So much is going on, from cancelled Secret Lairs to Arena Direct and an overflow of turkey, but I think the time is right to take a step back and look at Final Fantasy cards, now that we’re a safe five months from its release. This set is a landmark, a turning point in terms of finance and attention, so let’s look at some cards and see where the value can be gained by buying in now.

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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.

Good grief, there’s yet another superdrop? And this one is an international sensation of IP, with giant fantasy monsters and the humans who stand up to them?

Why did it take so long?

Let’s talk about the Monster Hunter superdrop, the individual cards, and what’s worth braving the queue for.

All of the drops are at the $29.99 nonfoil/$39.99 rainbow foil, and there is some bundle pricing I’ll review in a moment, but it’s worth noting that the bundle prices have zero discount this time around. It’s been a while since they did that to us, but at least we get a sweet promo.

For each card in the drops, I’m listing the EDHREC number and the price ranges for the cheapest and most expensive versions. 

Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Hunt

Blind Obedience ($1-$30, 215k)

Snap ($2-$115, 272k)

Village Rites (25¢-$2, 320k)

Mizzium Mortars (50¢-$3, 48k)

Tooth and Nail ($1-$40, 46k)

There’s useful cards and not-useful cards, and we’ve had premium versions of most of these already. Solid choices, but nothing screaming at me in terms of the card choice. The art is another matter, as I’ll get to in a moment. 

Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Hunters

Grand Abolisher ($9-$30, 314k decks)

Archeomancer (50¢-$30, 119k)

Grim Haruspex ($1-$14, 114k)

Imperial Recruiter ($11-$120, 176k)

Champion of Lambholt ($2-$12, 200k)

Very good selection, and the first premium printing for several of these cards. Recruiter’s borderless foil from MH2 is a $20 card, in case you’re thinking that you’re about to get a three-figure version. Hate to disappoint, but that’s the Portal: Three Kingdoms version, and you’re out of luck. This is an excellent drop, between the cards, inclusion rate, and sweet versions already available. 

Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Monsters

Nezahal, Primal Tide ($7-$30, 116k decks)

Drakuseth, Maw of Flames (50¢-$20, 110k)

Ziatora, the Incinerator (50¢-$30, 45k)

Vaevictus Asmati, the Dire ($1-$15, 13k)

Sarulf, Realm Eater (25¢-$1, 6k)

The Dinosaur already has a Secret Lair version, but it’s the ‘relief coin’ version. This set of monsters is mostly under-used and lacking in special versions, so this has potential to go very well. Drakuseth in particular looks like a banger of a card, but with all the Dragon options, we tend to look for value in enters triggers, not attack triggers, and we often take Drakuseth out of decks. 

Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Monsters II

Razaketh, the Foulblooded ($8-$54, 70k decks)

Kalamax, the Stormsire (50¢-$5, 5k)

Wasitora, Nekoru Queen (50¢-$4, 9k)

Amareth, the Lustrous (50¢-$3, 7k)

I’m pretty low on this set of cards. Three of these are already cheap and used very little, and while this is a really cool version of Razaketh, the value isn’t really there for me. I don’t want to get this drop, except for the ways I’m about to describe.

This drop has some additional wrinkles worth addressing. First of all, there are English and Japanese versions of each card and bundle. English is likely to be the more expensive version, and given how TCG handles the languages in their searches, Japanese copies will take longer to reach the value you want them to get to.

Also, bundles come with an awesome Sol Ring promo, always a rainbow foil, and in the language of the bundle you order. If you order the biggest bundle, you’ll get two of the Sol Rings.

Finally, there’s a Surge Foil version of each of the cards, but you can’t order those Lairs individually. Instead, you have to buy the bundle at $240 for English or Japanese. That’s $60 per lair, which is in line with a bonus foiling version. I expect the Sol Ring to be a popular card, much like the Final Fantasy Gilded Lotus was. 

While the cards aren’t big choices in terms of how many decks they are in, this set of art might be some of the best ever in terms of the characters depicted. It’s big fantasy monster art, in a borderless frame, and reflecting an incredibly popular game series. I’ve never played the series, and that’s okay. 

Monster Hunter has a great comparison with another profitable IP that you might or might not have known about: Hatsune Miku. The cards could be notably mid, and because of the art and IP, the demand should be good. We’re here to make money off of the game, not fixate on the things we know about. We know that there’s an enormous amount of players who have bought the game, or more than one game, and combined with some kickass art, I feel like this entire drop should do well. 

However, I also have to acknowledge that this is the fifth big drop in a seven-week period, and that’s on top of Avatar being released as a main set. From my article two weeks ago: “Secret Scare was on 10/13, Playstation was on 10/27, then the Encyclopedia boxes dropped on 11/3, and now Avatar has five drops coming on 11/17.” Add in Monster Hunter on 12/1 and we’ve got quite the raid on our wallets happening. 

We also have a very recent example of what happens when you give us special foils in a Drop: The Furby Confetti foils sold out after some of the other drops on 10/13, but they sold out way before the regular foils. 

My plan is to do what I can to get the surge foil drops. I’m going to skip the regular foil and nonfoil drops, but if I can get in the random queue and snag a couple of those bundles, that should resell nicely and quickly. Everything else can wait for Dump Week.

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.

It’s a time of madness, people, as Wizards assaults our wallets for the fourth big drop in a five-week span. Secret Scare was on 10/13, Playstation was on 10/27, then the Encyclopedia boxes dropped on 11/3, and now Avatar has five drops coming on 11/17. Between the problems people encounter on the website, and the powerful drain all this has on our wallets, you can be forgiven for thinking, “I don’t know if I want to buy this right now.”

I’m here to help, with a breakdown of the cards, their usage rates, and what’s worth it at MSRP and what’s worth waiting for Dump Week.

First of all, remember that these five Lairs are all at the $29.99 nonfoil/$39.99 rainbow foiling prices. I do think that eventually, all Lairs will be at that price point, but as long as we’re getting these, I hope it stays on the cheaper side, mostly. 

Please, as always, remember that EDHREC is useful but it’s not perfect. There’s an awful lot of people who never get around to posting a deck there, and it’s weighted towards cards that have been in precons. Useful data, but not the only information and definitely not without flaws.

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | My Cabbages!

Chain of Vapor (128k, MYB2 foil $100)

Meltdown (12k, MH2 foil $1)

Nature’s Claim (248k, FCA foil $1.50)

Anguished Unmaking (400k, raised foil $20, SLD foil $5)

Putrefy (238k, MPR nonfoil $6, STA foil $3)

These are hilarious art, and we know that memes have their own value with Commander players. The big unknown here is Chain of Vapor, as the only two foils are the hard-to-pull MYB version and the ‘never-any-around’ original pack foil. The other cards will be lucky to hit $5 here. I like the art, and the setup, but we have data to show that these four cards don’t have high-priced versions. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | Everything Changed

Torment of Hailfire (154k decks, SLD foil $37)

Blood Moon (94k, Borderless foils $15-30)

Lightning Bolt (392k, 12 different SLD plus other promos)

Dramatic Entrance (1k decks, pack foil $4)

One great, one pretty good, one super-common, and one no one cares about. The Torment will likely be in the $20-$25 range during Dump Week, and the others will be gettable for a lot less. We got a great version of Torment in the sAnS mErCy drop, but the trolling might have put some folks off. Blood Moon has lots of $10+ versions, and this should join that crew. This is the 13th Secret Lair printing of Bolt, making it third place behind Sol Ring (21) and Command Tower (17). Worth getting at retail.

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | A Lot to Learn

Serra Ascendant (116k, SLD foil $45)

Ponder (424k, lots from $8 to $18)

Cryptolith Rite (122k, borderless foil $5)

Kodama’s Reach (948k, borderless foil $3)

The big question here is if the Serra Ascendant can hold its price. The Secret Lair version that’s pushing $50 in foil is from 2022 and is a great piece of art. Aang is a great character, but there will absolutely be people who refuse to engage with the UB side of Magic. That’s the minority of people, and I won’t let them hold me back. The other three cards are good and used enough that they should be a few bucks each, but this is all about the Ascendant. It’s an echo of the pre-Commander days, never given errata, and the easiest path to becoming the archenemy as a turn one play. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | One with the Elements

Silence (211k, SLD foils $25-$70)

Preordain (337k, SLD foils $10-$25)

Painful Truths (78k, pack foil $2)

Past in Flames (85k, Spellbook foil $5)

Force of Vigor (108k, Raised foil $80)

Expressive Iteration (111k, SPG foil $11, Showdown foil $24)

Force of Vigor has the potential to be pricey here, given how the low-supply raised foil did, and this is a lot nicer to look at. The rest of these should be decent to good as well, even though there’s other special versions around. I think this will also be worth buying at retail. 

Secret Lair x Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Ember Island Players

Phantasmal Image (98k, SPG foil $27)

Braid of Fire (28k, SLD foil $25)

Cursed Mirror (205k, WHO Surge FEA $10)

Mask of Memory (106k, 40K Surge $4)

Thespian’s Stage (182k, SLD rainbow $8, Stellar foil $24)

Very solid choices, and one of the great episodes of the series. Blessed few Magic cards are funny, but this Phantasmal Image definitely is. We’re about to see a spike of decks that can make use of Braid of Fire, so there’s a lot of potential there as well. This should also prove to be worth getting at retail, as they need to average $8 to break even. 

Overall, three of these are likely worth it, and I’d expect either A Lot To Learn or Everything Changed to be the first ones to sell out, if even numbers of all Lairs were printed. The other two Lairs are going to take too long to rise in price, so I will avoid those for now. 

I don’t expect good bundle pricing, either, and I also expect that the networks of bots clogging the site early on will lead to most of these selling out relatively quickly. We’ve seen this pattern a few times now, and while we don’t know the relative quantities that were printed for each Lair, we do know what’s left on the site: 24 different lairs from Spider-Man, Secret Scare, and Playstation are still there as of today, 11/7. I can’t guarantee which get targeted and sold out first, but the Serra Ascendant, the Torment, and the Chain of Vapor are likely the cards that will lead to the most interest from people who want to resell immediately. 

When these Lairs arrive in hand, I’ll want to go after the following cards at the Dump Week lows: Preordain at less than $5, Cursed Mirror in the same range, and Torment of Hailfire in the $20 range, all three in foil. Dump Week is good for most cards that hit lows, but those three especially catch my eye for art, use pattern, and the number of other versions available. 

Join me next week for some math!

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.

We are in an unprecedented era when it comes to spending money on Magic, and next year will be even wilder. 

Seven sets planned for 2026, and that’s without the inevitable Secret Lair/Chaos Vault offerings that Wizards gives us. Right now, we’re in the middle of three superdrops within a month of each other: Secret Scare, Playstation, and Avatar: the Last Airbender. Things are wild and they are only going to get worse. 

I write about Magic finance, but really, my budget isn’t unlimited. I have to decide what to buy and what not to buy. I’m here to give you my general guide, and give some examples/counterexamples of why I’m following these guidelines. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of everything that’s done well, but instead is a set of rules that I follow when spending money on Magic cards that I plan to resell.

I also need to note that this doesn’t cover things I buy for myself, personally, or for my decks. I have a very pretty, maximum-foil Dragon deck, and I’ve paid early prices because I had to have that foil right now and I don’t feel bad. 

We can’t buy everything and frankly, we shouldn’t. Let’s go over what I am buying, and what I’m staying away from.

Things I do buy:

1. Reprints that make staples cheap 

Dump Week is a wonderful thing that’s happening in Magic finance right now. Basically, there’s a group of people who need to get as much as they can after paying retail for something, even if they end up with a small sliver of profit or even a loss. A great example of this is coming up with Demonic Tutor. Once the Secret Lair version is on TCGPlayer, there will be a short time where you can buy foils and nonfoils of the Kieran Yanner art for much less than they will eventually cost.

The risk here is repeated reprints. I picked up a lot of Aerith’s version of Heroic Intervention, just to see it show up again in Spider-Man AND Avatar. I bought Deadpool’s Blasphemous Act, only to see a new Secret Lair version shortly after. I’m not going to lose money on these long-term, but it’ll take a lot longer thanks to the reprints. Nothing I can do about this, either.

2. Cards that are good with upcoming Commanders/themes

I made a lot of money on some assorted Assassin specs when ACR was previewed, and I’ve already made good money on some Avatar-related ones like Earth Surge. More Allies are coming, and Earthbending especially offers a whole lot of chances for cards to spike. I’m also in on Corruption of Towashi, as a transform-related card for what’s coming up in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

The key with these specs is to make sure you sell into the hype, because if you wait, interest and prices cool off. A great example of this from my own experience is Widespread Brutality. I bought pack foils for $1, resold them at $5, but later found an extra dozen copies that didn’t stay with the group and are now back to under a buck.

3. Secret Lairs with proven staples

There’s a lot of money to be made if you can get specific Lairs at retail during the buying frenzy. I hate the queue, and that little walking jerk, but I can’t deny the money I make. I detail this in each of the ‘Are We Buying…’ articles I write before each Lair drops, and here’s the biggest thing to know: You need to sell ASAP.

The easiest way is eBay, but TCG will let some stores presell and there’s a few other presale sites too. The Lairs that sell out have a ton of FOMO and people are willing to pay a lot. Preselling can lock in some profits and give you a turnaround time of nearly zero, which is the best sort of profit by far. 

4. Cards underpriced due to circumstances

Sometimes, cards are cheap due to weird conditions or a lack of awareness. Jumpstart cards can be like this, but Commander bannings have me really really tempted. I’ve picked up a playset of foil borderless Jeweled Lotus not too long ago and I’m just waiting for them to be unbanned. I’m ready for when it does. I recognize how speculative this is, but I feel confident it’ll eventually get unbanned. 

What I don’t buy:

These are the categories of cards that I’m no longer buying. I’m not saying they can’t turn a profit, only that they are too likely to lose me money and I’d rather just stay away entirely.

1. Constructed cards. 

Not Standard, Modern, Legacy, nothing. Constructed isn’t moving the needle for the majority of cards, and those few where it does I’m at the mercy of the metagame (looking at you, Quantum Riddler) and hoping I’ll get there. Commander is just more certain, more predictable, and I much prefer to put money there than in the four-of formats. Note that I’m not saying I never spec on cards that are good in Constructed, I’m saying I never buy only because of that. The Spider-Man Ephemerate is a great example. Big in Commander, only special version, and it’s a bonus that it’s good in Modern.  

2. Anything that’s had a Commander deck reprint (It’ll get printed again)

This doesn’t include the new-to-Magic cards, as those can be worth a spec, but generally speaking, if a card’s been in a regular Commander deck, it’ll be there again. It’ll also have a chance to be part of a Surge foil or something like that, which will make other versions tank even farther. I’ve had some bad experiences here, and heaven willing, I’ll be able to avoid that issue again. 

3. Cards with huge amounts of stock already online

James and I often look up the quantity in stock for a card when we evaluate each others’ picks on MTG Fast Finance, and knowing the amount still available is a very useful data point. If there’s a large amount online, I often want to wait and let many of those copies get soaked up by early action before moving in on a card. I don’t want to be the only one with 400 of a card. I’d rather wait till 250-300 of those copies are gone, to show that there is a demand, and then I’ll be happy to buy in, even if the price has gone up. 

A card spiking brings people out of the woodwork to sell it, so bake that into your expectations. Copies will materialize when it gets pricey, and keeping your profits can be tricky. 

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.