Next week, the spoiler season for MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender will finally begin. While the set doesn’t have Commander decks, between the main set and the bonus sheet, there’s bound to be tons to enjoy. From what we’ve seen so far, in fact, all aspects of this set look fantastic, with fitting flavor and awesome abilities.
In particular, the Avatar: The Last Airbender Borderless Source Material bonus sheet has some stellar inclusions already. Force of Negation and The Great Henge are both pricey, playable reprints that look fantastic. Thankfully, the latest Avatar bonus sheet card to be revealed continues this trend.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
First printed in 2009’s Zendikar, this 14-year-old land has the power to be an absolute monster. If you can get it into play and dump a bunch of mountains onto your board, you can theoretically one-shot your opponent. Even in Commander, while it’s by no means a super staple, this card can dish out a lot of damage.
At worst, if you hit your land drops in a mono-red deck, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is a free Lightning Bolt each turn. On its own, this is already good, and it could make the card a staple if it were more accessible. While it’s decent in mono-red Commander decks, its real strength is in the one-shot potential.
In Modern, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle works insanely well alongside Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Scapeshift. Since Dryad makes every land a Mountain, Scapeshift allows you to Valakut your way to victory. At worst, you’ll need eight lands already in play to do this, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks to cards like Echoing Deeps, Vesuva, and Aftermath Analyst, this combo can be accelerated dramatically. This makes Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle a genuine powerhouse in Modern, especially in Scapeshift Combo decks. That said, the card doesn’t see a huge amount of play anymore. Even without this, however, Valakut is unquestionably iconic and definitely a fan favorite card.
A $17 Staple
At the moment, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle sells for around $17 on average. To date, the card has only received one main printing, way back in Zendikar. Since then, it has been reprinted as a Secret Lair and Zendikar Rising Expeditions card, but these didn’t dramatically increase supply. Due to this, Valakut is still fairly hard to get a hold of.
For better or worse, the new Avatar: The Last Airbender bonus sheet reprint could, in theory, change this. Historically, bonus sheet cards have always done a good job at flooding the market with supply and bringing down prices. This time around, however, the Avatar bonus sheet is surprisingly rare, in Play Boosters at least.
In Play Boosters, you’ll only find a Borderless Source Material bonus sheet card in one out of 26 packs. Since Valakut is listed as a mythic within the bonus sheet, it won’t be easy to find either. Potentially, this could cause this reprint to have the inverse effect on the card’s price.
As we’ve seen from the MTG Final Fantasy bonus sheet, Borderless Source Material cards can be more expensive than their normal counterparts. Rhystic Study, for instance, is normally a $47 MTG card at the moment. The Final Fantasy Bonus Sheet variant of this card, however, currently sells for a whopping $101.
In theory, due ot the abysmal pull rate of Avatar: The Last Airbender bonus sheet cards, the same thing could happen here. That said, it does appear that bonus sheet cards are guaranteed in Collector Boosters, so that could increase supply. Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
More Coming Soon
Thankfully, it won’t be too long before we see more from the Avatar: The Last Airbender bonus sheet. The spoiler season for this set will officially start next week, on October 28th. With spoilers concluding just over one week later on November 6th, we’ll soon know a lot more.
Hopefully, given how rare Avatar’s Borderless Source Material reprints are, each of the bonus sheet cards will be pretty expensive. That said, it certainly appears that Wizards of the Coast is becoming increasingly stingy with reprints. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next week.
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