Five Year Plan
Magic Foundations reintroduces the Core Set experience, bringing back the feel of a classic yearly release to the game. Traditionally, Core Sets launched each summer to help new players catch up with the game’s mechanics and themes. Foundations, however, takes a different approach, designed as a baseline product for beginners with a five-year shelf life.
Since these cards will remain part of the Standard rotation until 2029, players are raising questions about their potential financial value - chiefly, “How long will these cards remain in print?”
The print strategy, whether these cards are printed on demand or not, will determine the price trends of many cards while the set remains legal. With the game’s ever-changing metagame soon to align with the calendar year, card values will fluctuate as they fall in and out of favor. Although Foundations offers a consistent source of playable cards, its print approach will either saturate the market or create scarcity, affecting the availability of these staples.
Jump Starts at $10
Alongside the main set release, Jumpstart also makes a return in Foundations Jumpstart, featuring over 779 cards to mull over. Notably, each Jumpstart pack includes at least one Anime-style art, a new treatment that spans 51 different cards. Out of these, 27 are unique to this release, making them exclusive to this edition. While Anime art may not appeal to everybody, there is precedent for increased prices on Jumpstart legendary creatures.
Previously, many Jumpstart legends have settled around the $10 mark from release onwards. This was primarily due to the limited amount of copies hitting the market, as opening Jumpstart packs isn’t usually a popular choice for the average player. Exceptions exist, of course, as certain mythics excelled in value - Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm and Bruvac the Grandiloquent are prime examples. While the new Jumpstart set doesn’t have a shortage of mythics, only Thurid, Mare of Destiny (Anime) stands out as particularly unique enough that it may see a significant price rise.
The Setup
Foundations features a roughly even split between reprints and new cards. Among the familiar reprints, many miscellaneous staples have been included to support a wide range of decks. Starting strong with Doubling Season, a versatile choice for any token or counter-duplication strategy. This marks the card’s third reprint in the last two years, which might just offer the addition to finally bring its price under $30 for good. Alternatively, the price may surge again, as Doubling Season will now be playable in Standard for the first time since 4653.
Another notable reprint with broad applications is Omniscience, currently experiencing a price resurgence. Magic 2013 (M13) copies recently spiked by 50%, from an average of $8 to $12. Many players speculate that the next five years of Standard could be ruled around how easily Omniscience can be cheated into play and what the payoffs would be for doing so. Given its fringe play in Modern, Pioneer, and Legacy, it may be worthwhile to consider picking up additional copies.
Finally, Liliana, Dreadhorde General shows potential for price growth. The walker offers four relevant abilities and was previously a staple in Standard, often as a two-part inclusion in both Grixis and Esper control archetypes. While it’s unlikely to reach its all-time high again, with a bit of luck, it could achieve a stable value above $15.
The Punchline
Turning to the hot new cards to watch, let’s start strong with Bloodthirsty Conqueror. This decently statted, evasive creature comes with a powerful ability to back it up. The Exquisite Blood stapled onto a 5/5 with flying is enough to match up the price of the enchantment, but there’s even more potential for growth. Bloodthirsty Conqueror serves as a top-end finisher for any black midrange deck in Standard. Additionally, it's a Vampire, which will be more relevant in January with the release of Innistrad Remastered. With the reprint of Edgar Markov, the demand for Vampire staples is bound to rise, making Bloodthirsty Conqueror as close to a staple as it gets for Vampire-focused decks.
Next is Banner of Kinship, a “fixed” version of Coat of Arms. While this artifact is somewhat pricey to cast, it’s clearly aimed at formats outside of Standard, with EDH being its ideal home. Countless EDH decks will look to include this, regardless of the counter interactions. Thematically, it echoes Three Tree City from Bloomburrow, which is hovering around $20. Mechanically, both cards reward kindred investment, however, Banner of Kinship only requires a high creature count at one point. At its current market price of $3.80, there’s definitely room to improve here, especially if Foundations print runs release are managed over the next five years. Given its versatility in kindred decks, Banner of Kinship has a strong potential for long-term price inflation.
Finally, there’s my pet card pick: Blasphemous Edict, a card I’d love to see succeed. With its flexible cost as well as the uniform effect on all players involved, the new edict could become a staple. The playability in Standard as a pseudo black wrath effect might be a little far fetched, but I recall when Blasphemous Act was played in EDH as a precautionary measure. Of course, board wipes options have expanded since then, but I’m looking to pick up copies for anything under $5 during the initial release period. In the long term, I’m hopeful it can reach the $10-15 range before flipping.
Fractured and Listed
A few special cards to consider are the additions from the Special Guest list and those chosen for the Fractured Foils. Specifically, Grim Tutor (Showcase) and Embercleave (Showcase) stand out as excellent inclusions. Both have relatively limited market supply due to sparse reprints. Their inclusion here could project decreases of $2-3 over the next three months.
The Fractured Foils are the latest of the same treatment previously introduced in Duskmourn: House of Horror. While the art is certainly flashy, the price points tend to be largely inflated. Observing patterns from previous two sets, prices typically peak around release and then steadily decrease over time. However, if I were to pick favorites with the highest earning potential, they would be Doubling Season (Showcase) (Fracture Foil) and Muldrotha, the Gravetide (Showcase) (Fracture Foil). The former, a widely popular enchantment, now features a cuteness factor of cats attached, while the latter remains the most popular Sultai Commander according to EDHREC (Thank you Jason + Team!).
Magic IP
Magic Foundations marks a new direction for the game, providing a solid baseline that will support and serve as a benchmark for other releases over the next five years. The card selection is pretty decent, though the financial impact will be determined based on the frequency and printing type of the set. Overall, I feel like we’re heading in the right direction with the design and card quality.
However, the release of Foundations is accompanied by other changes in the game, including shifts in immersion and the new business model of Standard. These changes have somewhat muddied the waters regarding the set's overall appeal. I'm curious to see how card prices in Foundations will evolve, and remain cautiously optimistic about what lies ahead.
Join me next time for a retrospective look at 2024!
Further Reading:
Cards to Pick Up to Prepare for Magic in 2025
