MTG Commander Masters reprints: what are the most valuable cards?
MTG Commander Masters reprints are the key interest for the set. However, which ones are at the top of buyer’s want lists and which one could you resell for a pretty penny?
Commander Masters is a set capitalizing on the most popular MTG format on the market. Commander is a version of the game known for absurd levels of power and infinite combos. Almost every card ever printed in Magic’s history, save for a select few banned cards, are available to players to build with.
This is also what makes the format pretty expensive to get into. Many of the most powerful cards can be from years, even decades ago. When you need to build a deck with 100 cards in it too, the prices of decks can balloon into the hundreds, potentially even thousands of dollars.
That’s why many will be hoping the cards they’ve always wanted will be coming in the Commander Masters set, which is all about bringing some of the best cards in the format to a 2023 audience.
However, if you’re planning to buy some of the boosters, what cards should you be looking out for, or conversely, which cards might have their single value hit most thanks to the reprints? Here’s a list of the most valuable Commander Masters reprints.
(It’s worth keeping in mind, these prices are from other prints of cards before Commander Masters launched. Expect these to fluctuate a lot as the set arrives.)
Capture of Jingzhou
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $99.99
Capture of Jingzhou is a card from a bygone age. As it turns out, taking another turn after your current one is exceptionally powerful. In fact, it’s basically broken. That’s why Wizards has generally steered away from it in modern sets.
However, Capture of Jingzhou allows you to take another turn off the bat for three colorless and two blue. This works almost identically to Time Warp (Time Warp you can actually choose to give another player another turn if you want). That said, while Time Warp has been reprinted a bunch, this is the future major one for Capture of Jingzhou. Because the only cards were old, the original held great value, but even still, this will likely be one of the most sought-after cards in Commander Masters
Jeweled Lotus
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $69.99
Jeweled Lotus is just pure value. Like Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb in a commander deck, you can pretty much put it in any deck and it will make it better. In the majority of cases, Ramp and explosive plays out of nowhere are good. Being able to cast your commander when you are three mana off for free is pretty much excellent for any deck.
Also like Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb, that uniformity value means that these cards are very expensive. That’s why it’s great to see a reprint, both offering it as a chance for buyers of Commanders Masters, but also hopefully, in bringing the price down on the singles market ever so slightly.
Doubling Season
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $69.99
Tokens are a very prevailant strategy in Commander. This can be in the form of creating token creatures, but also on Treasure tokens. If you’ve played a game of Commander recently, it’s exceptionally likely someone on the table is dabbling in the mana generators.
On top of that, it doubles counters, across all sorts of cards. Perhaps most potently, Planeswalkers enter the battlefield with double the loyalty counters too. This means that for many Planeswalkers, you can unleash their powerful final ability the turn you play it. That often can be game-winning. Doubling Season is just excellent in so many decks.
The Great Henge
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $49.99
The Great Henge has become a staple of green since it was introduced in Thrones of Eldraine. It doesn’t matter what deck you are running, but if you are heavily in Green, this card just offers so much value. It’s expensive, but in green, with Ramp, it’s not rare to be able to cast it.
If it gets out, the advantage it will offer you is off the charts. It makes things better, gives you card draw, and usually makes expensive cards very cheap to cast. If you keep drawing creatures as you play new ones, you can chain a lot out as most will end up costing close to nothing. Even if you aren’t hugely creature heavy, the card just offers value across the board and eventually will often grind out wins in most circumstances.
Fierce Guardianship
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $49.99
Fierce Guardianship is a broken card in Commander. It allows you to counter a non-creature spell for free, as long as you have your Commander on the field. This is a ludicrously easy condition, for something that can utterly destroy another player.
The real reason it is so powerful is because it’s so hard to predict. Anyone in Blue could have this in their hand at any given time. With a normal counter spell, you can see if a player has left mana open and play around it. Here, your opponent can be tapped out on lands and still counter your game-winning play.
Personal Tutor
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $49.99
Tutors, no matter what color, are very powerful. Getting the exact card you need for the next turn more or less guaranteed can be a godsend. Personal Tutor might be one of the very best though.
For a measly one blue mana, you get to dip into your deck and pull out any sorcery ready to go off the top of your deck. Blue is not short of amazing sorceries, but if you’re running multiple colors, the possibilities only grow.
The Ur-Dragon
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $59.99
The Ur-Dragon is the Dragon Commander. While there are countless great legendary dragons, the Ur-Dragon undoubtedly has the best typal synergy. While there are lots of others you may want to run as your commander, if you want to run a bunch of cool dragons, Ur-Dragon is king.
It’s only been printed a handful of times, driving its price up. But let’s be real, its price is also high because running a big dragon who commands a big dragon army is just pretty great.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $39.99
There are few keywords more powerful than Indestructable. Cards that have it are a nightmare to remove, generally only susceptible to enchantment removal and exile affects. If your opponent has one creature with the keyword, you can usually find some workaround in your deck.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope makes that a nightmare as now all of your permanents (that includes artifacts, enchantments and lands, not just creatures) become indestructible. It takes a very specific deck to be able to answer that much protection.
Deflecting Swat
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $39.99
Like Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat is so powerful because you can’t predict it reliably. It’s free to cast if you have your Commander on the field. Anything free in Magic is great value, and that’s especially true for such a powerful effect.
With Deflecting Swat, you can redirect a removal spell at another target, meaning that not only is your biggest threat saved, but you can also take out another opponent. Making this even better, it’s not just just spells. This can go for abilities too, meaning enchantments, artifacts and creature abilities also get redirected.
Finale of Devastation
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $33.99
Finale of Devastation is well named. That’s because, in many cases, it’s going to be the last card played in a game. If you have access to 12 mana, which is not terribly rare in a green deck late in the game, you can decimate your opponents.
Not only do you get to find the biggest creature, be they dead or in your library, they will get at least 10 extra power, alongside all of your creatures, and be able to attack immediately. Even with four or five creatures, that’s devastating. If your board is wide, it’s pretty much game over.
Demonic Tutor
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $33.99
Demonic Tutor is one of the most consistently powerful Black cards in all of Magic. Being able to draw the best card in your deck for the right situation is obviously very powerful. Doing it for just two mana is absurd.
It’s sorcery speed, so you can’t pull a removal on an opponent’s turn, but when it comes to you, if you have the mana, you can get out of any bind with this card.
Cyclonic Rift
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $32.99
Cyclonic Rift is one of the most feared cards in all of Commander. If anyone on the table is running Blue, they will fear the potential of one of the wildest removal cards in all of Magic. If a player has access to seven mana, at instant speed you can wipe out all of cards on the battlefield from every other player.
In Commander that is absurd. Leaving you at full force and your opponents at zero, especially if you play right before it is your turn is wild. While it’s only a temporary solution as the cards go into your opponent’s hands, it will take other players a while to rebuild their board state, allowing you to fly ahead.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $32.99
When you talk about a card being ‘oppressive’, it’s harder to think of a better representative than Ulamog, the Ceasless Hunger. As soon as he comes onto the field, he will become the ire of the entire table. At 10/10 and indestructible, he’s already plenty big, but that’s probably the least scary thing about him.
As soon as he gets onto the field, he exiles the two biggest threats on the board. However, once he starts swinging, your opponent’s decks, including their answers to Ulamog, will begin to vanish. It’s also very hard to remove him. Once he hits, every player will feel it, and the game gets a very definite timeline to the end of the game.
Archfiend of Despair
Current Prive (via Card Kingdom): $32.99
Archfiend of Despair is getting his first reprint in Commander Masters. However, that’s not the only reason his price is so high. He is also a scary card that will start to bleed your opponents quickly.
Not only does he stop your opponents from gaining life, but he allows you to mirror damage across the board. Feel free to lay into one player guilt-free, because really, you are laying into all of them.
Land Tax
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $29.99
Land Tax is a staple of White Commander decks, especially those running mono-white. It’s one of the most powerful of the limited options for ramp in White, as it allows you to catch up to your opponents who might be running colors more attuned with putting out lots of lands.
The card has seen its share of reprints, but its utility to mono-white Commanders is always useful, so it’s always held a reasonable price.
Medallions
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $11.99 – $29.99
Every Medalion is getting a reprint in Commander Masters, so let’s just lump them all together. These cards make it so spells of a certain color cost one colorless mana less. While not quite ramp, it helps your economy immensely. They are all very useful, especially if you end up playing multiple cards every turn, getting a discount on each.
These are especially great in single or two-color decks, where you can get huge value the longer the game goes on. You probably don’t want to run this in your five-color decks, but if you’ve been eyeing that mono-black commander, these are a welcome reprint.
Deadly Rollick
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $24.99
Deadly Rollick is just hands down an exceptional card in Commander. Removal is very important in the format and this lets you do it for next to nothing. All you need is to have your Commander on the field and you can cast this instantly, for free.
That means you can just delete a creature your opponent controls even if you’re tapped out of mana. What’s more, it’s an exile effect, meaning your opponent can’t even reannimate it. It’s just very good.
Spellseeker
Current Price (via Card Kingdom): $23.99
Spellseeker is a bit like Personal Tutor, with a little more utility for a little more cost. When you play it, you are able to go into your deck and find an Instant or Sorcery with a converted mana cost of two or less and put it into your hand.
While Personal Tutor is only one mana and Spellseeker is two colorless and a blue, Spellseeker offers more. For one, it’s a creature, so it’s a body on the board. Plus, you can find Instants as opposed to just Sorceries. On top of that, because it is a permanent, you can bounce or flicker the card getting endless value from it. If built around, it can be very powerful.
