In their never-ending quest to get all of our money, Wizards is giving us the next Countdown kits, this time with a Marvel theme.
We’re in the same general plan, with individually wrapped cards, and a chance for those cards to be either foil or surge foil. It’s a familiar playbook, since this is the third iteration, and the only one with a cohesive art theme. It’s also got cards that aren’t officially legal for several months, another new twist.
But is it worth buying? Let’s discuss.
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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.
I love when we get a theme that takes a current idea in Magic and rewards us for it. In Star Trek, we’ve already gotten two potential Commanders for decks built around making choices. They’ve settled on calling this a dilemma, which fits nicely into being a Starfleet Captain.
Both Seven of Nine and Captain Sisko reward you for facing dilemmas, and we’re likely to see more cards referencing this game mechanic. So let’s go over what we’ve got for such choices, as well as choosing some potential specs.
First, we need to review the rules for what is and is not a dilemma. Villainous Choice is not a dilemma, nor is it the act of choosing targets. Comet Storm isn’t a boatload of triggers.
Entwine does work! You choose both, but it’s still only one choice. “One or more” is one choice too, so you only get one trigger off of Cryptic Command. Spree is good for one choice too, even if you end up paying for more than one. There are several Alliance triggers that are modal, such as Gala Greeters, and that might be best.
There’s a couple hundred modal creatures, most of them with ETB. Lots of attack triggers, lots of damage triggers. I’ve got a list of creatures that have a useful trigger on combat and other such things, Sisko doesn’t even have to be in play yet. Upkeep trigger, play Sisko, you’ll still get the creatures at end step. Important note: If a dilemma triggers at end step, make sure to stack your triggers appropriately.
There’s 536 modal spells. Pick literally whatever you want, Jeska’s Will, Akroma’s Will, and Farewell are top-ranked on EDHREC but the world is your oyster. It’s all about what you like best.
The big draw to me is stuff that triggers for free at the beginning of combat. That way, you have a choice about what to play, if you want a dilemma payoff like Seven of Nine to be on the field when the dilemma happens. When you have creatures that enter play and give you a dilemma, you have to pay for one then the other. Same thing with attack triggers or damage triggers. I want dilemmas ready to go. Ergo, artifacts/enchantments which are already in play seem like the way to go.
Reprint risk is possible for these cards, we’ve got most of a bonus sheet left to go. Nothing’s set in stone, and I could easily see some sort of Black Market Connections reprint with Quark’s smiling face. (I appreciate the commercial focus of the Ferengi!)
Kimoyo Beads – UB reprints are super unlikely, so this is an excellent target for dilemmas, especially as it’s colorless and can go into any deck you want.
Umezawa’s Jitte – Just take a beat and imagine this with Seven of Nine in play. Every time you remove a counter, you draw a card. Lost Jitte works too.
Vision, Synthezoid Avenger – This triggers on each of your opponent’s spells, and as cool as it is, when you have to choose to phase him out then the fun ends till your turn. Pretty fun to have something that can only die to sorceries, and if they try it, you just cast a modal instant.
Black Market Connections – The gold standard for making good choices, remember that you only get one dilemma trigger even if you pick all three.
Felidar Retreat – The ‘Retreat to’ cycle is also Landfall-dilemma, but this is the best by far.
Glorious Sunrise – Four choices, all of them good depending on where you are in the game, and all the more awesome if the choice gives you a bonus.
SOLDIER Military Program – I picked the Surge foils of this on cast, as it’s cheap, not going to get reprinted, and is a steady stream of advantages.
Sylvan Scavenging – It’s an end step trigger, so be careful, but it’s another cheap way to get the good things constantly flowing.
Next, a list of creatures that don’t need to enter, attack, or deal damage to get a dilemma trigger:
Astarion, the Decadent – You don’t need to get the thirst trap art, but that’s the one more likely to pop.
Dreamshackle Geist – Free triggers plus easier attacks? Also a very political card at the table.
Glissa, Herald of Predation – Free combat triggers, all of them useful if not overpowered.
Kargan intimidator – The effects are mediocre, yes, but if you have the mana you can trigger three dilemmas a turn.
Koma, Cosmos Serpent – You have to sacrifice a serpent to get the dilemma, but if it’s worth it, you get a trigger on your opponents’ turn too.
Mister Hyde, Monster Within – Free upkeep trigger that likely draws you cards too.
Skinshifter – Like the Intimidator, you can pay the mana and get a dilemma. Limit is once per turn, but you can do this on every turn for many triggers.
The Fantastic Four – Yes, this needs to be in play and the requirement of four needs satisfaction, but this goes off a lot in a commander game.
Umaro, Raging Yeti – This is a case where a random decision is still a decision. Outlaws’ Merriment also applies, but Umaro has lots of fun modes. Don’t fear the discard trigger.
Vannifar, Evolved Enigma – The triggers at beginning of combat are super useful, don’t sleep on them.
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.
There’s about to be a whole lot going on in Magic, with the Star Trek preview incoming, but there’s even more on the horizon!
The calendar year has about ten weeks left, give or take, and we’ve got a lot of Secret Lair drops/releases happening before we turn the page to 2027.
Some of the details are confirmed, and some of the dates are a little hazy, but let’s get into what’s left on the schedule, including Monday’s release.
The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.
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.
Magic’s going through an expansion period, and the dovetailing of multiple factors all at once has led to a development that is exemplified by Collector Boosters: Magic has become both relatively cheap to play AND has never had more expensive cards.
I want to take a look at where prices are in general, where they could go, and what that means for how we get cards: Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, and Secret Lairs.
There’s a theme for recent decks (last couple of years) where most of a deck is pretty cheap, and then you’ll have 1-3 cards which are redonk powerhouses and you need four of these.
Examples from recent history include:
Badgermole Cub
Bristly Bill
Vivi Orniter
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Cavern of Souls
More words, all mythics, several banned. Sheoldred and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy were $100 cards in their Standard. The common point here is that if you look at Standard, it’s pretty cheap to build a deck until you get to the key/important/overpowered mythics, and that’s what gooses the prices up.
Modern and Legacy are pretty warped, and I’m leaving those out. (Modern is dominated by the Modern Horizons cards anyway). But Magic’s most popular format is Commander, and that is also getting cheaper…depending on what you’re playing.
If you have to maximize your Commander deck for peak efficiency, then yes, Commander is pretty pricey. You’ll need shocklands and fetches and duals, because you need everything untapped.
But if you’re willing to accept a turn slower, or even the chance of a turn slower, you can run cards like Canopy Vista, Deathcap Glade, or Sea of Clouds. The Triomes haven’t been reprinted, but there’s an ocean of cards for helping you with a three-to-five color manabase, if you’re willing to give up one mana (Cascading Cataracts) or entering tapped (Path of Ancestry).
There are absolutely some super-expensive cards that people build around and Wizards reprints at a glacial pace. And if you don’t want to pay for a Rhystic Study, then downgrade a little and play Mystic Remora, Insight, Insight Engine, Ghostly Pilferer, etc.
Commander is a game that doesn’t ask you to optimize, and has a whole level structure for the spectrum from ‘100 random cards’ to ‘100 shark teeth pointed at your groin’ so you can tell people what you’re doing at the beginning, when you first sit down to play.
On the opposite end, if you want to get fancy and be a total Smaug, hoarding the best of everything, then Commander is exactly your jam. I have a Dragon deck stacked with the best and shiniest that I can do, though I’ve had to make accommodations. I don’t want to pay for OG foil Onslaught fetches, so I got the ten fetches from ZNR in foil. Guru basics would be pretty radical, but for the memes I’ve got full-text lands.
Go for artist proofs, or textless foil Gaea’s Cradle, or Alpha Timetwister. Get as fancy as you want. Magic is one of the last bastions of playability over collectability, but you can be sure that there are top-level Commander decks and Cubes out there that are not skimping on anything to be both collectible and powerful.
The point here is that aside from certain staples, no one has to spend a ton on a deck. The cards that get pricey are the ones that make a splash immediately and combo off or represent an incredible boost in a deck’s power. Standard doesn’t need a set of fetches, and even if they reprinted them into Standard, there’s enough on the market that the price is still reasonable.
Shocklands are another great example of Wizards’ dedication to making staples cheap and at the same time, represents the excess someone can go to. Steam Vents, traditionally the most in-demand of the shocks, can be had for just over $10 per copy or $2700 for the cheapest serialized copy on TCGPlayer.
This gap in value, without sacrificing anything but being shiny and serialized, is completely due to Wizards making good cards in Play Boosters and then putting rare/pretty versions into Collector Boosters. No longer are players forced to go lurking through eBay for foreign foils, now we’re given a selection of treatments and Secret Lairs for our magpie selves.
And this is also why most Collector Booster boxes are rising in price: we’re attracting collectors from all over, a trend that started in Final Fantasy. We’re about to get all the Star Trek collectors with signature-playable chase versions of cards, which should make for another Universes Beyond set that brings in a lot of new interest and lots of liquid cash.
Play Boosters haven’t moved much in price, but Collector Boosters have all risen across the board. There’s even sales of the empty CB boxes, a thing I could not have fathomed but I imagine people are decorating with them or using them as backdrop for streaming. Something purely decorative and pretty.
We’re all chasing how Lord of the Rings’ Special Edition went to ridiculous heights, hitting $12,000 sales on TCGPlayer before coming back down to the current valuation of $6,000. Collector Booster boxes for Final Fantasy were under a grand at the start of the year and have climbed to $1,700 with clear eyes on passing two grand.
We haven’t seen that huge growth in other UB sets, but Hobbit is trying real hard, bobbing up to $900 and currently trending down to under $800, but with its cousin being the flagbearer there’s a lot of predictions about where it’ll end up.
I talked about this with James on MTG Fast Finance recently, and I fully believe that opening packs has never been more of a gamble. Every set, I break down the odds of opening every type of card you could want, and even the ‘good’ odds are more than 100 packs to open. Gleaming Splendor, one of the hottest cards from the set, is 90 Collector Booster packs to get a nonfoil book cover, 166 packs to open as a book cover foil, and 333 packs as a surge foil book cover. Just buy the singles you want! Opening packs is a losing proposition, even though it feels so so good.
Know what else feels good? Buying CBs for a good price, then waiting a year and selling them at amazing prices. Keep aware of the trends and stay strong.
Finally, I want to talk a little about Secret Lairs, Wizards’ golden goose. Every Secret Lair drop is ridiculously profitable for Wizards, even things like the Zeta drop which went badly. They have to pay for the art, and a little bit of graphic design, and then the print costs. That’s it, and that’s sold directly to us for $30/$40 or more. Margins through the roof, profit like never before, and now they are doing the hybrid of limited printing and print to demand by offering to let us buy it now and pay for it to arrive in a year.
That method has worked on the Miku decks, which are under $300, compared to the nearly $500 that Goblinstorm immediately got to. I maintain that the Zeta cards are ugly and should end up as the cheapest version of their cards, but the packs selling out in something like 45 minutes of available time means the reselling is fierce and profitable. If I’d known the print run was that small, I would have ignored the appearance and gone for all I could get.
We’re not going to see a decrease in Secret Lair printings. Ignore the ones you want to ignore, focus on value, but the FOMO on the sold-out offerings will power prices to the $100 range immediately. Print run is the big unknown, and will continue to be.
CBs and Secret Lairs are the main products we can make money on by being thoughtful, so stay tuned here and to the podcast for the best insights.
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.
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