Its the beginning of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan spoiler season, and things are off to a pretty powerful start. between some insane new mechanics emulating problematic Modern homestays, and a new card that straight-up offers a tripling token replacement effect, power creep truly feels present.
Early first looks have also revealed a series of incredible reprints that should add some secondary market value to this set! We already knew that the Commander super staple Mana Crypt and the typal godsend Cavern of Souls were seeing reprints in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but the reprints seen today are, somehow, just as good! Let’s take a look!
Treasure Trove Box Toppers
Announced today alongside The Lost Caverns of Ixalan reveal stream are the Treasure Trove box toppers. According to Wizards of the Coast, these Box Toppers consist of 20 powerful artifact cards. You can find these cards in their nonfoil variants in Set and Draft Booster box displays, but you can only find their foil variants in Collector Booster displays. The above two cards were revealed during The Lost Caverns of Ixalan debut stream.
While Expedition Map’s reprint is not too impressive, this is a somewhat popular card in Commander and competitive formats. If you’re trying to find a particular land card, like a piece of Urzatron, Expedition Map is a powerful way to do that. Sadly, there is not a ton of reprint value.
Chalice of the Void, on the other hand, direly needed a reprint, and finally got one. This card can be found all over the place in Modern and Legacy. Any deck that utilizes too many spells with the same mana value risks running into the Chalice and having their gameplan totally shut off. Thanks to the prevalence of Cascade strategies that involve casting zero mana spells and decks that utilize a ton of one mana spells, Chalice of the Void is a very common card to find in Modern sideboards.
Most copies of Chalice of the Void, at the time of writing, are worth about $70, making this a homerun reprint.
Amulet of Vigor
Amulet of Vigor is yet another homerun reprint that can appear as a box topper for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Most famously found in its namesake Amulet Titan Modern combo deck, Amulet of Vigor can untap any permanent that enters the battlefield tapped.
While innocent on its own, Amulet of Vigor can get out of hand in multiples. These allow you to play tapped lands and untap them multiple times on entry, floating a ton of mana.
In Modern, these are used alongside bounce lands since they can bounce themselves back to their owners hands, allowing them to enter multiple times (with cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking) and untap for tons of mana. While primarily found in combo decks as a get-mana-quick effect, Amulet of Vigor can also appear in Commander decks.
At the time of writing, Amulet of Vigor is worth between $21 and $23.
Read More: Intriguing Typal Commanders Show Off Reworked “Cascade” Mechanic!
Special Guests
Alongside the new treasure trove box toppers are the new Special Guest cards appearing for the first time in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Special Guests are reprints with new artwork that appear in The List, a subset of cards that occasionally appear in Set Booster packs. This is not the only set that will have Special Guest cards, as they have been confirmed to return in Murders of Markov Manor.
The most noteworthy Special Guest is a reprint that we’ve already seen: Mana Crypt. This Commander super staple is, quite literally, the best card in all of Commander. Unfortunately, because it has not been printed into the ground like Sol Ring, Mana Crypt remains pretty expensive financially, making this a very desirable reprint.
Its tough to say just how often the Crypt will appear but, from what we know so far, it’s doubtful that this reprinting is going to affect secondary market prices too much. It may simply be too hard to come by. Mana Crypt’s cheaper copies currently retail for a little over $150.
Additionally, as a sort of reminder, Cavern of Souls is getting reprinted in the main set for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, meaning that it will become Standard and Pioneer legal.
While we already have had Mana Crypt spoiled to us, a few additional interesting cards were revealed during The Lost Caverns of Ixalan debut stream. Underworld Breach and Thrasios, Triton Hero are both pretty interesting reprints that see tons of Commander play. Underworld Breach is banned in a good amount of competitive formats, but still sees some play in the Modern format.
As far as Commander goes, both Thrasios and Underworld Breach are some of the best cards in the entire format. Thrasios, thanks to its scarce reprints, is surprisingly pricey, coming in at a little under $20. This Commander is typically used alongside [tootlips]Tymna, the Weaver to create a powerful four-color combo that generates a ton of value between both cards. The way these Commanders generate value is pretty generic, so you can run them with a bunch of the best cards Commander has to offer and create something terrifying.
Underworld Breach, on the other hand, primarily functions as a win condition. When used alongside cards that fill your graveyard, it’s really easy to build up a lethal string of plays, making it one of the best win conditions in the Commander format. Despite this, because Underworld Breach has seen a lot less Modern play after the release of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Underworld Breach is only worth about $10.
While Star Compass can be a powerful ramping option in Limited, there’s no real secondary market value behind it.
Underworld Breach and Thrasios present some interesting reprints, but not every Special Guest is a homerun. The artwork on the above cards look spectacular, but their secondary market value is not. Kalamax and Bridge From Below aren’t worth more than a dollar each, and Malcolm, while winning a major cEDH tournament over the weekend, does not have a relevant secondary market value.
More Value Than Expected!
While not every Lost Caverns of Ixalan reprint is a good one, there are a ton of valuable MTG reprints appearing in this set. Not only that, but both Commander and competitive players seem to be getting reprints here. I never expected to see Cavern of Souls get reprinted in a main set.
A few more valuable cards are getting reprinted in the main Lost Caverns of Ixalan set. Those, and some new cards and mechanics, can be found here.
Read More: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Adds a Crafting Mechanic to MTG?!