Despite a rocky start, the MTG TMNT spoiler season is officially in full swing. Lots of new cards are quickly hitting the internet, drawing excited reactions from players. Thanks to Turtle Power!, MTG X TMNT’s five-colored Commander precon being spoiled yesterday, the 30 new cards from that precon are at the forefront of players’ minds.
Of all the new cards revealed, Continue?, a cheap instant from the precon, is getting the most attention. Thanks to reviving up to four creatures in a pinch, many players believe that this could be worth as much as $30 on the secondary market. In my opinion, this is the most overrated MTG card we’ve seen in quite some time.
MTG Continue?
For two mana, Continue? lets you reanimate up to four creatures you control that died, or were otherwise put into the graveyard, this turn. In theory, this card can create a ton of value for just two mana, but looking at practical applications makes this card seem a lot worse.
Because Continue? can only resurrect creatures on the same turn that they died, in most use cases, this instant will basically be board wipe protection for four of your most valuable creatures. In these situations, however, an effect like Dawn’s Truce or Heroic Intervention is almost strictly better. Giving your entire team Indestructible and Hexproof, these cards can easily save more than just four creatures without being vulnerable to graveyard hate. Even multipurpose effects like Boros Charm do this better than Continue? does. Notably, Dawn’s Truce is the closest comparison to Continue? when used like this, is only a $7 card.
This rules Continue? out as a new white Commander staple, meaning that its chances of being a new $30 card are already unrealistic. That said, there are some more specific use cases for this card. Using Continue? alongside creatures with powerful enters effects, like Eternal Witness, can do some powerful things with a sacrifice outlet. Similarly, the instant could end up being a decent upgrade option in decks like Ashling, the Limitless, reanimating multiple Evoked Elementals throughout the turn.
That being said, Brought Back, a $1 budget card, already exists, and basically does the same thing. While you can only resurrect two cards with this instant, Brought Back isn’t limited to just resurrecting creatures. Returning one Evoked Elemental and a Fetch Land, for example, is generally a much more realistic use case than resurrecting four different Evoked or sacrificed creatures. Despite this synergy, Brought Back mostly sees play in color-restricted Blink decks. This suggests that, when there are better options, cards like this are cut, despite being relatively popular.
Unique Combos
Despite many of Continue?’s use cases being a bit less powerful than advertised, there are some unique combos that this card can set up. Unlike Brought Back, Continue brings back your creatures untapped, which allows some unique lines with cards like Mass Hysteria or Concordant Crossroads in play. For example, Eternal Witness, Enduring Vitality, and a sacrifice outlet like Phyrexian Altar creates an infinite mana loop. That said, most of the combos that Continue? uniquely sets up are far too resource-intensive to be realistic.
The only real situation where Continue? could see some real play in sacrificial ritual combos that repeat ETB effects like Spellseeker. Continue? could easily set up extremely powerful infinite combos in these situations, cutting down on the number of different reanimation tools that you need to tutor.
MTG Continue? is by no means a terrible card, but it’s certainly not a $30 super staple, either. Despite this, TCGplayer preorder prices for the card are currently around $15, which seems far too expensive to us. I would expect this, at most, to be a $5 card. Even that price, however, may end up being inflated.
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