How to Price Non-Playable Magic Cards
Non-tournament legal Magic cards have existed for a while now, first debuting (in a mainline product) with the 1998 release of
Fast forward to 2024, and Magic continues to experiment with the illegal design space. We’ve had two more full silver-border releases (
Outside of these Un-sets, however, Magic has also been slowly releasing illegal designs in other ways, most notably through
So, with all of these non-tournament legal cards floating around Magic’s marketplace, how should we go about trying to understand their prices? The obvious question of “how good is this card” doesn’t really apply here, so what other questions should we be asking?
How Fun?
First off, it’s important to understand the audience for these cards: casual players. As such, the principal value at hand isn’t “how strong,” but rather “how fun.” Players won’t be competing with these cards; they’ll likely be cubing with them or jamming them in Commander decks. This is a weak card’s time to shine, and an absurdly powerful card’s time to be put away.
The question of fun is of course terribly subjective, but there are some key design flags we can look for in our evaluation of a card’s enjoyability. Among them is the oppressiveness of a card.
What I mean by oppressiveness is a card’s propensity to shut off opponents. In classic Magic, these are stax pieces like
Gotcha reads as “Whenever [event] happens, you may say ‘Gotcha!’ If you do, return [CARDNAME] from your graveyard to your hand.” At face value, this isn’t a terribly problematic mechanic. The issue, however, is that it disincentives players from taking actions (or, in some cases, simply speaking) so as to avoid triggering the ability. This is a social dilemma which casual eagerly avoids, and as such makes otherwise innocuous cards oppressive.
Oppressive cards in legal, competitive Magic have an audience - they have archetypes and the backing of a competitive subculture. Sometimes they’re simply optimal to play, and that drives their price. None of this is true of illegal, casual cards, and as such this quality is often a firm detriment to their price tags.
On the flip side, a positive quality for fun cards is randomness. Coin flips, dice rolls, all things of that sort. Why? Because casual Magic is based around spectacle, and the best spectacles usually involve an element of surprise. Think of rolling a 20 in Dungeons and Dragons, getting a critical hit in Pokémon, or topdecking the perfect card in a game of Magic. Experiences like these are sought after, and by including cards with a randomness element players are more likely to see these moments pop up in their games.
This design philosophy is something which legal Magic has been experimenting with more and more in recent time – first with coin flips as early as
How Unique?
The second question to ask when evaluating the price of an illegal card is “how unique is this effect, in comparison to legal Magic cards.”
In casual Magic, where the rules on card inclusion are flexible, players settle in to create their own play experiences based on an individual goal. This means that, when card curation is effect-focused, the barrier to play posed by a card’s illegality begins to fall away. For example, there’s no other card that does quite what
How unique a card is usually flows into how fun it is, but this isn’t always the case. Cards can be totally unique and completely oppressive (I’m looking at you, Spell Counter), or a dime a dozen but fun nonetheless. So, it’s important not to mistake one for the other. What’s key about uniqueness, however, is that it funnels demand.
When cards have alternatives with similar effects, that means players can put their money elsewhere. That’s just basic economics. Fortunately for illegal cards, most of these are unique simply because of the design space in which they occupy. The only question is - how unique?
How Workable?
Finally, we come to the most speculative question, “how workable is this design.” This is an important question to consider because it hints at whether or not alternatives will be printed in the future, as well as how willing casual, but nonetheless silver-border skeptical, players will be to engage with it.
The first card that comes to mind here is
Well, I’m here to tell you that nearly a decade later, The Cheese Stands Alone was functionally reprinted as
This point is even more important to think about given the Commander Rules Committee’s recent project of classifying silver border cards based on their understanding of workability (which you can read more about here) so as to guide player use of illegal cards where warranted. With workability now at the front of public discussion, odds are more players are going to be thinking about how to incorporate illegal designs, not just if.
Wrap Up
While the future of Un-sets may still be up in the air, two things are certain. Wizards will keep making non-tournament-legal designs, and players will keep on enjoying them. So, don’t ignore them when you watch the market – you never know which illegal card might be a casual all star.
Further Reading:
Harvey McGuinness is a student at Johns Hopkins University who has been playing Magic since the release of Return to Ravnica. After spending a few years in the Legacy arena bouncing between Miracles and other blue-white control shells, he now spends his time enjoying Magic through CEDH games and understanding the finance perspective. He also writes for the Commander's Herald.
