If I had a nickel for every time the Avatar: The Last Airbender bonus sheet reprinted a Portal Three Kingdom card, I’d have three nickels. That isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened thrice.
Potentially, this unusual reprint trend might have something to do with the changing availability of reprints. Maybe it’s something about how Avatar neatly meshes with the Chinese history seen throughout Portal Three Kingdoms. Whatever it is, these reprints are fantastic to see, as these cards are seriously expensive.
As the Avatar: The Last Airbender Source Material bonus sheet didn’t have enough already, another $30 reprint has also been revealed. Even before it’s all been revealed, this bonus sheet easily looks like one of the best. It’s just a shame that the cards from this bonus sheet are insanely rare…
Taunting Challenge
As the latest first-time reprint from Portal Three Kingdoms, Taunting Challenge is technically a very expensive card. Currently, copies of this card are selling for around $42 on average, thanks to the implicit rarity of near-mint copies. With only seven copies available for purchase on TCGplayer, it’s safe to say there’s not a lot of supply going around.
In theory, the new Avatar bonus sheet reprint will change this, as this reprint will provide new supply. That said, thanks to bonus sheet cards only appearing in one out of 26 Play Boosters, the odds aren’t great. Thankfully, while this is a concern, the only way is down for Taunting Challenge.
Unlike some of the other Portal Three Kingdom reprints we’ve seen recently, Taunting Challenge is a bad card. For three mana, you can make everything block one creature for a turn, which is okay at best. If you use it at the right time, you can sneak your board through to wipe out an opponent in Commander, but that’s about it.
Unfortunately, this card is a sorcery, so you can’t even do some fun tricks on your opponent’s turn. Technically, with a copy engine and Flash support, you could really mess with your opponents, but that’s true of most cards. Due to these problems with making Taunting Challenge work, the card only sees play in 210 Commander decks, according to EDHREC.
With these dismal play numbers in mind, any new supply from the Avatar bonus sheet will likely annihilate this card’s price tag. Notably, this might only happen to the new variant of Taunting Challenge, as the rarity of Portal Three Kingdoms cards can keep them desirable. Whether or not that will be true for such a meh card in this case, however, remains to be seen.
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
While Tuanting Challenge might not see a lot of play in MTG, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces certainly does. Appearing as the co-lead to almost 15,000 Partner Commander decks, Sakashima is a true format staple. In cEDH, they’re a real powerhouse too, consistently being used effectively in tournaments.
Considering Sakashima of a Thousand Faces offers a Clone effect in the command zone, this popularity isn’t at all surprising. There are no end of bombs in Commander, after all, and Sakashima can be any of them. Whether you’re copying an opponent’s threat or one of your own powerful pieces, Sakashima gets the job done.
Beyond just copying something, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces also fixes the problem with copy effects. So long as he’s on the board, you won’t have to worry about the legend rule. This makes him one of the best copy engines, and he’s not even that expensive at four mana. Thanks to this, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is even more popular in the 99, appearing in around 95,000 decks.
Despite being incredibly widely played, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces only has one real printing from Commander Legends. Technically, there is a Secret Lair variant too, but that hardly ups supply significantly. Due to this, Sakashima is a rather expensive MTG card, selling for around $30 on average.
Good Bad Reprints
From a financial perspective, it’s safe to say both of these cards are good reprints. Cracking a $30 card will easily pay for your Play Booster, after all. That said, finding either of these cards in a Play Booster is a lot easier said than done. Not only do bonus sheet cards only appear in one out of 26 packs, but each individual card has the same rarity.
In total, the Avatar: The Last Airbender Source Material bonus sheet contains 61 cards, all technically at mythic rarity. Due to this, the odds of finding any specific Source Material reprint from a random Play Booster are one in 1586. These odds are absolutely diabolical and threaten to barely affect supply. That said, there are also Collector Boosters to consider.
Thankfully, you’re guaranteed to find one Avatar bonus sheet card in each Collector Booster pack. Considering the MSRP for each pack is $37.99, you’d certainly expect this to be the case. Hopefully, this increased pull rate should do a lot to help supply, but that remains to be seen. Unfortunately, since bonus sheet cards have never been this rare before, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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