Fast Mana is some of the most broken cards in Magic: The Gathering. Need proof? Look at what the unbanning of Mox Opal has done to Modern. A ton of unviable strategies are now playable, and one of the best decks in the format is an incredibly fast combo deck that threatens to end the game as early as turn one.
It was just revealed that MTG Aetherdrift has a Mox reprint in the set. Fortunately, the card returns as a Special Guest, which means it won’t be destroying competitive formats as a result of its reprinting. Regardless, Chrome Mox looks like the best card you can find in your Aetherdrift packs, and it’s not close.
Chrome Mox
After the disaster that was the original 5 Moxen, which all appear in the Power Nine, Wizards of the Coast tried to solve the Mox puzzle by creating conditional Moxen. Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, and Chrome Mox still proved to be too powerful.
For Chrome Mox, you need to Imprint another card under it, but that cost is well worth it. There’s a reason why Chrome Mox is powerful enough to see consistent cEDH play. For anyone trying to get into more expensive games of Commander, this reprint will, hopefully, help them save.
In Aetherdrift, Chrome Mox will appear as a Special Guest. This also means that Chrome Mox can appear as a First Place Foil in Box-Topper packs. Chrome Mox can be opened in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters, but the First Place Foil can only be found in Box-Topper packs. In total, there are ten Special Guest cards coming to Aetherdrift.
Chrome Mox has had a surprising amount of printings, considering its price. All of those printings, however, are pretty difficult to acquire. Its original printing in Mirrodin was a Rare, but all of its subsequent reprintings were as Mythic Rares in premium Masters sets or as promos for various events.
The cheapest variant of Chrome Mox has a market average of about $90, but almost all of the copies of Chrome Mox on the secondary market currently float around $100 or higher. Players may suspect that this reprinting of Chrome Mox will affect its secondary market value, but history suggests a different outcome.
Special Guests Don’t Affect the Secondary Market
Chrome Mox is a Special Guest. Aside from that meaning that the card’s legality won’t change as a result of this printing, it also means that this Chrome Mox is very difficult to actually open. In Play Boosters, Special Guests will replace a common 1.5% of the time. You can only find nonfoil Special Guest cards in Play Boosters.
In Collector Boosters, a traditional foil Special Guest appears 4.2% of the time. If you want to open Chrome Mox, this might be your best chance at finding one. That said, only about 1 in 21-22 packs is even going to have a Special Guest, and there’s no guarantee that it will be a Chrome Mox.
Finally, there’s a 1.4% chance of a First-Place Finish Foil Special Guest appearing in a Box-Topper pack, which means they are absurdly rare. I wouldn’t be surprised if a First-Place Finish Chrome Mox were worth more than the serialized card from Aetherdrift.
With open rates this low, the supply of Chrome Mox from Aetherdrift is unlikely to have a lasting impact on the secondary market. We’ve already seen a premium fast-mana card like this get reprinted as a Special Guest in a recent set. While Mana Crypt’s price took a dump after it got banned in Commander, the card’s secondary market value wasn’t affected by its reprinting in Outlaws of Thunder Junction at all.
An Incredible Reprint to Chase
Ultimately, reprinting Chrome Mox certainly grants Aetherdrift a massive chase card for players to find. Whether they find it as a Special Guest in a prerelease pool, or begin cracking boxes trying to chase the First-Place Foil Chrome Mox, some players are going to hit it big.
As of the writing of this article, we only know of one other Special Guest card: Lord of the Undead. Considering that the Amonkhet cards in this set have a Zombie theme attached, this is a fitting Special Guest card. While Lord of the Undead isn’t worth anywhere near Chrome Mox, it still has a decent secondary market average of about $10.
We do not yet know the identities of the remaining eight Special Guest cards but, considering that MTG Aetherdrift spoiler season is now in full swing, it’s only a matter of time.
