MagicCon events serve as a perfect way for you and your friends to have a fun, Magic-filled weekend. These conventions bring back the old Grand Prix vibes with tons of things to do.
Unfortunately, these events can be expensive, especially if you’re not local. As such, not everyone has the luxury to attend. The good news is that Wizards often releases Festival in a Box products designed to bring the excitement to your own home. These collections usually feature a Secret Lair exclusive to the convention as well as a booster box, with a few extra promos thrown in for good measure.
Today, a new Festival in a Box was revealed for MagicCon Atlanta. This product offers some extremely pricy reprints. You can find this item on the MTG Secret Lair website on August 18.
Sliver Legion
This time around, the Festival in a Box comes packed with eight cards total between a Secret Lair and some extra promos. The bulk of the reprint value rests with two specific cards, each of which has the potential to be worth a fortune. The first of these cards is Sliver Legion.
Sliver Legion is one of a handful of five-color Slivers that are perfect for Commander play. Whether you’re playing Sliver Legion, Sliver Queen, or Sliver Overlord at the helm, your goal remains very similar: flood the board with Slivers and reap the rewards.
In the case of Sliver Legion, the more creatures you play to the board, the bigger they become. Any token producers, including the newly printed Thrumming Hivepool, make for perfect additions to the deck.
Despite being reprinted in Time Spiral Remastered and in multiple Secret Lairs already, this legend maintains a $41 price tag in its cheapest form, according to TCGplayer market price.
The Ur-Dragon
The other extremely expensive reprint of the bunch is The Ur-Dragon. This card is another Commander that rewards you for going all in on one creature type. It may be a lot of mana, but the reward for casting The-Ur Dragon and attacking is insane.
Plus, thanks to its Eminence ability, you’ll be able to cast all your other haymakers ahead of schedule even while The Ur-Dragon is in the Command Zone. This card remains the most popular Dragon Commander according to EDHREC.com.
Players love typal strategies, so it’s no wonder why The Ur-Dragon is worth so much money. Just like Sliver Legion, this powerhouse holds a $41 price tag, and this time, it comes with a Future Sight-style frame.
Scourge of Valkas
After these two EDH staples, the rest of the reprints take a huge dip when it comes to value. Scourge of Valkas is the third most expensive card present, and it barely cracks the $4 mark.
That being said, Scourge is nearly an auto-include in any Dragon-themed Commander deck. The ability to send damage to opposing threats or even your opponents’ faces when any Dragon enters is awesome. Scourge does a great job keeping opposing Commanders in check. Considering how mana-intensive most Dragons are, it’s important to have some built-in disruption.
Scourge shines brightest in shells like Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm or Lathliss, Dragon Queen decks that flood the board with Dragon tokens, thus giving you extra triggers. Don’t let the low price fool you, this card is very strong.
Pack Rat
Moving away from Dragons to Rats, Pack Rat is getting a reprint. Pack Rat used to be one of the most feared Limited cards out there. If you couldn’t kill the first copy right away, you’d soon have a massive army to deal with. Meanwhile, your opponent wouldn’t have to commit anything else to the battlefield, since spending three mana to make a copy of Pack Rat would quickly become the strongest option.
Now, though, the creature is mostly showing up in Rat Commander decks, such as those built around Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm. Without a huge EDH showing and little Constructed play to speak of, Pack Rat has fallen in price to just over $1.
Shared Summons
Speaking of cards that aren’t Commander staples, Shared Summons definitely fits that description. As a double creature tutor at instant speed, there’s some appeal here. The issue is that paying five mana to not impact the board at all is far from ideal.
In order to maximize this card, you really want to be generating a lot of mana. With this in mind, Selvala, Heart of the Wild decks can utilize Shared Summons as a strong search effect. Just don’t put this card into any deck.
Ironically, the most popular spot for this card may be in Legacy Show and Tell sideboards. Once you get Omniscience into play, casting Cunning Wish to grab Shared Summons from your sideboard with the intention of tutoring up Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and winning the game is a great option to have.
Even still, the card is very narrow. There’s a reason it’s worth just under $1.
Lightning Bolt
By contrast, our sixth card is one that sees play in tons of different archetypes. Lightning Bolt is one of the strongest pieces of interaction ever printed, and has more than stood the test of time. It’s great as an efficient removal spell. It can be used as a burn spell. Whether you’re playing a Delver of Secrets deck in Legacy or a Prowess deck in Modern, if you’re looking to use tempo to your advantage, you’ll want this effect.
Despite its consistent demand, the massive number of Lightning Bolt reprints holds its value back. Lightning Bolt has been reprinted at uncommon and common numerous times. Common versions like those from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate can be purchased for a little over 50 cents.
Sylvan Offering
The last of the reprints is Sylvan Offering. While Sylvan Offering is a neat group hug option, it isn’t that great of a card since it benefits multiple players, not just you. Your best bet to maximize this effect is to play token payoffs, such as Baylen, the Haymaker, that help break the symmetry. Elf decks with Ezuri, Renegade Leader also reward you for going wide with Elf tokens.
Since getting reprinted in Tales of Middle-earth: Commander, Sylvan Offering plummeted all the way to under 15 cents. Good thing some of the other reprints in this product pick up the slack.
Spaghetti Junction
Lastly, we have Spaghetti Junction. This is a new test card, meaning it is not legal in any major format. It does have some sweet abilities, serving as a mana sink in the mid to late game. Plus, if you’re playing a dedicated vehicle deck, creating a 20/20 token with Annihilator 2 in a reasonable time frame isn’t off the table.
At the end of the day, though, it’s just a test card. It’s hard to predict how much this card will be worth, too. Nonetheless, if you’re Commander playgroup allows you to play this, it could be a neat inclusion.
Financial Overview
Right now, we don’t know the exact price of the MagicCon Atlanta Festival in a Box. However, we do know that recent Festival in a Box products have ranged from $200 to $250. If this holds true here, this item should be well worth purchasing.
The Mystery Booster 2 box that comes in the package is worth roughly $240 by itself according to TCGplayer. The reprint value of the cards listed above minus Spaghetti Junction totals to roughly another $89. This puts the total value of this product at about $329.
This likely means that the Festival in a Box will be a great deal. These boxes traditionally have asking prices between $200 and $250, and have sold out aggressively thanks to their historically absurd value. That said, the supply for these products is occasionally very strong as well, with boxes being available for long periods of time despite the product’s strong value. It’s hard to predict exactly what will happen, but I would expect that the pricepoint for the MagicCon Atlanta Festival in a Box to be very enticing, as these products usually are.
More information on the exact details surrounding the Festival in a Box should be coming soon. The product becomes available on the Secret Lair website on August 18 at 9 AM PST, so mark your calendars if you want to get your hands on something special.
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