We all know that Magic is an expensive game. That’s not the stuff of headlines in 2024. It’s easy to forget just how expensive it can be on the high end, however. That is until, every so often, something comes along to remind you, like a splash of cold water straight to the face. Such a splash arrived yesterday when a listing on a Facebook group put six cards from the MTG Heroes of the Realm series up for sale. At prices in the $8,000-35,000 range.
What Are Heroes Of The Realm Cards?
Before we look at the cards on offer, it’s important to provide some context on what exactly Heroes of the Realm is as an MTG initiative. These are special, highly limited cards created as rewards for employees at Wizards of the Coast. Those involved in specific projects often receive one of these cards as a thank you once a project is complete. Outside of that, they’re completely unobtainable. So if you don’t work for WotC, you have no chance of claiming one of these cards. Until a sale like this comes up, that is.
The design of these cards is just as fascinating as their distribution method. Although they’re all printed in black border, the Heroes of the Realm cards often resemble Un-set cards in terms of functionality. Many break fundamental rules or ask you to perform out-of-game actions like opening booster packs. For this reason, and because of their hyper-exclusivity, these cards are not legal in any sanctioned format. Even Commander. Unless, of course, you’re actually the employee to which they were originally given. In which case the Commander Rules Committee has created a special exemption allowing you to play your card.
Heroes of the Realm cards have a few other interesting quirks too. They have a unique orange card back, for one, and they come with the names of the employees they were given to in the bottom-right, just next to the holofoil stamp. This serves as a secondary gauge of authenticity, as well as an added piece of history for those who collect it. Long story short, Heroes of the Realm cards are extremely rare and extremely unique. Which should help you understand the eye-watering prices we’re about to look at in the next section.
A Staggering Series Of Sales
Now, on to the sale in question. As reported by HobbesQ on Twitter, an ex-WotC employee is selling six different Heroes of the Realm cards on a high-end MTG sales group on Facebook. For the most part, these cards come from the 2019 range. The one exception is M’Odo, the Gnarled Oracle, which is from the 2017 collection. It’s also the most expensive of the lot by far, with a minimum price of $35,000.
The other five all have much more reasonable prices. If you consider “$8,000 minimum” to be reasonable. The wildest thing about this sale is that it’s not even really possible to check whether these prices are fair or not. You won’t find Heroes of the Realm cards on the likes of TCGPlayer. These are the rarest cards in the game by far, second only to the recent One-of-One Ring.
It’s important to stress the importance of a sale such as this. Since you won’t find them on traditional retailers, the only way for an average player to obtain a Heroes of the Realm card is through private sales elsewhere. It’s incredibly rare to find even one of these for sale, let alone six. For that reason, sellers in situations like this can effectively set whatever price they want. There’s very little precedent here. Based on the fact that cards from this series typically sell for $15,000-75,000, according to various scattered threads, those $8,000 starting prices are actually fairly generous.
A Golden Opportunity?
It goes without saying that these cards are far, far beyond the budget of most average Magic players. Even if you were in the market to spend $8,000 on the game, you’d likely be better served stocking up on eternal staples and putting together a few powerful decks for different formats. Obviously, these cards are very much for the hardcore collectors. For those who already have binders full of serialized cards and Kaladesh Inventions in the safe at home.
As collector’s items go, it’s hard to think of a better investment than these. At a certain point, a card becomes far too expensive to actually play with and becomes an asset to be flipped rather than a real MTG game piece. Outside of the One-of-One Ring, these are the rarest examples of these in Magic. Their numbers are extremely limited, and as long as the MTG collector market exists, their value will remain high.
If you are an extremely wealthy collector looking to snag some serious pieces of MTG culture, then this sale is a golden opportunity. Seeing so many of these cards for sale at once just never happens, and the M’Odo in particular is a fan favorite. For everyone else, this sale is more of a curio than anything. A fascinating piece of MTG lore that adds to the monetary mythos it has built up over the years.
If you actually want to try any of these cards out in Commander via Rule Zero discussions, a la Un-set cards, you’d be far better served proxying them up. Even double-sleeved, actually playing with a $10,000 piece of cardboard is a pretty heavy risk.
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