to under a buck.

3. Secret Lairs with proven staples

There’s a lot of money to be made if you can get specific Lairs at retail during the buying frenzy. I hate the queue, and that little walking jerk, but I can’t deny the money I make. I detail this in each of the ‘Are We Buying…’ articles I write before each Lair drops, and here’s the biggest thing to know: You need to sell ASAP.

The easiest way is eBay, but TCG will let some stores presell and there’s a few other presale sites too. The Lairs that sell out have a ton of FOMO and people are willing to pay a lot. Preselling can lock in some profits and give you a turnaround time of nearly zero, which is the best sort of profit by far. 

4. Cards underpriced due to circumstances

Sometimes, cards are cheap due to weird conditions or a lack of awareness. Jumpstart cards can be like this, but Commander bannings have me really really tempted. I’ve picked up a playset of foil borderless Jeweled Lotus not too long ago and I’m just waiting for them to be unbanned. I’m ready for when it does. I recognize how speculative this is, but I feel confident it’ll eventually get unbanned. 

What I don’t buy:

These are the categories of cards that I’m no longer buying. I’m not saying they can’t turn a profit, only that they are too likely to lose me money and I’d rather just stay away entirely.

1. Constructed cards. 

Not Standard, Modern, Legacy, nothing. Constructed isn’t moving the needle for the majority of cards, and those few where it does I’m at the mercy of the metagame (looking at you, Quantum Riddler) and hoping I’ll get there. Commander is just more certain, more predictable, and I much prefer to put money there than in the four-of formats. Note that I’m not saying I never spec on cards that are good in Constructed, I’m saying I never buy only because of that. The Spider-Man Ephemerate is a great example. Big in Commander, only special version, and it’s a bonus that it’s good in Modern.  

2. Anything that’s had a Commander deck reprint (It’ll get printed again)

This doesn’t include the new-to-Magic cards, as those can be worth a spec, but generally speaking, if a card’s been in a regular Commander deck, it’ll be there again. It’ll also have a chance to be part of a Surge foil or something like that, which will make other versions tank even farther. I’ve had some bad experiences here, and heaven willing, I’ll be able to avoid that issue again. 

3. Cards with huge amounts of stock already online

James and I often look up the quantity in stock for a card when we evaluate each others’ picks on MTG Fast Finance, and knowing the amount still available is a very useful data point. If there’s a large amount online, I often want to wait and let many of those copies get soaked up by early action before moving in on a card. I don’t want to be the only one with 400 of a card. I’d rather wait till 250-300 of those copies are gone, to show that there is a demand, and then I’ll be happy to buy in, even if the price has gone up. 

A card spiking brings people out of the woodwork to sell it, so bake that into your expectations. Copies will materialize when it gets pricey, and keeping your profits can be tricky. 

Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the co-host of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at an event and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.