During yesterday’s reveal stream, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that Dominaria United packs will feature some very expensive additions. In celebration of Magic: the Gathering’s 30th anniversary, cards from MTG’s 7th set, Legends, will be appearing in Boosters. This means that players will have a chance, albeit a very slim chance, of pulling the fabled Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, which is worth around $5000.
Into the Story
According to Wizards, facilitating this wild addition to Dominaria United, called Lost Legends, was quite the wild adventure. During the reveal steam, Marshall Sutcliffe and Matther Danner recounted how the team at Wizards were set off to a shutting down warehouse “just far enough away” in Washington State to reclaim lost product. Upon arriving, the promise of the lost product turned out to be accurate, as the team discovered a treasure trove of unopened Legends booster boxes.
Over the course of “months,” Wizards staff meticulously opened up the packs of Legends in an assembly line. All the employees were masked and gloved up in order to preserve the cards as much as possible. This should hopefully ensure that the Legends cards inserted into packs aren’t damaged when it’s your turn to open them. This process was no small feat, as Wizards didn’t just find a few random boxes of Legends. Instead, Wizards’ warehouse gambit put them in possession of cases upon cases of Legends boxes.
As Danner notes, this was somewhat of a Magical experience for themselves and the team. “Seeing a single booster pack of a product that’s 30 years old, that’s exciting. You’ll see it if you go to shows. Seeing a sealed box is even more unreal, but seeing cases worth of Magic products from throughout the ages is unreal. It’s an experience unlike any other”.
Lost Legends Aren’t Easily Found
Despite WotC finding literal cases of unopened Legends Booster Boxes, the Lost Legends cards will be incredibly rare. During the Livestream, Blake Rasmussen confirmed that Lost Legends cards would only be available in “3%” of packs. They’ll also only appear in Dominaria United’s Collector Boosters to add to their exclusivity.
Due to the rarity of Lost Legends cards, you’ll need to open roughly 33 Dominaria United Collector Boosters to guarantee you find one. At current prices, this comes at the cost of over $640. For this price, you’d certainly hope to be seeing one of Legends’ juicer cards. However, that’s no guarantee. Only seven Legends cards on TCGplayer are worth more than $640.
Due to the cost of Collector Boosters and the incredible rarity of Lost Legends, we can’t imagine they’re going to be a worthwhile investment. While the chance at pulling Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is on the cards, there’s a far greater chance of pulling a near worthless, old, apparently “chocolately” spelling piece of cardboard. As a result of this rarity, we don’t expect Lost Legends to have much impact on the secondary market.
It’s important to note that, similarly to Zendikar’s Priceless Treasures, these cards are not reprints. Instead, the Lost Legends cards are original prints that have merely been discovered and released to players for the first time in their existence. This means that their inclusion in Dominaria United packs does not violate the promises of the Reserved List. This controversial list has been the topic of conversation recently, but worry not investors, as it’s not going anywhere.
Not All Legends Are Worth Remembering
Notably, not every Legends card will be available to pull from Dominaria United Collector Boosters as a Lost Legends. This is due to two reasons, one of which is rather heavy.
Firstly, Wizards have stated that “due to some weird 1994 collation print runs,” they simply could not open certain cards. This is despite opening case after case of Legends booster boxes. In a blog post, Wizards listed the 50 cards they couldn’t find themselves. These cards include Land Tax, Mana Drain, Nether Void, and Ramirez DePietro.
Alongside cards they physically weren’t able to find, Wizards of the Coast also elected not to include several cards as Lost Legends. Wizards did not go into detail about why certain cards have been excluded, but it’s clear that some cards are relics of 1994 that are better left behind. Some Legends cards are so despicable that Wizards has even removed their art from Gatherer.
In place of an offensive card’s original art, Wizards displays the following message. “We have removed this card image from our database because it has racist or culturally offensive art, text, or a combination thereof. Racism and cultural insensitivity are unacceptable and have no place in our games, nor anywhere.”
Read More: Magic: The Gathering 2022 Release Calendar
