We’ve got a big drop happening a week from Monday, on the 13th, and there’s a lot to unpack. Ten drops, a range of prices, and an interesting choice of promos to reward us for every $200 spent. 

This is on top of the seven-drop bonanza coming to us two weeks later, and if you are trying to decide which drops here and new to get, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. So let’s review the cards, the usage patterns, and decide what to buy.

For each card, I’ve listed the EDHREC inclusion rate (a reminder, EDHREC is not perfect data, but it’s all we’ve got) and the relevant special versions of the cards. I’m focusing on borderless things, because new art in the same frame doesn’t always move the needle, but a lot of these are getting their second Secret Lair treatment. 

Unless otherwise noted, these drops are all $30 for the nonfoil and $40 for the rainbow foil. 

Artist Series: Kieran Yanner 

Armageddon: (29k decks, Invocation $70)

Northern Paladin (837 decks!, no special version)

Lord of the Pit (5100 decks, no special version)

Demonic Tutor (708k decks, Game Changer, CMM borderless foil $120, STX JPN Alt Foil $300, Box Topper $90)

Frankly, this is one of the best values I’ve ever seen in a Secret Lair. The cheapest nonfoils are $45+, and you can get one here for $30. The art is stunning, worthy of being hung on the wall, and let me send a big thank you to everyone at WotC who decided to give artists a borderless frame and more to work with in the Artist Series lairs. The other three cards are gorgeous, but clearly the focus here is the Tutor. Buying this is a given and should be plenty profitable. I am also quite likely to get in on a few extra copies in Dump Week.

Secret Lair x Jaws: Terror of Amity Island

Jaws, Relentless Predator (n/a)

Descent into Avernus (115k, FEA $10) 

Reckless Endeavor (32k decks, no special version)

Sneak Attack (78k decks, 2XM Borderless foil $11, WOE Confetti foil $60)

Abrade (394k decks, INR Borderless Foil $2, FDN Borderless Foil $1.50, SLD Borderless foil $19)

Blood Token

This drop has the bonus pricing of $40 nonfoil/$50 rainbow foil, and that makes it a big iffy for me. I like the cards, I think Jaws is a neat commander to build around, especially because any player can trigger the ability, but none of these stand out as mega-value cards. I’d rather pick up the singles when people are dumping these early on. 

Secret Lair x The Office: Dwight’s Destiny 

Heliod, Sun-Crowned (102k decks plus 4200 as Commander, Constellation Foil $24, SLD Borderless Foil $21)

Steelshaper’s Gift (92k decks, CMM Borderless foil $10, SLD foil $12)

Swords to Plowshares (2 million decks, a million special arts)

Baral, Chief of Compliance (86k decks, plus 4100 as Commander, serialized $300, SLD foil $6, SLD foil $14)

Garruk Relentless (4500 decks, no special arts)

Reaper King (4000 decks plus 6500 as Commander, no special arts)

The cards here add up decently, but this is an odd choice, given that The Office ended twelve years ago and its peak was several years earlier. Should be an okay drop, but I don’t think the meme-ness of this will increase value like Princess Bride or Monty Python have done. Worth noting that if they preview some more Scarecrows in Lorwyn Eclipsed, I’ll likely buy a lot of very cheap Reaper Kings.

Dreaming Darkly 

Glen Elendra Archmage (75k decks, SLD foil $65)

Guardian Project (263k decks, RVR Borderless foil $54)

Roon of the Hidden Realm (2400 as card, plus 3100 as Commander, no special arts)

Soulherder (70k decks, no special arts)

Real hard to argue with a premium version of Guardian Project, plus the Archmage and the Herder. Roon is pretty weak as blinkers go, needing an extra turn, more mana, etc, but the Project is carrying the load here and should appreciate nicely. 

Secret Lair x Iron Maiden: Album Art 

Lethal Scheme (65k decks, PIP FEA $4)

Grave Titan (81k decks, PIP foil $11, SLD foil $15)

Animate Dead (322k, no special frames)

Temporal Trespass (39k decks, ACR FEA $4)

Unearth (112k, 2X2 Borderless Foil $1.50)

Lignify (54k, no special arts)

Once again, I must climb upon my soapbox and cry out for all the Zombie enthusiasts: Why isn’t Grave Titan a Zombie Giant?? There’s a decent amount of value here, and I appreciate that this is at the $30/$40 price point. This looks to be a slow gainer, although the Animate Dead is badass and popular. 

Secret Lair x Iron Maiden: Eddie Unchained 

Bruvac the Grandiloquent (45k decks, plus 6300 as Commander, RVR Borderless foil $47)

Windfall (421k decks, SLD foil $13)

Captain N’gathrod (12k decks, plus 14k as Commander, CLB FEA $70)

Nekusar, the Mindrazer (7600 decks, plus 14k as Commander, SLD $50)

Iron Maiden (9000 decks, no special version) – $9

Mindcrank (110k decks, no special version) – $11

I had no idea that the Captain was so popular, but this is a cool theme to build around. We’re getting sweet versions of cards that are already expensive, and that makes this a very good lair to buy. Mindcrank might end up as the best value here, and it’s also possible that the Iron Maiden’s special art carries it a lot further than we might expect. 

Trick or Treat 

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose (185k decks, FEA $22)

Satoru Umezawa (20k as card, plus 12k as Commander, Borderless foil $3)

Voja, Jaws of the Conclave (3,000 decks, plus 18,000 as Commander, no special version)

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver (30k decks, plus 20k as Commander, SLD Retro $95)

Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter (89k, plus 2k as Commander, FEA $5)

Wilhelt and Vito are known and very good, plus we get a premium Voja, who wasn’t in the main set. Satoru already has a pretty amazing borderless to use, and Liberator is useful, but those first three legends should start at good prices and start trending upwards.

Secret Lair x Furby: Doo-ay Noo-lah

Distant Melody (153k, SLD $10)

Explore (300k, LTC foil $3)

Inspiring Call (263k decks, surge foil PIP $18)

Chromatic Lantern (611k, FIC foil $25, RVR Borderless $19)

Sol Ring (all of them, too many)

Secret Lair x Furby: The Gathering 

Sphere of Safety (143k, SLD foil $18)

Miscast (55k decks, no special versions)

Phyrexian Arena (553k decks, FDN Mana Foil $38, ONE FEA $3)

Tormenting Voice (75k decks, no special arts)

Tamiyo’s Safekeeping (193k, no special arts) 

Secret Lair x Furby: The OddBodies 

Hullbreaker Horror (263k, PIP Surge $44, DBL foil $60, INR Borderless $9)

Maddening Cacophony (70k decks, FEA $8)

Serum Visions (131k, SLD foils $2.50 each)

Umbris, Fear Manifest (5k as card, 7k as Commander, no special art)

Spellskite (115k, no special frame)

For these three lairs, we’re looking at $30/$40 like usual but there’s also some $60 confetti foils, which are probably the same treatment that the Enchanted Tales subset had back in Wilds of Eldraine. It’s a fun treatment, especially on cards like these, but there are still lots of confetti foils that are inexpensive. That subset also had anime art, which Magic players tend to love. I’m not sold on confetti alone being a reason to buy in.

The Sol Ring is the first one that jumps out at me, as there’s no shortage of this card at $30+, which is where I’d expect the super-cute, confetti-foiled version to land. We don’t tend to see the Rings grow in price over time, but the big unknown is the supply level. How many confetti foil versions did they make for this, is it half the number of rainbow foils? Or are they near to the same number, as what seemed to happen with the raised foils they sold for $99 not too long ago?

The rest of these cards, the art/cuteness/anti-cuteness is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting if the price is to grow. The demand level isn’t there to make these skyrocket. One card that I’ll be eager to get cheap copies of is the Safekeeping, a card which is $3 as a nonfoil uncommon but one of the most popular ways to keep your stuff safe. That 193,000 number isn’t even inflated by being in a precon or some such; it’s just pure efficiency. 

Finally, there’s a Cryptic Command as a promo, you get one for every $200 you spend. I don’t have high expectations for this card, considering what the other promos have done and the competition from other special versions, including a gorgeous textless MPR from way back in the day. 

Given that Secret Lairs are now highly targeted by the bot networks and others trying to make the same sort of returns which Final Fantasy gave us, I expect this lair to sell out quickly, as the Spider-Man drops did. I’m not convinced of the long-term value, though, given that these are mostly mediocre cards. The Sonic Lairs are excellent examples, as aside from the drop with the Sol Ring, none of those have shot up in value. There’s a lot of buyers who are able to get at MSRP and want to resell immediately, as they can’t afford to hold products in stock. That’s how you get Lairs reselling at $35+$15 shipping, a model which gives very low profit but the turnover is constant. 

For this drop, I’m targeting two sealed drops: the Artist Series: Kieran Yanner and Iron Maiden: Eddie Unchained. Those are clearly the best value on the board, and given the velocity of releases, if you wanted to skip this drop and wait for Dump Week, it’s a defensible position. There’s only a couple of drops here screaming with value, and the rest is dependent on nostalgia, art, and those who need to collect everything. 

I can’t overlook the world in which confetti sells out fast, then FOMO kicks in, and everything else sells out relatively quickly too. The prices on the cards will then zoom way out of the realm of how good the cards are, which may end up happening for the Spider-Man drop. Those prices are high, but within expectations for the time right before Dump Week.

For this superdrop, I’m planning on looking for these cards to hit lows, in foil and nonfoil: Guardian Project, Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, Wilhelt, and of course the Tutor and most of Eddie Unchained. Not sure how low they’ll go, but those are the ones I’ll want.

If you want to discuss the things I’m buying and not buying, please feel free to stop by the ProTrader Discord and let’s discuss!

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 a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

There’s a Secret Lair drop arriving on the 22nd of September, and it features our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

As a Marvel character, and one of the biggest, there’s a range of stuff happening with this drop. Let’s go over the cards, the usage, and where the value is currency sitting for this drop.

For each card, I’m listing the EDHREC usage and the value of any premium versions of the card. That’s the most useful comparison, even if the old premium isn’t exactly as cool. Just a reminder about EDHREC: Their data is super helpful but it is by no means the one and only truth. Tons and tons of casual players don’t use the site, and there’s a bias towards preconstructed decks as people do variations on ‘precon with upgrades’ so some of the staples have staggering inclusion rates. 

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Daily Bugle Breaking News

1x Fact or Fiction ($5 SLD foil, 171k decks)

1x Frantic Search ($21 SLD foil, $1 CMM Borderless Foil, 453k decks)

1x Scheming Symmetry ($16 SLD foil, 61k decks)

1x Blasphemous Act ($31 SLD foil, $5 SLD foil, 1.12 million decks) – 37 printings!

1x Impact Tremors ($16 SLD, $2 WOT foil, 339k decks)

First of all, I both love and loathe this frame. I love big bold card names, and this is so thematic it hurts, but it also looks like it’s got the same issue as the Creepshow SLD: If you make a frame with wrinkles and frayed edges (comic book, newspaper, etc.) then the cards always look like they are LP or worse. Aside from that, this is everything you want in a Lair: high inclusion rates, this looks different than the other premium versions, and the floor of $5 for some of these cards makes the others look pretty good.  

One thing you’re going to notice as a theme: All of these have more than one SLD printing already, and this is the third time around for Blasphemous Act. I picked the Deadpool version on MTG Fast Finance not too long ago, so my stack of those will take a bit longer to mature. That’s the usual pattern for repeat SLDs, and something to keep in mind with all of the new SLD versions. Older ones won’t lose value, but there will be slower growth in the future.

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Heroic Deeds

1x Ephemerate ($30 JPN STA foil, 181k decks)

1x Three Visits ($42 SLD foil, 770k decks)

1x Lightning Greaves (INV foil $215, SLD foil $37, 2XM foil $19, SLD foil $16, LCC foil $22, SLD foil $6, 1.7 million decks)

1x Sol Ring (too damn many, all of them)

1x Command Tower (too damn many, all of them)

The Ephemerate and the Three Visits are doing a lot of work here. Three Visits especially is an outlier, as it’s the iconic, often-imitated Knights Who Say “Ni!” from the Monty Python SLD. If it wasn’t a collectible from that particular IP, I think it’d be cheaper, but that is the only special version until now.

Greaves, Sol Ring, and Tower have lots and lots of versions. Sol Ring has 111 printings, according to Scryfall, with 30 of those being $10 or more. Command Tower has 97 separate printings listed, but only 15 are $10+. Still, the Ephemerate and Three Visits are going to do the best here, and I’ll definitely be targeting those cards at Dump Week. 

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Mana Symbiote

2x Plains, 2x Island, 2x Swamp, 2x Mountain, 2x Forest

These lands are reminiscent of the oil-slick lands from All Will Be One, and those range from $5 to $12 for the Swamp. Here, you’re paying $60 and getting ten lands, for a solid entry of $6 each. Supply on this will be constrained, and I expect the red and black ones to be the most popular. These look amazing, and I am hoping to pick up a nice stack during Dump Week but gives the higher price of this drop it’s possible that no one ever prices these cheaply. 

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Venom Unleashed (Colors)

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Venom Unleashed (Inks)

1x Damnation (MP2 foil $120, Textless foil $40, SPG foil $40, 240k decks)

1x Dark Ritual (SLD foil $140, MP2 foil $110, STA JPN foil $50, FCA foil $45, 808k decks)

1x Peer into the Abyss (FEA $16, 90k decks)

1x Surgical Extraction (2X2 borderless foil $8, OTP foil $2, 3700 decks)

1x Tendrils of Agony (STA JPN foil $4, 18k decks)

The ink version of a comic page is a true tradition in the collecting of comics, and this is an awesome set of art to showcase the difference. If you’re the type who likes to frame and display cards in a set, then putting these cards next to each other will look phenomenal. Damnation clearly is the big one here, but Dark Ritual is another one I’ll be on the lookout for cheap copies. 

Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man: Villainous Plots

1x Deadly Dispute (FCA foil $2, SLD foil $4, SLD foil $6, 409k decks)

1x Go for the Throat (PCBB foil $5, 233k decks)

1x Lightning Greaves (INV foil $215, SLD foil $37, 2XM foil $19, SLD foil $16, LCC foil $22, SLD foil $6, 1.7 million decks)

1x Sol Ring (too damn many, all of them)

1x Command Tower (too damn many, all of them)

I’m lower on this drop than I am with the Heroic Deeds version, as Dispute and Throat aren’t very pricey and as I said, these staples will hold a few bucks but are unlikely to become very expensive. Nothing wrong with $5 foils, but I’d be a lot happier if those three $5 foils came with a $15 and a $20 in my $40 set of cards. 

Overall, even with sweet art, this is a drop I’d be likely to avoid on the day of if this were six months ago. There’s nothing mechanically unique, there’s only one card in all of this that hasn’t had a premium printing before. Good, but not great. Thankfully these are all at the $30/$40 price instead of the $40/$50, with the exception of the $60 for 10 lands.

However, we’re in a different era and a very different IP. Spider-Man is one of the most recognized figures on the planet, and the comic collecting crowd is going to be wild for this. The hype is high, and I fully expect the Secret Lair site to be extremely busy, if not outright crashed, as happened with the Marvel release last November.

As such, I think these are all pretty safe buys if you can get in at MSRP. I have a strong preference for the Heroic Deeds set, as I said, but these should all do well. If the site crashes or you can’t stare at the little walking figure all morning, don’t fret. I suspect a lot of these will have very good prices when Dump Week arrives and people flood the market as is the usual pattern.

We haven’t been told about the bonus cards, or special add-ons like a Seedborn Muse or an Arcane Signet, and if there’s extra collectibles around, that just means more value. 

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 a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

Spider-Man will be completely previewed by the end of today, which is two weeks ahead of the prerelease. I have to admit, the schedule feels funky, like Final Fantasy was ended a bit fast and Edge of Eternities has lasted a bit longer than usual, but with so many sets, everything is different from the times that used to be. 

This set has an MSRP of $38 for a Collector Booster, but on TCGPlayer, they are going for at least double that, on an individual or a box price. It’s also a smaller set, in terms of the number of cards, so they have filled the Collector Boosters with a range of treatments and styles, then given us an article with lots of obfuscations. My goal today is to break it all down and tell you have many packs you’d have to open to pull the cards you want. 

Generally speaking, it’s easier to buy the singles you want rather than open packs and hope for those specific cards. Your odds are better in Spider-Man than they were in Final Fantasy for most things because of the smaller set size, and that’s a theme you’ll see in these numbers. I’ve put in the MSRP price of the packs, just because I can easily imagine the prices of these packs varying widely. Right now it’s double, could go up, could go lower.

There’s four slots we care most about in the Collector Boosters, and the first two are nonfoil Booster Fun:

All of these drop rates are within expectations, although the mythic rare scene cards are pretty high at 125 packs to get a single copy. Nonfoils will drain out a lot slower than the foil versions will, though, but tournament players might well go for nonfoils first.

Borderless Source Material Cards: This is very similar to the FCA sheet, although it’s got the MAR set code. Formally known as Source Material, it’s a series of iconic comic book covers done into Magic cards. I have high hopes for this sheet, especially at these drop rates: 

As a point of comparison, in the Final Fantasy sheet, it was 250 packs to get a foil rare from that set and 500 to get a foil mythic. So yes, it’s about 5-10 times easier to get a nonfoil, and 2-3 times easier to get a foil, depending on if the card would be rare or uncommon. They could have put those designations in again, but no, they made it easy on us for the Spider-Man sheet, designating all of the cards as mythic. (If they had done the same in FCA, everything the same rarity, it would have been 128 packs for a specific foil.)

I wanted to take this a step further, since they made these much more common than the Final Fantasy bonus sheet. So I sat down with the mythic drop rates, for foils and nonfoils, and tried to figure out how the drop rates on the MAR sheet compare to an actual in-set mythic rare in a regular frame.

To do this, I had to estimate the relative number of Play Boosters sold vs. the number of Collector Boosters sold. We don’t have exact figures on this but based on assorted industry chatter we’ve decided on a ratio of one Collector Booster sold for every three Play Boosters sold. Expressed as percentages, that means Play Boosters are 75% of the number of total packs sold for Spider-Man. The absence of Commander decks with sample packs for this set eliminates a variable that has been present with other sets.

Again, that’s an estimate, and if we get better info, we’ll update this post accordingly. But with that ratio, and with the drop rates in both types of boosters, I estimate that the ratio of mythics to MAR cards is about 3:2, meaning that for every two copies of a particular MAR card, there’s three copies of a particular in-set mythic.

This ratio is present for foils and nonfoils, which is an interesting surprise.

Now as a reminder, we’re starting from a hype cycle that is already inflated, and so we’ll see some sky-high prices for cards from this sheet, especially as people notice the same visual features as the FCA sheet. My initial expectation here will be to sell early, and wait a couple of weeks to get what you can as people crack boxes and put their stock online. Given the higher prices of boxes, the individual card prices may never come down, but FCA prices have mostly trended downwards and I hope the MAR cards will as well.

Complicating this plan is that these cards, as reskins of some legendary comic book covers, will pull interest from those same comic collectors. Just like we weren’t ready for the Final Fantasy collectors, we might not be ready for the comic folks to come storming into this hobby too. It is entirely possible that the extra collecting pressure on these cards, plus the rising price of boxes, leads to everything only going up.

I don’t think that will happen, but it’s definitely possible. I’d still be on the ‘sell into early hype, then wait’ plan.

The final slot in the Collector Booster will be filled with all sorts of wonderful shiny goodies:

Now note that these categories leave out four types of pulls, and only add up to 98.1%. In the Collecting article, we’re told that all four of these groups of cards are each less than 1%:

7 Textured Foil Costume Change

1 Borderless Gauntlet Soul Stone

2 Mythic Rare Scene Cards

1 Borderless Cosmic Foil Soul Stone

Now we’ve got to get into some assumptions. I’m being as logical as I can from here on out, but these are still guesses. Please feel free to disagree, I can only make my best guesses about the data in the absence of specifics. 

There’s 1.9% left over, and 11 cards. If it’s evenly split, that’s 1 in 579 packs to get any of these eleven particular cards. That’s already a lot harder to get, as each of the other mythics are at most 187 packs. I think we can do better, though, especially knowing that the Soul Stone variants are hyper-premium.

I’m going to presume that the two mythic rare scene cards have a total drop rate of 0.9%, to fit the <1% designation. I’ll do the same for the seven textured foils. That leaves us with 0.1% for all special Soul Stones. Already a 1 in 1,000 drop rate at that point, I went with two possible ratios of Gauntlet to Cosmic. Here’s a table with these presumptions, and the two possible distributions.

In the first pair of lines, the two sets of Soul Stones are in a 3:1 ratio (three Gauntlet foils for every Cosmic foil) and the second is 19:1, leading to some absurd rarities for the most chase versions. I think the first set of numbers is more likely, because it’s in line with what the super-rare drops have been in the past. As examples, the rarest non-serialized drops have been the Lost Legends rares (Roughly 46,700 packs for a specific Legends rare out of DMU), the first set of Surge Foil Realms and Relics (~3,900 packs),and the Jurassic Park Emblem Foils (3,800). We estimated Sothera’s super-rare version to be around two to three thousand packs for a single copy, but it’s impossible for outsiders to know for sure.

I repeat, I do not know what the actual drop rates are for these eleven cards, and these numbers are estimates. If Wizards gives us better data (they likely won’t, alas) then I’ll update this with more precise and attributable numbers.

If you want to discuss the percentages and math from this article, please reach out on social media or the ProTrader Discord. And good luck, if you decide to open some packs!

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 a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.

It’s hard to believe that Final Fantasy was officially released only ten weeks ago! We’ve seen the Collector Boosters get so expensive that the empty display boxes are going on TCGPlayer for more than $20, and I’m told this is a common thing for the hardcore collectors, having the empties of the boxes you’ve cracked open. 

Final Fantasy’s subset, Through the Ages, is a true home run, giving us very useful cards with some wonderful/iconic/nostalgic art. Doesn’t matter if this is not your cup of tea, there’s something here to enjoy and the collectors have come out of the woodwork. We’re told by Wizards employees that the print run for this set was bigger than any other set ever, and the demand was still too high. 

As a result, we’re seeing some cards start to dry up, and while usually I like to wait for six months or so to let a card find its bottom, when the boosters are this pricey, I can’t imagine these sink much lower before rising up. So let’s review the cards with the right mix of demand, current price, and low inventory.

For each card, I’ve listed the EDHREC data, but please keep in mind that it’s not a perfect set of data. EDHREC is both skewed to the most invested players, a very small group of very online folks, and those who do ‘precon plus some upgrades’ for leagues and other limited-pool Commander decks. I also want to remind you that per the Collecting article, it takes roughly 50 Collector Booster packs to get a foil uncommon from this sheet, about 250 for a foil rare, and a whopping 500 packs for a mythic. At $1300 a box, that’s just over $27,000 for a rare (most of this list) and $54,000 for a single foil mythic!

As the FF Collector Boxes stay at such a high price, being collectibles in and of themselves, the supply on these foils is already low, and there’s not much more coming into circulation. 

One more detail to note: James and I have spent a lot of time on MTG Fast Finance discussing how Japanese-language cards are undervalued compared to the English versions of chase cards. Frequently, the JPN price is half or less of the ENG price, but because so much of this set’s collectors just don’t care about the language, the JPN cards are often within 10-20% of the English price. If you like the foreign-language version, all of these get significantly cheaper. 

Command Beacon (317,000 decks on EDHREC, $19 for a NM English Foil) – This is one of the most popular EDHREC cards you can get in the FIC sheet, and also a bit misleading. Beacon was put into two recent Commander precons, and a lot of expensive commanders won’t even run the card. It is understandable if you don’t like the FF8 art, straight from the PlayStation 2, but we’ve already got a Galaxy foil of this at more than $30. Once these last few cheap foils are gone, we’re going to see this hit $40 or $50 pretty easily. 

Bolas’s Citadel (282k decks, Game Changer, $50) – If you’ve never played with or against this in Commander, just know that it’s a worthy Tinker target in Vintage Cube, and that’s a format with only 20 life! In Commander, it’s very easy to abuse this card and while there is a Post Malone SL version as well as a white border from MYB2, this is already the chase version at $50. 

Loran of the Third Path (205k decks, $20) – Another card with art that’s the flower of 2000’s technology, Loran is a tremendously popular card given the enters-play Disenchant and the politics of drawing extra cards. We also know that these collectors spend a lot for the anime-type art, so this just feels like a matter of time. 

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar (167k decks, $24) – The card is great, the art iconic, and the price is perfect. A rare case where the Japanese-language copies are a lot cheaper, you can get copies for $14! 

Sram, Senior Artificer (186k decks, $25) – The Commander is a draw engine for three types of decks, as well as being a fantastic include in the 99 of a lot of types of deck. We’ve had special versions, even serialized ones, and this FCA version will surpass all but the numbered copies. The art is perfectly arranged on the text, making this extra awesome.

Carpet of Flowers (104k, $18) – The SL version is already in the low $30 range, and that’s not even borderless or extended art. Even if the art makes no sense to you, knowing the game lore or not, it seems easy to see that this will grow to match and surpass that version of the card. 

Isshin, Two Heavens As One (23k as commander, #15 in last two years, 47k more, $70) – All-time confluence of factors here: Isshin is a terrifying commander in the aggressive colors, the aforementioned supply issues, and FF collectors love Lightning. I won’t be surprised when these are $150 by next summer. 

Jodah, the Unifier (24k as commander, #13, 17k more, $31) – There’s some competition in here, as we got the Spongebob Jodah not long before this was released, but the art is by Amano, and some people don’t like the bright cartoon colors. Jodah should break the top ten commanders over time, as it’s just an excuse to play all your favorite legendary creatures. 

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor (51k, $34) – All the other mythics from FCA are super-pricey but this one is surprisingly affordable. Gix sees less play than the others, and buying in on this is more of a supply spec than anything else. 

Muldrotha, the Gravetide (20k decks, #24, 58k more, $12) – Top graveyard-based commander, great art. There are other borderless versions out there, including a Fracture Foil from Foundations, but this is still a great price for a very collectible version. 

I don’t think you need to buy any of these immediately, but I wouldn’t wait too long. Most of them have already rebounded off of lows, and as the CBs rise in price, these cards should get harder and harder to find. 

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 a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.