Which Phyrexian Praetor Variants Should You Buy? Part One
Greetings, and thank you for popping by my first MTGStocks article. I appreciate it!
It can be difficult to sift through the amount of exciting card variants at our fingertips in Magic: the Gathering. Therefore, in this series I’m calling Variant Vault, I’ll be organizing these variants by price from most expensive to least expensive to determine which variant is best for you.
For the first article of the series, we’ll focus on the Phyrexian Praetors
The Lists
Since I’ve got my work cut out for me, I’ll dive right into my price findings. All prices used were gathered from MTGStocks price database as of 10/11/2023. The full list of all these variants by price can be found below.
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider Variant Prices (From Most to Least Expensive):
Showcase (58966) foil: 67.10
Prerelease (59666): 62.64
Promo Pack (60073) foil: 52.99
Promo Pack (60073) non-foil: 49.60
Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat (87644): 44.98
Standard (58965) foil: 43.71
Concept Preator (87643) foil: 42.95
Showcase (58966) non-foil: 40.43
Standard (58965) non-foil: 39.82
Concept Praetor (87643) non-foil: 36.66
Phyrexian Language (58968) foil: 32.23
Phyrexian Language (58968) non-foil: 24.56
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Variant Prices (From Most to Least Expensive):
Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat (88329): 165.96
Concept Preator (87645) foil: 160.00
Phyrexian Language (79082) foil: 105.65
Showcase (79084) foil: 95.93
Concept Praetor (87645) non-foil: 85.33
Prerelease (80329): 85.00
Standard (79933) foil: 83.47
Showcase Textured (79083) foil: 81.88
Promo Pack (83289) foil: 77.18
Showcase (79084): 73.08
Standard (79933) non-foil: 71.40
Promo Pack (83289): 69.69 (Through sheer willpower, I won’t make the joke)
Phyrexian Language (79082): 65.38
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines Variant Prices (From Most to Least Expensive):
Borderless (87615) foil: 68.82
Borderless Step-and-Compleat (87626): 61.62
Borderless (87615) non-foil: 48.18
Concept Praetor (87610) foil: 44.46
Phyrexian Language (87609) foil: 38.16
Oil Slick (87634): 37.76
Prerelease (89233): 34.91
Showcase (87608) foil: 31.01
Showcase Step-and-Compleat (87622): 30.24
Concept Praetor (87610) non-foil: 28.62
Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat (87620): 28.40
Standard (87607) foil: 21.99
Showcase (87608): 21.53
Promo Pack (91273) foil: 21.64
Phyrexian Language (87609): 20.61
Phyrexian Language Step-and-Compleat (87623): 20.00
Promo Pack (91273): 19.71
Standard (87607) non-foil: 16.91
Most Collectible Variants
The most collectible variants of these cards, if you’re solely looking at price, are as follows: Vorinclex’s Kaldheim Showcase foil at $67.10, Sheoldred’s Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat foil at $165.96, and Elesh Norn’s borderless foil at $68.82. Each of the Praetor’s most expensive variants can be explained by one of three things: age, scarcity, or appeal outside of Magic.
Vorinclex’s scarce showcase foil from early 2021 has had almost three years to maintain its value. As for Sheoldred, Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat foils appear in less than 2% of
What I find to be the most interesting pattern in this variant study is the one present with the most affordable variants.
Most Affordable Variants
A clear through-line does start to emerge when we get to the most affordable copies of these Praetors. For Vorinclex and Sheoldred it’s their non-foil Phyrexian language variants, which fall at $24.56 and $65.38, respectively, while Elesh Norn’s most affordable variant is her classic standard non-foil version at $16.91. Norn’s Phyrexian language Step-and-Compleat foil and non-foil are her third and fourth most affordable versions, only costing $4 more.
I believe this is a screaming indictment on the general collectibility and newfound affordability of Phyrexian language cards. With the onset and completion of the Phyrexian arc in Magic’s sets and stories over the past couple years, we’ve seen the number of Phyrexian language cards available increase exponentially. As such, it seems that the market has resorted to treating these Phyrexian language variants, specifically the non-foil ones, more as non-English language cards rather than the collectible alternatives they once were.
This difference in price between Phyrexian language and English language variants is reflected in the externality cost of needing a translation of the card on hand. Most people can’t even read Phyrexian, as it’s a language made up by Wizards of the Coast for Magic. Even Magic’s head game designer, Mark Rosewater, acknowledged on his blog that it was “probably a mistake” to put Phyrexian language cards in draft boosters due to legibility concerns.
However, if you’re someone like me who finds Phyrexian language cards or Elesh Norn, Mother of Machine’s Step-and-Compleat variants astonishing, regardless of how many there are, then this is great news as you can get your hands on your preferred variant for a solid discount compared to some of the other versions.
Compleation
Thank you so much for reading! I look forward to writing more articles for you all. If you haven’t already, make sure to give MTGStocks Premium a look for more cool Magic finance stuff. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and next time I’ll finish off discussing this cycle of Preators with Urabrask and Jin-Gitaxias!
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Max Kennel started playing Magic with the release of Shadows Over Innistrad. His primary formats of play are EDH and Limited. Outside of Magic, Max can be found writing all sorts of stuff from prose, to film, to plays such as The Story of Jimmy Kaplingus. His favorite commander deck at the moment is his Mono-Black Artifact/Aristocrats deck with Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist at the helm.
