Modern Horizons 3 product is seriously expensive. If you want to chase some of the biggest cards to be printed in 2024, you better be ready to cough up some serious cash. At the time of writing, Modern Horizons 3 Play Booster Boxes are going for $253, and Collector Booster Boxes are going for $420. Sadly, if you want the most premium items that Modern Horizons 3 offers, you need to buy the more expensive products.
Thankfully, while they do cost a pretty penny, there’s a lot of good stuff in Modern Horizon 3’s most expensive products. Aside from the beautiful foil renditions of cards, there’s a very small chance your pack could be the MTG equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. If you’re incredibly lucky, you might just find a serialized Eldrazi Titan lurking in your Modern Horizons 3 Collector Booster.
In Modern Horizons 3, each of the three new Eldrazi Titans has 250 serialized copies. Unsurprisingly, these cards are seriously expensive, just days after prerelease events first began. While obscenely high prices aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, Wizards of the Coast did do a lot right with this latest serialized offering.
Exclusive Artwork
The biggest thing about serialized MTG cards, or serialized cards in any card game, is that they need to feel special. A lot of the serialized offerings in the world of Magic don’t do much to try and accomplish this. Aside from a number in the corner of the artwork and some special foiling, these MTG cards are just like any other. While it may sound nice, the special foiling doesn’t make a massive difference in most cases.
There was one instance where Wizards of the Coast went further with serialized cards to make them unique. Back in 2023 for March of the Machine, Wizards released serialized variants of the Praetors with unique, gorgeous, artwork. This unique art made the serialized Praetors feel truly special and made them a lot more desirable. In turn, this made them a lot more expensive as well. This amount of care is not there for most of Wizards of the Coast’s serialized offerings up to this point.
Technically, the One-of-One Ring also had unique artwork to set itself apart. That being said, there was obviously a lot more going on to make that card feel special. Even outside of that card’s eccentricities, however, it’s clear that unique art drives demand for serialized variants.
Modern Horizons 3 is kind of a half-step between the ideal and the standard. Serialized artwork for desirable MTG cards should be as unique as possible. While there are a ton of different treatments for the Eldrazi Titans in Modern Horizons 3, the concept artwork used for the serialized variants isn’t uniquely available in serialized variants. You can find concept art Eldrazi in both Play and Collector Boosters. This is a serious miss in our opinion. The Praetors in March of the Machine really demonstrated how unique artwork makes serialized cards feel special. Wizards of the Coast should execute on that idea more readily.
The Right Amount of Scarcity
Another issue that serialized cards have had in past sets is that they weren’t scarce enough. This may sound a bit strange at first, but if serialized cards are too easy to open, they lose their special feel. This inherent problem has been quickly amplified by the sheer number of serialized cards that Wizards of the Coast has been releasing. The more this supposedly rare and exciting treatment is used, the less rare and exciting it feels.
To bring it back up again, the One-of-One Ring is another extreme example of this since it’s a one-of-one card. Thankfully, Wizard of the Coast doesn’t have to go this far to make serialized cards exciting. Proving this point, Murders at Karlov Manor proved that it’s possible to balance serialized releases. Rather than unleashing 500 copies of each card, Wizards cut serialized production to just 250 copies of each card.
Unsurprisingly, this increased scarcity massively increased the price of Murders at Karlov Manor’s serialized cards. On TCGplayer, the few available serialized cards are listed for upwards of $700 with confirmed sales for even more. In comparison, a serialized copy of Grimgrin, Corpse-Born from March of the Machine is worth a paltry $140.
To put it bluntly, scarcity absolutely matters when it comes to serialized cards and 250 copies seems like the right number. It’s good news for finance fans, then, that the serialized Eldrazi Titans in Modern Horizons 3 only have 250 variants. Even if these cards were borderline unplayable, this should guarantee that finding one results in a healthy profit.
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Crazy Prices
Since they’ve learned every lesson to seemingly get everything right, it should be no surprise that the serialized Eldrazi Titans are expensive. Once early copies were discovered following Prerelease events, we quickly began seeing insane bids online. One action on eBay, for example, has Kozilek the Broken Reality 110/250 going for $1550.
Unsurprisingly, Kozilek isn’t the only expensive Eldrazi Titan. Already, an auction for Emrakul, the World Anew 183/250 has reached a price of $1600. With 45 bids on this card at the time of writing, there’s a real chance this price will balloon even more. Depending on demand, we may well see both of these serialized cards selling for well over $2000.
While these serialized Eldrazi Titans are evidently expensive, this isn’t a green light to go out and buy every Modern Horizons 3 Collector Booster. As we mentioned earlier, these packs are akin to lottery tickets due to how rare these serialized cards are. Proving this point, we’ve yet to see a serialized copy of Ulamog, the Defiler appear so far.
As time goes on, we can only hope that these serialized cards don’t need to factor into the price of a Collector Booster. While they are a nice addition, ideally you shouldn’t have to find a serialized MTG card to break even when opening packs. Instead, these cards should hopefully be a very welcome treat to anyone lucky enough to open one.
The Future of Serialized Magic?
I love chasing serialized Magic cards. I don’t get the chance to do it very often, but once in a while, I’ll manage a decent tournament finish. Those generally get converted into a Collector Booster box. After chasing a serialized card for about a year, I finally opened one of my own. It was a hell of a moment.
While it may not be a core part of MTG, hopefully, many other MTG players will be able to experience this moment. To be able to do this, Wizards of the Coast will need to continue making serialized cards feel special. Thankfully, since they seem to be learning from their lessons with these cards, they should retain that special spot in our hearts.
Beyond just being fun for players, keeping serialized cards special also works well for Wizards. If these cards are seen as an attainable, albeit unlikely goal, more players may be encouraged to open them. Since that kind of pack-opening experience can hook a new player onto MTG for life, there are undeniably major benefits for Wizards too.
At the end of the day, we can only hope that Wizards of the Coast continues to play it somewhat safe with serialized cards. Since too many cards will spoil the broth, we’ll need to see some restraint going forward. Unfortunately, with multiple Universes Beyond and major sets on the horizon, there’s no telling if that will happen.
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