Welcome back to another installment of Mana Math, where I take the numbers we’re given about a set and turn that into easy-to-understand information about how hard it will be to open the card you really want.

Ravnica Remastered has some awesome cards, including a whopping 64 cards that are serialized to 500 copies, and some retro frame shocks, plus outstanding anime art! Let’s get to the cards, and the odds, and all the numbers you want.

We’re told right out of the gate that you have a 1% chance of opening a serialized retro frame card. With 64 options, that’s 32,000 unique cards. If that’s 1% of the total Collector Boosters out there, then we know there’s approximately 3.2 million Collector Booster packs, or 266,667 Collector Booster boxes.

Keep that number in mind, because you can plug that in with the other numbers I’m going to give you, and we’ll know exactly how many copies of a card were printed.

A caveat: Our vendor partners and distributor sources have mentioned that orders for Ravnica Remastered are low. This represents both the potential for things to be more expensive, as less is ordered and opened, or for a glut of underpriced product to show up later in the year. There’s also the chance that Wizards destroys the leftover packs, as we saw with Modern Horizons 2 back in February:

One thing Wizards didn’t give us directly was a list of serialized cards. Serialized cards are all in the Retro frame this time around, and the ones that are specific to the Collector Booster are not counted. Here’s the list:

Serialized Rares

Serialized Mythic Rares

Blazing Archon Blind Obedience Ghostway Copy Enchantment Spark Double Tidespout Tyrant Crypt Ghast Infernal Tutor Massacre Girl Arclight Phoenix Hellkite Tyrant Krenko, Mob Boss Legion Warboss Mizzix’s Mastery Birds of Paradise Chord of Calling Golgari Grave-Troll Life from the Loam Borborygmos Enraged Cindervines Deathrite Shaman Dreadbore Lavinia, Azorius Renegade Lazav, the Multifarious Mindleech Mass Niv-Mizzet, Parun Prime Speaker Zegana Rakdos, Lord of Riots Savra, Queen of the Golgari Sphinx’s Revelation Stitch in Time Tajic, Legion’s Edge Teysa, Orzhov Scion Tolsimir Wolfblood Voidslime Bottled Cloister Chromatic Lantern Illusionist’s Bracers Pariah’s Shield Seal of the Guildpact Sword of the Paruns Blood Crypt Breeding Pool Godless Shrine Hallowed Fountain Overgrown Tomb Sacred Foundry Steam Vents Stomping Ground Temple Garden Watery Grave

Divine Visitation Bruvac the Grandiloquent Cyclonic Rift Dark Confidant Lord of the Void Ilharg, the Raze-Boar Utvara Hellkite Guardian Project Protean Hulk Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice Karlov of the Ghost Council Master of Cruelties Cloudstone Curio

I don’t know why they didn’t want to give us this list directly, but here you go.

Additionally, there’s a subset of cards that is available in retro frame but only in the Collector Booster, because they are not fun in Limited or are part of strategies that aren’t supported in the Draft Booster experience. Some of them I can totally understand, others are a bit more of a surprise.

These are NOT available in serialized versions. Sorry to disappoint the Thespian’s Stage and Maze’s End players.

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Mythic Rare
Shambling Shell	Sphere of Safety Aetherize Narcomoeba  Turnabout Creeping Chill  Darkblast  Shattering Spree Perilous Forays Wilderness Reclamation Magewright’s Stone	Rest in Peace Gigantoplasm Pack Rat Supreme Verdict Pithing Needle Karn’s Bastion Thespian’s Stage	Enter the Infinite Niv-Mizzet Reborn Maze’s End

In some sets, all the sweet versions can be distributed across multiple slots of the Collector Booster, but that’s not going to be the case with RVR. 

There are good cards in those other slots, but RVR Collector Boosters are going to be a very swingy experience and that last slot is going to make or break the pack. All the foils are there, and while some of the nonfoils should keep a price of a few bucks, my expectations are pretty low. 

We get a breakdown of that last slot:

Let’s get into what we can get here, and just how rare each of those is. 

Type/Rarity (# of options)	Percent chance for any card of that category	Percent chance for a specific card of that category	# of CBs to open one specific card from that category
Traditional Foil Retro Frame Rare (51)	55.2%	1.09%	92.39
Traditional Foil Retro Frame Mythic Rare (13)	5.3%	0.4%	245.3
Traditional Foil Retro Frame CB Exclusive Rare (7)	10.6%	1.5%	66.04
Traditional Foil Retro Frame CB Exclusive Mythic Rare (3)	2.1%	0.7%	142.9
Traditional Foil Borderless Anime Rare (17)	13.4%	0.79%	126.8
Traditional Foil Borderless Anime Planeswalker Mythic Rare (3)	2.1%	0.7%	142.9
Traditional Foil Borderless Anime Mythic Rare (11)	4%	0.36%	275
Traditional Foil Borderless Shock Land Rare (10)	7%	0.7%	142.9
Serialized Double Rainbow Foil Retro Frame (64)	1%	0.016	6400

This slot is going to have some wild variance, but remember that 65.8% of packs, or just about two out of three, will have a foil Retro Rare, not even a foil anime version of a card. If you add those rares in, you’re looking at nearly 4-in-5 packs (79.2%) and adding in shocks gets you to 86%. 

Mythics and serialized cards are present in this last slot for just 14.5% of packs, or just a little more often than one in 8 packs. The average CB box, with twelve packs, will have approximately 1.7 mythics. It’s not like mythics are the only things worth money, but Cyclonic Rift is one of the big upshifts to mythic, and having more of those would have helped the EV of these boxes.

The second-to-last slot, with nonfoil borderless anime cards or the shockland, is the best bet because of what it has, but at the same time, because there’s less options there’s going to be that many more of the cards. Let’s look at the specifics: 

Type/Rarity (# of options)	Percent chance for any card of that category	Percent chance for a specific card of that category	# of CBs to open one specific card from that category
Non-foil borderless anime rare (32)	52%	1.625%	61.53
Non-foil borderless anime planeswalker mythic rares (2)	5.5%	2.75%	36.36
Non-foil borderless anime mythic rares (11)	15%	1.36%	73.3
Borderless shock land rares (10)	27.5%	2.75%	36.36

Now, let’s use that 3.2 million figure and say how many copies of a card will be printed, approximately. I find this useful when thinking of what the prices should be:

Card	Approx # of copies total	Card	Approx # of copies total
Retro Foil Steam Vents	22,393	Nonfoil borderless Steam Vents	88,000
Borderless Foil Anime Utvara Hellkite	11,636	Nonfoil borderless anime Utvara Hellkite	43,656
Borderless Foil Anime Chromatic Lantern	25,236	Nonfoil borderless anime Chromatic Lantern	52,007

I yearn for the days when there was a clear and consistent ratio, but sadly, those days are gone. For some cards, the foils are 4x as rare as the nonfoils, and for others, it’s only 2x.

Finally, let’s get into some specific cards, and their drop rates.

Card/treatment	Approx. number of CBs needed to find one copy (approx.)
Retro Foil Tidespout Tyrant	92.39
Retro Foil Bruvac the Grandiloquent	245.3
Borderless Anime Foil Crypt Ghast	126.8
Retro Foil Watery Grave	142.9
Borderless Anime Foil Cyclonic Rift	275
Serialized Double Rainbow Retro Frame Steam Vents	6400

Again, I hope you use these numbers to inform your buying plans. The highs on this set are going to be amazing, but there’s going to be a lot of Collector Boosters opened that contain chaff that wasn’t worth the pack. Opening packs is always a swingy experience, but that experience is going to be even more of a rollercoaster this time around. 

As always, if you have questions about my methods or results, please feel free to reach out on Twitter/X or in the ProTrader Discord. 

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.

One of the products that’s being released on February 23, 2024, and slightly previewed, is the Ravnica: Clue edition, which is more than a reskin of the original board game. There’s components of that game, but it plays more like Magic, apparently. What we care about most is the mechanically unique cards coming with it, specifically this guy: 

A Soldier who gives all the offensive abilities AND can activate to give the Hellrider pings? And that can activate more than once? There’s a great deck to be built here, and more importantly, money to be made by getting in early on Soldier specs.

We often get a Commander deck with a lot of good reprints, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. The ‘Explorers of the Deep’ deck came with an amazing number of good reprints, lords, and utility creatures that made it hard to profit off of the new decks being built. Since this release is confined to a board game, that doesn’t seem like it’ll be an issue but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did a Secret Lair Commander deck for each of the Clue legends.

Soldier decks haven’t had good options like the Commander. We have a lot of creatures that are legends who make Soldier tokens, but they don’t tell you to do the thing like Mustard does. There’s also more than a hundred legendary Soldiers, but none of them are focused on the creature type in the same way that Mustard is. The closest we have is Myrel, Shield of Argive, who is a Soldier that makes Soldiers and keeps you safe during your turn. 

Myrel will be an excellent addition to the Mustard deck. I would expect versions of her to rise nicely, especially as you can currently get copies for $12, maybe even closer to $10.

I also think there will be a lot of other Human Soldiers who get a bump here, and let’s start there: 

Catapult Master (cheapest version is currently $1, most expensive is $18) plus Catapult Squad (25¢ to $6) – These two Onslaught Soldiers have not gotten the reprint love one might expect, and the foils are poised to grow due to a tiny supply, even if the Squad is an uncommon. There are several ways to give all Soldiers vigilance, which makes both of these cards especially vicious. The Squad allows them all to attack, and at the first block, tap a bunch of tokens to blast that blocker into next week.

The nonfoils should see a modest bump, but my target would be the LP foils on TCGPlayer available in the $2 range. Those should give a very nice profit indeed.

Daru Warchief ($2 to $22) – There are more than a few Soldier lords, but giving the discount as well as the bump in power and toughness makes this a must-have. Again, foils are in very short supply because it’s been so long since they were printed, and all versions should rise up nicely.

Preeminent Captain ($1 to $15) – It’s a cheater of a card, especially because some of the truly busted Soldiers are hard on the mana, but here you go, dropping them into play, permanently, for the low cost of an early attack. In a Commander game, there’s usually some openings and then you’re way ahead. My target here are the M15 foils for 30% the price of MOR foils, because those prices should jump quite strongly.

Ballyrush Banneret (15¢ to $5) – We know mana rocks are good, but this will be a card whose foils jump hard once folks start building the decks. Please keep in mind the reduction happens just once, that Kithkin Soldiers won’t be reduced by two mana. This is a great way to get ahead, and start double-spelling very quickly.

Captain of the Watch (50¢ to $7.50) – This is another card with multiple foil versions, and one of them is a little cheaper so I’d go with the M13 copies instead of M10. Either way, this hasn’t had a foil in 11 years, which means that a new Commander wants all the attention. Easily one of the best things to cheat into play with the Preeminent Captain.

Field Marshal ($5 to $14) – A card that’s seen some ups and downs over the years, it’s a lord that gives a very powerful ability. At lowest power, it’s very difficult for you to attack in until you’ve cleared their Marshal away. The best pick here is the Secret Lair borderless versions around $6 for both foil and nonfoil. I generally like buying foils more, but the lower volume of nonfoils out there can make for very high gains.

Valiant Veteran (25¢ to $1.50) –  There is a whole lot of DMU out there, but this is a very good card for Soldier decks and with some foils being under a buck, you might get a great buylist opportunity here. Given the amount currently available, I’ll expect to see this rise some, but not very much.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar ($6 to $30) – Adeline has proven to be a very good card and capable of doing very swingy things, especially when you’re attacking all three of your opponents at once. We know she’s good, powerful, and in this deck, highly synergistic. I’d imagine the regular copies will have a better return than the Double Feature foils.

Finale of Glory ($1 to $5) – Amazingly, none of the Finale cycle is in Ravnica Remastered, and while there’s a couple of good options for X spells making Soldier tokens, this is my favorite. Go ahead and grab a Decree of Justice or two as well, but the Finale foils at $5 or so are an excellent opportunity to gain in value once people start buying for this deck. This might get reprinted in MH3, so be aware.

Horn of Gondor ($1 to $35) – The original Foil Extended Art versions from the Sample Collector Booster are the expensive outliers here, but you can get EA Surge foils extremely cheap right now and they might be the best bet from all available versions. This is a truly ridiculous effect, that scale up very quickly and synergizes with basically everything in the deck. 

Militia’s Pride ($2 to $9) – Yes, you’re reading the card right: every nontoken Soldier that attacks, it’s one white mana to make a token who’s doing the same thing. It’s put into play tapped and attacking, so you can’t get the Commander Mustard extra ping out of the attack, but this is an easy way to crank your Soldier count quickly. I’d be stocking up on the nonfoils here because of the percentages. I think the nonfoils are more likely to go up 300% ($2.50 to $7.50) than the foils ($9 to $27). If the card had any sort of reprint, I would feel differently, but here we are, nothing new since 2007.

Mobilization ($1 to $14) – This is a bit trickier, because there’s Onslaught, Tenth, and a Commander 2014 printing putting a lot of copies out there in nonfoil. Tenth foils are a good median price, but personally, I can’t resist old border foils from Onslaught. 

Thousand Moons Smithy ($1 to $2) – You might not have noticed, but this makes beefy Golem Soldier tokens, and you’ll have the spare creatures to make this flip into the land. I don’t think it’ll go up too much, being brand-new and very available, but it should be in just about every Soldier deck.

And They Shall Know No Fear ($10 to $17) – Finally, one of the best typal protection spells around. Two mana to be good with any deck that focuses on one creature type, and we’ve seen Surge foils from this set go to some crazy prices indeed. I think I’d go for the surge foils here, hoping for the big score to $40 or $50.

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 are slowly finding out about the contents of Ravnica: Clue Edition (Or Cluedo, if you’re international) and it turns out that this product is not just a reskin of the original board game, but more like a special auxiliary set for Magic. It’ll function a lot like Jumpstart, with premade boosters ready to be shuffled together, and a common pool of Evidence to be used in the game as well.

Jumpstart is a product that’s being phased out, thankfully, because while the concept is neat it contains mechanically new cards and sought-after reprints. Sounds like a great mix, but because it sells in such low quantities, the Jumpstart-only cards occasionally get expensive.

The biggest problem is, we’re getting these mechanically unique cards in a box that’s preselling for $70 on Amazon. We’ve seen examples

of this before, and now Wizards is out there all over again, making the same mistake twice.

The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.

To learn how ProTrader can benefit YOU, click here to watch our short video.

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

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.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan set has been out for a couple of weeks now, and there’s some really interesting things happening with the prices. Specifically, there’s some ears we need to talk about, why they are too low or too high.

Part of this discussion is knowing that these cards are going to be Standard legal until the big fall set of 2026. Three full years! We’re going to have a very long time for things to get cheap and then to get expensive again. I don’t think every card will get expensive, to be clear, but some of these have a very good chance to become pricey.

To the cards!

The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.

To learn how ProTrader can benefit YOU, click here to watch our short video.

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

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.