Modern Times - Reprints and Special Guests
Happy Wednesday, all! In today's edition of Modern Times, we take a step back from big movers in the meta and look at some “Modern-legal” cards that have been impacted by their “special appearances” in supplemental products, or soon-to-be Special Guest printings (you know which card I’m talking about).
Without further ado, let’s dig in.
Cavern of Souls
Fellow Stocks writer Harvey McGuiness wrote a nice piece on Special Guest printings in Standard-legal sets and supplemental products earlier this month. For brevity, Special Guest printings can be generalized as reprinted cards that can be opened in Standard booster packs, but are not part of the new set cards. You could think of Masterpiece Series cards as the earliest version of Special Guests, with
Of note in the upcoming
With the upcoming Special Guest appearance in Lost Caverns, you can be certain this card will likely continue to fall more. Today, an original
Consider the fact that the original printing of
What does this mean? Assuming the meta stays relatively the same (a big assumption, admittedly), I could see Lost Cavern’s reprint of Cavern dropping its market price down to the $30-$35 range pretty easily. Perhaps at long last we’ll be able to see the sun again, and pick up a playset of these staple lands!
| Cavern of Souls | ||
| Paths of the Dead | ||
| Cavern of Souls (Borderless) | ||
| Cavern of Souls |
The Great Henge
More like The Greatest Henge, amiright? All bad jokes aside, The Great Henge is a magical card (last bad joke, I swear). Seriously though, The Great Henge is one of the best things for green in Commander that we’ve seen in the past ten years, right up alongside
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Corey, this card isn’t played in Modern.” You’d be correct, it’s not played in Modern…yet. But it is Modern-legal, and therefore fair game for discussion today. Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, back to the finance!
The Great Henge, much like Cavern of Souls, has had a drip of new printings in LTR and Commander Masters (as mentioned earlier), which have pulled its market price down considerably in just a short span of time.
The question for cards like The Great Henge is “Where can we go from here?” And it’s a fair question to ask. In just a few months, we’ve seen double the amount of Henge reprints, but at low relative frequencies. Should we expect to see more? I want to say yes. Clearly WOTC is keenly aware of the desirability of The Great Henge, and has made somewhat of a concerted effort to increase its supply to the market, albeit very carefully.
Financially, where does this leave us? Kind of in a state of limbo. The Great Henge seems to have stabilized at around $40 and doesn’t look like it’s going to fall further in the near future. If you have expectations of future reprints, and aren’t in a rush, then it’s probably fine to hold off on picking up your copy. On the other hand, it may very well be stuck at this price for some time, and even drift back upwards as expectations of future reprints in the near-term fade. Given that this is more of a Commander staple than a Modern staple, picking up your single copy now might not be the worst idea. In fact, it’s a pretty good one.
| The Great Henge | ||
| The Great Henge (Foil Etched) | ||
| The Party Tree | ||
| The Great Henge (Extended Art) |
Ensnaring Bridge
I remember the Golden Age of Modern when Lantern Control was a viable deck. The Lantern(s) of Insights, the Ghoulcaller’s Bell(s), the Codex Shredder(s). It was a wonderful - you might even say a magical - time in Magic. But what would Lantern Control be without Ensnaring Bridge?
Answer: it wouldn’t be.
Is there still a place in Modern for Ensnaring Bridge? Possibly. The Modern meta is shifting like sand beneath our feet, but even so still favors a meta heavily concentrated around Rakdos Scam and 4-Color Omnath builds. Having said that, a lot of mono-black brews are popping up with cards like
The meta has a tendency to swing pretty quickly, so it might be worth picking up a couple Ensnaring Bridges while they sit at a relative all-time low. I’m always a sucker for these once-powerful Modern staples, and have written a couple articles on staples that have fallen out of favor in the age of Modern Horizons X formats. All the same, the format will likely undergo a dramatic makeover once Modern Horizon 3 hits the shelves of your local game stores, so perhaps there’s still hope yet for Bridge to make a large-scale comeback in the meta!
| Ensnaring Bridge | ||
| Bridge of Khazad-dum | ||
| Ensnaring Bridge | ||
| Ensnaring Bridge |
Cabal Coffers
The final card I’d like to talk about today is Cabal Coffers. Can you believe that just under two years ago that this was around $150? I still find it hard to believe. Lo and behold, Cabal Coffers from its original set,
Cabal Coffers was never really a Modern playable. Its reprint in MH2 seemed more like throwing a bone to Commander players that had been dying for a reprint to pair with their
I believe of all the cards I’ve discussed today that are not called Cavern of Souls, Coffers has the most realistic chance of being impactful in Modern in the long run. As mono-black continues to get rampant support like we’ve never seen before, its potential only grows. Furthermore, powerful colorless spells like KGC push Coffers-style decks upward too, as more power-crept artifacts sneak into the format, like we’ve seen with
I would highly advise picking up a couple of Coffers at their current price. One for your Commander needs, and one for your future Modern needs.
| Cabal Coffers | ||
| Minas Morgul | ||
| Cabal Coffers (Borderless) | ||
| Cabal Coffers |
Some Final Thoughts
Gone are the days of
Such a shift has enabled a slow dissemination of reprints into the market, pushing prices down over long periods rather than abruptly, as in the case of dedicated reprint sets. This is certainly the intention, and epitome, of eating your cake and having it, too. Collectors and speculators despise mass reprintings, and spend a considerable amount of their discretionary income on the game, while players love reprints, but maybe spend a little more carefully on product so as to not break the bank.
Special Guest reprints appease both audiences rather effectively. Players opening their draft packs, or bundle, or Commander products have a chance to pull some of these reprints, while collectors can remain relatively at ease in that their original prints need not “tank” in value right out of the gate. Strategies like this give players and speculators alike time to see the writing on the wall for some high-end staples, and adjust accordingly in a way that’s much more accommodative than large-scale Masters set reprints. Win-win. Happy Halloween, and be safe speculating!
Check out these other articles:
Safe Bets - The Phoenix and the Beanstalk by Deven Dupuis
Which Phyrexian Praetor Variants Should You Buy? Part One by Max Kennel
Through the Lens - Dinosaurs and Bulk by Gregory Willett
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.
