Since their introduction in Final Fantasy, Source Material bonus sheets have been a consistent source of controversy in the MTG community. The unusual borderless layout, combined with artwork not originally designed to fit on a card, has led to many cards in the series being eyesores.
Whatever your thoughts on the aesthetic value of these sheets, however, their financial value is much harder to dispute. Because many players dislike the look here, the valuable staples reprinted on these sheets are often available for much less than the originals. This is more clear than ever in MTG TMNT, where the Source Material bonus sheet offers truly fantastic discounts on Commander bangers.
MTG TMNT Source Material Bonus Sheet Discounts
Now that the set has had some time to settle, we’re starting to see the values on the MTG TMNT Source Material cards stabilize. In nearly every case, the new versions here are cheaper than the originals, with some cards in particular receiving jaw-dropping discounts.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm is the biggest winner here, going from a $70 price tag to just $10 on this sheet. While the artwork likely plays a part, a bigger factor is undoubtedly that this is the card’s first-time reprint. There’s a surprising number of these on the sheet, actually, all of which have seen similarly dramatic drops. Plague of Vermin has gone from $23 to $1.80, for instance, and Waves of Aggression from $16 to $2.25.
Other first-time reprints on this sheet have taken mid-range cards down into the bulk range. Cytoplast Manipulator, a great foil to +1/+1 counter decks, is down to $0.24 from its old price of $5.60. In the same vein, Rivals of Ixalan’s Silverclad Ferocidons has dropped from $4.85 to just $0.60.
It’s not just first-time reprints causing big price drops here, either. Arcbound Ravager is down from $14 to $2.40, for example, and Umezawa’s Jitte has dropped from $12 to $2.80. The bigger-ticket items, however, Doubling Season, Shadowspear and such, haven’t dropped quite as much. That said, you can still get sizable discounts here, with Shadowspear and Trouble in Pairs essentially being halved in price.
A Question Of Consistency
While past Source Material bonus sheets have offered serious discounts as well, MTG TMNT seems to pack more big drops than usual. This is likely due to a couple of factors, chiefly the sheet’s smaller size. With only 20 cards available, as opposed to nearly double that in Spider-Man and triple that in Final Fantasy and Avatar, the number of copies of each card in circulation is much higher this time around.
The card selection here is also first-rate. With only a few exceptions, every card on this sheet is worth over $10 in its original form. Even the cards below that threshold have value as multi-format playables, like Path to Exile and Brainstorm. This means pretty much every Source Material pull will be a hit on one axis or another, which is a good thing considering their newly-increased rarity.
With the TMNT Source Material bonus sheet, Wizards has considerably improved upon past entries in the series. If it keeps these sheets to a smaller, stronger selection in future, then it could go a long way towards addressing the issue of reprints in a post-supplemental set world.
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