Magic: The Gathering’s next set, Secrets of Strixhaven, is building up some steam ahead of launch, with the Commander decklists being revealed in the last few days (including our own exclusive: the math-heavy green-blue precon Quandrix Unlimited).
After just a single precon for the Universes Beyond: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, Strixhaven has five for the first time since last year’s (excellent) Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and they’re absolutely packed with powerful reprints.
As shared in the mtgfinance subreddit, these decks have between five and thirteen cards each worth more than $5, while all except Quandrix Unlimited have cards worth over $15.
Witherbloom Pestilence comes bottom of the list for the volume of pricier cards, but it’s still packing the $15 and up Gyome, Master Chef, while Quandrix Unlimited lacks a big, flashy card but still has seven cards worth $5 or more.
Prismari Artistry includes reprints like Harmonic Prodigy, Thunderclap Drake, and the much more expensive Faerie Mastermind, while Silverquill Influence has 13 cards worth more than $5, including the very pricey Land Tax.
And yet, it’s possibly Lorehold Spirit that takes the win here. It has 10 cards worth $5 or more, but four of them are worth more than $15. You’re essentially getting the value of the deck just from Wave of Reckoning, Bitterthorn, Currency Converter, and Emeria the Sky Ruin.
Why do I bring this up? Because I was pretty set on Silverquill Influence and Quandrix Unlimited for my deck, and I’m now considering buying all five so that I can accrue this list of fantastic cards for my collection to be able to use when brewing in the future.
In fact, despite the value of the reprints in here, I’m very surprised to see stores like Amazon still selling each for MSRP. I really don’t think that’ll last long, though, so I’m teetering on the edge of buying the big bundle of all five.
Are singles cheaper? Almost certainly (eventually), and these cards will drop in value as soon as they hit shelves, but for now, it’s a sort of ‘insta-collection’ that I’m already theorycrafting in my own decks.
Am I wrong? Let me know in the comments.
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