Even though Magic: The Gathering is, by far, the most popular trading card game in North America, the story isn’t the same in Japan. Over there, Pokemon rules with an iron fist, followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! and Duel Masters. Because the TCG market in Japan is incredibly competitive, Magic throws up many exclusive promotions to try and keep up. Of course, the rest of the world becomes jealous of all the crazy exclusives that Japan gets, but Wizards of the Coast needs an extra edge in that market to stay competitive.
This time around, Standard is getting some love. Two new and very desirable Standard legal cards are getting exclusive reprints with Anime artwork.
Tishana’s Tidebinder
Tishana’s Tidebinder saw tons of competitive play prior to the release of Modern Masters 3. Before then, the card made common appearances in the Standard and Modern formats. Tishana’s Tidebinder countered a lot of impactful triggers in the Modern format. Strangely, its mana value of three actually ended up being a boon since the card could see play in Cascade strategies.
Sadly, Modern Horizons 3 has transformed the format, and Tishana’s Tidebinder got left behind. The card still does make occasional appearances in Dimir Midrange decks in the Standard format, but this Merfolk has otherwise become washed up. Despite this, the card still holds a secondary market value of $2-4, which this variant will surpass, likely by a lot.
Brotherhood’s End
Brotherhood’s End is another multiformat card that sees play everywhere from Standard to Legacy. Sporting new artwork depicting the epic brotherly battle between Ugin and Nicol Bolas, the card offers some interesting versatility that’s not seen in other MTG cards. You can either deal three damage to all creatures and Planeswalkers or destroy all artifacts with mana value three or less.
Typically, Brotherhood’s End sees more play across formats when the secondary mode of the card becomes more relevant. Legacy commonly has powerful artifact strategies waiting in the wings to pray on unexpecting decks, making this card a great silver bullet.
At the time of writing, Brotherhood’s End mostly shows up in Standard sideboards. The card isn’t a typical sideboard option in any particular archetype, but it seems to be a card that a lot of players will play sporadically.
Sadly, while there is a very powerful Legacy artifact deck, most high-impact artifacts are above the mana value that Brotherhood’s End can handle, and Modern suffers a similar issue.
That said, Brotherhood’s End is the type of MTG card that will routinely switch between being strong and weak depending on how strong artifacts are in any given format. When artifacts do become something to worry about, Brotherhood’s End will likely get expensive. For now, the card has a similar secondary market value to Tishana’s Tidebinder.
How to Acquire These Cards
As mentioned before, both of these Japanese MTG promotional cards are only available in Japan. To acquire them there, players must participate in a recurring open tournament hosted to determine who is the best Standard player in Japan. These promos will be awarded during the Players Convention Chiba 2025 event taking place on the weekend of February 8th – 9th.
There, on the 9th of February, the “Japan Standard Cup: Reiki Run Launch Commemorative Special” will be hosted. Brotherhood’s End will be offered as an entry promo, while Tishana’s Tidebinder will be awarded to players who make the top cut of the tournament. Depending on the number of players, this promo will go out to either the top 48 or 64 players in the event.
Additionally, players participating in the Champions Cup Final Season 3 Round 2 event held during the same convention will also have an opportunity to win these promos. In this case, the top 32 will be awarded a Tishana’s Tidebinder. Wizards of the Coast’s article revealing these promotional cards suggests that more opportunities to win these promos will be offered at future Standard events.
Considering that Tishana’s Tidebinder seems surprisingly rare, this promotional card might be worth a surprising sum. North American players interested in acquiring these cards will need to have them shipped from Japan. In our experience, Hareruya is the best place to make this happen.
Japanese exclusive promotional cards like these are commonly rather expensive. The anime-style artwork is absolutely gorgeous, which means that some eager North American players will want to get their hands on these cards. While it is rather difficult to acquire these cards in the U.S., it just makes owning them that much more special.
