It’s safe to say that The Zeta Set, Magic’s first-ever Secret Lair booster release, has proven controversial so far. The black-and-white playtest-style art is divisive in itself, and the pricing and distribution method are even more so. That said, while there’s much to debate about this new expansion, one thing that can’t be questioned is the financial value on offer. To illustrate this point, we’ve broken down the most expensive MTG cards from The Zeta Set.
10 | Darksteel Monolith
Price: $25.37
While it’s pricey to cast, Darksteel Monolith is an absolute powerhouse in colorless decks once it drops. The ability to cast any colorless spell for zero lets you deploy everything from Portal to Phyrexia to Eldrazi titans with ease. As a result, it sees play in a very respectable 66,300 Commander decks, being a particular favorite in Zhulodok, Void Gorger cEDH lists.
Notably, this Zeta version is the first-ever reprint Darksteel Monolith has seen, following its debut in 2023’s Commander Masters. While cards often drop significantly following a first reprint, the scarcity of The Zeta Set will likely prevent that from happening here. In other words, Darksteel Monolith’s current $25.37 price tag isn’t likely to go anywhere fast.
9 | Panoptic Mirror
Price: $25.53
Though it doesn’t look like much by today’s standards, Panoptic Mirror was a serious problem in Commander back in the day. Imprinting an extra turn spell like Time Warp on it created an easy infinite turns combo, and it was also adept at stalling out games by Imprinting board wipes. These incredibly unfun play patterns ultimately got the card banned in Commander back in April 2005.
Last year, a full two decades after its banning, Panoptic Mirror was finally freed from its banlist prison and made a Game Changer instead. With the game now being much faster than it was in 2005, and the bracket system keeping the combos in check, the card is now very much acceptable in current Commander.
While players haven’t exactly adopted Panoptic Mirror en masse since then, with only around 11,400 decks running it by current numbers, the card’s reputation remains. As a result, this is a $25.53 card, and a very solid first-time reprint for The Zeta Set.
8 | Ward Of Bones
Price: $28.71
The Zeta Set has a surprisingly high number of pricey first-time reprints, and Ward of Bones is a great example. Not seen since its debut in Eventide, this is a terrifying, if clunky, lock piece for Commander. If you can keep your own board relatively clear, this artifact can stop your opponents from playing much of anything, buying you time to build up sneaky combo wins.
While it can be quite effective in the right brews, Ward of Bones isn’t a massively popular Commander card. Only around 8,120 decks in the format run it right now, in fact, which makes it fairly niche overall. Despite this, the card’s age and lack of prior reprints have pushed the price up to $28.71, making it one of the most expensive MTG cards in The Zeta Set overall.
7 | Chromatic Orrery
Price: $34.71
As far as expensive artifacts for Commander go, Chromatic Orrery is one of the best in the business. Plenty of decks have the capacity to cheat this out, be it through ramp or with cards like Goblin Welder, at which point it’s an absurd mana source and fixer. This is to say nothing of its draw ability, which can easily nab you a full grip in color-heavy decks.
Where Chromatic Orrery really excels, however, is in its combo potential. It can make infinite mana in all manner of ways, whether it’s with Filigree Sages or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Emiel, the Blessed. Because it features a card draw ability, these combos all let you draw your entire deck as well. These fair uses and combos have earned Orrery a spot in over 121,000 Commander decks, including cEDH lists like Arcum Dagsson.
6 | Sensei’s Divining Top
Price: $35.17
Sensei’s Divining Top is a Magic card so notorious it scarcely needs an introduction. On top of being incredibly powerful thanks to its continuous card selection, Top is also a well-known time-waster. Constant Top activations regularly ran down the clock in competitive events, which was a big part of why the card was pre-banned in Modern and banned in Legacy.
Even with these significant bans under its belt, Sensei’s Divining Top still sees a ton of play today, in Vintage Workshops and Tinker decks in particular. It’s also a super-staple in Commander, showing up in over 431,000 decks running the gamut from casual to cEDH. This is partly due to its fair uses, and partly due to its combo potential alongside cost reducers and play-from-library effects like The Reality Chip.
Because of this ubiquity, Sensei’s Divining Top is a $35.17 card on the low end, despite multiple reprints. While it’s great to see it here in The Zeta Set, scarcity and the card’s reputation mean this reprint is very unlikely to move the needle at all price-wise.
5 | Mycosynth Golem
Price: $50.22
Excellent Robby the Robot artwork aside, Mycosynth Golem is a very exciting reprint indeed for The Zeta Set. Both having Affinity and granting it, Golem can rapidly accelerate any artifact-based strategy, especially nowadays with so many Food and Treasure generators running about. Naturally, such wanton cost reduction also enables a wide range of infinite combos, with cards like Ancestral Statue.
Mycosynth Golem’s raw power has earned it a spot in over 47,600 Commander decks, with Artifact lists like Karn, Legacy Reforged in particular loving it. This number would likely be a lot higher, too, if it wasn’t for the card’s eye-watering $50.22 price tag. While this Zeta Set printing likely won’t help much in that regard, it is nice to see more supply for a card that desperately needs it.
4 | Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth
Price: $54.10
Like its sister land Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is a bona fide Commander all-star. In any deck running black, it’s essentially a strictly-better Swamp, offering fixing and huge mana bursts with Cabal Coffers. It also enables some very nasty combos alongside Kormus Bell, wiping all enemy lands off the board in decks like Maha, Its Feathers Night.
All in all, over 863,000 Commander decks run Urborg, which is a wild statistic given the card’s price. It also sees significant play in Pioneer, in Golgari Midrange and Orzhov Greasefang lists in particular. Add in scattered use in Modern and Legacy, and Urborg is truly a land for all seasons. It’s also one of the most expensive MTG cards in all of The Zeta Set, weighing in at $54.10, despite being reprinted six times over the years.
3 | Mana Echoes
Price: $55.33
Mana Echoes is undoubtedly best known for its role as an infinite combo enabler in Commander, where its uncapped mana generation makes such things trivial. Whether you’re generating infinite Walls with Super-Skrull, or burning the table down with Pashalik Mons and Skirk Prospector, the card has no shortage of viable lines.
This combo potential has earned Mana Echoes a spot in over 39,600 Commander decks, largely Typal lists like Krenko, Mob Boss. While it’s not the most widely-played card in the world, it has also only received a single reprint since 2002, meaning copies will now run you $55.33 on the low end.
2 | Copper Tablet
Price: $56.87
The Zeta Set is full of blasts from Magic’s past, but nowhere does it reach further back in time than with Copper Tablet. The last time this artifact was printed in a tournament-legal form was in 1993’s Unlimited, literally in the game’s first year on shelves. While the card isn’t massively exciting, its 33-year absence of a reprint has done wonders for its value, with copies now costing $56.87 on the low end.
This isn’t to say that Copper Tablet doesn’t have homes, mind you, as it sees solid play as a draw engine in Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, and Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. That said, scarcity is the big driver of value here, as it only appears in around 4,750 Commander decks overall. With this in mind, this new reprint could actually drop the price, but I wouldn’t count on it.
1 | Chrome Mox
Price: $153.70
Surprising absolutely no one, Chrome Mox is the most expensive MTG card in The Zeta Set by a huge margin. This is one of the best pieces of fast mana in Magic outside of the original Power Nine, with only Mox Diamond and Mox Opal being serious competition. As such, the card has acquired a fearsome reputation over the years, being a founding member of both the Modern banned list and the Commander Game Changers list.
Even with these restrictions, Chrome Mox still does a ton of work, showing up regularly in both Legacy and Vintage. Whether it’s a combo deck like Beseech Storm, or a fair list like Mono-White Initiative, Chrome Mox can put in a shift. It’s also a staple in Commander, with 558,000 decks in total running it, including pretty much every viable cEDH deck there is.
Thanks to this playability and its legendary reputation, Chrome Mox is sitting at a staggering $153.70 right now. This makes it nearly three times as expensive as the next-biggest hit in The Zeta Set, and the undisputed chase card of the expansion.
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