As is common for any MTG spoiler season, a few cards tend to stick out above the rest. Whether they have incredible implications for constructed, Commander, or just create some infinite combos, some cards have ridiculous prices coming into Prerelease season.
Most of the time, these MTG cards are overhyped, and rarely maintain their bloated price point. For Reality Fracture, however, one hyped up MTG card actually seems better than players expected. That appears to be the case for The Theorist, Jace Beleren, who has now surpassed his Prerelease hype prices.
The Theorist, Jace Beleren
For Commander players who aren’t playing cEDH,
The Theorist, Jace Beleren
The Theorist, Jace Beleren
At the beginning of each opponent's draw step, you draw a card.
+1: Create a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token.
−2: For each opponent, return up to one target artifact or creature that player controls to its owner's hand.
−6: Draw three cards. Then put X +1/+1 counters on each creature you control, where X is the number of cards in your hand.
is the clear best card in Reality Fracture. Jace’s static ability is incredibly strong in multiplayer formats, drawing 3 cards per turn rotation if left alone. While the Planeswalker’s activated abilities aren’t that interesting, the Blue Illusions Jace creates can help block incoming attackers, and the -2 is decent in an emergency.
What Commander players may not have expected, however, was The Theorist’s success in even cEDH. Appearing in meta-defining decks like
Kinnan Bonder Prodigy
Kinnan Bonder Prodigy
Whenever you tap a nonland permanent for mana, add one mana of any type that permanent produced.
{5}{G}{U}: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a non-Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
and various
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
First strike, menace, trample
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
Partner decks, the best decks in the format are experimenting with The Theorist. The Planeswalker also appears in some offbeat cEDH brews, like
Vraska, Soul of Stone
Vraska, Soul of Stone
Artifact creatures you control have vigilance.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 colorless Sculpture Treasure artifact creature token with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color."
.
While The Theorist’s power in Commander is clear, the card is also putting up a decent constructed performance. The Planeswalker has seen plenty of success in Standard, appearing in all kinds of control decks, Superfriends decks, and even some Azorius Momo lists. Similarly, The Theorist is seeing some niche play as a flex slot in the powerful Modern Azorius Scepter Chant deck.
With niche appearances in other formats like Duel Commander and Pioneer, demand for The Theorist, Jace Beleren is sky-high. As a result, this already expensive Planeswalker seems to have jumped even higher than players expected.
The Spike
Thanks to the Planeswalker’s insane static ability, The Theorist, Jace Beleren’s Commander applications were clear right from Prerelease season. Because of this, even after prerelease highs dropped, The Theorist, Jace Beleren always had a notable secondary market value, worth $31 at its lowest since Reality Fracture’s release.
Fast forward a few weeks, however, and The Theorist’s previous $31 price tag now feels like a bargain. Thanks to consistently strong demand since Reality Fracture’s release, The Theorist now routinely sells for $59 and up. Notably, this makes The Theorist, Jace Beleren the best card you can pull in a Reality Fracture Play Booster.
Now, outside of the occasional outlier, you won’t find The Theorist’s base variant on TCGplayer for under $60 after shipping. Because of this, if you’re looking to save money, you may be better off looking for borderless variants of The Theorist, which start at $55 after shipping. If you’re instead looking to bling out your copies of The Theorist, the card’s Japanese Showcase variant starts at $99, while Fractured Foils start at a staggering $450!
Just the Beginning?
Frankly, at the rate The Theorist, Jace Beleren is going, this card’s spike to $60 might just be the beginning. Cards with both massive competitive and Commander appeal, like
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Deathtouch
Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, they lose 2 life.
, have a history of commanding secondary market prices above $100. While The Theorist’s competitive appeal isn’t quite as high as Sheoldred, its Commander appeal should more than make up for that.
At the same time, however, The Theorist’s competitive breakout may be temporary. Right now, the card mostly appears in Standard, which hasn’t seen much competitive pressure because of the current focus on Modern. On that note, Modern Scepter Chant lists seem to be moving away from The Theorist, too, so its Modern play may drop sharply soon.
With The Theorist’s competitive appeal in flux, it’s tough to know what will happen to this card’s price down the line. No matter what happens, however, this card’s incredible Commander appeal should keep it somewhat expensive. Whether that’s enough to keep The Theorist’s $60 price point, however, is impossible to predict.
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