Wizards of the Coast is making a ton of Commander product lately. Every single set release has some preconstructed decks attached and, considering how popular Commander is at the moment, it almost seems like a no-brainer.
That said, back in July, Wizards of the Coast released a product primarily meant for Commander players only: Commander Masters. That doesn’t mean that some other formats weren’t interested in the reprints; Pauper had an absolute field day. Regardless, Commander Masters was a set meant for Commander.
The biggest criticism for Commander Masters was the set’s price. A lot of powerful Commander decks were available but everything involved with the Commander Masters set was going for more than what players were willing to spend.
Fortunately, for the Commander players out there who need to have the best-looking foil copy of every card in their Commander deck, the premium product attached to Commander Masters is cheaper than ever!
Commander Masters Collector Boosters
The Commander Masters Collector Boosters are a bit unique in comparison to something you’d find alongside a Standard set release like March of the Machine or Wilds of Eldraine. This Collector Booster Box, while usually being priced a little under the regular booster boxes for the premium sets, only contains four booster packs. This means that individual packs can be incredibly expensive. Double Masters 2022 had a similar product structure.
The big draw to these exclusive Commander products is a unique rarity that is generally worth a fair bit on the secondary market. For Commander Masters, there is a very slim chance that one can open a Textured Foil in their packs. Jeweled Lotus in Textured Foil is the most expensive card in the entire set, retailing for $500 or more.
This is, however, the exception and not the rule. Other Textured Foil cards that you can open don’t even surpass $100. Regardless of the variant, Jeweled Lotus is pretty much the best thing you can open in the Commander Masters set.
Tanking Prices
Since release, according to TCGplayer, the market value of the Commander Masters Collector Booster has been absolutely tanking. Worth a little under $230 at release, players are currently purchasing these Collector Booster boxes for about $170 – a $70 drop from release.
The same has been true for regular Commander Masters Set Booster Boxes. Once again, because the Collector Booster only contains four packs, the Set Booster for the premium Commander Masters product is actually worth more than the Collector Boosters.
Regardless, the Commander Masters set booster has seen a $95 drop since its release! Once retailing for $375, most Commander Masters Set Boosters are generally selling for $280.
The story with Draft Booster boxes is similar, but price drops have been a lot smaller. These dropped from about $300 and are currently selling for $230ish.
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Even Further Sales
For our Canadian audience, you can find Commander Masters Collector Booster boxes for even cheaper! As pointed out on Reddit, Face to Face games currently have the product on sale. Generally, Canadian sealed product is a tad bit more expensive than U.S. sealed product, so if this product interests you, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity. For reference, $200 Canadian is about $150 USD – a limited-time $20 discount.
A quick reminder that US players will probably not have access to this deal as it’s rather difficult to acquire sealed MTG product from across the border.
Singles Price Drops
In terms of individual cards that can be found for a lot less nowadays, there are a few huge winners from the Commander Masters product. A lot of these were due to a previous scarcity that has been completely overwritten.
Personal Tutor is one of the biggest examples of this. Despite being a strictly worse version of Mystical Tutor, Personal Tutor held a higher price tag for quite some time. This is solely because Personal Tutor only had one printing in the early Portal set, making it very difficult to acquire before this reprint. Because Commander is a singleton format, there will always be room to optimize one’s deck with as many tutors as possible.
Before the Personal Tutor reprint, the cheapest one could find this card was $80+. You can now find the above copy of Personal Tutor for just $5-6, and the Portal version of the card has dropped to $20.
Capture of Jingzhou is much the same story. Before this card was reprinted, finding this card for under $200 was a miracle. Even though the much cheaper Time Warp does the exact same thing, Commander is a singleton format, and players brazen enough to take extra turns at the behest of the rest of the table will likely want to take all the extra turns they possibly can.
Capture of Jingzhou, nowadays, can be found for $15 thanks to the reprint in Commander Masters. Once again, the insane $200 market value is caused by the card’s super-exclusive reprintings. Now that demand has been mostly satisfied by the Commander Masters reprint, Capture of Jingzhou is just a tad bit more expensive than Time Warp.
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Buying at Peak Prices Was a Mistake
Commentary from the community towards the pricing for Commander Masters was crystal clear: this product was simply too expensive. Even now, players are citing that Commander Masters’ EV (expected value when opened) is so much lower than how much the product costs:
“Not only that but the EV of the set is well below the sealed product. Being a reprint product with all the value relegated to the mythic rare slot causes this effect.”
goblingovernor
Many Redditors looking at the sale still think that $150 USD is not worth four packs of Commander Masters Collector Boosters. Pulling one Jeweled Lotus will pretty much cover the cost of this box, regardless of variant but what are your chances of seeing one?
Either way, if you’re interested in buying Commander Masters Sealed product, now may be the time to do it, especially if you’re in Canada.
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