Edge of Eternities preview season has officially begun, and Wizards is kicking things off with a bang. We’ve already seen some incredible main set cards, and some wild Special Guests with a vintage sci-fi edge. On top of that, we got a better look at what kind of lands we can expect to see in the Edge of Eternities Stellar Sights Bonus Sheet.
This Sheet didn’t get off to the best start when it was announced previously. Mutavault was hardly an exciting opening act, and players quickly grew concerned over the lack of set symbol. Today’s reveals, however, should go a long way towards getting the hype train running again. There are some genuine pricey staples in here, as well as a couple nice-to-haves that aren’t embarrassing to open in your pack. Despite the reduced drop rate, Stellar Sights has the potential to be one of the more lucrative MTG Bonus Sheets if this standard continues.
Gemstone Caverns
- Type: Legendary Land
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: If this card is in your opening hand and you’re not the starting player, you may begin the game with Gemstone Caverns on the battlefield with a luck counter on it. If you do, exile a card from your hand.
Tap: Add C. If Gemstone Caverns has a luck counter on it, instead add one mana of any color.
The biggest hit by far from today’s Edge of Eternities Stellar Sights spoilers is Gemstone Caverns. This is one of the stranger lands in Magic: The Gathering. It’s one of the few cards that cares about being in your opening hand, and the only non-Alchemy card that cares if you’re the starting player or not. If it is, and you’re not, then it essentially becomes a better Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond, getting you off to a huge head start mana wise.
The ceiling on Gemstone Caverns is incredibly high, while the floor is just an untapped colorless land, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. As a result, it sees plenty of play in decks that want to go fast at all costs. Modern Combo decks like Basking Broodscale and Ruby Storm love it, for example. It also shines in cEDH, where it’s an auto-include in pretty much every deck. In a four-player pod, you have a much higher chance of not being the starting player, after all.
Because of all this eternal success, Gemstone Caverns is sitting at around $50 a copy right now. This is partly due to its power, and partly due to the card only having one real reprint in Time Spiral Remastered. This Stellar Sights version is unlikely to move the needle much, in all honesty. Stellar Sights cards only show up in one out of every eight packs, and Caverns is a mythic, so it’ll be even rarer than that. This means it’ll be a guaranteed value hit if you find it in your pack.
Mana Confluence
- Type: Land
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: Tap, Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color.
Mana Confluence is the second big hitter from today’s Stellar Sights spoilers. This is one of Magic: The Gathering’s venerable ‘Rainbow Lands,’ or lands that can tap for all five colors of mana. There are a lot of these in the game now, but most have significant downsides. Forbidden Orchard hands out 1/1 tokens, for example, and Spire of Industry requires an artifact. Mana Confluence only asks that you pay life, which puts it in the enviable company of City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, and Starting Town.
Of these options, Mana Confluence is probably the best one. It never enters tapped like Starting Town, and its life loss isn’t tied to tapping like City of Brass. This means you can tap it for mana without paying life if you have an Urborg or Yavimaya in play. The card sees a ton of Pioneer play, as one of the best mana fixers in the format. It’s also a Commander staple, particularly in color-intensive cEDH lists that need their colors on time every time.
Incredibly, Mana Confluence has been reprinted even less than Gemstone Caverns. Original Journey into Nyx printing aside, it’s only been seen as an Expedition, Box Topper, or Secret Lair card. For this reason, it’ll cost you around $29 a copy right now. Again, the value is unlikely to dip much here since this is a mythic on the Edge of Eternities Stellar Sights Bonus Sheet.
High Market
- Type: Land
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: Tap: Add C.
Tap, Sacrifice a creature: You gain 1 life.
Things take a pretty sharp dive at this point, value-wise. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still lands worth discussing, of course. High Market is a long-time Commander staple, first seen 26 years ago in Mercadian Masques. It’s one of the few lands that also serve as sacrifice outlets, in this case letting you trade in any creature for a single point of life.
For decks that care about sacrificing creatures, mainly Aristocrats, having access to this effect in a land slot is huge. Phyrexian Tower sees a ton of play for largely the same reason. Even if one life is irrelevant, being able to trigger a Grave Pact or save your creature from exile-based removal is fantastic. As with Gemstone Caverns, the floor of being an untapped colorless land is well worth it for the synergistic ceiling.
In terms of value, High Market is still a solid $4-5 card in most printings. The recent Final Fantasy Commander deck version really knocked it down a peg, however, and is available for about $1.50. Thanks to new options like Lazotep Quarry, High Market is less essential as an Aristocrats include in Commander these days. It’s also seen pretty much nowhere else, which limits its scope. That said, it’s still very much a classic Magic: The Gathering land, and a fine addition to the Stellar Sights sheet.
Celestial Colonnade
- Type: Land
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: This land enters tapped.
Tap: Add W or U.
3WU: Until end of turn, this land becomes a 4/4 white and blue Elemental creature with Flying and Vigilance. It’s still a land.
Last, and unfortunately, least, we have Celestial Colonnade. This is one of the original ‘Manlands’ from back in Zendikar block: a tapped land that can become a creature later if you invest mana in it. For a time, this was a solid finisher for Control decks. Lands are hard to kill, after all, and Flying made it easy to win slowly over time. These days, it’s generally far too slow, only really seeing play in Commander or in some Modern Miracles decks.
In terms of value, Celestial Colonnade is beyond a dud. Copies can be had for as little as $0.20 these days. Even the ultra-rare Zendikar Rising Expeditions version is only around $1.50 currently. Since it’s only a rare on the Edge of Eternities Stellar Sights sheet, I’d expect the price here to land somewhere in the middle, around $1. On the bright side, this is probably the best of all the lands we’ve looked at today for Limited. You’ll be very happy to open this in your Prerelease pool, but less so in your Booster Box.
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