It’s been out for a week, and this just in: Halo foils from MOM: Aftermath are good and rare and you should consider buying some before they get more expensive. These cards, in addition to being at least decent in Commander, are also Standard legal for the next two and a half years. If you’re thinking about Standard (or Modern/Pioneer) legality, you may want to consider some nonfoils instead, but Halo foils are my focus today.

I’ve got some examples of cards that have already skyrocketed, and some which are strong candidates to do the same. Let’s start off with a little math first: Halo foils are only in Collector Boosters and as I detailed two weeks ago, there’s specific odds for cards based on their rarity. Uncommons have a slot, but a particular Halo foil is 1 in 90 boosters. Rares are 180 packs to nab a specific card, and Mythics are twice as rare, needing 360 Collector Booster packs to get just one Halo Foil Sarkhan, Soul Aflame.

Also note that the planar frames get the Halo Foil treatment, but retro frame cards do not. Specifically, we need to keep this in mind for Karn, Legacy Reforged and Nissa, Resurgent Animist. Their rarest versions are the traditional foil retro frame, or the extended art foil, there’s no Halo to chase. 

So let’s get into an example, and some cards to watch.

Sarkhan, Soul Aflame was preselling under $20, and I knew I needed one. I thought I would wait, and get one cheaper. A week later, I’ve purchased a copy from a Protrader and paid a lot more:

TCG’s own graphs can’t keep up with a price tripling in a week. Right now, there’s nothing listed under $65 for this card, and if you bought your one copy early, I cannot recommend selling in hopes of buying back in. There doesn’t appear to be any huge inventory on the way, for all that vendors report sluggish sales there aren’t enough copies coming on the market and I don’t think you’ll have a chance to buy back in under $50.

Let’s keep in mind too that Halo foils appear instead of a traditional foil in 1 out of 6 packs. So the regular foil should be five times cheaper. If that ratio is off, we know that the casual fans, the Commander fans, the people like me who love shiny things, especially swirling and rare shiny things, we’re buying up these premium copies at a faster rate and driving the price up.

Other Halo Foils to watch:

Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep ($40) – I maintain that this is an amazing commander for the KLOS tribe, but as yet, she’s overshadowed. Even with this as a less popular card, and not being built on EDHREC, the NM Halo foils are almost exactly 5x the traditional planar foil price, meaning that there’s enough people out there, and the supply so small, that copies haven’t gotten surprisingly cheap.

We’ll see if there’s a rise in other KLOS cards to go along with her price over time.

Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin ($45) – Another card out of line with regular pricing, the traditional planar frame foil is $18, which is about a third the Halo price. So either the cheaper ones are overpriced, or the Halo is underpriced. I think it’s the latter, and not just because this is ‘I win’ with All Will Be One. 

This version of Ob Nixilis has a lot of cool interactions, and I’m looking forward to seeing what sorts of wild things happen with a deck built around those interactions. Yes, he’s competing with Prosper, Tome-Bound, one of the most popular commanders of all time, but Prosper is a value engine. Ob Nixilis wants to do a lot of little things quickly.

Training Grounds ($24) – This was an odd inclusion in the set, but as a rare in this under-opened set, it’s managed to have Halo foil versions available for roughly $4 more than original Rise of the Eldrazi nonfoils, and just over half the price of the Judge foils! This is undervalued, and those of you who get copies cheap can thank me later. It’s only in 28k decks in EDHREC’s database, but I suspect that’s due to low supply for so long. 

Arni Metalbrow ($6) – What I love about this card is that it works with tokens. There’s no shortage of abilities that create token copies of a creature, often ones that get exiled at the end of turn. For just two more mana, though, you get to put something into play that’s tapped, attacking, and stays in play!

Again, the interactions are in your favor, as is the open-ended nature of the card. Everything that makes a token copy is a wonderful addition with Arni around.

Nahiri’s Resolve ($8) – We like flickering! Teleportation Circle has made it to $7 as one of the most popular cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Resolve is two colors, which is clearly a drawback in Commander, but still it’s something you can work with. We want our haste enablers to be cheaper, allowing for ‘play giant baddie and attack right away’ themes, but the sneaky thing here is that you can use tap abilities twice with this enchantment. Here’s a freebie for you: combine with Furystoke Giant and have a good time.

Spark Rupture ($5) – Not as good as Elderspell, for the most part, but a powerful answer to a problematic card type. Planeswalkers are inherently value engines, designed to be valuable and worth protecting. This is an enchantment, which is hard to deal with but not impossible. Remember that you can’t use a planeswalker’s ability to deal with this enchantment, but most superfriends decks will have tools for this and The Immortal Sun types of cards. 

Jirina, Dauntless General ($8) – Humans are a powerful tribe, and for two mana, you get a graveyard nuke and an insurance policy. I flagged this one because the traditional foil is $2 and this Halo is $8, meaning that the Halo is a bit too cheap. Rectify that error and have copies in stock for when this goes up.

Coppercoat Vanguard ($6) – Cool art and a Human lord-style effect, I would be on board if you wanted to stock up on nonfoils as an attempt to load up on tournament-viable cards. The really good news is that while Human tribal decks want one for Commander and will make it Halo, the tournament players will want four matching nonfoils of this sweet frame-breaking art. Purchase accordingly. 

Markov Baron ($5) – Vampire lords are cards worth having for when the tribe gets attention again, and if you think we’re going to get an Edgar Markov reprint soon, this is a wonderful card to stock up on. Lords are good, cheap lords are better, and this one looks pretty cool to boot. I will not be surprised when this ends up a $10 card in a year.

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 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.

Last week, Wizards dropped a huge piece of news during the Pro Tour. They have decided to make Standard last three years instead of two. This is in direct contrast to what they did the last time they meddled with Standard, as detailed in their 2014 article Metamorphosis. Back then, the idea was to make Standard just 18 months, and in addition, Standard would rotate with every new set.

That idea didn’t last too long. Player outcry over the whole thing led to changing that plan. They’ve left it alone until now, and three years means that things which were due to rotate are now being given an extra year.

So let’s look at some of the big winners, and where the prices might end up going.

Before I get into this list, James and I talked on MTG Fast Finance about the very real possibility of there being a new round of Challenger decks, stuffed full of reprints and value. Three years is a long time, and having access to a potential reprint outlet like this is useful. We could also get Aftermath-style mini-sets, or more bonus sheets. Something is going to happen to allow Wizards to make money on this decision, and for all of these, there’s an implied risk of reprints.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker ($28 for the cheapest copies, $51 for the priciest ones) – Fable was all over the place in the PT, and it’s all over the Constructed scene. It was very cheap at first and is now impressively expensive for a rare that now has 16 months to get even more expensive. It’s a staple in several formats, casual and Professional alike, and the only thing stopping me from running out and buying every copy I can under $30 is the nagging fear of banning.

Fable isn’t overpowered for any one strategy, but it’s effective in almost all of them. Reanimator, control, midrange, even some aggro decks play a couple of copies. It’s glue that holds lots and lots of strategies together, and adds amazing consistency to the whole range. I can’t bet against its banning, given how it was a four-of for five of the top 8 decks at the Pro Tour. 

If you’re comfortable with the risk, Fable is going to go up over the next year unless more copies enter the market.

Reckoner Bankbuster ($4 to $9) – Fable is good, but an enormous number of decks want to run a Bankbuster too, mainly as a way to turn excess mana into extra cards. Bankbuster is worth it in a range of strategies and being an artifact, can go into any deck regardless of color. I’m not expecting huge gains here, but it’s in a whole lot of decks, is good early and late, and should be pushing $10 if not reprinted and the usage stays high.

Invoke Despair ($0.50 to $3) – The Invoke spells, with four colored mana pips, are meant to be a heavy tax, and they truly are. Unless, of course, you’re in an environment with cycling tri-lands, painlands, and slow-lands, plus Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to smooth out the rough edges…then it’s a lot easier to cast this spell.

Despair looked amazing on camera at the Pro Tour, and is one of the wonderful ways to even out a board where your opponent landed a Wedding Invitation, The Wandering Emperor, a Samurai token, and a Bankbuster. Alongside targeted removal, this does impressive work and if you can get a big brick of the promo versions for under a buck, I think you’ll have a chance to sell them to a buylist for $2 or $3 per copy. The regular copies are at $1.50, and I think there’s potential there too, but for a card like this, I’d much prefer a cheaper buy-in.

Unlicensed Hearse ($10 to $15) – This sees play in lots of formats, and is a great counter to assorted reanimation strategies while building up a late-game threat. Everything to love here, but the price might already be too high to allow big growth. 

Cut Down ($0.50 to $1.00) – On TCGPlayer, there’s several big walls of this near fifty cents, and given the efficient nature of the spell, and the super-wide range of things it kills, I can see this being another good buylist target. Keep in mind that there’s a promo version floating around for $1.50 or more for nonfoils, and that’s got the potential to stop the growth.

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire ($6 to $20) – Takenuma was less than half this price at one point, and with another year of growth to come, it’s got potential to hit $10 or $12. It’s rarely played as more than a one-of, but it’s a free way for black decks to add value to the lands. Commander decks do much the same thing, and the drain of 100-card formats is probably going to contribute to its growth.

Innistrad and New Capenna lands (wide range) – Both the tri-lands and the slowlands were due to rotate this fall. These are efficient, effective, and perfect for what they do. These lands are the harbinger for telling us if Standard is really back for paper play. These were due to rotate in the fall, and now are good till late 2024. That’s a long time for people to buy playsets of Haunted Ridge or Ziatora’s Proving Ground, or some other color combination. Mana is about to be very good for Standard, and these lands should all show a minor-to-major bump.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse ($70 to $130) – Let’s end this list with two cards that are going to rotate in late 2025. This version of Sheoldred is enormously popular, as it takes a thing we all love doing, a thing that we’ve been trained to recognize as pretty much the best thing we could be doing, and making it into a liability for our opponents. That’s a pretty amazing thing to accomplish, and for only four mana!

Dominaria United came out in September of 2022, and in that time, this card has rocketed up and shows little sign of slowing down. Standard plus Commander demand is a great formula, and even the extra copies of concept art didn’t make a dent in prices. 

It’s been a long time since we had a $100 card in Standard, but it looks like we’re about to get there, considering that there’s still two whole years before rotation! Sheoldred needs a reprint, else it’ll be the poster child for a problematic Standard.

Chandra, Hope’s Beacon ($7 to $14) – Normally, I’m an advocate for waiting longer on cards before buying in, but this newest Chandra is already available pretty cheap for a mythic. It’s possible that the price dips down a buck or two in the next few months, but any Standard format where this card can kill two big threats and then next turn copy an Invoke Despair is going to make me take notice.

It’s hard for this card to be bad, and very very easy for it to be outstanding. Every instant or sorcery they print makes this card that much better, and it’s another card that has more than two years till it’s banned! Definitely one to watch and likely one to buy.

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 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.

You might not think a new set was out already, but here it is, an ‘epilogue’ set with no commons and full-priced boosters.

Let’s start with the big change: This is a very small set, not meant for drafting or Sealed or anything like that. There’s no commons! In other times, this might have been a bonus sheet, just like the Multiverse Legends sheet for March of the Machine.

So let’s get into what is what, and how rare is rare. Surprises ahead!

We’re given 15 uncommons, 25 rares, and 10 mythic rares. 

Each of those cards will have an Etched Foil version and a special frame. Most of the special frames reflect the planes involved, as they did with the Multiverse Legends set. The land of the set, Drannith Ruins, and the six cards that have a retro frame do not have Halo foil versions.

Three rarities, two frames, three foil treatments. They don’t always overlap, either. Etched foil has the matte frame we’re used to, plus we have Extended Art versions of all the rares and mythics in this set.

Plus, there’s two different boosters. Epilogue Boosters and Collector Boosters.

Epilogue Boosters are the more basic, and the cheaper ones.

We can calculate this pretty quickly, especially because Etched Foil and Halo Foil aren’t options for this booster.

One of the things we’re told in the Collecting article is that 1 in 6 Epilogue Boosters will have a rare or mythic rare. That’s outside what I’d expect, but a useful tidbit because now we know the relative proportions of rarities to each other in this set.

Hearken back to Algebra with me. We’re told that 5/6 boosters will have an uncommon in the slot. We also know that Wizards likes to distribute twice as many rares as mythic rares. Breaking that down, and with a little fractions, we can say that out of 18 random boosters, 15 will have an uncommon, 2 will have a rare, and one will contain a mythic rare.  With this in mind, here is the table for the distribution for the next to last slot, a regular frame, traditional foil of any rarity:

	Percent chance of opening any card of that rarity	How many of these will you get in a booster box of 24?	How many packs to open to get a specific card of that rarity?
Uncommon	83.1%	19.94 uncommons	18 packs
Rare	11.2%	2.68 rares	225 packs
Mythic Rare	5.6%	1.34 mythics	180 packs

Now you might be saying, “Wait a minute, rares are rarer than mythics?” and the answer appears to be yes. Rares are going to appear twice as often, but there’s only ten mythics to choose from. 

The final slot in this booster is a mix of everything in the Booster Fun frame. Which in this case is everything, both foil and nonfoil. With that many options, you can imagine your odds get more and more terrible. We know that they give us the 1 in 6 for rares and mythics. It’s an additional 1 in 6 to get a foil in this slot!

Booster Fun frame (planar, retro, borderless)	Percent chance for any card of that category	Percent chance for a specific card of that category	# of boosters to open one specific card from that category
Nonfoil Uncommon	69.3%	4.62%	21.6
Nonfoil Rare	9.26%	0.37%	269.97
Nonfoil Mythic Rare	4.63%	0.46%	215.98
Traditional Foil Uncommon	13.8%	0.92%	108.7
Traditional Foil Rare	1.85%	0.074%	1,351
Traditional Foil Mythic	0.925%	0.0925%	1,081

Again, for the Epilogue Boosters, the rarest rares are rarer than the rarest mythic rares. Wild, but normally there’s a higher proportion of rares to mythics. 

Let’s talk about Collector Boosters. 

The Traditional foil/regular frame slot is easy to figure out. There’s 25 rares and 10 mythics, and therefore the pool of potential pulls is 60 cards (2 of each rare, 1 of each mythic.) You’re at 1/30 to get the rare you want and 1/60 for the mythic you want.

Extended-Art is one more step. There’s an EA version for each rare and mythic. Then 1/3 of these boosters will have a foil in the slot. 

	Percent chance for any card of that category	Percent chance for a specific card of that category	# of boosters to open one specific card from that category
Nonfoil EA Rare	55.56%	2.22%	45
Nonfoil EA Mythic Rare	11.11%	1.11%	90
Foil EA Rare	27.7%	1.11%	45
Foil EA Mythic Rare	5.56%	0.56%	180

The Etched Foils are precisely the same as the Traditional Foil.  There’s 25 rares and 10 mythics, and therefore the pool of potential pulls is 60 cards (2 of each rare, 1 of each mythic.) You’re at 1/30 to get the rare you want and 1/60 for the mythic you want.

Then the last slot, where special Planar frames come into play, as well as Halo foil printings. They did a tricky thing here, as retro foils aren’t available in Halo. So while we have 25 rares and ten mythics in traditional foil, we also have 21 rares and 8 mythics in Halo foil. It’s a little odd, but here’s 

	Percent chance for any card of that category	Percent chance for a specific card of that category	# of boosters to open one specific card from that category
Traditional Foil Planar Frame Rare	69.4%	2.7%	36
Traditional Foil Planar Frame Mythic Rare	13.9%	1.39%	72
Halo Foil Planar Frame Rare	11.67%	0.55%	180
Halo Foil Planar Frame Mythic Rare	2.2%	0.27%	360

With all this said, let’s summarize with examples of each rarity and version.

Card/treatment/set	Approx. number of Epilogue Boosters needed to find one copy
Nonfoil Planar Frame Feast of the Restless Dead (Uncommon)	21.6
Nonfoil Planar Frame The Kenriths’ Royal Funeral (Rare)	269.97
Nonfoil Planar Frame Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep (Mythic Rare)	215.98
Card/treatment/set	Approx. number of Collector Boosters needed to find one copy
Nonfoil Extended Art Spark Rupture (Rare)	45
Nonfoil Extended Art Calix, Guided by Fate (Mythic Rare)	90
Foil EA Tranquil Frillback (Rare)	45
Foil EA Nahiri, Forged in Fury (Mythic Rare)	180
Etched Foil Rebuild the City (Rare)	30
Etched Foil Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin (Mythic Rare)	60
Traditional Foil Planar Frame Rocco, Street Chef (Rare)	36
Traditional Foil Planar Frame Mythic Rare	72
Halo Foil Planar Frame Sigarda, Font of Blessings (Rare)	180
Halo Foil Planar Frame Sarkhan, Soul Aflame (Mythic Rare)	360

I hope that these numbers help you figure out what purchases to make, and for how much. Stay tuned for more math with every set of packs.

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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 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.