As a core set, MTG Foundations has a delicate line to walk. On one hand, it wants to offer exciting, powerful cards to draw new and old players in. On the other, it can’t push things too far since any cards it includes will be legal for 5+ years. In a move that many will see as disregarding that second point, MTG Foundations includes a reprint of the infamous Doubling Season. This is an absolute Commander all-star, with enough utility and power to shake up Standard too.
Doubling Season Back In MTG Foundations?!
- Mana Value: 4G
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
Doubling Season is the poster child for the way in which Commander drives modern Magic card pricing. The card wasn’t particularly good in Standard or in any other constructed format. Where it does shine, however, is on the Commander table. It combines two effects that green players, especially new green players, love: counter doubling and token doubling.
There are other cards that fulfill one part of this effect, but none that do both. Parallel Lives and Innkeeper’s Talent are two good examples. Note that these cards, while only doing half of what Doubling Season does, still command high price tags. For this reason, Doubling Season itself goes for $40-50 currently, despite multiple reprints over the years.
This eye-watering price tag immediately makes Doubling Season an exciting reprint choice for MTG Foundations. It marks the first real reprint the card has had in a non-premium set, so we can expect to see that value come down a bit. That said, I seriously doubt it drops below $25. Demand for the card in Commander is endless, and it’s still a mythic rare in Foundations at the end of the day.
Speaking of high rarity, Doubling Season is one of the Foundations cards that will be available in the Japan Showcase card style. This style debuted in Duskmourn and appears to be here to stay. You can find a borderless version of Doubling Season, with very cute cat-filled artwork, exclusively in Foundations Collector Boosters. If you’re extra lucky, you can find a Fractured Foil version instead.
Both of these printings are rare enough that they won’t move the needle on the card’s price. It’s great to see such an iconic card chosen for a special treatment like this, however.
Potential Impact
So Doubling Season is a high-value reprint for MTG Foundations, that much is clear. But will it have any impact on Standard? That’s a much trickier question to answer. The effect is undeniably strong, and it even slots nicely into some existing archetypes. The issue is whether you’ll have breathing room to drop a five mana ‘do nothing’ enchantment in your Standard deck.
Of course, the answer to that question is probably ‘yes’ if you can just end the game on the following turn. With Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting, you can do just that. Golgari Midrange players have been enjoying the insta-win combo with Vraska and Innkeeper’s Talent for months now, and Doubling Season lets you do the same thing for less mana. Granted, it doesn’t provide any of Talent’s early benefits, but it also only asks you to invest five mana instead of seven. I could see this being trialed in certain Golgari builds for sure.
Beyond cheesy combo shenanigans, there are plenty of token and counter synergies in Standard right now. Token Control decks, which rely on Caretaker’s Talent and Urabrask’s Forge to win games, will love this card. With Doubling Season out, your Forge tokens will grow twice as fast and come down two at a time. Pretty terrifying stuff honestly. The card also plays very well with the likes of Omnivorous Flytrap and Bristly Bill, both of which see fairly regular play.
That five mana fly in the ointment does have to factor in, however. Even with all of these synergies, I don’t see many Standard decks sleeving up Doubling Season. Certainly not while Gruul Prowess is still around. It’s still a stellar reprint, however, and one you’ll be happy to open for your collection.