In the never-ending quest to reduce wallets and bank accounts to cinders, Wizards is giving us the Spring 2024 Superdrop this coming Monday. We know the contents of those drops, and while there might be another one (suspiciously, we don’t have an Artist Series/Spotlight drop, or an all-lands drop), we do have a lot of information and can make some determinations ahead of time.

Remember, these are no longer print-to-demand. Wizards has already made as many as they are going to make (so they say) and they want to ship these relatively soon. Drops can and do sell out, as we saw with the Beauty of the Beasts drop in Winter and almost all of the recent Equinox drop.

Limited-run cards, a fear of missing out, and speculators aplenty: it’s a recipe for potential profits. Let’s take a look at the drops we know about, and figure out what is worth planning to buy.

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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.

We’re getting a new superdrop on May 13, just about a week away. We know two of the drops, and there’s presumably more coming. This is right on the heels of the Fallout drop, which was right after Sheldon’s drop and the one before that, and the one before that…

The core idea is that these Lairs are going to keep coming, especially with most of them being limited in quantities. We have a lot of historical data for Secret Lairs at this point, and I want to solidify what we know and see if there’s trends we can identify. With that information, perhaps we can figure out if we want to buy the upcoming Lairs.

Let’s start off with a big thing: We don’t know exactly how many of each Secret Lair get sold. Wizards knows, but they don’t want to tell us. Foil versions tend to appreciate faster, because Commander players and collectors like shiny things, but there’s more than a few lairs where the nonfoils grew faster in price because less people bought them. I think this concept comes into play a lot with Secret Lairs: If they aren’t immediately/obviously popular, then vendors and speculators (like us) won’t buy it. That means as players discover the cards, there’s less in circulation. 

A great example of this is City Styles. None of these cards by themselves are rare, and they were not bought in large quantities (apparently). But as time passed, thee value kept creeping up, and we all wish we’d bought more of these.

Another trait that might push prices is exclusivity. Being Magic-Con only hasn’t pushed up the price of the Li’l Giri Saves The Day edition, but Burning Revelations is pricey for the sealed edition. Likewise, there’s some three-days-only editions, like Extra Life, that have flamed out pretty badly.

There are some traits that don’t guarantee a high price, and chief among those is age. Reaper King was from the first batch of Secret Lairs released, and it’s still $5 even though the other two cards, The Ur-Dragon and The First Sliver, have gone up-up-up. Just being old, without being popular, isn’t enough to guarantee a raise in prices.

Another category that has generally not done well is lands. There are a few exceptions, but the drops that are ‘here’s a set of basics with sweet art’ usually aren’t big gainers. The pixel snow lands are probably the biggest growth in value, but there’s lots of dropped lands that just landed like a rock and stayed there. 

Some of the Artist Series has gone up in price, but the majority hasn’t. Much depends on which cards they were asked to highlight. Also, the Artist Series has almost always been in the regular frame, and that’s just a travesty. The Fallout drop was the first time that every drop had at least a borderless frame going on. Likewise, a fun theme won’t save lackluster cards, as we saw in the LOTR drops that featured the Bakshi film images. 

The collaboration drops have been a mixed bag. The first one, with The Walking Dead, has taken a very long time to grow in price, even with Rick, Steadfast Leader being a ridiculous boon and an expensive card for Human decks of any flavor. Street Fighter is still at $60 plus shipping, despite a great IP, unique and interesting cards, and being several years old. Stranger Things has had much more success, but there’s been seasons released after the drop came out and every time, that tends to trigger a spike. Hang on for the final season, it might get wild. I’m waiting to see if the new Dr. Who episodes with the Fifteenth Doctor cause that card (only available in a Drop, not a Commander deck or Collector Booster) to jump. 

Unique frames tend to get there. We’ve had some amazing frames that have gone nowhere immediately, but over time, and even with reprints they get to be among the most expensive versions of a card. For example, the Dreadbore that is in the ‘Party Hard, Shred Harder’ drop is $4, when regular versions are under a quarter. The MSCHF drop is a great example of this, though the sealed drop is still available under $70 for having very unique looks. Almost all of the ‘movie poster’ themes did well too, as an example of things that they will likely go back to. 

One of the traits that, amazingly, does guarantee a high price is having cute animals. Every drop with adorable pets on it has performed well, including the full 100-card deck. Special lands, reprint versions, you name it. This applies even to cards that have a low price in the regular version. Qasali Slingers, for example, has two versions under $4 but the Secret Lair version is over $20. 

Unsurprisingly, a drop full of staples tends to do well. Through the Wormhole has nearly tripled since it was available in December, and that’s a drop with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Command Tower, Thought Vessel, and Lightning Greaves. Mega-Staples, but with sweet art and an even sweeter Galaxy Foil treatment. 

Finally, let’s talk for a moment about what was probably the best-selling Drop (until, I’m wagering, Sheldon’s Spellbook, but I have no data on that): the Phyrexian Praetors. We found out quickly that these had the mirror-image, serialized Viscera Seer in them, and demand went nuts early, then settled down when everyone got theirs, then bumped up a bit around March of the Machine, and after that, has done nothing but slide downwards. Even now, almost three years later, there’s still around 150 copies of the drop, sealed, available on TCGPlayer and oodles of the singles available from when people went nuts trying to find Seers. All kinds of cautionary tales in those cards, people.

So…what’s the tl:dr here?

I want to buy Secret Lairs that have one or more (preferably a lot!) of the following traits:

1. Other people aren’t buying
2. Does neat things with the frame, borderless at least
3. Has a unique foiling look
4. Includes super-popular Commander staples
5. Art has cute cats/dogs

Conversely, I want to avoid:

1. Overly niche cards (kindred drops like Creepshow or Calling all Hydra Heads)
2. Land sets
3. Terrible art choices (Extra Life 2021 has TWO Craterhoof Behemoths and yet sealed is under $60)
4. Regular Frame cards

This list isn’t comprehensive, and you’ll find exceptions to these rules, but it’s a good summary of where I am and what I’m doing. For disclosure’s sake, my last two Secret Lair purchases were 10x of Sheldon’s Spellbook (#2 and #4 above) and 3x of the full Foil bundle, plus an extra 4x of Rovina Cai in foil (#2, #3, #4). Hope that helps!

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 so often, we need to look back at previous sets. Specs are not what they used to be, and I’m only interested in things with a high degree of usage, preferably in Commander, and that have been out for a few months. 

So today, we’re going to take a look at a few cards from Wilds of Eldraine, and see what’s at the intersection of ‘used often’ and ‘maximum supply’ which is the most likely path to future profit.

A couple of caveats before we get into this list. First of all, the reprint risk is real and constant. Between Special Guests, The List, a million Commander precons per year, everything Secret Lair, and the myriad bonus sheets we get with modern-day sets, there’s never been more reprints flooding the zone. Second, when using EDHREC data, we have to be aware of its limitations. Only the most invested of players bother to upload their lists, and there’s a bias towards precons in that dataset. The data from EDHREC is useful, but it’s not perfect and it’s not all-encompassing. 

Also, a couple of these cards have likely been flagged in the ProTrader Discord and mentioned on MTG Fast Finance. That doesn’t make them worse picks, it just means that the cards have already been noticed as future gainers. Finally, since all of these are relatively recent, there’s a chance that the prices could go lower as enough packs are opened, and make their way into the retail network. I’ll note what I can in this regard. 

Beseech the Mirror ($15 and trending down slightly) – This is the #2 card by EDHREC rankings from WOE, and I suspect that’s buoyed up by cEDH players, a subset that is growing in number and influence. It’s easy to see this as a combo piece of some kind, but it’s also just an extremely effective card. The card is inching downward in price, as the graph shows:

It’s a mythic from an in-print set, but also keep in mind that it’ll be Standard legal for the next three years. That’s a long time to unlock a broken combo, or for some new interaction to come along. The basic version is probably going to offer the best gains, as the FEA version is pushing $50 right now. It’s much easier to imagine the basic version going $15 to $30 than the FEA going from $50 to $100.

Up the Beanstalk ($2.50 foil) – Uncommons like this represent a strong candidate for reprints, as they are powerful yet inexpensive. Green decks in Commander have a range of choices like this: Garruk’s Uprising, Elemental Bond, Guardian Project, etc., but this is cheap as heck and comes with its own draw built in. I love it as a cantrip engine with cost reducers, and it’s already in more than 30,000 decks online. I would advocate getting your personal copies now, and a few extras. I wouldn’t plan on waiting forever, though, because of that reprint risk. 

Virtue of Persistence ($15 showcase foil) – Just about every black Commander deck should think about running this card. It’s strictly better than Debtors’ Knell, given the change in colors and mana cost. What it offers, though, is two cards you want to play rolled up together. We all know we don’t play enough point removal in Commander, and there’s always a good target for -3/-3. After you solve that problem, the enchantment is nicely tucked away in exile, where only something super niche like Riftsweeper can get to it. I think this card is more popular in casual circles than we can easily measure, just look at the prices for this compared to the other Virtue cards. As such, I advocate you stock up on the showcase foils, since the prices are so close to each other. This is another card that has gotten some Standard play as well, thanks to the efficiency of the two spells combined. It’s also a candidate for cascade decks, giving those decks a two-mana removal spell that has a cascade value of seven mana. Against an aggro red deck, one kill spell and two life can be enough to gain the turn you need to stabilize.

Stroke of Midnight ($5 promo foil) – I have gotten burned badly by promo foils before. There’s just so many of these out there, it’s hard for it to gain much further than it has. We’d need it to hit $8 or preferably the $10 range before there was a decent profit to be made, and so I’m mentioning this card as a card to avoid. By all means, grab your personal copies, it’s in nearly 100,000 decks online, but understand that the supply on these is deep and the demand will not have a chance to hollow it out before we get to the next big thing. 

Monstrous Rage ($3 non-foil) – I would not have picked this at the outset of Wilds of Eldraine, but here we are, a $3 nonfoil common. It’s gotten here as a four-of in assorted Red Deck Wins/Prowess/Aggro decks, good for three power and trample. With the addition of Slickshot Show-Off, this is one mana to add five power to a creature, and +1/+1 and trample sticks around! Up from $1 at the start of 2024, it’s taken off fast with the explosion of decks that want it, which is getting a Slickshot boost. I like nonfoils here for tourney players who hate curling, but you can talk me into shiny ones as well. Your reprint risk here is mainly Secret Lair/The List, because a Commander inclusion would need four decks to get the needed playset. The Monster Role is a specific mechanic and hard to add into other sets, plus this would be a pretty quick reprint. I think there will be a window in the next few months for you to buy now and resell at a good profit.

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.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is here, and while I paid attention to Ghired two weeks ago, I want to look at the most popular commander from the set so far: Gonti, Canny Acquisitor!

Original Gonti is a great time, allowing you the fun of stealing cards from someone else’s deck. The new version adds two colors, lets you cast things for cheaper, and can trigger more than once per turn! This is tricky to do via webcam, but it’s so much fun in person to have those face down cards, those awesome spells that you’re stealing from others’ decks.

Stealing creatures and spells is a deck in and of itself. Gonti gives you access to a lot of good things to do, and many of these are lined up nicely to climb in price. Since Gonti is a face commander for an entire deck, I’m going to avoid things that were printed in the deck. (way to go, tossing Edric in this deck, A+ inclusion!)

Some of these cards were mentioned last year when we got Tasha, the Witch Queen, but Gonti won’t have the same emphasis on casting the spells. Dealing damage with creatures gets you some extra cards to play with, and that’s what the deck wants most. Remember that you can play lands too!

Gonti, Lord of Luxury (Secret Lair Foil $3) – Trite but true, decks like to replicate their Commanders’ abilities. I have trouble with the idea of a deck that plays three-color Gonti but not the original. He’s in 60,000 decks on EDHREC, in addition to being the headliner for a few thousand decks. The Invisible Ink foil is available for very cheap, and should be a strong addition. 

There is a whole bunch of cards that are cheap to cast and are unblockable. This is exactly what the deck wants, so you can attack the turn you play Gonti and get some cards. Many of these have only one foil printing, and the foils have been hollowed out over time from things like Rogues and Ninja decks. These cards include: Changeling Outcast (MH2 retro foil for $4), Gudul Lurker ($1 common, $10 foil!), Mist-Cloaked Herald ($5 foil), Slither Blade ($7 foil), Tormented Soul (promo for $4), Triton Shorestalker ($6 foil), Dimir Infiltrator ($1/$15 foil), $1 Invisible Stalker.

If the new Gonti deck takes off, these are my favorite targets for this group of cards: $3 foil Escape Artist, 50¢ foil Jhessian Infiltrator, 75¢ FEA Mercurial Spelldancer , $2 foil Metathran Soldier, $3 DBL Suspicious Stowaway.

The good news is that several of these come with the Commander deck, but this would probably exert pressure on the foils to climb even higher. Outcast is also a changeling, which enables a lot of other strategies as well. The really great thing about these is that you can attack several players, put cards in exile, and use whenever. You’ll get your value!

Recently, this commander was featured on The Command Zone, with two very good inclusions: Thada Adel, Acquisitor ($12) and Toski, Bearer of Secrets (foil showcase $13). Thada is amazingly underplayed, but hasn’t been printed in 15 years. It’s the perfect card, with islandwalk and a great ability that Gonti makes even better, steal Sol Ring and play for free!

The next genre of cards that should be included are cards that draw you a card when you deal damage. You want to deal damage, so this works out nicely.

Bident of Thassa (promo $2, foil $4) – Another card that hasn’t had much reprint action, there’s enough bundle foils to need a lot of sales to get it moving.

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor ($18, but might drop on rotation) – Paying life can sting, but the options for Gix’s second ability will be truly phenomenal. It’s a popular card in Standard at the moment, so any gains it makes means it’ll fall that much farther as rotation approaches.

Coastal Piracy ($4) – A classic, and harder to remove than Gix or the like. The only foils are OG Mercadian Masques and 8th edition, both too expensive for this endeavor.

Reconnaissance Mission ($2 surge foil!) – We’ve seen surge foils spike if they are the only premium version of a card, and this one checks all the boxes. Doesn’t matter that it’s an uncommon, you only got one of these per premium deck, and those decks are a pretty penny each.

Finally, some cards that are just good in this deck:

Kaito Shizuki (Tetsuo Hara foil for $13) – Kaito makes an unblockable, gives good value, and has a sweet foil version available for a very reasonable cost. I like what he offers and I imagine he makes it in the decks as they get built.

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin (Ampersand foils for $25) – There’s only around a thousand Ampersand promos out there, making this the sweetest version of the card available. Hilariously, Gonti’s reduction would apply to the way Xanathar allows you to play cards from their library, so go to town!

Mind Flayer, the Shadow (foils $17, Universe Within $2 nonfoil) – It’s seven mana, but you can adjust when it’s a creature and when it isn’t. There’s a surprising number of the reprint version out there, so I’d avoid those nonfoils and instead get the proper Stranger Things foil to play with. You especially want to do this before season 5, the final season, comes out on Netflix.

Havengul Lich (nonfoils $2, foils $18) – Finally, one of my pet cards when it comes to stealing things from other people. No new foils have been made since 2012, so when the run begins on the foils, those prices will go high quickly. The ability costs one mana, and Gonti reduces the cost by the same amount, so the two of them together read ‘you may play Sultai creature spells from any graveyard’ and that’s a very good 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.