Which Phyrexian Praetor Variants Should You Buy? Part Two
Welcome back to another edition of Variant Vault, where I organize Magic: the Gathering card variants by price from most to least expensive to determine which variant is best for you.
Today we’re finishing off the second cycle of Phyrexian Praetors we started looking at last time, with
The Lists
As for total variants, we have 28 with Jin-Gitaxias at 15 and Urabrask at 13. All prices used were gathered from the MTGStocks price database as of 10/30/2023. The full list of all these variants by price can be found below.
Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant Variant Prices (From Most to Least Expensive):
Showcase (71778) foil: $25.18
Phyrexian language (72653) etched foil: $24.44
Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat (88331): $18.83
Concept Preator (87647) foil: $15.00
Prerelease (72932): $13.12
Extended art (71961) foil: $12.50
Showcase (71778) non-foil: $11.43
Phyrexian language (71774) foil: $10.72
Concept Praetor (87647) non-foil: $8.61
Promo Pack (73060) non-foil: $8.76
Standard (71772) foil: $7.59
Promo Pack (73060) foil: $7.00
Standard (71772) non-foil: $6.62
Extended art (71961) non-foil: $6.16
Phyrexian language (71774) non-foil: $4.62
| Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant (Showcase) | ||
| Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant (Phyrexian) (Foil Etched) | ||
| Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant (Concept Praetor) (Step-And-Complete Foil) | ||
| Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant (Concept Praetor) | ||
| Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant |
Urabrask, Heretic Praetor Variant Prices (From Most to Least Expensive):
Phyrexian Language (73910) foil: $18.31
Showcase (73943) etched foil: $11.98
Concept Preator Step-and-Compleat (88330): $10.78
Concept Preator (87646) foil: $9.39
Concept Praetor (87646) non-foil: $6.02
Showcase (73908) foil: $5.92
Promo Pack (74754) foil: $4.17
Prerelease (74476): $3.99
Standard (73864) foil: $2.99
Showcase (73908) non-foil: $2.82
Promo Pack (74754) non-foil: $2.69
Standard (73864) non-foil: $2.68
Phyrexian Language (73910): $1.67
| Urabrask, Heretic Praetor (Phyrexian) | ||
| Urabrask, Heretic Praetor (Showcase) (Foil Etched) | ||
| Urabrask, Heretic Praetor (Concept Praetor) (Step-And-Complete Foil) | ||
| Urabrask, Heretic Praetor | ||
| Urabrask, Heretic Praetor (Showcase) |
Most Collectible Variants
The most collectible variants of these cards, if you’re solely looking at price, are as follows: Jin-Gitaxias’
The etched foils were the big chase cards for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, outside of the neon ink cards. My main assumption for why the etched foil is a dollar below the showcase foil is due to the etched foil being Phyrexian language. I went into the specifics on the Phyrexian language discount last time, but to summarize that point, due to the increase in Phyrexian language variants and comprehensibility issues, the market has started treating this with the price discount seen with non-English language cards.
As a quick side note, Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant is the only Praetor in this cycle who received an extended art version. None of the others did, just him, and it’s a beautiful enigma. However, the other beautiful enigma here is about to make me look like a fraud. Urabrask’s Phyrexian language foil is his most financially valuable variant, and not by a small margin either; it’s 52% more expensive than the second most valuable variant, the showcase etched foil, and almost 11 times more expensive than its non-foil counterpart.
But is it actually selling at that price or is it just sitting there? It’s selling. Based on TCGPlayer sales data, four people bought one NM copy each of Urabrask, Heretic Preator sold last week, so four total sales. That isn’t the largest number in the grand scheme of things, but Urabrask is the least played of the Preators in this cycle according to EDHREC (only showing up in 21,214 decks), came out a year and a half ago, and has significantly cheaper English variants. So there isn’t an immediate tangible reason why this version of the card is the most expensive variant of Urabrask by such a large margin. Otherwise, Urabrask’s variant prices exhibit the exact price hierarchy I initially expected. My best guess as to why the price is like this is due to scarcity and price history - there's less supply and higher demand in comparison to other sought-after versions, and currently the price of this variant has hit an all-time low. So unless it goes lower, now is the best time to pick it up if you’ve had your eye on it.
In addition to that, I imagine most people who would be interested in Phyrexian language cards are heavily invested in Magic: the Gathering as a game and IP. As such, if a player like that is going to buy a Phyrexian language card, they’re going to aim for the flashiest one if they can afford it. Outside of my guess, I’m going to say that this one is just an outlier to my rules of analysis. Not everything has to make sense. However, my rules of analysis still apply to the most affordable variants of these two Praetors.
Most Affordable Variants
Solidifying my previous claims, the most affordable variants of these Praetors are their non-foil Phyrexian language variants, with Jin-Gitaxias at $4.62 and Urabrask at $1.67. I still find it funny how Urabrask’s most and least expensive variants are Phyrexian language, but otherwise this is in line with the conclusion from my previous article. Since these variants are harder to read and trade away, they are cheaper.
If you’re looking for Phyrexian language cards, they’re easier to get your hands on than one would initially expect them to be, specifically the non-foil copies. The same can be said for some of Urabrask’s exciting variants.
The Machine has Marched
Thank you so much for reading! 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 we’ll be discussing
Check out these other articles:
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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.
