Earlier this week, we got our first taste of the Lord of the Rings set coming this summer. The One Ring has made Mind over Matter spike, there’s other combos coming, but for my money, this might be the best value-add in the set:

Some cards have started to grow as a result of Tom’s preview, but there’s still a lot of planning that can be done and profits to be made when Saga-related cards start spiking in June.

A caveat here: We’re getting an Enchantment-themed preconstructed deck in Commander Masters in August, so some of these might be reprinted then, in the main LotR set, or even in a Secret Lair before then. These are the risks in the modern day, and while we can minimize the problems, sometimes a fresh wave comes along.

Power Conduit ($1.50 for the cheapest version, $22 for the most expensive) – This card has been a rollercoaster, allowing for multiple peaks and valleys as it interacts with new things.

Sagas really, really, REALLY want the ability to remove a counter. If you can remove a counter while the last chapter ability is on the stack, you won’t lose your Saga. From the Comprehensive Rules: “704.5s If the number of lore counters on a Saga permanent is greater than or equal to its final chapter number and it isn’t the source of a chapter ability that has triggered but not yet left the stack, that Saga’s controller sacrifices it. See rule 714, ‘Saga Cards.’ “

This means that we can re-use the final abilities of Sagas, as long as we can remove a counter at instant speed. Power Conduit is one way to do that, and it’ll do that for no mana, plus give you some +1/+1 counters if you’d like! I fully expect that you can buy these for under $2 for a little longer, with the goal of selling near $5.

Hex Parasite ($4 to $15) – This costs some mana, but works in the same way. 

Hex Parasite hasn’t ridden the same set of waves because it’s got a black color identity, and the only Saga commander we’ve had so far was GW. Make no mistake, though, a lot of cheap copies have already been scooped up. There’s still room for profit here, especially on the foils. I think a double-up to $30 is likely, as it was a third set rare from 2011. Barring a reprint, the supply here is tiny indeed. 

Resourceful Defense ($5 to $7) – There’s a lot of fun applications for this card, but it’s expensive to use. One thing that can happen, if you want it to, is that one Saga having its final chapter can trigger another Saga, and then a third, until all of them are done. You might enjoy those dominoes tumbling, you might not. If you have Myth Realized or MindUnbound, those are cards that would really like some spare lore counters, too. Either way, I’d expect the EA versions of this to hit at least $10, and possibly $15.

Scholar of New Horizons (both versions under $1) – This might be a great brick play, since it was in the precon retro border deck for Brothers’ War Commander. Again, we get to remove a counter and go get a Plains (note, not a basic version, so shocks/Triomes are options) because Sagas are mana hungry!

Historian’s Boon (all versions under $1) – Dominaria United Commander did have FEA versions of some cards, and that’s definitely where I want to be with these copies. The reprint risk is very high here, but at such a low buy-in, you can get a brick and not worry too much.

Chisei, Heart of Oceans ($1 to $11) – Removing a counter is generally good for Sagas, and while this isn’t at instant speed, it’s a way to keep using Sagas.

There’s other fun things that remove counters (Sanctuary Warden, Thrull Parasite) but there’s also some fun Sagas and accessories that deserve some attention too.

Hall of Heliod’s Generosity ($9 to $17) – Many copies have sold since the preview for Tom, but there’s still a lot left out there. Prices haven’t gone up much yet, and I especially think the retro foils from MH1 are the play here. It’s always good to recur your Sagas, but putting them on top is so wonderfully synergistic with Tom!

I fully expect the OBF version to hit $25, maybe even $35. A lot of copies were soaked up by other enchantment themes, and with Sagas constantly coming and going, the card will do a lot of work in this deck too.

Brilliant Restoration ($0.50 to $2) – There’s more than a few ways to bring back all enchantments at once, but this is the most recent and very inexpensive for premium versions. I generally prefer special frames over EA versions, but both of those should rise at the same rate because the two versions should have had roughly the same number printed.

Kiora Bests the Sea God ($3 to $6) – If Saga accessories are good, all the Sagas should come along as well. This is a strong candidate for a reprint soon, so I’m less eager to buy some copies, but I’m fully prepared for this to bump to $10+ if it’s not given new inventory. 

Phyrexian Scriptures ($2 to $9) – This had a List version that’s quite affordable, to go with Tom Bombadil being indestructible if you have the right amount of Sagas out on the board. Combining this and Power Conduit means you’re wiping the board every single turn, and that’s a glorious time indeed.

The Cruelty of Gix ($1 to $3) – Read Ahead is a very powerful ability with this deck, and it’s easy to imagine a scenario where the last ability is powerfully degenerate, given how Commander decks operate. These two black Sagas haven’t had a chance to shine, but I think Tom will bring out their best play patterns and really increase the prices.

The Elder Dragon War (bulk to $1) – All of these abilities are worth doing over and over again, so you decide which useful thing to repeat: pyroclasm, rummaging, or making Dragon tokens.

The Kami War ($0.50 to $2) – Again, this is a broken Saga doing broken things, and when you build the deck right you’re going to do those things on a loop! Enjoy!

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) 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 official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

You may or may not have noticed that a certain subset of Phyrexia: All Will Be One cards has been lighting it up lately: the Oil-Slick foils, available only in the special boosters found in the Compleat Edition Bundle.

That bundle came with one special pack, along with 12 Set Boosters. That special pack is what I’m focused on right now, and let me explain why I’m starting to buy cards much earlier in the ONE cycle than I would have otherwise.

Let’s start out with some math. There’s one booster, which has ten foil lands and two foils mythics. Twenty mythics are possible, so there’s a ten percent chance of getting a specific mythic in your pack, and a 1 in 400 chance of getting a double-up. In terms of collation errors if someone landed a god pack of all mythics but no lands, that image would have been all over Twitter.

With ten percent odds, you’d think these oil-slick cards would be crazy common. After all, looking at the C2R2, no mythic with special treatment is at even one percent odds to come out of a Collector Booster. These special Bundles are, well, special. Special expensive and special rare. Vendors report that they haven’t been able to get all they wanted, and the bundles are reselling nicely on all the platforms. Oil-Slick foils are rarer than the special variants, and rarer than the step-and-compleat foils as well, just due to the lack of bundles out there. 

Getting 12 Set Boosters is good, but a pack of 10 lands that are going for at least $4 each is a great bit of value, on top of the two mythics. 

Oil-Slick has a big advantage over the variants from the CBs: the Collector Boosters are going to be available for quite a while yet. Months, perhaps years, at a very reasonable price. The Compleat bundles are getting a big markup and lots of these cards are disappearing into collections, which will eventually lead to prices going up.

I don’t think we’ll ever see any of the big cracking operations pop up with a couple hundred copies of any Oil-Slick mythic, and once the current wave of bundles is gone, that’s probably most of the inventory that will ever be available. So right now, I think prices are at their lowest, and it’s time to get some copies. Definitely personal-use copies for any of your decks, plus a couple of extras for later growth.

There’s only 20 to choose from, so this isn’t a comprehensive list, but here’s the stars I see:

Sword of Forge and Frontier ($45 right now on TCGPlayer) – If you haven’t played with this card yet, it’s pretty bonkers. It’s hard to argue with the simplicity of just ‘draw a card’ but this is potentially better in Commander. I’m a huge fan of Sword of the Animist, and the 9th entry in the Sword cycle is a very elegant design. It’ll be rare in a pod for there to be no one you can hit, and once the hits start, they will keep coming. 

My biggest concern is that there will inevitably be a retro foil version of this at some point, but that’s probably a ways off. For now, you’re going to see copies soaked up relatively fast, and this version will be $60 before the end of April.

Ichormoon Gauntlet ($35) – You will be hard-pressed to find a more auto-include card for planeswalker superfriends decks. This is the best version of a very good card, before the ‘add a counter’ ability is overlooked. It doesn’t take much for this to get out of hand quickly. I fully expect to see the supply on these dwindle fast, and the price to go up accordingly.

All Will Be One ($19) – I’ve said before that this is a card I want to have when the combos pop up. There’s a LOT of amazing things you can do with this card, and no wrong way to play it. Sure there’s instant win combos, such as Quest for Pure Flame, but there’s also fun with planeswalkers, proliferate, or cards that put counters everywhere.

AWBO will be a cheaper pickup in nonfoil, if you want to wait, but since supply is near maximum right now I strongly advocate grabbing a few copies for the inevitable rise. When this hits, it’ll hit big, easily doubling in price.

Solphim, Mayhem Dominus ($20) – Finally, while all of the Dominus cards are good in their respective decks, the red one begs to be built around, and is in the best color to do it. There will be combos with this card, my favorite being Heartless Hidetsugu and my second favorite is Toralf, God of Fury. (Honorable mention: Manabarbs. stings) Wonderfully, though, you don’t need to work too hard at this. Anything that deals damage is going to be a winner, with the added bonus that every new set will give new ways to abuse the card. I’m looking forward to watching this grow over time.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) 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 official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

Every set, there’s a couple of cards that end up being gainers in the long term. Ledger Shredder and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker are two examples of this from recent sets, cards that were available dirt cheap early on but became multi-format all-stars.

We also get examples of cards that show promise early, but whose prices trail ever farther downward until the early buyers have no choice but to be very very sad. 

Phyrexia: All Will Be One has a few cards who are up since the set’s release, and I want to highlight some of them and see if they can keep growing, or if they are destined to fall back down to earth. We’re going to be looking at the formats it’s played in, as well as if it’s got Commander chops, and go from there.

I won’t be posting the EDHREC numbers here because these are very new cards and while there’s something to be said for being an early adopter, I don’t want to lean too hard on such a small sample size. I’m not an expert on the format, just a rabid enthusiast.

Also, these prices might be outdated in a day or two as people go nuts for buying, especially with the oil-slick versions hitting the streets. Get what you can for yours!

Venerated Rotpriest ($10 for the cheapest version, $15 for the most expensive) – The Rotpriest decks aren’t winning big events yet, but they are fun to play and operate on an axis that many other decks can’t hang with. They might get an early hit in, but the counters will come when you try to deal with the card and they protect it in response. It adds up FAST, especially in multiples. March of Burgeoning Light is currently a bulk rare but if you have a Rotpriest in play, for two mana you get to find a second copy and slam it down. 

The deck is real enough to have caused other spikes, notably Ground Rift in Modern: 

Rotpriest itself has fallen by half from its preorder price, and I’m expecting it to fall just a little further, but I doubt it’ll make it all the way down to $5 for the base versions. Every one-mana protection spell makes the deck better, and heaven help us if they print another Standard-legal round of free spells.

Skrelv, Defector Mite ($8 to $10) – The mono-white decks are for real in Standard, and Skrelv is a Pioneer-legal version of Mother/Giver of Runes. The ability isn’t precisely protection, but it’s about 90% of what you wanted protection for in an aggressive deck: hexproof from kill spells and taking away their ability to block. Clearly worse on defense, and costs you mana or life, but still good enough that it is getting play in high numbers in a deck that has good versions across Standard and Pioneer.

I thought this price would have fallen a lot farther by now, and while more packs are being opened, the deck is good and the mite is a big reason why. Your opponent will need two kill spells early on, and especially if you’re following Skrelva with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, their plan is doomed.

All Will Be One ($11 to $22) – Another card that’s fallen by half, I don’t think this will go much further because it’s got a LOT of amazing interactions. I have seen people kill a table with this plus Black Sun’s Zenith. Any planeswalker you care to name is suddenly a violent death engine. This should be an auto-include with any non-token deck that plays Doubling Season. It’s a shame this doesn’t work with Suspend and time counters, but you can’t have everything.

What do you have is some really ridiculous combos. Quest for Pure Flame has attention as a Modern-legal two-card combo. The Red Terror is a Commander who can insta-win with the card, much like Ayara, First of Locthwain and Plague of Vermin. I think AWBO has great long-term potential, because it’s so open ended and every card that interacts with counters in some way can really abuse the enchantment.

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler ($4 to $6) – The different versions are really close in price, which traditionally has been an indicator that a card is more popular in Constructed formats than Commander. In this case, Tyvar is seeing play with Devoted Druid combos, as the minus ability gets back either piece of the combo, in addition to allowing the druid to be played and used the same turn. 

The card was never going to be terribly expensive, but the amount of play and attention means that it’s only sunk to $4 as a rare, as opposed to something like Lukka, who’s $2 as a mythic.

Jace, the Perfected Mind ($8 to $29) – I’ve said before that I like Jace long-term if there’s a control deck in Standard. He’s already gone down to $7, up to $10, and is back to $8. Once we’re moved on to March of the Machine, I’m expecting his price to go back up, especially because he’s showing up in Modern mill decks as a three-mana, two-life way to draw three cards.

I’m hoping Jace gets a little cheaper, but I’m doubtful. We’re also in an awkward position in terms of rotation, as Jace, and the rest of ONE, will hit the one-year mark, usually where a Standard card gets most expensive, right about the time that its price starts to trickle down due to impending rotation. A careful line to balance on.

Sword of Forge and Frontier ($29 to $60) – This Sword is bonkers good in Commander, but not seeing much play outside 100-card formats. The cheapest versions should come down in price, but keep in mind that a Retro frame version is inevitable. There will be a complete set of Retro Swords available for all the completionists out there, especially since we’ve only got one Sword left to go.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) 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 official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

This week, we got our first preview of some of the products coming down the line this summer, and while there’s a lot to unpack from March of the Machine, its Aftermath, or the Lord of the Rings set, I want to talk about what we’ve been shown for Commander Masters, due out in early August.

We got previews of three cards: Capture of Jingzhou, Jeweled Lotus, and The Ur-Dragon! Additionally, the themes for the four preconstructed decks are Eldrazi, Planeswalkers, Enchantments, and Slivers!

Given that information, there’s some things we can think about and make plans for, while exercising some caution about what is still unknown.

First of all, I think that The Ur-Dragon is going to lead to a whole bunch of Dragon cards going wild. We’re going to be getting cards designed for Commander! We’re getting the first booster pack printing ever for the king of all Dragons. Until now, you were stuck with the Commander 2017 version (five and a half years old) or the Secret Lair drop version, which was in the very first round of cards and is three years old.

We’ve had some notable jumps, generally when Dragons are given attention. The five mythic Dragons and Tiamat from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms started it, and the more recent combinations of Dragon goodness in Battle for Baldur’s Gate that included Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm has really pushed it up lately. 

However, the price of The Ur-Dragon has really kept people from enjoying the broken mechanic that is Eminence. A mana rock that is always on, can’t be interacted with, and helps you cast your creatures is enormously powerful, especially when those creatures are generally the most powerful things on the board. 

I think we’re going to get a lot of new Ur-Dragon builds, and I’m in favor of this! I have the deck myself and it is a lot of fun to slam huge flying lizards and turn them sideways. Before I start buying cards like crazy, I have to keep in mind that this set is a mix of reprints and new cards, so there’s a strong chance of these specs being in the set. 

Hellkite Courser (FEA) – Available for $40, this is not only an amazing card for Dragon decks, it’s really good with Commanders in general. We’re getting plenty of new commanders in this set, and Courser is one of the only ways to cheat it out. I adore this card in my deck, and especially because it’s only five mana for me! I get card draw, cheating things into play, and smash for ten commander damage! Supply on this is extremely tight, since CML was the set where you were only 30% to get an EA card in that slot. I’m expecting this to be reprinted, because it synergizes with other huge commanders, but if it’s not then the sky is the limit on these.

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is at under $2 for the foil-etched version, which looks loads better than the Monster Manual art version. Players don’t seem to like that art style at all, going by the relative prices for such cards.  The only exception is the Beadle and Grimm Secret Lair with Dragons, those are going for good prices due to scarcity. 

Miirym is a terrifying card to see from a Dragon deck, and worthy of being the Commander too. I think that a rising tide lifts all the boats and so we’ll see versions of Miirym break $5.

I think there will be another printing for Path of Ancestry, though the FEA are tempting at under $5. With two tribal precon decks, and some more dragons coming, this is a card that will get more copies. What I want to watch out for is repeated reprints that drive it into the ground, like Fabled Passage. If Path isn’t in this set, I’ll feel good about buying some copies.

Scalelord Reckoner seems like a lock for a new printing, since it’s not available in foil and has a high price which is totally due to only being in one deck ever. Premium treatments here would be great, and if it’s a mythic, then I would give it a good shot to rise from mid-level preorder pricing. Definitely stay away from buying copies till after this set is fully previewed.

Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient is probably not going to get a reprint, but I’m not certain if we ought to target the EA nonfoil or the regular-frame foil. Klauth’s Will is a phenomenal card too, and EA versions are a solid pickup for the flexibility they offer. Your commander doesn’t need to be a Dragon, so if you want a wrath and mass artifact/enchantment removal in RG, here’s your card. 

I’m really hoping we get more foil versions or an EA foil for Rhythm of the Wild, but if that’s not reprinted here, it’ll have to be in a Secret Lair soon.

Sarkhan’s Unsealing seems positioned well to avoid a reprint, naming that planeswalker and fixating on big power. We don’t have anything special for it, just the foils that predate Booster Fun. It’s game-wreckingly powerful in the right deck though. 

Finally, let’s give it up for a 2X2 reprint that is tracking lower and will be in prime position when CMM releases: Urza’s Incubator.

I don’t want to buy it now. It’s only been a couple months and the price hasn’t finished falling. It’s listed in 45k Commander decks online, and that number has been kept down by the card’s very high price until this reprint. We’ve seen it tumble more than $20 from the opening, and I’m expecting to see it in the $15 range, maybe $13, in the next few months.

I’d go after the retro frame foils first, even if they were a little more expensive, because I like that frame more, but either of the special versions is where I’ll want to be.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) 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 official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.