Thanks to the collector booster sample packs available alongside the purchase of Commander decks from Lord of the Rings, there’s been a lot of talk about extended art foils. As it turns out, there are extended art foil cards that only appear in these sample packs. Despite sounding like they are designed for collector booster packs, they are, in fact, not available there at all. This got players wondering what extended art foils were available to open in sample packs, and interestingly, this lead down a rabbit hole to a subsection of cards that are simply missing from the Lord of the Rings set – they don’t have an extended art foil treatment at all.
Well, we now have this information. Thanks to Nelson, the community manager for Wizards of the Coast in the WPN Facebook group, we now know what cards are not available in extended art foil at all, including from sample packs.
Interestingly, because this is new information, there have been some issues regarding people preordering extended foils from sites like TCGplayer and as expected, not receiving correct product. It’s a big deal not only for consumers to know what cards don’t exist in extended art foil, but also for sellers of the products. Let’s take a look at what cards never received extended art traditional foil treatment.
Heavy Hitters
The biggest card not available in extended art foil is certainly Delighted Halfling. Delighted Halfling has made its mark in Constructed formats, especially Modern. There are tons of legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers that can take advantage of the “can’t be countered” clause this mana-dork provides. Being able to force through a copy of the One Ring or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician can be the difference in the game. There’s a reason this rare holds a $14 price tag. Strangely enough, TCGplayer still has a listing for market price of the extended art foil version of this card at $32. Don’t let this confuse you though, there is, in fact, no copy of the extended art version of this card available for purchase specifically in foil.
While Extended Art Foil versions of the Delighted Halfling don’t exist, these scene treatment cards found in Prerelease kits do. Its not exactly the same thing, but its the closest thing we have to a full-art foil Delighted Halfling.
Read More: $1.00 Value Lord of the Rings Secret Lair Disheartens MTG Players
Beyond Delighted Halfling
Delighted Halfling isn’t the only card of decent value not available in extended art foil. Flowering of the White Tree is another example of a card that is starting to see some Modern play. Recently, a Boros Convoke list, similar to the versions that have been putting up results in Pioneer, got second in the Magic Online Modern Showcase Challenge using Flowering of the White Tree as an efficient Anthem effect. Regular foil copies of Flowering of the White Tree currently sit at $5.
The last card of noticeable value on this list is Dawn of a New Age. This card provides white Creature-based Commander decks with a nice, steady source of card advantage. As long as you play the powerful enchantment after building out your board and can keep it in play, you will continue to accrue cards through multiple of your end steps. Regular foil copies of Dawn of a New Age sit at $6 currently. Of course, there are also a bunch of bulk rares that are not available in extended art foil either.
Read More: MTG Lord of the Rings EDH Upgrade Sees 1233% Price Increase!
The Full List
For anyone looking to pick up extended art foil versions of some rares and mythics for cheap, the following cards are unfortunately not available either:
The Following Cards do NOT exist in Extended Art Foil and only exist in Non-Foil:
- Borne Upon a Wind
- Dawn of a New Age
- Delighted Halfling
- Elven Chorus
- Fall of Cair Andros
- Flowering of the White Tree
- Glamdring
- Glóin, Dwarf Emissary
- Goldberry, River-Daughter
- Hew the Entwood
- Isildur’s Fateful Strike
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
- Moria Marauder
- Press the Enemy
- Shagrat, Loot Bearer
- Sharkey, Tyrant of the Shire
- The Battle of Bywater
- The Ring Goes South
- The Watcher in the Water
As stated, most of these cards are bulk rares that do not hold a hefty price tag, even in foil. That being said, this is an unfortunate reality for anyone interested in purchasing cheap extended art foils to help make their Commander decks as flashy as possible. This is especially frustrating for anyone who preordered extended art foil version of any of these cards. By the look of things, if you did preorder these cards and had to try to receive a refund, you are not alone.
Read More: Powerful and Pricey MTG Reprints Set to Receive First-Time Foil Treatments!
Seller Problems
This list of cards that are not available in extended art foils is long and was clearly not conveyed to sellers ahead of time. The fact that these were available for preordering from the get-go is extremely awkward for consumers. This is a big reason why this news is so important. Sellers and consumers alike now know what cards are simply not available in extended art foil. Still, this should cause a lot of consumers to look for refunds, which is not ideal both for the consumers and sellers on TCGplayer.
This debacle also does not reflect entirely well on Wizards of the Coast. Why wasn’t this information announced to the public ahead of time? It’s now clear that these extended art cards are not available in foil, but what is not clear is why this is the case. There is some speculation, but nothing is truly evident yet.
Read More: Players Up in Arms About Expensive MTG Lord of the Rings Cards Arriving Bent!
On Purpose or an Accident?
Players are already speculating on the cause of these cards and their non-existent extended art foil versions. Is there a chance these cards will be printed in extended art foil at some point in the future scene bundles? This is plausible, but better communication on these topics could have helped sort out the sales of nonexistent MTG cards.
Some players believe that these cards will appear in extended art foil form later this year in special edition collector booster packs. This would make some sense, and maybe the plan all along was for these cards to get the extended art foil treatment just later down the line. Regardless of this, problems were caused due to a lack of communication. Not only were players unable to acquire nonexistent cards that were thought to exist, but some MTG cards are now much more difficult to acquire than expected.
Without necessary transparency, this forces consumers to demand refunds of non-existent product that was assumed to be available from the start. It’s worth keeping a look out for any statement from Wizards of the Coast regarding if these cards will pop up in future Lord of the Rings product, and, hopefully, this will prompt better communication in the future.
Read More: MTG Players Fear Return of Two Million Dollar Card!
